best film: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the best film of 2023. Nolan opens Oppenheimer with a simple title – fission (a thread largely shot in color, focused on Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer) and then shortly after, another title – fusion (largely shot in black and white, more centered on Robert Downey Jr.’s Lewis Strauss). The entire film can be viewed as montage – particularly the cutaway-heavy commencement – which is a rapid sonic boom of audio/visual design made in the vein of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011) – capturing the inner workings of atomic energy as well as placing the viewer in J. Robert Oppenheimer’s head space. With Oppenheimer, Nolan again proves himself to be a parallel editing savant – slicing and dicing the various time chronologies, subjective versus objective, fission versus fusion, and color versus monochrome. On top of Nolan’s muscular filmmaking – the dialogue fires – lines like “power stays in the shadows” delivered by the heavyweight ensemble.
a stunning composition from Nolan’s Oppenheimer – Nolan is more of a grand compiler, organizer, orchestrator (much like Oppenheimer himself at his little town in Los Alamos – a sort of Nolan surrogate – much like Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb character in Inception) than a painter – but the 70mm/Imax large format pays off in spades regardless.
most underrated: The critical consensus did an admirable job in 2023. They acknowledged the worthy films of Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Aki Kaurismäki (Fallen Leaves) Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest), and Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) – all of their films landing in the consensus top ten (10). But the works of Pablo Larraín (El Conde), Emerald Fennell (Saltburn), and Chad Stahelski (John Wick: Chapter 4) were not duly recognized and appreciated. These three (3) films failed to even register on the TSPDT top fifty (50) – and that is frustrating given their rather obvious cinematic achievements. This is Larraín’s third (3rd) top ten film (Jackie in 2016, Spencer in 2021) and Fennell confirms that 2020’s Promising Young Woman was not the work of a one-hit wonder. Clearly, it is time to pay attention to Stahelski as an artist – not just confine him to his miraculous aptitude for stunt work or even the backhand compliments as one of the contemporary action genre’s finest directors. John Wick: Chapter 4’s cinematographer Dan Laustsen should certainly be given his credit – but even Lausten’s collaborations with Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak in 2015, The Shape of Water in 2017, and Nightmare Alley in 2021) may not hit the highs of his latest project with Stahelski.
from John Wick: Chapter 4 – the Osaka Continental at the 45-minute mark. Chad Stahelski nods to Lawrence of a Arabia with the blowing out of the candle on the horizon edit transition in the desert as well. The film is occasionally slowed by just the sheer amount of stunt work (even if it is virtuoso stunt work) on display – but not enough to detract from the greater accomplishment. The Japanese lanterns setting makes for a breathtaking backdrop for the duel between Caine (Donnie Yen) and Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) – but really it is just one tremendous sequence in a film filled with them – one awe-inspiring set piece after another.
from the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan opening – just one of the many immaculate photographs from John Wick: Chapter 4. And the final duel is as satisfying (and elegantly composed) as anything in 2023 cinema – or the history of the action genre.
Stahelski unquestionably cares about background as much as foreground. There is a lengthy fight episode in front of the glowing glass displays of historical Japanese weapons. Later, at the 65-minute mark, there is a wide shot of the Marquis (a very game Bill Skarsgård) at the Berlin opera. The Marquis and Winston (Ian McShane) have a scene in front of a wall of paintings, and here a great arrangement in front of the Eiffel Tower.
doubling and mirroring in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn – pairing style with content. Barry Keoghan’s Oliver envies Jacob Elordi’s Felix – his house, family, life.
There is a dazzling tracking shot when the location of Saltburn is introduced – the tour given by the Felix (Jacob Elordi) character (where Oliver’s eyes, and the camera, do not leave Felix) – that is brought back (doubled) for the bold, memorable final tracking shot.
most overrated: Todd Haynes’ May December (#3 on the consensus list), Justine Trier’s Anatomy of the Fall (#5) and Celine Song’s Past Lives (#7) are all commendable films. All three (3) are unhesitantly archiveable – but they lack the cinematic ambition to be ranked that highly among the year’s best. Past Lives is a well written story about love. Anatomy of a Fall has a superior domestic argument scene – and May December may be the best of the three – they are just told in a pragmatic fashion.
