"I'm here to see my projectionist!" - the 2023 ILX Film Poll Results Thread

In the interests of bipartisanship, we'd like to congratulate all the winners and capitulate to their every whim.

157 movie-shaped objects nominated by 21 voters. No comic-book adaptations in the top half of the finals.

anyone ready to open their presents?

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do it

you think it's a lovely time to do so?

yes, the perfect time

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=49 Un beau matin (One Fine Morning)
Hansen-Løve ⸱ FR/DE 2022
52 points, 2 votes

this was enjoyable. it felt a lot like a particular genre of films from France today, but it was subtle I thought. I have liked all of Mia Hansen-Løve's films

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=49 All Of Us Strangers
Haigh, Yamada ⸱ UK 2023 (barely)
52 points, 3 votes

Nice, but very somber. To me still, the best thing Andrew Haigh has done was the show Looking on HBO which went for two seasons only

Really felt the ending let it down.

It turned out to be an elegant puzzle, but felt distant. Another somewhat sober film that seemed like a puzzle was Aftersun (2022), but that had a bombshell ending in retrospect and I really want to see that again

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48. Retour à Séoul [All The People I'll Never Be]
Chou ⸱ FR/KH/QA/BE/DE 2022
54 points, 2 votes

still haven't seen this

Really felt the ending let it down.

What?! Where they turn into a star while "The Power of Love" plays?!!

I felt the whole "reveal" really undercut the emotional work of the whole thing. I was thinking too much about the reality of it. The parents, ok, that all worked and I got it and it was beautiful but to add the extra thing (being vague) at the end was too much.

Aftersun is pure emotion and memory so that ending for me just works as it's of a piece. It's a reveal that gives weight to what came before, whereas in Strangers it just made me question it.

Gukbe!

has no longer left the world of ilx film polls behind

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=46 Leave the World Behind
Esmail, Alam ⸱ US 2023
56 points, 2 votes

Doesn't come together but I actually really liked several scenes. My friend refused to watch because it was "Obama propaganda".

Pretty good; not as good as Mr. Robot at its best.

I thought the book was better. I made my family watch this and they were too unnerved by it, but I thought is was great, there were so many eerie scenes, and I liked the skepticism of the Julia Roberts character and character arc of the two kids

I wasn't expecting the ending of Aftersun to be a nightclub as a vision of suicide

xxp The Power of Love is a great song

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=46 Polite Society
Manzoor ⸱ UK 2023
56 points, 3 votes

Saved that on my Peacock app at some point last year and never got around to it.

really fun. the action and comedy probably not just play better in a crowd/big, but there's such a thread of the characters' shifting relations throughout that on home viewing it probably reads just as a low-key family drama with extra seasoning

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45. Pacifiction
Serra ⸱ FR/ES 2022
57 points, 2 votes

Placed at 33 in 2023, with 81 points from 3 votes.

Pacifiction will be on my 2023 list

― Dan S, Sunday, 10 December 2023 00:04 (eleven months ago)

Return To Seoul I found really remarkable, a troubled, difficult protagonist that avoids anti-hero clichés while leaving you rooting for her. The wife and I were looking into adopting when I saw it and let's just say it gave me a lot to chew over.

I liked Polite Society quite a bit but, to indulge in one of this thread's refrains, her tv work is better.

been a rough couple of months so didn't get to submit a ballot in time. mostly experimental so wouldn't have impacted much:

Music (Shanelec)
You're Dancing This Dance All Wrong (Wooden)
Fluid Fragments (Proctor)
Ashes By Name Is Man (Rosinska)
Trailer of a film that will never exist (Godard)
Intersection (Tuohyy, Barrie)
The Secret Garden (Ouyada)
Menu Plaisirs (Wiseman)
Yaagna Plays Itself (Piron)
Pillow Bowl Rose Tree (Todd)
Souvenir D'Athenes (Rousseau)
Being in a Place (Fowler)
Godzilla Minus One (Yamazaki)
FuegoFocFire (Vasquez Mendes, Alvarado Matos)
Pacification (Serra)
El Juicio (De La Orden)

should be: You're Dancing This Dance All Wrong (Worden)*

One Fine Morning came close to topping my 2023 list.

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44. River
Yamaguchi, Ueda ⸱ JP 2023
60 points, 2 votes

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43. BlackBerry
Johnson & Miller after McNish & Silcoff ⸱ CA 2023
61 points, 3 votes

I really liked Blackberry. Never saw whatever that extended cut they did to make a TV mini-series.

