2023 Annual List of Favorite Film and TV Experiences

Happy Holidays!  

Though 2023 seemed to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, remnants lingered. I finally came down with COVID for the first time in February. And my family continues our weekly Zooms, coming up on Week 199 this week! Travels took me to Asia several times, including Japan three times this year with first time visits to Hiroshima, Nara, Nagano, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Oita. While I made it to Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, I have yet to return to Mainland China, though that is likely coming up in March 2024. Also had a fun time in Bucks County in September at my 40th high school reunion, including a wonderful gathering with a special group of us with our revered junior high school English teacher.

And greetings from my girls Freddy (left) and Maxie, aged 11 and 10 respectively. Hope you are having a safe and healthy holiday season and all the best for a wonderful 2024!

Cheers, Ed

And now on to my favorite viewing experiences of the past year.

DON’T MISS MY TOP FAVORITES OF THE YEAR

Poor Things

Let’s start things with a film like no other.

A truly original, visionary film from director Yorgos Lanthimos. At its core, this Frankenstein-ish coming of age tale is a female empowerment/sexual liberation character study with Emma Stone at her most fearless best as the oddly heartwarming Bella Baxter, the reanimated woman transplanted with her own baby’s brain who evolves before our eyes from infantile babbling adult-child to verbose, unfiltered, self-possessed woman of moral enlightenment who functions outside polite societal rules and loves “furious jumping.” With incredibly beautiful cinematography and production design, Poor Things jumps from black-and white to hyper-saturated steampunk cityscapes with intermittent off-kilter fish-eye angles and a plucky discordant score that grows and matures along with Bella.

Yes, it’s weird, but what a thrill to watch. Stone is surrounded by a wonderful supporting cast: father-figure scientist Willem Defoe, rakish cad of a lover Mark Ruffalo, and earnest would-be husband Ramy Yousef.  Poor Things has totally turned me around on Lanthimos. (While I am a fan of The Favourite, his earlier film The Lobster was a slog to get through—this makes me want to give it another chance.) 

Poor Things Trailer

Past Lives

You can’t get any further stylistically or tonally from Poor Things. A top-notch debut from director/writer Celine Song, Past Lives is a quiet but remarkably touching, moving, and relatable semi-autobiographical story about childhood sweethearts growing up in Seoul, separated when Na Young (Greta Lee HW ’01 in a magnificent performance) and her family emigrate to Canada, and reunite years later via Facebook and Skype and then in-person in New York where Na Young, now Nora, is happily married to a fellow writer. While the focus is on the relational dilemmas between Nora, her husband, and childhood friend Hae Sung, the film also speaks to the divergence of the immigrant experience from the those in the motherland. It is all masterfully handled and packs an emotional wallop. One of the best of the year. Don’t miss it.

Past Lives Trailer

BARBENHEIMER LIVES UP TO THE HYPE

I couldn’t get Kenough. Yes, I watched these two back-to-back on Barbenheimer weekend.

Barbie

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I came out incredibly delighted by the colorful and entertaining combination of comedy, musical numbers, and social commentary with womanhood defeating patriarchy. Kudos to Greta Gerwig for her committed vision to go beyond what could have simply been one long commercial for an iconic American doll, all accomplished in a fun and bubbly, yet subtlety subversive confectionary package, creating the cultural and box office juggernaut of 2023.

Barbie Trailer

Oppenheimer

A stunning epic and masterful cinematic achievement with a nuanced portrayal of the complex “father of the atomic bomb.” No stranger to intertwined and overlapping timelines, Christopher Nolan weaves together the race to build the bomb with two subsequent Cold War-era hearings via shifting color, b/w, and aspect ratios—it’s actually more linear-feeling than his other films. Nolan actually transforms this biopic into a well-paced, albeit over three hours long, thriller. An outstanding Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer is surrounded by a strong supporting cast, including Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon.

Oppenheimer Trailer

TWO VERY DIFFERENT OLD SCHOOL TALES

The Holdovers

From the first frame with its look, music, and opening titles, you feel like you’ve discovered an unseen film made in 1970. Director Alexander Payne is reunited with Paul Giamatti in this boarding school dramedy, bringing together an unlikely trio to spend the holiday break together: the school’s universally hated and irascible Classics teacher (Giamatti), the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who lost her son (an alum of the school) in Vietnam, and the arrogant, parentally-abandoned student—terrific newcomer Dominic Sessa. Forced to spend time together, adventures unfold and camaraderie evolves in unexpectedly charming and engaging ways. The performances are all outstanding.

