Films in 2023

Here are my favorite movies, documentaries and mini-series that I watched in 2023.

Eanna Hardwicke as lunatic narcissist Ben Field in The Sixth Commandment

OUTCRY: American criminal justice dissected through an objectively humanist lens: A truly incredible document showcasing corruption at every single level of the modern legal system - all within a single case. Apparently this came out a few years ago but only hit my radar in September. Regardless, (besides the final season of Succession), this was my favorite piece of content I watched all year: fascinating, shocking, disheartening and powerful. One of the best ‘true crime’ documentary series you will see.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT: This is a phenomenal four part BBC miniseries about an extraordinarily twisted series of recent crimes in the UK. Clean, tight, gripping - as good as it gets. (For anyone interested in psychedelics that watches this: in real life, the drug Ben was giving them was 2CB). Mental.

THE OLD OAK: Syrian refugees find their way in an economically depressed North England town in master Ken Loach's final film, built on another righteous script from Paul Laverty. A beautiful testament to the power of community. Pure soul. “Solidarity not charity”.

TALK TO ME: A bad trip to the other side of underneath. A legitimately creepy Australian twist on supernatural teen horror featuring a great cast of young actors. In my mind this doubles as an anti drug movie.

LOVE HAS WON THE CULT OF MOTHER GOD: Peacecreeps, broken souls and lost hippies adapt and distort New Age language in order to find meaning and money in this brilliant three part deep dive into drug and alcohol fueled madness. I think her downfall has everything to do with the guilt she was likely harboring for leaving her kids. This is the best short form cult documentary since Heaven's Gate.

Amy Carlson is Mother God in Love Has Won.

PALM TREES AND POWER LINES: This drawn out, slow burn study of grooming makes for quietly intense, occasionally difficult viewing - and ends on a refreshingly downcast note. A very strong debut from Jamie Dack.

R.M.N.: Cristian Mungiu is one of the finest filmmakers alive, a new movie from him is always something to celebrate. In this bleak new realist drama on the social condition, as xenophobia spreads like wildfire, he explores fear and othering in a small town in Romania. The final scene was wild - I did not see that coming.

SICK OF MYSELF: A woman gives herself a skin disease in order to compete for attention with her grifter artist boyfriend. Intelligently observed, brilliantly acted and the funniest movie I have seen in a long time.

THE ROYAL HOTEL: Two women tend bar in the outback as they navigate the gaze of dysfunctional males in this tense and menacing gem from emerging talent Kitty Green. Features a phenomenal cast of familiar Australian character actors from classics like Snowtown and Animal Kingdom.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: A group of immoral men engage in a dastardly plan to steal money from the Osage. Loved the final shot and that bold Marty cameo at the end.

NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU: The best alien invasion movie in years. Focused, well executed, no bullshit storytelling made by someone who understands the language of cinema. Looks amazing too. Fun movie.

"Strength, solidarity, resistance": a still from The Old Oak.

Also worthy of note was Jonathan Glazer’s low-key study of complacency and complicity in the face of industrialized death THE ZONE OF INTEREST, the brutal Danish horror SPEAK NO EVIL, the extremely sad Hulu documentary NEVER LET HIM GO, the tough-watch Swedish series about crippling misogyny and abuse RIDING IN DARKNESS, the UK crime procedurals THE LONG SHADOW and THE HUNT FOR RAOUL MOTE, and the home-spun HBO doc TELEMARKETERS. I also recommend the documentary about families escaping North Korea BEYOND UTOPIA, French legal drama ANATOMY OF A FALL, study of neighbor disputes in the hills of Galica THE BEASTS, and the dystopian trip zone study of identity and decadence INFINITY POOL.

Greg Kelley, the subject of Outcry.

Films in 2022

The best movies, documentaries and series in 2022.

Nancy Salzman in The Vow Part Two

TÁR: I remember being seriously disturbed and amazed by Little Children, Todd Field's previous film released in 2006. He finally returns with a brilliant, timely study of power - and how it is wielded within institutions - told through the story of a composer/conductor's fall from grace. The only appropriate word I can find for it is Masterpiece. I can't remember the last time a character this fully formed hit the screen; Cate Blanchett is outstanding. The script is an intellectual feast and the final shot has got to be the most confounding and brilliant of the year.

