Four Daughters

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Home Video, VOD

Easily one of the most innovative works of documentary filmmaking I’ve seen in a while. A fascinating dive into trauma, familial bonds, culture, and the struggles of womanhood. Swings from deeply moving to unnerving and back again. The filmmakers really know how to play you like a fiddle. Don’t look into the subjects of the film prior to watching it, the experience is that much wilder to see unfold. Just remarkable and emotional work all around.

Godzilla Minus One

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Release Information Currently Unavailable

The Godzilla franchise returns to its roots as an exploration of post-war trauma, but Takashi Yamazaki puts his own spin that feels fresh, while also setting it apart from films like Shin Godzilla and the Hollywood films. It’s an earnest melodrama that has you genuinely invested in the characters, dealing in survivor’s guilt and the feeling of abandonment the Japanese people must have felt by both their government and the US. The human element is so well done they would work on their own, but add amazing Godzilla action to the mix, and you got yourself a new classic.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Home Video, Disney+, VOD

The villain of this film is an all-powerful entity that sees his living creations as property. Striving for perfection, yet lacking imagination, he is frustrated when one of his creations proves insightful despite his idiosyncrasies. He doesn’t value individual voice, simply what his “property” can do to serve his plans. So, to say James Gunn seems to have mixed feelings about leaving Disney and Marvel Studios behind might be putting it lightly. That aside, I found this to be a special and beautiful and funny and emotional film that closes a chapter to some characters I really loved.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Home Video, Hulu, VOD

Though I had some slight structural criticisms, I was enraptured by the rebellious and urgent spirit of this film. This is the kind of political film I wish we got more of in America. Less about preaching, and more about action and story. Make the message the story, instead of making the story the message. Will it change the world? Probably not, but I hope an audience does find their way to this movie, and I hope it lights some fire in them the way it does for these characters.

Iratta

Review: N/A Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Netflix

Starts off as a procedural and ends as a Greek tragedy. A deeply flawed cop is dead inside a police station, no one knows who did it, and the twin brother with plenty of his own baggage is trying to piece it together. It’s a film driven largely by flashbacks, but they all serve a purpose, and they put the film on this trajectory that leads to a really impactful climax. I certainly wasn’t prepared for it. Stellar work from Joju George.

Jawan

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Netflix, VOD

Atlee’s jump from Tamil cinema to Hindi blockbuster resulted in one of the most righteous political action movies, maybe ever, as well as an incredible showcase for the power of the movie star with Shah Rukh Khan. It’s an ambitious and tonally wild ride that manages to be held by an assured hand, weaving you from one genre to the next, one action beat to the next, plus a musical number here and there. It’s a cinematic extravaganza through and through, and probably my number one of 2023 if I had to rank.

John Wick: Chapter 4

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Home Video, Starz, VOD

A true testament to the physicality of movie making. An onslaught of guns, fists, cars visualized with mythic flair. The stunt and choreography team under the leadership of Chad Stahelski have crafted a truly marvelous action epic that pushes all of its conceits to the absolute limit. Many have tried to copy what this franchise has pulled off, but the sheer skill on display just can’t be easily replicated. A masterclass in filmmaking that is about as cinematic as any old classic you could name.

Joyland

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: The Criterion Channel, VOD, Home Video (expected in early 2024)

A beautiful and achingly human story of expectations, desire, and acceptance. It encompasses many societal ills in modern day Pakistan, but it doesn’t get preachy about it. Instead, allowing the slice-of-life narrative to take you along this journey of these characters trying to find their place in a world that places everyone in a box instead of letting them flourish. It’s tragic and moving and raw. I felt so engrossed and my heart felt opened by the film. It’s powerful work, and I hope more people seek it out.

