'Flora And Son': John Carney Has Done It Again
'Flora And Son': John Carney Has Done It Again
I walked into Flora And Son knowing I would enjoy it. Writer/Director John Carney wouldn’t let me down. And he didn’t. What did let me down was everyone in my city, because apparently no one has taste. My boyfriend and I were the only ones in the theater on a Saturday night.
Following the success of Once, Begin Again, Sing Street, and the TV show Modern Love comes his next music-centric project,…
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Best of 2023 - Movies
Seems like I did run into more than one almost perfect movie this year, but the number one, definitely one of the most brilliant film I ever watched. And no, it's not the new Basic Instinct but I can see a little bit of resemblance.
01. Anatomy of a Fall - Dir: Justine Triet - 2023 - "Marriage, the film suggests, is like a mosaic. One or two highly coloured tiles might catch the eye but they can’t, on their own, show the whole picture. The reports we get of Sandra and Samuel’s life together (there is only one flashback in the film; most of what we learn comes from the evidence presented in the court) suggest a relationship that gets chillier and spikier by the minute. But then the prosecution’s case relies on cherrypicking the trauma and the deep-seated unhappiness in the marriage, and foregrounding the character traits in Sandra that might make her capable of murder. A choice of other, sunnier moments, as Sandra reasonably points out, would paint an entirely different picture of her relationship with her husband." - The Guardian
02. Saltburn - Dir: Emerald Fennell - 2023
03. Aftersun - Dir: Charlotte Wells - 2022
04. Past Lives - Dir: Celine Song - 2023 = "Towards the end of Celine Song’s Past Lives, two old friends wait for a cab in front of a bright blue garage door. In the two minutes it takes for a car to arrive, both everything, and nothing happens. Writer and director Song is perhaps more attuned to rhythm of dialogue than most: like Nora Moon (Greta Lee), the protagonist of this feature debut, she made her name as a playwright. But Song is also sharply aware of the power of the unsaid, of what can be articulated through pauses and gestures. As the film swells to its emotional climax, not a word is spoken." - British Film Institute
05. Tár - Dir: Todd Field - 2022
06. Leave the World Behind - Dir: Sam Esmail - 2023
07. Bros - Dir: Nicholas Stoller - 2022
08. Rurangi - Dir: Max Currie - 2020 - "Director Max Currie lets the bleak landscape and the conflicted characters tell the story, and the plot resolution, when it comes, is incomplete but full of hope. There are some terrific lines of dialogue: Jem tells Caz: “you’re like the same, but you’re not”, and he adds: “ gender-it’s complicated; you were never exactly girly”. In a sickbed reconciliation, father Gerald tells Caz:” It’s not my world… I want you here”. Anahera has the final word on this: “ most people are just idiots about other people’s sexuality. You just do you”." - Scene Magazine
09. Spoiler Alert - Dir: Michael Showalter - 2022
10. Saint Maud - Dir: Rose Glass - 2019
11. The Innocents - Dir: Eskil Vogt - 2021
12. Lamb - Dir: Valdimar Jóhannsson - 2021
13. The Whale - Dir: Darren Aronofsky - 2022
14. Athena - Dir: Romain Gavras - 2022
15. Possessor - Dir: Brandon Cronenberg - 2020 - "It’s all very compelling, well-acted and presented, although there’s a chilliness and a clinical edge that is very Cronenberg-ian, but might keep audiences at arm’s length. Ditto the violence. Stabbings, shootings, pokerings (use your imagination) — it’s all here, bar exploding heads. A strong stomach is required. If you don’t have one, just use someone else’s." - Empire
16. What's Love Got To Do With It - Dir: Shekhar Kapur - 2022
17. Nuovo Olimpo - Dir: Ferzan Özpetek - 2023
18. Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Dir: Kelly Fremon Craig - 2023
19. Joy Ride - Dir: Adele Lim - 2023
20. Earthquake Bird - Dir: Wash Westmoreland - 2019
21. Cruella - Dir: Craig Gillespie - 2021
22. The Daughter - Dir: Simon Stone - 2015
23. Nope - Dir: Jordan Peele - 2022
24. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool - Dir: Paul McGuigan - 2017
25. Don't Worry Darling - Dir: Olivia Wilde - 2022
26. A Hero - Dir: Asghar Farhadi - 2021
27. You Hurt My Feelings - Dir: Nicole Holofcener - 2023
28. Anaïs in Love - Dir: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet - 2021 - "The pleasures of Anaïs in Love largely derive from the nuanced performances by Demoustier and Bruni Tedeschi. The latter, for once, is not required to be tearful or neurotic, and the growing attraction between her and Anaïs is convincingly handled – even if one could quibble at a couple of cliché moments, such as the two women’s encounter under an apple tree (in which Anaïs gives Émilie an apple) and the nowadays seemingly obligatory sea-shore setting for the lesbian love scene. The excellent Demoustier sustains the entire film, indeed named after her. Her choice was not accidental: Bourgeois-Tacquet had already cast her as the lead in her 2018 short Pauline asservie. (Both the short and Anaïs in Love were shown at Cannes in 2021 – quite an accolade.) Ebullient and ‘cute’ especially when seducing Daniel or Émilie, Demoustier is equally believable as an aggrieved daughter when she finds out that her mother’s lethal illness has returned. Her irrepressible energy and artless beauty underline her precise rendition of a modern young woman bent on following her own desire, straight or queer – at times to the point of insensitivity. Indeed, it’s hard to think of another actress who could have made Anais’s exasperating unreliability, egocentricity and excessive volubility forgivable, let alone endearing, as they are evidently supposed to be. Fans of Eric Rohmer may be reminded of some of the young heroines in his ‘Comedies and Proverbs’ (1980–1990) and ‘Tales of the Four Seasons’ (1990 – 1998) series, a filmic heritage also suggested by the literary references and cultured dialogue. This is marivaudage with an intellectual bent – Anaïs and Émilie share a love of Duras’s 1964 novel The Ravishing of Lol Stein – and a feminist twist: “I don’t want to meet interesting people,” Anaïs says, “I want to be interesting.” Thanks in large part to Demoustier, she is." - British Film Institute
29. Flora + Son - Dir: John Carney - 2023
30. Explanation of Everything - Dir: Gábor Reisz - 2023
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‘Flora and Son’ Review: Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and John Carney Show us the Love and Joy Music Can Bring, Once Again
Flora and Son (2023), Dir. John Carney, Starring Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Courtesy of AppleTV)
“This is a gift you can take to your grave, and you can use it however you want,” the distraught yet overly optimistic Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) says in his video lesson to Flora (Eve Hewson). “And in the right context, it can speak directly to your heart in ways we don’t even…
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My extremely objectively correct media favorites for 2023:
Books
Fantasy
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torsz
The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Other Fiction
The September House by Carissa Orlando (horror, arguably fantasy)
The Winter Guest by W.C. Ryan (mystery/historical drama)
Kala by Colin Walsh (mystery)
The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel (historical drama, arguably fantasy as well lolll)
August Blue by Deborah Levy (contemporary fiction (for once!))
Nonfiction
No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson
A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd
The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman
The Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy
Nazi Culture by George L Mosse
Movies
Polite Society (action/comedy, dir. Nida Manzoor)
Rustin (historical drama, dir. Colman Domingo)
Saltburn (dark comedy, dir. Emerald Fennell)
Flora and Son (comedy/drama, dir. John Carney)
Past Lives (drama, dir. Celine Song)
TV
The Bear
Slow Horses
Succession
Doctor Who (RTDv2)
Beef
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