The Holdovers Trailer

Saltburn

Patricia Highsmith meets Evelyn Waugh by way of Bret Easton Ellis = Saltburn. Emerald Fennell follows up her Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman with this wickedly provocative tale featuring a diabolically fearless performance by Barry Keoghan as Oxford scholarship kid Oliver Quick obsessed with charismatic beautiful and wealthy classmate Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), his quirky Evelyn Waugh-ish family (complete with teddy bear), and their baroque country estate, Saltburn. Cleverly written and beautifully shot, Keoghan notches another memorable performance (his village idiot in last year’s The Banshees of Inisherin nabbed him an Oscar nomination). The supporting cast is also superb. Rosamund Pike is deliciously hilarious as Saltburn’s clueless matriarch Lady Elsbeth, and Carey Mulligan is memorable in her small role as permanent Saltburn houseguest known as “Poor Dear Pamela.” This isn’t going to be everyone’s taste, so be forewarned. But if you’re all for stylish, perverse debauchery, do check it out.

Saltburn Trailer

TALES OF LONELINESS, GRIEVING, AND THE HUMAN NEED TO CONNECT (WITH A SIDE OF GHOSTS AND ALIENS)

Asteroid City

I’m an unabashed Wes Anderson fan, and he didn’t disappoint this time around with this 1950s meta, multi-layered set piece: a play within a TV show within a film with the typical Wes Anderson all-star cast that includes regulars like Jason Schwartzman and newcomers like Tom Hanks. While there is definitely the precious look and feel of an Anderson film, this one feels distinctly more personal and existential, as his characters process grief and search for the meaning of life in the vast cosmos we live in—all taking place in this lonely small, desert town, populated by attendees of a student astronomy convention that is visited by an alien and chaos ensues.

Asteroid City trailer

All of Us Strangers

A haunting, emotionally-charged, dream-like, and profoundly heartbreaking tale of grief, loneliness, hope, and the need to connect. A talented foursome is led by Andrew Scott (from Fleabag) as lonely gay writer Adam, alongside Paul Mescal (from Normal People) as the mysterious love interest Harry, and Jamie Bell and Claire Foy as Adam’s parents. Amid the synth pop of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Pet Shop Boys, Bell and Foy’s ethereal appearances repeatedly result in powerful and authentically affecting, i.e., tear-inducing, scenes filled with conversations we wished we had had and things we wished we had done. For anyone who has lost loved ones at an early age, this is a film that can feel devastating, poignant, and cathartic all at the same time. Don’t try to intellectualize this film, as I did at first—just let the magic realism wash over you.

All of Us Strangers trailer

A TOTALLY FUN NICHOLAS GALITZINE DOUBLE FEATURE

Red, White & Royal Blue

I was totally charmed and could not get enough of this heartwarming and endearing boy-meet boy rom-com fairy tale between a British prince and American president’s son. I could watch Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez as the respective leads with a fun Uma Thurman as POTUS all day long! Total fun escapism.

Red, White & Royal Blue trailer

Bottoms

This is the absurdist queer comedy that we didn’t know we needed. Unhinged, riotous, raunchy, and hilarious (as well as over the top violent) story about two “gay, untalented, and ugly” high school girls (including a terrific Ayo Edebiri) who start a fight club as a way to lose their virginity to cheerleaders, which leads to unintended and quite violent and bloody consequences. With Nick Galitzine in a totally different role than RW&RB’s Prince Henry. This time, he’s an airheaded high school quarterback “bro.” Oh, and there’s also a very funny ex-NFL player Marshawn Lynch as the fight club faculty advisor.

Bottoms trailer

REAL-LIFE ATROCITIES

The Zone of Interest

A thoroughly discomforting film that opens with minutes of a black screen with only an eerie score, which then leads to scenes of banal everyday life, literally in the shadows of Auschwitz. This is the bone-chilling story of real-life camp commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their family who lived a bucolic life in a home sharing a concrete wall with the concentration camp. While the horrors exist just over the wall, they are always out of frame and never seen. But it is omnipresent in the white noise of everyday life: the sounds and peripheral sights—the dark plume from the chimneys, the smoke of approaching trains, the gunshots—are always there in the background. This is the horrifying perspective on the Holocaust you’ve not seen before. A cruel, unsettling, and devasting watch that you can’t easily shake.

The Zone of Interest trailer

Killers of the Flower Moon

Lily Gladstone’s powerful performance as Mollie Burkhart grounds Martin Scorsese’s latest epic true-life tale of a wealthy oil-owning Osage nation family whose members are systematically murdered by a group of greedy white men in Oklahoma during the early 1920s. Beyond the true-crime story, I was most fascinated by the film’s portrayal of a specific place and time that was completely unknown to me, a time in American history that is unfortunately largely unspoken of and forgotten today—of the Osage people who were among the wealthiest people per capita on earth—a world where they lived lavishly with white maids and drivers.

