Anatomy of a Fall

NEON
The highest prize awarded at the annual Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or is the French festival’s version of Best Picture and carries with it automatic Oscar buzz. But, historically speaking, the honor hasn’t automatically translated to Oscar success, as only two Palme d’Or winners have won the Oscar for Best Picture, Marty in 1955 and Parasite in 2022. That’s not to say that the Cannes winner doesn’t regularly make an appearance at the Oscars. Just last year, Cannes winner Triangle of Sadness was nominated for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay and this year, the Cannes Festival winner, Anatomy of a Fall, has even bested that with five nominations in total for Editing, Original Screenplay, Actress, Director and Picture.

The reason for so little overlap between Palme d’Or winners and Oscar Best Picture winners likely comes down to the completely different aesthetic between the two voting bodies. Cannes festival goers and judges pride themselves on awarding artists who present groundbreaking elements in storytelling or who are edgy, unique or challenge the boundaries of the medium. Oscar voters, by contrast, normally prefer safe, traditional and accessible storytelling, paired with high production values and performances. Rarely do you find films that can please both groups. But, in Anatomy of a Fall, writer/director Justine Triet has brilliantly created a film that is all at once accessible yet experimental, challenging yet relatable and weird yet traditional, a film for both France and Hollywood, and my favorite film of 2023.

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My Belated Barbie Thoughts

Warner Bros
I’ve been asked a few times now for my thoughts about the alleged Oscar “snubs” of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig for their work on Barbie. I hadn’t yet reviewed the film, despite having seen it twice, so I might as well provide my thoughts on the Oscars and the movie itself in one fell swoop.

In all the “Barbenheimer” hoopla, Barbie was really the event of the year. A Christopher Nolan film about the man who built the atom bomb feels like a no-brainer (as far as its reception and success goes), but the REAL gamble was in handing Greta Gerwig, an indie critic’s darling, the keys to a franchise in Barbie. Warner Bros/Discovery has made a lot of mistakes lately, but that was not one of them. It was risky, bold and completely unexpected—and even more unpredictable. There are so many ways this could have gone wrong. Think of all the other established brand names or franchises whose film adaptations went horribly wrong and you’ll be here all night. Trusting Gerwig, and allowing her the artistic freedom she asked for, was one thing, but Gerwig delivering in such an impressive way was truly the story of the year.

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Killers of the Flower Moon

Apple Studios
CAPSULE REVIEW (500 words or less)

It may be shallow, but I have a hard time with a movie being 3 ½ hours long. These are the days of prestige television…if you have that much to say, make a limited series, don’t ask an audience to sit for that long in a movie theater. At the very least, you are begging for your movie to be watched at home, where bathroom breaks can be baked in. But, if you are legendary director Martin Scorsese, studios will let you do anything, apparently. Scorsese’s last two films, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon, have a combined runtime of 7 hours. SEVEN HOURS for two films. Come on.

I hated The Irishman. I love Scorsese, but that film felt bloated and pointless to me, so I was naturally hoping his new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, despite the same 3 ½ runtime, would be much better.

It’s not.

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The Zone of Interest

A24
CAPSULE REVIEW (500 words or less)

It is impossible to overstate the emotional impact of The Zone of Interest, a German-language film from director Jonathan Glazer. A Holocaust film that doesn’t show any of the actual atrocities of the Holocaust, The Zone of Interest is a horror film about the banality of evil, an exploration of the darkest recesses of humanity and a siren call about the profound dangers of indifference.

It isn’t an actual horror film, but the feeling you get while watching it certainly makes it feel like one. Tension is the single-most sensory experience of this film, and it never lets up. It is the stillest, calmest and most ordinary film you will ever watch that will literally eat you away from the inside.

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Ferrari

STX Entertainment
CAPSULE REVIEW (500 words or less)

Director Michael Mann doesn’t make too many movies, so, when he does, people pay attention. Mann’s last film was Blackhat, in 2015, so it’s been longer than usual for the critically-acclaimed director of films like The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Collateral and Heat. As if that wasn’t fodder enough for cinephiles, word was out that Mann’s new film would be called Ferrari, based on the legendary car designer Enzo Ferrari and would star Adam Driver (no pun intended) in the titular role. Fast cars and a former Marine—what better combination for a classic, testosterone-filled Michael Mann picture.

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BlackBerry

Elevation Pictures
CAPSULE REVIEW (500 words or less)

I’m really starting to enjoy this niche genre of films that satirizes the tech industry. While there is no bigger fan of David Fincher’s brilliant The Social Network, even I must admit that the joy I found watching Mike Judge’s cringe comedy masterpiece HBO series Silicon Valley did, in the end, surpass the societal ponderousness of Fincher’s zeitgeist monument to tech’s ascendance, if for no other reason than I really needed it to. I am just Gen X enough to remember that life did exist before iPhones and even computers, but can appreciate all that technology has done in the past twenty-five years to improve our lives—but also to make them much, much more stressful, dangerous and chaotic. So, when I have the chance to hear how the merging of tech and arrogance led to some douchebag’s downfall, I am all in. And there is no better installment in the downfall-of-the-douchebag-tech-bro genre than BlackBerry, a film by Matt Johnson.

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Asteroid City

Focus Features
CAPSULE REVIEW (500 words or less)

Wes Anderson has always been a big hit-or-miss for me. While I found it difficult to find anything appealing about films such as Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, I think The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs to be absolute masterpieces. As a writer/director, Anderson defines the word “auteur,” as his films are uniquely his vision, from start to finish, and they are instantly recognizable. His films are defined by their quirkiness, their charm and their beauty. So, every time a new Wes Anderson film comes out, it is an event. But it always remains to be seen how they ultimately land.

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Saltburn

MGM/Amazon Studios
CAPSULE REVIEW (500 words or less)

I was excited at the idea of Saltburn, writer/director Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her debut, 2020’s Promising Young Woman, a movie I adore. Fennell is a true talent, a fresh voice and vision, and I was excited to see what she would come up with next. Add to it that she had chosen Barry Keoghan, who stole last year’s critical darling The Banshees of Inisherin, to star in the film. I was all in. But then I saw the trailer (always a mistake), and I got a sinking feeling that came to fruition upon seeing the movie itself.

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