THE SCREEN-SPACE FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2023

As I write this, we near the final week of 2023, and the industry question that all the trade papers are pondering is, “Is cinema back?”

Variety notes that, unless Wonka and Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom overperform, the domestic U.S. box office will fall just shy of $9billion - the number that analysts have set as a healthy highwater mark for the first full twelve months of cinema patronage, post-COVID. Fact is, if Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny or Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 had realised their full potential; or, if The Marvels had contributed at all; or, if the biggest industrial action in Hollywood history hadn’t bumped to 2024 a bevy of pics (including the one-two Zendaya punch of Dune: Part Two and Challengers), that $9billion would’ve been shrinking in the rear-view mirror.

Also, let’s not ignore the phenomenon that was #Barbenheimer, an unambiguous pop culture moment that proved that movies can still cut through and hold the global society in their thrall. Some sequels worked just fine (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; John Wick: Chapter 4); fresh content connected (M3GAN; Five Nights at Freddy; Sound of Freedom); and, nostalgia proved lucrative (The Super Mario Bros. Movie; The Little Mermaid). 

And that Variety article also points out that, although 2023 will fall short of $10b-$11b levels that were de rigueur pre-COVID, studios also premiered a lot less movies this year. There were 88 films released in 2023 compared to 108 in 2019, when ticket sales reached $10.5 billion. 

So…well, there’s still some ground to make up but, yeah, cinema is back.

Here are my favourites of 2023.

Simon Foster
Editor, SCREEN-SPACE

1. ANATOMY OF A FALL (Dir: Justine Triet | Stars Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner | France | 171 mins) The framework is a cop/court procedural - did he fall? was he pushed? what does the boy know? - and Anatomy of a Fall is a compelling take on that well-worn genre. There’s more to Justine Triet’s best ever film, however. A marriage is imploding; a child is witness to the disintegration of his stability; violence dwells and swells within this middle-class setting. Anatomy of a Fall is anxiety as an artform; an intimate epic about the deceitful depths we plumb to not only keep secrets but convince ourselves we are justified in doing so. As 2023 closes out, Sandra Hüller is the finest European actress of her generation (see also, The Zone of Interest). 

2. THE CONCERT FILM - TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR (Dir: Sam Wrench | USA | 169 mins); RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ (Dir: Beyoncé, Ed Burke | USA | 169 mins); STOP MAKING SENSE Remastered (Dir: Jonathan Demme | USA | 88 mins) Can the concert documentary recapture the immersive thrill of the world’s biggest music shows? No, of course not, but the very best do what any great cinema does and conjure a version of reality that enhances it as only film can. Whether it is the giddy performance highs that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour delivered, or the glimpse inside a brilliant diva-artist’s creative process that Beyoncé’s Renaissance revealed, there was no matching the sheer cinematic bravado they provided in 2023. Or in 1984, for that matter, as the remastered Stop Making Sense reaffirmed. 

3. PAST LIVES (Dir: Celine Song | Stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro | USA, South Korea | 105 mins) The year’s most beautiful  narrative examines a soulful connection that fate keeps determinedly apart…in this life, anyway. Celine Song wrote and directed a deconstruction of love that tears at the very fibre of what we’ve been conditioned to expect a screen romance should be. Greta Lee has a Best Actress nomination in the bag; the denouement will reduce you to sobs.     

4. GODZILLA MINUS ONE (Dir: Takashi Yamazaki | Stars Minami Hamabe, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Sakura Ando | Japan | 124 mins) It’s been seven years since Toho Studios released a Godzilla adventure; in the interim, those amongst us who worship at the mighty lizard’s talons have had to settle for just-OK Hollywood versions. This year, Toho and FX maestro-turned-director Takashi Yamazaki took Godzilla back to a post WWII Japan, crafting the most heartfelt, exciting action blockbuster of the year.     

5. PERFECT DAYS (Dir: Wim Wenders | Stars Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano | Japan, Germany | 123 mins) Kôji Yakusho won the Cannes Best Actor trophy as Hirayama, a Tokyo everyman who finds contentment in life’s smallest details. A book by lamplight; his favourite driving song; a sandwich in the park; the slightest moment of shared joy with a stranger. There’s more to Hirayama’s inner life, of course, but director Wim Wenders will take you there when he’s ready. Afterwards, you’ll float from the cinema.   

6. BARBIE (Dir: Greta Gerwig | Stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling | USA | 114 mins) When Greta and Margot had a dolly playdate, moviegoers to the tune of US$1.45billion - the highest global gross in Warner Bros. history - joined in the fun. After years of script development, the final polish came amidst The #MeToo Movement and Trump’s toxic reign; the result was the smartest, funniest possible brand-based film adaptation ever. 