THE VOW PART II: This is difficult, stomach-churning viewing but is one of the most intimate and revealing documents of human behavior control ever filmed; it explores the manipulative sociopathy of a megalomaniac misogynist and the (NLP based) systems developed to exploit vulnerable minds. Part I was an excellent overview of the NXIVM cult and it's adherents but Part II is on a whole other level - more access to key people and a much deeper dive as it unfolds over 6 hours. The footage of Raniere’s brainwashed minions dancing outside his jail cell is unbelievable, the ‘NXIVM 5’ are truly camera ready lost souls for modern times. Nancy Salzman is the most fascinating character of 2022 and her brutally honest, soul-searching testimony - and the tragic ending sequence - will stay with me for years to come. On HBO.

THE NORTHMAN: Robert Eggers' viking epic takes you to another world. A brutally realistic revenge movie dealing with ritual/sorcery/mysticism in AD890 Iceland - this is wild, visionary filmmaking. If you get the chance see it on a big screen, do it.

RESURRECTION: An unbelievably twisted movie about extreme psychological abuse and control; an unsettlingly imaginative, very well written script is brought to life with a restrained Haneke-esque coldness and anchored by a bravado woman-in-crisis performance from Rebecca Hall. Writer/director Andrew Seamans is one to watch.

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS: Once again Ruben Östlund wages class war in the most entertaining and engaging way possible, this time by humanizing and degrading models and oligarchs on a cruise. Totally relevant comedy.

Eddie Redmayne as Charles Cullen in The Good Nurse

THE GOOD NURSE: I was never an Eddie Redmayne fan until I watched this - now I think he may be the best actor of his generation. He is downright revelatory in the English language debut from Danish master Tobias Lindholm. Very dark subject matter handled with grace and care. On Netflix.

THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER: Joanna Hogg deploys rigorous form in the service of a severely moody and stunningly shot ghost story. I haven't seen a haunting this convincing since Personal Shopper; it must have been mind blowing to see in a theater.

TWO SHALLOW GRAVES: There were a lot of good true crime documentaries this year (Sins of Our Mother, Murdaugh Murders, Raincoat Killer) but this documentary on the McStay family murder case airing on Discovery+ is exceptional. Once the mysteries of the crime are laid out in detail in the first few episodes, it moves into an all access courtroom drama that almost plays like a mini Staircase. Much like that classic, truth is elusive, motives are unknown and nothing is set in stone. The audacious Brady violations and assumptive leaps in logic from the prosecutors were alarming. The brother and the mom cleaning the crime scene is extremely shady. Merritt probably did it but an unjust outcome nonetheless.

NITRAM: There is something sinister about the way Justin Kurzel portraits the undereducated Australian underbelly. This return to his realist crime roots is a masterful five alarm fire about how we treat behavioral issues and mental illness, and the consequences of our collective ignorance. Caleb Landry Jones is absolutely phenomenal as Martin Bryant.

SECRETS OF PLAYBOY: This powerful ten part documentary series completely rewrites the company's history and exposes the woman-hating rapist ‘Hef’ and his co-conspirators as misogynist monsters, all while methodically breaking down his sex trafficking organization that destroyed lives for decades. A surprisingly harrowing watch. Available on A&E and Hulu.

Dolly De Leon steps up in Triangle Of Sadness

Also worth mentioning are James Gray's super soulful autobiographical tale ARMAGEDDON TIME, Australian arthouse crime thriller THE STRANGER, master dramatist Joachim Trier's heavy stunner THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, the beautifully observant second season of LAST CHANCE U BASKETBALL, Nathan's hysterically insane meta commentary THE REHEARSAL and the unforgettable, searing unclassified images in CHERNOBYL THE LOST TAPES.

