- Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features
- Asteroid City
Do movie critics still have a purpose? That's the question that kept intruding as I compiled my year-end roundup of the films I saw in 2023. When anyone can praise or eviscerate a movie online, does being a publication's official critic mean anything?
The question came up in connection with the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes that rocked Hollywood this year, putting many productions on hold as the creatives behind them demanded fair treatment from a rapidly changing industry. The strikes were resolved in September and November, respectively. While they lasted, however, union members did not promote their own work, and a few critics took to social media to ask whether reviewing films such as Barbie might also be considered crossing the picket line.
The answer was no, according to an FAQ published in Variety in July: "Critics are not on strike and are not obligated to stop reviewing movies or TV shows." But the question was dicier for film "influencers," some of whom are paid by studios to promote movies and "work under the SAG-AFTRA Influencer Agreement."
Who are these influencers, anyway? According to an August 15 New York Times story, the most popular film commentators on TikTok "can reach an audience of millions and earn tens of thousands of dollars per post." And they don't like to be called "critics."
"I just don't see myself in that light," the story quoted one influencer as saying. "A lot of us don't trust critics," another said. Several described traditional critics as snobbish or out of touch with the mainstream. Some said they prefer to keep their harsher critiques to themselves. Many make a living from their work, which is increasingly rare among traditional critics. (Note to any reader tempted to tell me to "Get a real job": I'm an editor who reviews movies on the side.)
Old-school critics may feel inclined to dismiss these influencers — especially the ones who hype movies for pay, putting themselves outside the bounds of journalism. But it's harder to dismiss the claim that critics are "out of touch," because many moviegoers agree.
Earlier this month, the Times published its various critics' best-of-2023 lists — followed by a compilation of readers' unhappy responses to those lists. Many commenters objected to the omission of Barbie from the top 10 films, for instance; others spoke up for Anatomy of a Fall and The Holdovers. I was particularly struck by a comment from Brian Seifert of Cincinnati, who offered an astute take on why critics and audiences might disagree:
Critics see a lot of junk, so they like the intense, quality-issue movies that come along. Average people deal with a lot of junk, so they like lighter entertainment to escape and relax. The two groups have never been farther apart.
While I've never been a big fan of "lighter entertainment," I agree that the more movies you see, the more you demand from them. The occasional action blockbuster is escapist fun. But when you see similar movies week after week after week, you come to know their standard beats so well that you would rather see anything with a shred of originality, even if casual moviegoers would consider it boring or a downer. Rather than going to the movies to escape, critics go hoping to have their interest piqued by something new.
Of course, we all have personal tastes and histories that affect how we see movies. Even to me, a part-time critic who doesn't attend the big festivals, the Times critics' picks seemed a little rarefied: Few of those films will play in Vermont theaters at all.
But I don't think we need to feel slighted by prominent critics who choose to champion movies we haven't seen. Personally, I take their "best of" lists as recommendations for future streaming. And if they dismiss the movies I love, I give their arguments a fair hearing until it's time to channel the Dude in The Big Lebowski: "Yeah, well, y'know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
There's room for a lot of opinions about art in this world — so much room that sometimes we can even appreciate those with which we disagree. Here are some of the opinions I had about movies this year.
Breakout performance
Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic exploration of the evil that men do. But it's Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart, the Osage woman who has the bad luck to wed Leonardo DiCaprio's scheming protagonist, who walks away with the film. Even when she's silent, her presence speaks volumes. Witness also Gladstone's starring role in The Unknown Country, an indie film released on video on demand this year, in which she plays a grieving woman on a revelatory road trip.
Related There Are No Heroes in Martin Scorsese's Dark Historical Epic 'Killers of the Flower Moon'
Closest Vermont came to Hollywood
- Courtesy Of Ifc Films
- Paint
The cast and crew of Beetlejuice 2 came to East Corinth over the summer, making it the first big Hollywood movie to shoot in Vermont in decades. But we'll have to wait for next fall to see the final product.
Meanwhile, the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival screened Joonam, an absorbing, intimate documentary shot in Bristol about director Sierra Urich's relationship with her Iranian-born mother and grandmother. (It's not streaming yet, but catch it at the Woodstock Vermont Film Series in February.)
Related Vermonter's Powerful Sundance Doc, 'Joonam,' Profiles Her Iranian American Family
Landscape With Invisible Hand, a flawed but fascinating adaptation of the satirical novel by Vermont author M.T. Anderson, opened and closed quickly in theaters. (Stream it on MGM+.)
Related Vermont Author's Work Comes to the Screen in the Surreal Dystopian Comedy 'Landscape With Invisible Hand'
Celine Song's poignant relationship drama Past Lives, recipient of five Golden Globe nominations, also has a local link: Native Vermonter and Middlebury College grad Ben Kahn served as its first assistant director.