7. BEYOND UTOPIA (Dir: Madeleine Gavin | USA | 115) No capes and tights defined this year’s greatest film hero. His name is Pastor Seungeun Kim, a South Korean human rights activist whose efforts to aid a family of five seeking refuge from North Korea’s heartless regime makes for the most gripping and heartbreaking factual filmmaking experience 0f 2023. A great geopolitical thriller and bracing testament to the importance of film journalism.  

8. REALITY (Dir: Tina Satter | Stars Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis | USA | 83 mins) As the intelligence specialist who blew the whistle on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, Sydney Sweeney went from being next-big-thing to Big Thing. In Tina Satter’s ultra-realistic portrayal of Reality Winner’s takedown, Sweeney conveys a brittle fragility grounded in a bedrock of integrity; a few decades back, Shelley Duvall or Sissy Spacek would have similarly nailed the part.    

9. NIMONA (Dirs: Nick Bruno, Troy Quane | Voice cast Stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, Eugene Lee Yang | USA | 101 mins) Imagine a fantasy world where the latest Disney princess is not the bog standard hetero-normative stereotype, but instead an androgynous punk-rock shapeshifter with a taste for wicked misadventure. Stunning design and progressive but non-preachy plotting make Nimona a line-in-the-sand moment for one of cinema’s oldest disciplines. 

10. BOTTOMS (Dir: Emma Seligman | Stars Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz | USA | 91 mins) Sennot and Seligman signposted their MO with Shiva Baby a few years back - cringey, character-based comedy with a tart mouth and big heart. Their sophomore effort is more of the same, with the added sheen of a studio teen pic but no-less brimming with their indie ‘f**k off’ joie de vivre. It-girl Ayo Edibiri seals the deal. 

THE NEXT BEST TEN:

• TIME ADDICTS (Dir: Sam Odlum | Stars Freya Tingley, Charles Grounds, Joshua Morton | Australia | 97 mins)
• TO CATCH A KILLER (Dir: Damián Szifron | Stars Shailene Woodley, Ben Mendelsohn, Jovan Adepo | USA, Canada | 119 mins)
• ASTEROID CITY (Dir: Wes Anderson | Stars Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks | USA, Germany | 105 mins)
• POOR THINGS (Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Rufalo | Ireland, United Kingdom, USA | 141 mins)
• STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE (Dir: Davis Guggenheim | USA | 95 mins)
• THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES (Dir: Asmae El Moudir | Stars Mohamed El Moudir, Asmae ElMoudir, Zahra Jeddaoui | Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar | 96 mins)
• OPPENHEIMER (Dir: Christopher Nolan | Stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt | USA, UK | 180 mins)
• MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1 (Dir: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales | USA | 163 mins)
• CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT (Dir: Thomas Negovan, Tinto Brass | Stars Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole | USA | 178 mins)
• HE AIN’T HEAVY (Dir: David Vincent Smith | Stars Leila George, Sam Corlett, Greta Scacchi | Australia | 103 mins)

THE BEST FILMS OF 2021

For most of 2021, old Sydney town was COVID shuttered. Not since…last year, actually…has the cinema experience been such a truncated, compromised one. The US summer blockbusters earned perfunctory, catch-me-if-you-can releases (The Suicide Squad; Malignant; Space Jam) or were bumped again (come in, Top Gun Maverick?). Some finally landed, like No Time to Die and Dune, though with question marks over whether they maxed-out their box-office potential or felt a little ‘fatigued’. It would be the streaming services that thrived in 2021 - sixteen of my Top 20 films were watched in my ‘critic’s cave’.

Which made not a shred of difference to the quality of 2021 films. As I write this, Spiderman: No Way Home is smashing box office records on the back of great reviews. The award season is taking shape with films like Licorice Pizza, Spencer, The Tragedy of Macbeth, King Richard and Belfast entering the fray. And the streamers continue their push for critical relevance and commercial dominance, offering films like Don’t Look Up (Netflix), Finch (Apple+) and Being The Ricardos (Amazon Prime).    

So let’s get on with celebrating the films that provided a jolt of exhilaration (and a handful that sucked) in this shit of a year...   

1. CODA (Dir: Sian Heder; USA, 111 mins) Emilia Jones plays Ruby, the only able-hearing member of a deaf family. She’s got talent, is smart, and is destined for a life beyond the family’s struggling fishing business, but stepping away from her role as a Child Of Deaf Parents… And so Sian Heder’s wrenching drama is set in motion, charting a deceptively simple journey that breaks down one’s expectations of a film that pitches like a ‘Movie of the Week’ but plays out like…well, like the year’s best film. Wait for the bait-&-switch moment at Ruby’s school concert; it reduced your cynical, ‘seen-it-all’ film reviewer to a sobbing wreck.

2. THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Dir: Joachim Trier; Norway, 127 mins) Julie is someone we’ve all known, or may have been - an unsettled, impetuous twenty-something trying to understand how she fits into everyone’s expectations of her life. Serious romance, cohabitation, marriage, kids…blah, blah, blah. Joachim Trier’s film is a journey with Julie which subverts, even defies, the well-trodden path to society’s version of maturity. We are engaged with every honest frame of this transcendent story because of Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve; her ‘Julie’ is and will remain a touchstone film character for the ages. 

3. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (Dir: Edgar Wright; UK, 116 mins) All the key indicators were in place - director Edgar Wright, primed to bring his command of the camera to the visually propulsive setting of London in the ‘60s; two actresses, Anya Taylor-Joy and Tommasin McKenzie, duking it out for ‘it-girl’ status; and, above all else, an original high-concept genre piece. The result was a giddy, thrilling, slightly daft but pulsating chiller that both honoured and challenged the ‘stylish slasher’ sensibilities of classic Hitchcock and De Palma.

4. SHIVA BABY (Dir: Emma Seligman; USA, 77 mins) A perfectly directionless Jewish twenty-something (the wonderful Rachel Sennot) finds all the tensions in her life colliding under one roof at the titular funeral service in Emma Seligman’s masterpiece of discomfort. This comedic, white-knuckle emotional journey somehow emerges as a romantic, sexy, bittersweet snapshot of millenial uncertainty.

5. ADRIENNE (Dir: Andy Ostroy; USA, 98 mins) Adrienne Shelley was a ‘90s indie darling, the toast of Sundance after the Hal Hartley films The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, and on the verge of breakout success as director and co-star of Waitress, when she was murdered. Her widower Andy Ostroy reconciles the loss of Adrienne through a multi-tiered recounting of her career, their life and, in the most heartbreaking of many heartbreaking sequences, a meeting with her killer.

6. ANNEES 20 (Roaring 20s. Dir: Elisabeth Vogler; France, 85 mins) In the midst of the 2020 COVID outbreak, filmmaker Elisabeth Vogler choreographed this single-shot miracle through the streets of Paris, capturing how the human spirit fronted up to, adapted in the face of and ultimately beat down the loneliness of the ‘new normal’. Sublime steadicam artistry (by the director herself) and a vivid collection of Parisian persons make for a snapshot of a time that will never be recaptured; by definition, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

7. PETITE MAMAN (Dir: Céline Sciamma; France, 72 mins) How a little girl deals with grief and the friendship she strikes in the realm of the fantastic proves the perfect premise for Céline Sciamma’s latest study in profound connection. The material is weighty but the lightness of touch is masterful; you’ll cry for days afterwards, as Sciamma and her two wondrous leads achieve deeply resonant moments that refuse to let go of your thoughts and emotions.

8. PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (Dir: Sion Sono; US/Japan, 103 mins) Why did it take so long to smash together the cinematic psyches of Japanese punk-auteur Sion Sono and G.O.A.T. Nicholas Cage? Because their hyper-stylised, vengeance-fuelled, dystopian Eastern-western is a work of fearless originality and W.T.F. creative choices that make it an adrenalized, bewildering blast (Ed. - For the record, Pig was #21 in ‘21; Cage had a great year.)

9. DUNE (Dir: Denis Villeneuve; USA, 155 mins) It all looked good in the planning. Denis Villeneuve’s track record (Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, especially) indicated he could do spectacle with intelligence; the cast were all hot-button names with talent to boot. Of course, we said all this back in ‘84, too. This time, though…grandeur, depth and the promise of more to come.

10. BENEDETTA (Dir: Paul Verhoeven; France/Belgium, 131 mins) Early coverage zeroed-in on the ‘nun-sploitation’ angle of Dutch stirrer Paul Verhoeven’s latest, in particular luminous leading lady Virginie Efira depiction of sapphic experimentation and self-pleasuring. But Verhoeven has much more on his mind (no, really); Benedetta is a brutal take-down of institutionalized religion and the ease with which the ambitiously immoral can exploit the zealous masses.

THE NEXT TEN BEST:
11. VERA DE VERDAD (Dir: Beniamino Catena; Italy/Chile, 100 mins)
12. WEST SIDE STORY (Dir: Steven Spielberg; USA, 156 mins)
13. LA PANTHERE DES NEIGES (The Velvet Queen. Dir: Marie Amiguet; France, 92 mins)
14. ILARGI GUZTIAK (All The Moons. Dir: Igor Legarreta; Spain, 102 mins)
15. TED K (Dir: Tony Stone; USA, 120 mins)
16. MEDUSA (Dir: Anita Rocha da Silveira; Brazil, 127 mins)
17. BERGMAN ISLAND (Dir: Mia Hansen-Løve; France, 112 mins)
18. FREE GUY (Dir: Shawn Levy; USA, 115 mins)
19. THE COLONY (Dir: Tim Fehlbaum; Germany, 104 mins)
20. DORAIBU MAI KA (Drive My Car. Dir: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Japan, 179 mins)