trends and notables: July 21st, 2023, is certainly the most important day in cinema for the 2020s thus far. The date marked the release of “Barbenheimer” – contending films released on the same day: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Both films had strong reviews from critics (neither debuted at any festival) and obviously touched something in the cultural zeitgeist. These were easily the two (2) most talked about films of the year – and both were triumphs at the box office. 2023 is the best single year in cinema since 2019. Like 2019, 2023 featured a big year at Cannes – titles like Asteroid City, Fallen Leaves, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Zone of Interest all premiered on the French Rivera. 2023, like 2017 with Dunkirk, is a tough year for Nolan-deniers. Nolan has cemented himself with the all-time great montagists and on par with the leading auteurs of his generation. Speaking of that generation – it is fun to track the influence of say David Fincher on contemporary cinema. Oppenheimer owes a debt of gratitude to Fincher’s 2010 masterpiece with the dueling hearings and rat-a-tat dialogue. BlackBerry or Boston Strangler probably do not exist without the director who delivered The Social Network, Se7en, and Zodiac. 2023 is yet another extraordinary year for animation with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and then the great Hayao Miyazaki coming out of retirement for The Boy and the Heron. It is worth noting that that this superior year for animation is achieved really without much help from Disney. The underrated category gives room for budding talents like Fennell and Stahelski. Yorgos Lanthimos is no longer in this class. Lanthimos has bumped up to the next tier with his 2023 entry – Poor Things. His latest both stands alone and compliments 2018’s The Favourite –– putting Lanthimos closer to that master canon. As for Jonathan Glazer, he may not be Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky or Carl Theodor Dreyer, but it feels like a win for cinephiles any year he releases a film – his last film prior to 2023 was 2013’s Under the Skin – so that is a ten year gestation period – here is to hoping Glazer’s next effort lands before 2033. Overall, 2023 is a impressive year for cinema – and usually this page and category is reserved for the what was accomplished and what did come to fruition – but one of the most anticipated titles of 2023 and exciting newer voices has to be mentioned when discussing 2023. Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid is a film ambitious in content – but not form or style – and that comes as a resounding disappointment after his previous two efforts – 2018’s Hereditary and 2019’s Midsommar.
Ben Travis from Empire on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse “…Nowhere does that come through stronger than in Gwen’s Earth-65, all washed-out watercolours that shift seamlessly with the storytelling, her emotions blossoming into a symphony of swirling hues — pure cinematic synaesthesia. And as the film opens with an extended section in her world (this is Gwen’s film as much as it is Miles’), your mind will be blown ten times over before the opening credits even roll. It’s utterly breathtaking.” https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse
Gwen’s Earth-65 excerpts make for some of the finest moments in animation history
from Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Glazer starts and ends the film on a prolonged blank screen – dwelling on the visual emptiness and tuning the audience’s ears with the score from Mica Levi – both foreshadowing and reminding viewers of the crucial audio component of The Zone of Interest. Much of the horror is not shown – but can be heard from the Höss’ villa. The Zone of Interest is told with an icy severity – a debt to owed to both Kubrick and perhaps Michael Haneke. Glazer’s compositions are not Roma or Kubrick – but he does let the action play out in long shots without close-ups like say Jacques Tati. Like Under the Skin’s weaker van pickup handheld camera episodes – Glazer blinks here in The Zone of Interest a few times formally – there is a singular fade to red, a flash forwards to a modern day cleaning company tidying up the concentration camp, and that running infrared thread that subtracts from the greater whole. But still, there is much to praise here – including the gobsmacking frame where Rudolph (Christian Fridel) is at a Nazi gathering (one of few scenes away from that home set piece) surrounding by antlers on the wall – Glazer captures it all in one sublime painting.