Same and same. Got the impression that the additions were primarily in order to restructure it as episodic, so I'd guess that whichever version someone sees first will feel definitive, rather than that stuff feels missing from the feature / padded in the miniseries.

Love River a lot. That troupe just does time loop films again and again and it never gets old.

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42. Under The Light
Zhang, Chen ⸱ CN 2023
63 points, 2 votes

Intermission now. Later: ENTER THE QUORUMZONE

hadn't heard of River until now, it sounds interesting

45. Pacifiction
Serra ⸱ FR/ES 2022
57 points, 2 votes

― no, uh, bombast (sic), Thursday, December 12, 2024 9:38 PM (yesterday)

Placed at 33 in 2023, with 81 points from 3 votes.

so wait - it got 81 points last year and 57 points this year, totaling 138, and you aren't adding them? that is very un-Pazz and Jop of you

I know nobody cares, I just like posting in this thread

milms and foovies

I believe a decade or so I tried to advocate for Academy Rules but that was too US-centric. Well look where we are now! First Brexit and now this.

no wrong year to watch a movie

I'll admit that at my age I'm solidly a year behind anyway so this is gonna be my watch guide for the next six months.

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41. بنات ألفة [Les Filles d'Olfa]
Ben Hania ⸱ TN/FR 2023
64 points, 3 votes

I'll add this to my Netflix list for when I subscribe for a month.

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40. Rotting In The Sun
Silva, Peirano ⸱ MX 2023
68 points, 3 votes

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39. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
Rowe, Rogen, Goldberg, Hernandez, Samit, O'Brien, Eastman, Laird ⸱ US 2023
75 points, 3 votes

I completely missed the voting window for the poll, but this film woulda been high up on my list. The blistering satire of gay narcissism I didn't know I needed.

(re: Rotting in the Sun, of course--unless there's something about the TMNT movie I don't know)

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38. Spidey-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Dos Santos, Powers, Thompson, Lord, Miller, Callaham ⸱ US 2023
76 points, 3 votes

Rotting in the Sun was one of my votes, I thought it was great. Funny at first and then sad (and still kind of funny).

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=36 The Sweet East
Williams, Pinkerton ⸱ US 2023
78 points, 3 votes

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=36 You Hurt My Feelings
Holofcener ⸱ US 2023
78 points, 4 votes

I don't think I voted for it--I've liked other Holofcener films better, including Enough Said with JLD.

No recollection at all of Holofcener's The Land of Steady Habits from 2018--will have to look into that.

The Sweet East was fun, it lost its way at some point, or maybe never really found it. I think I thought it was 2024. I know I watched You Hurt My Feelings but I remember nothing

I like that Four Daughters includes elements of both documentary and docufiction

You Hurt My Feelings was just ok for me, I enjoyed watching it but thought it was kind of whiny in the end. Haven't yet seen any of the others in this last batch

looking forward to seeing Rotting In the Sun

The Sweet East is…uneven but man there are some great scenes in that. Gibby Haynes!

thought it was kind of whiny in the end

yeah, really tiringly unresolveable rich ppl problems. couldn’t figure out if Jeannie Berlin was meant to be as annoying to us as she was to Dreyfuss, or a reflection of how unnecessary and solipsistic JLD’s concerns are.

38. Spidey-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

I did vote for this, although I was kind of winded after the watching. The constant art style shifts thoroughly exhibited animation's strengths (superpowers?), but I was left in the dust. Also, have all of the Spider(nouns) in this movie (Peter Parkedcar?) been created in one or another canonical form?

Most of them yeah, dunno if all of them.

I enjoyed that movie but yeah exhausting and the cliffhanger ending v annoying.

I've never heard of Rotting In The Sun.

You'll have joy, you'll have fun

lol

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35. すずめの戸締まり [Suzume no Tojimari]
Shinkai ⸱ JP 2022
83 points, 3 votes

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=33 Infinity Pool
Cronenberg fils ⸱ CA 2023
86 points, 3 votes

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=33 Evil Does Not Exist
Hamaguchi ⸱ JP 2024 (2023 festivals)
86 points, 3 votes

Love River a lot. That troupe just does time loop films again and again and it never gets old.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Friday, December 13, 2024

Yeah, the service-worker twist on the time-loop conceit gives it a nice Buñuel-ish shading outside of the cosy Japanese Before the Coffee Gets Cold vibes. Need to rewatch ahead of starting Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume

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=31 Dream Scenario 
Borgli ⸱ US 2023
92 points, 4 votes

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=31 How To Blow Up A Pipeline
Goldhaber, Barer, Sjol, Malm ⸱ US 2023 (2022 TIFF)
92 points, 3 votes, 1 #1

Good shit, that one

SUNDAY SPOILERS:

The lowest scoring film was Mann & Martin's FERRARI, with 2 points.