Sacrificial lambs step into the abyss in Chernobyl The Lost Tapes

Films in 2021

THE INVESTIGATION: Released as a 6 part series but plays like one in-depth 4.5 hour movie. I gained more respect for actual real life detective work watching this than anything I’ve ever seen. Incredible series. Forward thinking, intelligent work executed with style and grace. Søren Malling as the man in charge of the case wears the world in his eyes, what a fantastic actor. Episode 3 alone is better than everything else I saw last year. Tobias Lindholm has never written or directed anything less than phenomenal. On HBO. 

PROCESSION: The best documentary this year is a heavy duty real life psychodrama that takes us deep into the souls of traumatized men and is one of the most insightful and revealing films about suffering/healing I have come across. Powerfully collaborative filmmaking led by Robert Greene. On Netflix. Abolish the Catholic Church now. 

THE NORTH WATER: Another "TV series" that was better than any movie this year. Andrew Haigh’s follow up to the severely underrated film Lean On Pete is a five hour masterstroke; an epic adventure of the finest mythic caliber imaginable. Jack O’Connell is phenomenal and Haigh is without a doubt the strongest talent in British cinema. 

DUNE: Saw once on the biggest screen possible (1.43 IMAX at Citywalk) and again at home. If "dreams are messages from the deep" Denis Villeneuve again lets us know anything is possible with the power of imagination. A vision of messianic prophecy resonating through spacetime. 

THE BEATLES GET BACK: Mind blowing deep dive into their creative process. Watching Paul get lost in writing music as everyone else stands around is mesmerizing. Yoko is the epitome of cool. Reaches a hysterical crescendo when the baby-faced chin-strapped bobby's show up. Interesting to watch in the context of the separate albums they were making outside of the film at the time (McCartney crafting his solo debut as John and Yoko release their freaked out experiments and Harrison's controversial Moog album). 

COLLECTIVE: This is the best kind of documentary: on the ground as it happens, no talking heads whatsoever, and serving as a record of extremely important work. In this case, of a Romanian news team uncovering and exposing enraging corruption. And the fire footage they suddenly hit you with near the beginning is as scary as anything I’ve ever seen. On Hulu.  

QUO VADIS, AIDA?: A UN Base in Srebrenica 1995 is the setting for this intense true story of displacement and massacre. A slow onset of panic builds to a harsh pinnacle of sorrow. On Hulu (for the most part I think Hulu chooses their foreign and art films well). 

LAST CHANCE U BASKETBALL: I found this 8 part documentary series on an east LA jr college team deeply inspirational; full of individual heartfelt human stories. Coach Mosley throws every form of logic, motivation and prayer possible at these kids to help them push their lives in the directions they are meant to be going. On Netflix. 

ANTEBELLUM: Went in knowing absolutely nothing about this and haven't heard anything about it since. Wild original filmmaking. Grapples with the legacy of slavery in a direct and artful way. I thought it would have been stronger without the twist/reveal. 

THE ALPINIST: Wonderful documentary about a fearlessly tapped-in psychedelic mountain climber literally doing the impossible in his own humble way. Whether tragically confused or deeply inspired - a soulful, thought provoking life is revealed. Inevitability hits hard, no matter what. On Netflix.

note

I was shook when I heard Kim Ki-duk died of Covid in December of 2020. Apparently he was in Riga, Latvia where he had moved to find financing for his films and presumably get away from the controversy in Korea. 

A few of my favorites of his:

Mobius

3 Iron

Spring Summer Fall Winter & Spring

Crocodile

Arirang

The Isle

The Bow

Pieta

One of the most far out, renegade, brilliant beyond genius visionaries cinema has ever seen has left the stage!

Films in 2020

HAPPY AS LAZZARO: Beautifully done modern Italian realism exploring sainthood and the potential good of humanity. Visually stunning 16mm and thematically rich material from Alice Rohrwacher. (I think this was released the year previous but I only saw it in the spring).

LOVERS ROCK: My favorite part was when the toaster enters the party dancing hard and is handed the mic. He sets the party off and into a magical sequence that expresses the ferocity, range and power reggae music can have when properly amplified. Tremendous!

HEAVEN'S GATE: Fascinatingly empathetic deep dive into inexplicable minds of madness. The new standard-bearer for cult documentaries.