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Check your local listings, Apple TV+, VOD

Martin Scorsese’s latest masterwork was one that really snuck up on me. Upon my initial viewing, I thought the film was terrific, but it’s really gotten under my skin ever since I saw it. Scorsese has explored the numerous ways American evil has manifested, and this might be one of the most ruthless and sobering he has ever been in touching on this. I felt rage, I felt sick, I felt helpless, I felt sad, and I also felt impressed by the craft on display. The ending in particular has haunted me. “There was no mention of the murders.”

Kokomo City

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Paramount+, Showtime, VOD

A funny and eye-opening look at the lives of several Black trans sex workers presented in striking black and white cinematography and plenty of style from director D. Smith. The stories being told are very entertaining, but also very enlightening about the experiences these people have with their profession, it’s ups-and-downs, and the struggles they often face, especially within the Black community. It’s a compelling watch, and I think anyone looking to broaden their perspective should give it a watch.

May December

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Netflix

Todd Haynes knocks it out of the park once again, telling a beguiling and sometimes darkly comic tale about celebrity, true crime, the way we tragedy can be used in an exploited manner, especially in the context of entertainment. It’s a deeply fascinating and weird film, but carried so effortlessly by a trio of brilliant performances from Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton. Melton tore my heart to shreds. I figured it would be a good film, but I was still so surprised by how affected I was by it.

Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Check your local listings. Streaming on PBS March 1st.

The way Frederick Wiseman is able to encapsulate so much of every little process that goes into running these French restaurants from the Troisgros family is really impressive and engrossing. I love observing things, and as someone who is into food and the culinary world, it’s fascinating to watch all the moving parts at work. I was hooked seeing people who love their jobs getting together to make everything work as smoothly as possible. It might seem boring, but it is truly anything but.

Monster

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Apple TV+, Check your local listings.

Hirokazu Kore-eda has a way of tackling stories in a way that feels fully enriched and lived in, like you’re observing the lives of real people making real decision that have real consequences. There is no judgment on his part, he simply allows you to take in what’s happening, and have your own take. It’s as artful as cinema can be, and the way this dramatized the ripple effects of very human actions is so gut-wrenching to watch unfold, but it’s so beautifully realized, you can’t help but get enraptured by it.

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam

Review: N/A Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Netflix

From Lijo Jose Pellissery, who did the brilliant and delightfully unhinged Jallikatu comes a much more chill tale that is still immersive in its mysteriousness as it follows a man who, in the middle of his travels, suddenly acts, speaks, and behaves like a man who disappeared from a small village a couple years earlier. It’s strange, but not unsettling. Pellissery finds moments of beauty in this bizarre journey and captures it in a very evocative manner, and Mammootty handles the offbeat material effortlessly.

Oppenheimer

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Home Video, VOD

Of course, much has been said about this already. I don’t have a ton new to add. I just find the film to be a thoroughly engaging biopic that pushes every area of what makes a film cinematic to its absolute limit. I found its questions about carrying moral weight, the responsibilities of science, and the nuances regarding the consequences of the creation of the bomb are all given the appropriate gravity and room to breathe. Nolan’s craft is at its most meticulous, while also at its most broad, but it somehow, miraculously, works. So much to explore and dissect.

Origin

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Check your local listings.

Ava DuVernay’s latest has proven divisive, and I can understand why. The book is weird, and it’s easy to poke holes in the theory being posited. However, her ability to take a book like that, and frame a narrative around it really impressed me. And I think at its core, it’s a film less about getting a message across, and more about how that message inspires a creative person at a moment of grief. It’s a deeply moving film about the creative process, and it’s ambitions about art, race, culture, and the way it all connects really touched me.

Past Lives

Review: Click Here! Trailer: Click Here!

Where To Watch: Home Video, Paramount+, Showtime, VOD

I imagine many of us have had moments where we think to ourselves, “what would it be like if I made that decision instead,” “what if I went there,” or “what if I ended up with them?” Our time is so limited, we want our lives to be the best they can be, so to think some things are out of our control can be a painful realization. But I think life is less about making it as great, as much as it is about how great you can make it with what you’ve been dealt with. Anyways, beautiful movie, and low-key a great New York movie.

 

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