The lowest scoring film to get two votes was DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONGST THIEVES, with 15 points.



Adjust your expectations accordingly.

We also have a lower consensus than usual, with #1s spread more widely - and FIVE individual first-place picks not making the list at all.

I forgot to vote for D&D but I would've given it a few points. For all the good it would have done lol.

We also have a lower consensus than usual, with #1s spread more widely - and FIVE individual first-place picks not making the list at all.

― no, uh, bombast (sic), Sunday, December 15, 2024

I would like to see those picks after the end

Evil Does Not Exist wasn't shown in the US except in film festivals until a limited theatrical release in May 2024. It is on the Criterion Channel now though, so I will watch it, but I would consider it a 2024 film

I saw Evil... the other night. It took me so long because there seemed to be a "minor work" consensus but it really really isn't.

Infinity Pool is ok. Pipeline would have had a shot at my number one if I had voted.

I liked the first half hour and a bit of Infinity Pool. Then it turned into the kind of psychedelic horror I simply don’t enjoy. Whether it is a good example of that kind of thing, I can’t really gauge.

I would like to see those picks after the end

One of them I do expect to show up in the top fifty next year, as the SAG strike bumped its release from August 2023 to March 2024.

Evil Does Not Exist wasn't shown in the US except in film festivals until a limited theatrical release in May 2024. It is on the Criterion Channel now though, so I will watch it, but I would consider it a 2024 film

Going through my letterboxd by year and considering everything that has a 2023 release date is an easier task than going through my letterboxd diary and trying to remember which films with a 2022 release date actually only made theatrical in the UK in '23.

Since my May 2024 viewing Evil Does Not Exist has wormed its way into Best Hamaguchi Film status.

Yeah it's great. As Will Sloan put it: evil does not exist because everyone's just doing their job.

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Let's start the morning with an extended meditation on the inevitability of death and the inescapable consequences of our self-destructive actions.

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30. John Wick: Chapter 4
Stahelski, Hatten, Finch ⸱ US 2023
93 points, 4 votes

Don't know if it needed to be 3 hours etc etc but Donnie Yen, the overhead shot scene, the staircase fight. I didn't remember him having a bulletproof suit jacket in the previous ones but I'm ok with it.

Bulletproof jacket starts in #2. Definitely feel like they leaned into the campness/unreality of it in this one, constantly yoinking a corner of it over his face to underline the absurdity of the physics.

I watched this on a plane ride, and what it lost by being on a tiny screen it gained by eating up half the flight.

yeah the bulletproof suit is (iirc) just mentioned in a single easy-to-miss line in #2, like "btw that suit is bulletproof", truly sets a new standard for handwavy explanations of utterly ridiculous plot devices, I love it

That makes sense. I've only seen these once so I didn't remember how flagrantly silly that was. No real hope for Ballerina or whatever the increasingly desperate Lionsgate are gonna try to do to milk this thing but the main films are impressive.

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29. Beau Is Afraid
Aster ⸱ US 2023
94 points, 5 votes

I like Ari Aster but have been able to work up the energy to see this. Somebody persuade me.

I couldn't either.

Same. Even when it came to Kanopy I just couldn't commit to what felt like a long vanity project. Ditto for Joker 2. This seems to be Joaquin's wheelhouse now.

the movies are too long in this bracket?

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28. Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani
Johar, Moitra, Khaitan, Roy ⸱ IN 2023
95 points, 3 votes

Just as a barrier to entry, maybe. I sat through The Brutalist a few days ago and, if nothing else, never felt the length.

xpost

Ranveer Singh is one of cinema's great himbos; delightful confection (slighly on the nose that one of the families run a sweets business).