THE WORST FILMS OF 2021:
For every exhilarating discovery on the streaming channels, there were piles of steaming dross to scroll pass. Shame on Disney+, for over-extending old franchises with greenlights for the terrible HOME SWEET HOME ALONE and the shamefully uninspired MUPPETS HAUNTED MANSION. With cinemas opening erratically and distributors unwilling to commit theatrical films, straight-to-video product was deemed worthy of multi-screen releases - the turgid Jeremy Irons-Diane Keaton rom-com LOVE, WEDDINGS AND OTHER DISASTERS and the Bruce Willis D-grade scifier COSMIC SIN found themselves in wide circulation. As the pandemic ebbed, exhibitors made space for some Hollywood product, but there was little excitement for misfires like SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW (featuring some Razzie-worthy shout-acting from Chris Rock); the numbing banality of VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE; or, the official death knell of YA-lit 'Hunger Games' wannabes, CHAOS WALKING. But it is from the bottom of the sequel barrel that we scrape the year’s most idiotic film; an inconcievable ninth dip into the well of fake family melodrama and CGI stunt work, overseen by producers who thought launching a car into outer space was a good idea. F9 dipped considerably at the box office (it's the lowest earner in the franchise since 2011’s FAST FIVE), although probably not enough to kill off this knuckle-headed insult to cinema.

THE BEST TELEVISION OF 2021

A funny thing happened at the Screen-Space office in 2021 - I watched a lot of television. More precisely, I was called upon to review a lot of television, mostly as one half of the Screen Watching podcast. This site has always been film-focussed, but that’s largely because when Screen-Space launched nearly a decade ago, there was no Netflix or Apple+ or Amazon Prime. Back then, we went to the cinema, bought the DVD, caught anything we’d missed on our exciting new pay-TV channel. Good times…

Screen Watching’s other-half is Dan Barrett, the boss of the TV-centric site Always Be Watching (amongst many other projects) and an opinionated enthusiast for all things televisual. If I was going to keep up with his small-screen babblings, I needed to watch more than just Major League Baseball and Seinfeld repeats. So, with COVID’s grip upon society ensuring that sofa time was always the best option, I’m weighing in with the inaugural Screen-Space Best of Television 2021...  

1. ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING (Hulu (US) / Disney Star (Aust), 10 eps; starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez) Not such a surprise that comedy veterans Steve Martin and Martin Short should pull off the years’ most wry, witty, laugh-out-loud hilarious romp; a classy whodunnit farce that slyly satirises everything it touches, from apartment etiquette to podcast obsession. The big surprise is that they let Selena Gomez steal the show, the actress the perfect comedic foil to Martin and Martin’s ‘old guy’ schtick.

2. MIDNIGHT MASS (Netflix, 7 eps; starring Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas) Horror’s most accomplished and assured new voice, Mike Flanagan skewers blind faith and zealotry in his smalltown horror masterpiece. The deliberate pacing of his reveals left behind those that like their frights more frantic, but this is his deceptively simple modus operandi - establish setting, then introduce character, then pose a mysterious threat, then…BOO! The comparisons to the King classic Salem’s Lot are unfair, because Midnight Mass is better. 

3. PHYSICAL (Apple+, 10 eps; starring Rose Byrne, Rory Scovel, Deirdre Friel) As a satire of the ‘Greed is good’ mantra of the 1980s and the Reagan-esque nationalism that inspired overspending and wilful over-indulgence in the name of capitalistic growth, Physical is a masterwork. As the unravelling housewife who parlays her love of aerobics into social acceptance and financial independence, Rose Byrne is a whirlwind of anxiety, dark energy and ever-expand(ex)ing self-worth.

4. THE CHESTNUT MAN (Netflix, 6 eps; starring Danica Curcic, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, David Dencik) For those who thought the Scandi Crime wave had had its day in the endless sun, The Chestnut Man reinvigorated all the recognisable tropes with crackling tension, horrific violence and the best ‘reluctant partner’ chemistry since the heady days of Scully and Mulder. 

5. SUCCESSION Season 3 (HBO Max / Binge, 9 eps; starring Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook) No family has done cold-hearted and calculated with this much twisted glee since The Ewings; the #MeToo plotline and how it threatened to derail The Roy Family empire inspired a rare degree of cut throat-razor dialogue and boardroom tension. In Adrien Brody and Alexander Skarsgård, nailed the 2021 ‘Best Use of a Guest Stars’ honour.

6. VIGIL (BBC, 6 eps; starring Suranne Jones, Rose Leslie, Adam James) There is a pulpy daftness to this submarine-set murder mystery that is occasionally glimpsed on the radar, but when producer Tom Edge’s plotting stays on course it is the most gripping adventure-thriller that the small screen offered up all year. As the investigating detective sent on board, despite having her own recent watery tragedy still on her mind (really?), Suranne Jones is Sigourney-esque in her presence.