Related Celine Song's Wistful Drama 'Past Lives' Explores the Roots of Love
As for Paint, the comedy starring Owen Wilson as a Bob Ross knockoff who lives in Vermont and exudes crunchy-granola vibes — well, let's just say its brushstrokes were a little too broad.
Least boring biopics
I'm encouraged to see more filmmakers exploring the less endearing sides of their famous subjects. In Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan created a cautionary tale about pursuing knowledge for its own sake and then recoiling from the consequences. Bradley Cooper's Maestro is a love letter to Leonard Bernstein and to his talented and long-suffering wife, Felicia Montealegre, that doesn't gloss over the difficulties of their partnership.
Related Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' Delves Into the Contradictions of the 'Father of the Atomic Bomb'
Streaming-only films most deserving of a theatrical release
No One Will Save You (Hulu) is an inventively crafted alien invasion movie that would look great on the big screen. Its creator argues it belongs where it is, though, and he may have a point — the protagonist is an introvert homebody, like so many of us streaming fans. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Hulu, rentable) is a nail-biting eco-thriller that would have been great fun to experience with a crowd.
Related A Loner Discovers That ‘No One Will Save You’ in a Chilling Streaming Horror Flick
Streaming-only film least deserving of a theatrical release
Netflix's Leave the World Behind did have a brief theatrical release in larger markets, but I'm glad I didn't see it that way. This apocalyptic fable with a stellar cast ended up being heavy-handed and interminable.
Best meme movie
These days, when a movie isn't part of an already-popular franchise, the easiest way to sell it is to hope it becomes a viral meme — a story or character concept so irresistible that influencers publicize it for free. Cocaine Bear had its moments. But the CGI critter couldn't compete with the murderous acrobat/songstress/AI-enhanced doll who cavorted her way through M3GAN.
Related 'Cocaine Bear' Is Just Retro Enough to Make Incompetence Entertaining
Most meta movie
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse used dozens of different animation styles as vehicles for witty commentary on the nature of comic-book storytelling. Reality turned a found audio recording into gripping drama and an investigation of what reality means to us, anyway. Dream Scenario used Nicolas Cage (who else?) as a metaphor for internet virality. Both Killers of the Flower Moon and Asteroid City nodded self-consciously to their own artifice.
But my favorite movie about moviemaking was Todd Haynes' May December, in which Natalie Portman plays an actor researching for the role of a genteel southern matron (Julianne Moore) with a shocking tabloid history. Their uneasy interactions are rich in insights about the vexing line between fiction and reality.
Related 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' Takes Viewers on an Enthralling Trip Through the Possibilities of Animation
Most quotable screenplay
- Courtesy Of Warner Bros. Pictures
- Barbie
French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall kept me guessing with its twisty screenplay that jumps from language to language. Dream Scenario and Maestro have some great lines. But let's be honest: No screenplay from 2023 will be quoted as often as Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach's for Barbie. You can certainly critique America Ferrera's monologue about the double binds of modern womanhood — countless social media pundits already have. But this shocking-pink satire touched a nerve.
Related Greta Gerwig Is Doing More Than Playing With Her Blockbuster Vision of 'Barbie'
Best aesthetics
- Courtesy Of A24 Films
- Priscilla
I wish Asteroid City were a cake so I could eat it. Seriously — rarely has a film been more delectably designed than Wes Anderson's whimsical comedy set in a sun-washed, UFO-ridden desert. Sofia Coppola's Priscilla captured a different but also toothsome vision of midcentury, pearly-white and practically pulsing with teenage alienation.
Related Wes Anderson Explores the Desert of the Real — and the Unreal — in 'Asteroid City'
Most riveting performance
We saw engrossing work from many actors this year: the aforementioned Gladstone, Moore in May December, Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers, Cailee Spaeny in Priscilla, Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction, Cooper and Carey Mulligan in Maestro, Thomasin McKenzie in Eileen, Ryan Gosling in Barbie. But I have to give it to Sandra Hüller as a German writer accused of murdering her husband in Anatomy of a Fall. Transparent and cryptic at once, she keeps transforming before our eyes.
Related French Courtroom Drama 'Anatomy of a Fall' Is a Spellbinding Dissection of Family Secrets and Lies
Best film
- Courtesy Of A24 Films
- Beau Is Afraid
Among the films I haven't yet had the chance to see are Poor Things, Rustin, The Zone of Interest, The Taste of Things, The Color Purple, Napoleon, and The Boy and the Heron. Those aside, I've already pointed out many fine films of 2023 that I think have broad appeal. Now I will make an unabashedly subjective pick, one that you should perhaps take as a recommendation only if you are a Franz Kafka superfan who enjoys seeing other people's paranoid imaginings play out in surreal screen epics. Yes, I'm talking about Beau Is Afraid, one of the most anxiety-ridden movies ever made.
Related 'Beau Is Afraid' in a Fascinatingly Paranoid Vision From Ari Aster
Now, go forth and complain that critics are out of touch. If I inspired you to sing the praises of your own favorites, I've done my job.
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