Since I've done such a horrible job of blogging here at Film Fan this year, let's have a look at what I've seen in theaters so far this year, possibly because I wanna spend some time talking about one movie in particular...
Argylle I found entertaining in its several layers, reminiscent of Lost City but certainly its own distinct flavor. Sam Rockwell I'd basically follow anywhere and is alone worth the price of admission. Funny, too, since there's a book based on it, since like Lost City it follows an author thrust into an adventure straight out of her books. By the third act it makes more sense but rests on a less convincing lead performance than its predecessor.
American Fiction was something I needed to catch up on from last year, and I'm glad I did (the author of the book it's based on, Percivall Everett, has been getting better notices on his newest book, James, but as far as I can tell, not a large amount of additional sales), although it seems a little more focused on elites having elites problems than a real connection to the black experience it's technically about. But I'd follow Jeffrey Wright anywhere, and am glad he got a spotlight like this.
The Beekeeper was instantly my favorite Jason Statham movie ever, and I realize I'm fairly late to the party, but interestingly, for me, it was a marked counterpoint to the elitism I found troubling in American Fiction, in that Statham's rampage is against the unchecked nature it currently enjoys.
Dune: Part Two I've certainly already written about, here, and how it's a technical achievement I find difficult to engage with emotionally, which is odd, since I had a very different reaction to Arrival, where both states existed so exquisitely well together.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is, like Beekeeper, a violent delight, featuring a pitch perfect ensemble cast, and has been since release one of my leading contenders for best of the year.
Sasquatch Sunset falls short of its intended mark, spending too much time in silent wonder at its strange world only for a last minute reveal at a deeper layer. Even if we never see humanity, it would've been worth seeing more of what these creatures are living in the margins of in order to appreciate some actual context. Instead it's just a curiosity.
Civil War is fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Most of the film is fascinating, a glimpse at journalism in its rawest form. Then it has to go ahead and let everyone, including the journalists, just watch as a president is assassinated. It's a terrible, off-note ending that all but spoils the preceding pleasures.
Horizon: An American Saga, since I grew up on Westerns, was very much another welcome homecoming, a splendid tapestry that looks past pretty much the remaining romanticism still lingering in the genre. But the release schedule was far too optimistic, and if anything scared more viewers away than the typically long running time of the modern historical blockbuster (which, while pursuing what streaming services can't, has yet to produce a winner at the box office).
Daddio is one of my favorite random discoveries, an intimate conversation between strangers exploring relationships and modern life. Dakota Johnson I'm happy to enjoy in something other than the sitcom I first saw her in, and Sean Penn, it's the first time in a long time I've just gotten to enjoy one of his performances after years of burying his talent behind Hollywood hype (which I trace back to Mystic River), which drive even him away for years.
The Bikeriders is another leading contender for best of the year, easily. Just perfect, a throwback to a bygone era, much like everything else I've loved this year, which is clearly the running theme of an industry trying desperately to justify itself while also looking for things that aren't packed with CGI.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die is another steady entry in the franchise, practically a sequel to the last one. It's just wild that Will Smith actually survived that Oscars slap.
Deadpool & Wolverine, since I was always more interested in Wolverine than Deadpool, was a wild ride of a return engagement, for both, the first time Ryan Reynolds had an actual story to tell and somehow the juiciest turn Hugh Jackman has gotten, in a role that has been determined to pump in melodrama from the very start.
Trap is another classic work of M. Night Shyamalan filmmaking.
Borderlands, of which I am the only one who actually enjoyed it. Too many times fans of things have absolutely no perspective. Nobody outside of them holds the games to be a sacred cow. If the movie fails, no one is going to rush to revive popular interest. The thing will die on the vine. And once again, this is what happened. If you liked the recent Jumanji movies, there's no discernable reason you wouldn't like this, too. If you liked the recent Dungeon & Dragons movie, this is right up your alley.
Conclave is hugely compelling for a Catholic, great drama ending on a curious note that kind of fiddles with its conclusions, wondering if the Church is somehow ready for a woman (in effect) in the papacy. I don't really see how that was necessary, but I'm not going to quibble. On the whole, another of the shining notes of the year.
Venom: The Last Dance kind of forgets that this is the final film in a trilogy for most of its runtime, finding a villain from the comics to close out the story but then getting lost in trying to explain how, since by the end we're left with the villain still out there, no other film forthcoming (and highly unlikely to be revisited), and only the sad goodbye between Eddie Brock and the symbiote. But spending most of it just watching Eddie trying to survive despite nothing sticking to put him at risk, just kind of stumbling along, with a random off-the-maps family continually intersecting in his efforts.
We Live In Time is a fine little relationship drama. Still kind of shocked it happened at all, much less in regular theaters (recently the domain of streaming services, such as A Marriage Story).
Joker: Folie a Deux has gotten so much exposure, and not a bit of it good, of course it's the one I was talking about at the start of this. I have no idea what happened here, who mailed everyone excrement to provoke such a reaction. This is exactly the second part of what happened in the first film. Exactly. Same flights of fancy, just with added song, since for the first and only time in his life, Arthur Fleck has an actual dance partner. What some people seem to have considered, this isn't a movie about the Joker, but a Joker. We've reached a point where The Dark Knight is far enough in the past that people are forgetting what exactly made Heath Ledger's Joker so great, that this second of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies is beginning to be lumped anonymously as just one of the three that resulted. And so of course we're now at the point where another Joker is just another Joker. Critics of the first one really just wanted to dismiss it as Taxi Driver cosplay, just as many viewers of Joker really just saw it as Ledger cosplay. They just couldn't distinguish or analyze the first one for its own achievements. It's no surprise, then, that neither has made heads or tails of the follow-up. If you're looking for a classic predecessor to this one, that would be One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, mixed up with, I don't know, A Star is Born. But ultimately this one can't help but fail to connect with audiences since it's another, along with most of Sony's Spider-Man villain movies (including, of course, the Venom movies, of which this last one was easiest to lump in). Most critics don't understand superhero movies, and most fans don't understand supervillain movies. This Joker was never really a hero (despite the first movie's ending), and he was never really a villain. He was always a victim. Just try finding sympathy for those, unless they're faceless.