7. DOPESICK (Hulu / Disney+ Star, 8 eps; starring Michael Keaton, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosario Dawson) Op-ed rants by John Oliver only go so far in conveying just how insidiously callous Purdue Pharmaceutical and the cartel that owns it, The Sackler Family, were in lying about, spreading and profiting from the social horror they caused with OxyContin. Director Barry Levinson paints a heartbreaking picture of the smalltown, blue-collar lives that The Sackler’s destroyed for financial gain. Does for the opioid crisis what The Day After did for nuclear proliferation.

8. WANDAVISION (Disney+, 9 eps; starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn) As a journey through TV culture, Disney+’s first small-screen MCU narrative was inventive, charming and, with Olsen and Bettany allowed greater dimensionality to explore their big-screen bit-players, proved a better-than-expected canon add-on. But it was the acuity with which it explored Wanda/Scarlett Witch’s grief and PTSD that made it significantly better than we had any right to expect.

9. INVASION (Apple+ TV, 9 eps; starring Golshifteh Farahani, Shamier Anderson, Shioli Kutsuna) That hoary ol’ scifi trope, the ‘alien invasion’, gets a supremely polished, truly international makeover in Apple’s understated but gripping multi-strand narrative. A grab-bag of influences (War of The Worlds; Independence Day; Arrival) are used to superb impact; in  a great cast, Golshifteh Farahani as the betrayed wife/warrior mother is sensational.

10. THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (HBO Max / Stan, 8 eps; starring Kaley Cuoco, Michiel Huisman, Rosie Perez) Never seen The Big Bang Theory, so The Flight Attendant was quite the jump-off point for me and Kaley Cuoco. As the sexed-up, boozy stewardess whose life careens dangerously close to catastrophe at every turn, she is a revelation. The production’s profound understanding of alcoholism and Cuoco’s unhinged version of someone in denial and under threat is white-knuckle, character-based black comedy at its best.

There were some big hits (White Lotus; Nine Perfect Strangers; Mare of Eastown) and critical favourites (Hacks; The Underground Railroad; Muhammad Ali; The North Water; The Reservation Dogs) that I just couldn't fit into the viewing schedule. But there were also a handful that I count as highlights, even if they couldn't budge the ten best...

BEST REALITY: THE HILLS: NEW BEGINNINGS Season 2 (MTV, 12 eps) 
Heidi, Spencer, Audrina, Brody, Justin…they’re all still spoilt LA brats, but by 2021 they are spoilt, brattish thirty-somethings, and the seriousness of such themes as family, addiction, wealth (or lack of it), infidelity and honesty are coming into sharper focus. Dismiss their surface sheen as glaringly shallow, but MTV’s stable of in-house reality stars mined some darker emotions in Season 2, and the television (however manipulated) was compelling.

BEST INTERNATIONAL: KATLA (Netflix, 8 eps)
A fissure in the Earth’s surface caused by the eruption of the titular volcano unleashes creatures of Icelandic folklore in Baltasar Kormákur’s slow-burn, bleak, nightmarish study in isolation, paranoia, memory and grief. The year’s best final frame cliffhanger.

BEST LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: TASKMASTER (BBC / UKTV, 10 eps)
The well-established U.K. franchise hit its stride in 2021. At first, the mixed-bag of semi-celebs fronting the eleventh go-around of the Greg Davies/Alex Horne cult hit seemed an oddly mismatched bunch; by episode 6, and Mike Wozniak’s career-defining/ruining shock admission (“It’s an absolute casserole down there”), the season proved a series’ highwatermark. 

BEST AUSTRALIAN: DIVE CLUB (Network 10 / Netflix, 12 eps)
What pitched as a teen-dream trifle emerged as a stylish, sophisticated drama, impeccably crafted and brimming with complex characters against a gorgeous backdrop. The title conjures pre-teen Saddle/Babysitter Club-style misadventures, but the dramatic meat on its bones more closely recalls the best of Dawson’s Creek or Party of Five.

And while I don’t want to dwell on the worst TV of the year (it was LA BREA), I do want to address why two of 2021's biggest TV hits left me cold. 

I cannot reconcile the preposterous premise of TED LASSO with sufficient suspension of disbelief to find it charming or funny. The character is annoyingly cloying, a downhome doofus inconceivably tolerated by everyone in England. On the back of its success, expect a Yes Minister reboot featuring Forrest Gump. 

And the phenomenon that is SQUID GAME? The show is well-made, stocked with some interesting characters and handsomely produced, but its genre inspirations weigh heavily on its shoulders. Everything from Battle Royale to The Hunger Games to The Running Man has trodden this well-worn path to better effect. 

READ THE SCREEN-SPACE TEN BEST MOVIES OF 2021 HERE (Coming Soon!)

