By: Henry J. Fromage –
We’ve done it- reached the final week of the year! Thanks to festivals and real world work (boo!) jacking with my schedule, there may not have been 52 of these, but what a year it’s been regardless!
758. Ferrari
Michael Mann’s long-gestating Enzo Ferrari biopic finally lands with Adam Driver in the lead, who’s obsessed with playing famous Italian men in their mid-50s these days, I guess. Anyway, it’s a not always even mix of turgid relationship drama (Ferrari has a not-so-secret family that wife Penelope Cruz is none too enthused about) and propulsive and utterly terrifying early racing sequences, where survival feels as much of a win as any trophy. Three Beers.
759. Maestro
Bradley Cooper stays in the world of music for his follow-up to A Star is Born, here covering five-plus decades in the life and career of noted American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, a man of many talents and no shortage of ego. While that infamous nose is indeed off-putting at first, Cooper literally grows into it (the old age makeup is insane) as he navigates a loving yet rocky relationship with his wife and muse Felicia Montealgre (Carey Mulligan) – it might be all the sleeping with men. This is directed and acted with verve, but I’m kind of surprised it got such an enthusiastic cosign from Bernstein’s relatives- he comes off as a bit selfish and oblivious, even if his radiant charm explains why everyone puts up with it. Three Beers.
760. Rustin
The story of Bayard Rustin’s greatest achievement, organizing the March on Washington, is told by George C. Wolfe in fairly conventional Hollywood biopic fashion. Colman Domingo is superb as the Civil Rights icon, unmatched in his logistical abilities yet constantly butting heads with even his own leaders due to the twin liabilities of his socialism and his homosexuality. It’s a performance unlike any you’ve seen him deliver, with a supporting cast equally adept at chewing the scenery. Three Beers.
761. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Neither author Suzanne Collins nor Lionsgate could resist pulling a J.K. Rowling and returning to the familiar IP trough to feast on a lore-heavy prequel. This one tells the origin story of big bad Coriolanus Snow, here a more sympathetic and sexy young man tasked with mentoring a musically gifted tribute from Katniss’s own District 12 (yes, easter eggs and callbacks abound). The world-building is still as strong as ever, but the very Star Wars prequel-esque romance and turn to the dark side didn’t rock my socks enough to justify the hefty runtime. Four Beers.
762. Passages
Okay, I do owe a bit of an apology to Leonard Bernstein and Maestro. When it comes to being a self-obsessed artist that laughs in the face of marital devotion while laying either sex at will, Bernstein has nothing on Franz Rogowski’s director character here, who cheats on his husband (Ben Whishaw) with a woman he meets at a wrap party (Adele Exarchopoulos), then nonchalantly tells him about it, fully expecting to have this dalliance condoned by him. Ira Sachs directs with cutting wit a keen eye on the slings and arrows we inflict on our loved ones, but all of these characters are kind of terrible. Three Beers.
763. The Iron Claw
Sean Durkin and A24 team up to tell the story of the “Curse of the Von Erichs”, a series of misfortunes plaguing the Von Erich wrestling clan, a Texas family of four sons (played by Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White, and Stanley Simons) driven by their title-obsessed father (Holt McCallany) and unyielding mother (Maura Tierney). Gorgeously shot and heartbreakingly acted, this is an almost Shakespearian tragedy about ambition overwhelming the kind of familial bonds that should prove unbreakable. A Toast.
764. Godland
This starkly beautiful Icelandic film is about a young Danish priest sent to build a church in a remote region of the island, whose intransigence continually causes him trouble he could have avoided, and whose pride blinds him to both this fact and to the opportunities he has to actually find success in his priestly duty. It’s a severe and unforgiving film, but full of gorgeous imagery and great performances. Two Beers.
765. Last Song from Kabul
This documentary short from Kevin Macdonald and Ruhi Hamid is a heartbreaking yet ultimately hope-inspiring portrait of a group of Afghan girls whose education at a music school in the capital is interrupted by the fall of their country to the Taliban. This documents their escape to Portugal and attempts to heal from all they’ve lost, and boils the blood to consider how any group of people would seek to damper such bright shining lights as these. Two Beers.
766. Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire
This Netflix documentary series examines the tragic 1979 Sydney Luna Park fire, in which a haunted house ride inexplicably went up in flames, killing six children and one adult trapped inside. It investigates why authorities seemed in such a hurry to close the investigation into the event and deem it an electrical accident, making a compelling case for what actually happened. Two Beers.
767. Amerikatsi
Several Oscar shortlists were announced recently, including Best International Film, and this was the odd duck among the group of finalists- a film set after WWII, when the Soviet government offered a return to any ethnic Armenians who’d like to after they were scattered in the Armenian Genocide a generation before. An American man decides to do so, only to find himself in a prison camp through a series of oddly comical misunderstandings. There’s a lot of Life is Beautiful in the approach here, but that’s an awful tricky tonal balance to strike without feeling either too grotesque or too minor, and this one unfortunately tends more towards the latter, as pleasantly amusing and humanistic as it is. Three Beers.
768. Oasis
This documentary short finalist is about a pair of French Canadian teenage twins spending one last summer of boyhood before their paths begin to diverge, as one suffers from a disability that’ll keep him from doing everything his “normal” brother will get to do. The subtext of the imagery and conversations is much more profound than the text, though. Three Beers.
769. Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy
This was the outlier of the Best Documentary finalists, not having drawn as much acclaim as many of the others, but still an interesting way to interrogate the changing mindsets of the late 60s as hippie idealism yields to New Hollywood cynicism via the medium of the only X-rated Best Picture winner, Midnight Cowboy. Unfortunately recently passed director Nancy Buirski argues her thesis well while also telling the story of a great film by those who made it. Three Beers.
770. Island In Between
Another Documentary Short finalist, this one profiles the strange circumstances of the inhabitants of Kinmen, a small island belonging to Taiwan, yet lying only a few kilometers or a 20 minute ferry ride from mainland China. It’s a good reminder that Democratic regimes were just as propagandistic as Communist ones for the majority of the decades since WWII, and a profile of the peculiar liminal state of Taiwan and its people. Three Beers.
771. Devils
This Korean thriller landed on VOD as of recent, but doesn’t quite have the big budget pedigree of the CNM or Lotte releases that typically make it this far. It boasts a bit of a Face/Off scenario, as a twisted serial killer and the cop hellbent on catching him emerge from a week-long disappearance appearing to have swapped bodies, with the cop in the serial killer’s younger body having quite the task catching the killer’s accomplices while preventing him from doing something unspeakable to his family. Lots of twists to this one, some of them as ludicrous as the premise, and you’re never going to mistake it for Fincher, Bong, or even Woo, but there’s fun to be had. Four Beers.
772. Love Reset
This manic Korean anti-romantic comedy is about a young couple who get in a amnesia-causing car crash on the way back from their highly contentious and very well-deserved divorce proceedings. Their families want them to recover their memories, of course, including and up to the point where their love is finally over, but exactly what you expect to happen, happens. A huge enough hit in Korea to already sell American and Chinese spinoff rights, it’s overwrought and kooky, but also pretty entertaining. Three Beers.
773. The ABCs of Book Banning
I’ve been lucky enough to locate most of the Documentary Short finalists, with this one available on Paramount +. It examines the disturbing American phenomenon of book banning in schools via the eyes, and words, of the most affected party- the students themselves, while also highlighting the kind of titles that are being disputed or outright banned in many districts. Seeing a 16 year old talk about not having access to the diary of 13 year old Anne Frank really drives home how absurdly un-American this practice is. Two Beers.
774. Camp Courage
This Netflix documentary short follows a preteen Ukrainian girl who’s suffered almost unimaginable loss in the war, but who has escaped to safer climes. She takes part with her grandmother in a confidence-building summer camp in the beautiful Austrian Alps for children like her and run by veterans with their own demons to fight. Inspirational, but far from easy stuff. Two Beers.
775. The Last Repair Shop
This feels like a frontrunner in the documentary short race. It’s about a small group of dedicated craftsmen who repair the over 80,000 instruments for all of Los Angeles’s public school music programs. Each of them tells the very different story of how they came to this job, and what it means to them, while we also get to hear from some of the students who’ve received an opportunity to play they’d never be able to afford on their own. Absolutely heartwarming. A Toast.