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27. Afire
Petzold ⸱ DE 2023
96 points, 4 votes

I appreciated Beau Is Afraid the same as Aronofsky's mother! — insanely audacious, kudos for getting the money to make it, a few "wow" moments, will likely never rewatch.

beau is afraid is hilarious

I only had time to watch the first two hours in the cinema and haven't gotten around to starting it on Kanopy and setting a timer to check back in and watch the rest

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26. The Killer
Fincher, Walker, Jacamon, Matz ⸱ US 2023
98 points, 5 votes

etc otm, Singh's himbo performance in this is one for the ages

The streaming subtitles have him speak v broken english, probably I guess to reflect the unrefined hindu of a nouveau riche character? would love to read about this decision.

lol why is morrissey in the killer?

lol the Moz pic

(he listens to the Smiths through the whole movie)

theres some p good stuff in beau is afraid but i never considered it for my ballot

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25. Jawan
Atlee, Ramanagirivasan, Arora ⸱ IN 2023
99 points, 4 votes

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24. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
McQuarrie, Jendresen, Mapother ⸱ US 2023
113 points, 5 votes

Missed the last few hours, but I liked Afire a lot. I like the way Petzold's movies catch me off guard. It's not because he subverts genre, more because he understands it.

Afire didn't hit for me the way Phoenix or Barbara did. Maybe on the level of Transit for me. Might need to watch it again.

I'm generally a fan of the M:I films. Also a fan of train shenanigans.

We also have a lower consensus than usual, with #1s spread more widely - and FIVE individual first-place picks not making the list at all.

― no, uh, bombast (sic), Sunday, December 15, 2024

I'm now pretty sure my #1 was in that group

I'm hoping the top 23 will be really good, so many of the last 27 have not been

Afire didn't hit for me the way Phoenix or Barbara did. Maybe on the level of Transit for me. Might need to watch it again.

See, I liked Transit a lot too. Tho I wouldn't argue against Phoenix as his best.

I liked Barbara a lot. Phoenix for me was ok but I was skeptical about the premise. I thought Transit was a little muddled. I haven't seen Afire yet but I'm not sure I really like Christian Petzold's films

Ghosts (2005) and Phoenix are my favorite Petzolds.

I'm hoping the top 23 will be really good

Bound to be, since that's apparently when all my picks will show up!

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23. La Chimera 
Rohrwacher ⸱ IT 2023
114 points, 4 votes

Great "the gang has an adventure" film

great film (a 2024 one for me). the, let's say, metaphysical narrative strand is a misstep imo that detracts from its strengths but no-one can make marxist cinema like an italian.

The one thing that disappointed me a bit in La Chimera is I found the Italian grave robbers so much more interesting than yet another incarnation of the depressed Englishman going abroad to die, well acted and portrayed though it was. This is partially expectations though, read her S&S interview where she talked about said robbers, while having a romantic image of themselves as outlaws, were actually a symptom of capitalism swallowing Italy for good, so I was primed to expect more about that millieu.

Jawan is very interesting in that it's a tamil director working in bollywood, kinda like when European auteurs go hollywood. Def a bit too long but for leftist agitprop it gets two thumbs up (this is also why, despite Pathaan having some fun songs, its rather less wholesome propaganda made me squeamish).

xp

idk she makes this latter point almost too clearly in the climactic symbolic action of the film and the reveal of a true alternative in the commune

Yeah I'm not saying it's absent, just not the focus I think.

will say i love love love the song. been watching a lot of b-westerns this year and it was great to see a contemporary film that has a little ditty narrating the events of the film. a lost art!

exit the four-vote zone

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22. Godzilla Minus One
Yamakazi ⸱ JP 2023
121 points, 5 votes

My friend had never seen a Godzilla film before but for some reason he was stoked for this, so much so we travelled across the city to see it for a second time in the black and white version. Good shit.

It's no Final Wars but it's fun. The actual plan they come up with to defeat big G is hilarious.

Fun.

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21. Priscilla
Coppola fille ⸱ US 2023
122 points, 6 votes

This felt like a Sofia retread. But I also don't care about Elvis.

Next, our first recurring still-image star of the poll.

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20. Bottoms
Seligman, ⸱ US 2023
126 points, 6 votes

I sometimes think I've got my shit together with new films, then I see these threads and realise I'm *way* off, still. Loved G-1 and Bottoms though. Loving the images, also.

🤗🖼️

I think I gave a few points to both Priscilla and Bottoms, enjoyed both of them though both have flaws. What I liked about Priscilla is what I often like about S.Coppola's films, her close identification with a woman lacking/seeking agency and control over her own life and body. Which, in its own way, is what Bottoms is about too.