SCREEN-SPACE'S BEST & WORST FILMS OF 2020

So I come to my annual Best of... duties in a bit of a daze. 2020 was the year when the movie business, in the words of George Costanza, “took a bit of a tumble”. Productions ground to a halt; distribution schedules were reshuffled, then abandoned; cinemas closed their doors, some of them permanently. With the global population housebound, streaming services boomed, to such an extent that Warner Bros., one of the iconic names associated with ‘Old Hollywood’, shared their entire post-Christmas slate with their digital platform HBO Max, changing the traditional theatrical window forever. It’s been a helluva year.

It wasn’t all dire times. A dedicated team helped me launch the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, a ‘roll of the dice’ venture which worked out pretty damn good. And seeking out the best small-screen programming redefined the big-screen bent of our yearly list, with nearly half coming via the Amazon/Shudder/Netflix/Disney+ combo.

I’ve always said, “Everyone’s entitled to my opinion”, but I’m open to yours (that's not entirely true), so let me know if I’ve missed anything. Please seek out some of these lesser-known films. Thanks for your continued support, and stay healthy...

2020 FILMS IN GENERAL RELEASE (THEATRICAL/STREAMING):

1. DAVID BYRNE’S AMERICAN UTOPIA (Dir: Spike Lee; USA; 105 mins) In adapting the Broadway show (remember those?) borne of the brilliant mind of the Talking Head’s frontman, Spike Lee found heartfelt joy and a purity of spirit that all but washes away the stink that has settled on America over the last few years. Byrne’s observations of humanity and society, in a version of song and dance that taps into childlike glee and aged melancholy in equal measure, make him a profoundly important contemporary commentator. Thirty-plus years ago, Byrne fronted arguably the greatest concert film of all time; in 2020, he did it again. 

2. THE VAST OF NIGHT (Dir: Andrew Patterson; USA; 91 mins)
3. THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN (Dir: Sandra Wollner; Austria, Germany; 94 mins)
4. BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (Dir: Jason Woliner; UK, USA; 95 mins)
5. THE ASSISTANT (Dir: Kitty Green; USA; 87 mins)
6. LET HIM GO (Dir: Thomas Bezucha; USA; 103 mins)
7. HIS HOUSE (Dir: Remi Weekes; UK; 93 mins)
8. MIGNONNES (Cuties | Dir: Maïmouna Doucouré; France; 96 mins)
9. NOMADLAND (Dir: Chloe Zhao; USA; 108 mins)
10.  ATHLETE A (Dirs: Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk; USA; 103 mins)
The Next Best Ten: MISS JUNETEENTH; RELIC; DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD; HOST; ANOTHER ROUND; BECKY; MULAN; BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC; LAST AND FIRST MEN; UNDERWATER.

2020 FILMS VIEWED AT FESTIVALS (AWAITING RELEASE IN AUSTRALIA):

1. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI (Dir: Regina King; USA; 110 mins) Oscar-winning actress Regina King proves herself Hollywood’s most potent new multi-hyphenate as director of this stirring adaptation of Kemp Powers play. Capturing a fictional moment in time when American icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown meet in motel room in the ‘60s and consider their roles in the nation’s social upheaval, One Night in Miami is actor’s showpiece, a wordsmith’s masterwork, an editor’s triumph – all under the baton of a filmmaker fully invested in the heart and soul of the source material. Will be going wide in 2021 and certain to feature come Oscar time in April; got a peek thanks to TIFF.

2. THE FABRICATED (Dir: Ali Katmiri; Iran; 30 mins)
3. SHADOW IN THE CLOUD (Dir: Roseanne Liang; New Zealand, USA; 83 mins)
4. PIECES OF A WOMAN (Dir: Kornél Mundruczó; Canada, Hungary, USA; 126 mins)
5. BUIO (Darkness | Dir: Emanuela Rossi; Italy; 96 mins)
6. L’OISEAU DE PARADIS (Paradise | Dir: Paul Manaté; France, French Polynesia; 90 mins)
7. BREEDER (Dir: Jens Dahl; Denmark; 107 mins)
8. NADIA, BUTTERFLY (Dir: Pascal Plante; Canada; 107 mins)
9. LA REINA DE LOS LAGARTOS (The Queen of The Lizards | Dirs: Juan González, Nando Martínez; Spain; 63 mins)
10.  CINEMATOGRAPHER (Dir: Dan Asma; USA; 83 mins)
The Next Best Ten: VICIOUS FUN; SHIFTER; GAGARINE; WILLIE, JAMALEY & THE CACACOON; COME TRUE; FRIED BARRY; THE GO-GO’S.