776. The Unknown Country
Lily Gladstone is likely to receive a Best Actress nomination for her work in Killers of the Flower Moon, but the first major acting award of the season, Outstanding Lead Performance at the Gotham Awards, was for her performance in this film. Here she plays an indigenous woman grieving her grandmother and driving from South Dakota to Texas, meeting a mix of people along the way often played by non-professionals, from whom she learns lessons great and small. While not as substantial a film, it reminds me of Nomandland. Three Beers.
777. Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire
While I’m not one of those Snyder Cut crazies out there, I do find myself playing Zack Snyder apologist here and again. The man has visual panache and a feel for action sequences that is never boring, even if his character-building and storytelling aren’t always up to snuff. This Star Wars-wannabe (it’s not hard to see why Disney/Lucasfilm passed) has all of those minuses, but also all of those plusses. I do feel like it’s built to be a lot more violent than the PG-13 cut we get first is, so maybe wait for the already promised R-rated director’s cut next year. Four Beers.
778. Born in Synanon
This Peacock documentary miniseries examines the Synanon cult, which started out as an anti-drugs self-help group in the late 50s before metastasizing into a full blown head-shaving and partner-swapping cult under the power-mad guidance of founder Chuck Dederich. This documentary approaches the story from the perspective of now grown children raised in and largely by the cult as they tackle the cognitive dissonance of reconciling as they saw it happy childhoods (well, for some) with the messed up reality of what was going on around them. Three Beers.
779. Little Richard: I Am Everything
This exuberant documentary about legendary rock ‘n roller Little Richard and the many contradictions this flamboyantly gay yet cyclically Bible-thumping and at times even Bible-selling man represented. Undoubtedly one of the true originators of rock ‘n roll, and one who was usurped by more commercial (i.e. White) imitators, it was gratifying to see him get his due, finally, at Awards shows in the 90s (although calling him the inventor of rock ‘n roll is its own form of ignoring Black musical history). Three Beers.
780. Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning
This enraging true crime docuseries examines the infamous Boston shooting of a pregnant couple in the car on the street. The husband survived while the wife and baby did not, and his generic description of a black perpetrator soon lands a man in jail. However, despite all the racially stoked furor, some begin to notice the details of the crime don’t really add up… Two Beers.
781. Helpless
Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun tragically killed himself this week after a scandal broke involving *gasp* marijuana). Best recognized as the rich father from Parasite, he’s had a long and acclaimed career as a lead actor, and my wife and I decided to watch a few of his films in remembrance. This one isn’t the best of the bunch, but is entertaining enough- a kind of Korean Gone Girl in which a husband begins to learn just what kind of woman his disappeared wife was or is. Lee is solid, but Kim Min-hee is bonkers as the femme fatale. It’s fun bokners, though. Four Beers.
782. The Last Voyage of the Demeter
You have to give props to Andre Ovredal with doing something unique in the vampire and even more specifically Dracula movie genre. Here he takes a snippet of the original Bram Stoker novel, a captain’s log of the doomed voyage that was how Dracula makes it from Transylvania to England, and spins up a whole movie about it. An Oscar shortlist member for its makeup, although I’m not sure why as the very batlike creature here is mostly CGI, it is a handsomely mounted period piece with some quality gore (not usually what gets Oscar’s attention, but if so, all power to ’em), but a bit turgid outside of it despite an able cast’s best efforts. Three Beers.
783. Gran Turismo
Neill Blomkamp gets a bit of a career resurrection in this video game adaptation that does a pretty good job of telling the actually amazing true story of Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe, in a polar opposite role to his character in Saltburn), a young man who wins a Gran Turismo competition and is given the opportunity to compete in actual for real races against the best professional drivers in the world. Nothing groundbreaking, but propulsive and engaging sports action. Three Beers.
784. Fremont
This quirky indie that first played Sundance is about an Afghan refugee who was one of the few female army interpreters as she adjusts to life in glorious Fremont, California. She chafes at hanging exclusively in her expat community, so she gets a job in a fortune cookie factory and starts to broaden her horizons. Low-key but extremely winning, and hopefully a stepping stone for more (plus bonus Jeremy Allen White!) Two Beers.
