Best films of the year, babyyyy. You all know the drill so let's hop to it.
5. Hit Man
A very funny, very hot dark comedy, Hit Man feels like a throwback to the smash hits of the 90s and 2000s, high-premise vehicles coasting off the power of their charismatic stars for a delightful time. Richard Linklater lends his eye for natural realism to make the larger-than-life true story of Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), professor turned fake hitman for hire, into something just as fascinating as it's subject matter, cleverly playing with the dubious morality of the operation at the center of the story to leave us second guessing the characters every step of the way. It helps that Powell, Tom Cruise's heir apparent, gives one of the best performances of the year as Gary, a man of many faces who slowly begins to merge them together as he gets more and more entangled with the person he's meant to be leading into a trap, fiery, gorgeous Madison (Adria Arjona). Powell effortlessly switches from persona to persona as needed, the small facets of each personality mixing and clashing in the little details, leaving you just as charmed as the targets.
4. Look Back
Look Back, much like Tatsuki Fujmoto's smash hit Chainsaw Man, is about a lot of things. The creative process, the idea of creating art for mass consumptions vs creating for one's self, and the role art often plays in the bonds we form are all quietly discussed in the story of a budding friendship between two young artists brought together, then driven apart, by their differing methods. All of Fujimoto's tricks are on display here, from his penchant for easygoing dialogue, fondness for complicated characters, and views on grief and loss all mingling together. Animated beautifully, the film quietly envelops you in it's story before pulling the rug in a devastating fashion, leaving you quietly breathless as it's short runtime comes to a close. A perfectly paced, thought-provoking punch to the gut.
3. Hundreds of Beavers
Every once in a while a film comes along that leaves you so astounded with it's creativity that you can't help but scratch your head and just wonder how exactly they made it. Hundreds of Beavers, a match between Looney Tunes and 30s slapstick films, is one such film. From the minute it starts, the film brims with creativity, using it's limited budget so effectively that it still feels enormous in scale. There are, in fact, hundreds of beavers in this movie, alongside a variety of other wildlife made real through a mixture of puppetry, animation, and good ol' suits, and by the end you find yourself fully believing in the insane cartoon world they inhabit. It is also the funniest film of the year, brimming with gags that are so rapid fire it begs for repeat viewing, so fully committed to the bit that it becomes thrilling to watch just to see what they do next with it. One of the year's biggest surprises, it's got a little something for everyone.
2. Challengers
Part electrifying sports drama, part passionate portrayal of a slightly toxic throuple in the making, Challengers is the best film of Luca Guadagnino's career, taking his penchant for shifting time to portray the various stages of relationships, both (seemingly) platonic and romantic, and interweaving it with a ferocious depiction of competition and the mindset of the athlete. It's anchored by three great performances, each breathing life into the fascinating characters and the deeply messy relationships at the heart of the story, but it's also just a damn fine sports film, firing on all technical cylinders to make it's tennis matches feel like thrilling duels. It's a film where all elements work together to complete a masterful whole, simmering and thrilling at the same time.
1. I Saw the TV Glow
Less scary and more absolutely heartbreaking, I Saw the TV Glow feels like an existential crisis made flesh, a reckoning with a life spent lying to one's self about your true feelings. It's a film of a generation raised by television that now finds itself forced into an adulthood, looking around the world and going, "Is this it?" With a striking visual palette that resembles the melancholy tone at it's center, the film moves like a bad dream, drifting scene by scene in a devastating slow walk. Justice Smith, a perpetual favorite whenever he shows up, is heartbreaking here, vulnerability radiating off of every little movement, every averted gaze and mumbled apology, and his final panicked cry for help as the nature of the world becomes clear is one of the year's most agonizing scenes. In a world increasingly dominated by nostalgia, a yearning for yesteryear by generations that refuse to step aside, I Saw the TV Glow is one of the first earnest attempts to reckon with that, a cry to throw the old restraints aside and live in a new truth. Maybe, just maybe, there is still time.
No comments:
Post a Comment