THE WORST FILMS OF 2020:

Living the shut-in life meant I dodged the worst that global cinema had to offer, but I couldn’t always help myself. Just so I could wade into the echo chamber of abuse, I watched Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy (who did anybody think it would appeal to?); Australia’s favourite son Paul Hogan (circa 1978-1989) signed off on his film career with the miserable The Very Excellent Mr Dundee; and, Robert Downey Jr.’s accent alone was enough to skewer Dolittle, a hideous reimagining of the classic story (is it though?). But the year’s worst was a franchise-starter wannabe that Disney began adapting from Eoin Colfer’s blockbuster Y.A. books a decade ago, hoping it would fill the box office void left by Harry Potter’s maturing. Instead, director Kenneth Branagh’s ARTEMIS FOWL floundered in expensive post-production hell before being dumped to the Disney Plus channel, fuelling early concerns that streaming platforms would become clogged with studio deadweight. Judi Dench (pictured, above, dignity intact) should give her Oscar back; Branagh, Disney and everyone involved owe the legion of Artemis adorers an apology for running so afoul of their beloved boy hero.

THE SCREEN-SPACE YEAR-IN-REVIEW: THE BEST (& WORST) FILMS OF 2018

I decided late in 2017 that the New Year theme was going to be ‘change’. I was going to lose weight (didn’t happen); watch less/play more sport (got my diving licence, so that’s something); and, most importantly, turn my back on the alpha male heroic arc that has dominated film narratives since…well, forever. So I'm proud to say six of my Top 10 films headline female actors, eight if you count co-lead roles (amongst them, below, from left; Zoe Kazan in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Helena Howard in Madeline's Madeline, and Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade).

I admit to swimming against the current on Black Panther (I understand its importance, but…no, sorry) and Roma (gorgeous pictures do not a story make) and at time of writing, I’ve not seen award season frontrunners Vice and The Favourite (both out December 26 in Oz). Finally, apologies to Phantom Thread and I, Tonya, which I saw very late last year and which came out very early this year, slipping between the 'list-crack'. I only hope that the reputations of all involved with those fine films are not sullied by their careless omission from a Screen-Space list…

THE BEST FILMS OF 2018

10. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (Dir: Bryan Singer; USA, 134 min) Detractors went after it for sugarcoating the man's homosexuality and a rather conventional structure, but Bryan Singer’s adrenalized celebration of Freddie Mercury and the music he created with Queen was finely tuned for maximum crowd pleasure – like Freddie (brought back to life by the wonderful Rami Malek). Like the great myth-building musical biopics of yore (The Glenn Miller Story, 1954; Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980; La Bamba, 1987), Singer’s exuberant song’n’dance act acknowledges the darkness but shines its spotlight on the talent. 

9. PROTECTION (Dirs: Phillip Crawford, Gemma Parsons; Australia, 91 min) Shot by kids mostly under 12 living in subsidised housing in the Illawarra/South Coast region of NSW, Protection conveys fear, hope, sadness and joy in a manner few films ever have. Directors Phillip Crawford and Gemma Parsons were on hand to assist and ultimately corral the footage, but Protection remains purely the vision of ordinary children with vivid imaginations and profound insights into the community and friendships that binds them.

8. MADELINE’S MADELINE (Dir: Josephine Decker; USA, 93 min) Josephine Decker’s coming-of-age drama takes no easy paths – Madeline (Helena Howard) lives on the razor’s edge of teen sanity, hoping a stint in experimental theatre under director Evangeline (Molly Parker), will help her deal with an increasingly erratic mom, Regina (Miranda July). The often non-linear narrative and visual histrionics will drive some to distraction; for others, it will be exhilaratingly abstract and achingly emotional. Howard may be the acting find of 2018. 

7. LETO (SUMMER; Dir: Kirill Serebrennikov; Russia, 126 min) “There is a sprawling sense of time and place to Leto…yet there is not a frame of the film one would want to see excised. The anti-establishment themes and love-conquers-all story beats inherent to the rock/pop biopic genre have been previously explored in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000) and Anton Corbijn’s Control (2007), but rarely with such heartfelt melancholy, pained romanticism and evocative rendering of time and place.” Read the full SCREEN-SPACE review here.

6. ★ (Dir: Johann Lurf; Austria, 99 min) A master of montage storytelling, Johann Lurf has edited celluloid visions of the night sky and galaxies stretching into deep space from 550 films, creating a record of how directors have pictured the universe since cinema began. No actors and only incidental sound and dialogue as it fits the Austrian’s constructural parameters, ★ is both a breathtaking technical marvel and deeply emotional journey for science-fiction purists. Read the SCREEN-SPACE interview with director Johann Lurf here.

5. THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (Dirs: Joel & Ethan Coen; USA, 133 min) Playing like a greatest hits package of Coen Bros film styles filtered through their adoration of the western genre, …Buster Scruggs captures Joel and Ethan perfectly melding their consummate craftsmanship with their love for classical American cinema. The mid-section story, ‘The Girl Who Got Rattled’ with Zoe Kazan and Bill Heck, is the most perfect part of a near perfect movie. (Yes, it’s a Netflix film, but it played Cannes first, so watch yer mouth, stranger). 

