Courtesy of The Criterion Channel, I kicked off 2023 re-watching everything Mike Leigh directed up through Four Days In July (except for the presently unstreamable Bleak Moments) and concluded the year viewing every feature and short directed by Hal Hartley up through Henry Fool. In between, I saw lots of good stuff for the first time; here are my ten favorites.
1. STARTING OVER
As late-70s divorce films go, there are Kramer Vs. Kramer people and Starting Over people; count me as one of the latter. As a Boston-shot-and-set movie from this era, it’s even better than Between The Lines. Also, you have Burt Reynolds at his best (imagine if he chose to make more intelligent rom-coms like this!), the always engaging Jill Clayburgh and of course a hilarious Candice Bergen, truly “Better Than Ever” (at least until Murphy Brown.)
2. THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW
Even “minor” Douglas Sirk is pretty great because he just can’t resist a shot of three creepy clown dolls seconds after the opening credits or dialogue like “It’s just so incredibly atomic!” or weird framing such as placing that unsettling little robot (“Rex”) in the left foreground while relegating star Fred MacMurray to the back. If this were in Technicolor instead of black-and-white it might be as celebrated as All That Heaven Allows.
3. UNFORGIVEN
My attempt to see every single Academy Award Best Picture winner continued this year, with this one from 1992 by far the most revelatory of those I watched. As someone who has often admired but rarely loved Clint Eastwood as a filmmaker, “We all got it coming, kid” is a more vulnerable and profound conclusion than I would have ever expected from him. A revisionist Western nearly up there with McCabe & Ms. Miller, no less.
4. THE WAGES OF FEAR
Obviously no one ever told Mario (Yves Montand) (or his pal Luigi (Folco Lulli), LOL) about that old adage, “You Can’t Win.” A thriller barely surpassed in thrills and mounting intensity. Also, perhaps the best movie without a score until The Birds. William Friedkin’s (RIP) 1977 pseudo-remake Sorcerer is near the top of my watchlist, though I’m holding out for a theatrical screening.
5. THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
Victor Erice’s memory piece should resonate for those who recall childhood as something approaching a fever dream—it may appear ordinary on the surface, but it teems with mystery and engages in the act of discovery. The kids attending a screening of the 1931 Frankenstein is up there with all-time great scenes of characters in movies watching other movies.
6. THE RIGHT STUFF
Maybe the best film about space travel after 2001: A Space Odyssey? Apart from sections of the score, it might’ve been made yesterday. Of the impressive ensemble and appearances by everyone from Lance Henriksen to Jeff Goldblum, it was most surprising to see how charismatic a young Dennis Quaid was—he lights up every scene he’s in and I can’t help but think his career subsequently did not live up to this potential.
7. MABOROSI
The title translates as “a trick of the light”, which Hirokazu Kore-eda already depicts masterfully in his first narrative feature. The subject matter’s not dissimilar to his subsequent films even if it’s comparatively opaque. Still, the visual language he uses to propel it forward is so inventive and intuitive I hope I can see it in a cinema one day.
8. VIRIDIANA
Often entertained but rarely moved by many of his films, Luis Buñuel hits the bullseye on this one—even if the moral now seems quaint, the audacity with how sinuously he blends the comic with the horrific to arrive at it still startles. As a lapsed Catholic myself, I felt both reverence at his depiction of religious iconicity and the wicked glee with which he masterfully dismantles it.
9. HEAT
In Michael Mann’s more-revered-with-each-passing-year crime epic, Robert De Niro’s rare stoicism beautifully balances out Al Pacino’s fervent (if inspired) outbursts while Val Kilmer’s groundwork eventually reveals itself as a life-force when he finally flashes that million-dollar smile near the end. A world I would never want to physically exist in but am happy to witness from the other side of the screen.
10. IVANS XTC.
Barely released at the time and long since unavailable, this early digitally-shot feature now plays like an immediate precursor to Mulholland Drive without much of the Lynchian weirdness but all of the gimlet-eyed perception of modern Hollywood. An Academy Award for a tremendous Danny Huston would’ve been much, much more satisfying than the two given to Russell Crowe around this time.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- All The King’s Men (1949)
- Black Girl
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- Catch Me If You Can
- Deep End
- Hour of the Wolf
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- Lady Macbeth
- Rachel, Rachel
- The Third Generation
- Tricia’s Wedding
- Unbreakable
BEST REWATCHES (not including anything for 24 Frames):
- After The Thin Man
- Cache
- Dog Day Afternoon
- Jackie Brown
- The Long Day Closes
- Meantime
- Raising Arizona
- A Serious Man
- The Trial
- Trust
- Velvet Goldmine
- World On A Wire
- Y Tu Mama Tambien
Haunted Jukebox 