gem I want to spotlight: Highlighting two (2) films here – Cord Jefferson’s debut American Fiction is a sharp satire with juicy roles for lead Jeffrey Wright (who also has a small role in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and continues his 2020s hot streak) and Sterling K. Brown in support. But David Fincher’s The Killer is probably the hardest film to leave off the top ten (10) of the year. Fincher employs a philosophical voice-over, chapter breaks, the violent (from an unexpected source) needle drops lyrics from The Smiths. Fincher’s work is never less than exacting – with his trademark dark lighting with green and yellow hues. The Killer also features a dedication to specific color in the mise-en-scene (the green taxi and recycling uniform/sign are no mistake). The Killer also serves as a bit of a comeback for Michael Fassbender who had a whopping thirteen (13) archiveable films from 2008 to 2016 but then nothing of particular note from 2017 to 2023 until he connected with Fincher.
after a one (1) film hiatus dabble in greyscale for 2020’s Mank – David Fincher returns to his trademark lighting and color palette for 2023’s The Killer
best performance male: Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. give the two (2) best performances of the year – and then both happen to be in the same film. Murphy plays the titular character and gets the center of Nolan’s spotlight. Murphy gets some fabulous large format 70mm/Imax close-ups – and Nolan even use changes lens focus (with an aggressive audio arrangement) as Murphy’s face acts as the backdrop for a subtle delivery of complex emotions – heavy guilt – chief amongst them. Downey’s work as Lewis Strauss is nearly as spectacular. Downey is formidable throughout – but, in particular, his verbal sparring with Alden Ehrenreich as the noose tightens around him and Strauss loses his cool – is evidence of Downey’s genius. Strauss is frothing with anger – Downey has never been better . Barry Keoghan lands amongst the best of 2023 with his work as Olivier Quick in Saltburn. Quick is Emerald Fennell’s Tom Ripley – and Keoghan is up to the task of portraying this serpentine character. Mark Ruffalo nabs the final spot for 2023 as Duncan Wedderburn in Poor Things. Ruffalo takes some big swings (Lanthimos sets up every actor in the film so well) and can confidently add comedy to his long list of competencies as an actor.
a devastating Jonathan Demme or Barry Jenkins-like close-up from Oppenheimer – these aid Cillian Murphy’s nuance performance. Nolan often opts for a shallow focus to direct the viewer to his subject’s murky psychological state.
best performance female: Emma Stone is back in this category for her work Bella Baxter in Poor Things. This is Stone’s second consecutive Lanthimos film (2018’s The Favourite) mention for this category – giving her a whopping four (4) total for her career already. Stone’s performance is in tune with Lanthimos’ bizarro-brilliant world-building – fisheye lenses of Frankenstein meets The Wild Child. 2023 is a huge year for German actress Sandra Hüller. She is in two big films: Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest – both debuted to rave reviews at Cannes (Anatomy winning the coveted Palme d’Or) and both would end up nominated for best picture at the Oscars. It is Hüller’s work in The Zone of Interest that will live on as her finest work to date and the higher-ranking of her two (2) 2023 films. in The Zone of Interest Hüller plays Hedwig Höss – a ghastly woman. Hedwig is vain – caring about her home, her garden, her minks – and unlike her visiting mother, Hedwig sleeps soundly despite what is going on just beyond her own backyard. Scarlett Johansson stands out from the rest in the ever-growing traveling band of Wes Anderson actors. Johansson plays Midge Campbell in Wes’ Asteroid City – and it is no surprise that Scarlett nails Wes Anderson’s deadpan delivery ask. Lily Gladstone gets the final mention of the year in Killers of the Flower Moon. Gladstone has excelled before (Kelly Reichardt’s 2016 effort Certain Women is evidence of her gifts) – but to walk away from Martin Scorsese’s opus with the best performance in the film – a notch above both Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro – is enough alone to warrant a spot here.
Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell in Asteroid City – among the finest frames of 2023
top ten
- Oppenheimer
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- Asteroid City
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Poor Things
- The Zone of Interest
- Saltburn
- Fallen Leaves
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- El Conde
Wes Anderson is moving closer to the Akira Kurosawa The Bad Sleep Well (1960) or High and Low (1963) territory with the staging of heads and bodies in the frame. Anderson also utilizes the white bungalow (pictured here) and window to create a frame within the frame – always symmetrical and designed with rich detail (look at the blue tiles on the floor in the observatory – these would serve as the background for the overhead shots). Wes Anderson loves exploring the impact of art on life – that whole dissection – but that aspect aside, the film may work better without the black and white making of a play sequences. Though by including them, it does make the color Asteroid City sequences pop – like The Wizard of Oz door opening.