Killers of the Flower Moon trailer

FOUR DOCUMENTARIES…AND A MOCKUMENTARY

Little Richard: I Am Everything

Powerful and exhilarating documentary about the impact of the brilliantly electrifying and raucous queer, black, born-again Christian from the South who profoundly shaped music and society. With producers that include HW alumnae Liz Yale Marsh ’04 and Anita May Rosenstein ’72.

I Am Everything trailer

STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Davis Guggenheim’s doc about the career of Michael J. Fox brims with realism and inspirational positivity from Fox himself, despite living with a debilitating disease.

STILL trailer

Sr.

A poignant and intimate look at the experimental cult filmmaker Robert Downey, Sr. It’s a tender portrait of father and son, Robert Downey, Jr., filmed over the last three years of Sr.’s life.

Sr. trailer

Fire of Love

An incredible doc about two volcanologists who fall in love and die together doing what they love—studying volcanic activity up close and personal.

Fire of Love trailer

Theater Camp

A Sundance Festival darling, this delightful and very funny satirical and affectionate mockumentary-style peek inside the eccentric world of misfit theater kids and their instructors is brought to us by co-directors Molly Gordon and HW alum Nick Lieberman ’11 and writing collaboration with fellow actors Ben Platt HW ’11 and Noah Galvan. It’s a hoot!

Theater Camp trailer

ALSO SHOUT OUTS TO…

• Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele are extraordinary as 13-year-old best friends in Close, this tragic portrayal of friendship broken apart by societal mores about affection between male friends. Heartbreaking. Close trailer
• Colman Domingo is terrific as openly gay activist Bayard Rustin in Rustin, whose role as MLK’s trusted advisor in the civil rights movement finally gets his long-overdue, well-deserved recognition.
• Charlie Melton steals the film in his shattering portrayal of a man-child coming to terms as a 36-year-old married to the woman who originally seduced him as 13-year-old in May December.
• Carey Mulligan, in addition to her small role Poor Dear Pamela in Saltburn, is powerful in her understanded take as the actress Felicia Montealegre, Leonard Bernstein’s wife, in Maestro.
• Postcards from Earth—If you’re in Las Vegas, check out Darren Aronofsky’s film shot for the Sphere, a vast 18K resolution domed wraparound LED screen that’s 35 stories high. Breathtaking and mind-blowing, like seeing IMAX for the first time, but this time, IMAX on steroids. Don’t miss it.
• Other Enjoyable Experiences: Anatomy of a Fall, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Close, Wonka, Of An Age, Wildcat, Renfield, Stephen Curry: Underrated, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Elemental, Joy Ride, It Ain’t Over, Argentina 1985
• In the Queue: The Boy and The Heron, The Iron Claw, American Fiction, The Color Purple

AND STREAMING SHOWS I LOVED IN 2023

• The Bear, Season 2 (Hulu)—S2 really kicked it up a notch, especially the stunning Christmas family dinner in Ep. 6 Seven Fishes, but also the character development in Ep. 4 Honeydew and Richie’s transformation in Ep. 7 Forks. Brilliant all around.
• Beef (Netflix)—This fantastic dark comedy begins with a road rage incident and becomes an on-going revenge/class warfare struggle through Asian American lens.
• Succession, Final Season (Max)—As dreadful as they were, I will really miss the Roys.
• Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix)—The best Bridgerton season! As a prequel, I think it can be watched even if you haven’t seen the other seasons. It’s compassionate depiction of mental illness (of a young King George III) stands out, as does the engaging secondary story of the King and Queen’s respective footmen, Reynolds and Brimsley.
• Heartstopper, Season 2 (Netflix)—Still love this adorable, sweet show.
• The Summer I Turned Pretty (Prime)—Came for the eye candy; fell in love with the story and characters. (Btw, I’m team Jeremiah.)
• Shrinking (Apple TV+)—Love this cast! Jason Segel HW ’97, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams.
• Suits (Netflix)—How did I miss this when it first came out? Catching up on all seasons now.
• The Other Two, Final Season (Max)—They really kicked into gear for the final season.
• Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)—I’m not a big fan of reality TV, but somehow, they pulled off this real-life Truman Show-esque experience with juror Ronald Gladden, the only person unaware that the entire case is fake.  A bonus is actor James Marsden who plays an exaggerated version of himself as a fellow juror.
• Other Enjoyable Experiences: Night Agent (Netflix), The Diplomat (Netflix), Ted Lasso (Apple TV+), Wednesday , (Netflix), Bad Sisters (Apple TV+), I’m A Virgo (Prime), Money Heist Korea (Netflix)