ALEX WHEATLE: A young reggae fan navigates his youth in this powerful and direct plea for education. After Lover's Rock, this is the second entry on this list from Steve McQueen's Small Axe series.

NOMAD IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BRUCE CHATWIN: Lovely new Herzog documentary about his twin flame adventurer. Elegant and compelling work as always from Werner.

CORPUS CHRISTI: Religion and violence collide in an intense trip into the heavy faith of Polish juvenile delinquents. The ending was wild.

THE SCHEME: Excellent documentary about FBI corruption told through the world of college basketball shenanigans.

STRUGGLE THE LIFE AND LOST ART OF STANISLAUS SZUKALSKI: Fascinating portrait of a brilliant artist processing the horrors of WWII from an apartment in Burbank.

PIECES OF A WOMAN: A very, very intense and bravado first act mellows out and into a fairly standard yet potent exploration of grief with amazing performances from Shia LaBeouf and Vanessa Kirby.

FIRST COW: Another rich fantastical submersion into the Pacific Northwest from Kelly Reichardt.

SORRY WE MISSED YOU: Two masters of cinema take on the gig economy. What a blessing to have another film documenting the people's struggle from Paul Laverty & Ken Loach.

Films in 2019

Six films and six documentaries in 2019.

AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL: Held moments and intricate thoughts from a suicidal soul. Wonderfully dark poetic realism from 29 year old Chinese author Bo Hu, in his first and final film.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT: As soon as I stopped trying to follow the story, and think linearly, I loved it. Bi Gan is trying to do something new in filmmaking. Like Bo Hu, he was Chinese and 29 when he made this, though he lives to tell the tale. The theater scene and title card were particularly amazing.

TRIPLE FRONTIER: A macho study of the male ego executed perfectly by J.C. Chandor and a great cast. Chandor is a real talent, looking forward to what he does next.

BORDER: When diversity goes wrong: From somewhere deep within the collective human psyche comes a dark cinematic vision of deformity. Timely & utterly unique. 

UNCUT GEMS: More madcap adventures through the streets of NYC from the Safdie Bros, this one perhaps their most thrillingly intense.

LUCE: A engrossing story about expectation and minority experience, revolving around one of the more complex and intriguing characters in any film this year.

COLD CASE HAMMARSKJOLD: A gruesome reality is revealed in this captivating trip through the halls of an almost unbelievable conspiracy. A truly fascinating documentary.

LEAVING NEVERLAND: Very hard to watch these two men coming to terms and grappling with going public about the abuse. Complicated, sad, compelling, heroic. The final nail in the coffin of Michael Jackson’s personal legacy.

SEA OF SHADOWS: The folly of human ego is on full display in this National Geographic documentary on the totoaba fish trade in the Sea of Cortez. Great footage; tragic and sad.

THE AMAZING JOHNATHAN DOCUMENTARY: A dying magician wills a class A documentary into his life that manages to make poignant commentary on art, the nature of reality and methamphetamine.

ELVIS PRESLEY THE SEARCHER: Enlightening deep dive into the life and mind of a pioneer. Skews drug/food addiction for a focus on his musical inspirations and achievements. Refreshing.

ABDUCTED IN PLAIN SIGHT: A set of abominable parents feed their daughter knowingly to a peado to protect their reputations; a crazy, wild, often genuinely shocking story featuring some of the worst people I’ve come across in a documentary in quite some time.

Films in 2018.

The films that resonated with me the most this year... thank you for your continued readership.

LEAN ON PETE: A boy walks with his horse. A towering achievement in graceful, grandiose, introspective, empathic melancholy that does not rely on trauma or evil to create drama - just the sad reality of the aloneness we will all one day have to contemplate. Echoes of Bela Tarr, Bergman even. Just about the saddest movie I've ever seen and absolutely heartbreakingly brilliant. 

HAGAZUSSA: A HEATHEN'S CURSE: A Witch ekes out a life in 15th century Europe. Immersive psychedelic horror of the highest quality. A slow motion bad trip; brave for its dwelling on the depraved depths of darkness. An extremely impressive debut from Lukas Feigelfeld. Makes every other 'horror' film this year look like child's play.