from Killers of the Flower Moon – the slow motion oil blowout in the opening is a standout scene – as is the frame layout here at the 170-minute mark of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest reuniting with Lily Gladstone’s Mollie
this shot is just a few minutes later – reminiscent of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s jaw-dropping “the stare” cinematic paintings in 1974’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Scorsese’s radio show epilogue is a tough choice. Still, Scorsese succeeds in his goal of telling this story – and it is a powerful one – even if, as a piece of cinema, it sits a tier or two below his best work.
from Pablo Larraín’s El Conde. The film combines violence with tongue in cheek voice over narration. It features elegant classical music and beautiful black and white photography. Luis Buñuel would have been proud of El Conde sharp attack on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. El Conde features great doorway frame at the 58-minute mark (another later at the 83-minute mark), the low-angle show in the pool hall at the at the 67-minute mark. The cinematographer here is Edward Lachman. And it may tell the story of two 2023 films that Lachman worked on El Conde and did not work on Todd Haynes’ May December (Lachman is the cinematographer of both Far from Heaven and Carol from Haynes).
from Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. This is yet another accomplished entry in the storied career of Coppola. Her protagonist (Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley) is insolated, isolated, affluent and stared at – thrust into an eccentric, often dangerous world she is unprepared for. This is The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003) or Marie Antoinette (2006).
Archives, Directors, and Grades
| A Haunting in Venice – Branagh | HR |
| Afire – Petzold | R |
| Air – Affleck | R |
| American Fiction – Jefferson | R |
| Anatomy of a Fall – Triet | R |
| Asteroid City – W. Anderson | MS/MP |
| Barbie – Gerwig | R |
| Beau is Afraid – Aster | R |
| BlackBerry – M. Johnson | R/HR |
| Boston Strangler- Ruskin | R |
| Dumb Money – Gillespie | R |
| Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – Daley, Goldstein | R |
| El Conde – Larraín | HR |
| Evil Dead Rise – Cronin | R/HR |
| Extraction II – Hargrave | R/HR |
| Fair Play – Domont | R |
| Fallen Leaves – Kaurismäki | HR |
| Full Circle – Soderbergh | R |
| Infinity Pool – B. Cronenberg | R/HR |
| John Wick: Chapter 4 – Stahelski | MS/MP |
| Killers of the Flower Moon – Scorsese | HR |
| Leave the World Behind – Esmail | R |
| Maestro – B. Cooper | R |
| May December – Haynes | R |
| Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – McQuarrie | R |
| Oppenheimer – Nolan | MP |
| Passages – Sachs | R |
| Past Lives – Song | R |
| Poor Things – Lanthimos | MS |
| Priscilla – S.Coppola | R/HR |
| Rye Lane – Allen-Miller | R |
| Saltburn – Fennell | HR/MS |
| Sharper – Caron | R |
| Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Dos Santos, Powers, Thompson | MS/MP |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – Rowe, Spears | R/HR |
| The Boy and the Heron – Miyazaki | R/HR |
| The Holdovers – Payne | R |
| The Killer – Fincher | HR |
| The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – W. Anderson | R |
| The Zone of Interest – Glazer | MS |
| They Cloned Tyrone – Juel Taylor | R |
| You Hurt My Feelings – Holofcener | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-See- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
*** one final note here. As of publish date here (though the page will be updated in the future of course) there are forty-two (42) archiveable films from 2023. Unfortunately, at the time of putting this page together, I was unable to get to a number of the best reviewed films of 2023 including Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Close Your Eyes, The Delinquents, Music, All of Us Strangers, La Chimera, About Dry Glasses.
@Drake do you still plan on doing directors pages? Thanks!
@George- Sorry- I’m not sure- less certain than I was before
I would love to see a top 10 or 20 – if that’s more manageable than 250.
@Drake-What elements made you archive Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves? I thought it was enjoyable but not sure how it separates from other big budget flicks. There is a bizzare Bradley Cooper cameo here too as a dwarf.
@Malith – I have notes from the viewing- but not enough for a page. My apologies.
Are any Gareth Edwards’ films(The Creator, Rogue One-A Star Wars Story) in the archives?