I watched Evil Does Not Exist earlier. I'm still mulling over that quite enigmatic ending.

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19. Monster
Kore-eda, Sakamoto ⸱ JP 2023
128 points, 5 votes

My #1 of the year--again, if I'd voted.

Monster is terrific.

Maybe one of the best films about childhood. Maybe one of the best films about a lot of things. I'm hesitant to describe it too much because I went in knowing next to nothing and I think the film had that much greater an impact on me as a result.

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18. Passages
Sachs, Zacharias, Langmana ⸱ FR 2023
129 points, 5 votes

This just reminded me that I meant to watch that film for months and I never got around to it.

One of those where I'm not sure if I hated the film or just loathed the lead character. Either way, not my fave Sachs.

And, since its already come up, I'll reassert that Rotting in the Sun is the better 2023 film about gay narcissism.

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17. American Fiction
Jefferson, Everett ⸱ US 2023
135 points, 6 votes

I liked Passages ok.

I only watched American Fiction because of favorable discussion of it on ilx — because the trailer made it look so bad — and yeah, I thought it was pretty good. The family dynamics in particular. The core satire about the book was still pretty on the nose, but Wright and Sterling K. Brown made it more than just a broadside.

Several things didn't work for me in it, and as much as everyone was thrilled by Sterling K Brown's very big performance, my biggest takeaway was just how much Hollywood has wasted Erika Alexander for decades because she brings more than that perfunctory, underwritten nothing part deserves.

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16. Rye Lane 
Allen-Miller, Bryon, Melia ⸱ UK 2023
138 points, 5 votes, 1 #1

Yay, my number one. A rare thing, a romantic comedy which pulled the heart strings but was genuinely laugh out loud funny.

Yeah, voted this very high as well. Best romcom in years imo.

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15. Talk To Me
Philippou, Philippou, Hinzman, Pearson ⸱ AU 2022
144 points, 7 votes

Loved Rye Lane. I'm a big fan of rom-coms and have largely tuned out since they became hacky Netflix fodder so this was refreshing.

Talk to Me was...okay.

big improvement over their previous work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnu43KOADCQ

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14. Past Lives
Song ⸱ US/SK 2023
155 points, 6 votes

Great scene. Big fan. People say her sticking with the husband was a terrible choice but she went to a writing camp so I don't know what anyone expected out of her decision making.

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13. Fallen Leaves
Kaurismäki ⸱ FI 2023
172 points, 6 votes, 1 #1

Fallen Leaves is another nice romance, sweet but not too sweet, beautifully shot.

X-post: Did you mean to use an image from Falling Leaves (Guy-Blache, 1912)?

sic likes to pepper the images in his polls with jokes

I loved Monster and I liked Fallen Leaves. Haven't seen a lot of this last batch yet

Past Lives and American Fiction were just ok to me, and as much as I like Ira Sachs I hated Passages

🤗🖼️

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12. Barbie
Gerwig, Baumbach ⸱ US 2023
188 points, 7 votes

I liked Rye Lane a lot but a friend did point out the structure's a bit wonky in that most of it is very kinetic and theatreish but then the bit after the fight seems much more sedate BritRomCom.

Loved Fallen Leaves, dunno if I have an argument for why THIS feels like the best out of Kaurismaki's very dependable output but I think it might be.

Barbie was cool.

I had a fun day doing the Barbenheimer thing. 70mm Opp and then down to a different theater for Barbie. Good times. Fun film. Haven't revisited either. Very quickly had to shut out the discourse.

there are a lot of good things about barbie but overall it's significantly worse than gerwig's other films imo

it’s the only one with an incumbent dr who in it

I remember some real carnage seeing a packed theater full of ppl going to see Barbie and/or Oppenheimer. I myself was going to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, as I am Not Like Other Girls.

there are a lot of good things about barbie but overall it's significantly worse than gerwig's other films imo

This is true, but as far as indie directors going mainstream it beats getting swallowed up by the mcu.

Loved Fallen Leaves, dunno if I have an argument for why THIS feels like the best out of Kaurismaki's very dependable output but I think it might be.

Im of the same mind too. Its a perfect encapsulation of what he does best imo

everybody's talking about BARBENHERON

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11. 君たちはどう生きるか / How Do You Live?
Miyazaki ⸱ JP 2023
198 points, 7 votes, 1 #1

top ten tomorrow

I haven't caught up with that yet, but I'm hearing the doc on its making is really good as well.

