It was a bit more of an uneven year. There were some great films, but fewer in contention than previous years. I also was quite busy so saw fewer films in the cinema
As per the caveat every year, Film Fight is done in a (non particularly serious) knock-out style: it can pick my favourite film of the year, but nothing else. (Also the very idea of a single favourite film is a bit silly.)
The honorable mentions: films that weren’t good enough to win their own month, but still worth seeing.
- Aftersun
- Cocaine Bear
- Knock At The Cabin
- Infinity Pool
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- Missing
- Extraction 2
- Asteroid City
- Blackberry
- How To Blow Up A Pipeline
- They Cloned Tyrone
- The Artifice Girl
- Barbie
- The Beanie Bubble
- Joy Ride
- The Blackening
- Inside
- Past Lives
- No-One Will Save You
- Talk To Me
- Quiz Lady
- The Killer
- Dream Scenario
- The Royal Hotel
- Killers Of The Flower Moon
- Godzilla Minus One
And now the monthly winners:
- January: Tár
- February: All Quiet On The Western Front
- March: Women talking
- April: Tetris
- May: Beau is Afraid
- June: Alice, Darling
- July: Oppenheimer
- August: Corner Office
- September: Bottoms
- October: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
- November: Anatomy Of A Fall
- December: Maestro
From that, there’s a lot of good stuff to choose from and you’re not going to go wrong with any of it (except maybe Tetris).
We have great but very different courtroom dramas in both The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Anatomy Of A Fall, the former being antagonistic and the latter being about what gets mispoken in an argument.
Elsewhere, Tár and Maestro paint very different pictures of obsessive genius, and desire leading to conflict.
I think Bottoms is the first comedy to make it through in a while, but is well deserved - it made me laught more than I thought it would.
We have Women Talking and Alice, Darling showing the consequences of horrific abuse: quietly, then very loudly. Both have stayed with me.
As always, I’m a little torn as to what my favourite film was but I think I’m going to go with Tár - mixing an incredible central performance, with some directing that was stunning.