@Lionel- I do not believe so
@Drake-How would you rank RJD’s best performances? I would have it as:
1.Oppenheimer
2.Zodiac
3.Chaplin
4.Tropic Thunder
5.Captain America: Civil War
@Anderson – I haven’t done an RJD list- but I like that start with 1-2 here.
@Drake-Did you manage to see William Oldroyd’s Eileen (2023)? His follow-up to Lady Macbeth with Florence Pugh. Definitely a film that went under the radar.
@Drake-What are the films from 2024 you were most impressed by so far? Let’s say a top 5. And any disappointments?
Is Oppenheimer (2023) superior to JFK (1991)? The editing is amazing in both films although JFK is more collage based at times which is fitting as it is even more abstract and harder to follow. Both are fascinating in regards to their subject matter and visual style. They both capture enormously important historical events in the 20th Century. But for me the pulsating energy of Oppenheimer and masterful pacing gives it a slight edge. It is hard to believe the amount of sheer subject matter Nolan manages to cover; physics, war time politics, political corruption, and of course the most powerful weapon human beings have ever created. The film zooms through different timelines using different aspect ratios’s and alternating between color and black and white. Both films are assaults on your senses for 3 hours, both are virtuoso filmmaking. The pacing is amazing in both films and I do prefer Oppenheimer here as it does slow at times for some intimate moments, I love when Robert Oppenheimer, his brother, and Ernest Lawrence (Josh Hartnett) are looking at stars in New Mexico. Scenes like this are great not only for character building but also for contrasting with the faster pace sequences.
Both casts are loaded but another advantage for me that favors Oppenheimer is the use of a focal point with Cillian Murphy. The closest JFK has to a main character is Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison. I like Costner and he is quite good but not on the level of Murphy’s performance. Using Murphy’s Robert Oppenheimer as the lead character sets up some of the most incredible and pulsating sequences which occur from his POV as his guilt and paranoia gradually increase over the course of the film. To be entirely honest I do not know how accurate this film is or intends to be and I also do not care from a critical perspective. So I will just say Robert Oppenheimer as presented in this film (maybe historically accurate maybe not) is such a rich and complex character. Again no offense to Costner but his character was a bit one note. Aside from Murphy, it is Robert Downey Jr who gets the most praise and well deserved. Dialogue has never been Nolan’s strength but it is perhaps the strongest of his career. Dunkirk has almost no dialogue by design but the writing for The Dark Knight Trilogy is solid but I think this hits another level.
At this point I am confident that this is one of Nolan’s two best films along with Dunkirk.
@James Trapp- great share here – thank you
Didn’t Ferrari (2023) made the archives?
Didn’t Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel not made the archives?
@Anderson – if you scroll further up the page Drake mentioned it “@George- Appreciate it- thank you. There have been a few additions – caught The Royal Hotel recently”
@Harry-Hmm. Thanks. Looks like it got added, right? But I’m not 100% sure.
@Drake-By The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar do you mean all the 4 short stories or only Henry Sugar? I think all of them are now available as an anthology film. Hard to seperate I would say.
@Drake-Have you seen or archived any American Football films? Any Given Sunday (1999), Remember the Titans (2000), Brian’s Song (1971), The Blind Side (2009), The Program (1993) etc.
@anderson- I have seen these films- there are football films in the archives- Heaven Can Wait, Jerry Macguire, The Freshman, North Dallas Forty — I’m sure there are more
@Drake-What films from 2024 have been most impressed by? Any hidden gems people don’t talk much about?
@Anderson- been a little slower start for me this year in in 2024- hoping to catch up soon
Drake, any additions to the list since it was published? Thanks for the great work!
@George- Appreciate it- thank you. There have been a few additions – caught The Royal Hotel recently
Drake, do you plan to release the list of the greatest director soon?
@2 H.B.- Appreciate your interest – still to be determined at this point
What a 2020’s the Skarsgård family is having. Stellan does excellent work as the villain in the two Dune films. Bill is excellent in John Wick: Chapter 4 as the villain. Also in Barbarian, The Devil All the Time and has the titular role in Eggers’ upcoming Nosferatu. Alexander has the titular role in The Northman, co-lead in Infinity Pool, also in Passing. Even Gustaf low-key than others was in both Oppenheimer and Air.