I didn't realize that The Boy and the Heron was based on the 1937 novel How Do You Live? and that that is its title in Japan. I still haven't seen it

the intended/proper title is central to the film itself, but the change feels additionally inappropriate given Miyazaki’s return from retirement to mortgage the studio in order to spend seven years grappling with its themes

I don't think my favorite film Showing Up will feature in the top ten, but I am fully expecting May December and The Zone of Interest to be near the top of the list

I love Jessica Hausner, but still haven't seen Club Zero

I guess we are also going with Anatomy of a Fall (good but overrated), and Poor Things (which I thought was just so off-putting)

I'd be shocked if Showing Up isn't in the top 10, it was in my top 5 and I think widely liked on ilx.

I love the Miyazaki film, I think I was the #1 voter. It's very strange and personal, and it has some of his most vivid ideas. I want to see it again.

My #1, so it will definitely be Top 10.

Miyazaki's losing interest in coherent narrative as his imagery gets more beautiful and strange. Kudos.

Title + picture just made me think of the "men really live like this" meme

I didn't realize that The Boy and the Heron was based on the 1937 novel How Do You Live? and that that is its title in Japan. I still haven't seen it

it's not really based on the novel at all, though you can if you like discern very broad, non explicit thematic resemblances.

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10. Perfect Days
Wenders, Takasaki ⸱ JP/DE 2023
206 points, 7 votes

Loved this, thought of it as a 2024 film though.

Got a US release in 2023. Would have been my number one. That or Showing Up.

US release was Feb/March 2024 to tie in with the Oscars but it played a bunch of festivals in 2023

https://i.ibb.co/F484gpP/09-The-Holdovers-Featured-Review-STL.png

9. The Holdovers 
Payne, Hemingson ⸱ US 2023
213 points, 8 votes

Surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's entered Christmas canon for a lot of people. I keep meaning to revisit it this month but haven't gotten around to it. We should probably retire using Cat Stevens' "The Wind" in movies though.

Yeah I also liked it more than I expected. I've been blah on Payne for so long that my enthusiasm was low. Giamatti predictably good even if I'd rather see him play other kinds of roles, I feel like grumpy lonely smart guy is a little rote for him. Da'Vine Joy Randolph was good, the kid was good — and I love that they hired him from one of the schools they shot at. The setting was great, or maybe I'm just a sucker for Yankee winter bleakness. (See also Nobody's Fool, e.g.)

https://i.ibb.co/h9YQymV/08-oppenheimer.png

8. Oppenheimer
Nolan, Bird, Sherwin ⸱ US 2023
252 points, 10 votes

We are FUCKING.

I heard you like films about explosive events in an American desert

I thought the Wile E Coyote movie got killed by Zaslav?

Not a Nolan fan but I thought it was about as good a film about Oppenheimer as Nolan could make. His Very Seriousness was at scale to the story at least. Too long, didn't need so much Robert Downey Jr.

https://i.ibb.co/f1m9Bdr/07-asteroid-city-REAL.png

7. Asteroid City
Anderson, Coppola fils ⸱ US 2023
261 points, 9 votes, 2 #1s

Almost too distancing but it got better on rewatch. And the Margot Robbie scene delivered something I didn't think it was capable of until that point. I'll be interested to see how its reputation develops after whatever he does next.

https://i.ibb.co/P5BkmVh/06-showing-up.jpg

6. Showing Up
Reichardt, Raymond ⸱ US 2023 (2022 festivals)
270 points, 9 votes, 2 #1s

we could do the top five tomorrow if people are out watching movies tonight

I'm up and down on Reichardt but I really loved this one. That passive aggressive Hong Chau relationship is rough.

Famously didn't get a theatrical release in the UK, causing much discourse on the Death of Cinema(s).

https://i.ibb.co/hdmTHQ4/05-poor-things.jpg

5. Poor Things
Lanthimos, McNamara, Gray ⸱ IE/UK/US 2023
285 points, 9 votes, 2 #1s

A divisive one on this board

I really liked it but have never considered revisiting it. A little schematic maybe, but a good watch. I'm a Yorgos-skeptic though.

no more divisive choices: from here on, everything got over 50% of the vote

https://i.ibb.co/nwzqrnf/04-killers-moon.jpg

4. Killers Of The Flower Moon
Scorsese, Roth, Grann ⸱ US 2023
312 points, 12 votes, 1 #1

Didn't get the masterpiece vibes others got from it but def a very strong film.

https://i.ibb.co/8cQZnNN/03-anatomess-666.png

3. Anatomy Of A Fall
Triet, Harari ⸱ FR 2023
328 points, 12 votes

Better and a little more ambiguous than the procedural courtroom drama tone, but suffered greatly for me because I saw it a month or two after I saw Saint Omer, the vastly superior film from that view that involved the batshit French legal system.