4. PROSPECT (Dirs: Christopher Caldwell, Zeek Earl; USA, 98 min) Lo-fi tech, pulpy flavoursome dialogue, a dirt-encrusted Star Wars-like aesthetic and a complex surrogate daddy/daughter central relationship are just some of the elements that made Prospect the most engrossing sci-fi thriller of 2018. In a year peppered with breakout star performances from young actresses, Sophie Thatcher as the hard-bitten prospector’s daughter Cee is a revelation. Read the SCREEN-SPACE interview with the actress and her directors here.

3. LUZ (Dir: Tilman Singer; Germany, 70 min) It was just to be the thesis submission for film school grad Tilman Singer (hence the 70 min running time), but word soon spread that his chilling horror vision Luz was something special. Through hypnosis, a young cabbie (Luana Velis) recalls the events that led her to a stark meeting room in an undermanned police station. Shot on 16mm and skimming between realities past, present and supernatural, Luz is a bewildering, unique nightmare of a film.

2. CLIMAX (Dir: Gaspar Noé; French | Belgium, 95 min) The old high-school prom “Someone spiked the punch!” dilemma gets the Gaspar Noé spin in Climax; the punch is sangria, the prom is a dance troupe rehearsal peopled by international hotties and the spike is LSD. Frankly, everything seems on acid in this film, even before the sangria is served; the opening dance number, a single-take marvel of twisted limbs and swirling cameras that positively lifts you off your seat, sets the tone and things amp up from there. In his best film since Irreversible, Noé crafts a hallucinogenic descent into drug-induced psychosis, fuelled by the disintegration of social, sexual and moral mores. Enjoy…

1. EIGHTH GRADE (Dir: Bo Burnham; USA, 93 min) Elsie Fisher (hand her the Oscar, please) plays Kayla, a schlubby, pimply, sullen nobody/everybody who springs to life as the star of her own upbeat YouTube show. She espouses life lessons to her audience yet struggles to apply them in her own school or domestic reality. Bo Burnham’s heartbreaking, often harrowing drama has been compared to Todd Solondz’s misanthropic masterpiece Welcome to The Dollhouse, but there is a singular central hopefulness to Kayla’s journey that demands you never lose faith in her; her arc is the most real and affecting in a year of cinema.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: FIRST REFORMED; TULLY; A STAR IS BORN; FIRST LIGHT; COLD WAR; ANNA’S WAR; BLACKKKLANSMAN; AMERICAN ANIMALS; JURASSIC WORLD: FINAL KINGDOM; TRAUMA; MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT; LOVE, SIMON; SUPA MODO; STUCK; MEKTOUB, MY LOVE; CARRIBERRIE; ALPHA.

AND THE WORST…:

5. UNSANE (Dir: Steven Soderbergh; USA, 98 min; pictured, right) and 4. THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB (Dir: Fede Alvarez; USA | UK, 117 min) After TV success in The Crown, Claire Foy was poised for breakout success. Soderbergh’s gimmicky B-clunker Unsane (“Shot on an iPhone!” boasted the marketing) and the DOA franchise reboot The Girl in The Spider’s Web put the brakes on that momentum. She was good in First Man, but it tanked. Tough year for the young starlet.

3. THE PREDATOR (Dir: Shane Black; USA, 107 min) Hopes were high when alumni Shane Black opted back into the Predator franchise, the studio determined to resurrect the series after one too many crappy sequels. Post-production tinkering, tonal clashes and idiotic plotting resulted…in another crappy sequel.

2. OCCUPATION (Dir: Luke Sparke; Australia, 119 min) Overlong, overwrought, overbaked local grab at ID-4 level spectacle, Luke Sparke’s alien invasion malarkey is a fatal miscalculation of the Australian sector’s ability to pull off an effects-heavy actioner. The rubber-suited alien’s attack on a country football match aside, there isn’t an original or coherent thought in the entire shrill, shrieking mess, despite more cornball subplots and clichéd characters than a season of Neighbours. 

1. THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS (Dir: Brian Henson; USA, 91 min) About 10 minutes into Brian (son of Jim) Henson’s scummy alternate-LA puppet-private-eye dirge, the audience vibe had changed. We had already moved past the “Oh, this isn’t funny at all” stage, and were beginning to realise that, with 80-odd minutes to go, this Melissa McCarthy vehicle (what was she thinking?) was actually becoming grotesquely unwatchable. And, no, not even bong-pulling fratboys will dig it; no weed is that good.

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS: THE NUTCRACKER & THE FOUR REALMS; FIFTY SHADES FREED; ELLIPSIS; A WRINKLE IN TIME; PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING; THE MEG.