@Lionel – This is impressive for sure. Really excited for Nosferatu. I consider the original 1922 version from F. W. Murnau to be a MP and the 1979 Herzog version to also be a MP. The subject matter is perfect for Eggers
@Drake-Have you seen Cassandro starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw?
Is Ferrari(2023) not good?
Has anyone seen Civil War (2024)? And if so, what did you think?
@James Trapp-It is good. I don’t think the visuals are there to rise it above a HR. Good work from Dunst and Spaeny too with the always solid Stephen McKinley Henderson. But Wagner Moura is distracting. After a while I imagined he wasn’t there in most scenes. Shallow focus is a big part of the film and I think it is overused. For example that scene of Dunst and Spaeny talking inside a boat. It’s fake. Would be much better with the natural background. The Jesse Plemons scene is the best in the film. The needle drops are a weakness at times. I’m not sure how McKinley Henderson’s character got shot as well in the stomach no less.
Is Hercule Poirot cinema’s greatest detective? He leads at least 5 excellent films (Murder on the Orient Express-1974, 2017, Death on the Nile-1978, 2022, A Haunting in Venice-2023) with 3 different Oscar nominated actors (Finney, Ustinov, Branagh) bringing their own unique interpretation of the character.
@Malith. Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, Robert Mitchum, Elliot Gould etc) and Maigret (Jean Gabin, Charles Laughton, Pierre Renoir, Michel Simon, Gerard Depardieu) would also be contenders.
Wouldn’t rate the Murder on the Orient Express remake as excellent. Had all the starting ingredients (good director and cast), but there was no tension, characters were two dimensional and it felt contrived.
@LeRoi-I think it would be helpful if you mention the names of the films these actors acted in as the detective. Otherwise it’s hard for me to link the films with the actors.
As for The Murder on the Orient Express remake I thought it was far better than the original in almost everything. I’m not sure if the original should be even in the archives especially with now a far superior remake. I thought the only thing Original did better was the stabbing scene one by one(easily the best scene in the film) and the performances of some minor characters. Say Jacqueline Bisset as Helena Andreyni and Jean Pierre Cassel(Vincent Cassel’s father) as the Wagon Lit Conductor or Gielgud as The Butler. Branagh does a lot behind the camera in the remake. Tracking shot of Poirot entering the train which is bookended at the end with Poirot leaving the train. Overhead shot when they enter Ratchett’s room after he is murdered, The characters shown from outside the train like trapped animals which is basically nonexistent in Lumet’s version. Lumet’s film has a horrendous soundtrack mostly also done much better in the remake.
The Poirot in Lumet’s film has no vulnerability, fears, not much depth. He doesn’t even have the rigorous neatness associated with the character or the excessive pride he has in his appearance especially the moustache. It’s a unique and brave performance from Finney I will give him that but it’s very one note and there is not much to that Poirot other than being rude to everyone and an excessive ego. Also the Arbuthnot-Debenham relationship is done much better in the remake very subtly. In the remake Arbuthnot is literally babysitting Debenham in front of everybody. Depp looks actually like an evil creature who everyone will try to kill and was perfect for that role. But Widmark is like a noble but arrogant gentleman and I only felt like they did him dirty in the film. Also felt like Connery was far too old old to play the lover of a luminous Vanessa Redgrave here and Bacall is a great actress of course but she is very icy not suitable for the majority of the film when her character is the loudest person in the room telling tall lies. The less said about Ingrid Bergman and Brown babies the better. Ditto the opening hastily put together montage of the Armstrong family kidnapping and subsequent murder which gives away most of the answers and is executed pretty poorly.
I thought Pfeiffer gave an unbelievably good performance in the remake. It’s a very tough task playing a very easygoing woman at first and then transforming into an icy zombie like character with deep sadness. Another praiseworthy thing about the remake is the final shot of Poirot going into the sunset captured in a beautiful frame in the snow. And also the last supper shot of the passengers. Overall I find these Poirot films are some of the most underrated works in the last decade and Branagh is having quite the second wind to his career with also Belfast and solid acting work with Nolan. Probably his best period
@Malith. The main Raymond Chandler novels for Marlowe would be The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks film with Humphrey Bogart and later also made with Robert Mitchum), The Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery Film), Farewell My Lovely (Robert Mitchum film), The High Window and the Long Goodbye (Robert Altman film with Elliot Gould). There is also a recent 2022 Neil Jordan film with Liam Neeson as Marlowe.