Are we concerning ourselves with spoilers at this date?

I wanted to tell Samuel "Get off that cross; you need the wood to refinish the attic.

Much love to Messi as Snoop.

I was pretty disappointed by Anatomy of a Fall. Maybe partly because I saw it late, after awards buzz and hype, I expected something different from it. At some basic level I didn’t buy the premise.

who up

I want results!

I'm up in Madrid gin bar. Hit me.

anatomy of a fall must have been inspired by the documentary miniseries the staircase, right? fall has a clever opening sequence but the trial felt paint by numbers.

I’m on the train to the last local screening of Schrader’s Oh Canada so chat amongst yourselves in the lobby

That one is eh.

Eh Canada?

Canada, eh?

good morning

if you say so, I died waiting on results

fuck movies

― Dr Morbius, March 9, 2017

I think the preferred term is "adult films"

https://i.ibb.co/4MP6pMm/02-zone-of-interest-666.png

2. The Zone Of Interest
Glazer with Burn very slightly after Amis ⸱ UK/PL/US 2023
333 points, 11 votes, 2 #1s

https://i.ibb.co/Vwm5k0b/01-may-decembe.png

1. May December
Haynes, Burch, Mechanik, IRL ⸱ US 2023
373 points, 13 votes, 2 #1s

good top two

If people who like posting their full ballots could do so here: BALLOTS: Ragnarok - ILM 2017 film poll ballot recycling , that would be helpful - full ballots make the results threads difficult to use afterwards. Please do argue here about other peoples taste, and say things like "I can't believe A Heavy Burden didn't get higher, it was my #24" in this thread though!

Both worthy. And glad we can have some distance from the "is it camp" conversation.

(re: May/December. Not Zone, obv. Though it is *a camp*)

My #1

I knew people who looked at me aghast when I'd say so.

bonkers to me. when i saw may december i said "finally, a real movie"

Our first winner to be primarily distributed by a streamer?

I haven’t really kept up with movies for a while. Kinda randomly watched May December a couple of weeks ago and I was very impressed.

Not sure how I'm still largely inattentive to cinema-ILX (heck, ILE broadly, for that matter) but thanks sic and all the voters!

*adds several overlooked titles to watchlist, etc*

Thanks for polling as in previous years, sic, I've added a few things to my watchlist.

Cheers for this sic. Great work.

Great, entertaining thread. Thanks, sic!

May/December is so good. I want to see it again. Devilish movie.

And yes thanks sic!

just missed: Magic Mike's Last Dance, at 51 with 49 points.

Thanks for polling sic!

Rotting in the Sun is pretty nifty, methinks. It was sitting right there on Mubi but I apparently needed this thread to focus my attention. Cheers.

Showing Up
May December
The Zone of Interest
Perfect Days

those were my top 4

I came of age in the 70s and loved watching The Holdovers.

Oppenheimer was pretty good for a Christopher Nolan movie

I thought Anatomy of a Fall and Killers of the Flower Moon were interesting but I dunno, they both seemed overlong and very flawed

thank you sic, this was a great thread to read

I didn't participate in the poll because I don't think of myself as deep enough of a cineaste. BUT I saw Bertrand Bonnello's 'La Bete' / 'The Beast' the other night and was very surprised to find no mention whatsoever on ILX.

Did this slip through the cracks or was there just no love for it? I honestly think it was a remarkable film with many parts I'll be thinking about for a long long time.

Did anyone see it?

I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned.

My film crits circle loved it enough, I think: https://www.floridafilmcritics.com/2024/12/21/the-beast-dominates-ffcc-awards/

I expect the Beast to finish high in the '24 ILX poll. IF THERE IS ONE! (Sorry, apparently this is compulsory to say about all future elections now.)

there’s a bonello thread, i’ve talked about the beast there

huh. i think i even searched for bonello and found little. oh well

Bertrand Bonello's young-terrorist-band thriller NOCTURAMA