COMING HOME BOWE BERGDAHL VS THE UNITED STATES: Disinformation, Patriotism, the psychology of captivity, introspection, torture & madness are deftly explored in this thought-provoking, multi-facetted, very disturbing documentary. The interview with Bowe is astounding. Without a doubt the best, most important and woefully underseen documentary of the year.

PATERNO: The methodological inner workings of self delusion are deftly explored with masterful nuance by Al Pacino. In modern times rarely do we come across a case of institutionalized evil of this caliber; here astutely recognized, studied & fortuitously rendered by the filmmakers. Patriarchal power unveiled. (Barry Levinson has been on a roll lately by taking on modern current events and getting the finest actors of our time to do some of their best work ever. Check out his and Pacino's other recent collaboration, You Don't Know Jack and his film with Robert De Niro, The Wizard Of Lies).

ANNIHILATION: The microscopic destroys the macrocosm as refracting cells divide identity and matter; the Endtimes arrive as corrosion of form. A haunting and deeply trippy film. The best Sci-fi film in eons. 

HOSTILES: On the frontier of the American West in 1892 patriot soldiers are broken by genocidal revenge. A complex, intense film about man’s ability to remain human when imbued with savagery. Christian Bale is incredible. Another amazing film from Scott Cooper.

MANDY: An masterfully impressionistic visionary skillset is on display in Panos Cosmatos’ second headtrip. Have peacecreep hippie weirdos ever been so accurately portrayed on film before? Definetely not in this century. A wild, intelligent, insane and deeply psychedelic movie. Bravo.

FIRST REFORMED: An astute study of what it means to die for a cause and the motivations and approaches available; in this case environmentalism. It also brings into modern times themes similar to Bergman's Winter Light: crisis of spirit, sacrifice and the existence of God.

SUNSET: Utilizing the film language developed in his debut masterpiece Son Of Saul, Laszlo Nemes returns with an immersive, labyrinthine tale of discovery in turn of the century Budapest.

ACTIVE MEASURES: Makes the case that the American president is a comprised Kremlin asset laundering Russian kleptocrat and mob money through Trump Towers. Very well done and quite alarming. Democracy corrupted; we are living in historic times. Excellent documentary.

Films in 2017

Ten movies that resonated with me this year. Thank you for reading. 

LOVELESS: Andrey Zvyagintsev brings us another searing indictment of humanity; a tragically relevant portrait of narcissism within a disintegrating family. It's an intimate, dour film largely told through colors and atmosphere - a poignant and powerful work as always from arguably the finest filmmaker working today.

VOYAGE OF TIME: A profound, all encompassing, pagan masterpiece that tracks the evolution of Earth from before time until it's end. This is a bravado, ridiculously ambitious big picture from the singular Terrence Mallick. The confounding beauty of the images seamlessly integrating the macrocosmic and microscopic were unutterably sublime – but it was the narration that I found even more astoundingly poetic. While watching the film I assumed it was sourced from holy texts from throughout history, I was amazed to find out Mallick had written it all.  “Oh Mother, abyss of light, all beholding...”

I, DANIEL BLAKE: Ken Loach and Paul Laverty savagely attack the corporatization of public services and the maddening banality of hostile bureaucracies. It makes sense that this simple, direct call to action - with such a powerful ending - caps off the most important and radical filmography to ever emerge from the United Kingdom. Thank you Ken.

TWIN PEAKS THE RETURN: Beyond film; an 18 hour journey into Samsara, where time is looping and the immaterial prevails along further explorations into impermanent non-self reality; so subtly  illuminated in the physical realm by the atomic bomb motif – as above so below, atom to star. The final episode with the two characters driving through the night together was as a magnificent distillation of Lynch's inner world realized that I have come across. David pulls out all the stops and transcends limits in what may be the culmination of his vision.

PERSONAL SHOPPER: An extremely rare movie: a ghost story that is actually sort of realistic and also at times genuinely scary. If you smoke weed, watch it stoned. Kristen Stewart is amazing.

ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING: I shed a couple tears during this portrait of Nick Cave in mourning by Andrew Dominick. Some of the looks on his face as he is trying to elucidate his feelings on the death of his son will be with me for a very long time. It was also cool to see Warren Ellis working in the studio. Powerful stuff.

BLADE RUNNER 2049: In sure form once again, Denis Villeneuve utilizes his control of cinematic language to create a visceral psychedelic darkness that flows effortlessly throughout a subversive story of a slave awakening.

THELMA: A Qigong witch explores the potentials of consciousness in this visionary tale for a New Age from Norway's finest dramatist, Joachim Trier. It starts slow but evolves into a unique, trippy thought provoking work.

THE SUNSHINE MAKERS: "Those that say, don't know; those that dont know, say." This mantra of the psychedelic underground is apparently no longer relevant for a certain generation. I never thought I'd find out who was making our acid all those years but here we have a straight forward look at the once secret world of LSD manufacturing - in particular, chemists Nick Sand and Tim Scully, two heroes that profoundly changed world consciousness. It's done in the standard, unremarkable, talking-head style documentary format but the topic is an important one. It's difficult to truly fathom the number of lives these men enhanced.

WHITNEY CAN I BE ME: A tragic, human portrait handled with class by Nick Broomfield.

THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE: The best film I saw this year was actually from 1976 - an epic documentary from marcel Marcel Ophuls that has been beautifully restored by HBO. It's a brilliant, profound, complex, 5.5 hour deep dive into the Nuremberg trials and an examination of the bureaucratic excuses the Nazi scum attempted to hide behind. If you haven't seen Ophuls' other films they are well worth seeking out, especially A Sense Of Loss (on the ground in Belfast, 1972) and Hotel Terminus (Klaus Barbie and CIA activity after WWII).

Addendum: Just caught up with a few movies from last year that are as good or better than the ones above: the very entertaining art-word satire THE SQUARE, dystopian horror IT COMES AT NIGHT and the ultra-heavy documentary on emotional healing work in a prison THE WORK FOUR DAYS TO REDEMPTION which will probably stay with me longer than all the other films mentioned. 

Films in 2016

...in an effort to continue a long standing tradition below are ten notable films from 2016...

1
Graduation

Corruption born of desperation rots the Romanian education system; Deeply nuanced, intelligent writing and directing from modern master Christian Mungiu. Every scene a drama unto itself.

2
Tony Robbins I Am Not Your Guru

Seekers in the managerial class are evangelized by a superhuman and his music cues; prone to inexperience, weak minds gravitate to authority; in search of the ecstatic - hypnotized by a giant. A peek into nightmarish never-ending team building exercises that only corporate culture could celebrate. However, messages of Empathy and Will are critical. A spellbinding documentary. Fascinating, powerful. I salute the giant.

3
American Honey

Midwest; homeless kids; rap music in cars. A film that exudes life. A scattered, poetic vision of youth; a patriotic, hopeful mirage of America.

4
Macbeth

Stunningly photographed and directed, the pacing perfectly intertwined with the artistry. A towering achievement from Justin Kurzel.

5
Midnight Special

Faith and the believer unite as 10th dimensional beings reveal themselves in search of a Christ-like E.T.

6
Arrival

Not since The Fountain has multidimensional consciousness been so eloquently dealt with. Well-paced, thoughtful excellence.

7
Heaven Knows What

An otherworldly dream-state reality from the Safdie Bros. Grimy, raw & beautiful. Brilliant electronic score. Arielle Holmes is amazing in this and American Honey, a raw talent.

8 
Who Took Johnny

A haunting real life conspiracy at the highest levels of control. We've known the truth, here we get closer to proof. Then again, maybe the mom is insane. A mysterious movie.

9
The Witch

Initiation into the coven; An intelligent look at religious madness. A few stunning bravado shots, especially of the witches lair. I read the director studied Klimov's Come and See, it shows. An incredible debut film.

10
Only The Dead See the End of War

Heavy, brutal war footage, Fallujah sequence especially. Non-political, poignant, disturbing.