784. Rebel
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah may be best known for helming the last hit before the Pandemic, Bad Boys for Life, or for getting their Batwoman trashed for tax breaks, but here they prove they have other skills than second-tier blockbusters. This is a wholly serious drama about a Belgian-Moroccan family where the adult son went to Syria to try and help and soon found himself conscripted into ISIS, while his 11-year-old brother is befriended by ISIS recruiters at home. Based on a harrowing true story, the devastating yet artful ending is closest perhaps to Dear Jassi this year, with a thrilling dash of Adil & Bilall’s music video bona fides. A Toast.
784. He Went That Way
This should have been much better than it was, bringing together Zachary Quinto and Jacob Elordi in a based on a bizarre true story about a celebrity chip trainer and his chimp who are abducted for a time by a hitchhiker they pick up who happens to be a serial killer. The clearly man in a chimp suit choice is an understandably modern yet lame one, but a greater liability is how the characters don’t really grow or learn anything. It’s a journey with some tension but not much of a destination. Four Beers.
785. Kingmaker: The Fox of the Election
Lee Sun-kyun again, this time playing an unscrupulous yet highly effective election consultant- the kind of man who you want on your campaign but not the one that you’d want to step out of the shadows and take on a public-facing role in it in. Loosely based on the long political career of Korean’s 8th President, this is an engaging story of machinations and betrayal with a great performance from both Lee and Sol Kyung-gu as the perpetual Candidate. Three Beers.
786. A Hard Day
One last Lee Sun-kyun movie, this time one that I’d seen already. Here he plays a dirty cop who has an almost Job-ian few days trying to escape a much dirtier cop played in thrilling fashion by Cho Jin-woong with a smirk. Lee is great, but Cho is a revelation, and their final knock-down, drag-out fight is one of the most brutally punishing put to film. A Toast.
787. Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife
This Netflix docuseries examines the case of Italian surgeon Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, who convinces some of the most prestigious hospitals in the world to let him perform a cutting edge procedure of his own devising for years despite the unfortunate tendency of all of his patients to die afterwards. The hubris and staggering malfeasance from both Macchiarini and hospital administrators who stood behind him even when it should have been clear he was a criminal should outweigh the fact he was also a liar in his romantic life (although those lies are more amusingly unbelievable), but this documentary gives them about equal weight, which is the only black mark against it. Three Beers.
788. Tori and Lokita
This Cannes prizewinner finally landed on streaming courtesy of the Criterion Channel. It’s about a couple of young African emigres to France who may be or may not be brother and sister, but whose love for each other makes that hardly matter. Exploited at every turn by a society that sees them either as trespassers or nigh free labor, it’s hard to see a way forward to even their modest dreams, but damn you’ll be rooting for them. Two Beers.
789. Night’s End
The next three movies I watched while counting down to 2024 with Bill Arceneaux and Ken- a MovieBoozer blow-out of schlock and randomness to ring in the new year. Bill promised a bonkers ending for this Shudder horror flick, and boy does it deliver. It starts as a Pandemic-era shut-in film in which everyone is shut in and communicates via Zoom, which doesn’t help matters when a man with OCD and an unhealthy level of Pepto-Bismol consumption starts to think his house may be haunted. It goes far crazier places, which I encourage you to discover for yourself. Three Beers.
790. Creature Comforts
This 1989 animated short captured an Academy Award for a young filmmaker by the name of Nick Park- yes, this is the first Aardman short, and they started out on top. It takes real interviews (one set of children talking about zoos, and one set of elderly folks talking about living in retirement homes- so a bit of social commentary there) and builds animated animals talking around that audio, which is kinda cute. Two Beers.
791. Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead
Our final film of 2023 I picked out solely for the title, only to find a MovieBoozer connection with director Noboru Iguchi’s RoboGeisha, one of the first films ever reviewed on the site. Anyway, he’s only devolved in the decade or so since then, as this is a mix of potty humor and (very) softcore Japanese fetish porn of the worst order. It’s kind of glorious, but not in a way I’d actually recommend- just in a “what minds could conceive of this” manner. Goodbye and good riddance, 2023. Six Pack.