There are a large number of Maigret novels and various TV adaptations as well (including with Michael Gambon and Rowan Atkinson). The main film ones I’m aware of are Night at the Crossroads (Renoir), A Man’s Neck (Duvivier film), The Man on the Eiffel Tower (Laughton), Maigret sets a Trap and two others (Gabin) and the recent Leconte film with Depardieu (after Auteuil withdrew).
Montalbano is a great detective character as well, but only aware of the Italian TV series.
@Malith. For Branagh as a director, his best films for me remain Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. Was a bit disappointed with Belfast (good, but not great), especially when compared with other films about that time, although acknowledged that the film was more about his childhood than the Troubles itself.
A Man’s neck is La tete dun homme, right? It is in the top 500 here. I didn’t realize it was a detective story. I’m aware of the Depardieu-Leconte Maigret film a couple of years ago. I will check it out.
Hmm. Marlowe leads a couple of great films, doesn’t he? Good point. The reviews for the recent Neeson Marlowe film is pretty bad though.
@LeRoi-For great detectives, Sherlock Holmes probably has the biggest fanbase. But there is only a very few excellent Sherlock Holmes films. Probably only Billy Wilder’s Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Herbert Ross’ The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.
@LeRoi-What are the other films about that time? Jim Sheridan films?
@Malith Yes, there is In the Name of the Father (Sheridan), Bloody Sunday (Greengrass), Hunger (McQueen), the Crying Game (Jordan), ’71 (Demange). I still need to see Elephant (Clarke) and the Outsider (Luraschi) with Sterling Hayden.
@Drake-What is your next project here?
@Anderson- really appreciate your interest- sort of yet to be determined
Hello Drake, did you watched Polanski’s new film, “The Palace”, yet?
@João Pedro- Thank you for the comment here- I have not as of you. How about you?
Yes, its very low brow, but funny. On the other hand, i just finished Friedkin’s “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial”. Terrific. Its really good. Totally acting driven, and Kieth Sutherland is just brilliant as Queeg. HR/R. Hope you watch it too.
@Pedro-Hmm. This one surprised me. Apart from a few hideous CGI exterior shots this was very good and entertaining. There is constant green and red in the mise-en scene. The whole ballroom where the Czech family sleeps is green. The outfit on Almeida’s wife is red. The costumes of the hotel staff. The lighting in the room where Bronwyn James and John Cleese go to sleep is green. It’s very interesting to look at. Also the constant profile tracking shots through the corridors mainly with the hotel staff. The repeated shot of the hotel profile with lights turing on, turning off, fireworks. There is a lot. A standout reverse tracking shot in the fireworks scene.
Also the actors especially Masucci and Rourke was very good I thought. Masucci has a great scene at the begining. He is a great actor. He should get more roles like this and Never Look Away not like a 30 second cameo in Fantastic Beasts
Agreed! It had a really gorgeous mise-en scene!
I was listening to some of the interviews on Civil War and came to know Priscilla was actually shot after Civil War. Apparently Kirsten Dunst recommended Cailee Spaeny to Sofia Coppola after being impressed with her work alongside her in Civil War. Spaeny was also in Garland’s Devs. One of the most promising young actors.
Wes Anderson’s four short stories in 2023 are now released in a combined package as an anthology film called The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More as it was always intended to.
https://www.netflix.com/lk/title/81725557
Has anyone seen the Jessica Chastain-Peter Sarsgaard film Memory? Is it any good?
I commented on the top 100 female actresses page but it is not working
Can Jesse Eisenberg play the DiCaprio role in Killers of the Flower Moon?
DiCaprio’s performance is magnificent. I wouldn’t want to see anyone else take it.
@Graham-Didn’t land for me. Kudos to him for trying this role but this type of role is not a strength of his