According to Letterboxd, a movie logging and reviewing app, I watched 62 movies this year, a number I felt ashamed of but a fellow cinephile reassured me: “That’s more than a movie a week,” he said.
Luckily only seeing 62 movies this year makes my “best of” list relatively manageable in length.
I’ve had the book “Film and Literature” by Timothy Corrigan for many years now. Ever since I missed out on taking a course called “Literature Through Film”, I’m constantly trying to emulate a curriculum. The book is a series of essays written by film theorists about film forms that “clarify and differentiate the connections between film and literature.”1 I forgot I had inadvertently started a tradition by posting “ The best films I watched for the first time in 202_” on my social media until my friend Caroline complimented the effort, saying she “loves it” and other fabulous things. I decided to post that list here as well. “Film and literature” highlighted a common theme amongst my picks for this year.
While remake after remake gets shoved down our throats and movies are now being made for the intent of “casual viewing”, it must be reiterated that “one cannot help noticing that something is happening in the cinema at the moment. Our sensibilities have been in danger of getting blunted by those everyday films which, year in and year out, show their tired and conventional faces to the world.”2 What I found in these picks was that they all evoked a feeling in me. Cinema, like all art, is a means of expression —a vehicle of thought— and what should be paramount in a filmmaker’s mind is moving the audience; “the most philosophical meditation on human production psychology, ideas, and passions lie well within”3 the province of cinema. And while you may think “it’s not that deep”, know that it’s the movies that are created out of tyranny, greed, and corporate interests that give “it’s not that deep” validity.
These pics are not in ranked order!
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Written by: Efthimis Filippou & Yorgos Lanthimos
This movie is crazy! Don’t look it up just watch it. It’s a drama (thriller?) that left me feeling quizzical and buzzing.
Possession (1981)
Dir. Andrzej Żuławski
Screenplay by Andrzej Żuławski
Oh boy..... This movie is getting a lot of weird attention on the internet right now, it just became available for streaming for the first time ever (I think). I was supposed to see it in theaters but I’m glad I didn’t because I definitely needed to take breaks during the viewing. The film is all-consuming, you are thrown on this rollercoaster ride of a marital spat minutes into the film. The most I’ll say is that the monster in the film is a metaphor, an expression of their relationship to each other manifested in something extremely unnerving. It’s gory and visceral, think Bones and All levels of blood, Blade (1998) night club levels of blood. It’s great.
Didi (2024)
Written & Directed by Sean Wang
Amazing contemporary coming-of-age film! Made me wish I was a boy.
Poor Things (2023)
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Screenplay by Tony McNamara
Another Yorgos film! Also crazy... I think this movie turned on the feminist lightbulbs for a lot of people, simple at times —however, I think that’s the point. When we as the audience are being introduced to a new world that we have no understanding of, there is no need to complicate themes and expressions with obscure complexities.... I would simply call it a children’s book for adults (that’s rated R). Also, it’s a BEAUTIFUL film, and it’s fantastic that Yorgos creates films that employ people to live out their creative liberties and fantasies.
Monkey Man (2024)
Directed by Dev Patel
Screenplay by Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela & John Collee
I love Dev Patel! This was not an amazing film—I give it a 3.5—but it is an amazing feat as a directorial debut. Dev brings contemporary Indian challenges to the main screen. That's not to say other films have not also done so, but Dev’s popularity and Western fame beget more attention from Western audiences who otherwise would turn a blind eye without regret.
Civil War (2024)
Written & Directed by Alex Garland
Okay, this movie got a lotttttt of hate. Again, this was not an amazing film, I give it a 3.5, BUTTTTTTT (a huge butt), it left me SHAKING after it was over. I was filled with anxiety over what could so simply happen in our country but we don’t want to admit it. I think that’s why people didn’t like the movie, it was a mirror to ourselves as Americans by a foreigner (he’s British so not too far off but still not American) and we did not like what we saw in the mirror. Americans have a hard time seeing themselves through foreigner’s eyes. Also, the writing was not the best and the ending is a bit rushed. But I think everyone every American should see this movie.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Directed by Rose Glass
Written by Rose Glass & Weronika Tofilska
I love Kristen Stewart, I love this director and this movie is fantastic. It takes the feelings of love and passion and amplifies them to a realm beyond reality.
Y tu mamá también (2001)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Written by Alfonso Cuarón & Carlos Cuarón
I have given a pretty extensive breakdown of Y tu mamá también in this essay (major spoilers).
It’s a fantastic film, it’s beautiful, it’s funny, it’s moving, its thoughtful, and it was made with intention. It’s on a developing list called “films that make us horny”, (email me additions plz, and thank you).
Incendies (2010)
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Screenplay by Denis Villeneuve & Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne
Fuckkkkkk, this movie is crazy. It’s so good. The way the non-linear narrative blends is evocative of Christopher Nolan’s early films. If you don’t watch films with subtitles you’re missing out. As long as this film exists Palestine will never be erased, and it’s not even about Palestine at all. Don’t look up anything about it, to avoid spoilers. This story is not true but it is the truth of many.
Problemista (2023)
Written and Directed by Julio Torres
So funny, I love magical realism! Similar to Incendies this story is not true but it is the truth of many. I’m so proud of Julio Torres, and so grateful for amazing actresses like Tilda Swinton to see the potential and star in the films of lesser-known writers/directors.
The Vanishing (1988)
Dir. George Sluizer
Screenplay by George Sluizer & Tim Krabbé
Based on The Golden Egg 1984 novella by Tim Krabbé
Very unnerving…… some might say their worst nightmare, but it has beautiful shots, and great outfit inspo…. I would say this was a horror/thriller film but it’s Dutch so it’s a different approach to horror/thriller than we Americans are used to.
Last, and dare I say least, Is Megalopolis...
Written, Directed, and Produced by Francis Ford Coppola
This is purely an honorable mention because I made it a point to watch this movie before posting this list.
What can I say...Francis Ford Coppola is an integral pillar of filmmaking and he has tried his hand at another epic. FFC is the director of the sequel film that has been lauded as the best film ever made “the god father part 2”. Coppola may no longer have the same influence in Hollywood as he did in the 70s, as Meglopopsis was majority funded by Coppola himself instead of famous producers and studios. The reviews I’ve seen are rough but handle the old auteur filmmaker with care.
The film is undigestable but that doesn’t mean it’s not tasty......
The film was kept afloat by the skills of amazing actors like Adam Driver, and Giancarlo Esposito and simultaneously sunk by the lack of skills of other actors. The absurdity of the world sold me, I didn’t need much explanation —similar to Poor Things— but that is script, that’s story; the film output itself is messy, overstuffed, and by the third act falls apart as it tries to hold itself together to make it to the finish line. But I really appreciate the message FFC was trying to express. FFC was born near the end of the futurism movement, in 1939, and I think he tried to make a case for a future that he believes in —like Adam Driver’s character, Caesar, is creating Megaloposis in the name of love, I think FFC made this movie with love intended, but unfortunately, it did not work. I think in a decade or so we’re going to see the value in this film, once we can look at the ugly parts of our society and culture that Coppola writes satirically with a critical eye.
Watch it if you have 2 hours and 20 minutes to kill, watch it on a plane, or don’t, whatever.
Corrigan, Timothy. 2012. Film and Literature: An Introduction and Reader. 2nd ed. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ix
Part 2: Chapter 3, Authors and Auteurs. Astruc, 158
Part 2: Chapter 3, Authors and Auteurs. Astruc, 159