Will you?

Chapter 149: I'm giving out awards and also explaining why I hate awards...

• No Awards for Nerds!

• Actually, I’m Giving Out Awards!

• Forgot I Made a Book This Week!

• Other People Made Books This Week Too!

• The Mixtape!

Hi.

We’re going to talk about movies for a second because it’s on my mind. I guess the Golden Globes just happened (right?) and the Oscar nominations were announced. I clearly don’t pay much attention to them for a very simple reason. I think awards for art are antithetical to the idea of art. I like pretty people in pretty outfits as much as the next person I guess, but the rest of it is sort of lost on me.

I’m not trying to be a bummer and shit on people who love awards stuff. Happy for them. And I get the idea of coming together and celebrating your peers and your industry. And also there are obvious monetary benefits to the awards. But beyond all that, I’ve always thought the idea of art was “Does this speak to you? Did it change you in some way?” And I can’t really reconcile that with the Hollywood Foreign Press or the Academy telling me that no, I am wrong, and this other movie did a better job of moving me. And turning the whole thing into a competition makes it extra clear to me that I am wildly out of step with this stuff. What was the point of being an arty nerd who gets beat up by jocks if we’re just going to turn our art into a sport in the end?

I was reminded recently about Nick Cave’s letter to the MTV Awards in the 90s.

Obviously Nick Cave is going to say it better than I can, but all of this just makes sense to me. Don’t measure art against other art, measure it against yourself.

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With that said, I watched a lot of movies last year. And this year I’ve watched a bunch of movies that came out last year. So I’ve decided to list my top 5 movies that came out in 2023. To quote Walt Whitman-

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I’m not sure if he was talking about listing his favorite movies after saying awards for movies are silly, but I think he probably was. So, without further ado, my top 5(ish) movies of 2023(ish).

TURN EVERY PAGE (dir: Lizzie Gottlieb)- There is something so beautiful about a film that just celebrates strange, driven, obsessive people and the amazing things they can make. Caro and Gottlieb’s relationship, and their shared obsession in making their books, is truly a joy. A love letter to lives devoted to things that may seem unimportant to most people is exactly the sweet spot for me. I have a lot of obsessions and care a great deal about a lot of things that most of the world doesn’t. I always welcome an exploration of how that can be a good thing.

AMERICAN FICTION (dir: Cord Jefferson)- This all may be more telling about me than the films themselves, but I guess that’s the point of a list like this. Brilliant performances and a hilarious and smart bit of commentary about the times we live in make it a good movie. But it’s the heart of the film, the surprising moments of gentleness and compassion and heartbreak, that make it a great film.

DREAM SCENARIO (dir: Kristoffer Borgli)- History will view Nicolas Cage as one of the most interesting actors of all time, and a huge part of that will be because of his choice of roles. His ability to inhabit this character who is both pathetic and awful, sympathetic and alienating all at once is really jawdropping. What could have been a one note bit of weirdness becomes an amazing character piece about a man leading a surreal life. One of the funniest movies of the year too.

SISU (dir: Jalmari Helander)- We live in an era of excessively high concepts. People overthink things. People need to show you things you’ve never seen before. And I think lost in that is the joy in a simple idea done well. Sisu is that. Take a Tarantino film. Remove the snappy dialogue. Remove the non-sequitur moments. Remove the brutal tension build scenes. You’re left with a movie like Sisu. Badass revenge that looks cool and is cool, isn’t afraid to be absurd or funny, and just makes you want to yell at the movie screen. It doesn’t aspire to be more than fun and cool, and in doing so, is one of my favorite films of the year.

PAST LIVES (dir: Celine Song)- Again, there is beauty in simplicity. Just a sweet, sad movie. I was not 100% sold on it for a long time because it felt like something we’d seen before, but the last 20 or so minutes are just filled with great, heartbreaking writing and amazing performances. There is a line in there that truly destroyed me and I still think about weeks and weeks later. I was discussing it with someone who didn’t like it nearly as much as I did and we ended up talking about the last scene for almost an hour. I feel like having that much to unpack and sift through is enough to say that they were doing something right.

HONORABLE MENTIONS. I like a Top 5 list but I loved these movies so here we are.

WOMEN TALKING (dir: Sarah Polley)- Did it come out in 2023? Sure did not. But I watched it in 2023 and it was one of the most captivating things I’ve seen in years. 12 Angry Men for a modern age. The cast is non-stop brilliant. The movie feels like theater. Often that means something is going to be lost, but Sarah Polley does a brilliant job making you feel like you’re in the room with these women. The hear-a-pin-drop tension, the hold your breath moments of pain and raw emotion, all of it works just like the best play you’ve ever seen. And I have yet to see Jessie Buckley in something where it wasn’t worth it for her performance alone.

NAVALNY (dir: Daniel Roher)- Also didn’t come out in 2023. Whoops. Documentaries are funny because they fully have two different paths to being good. A great film on a boring subject can be amazing. And an okay film about a fascinating subject can also be amazing. Navalny benefits from being very well made. A fascinating look at one of Putin’s only real opposition candidates, and what it means to challenge a man like Vladimir Putin on the world stage. It moves fast but never loses detail, it gets great access but feels broad still. But really the movie hinges on a single scene about phone calls that is one of the most stunning things I’ve seen in years. It remind me a lot of the series THE JINX. That same level of “I can’t believe this is happening and I can’t believe you recorded it.” I spent a good twenty minutes of the movie very aware of how fast my heart was beating.

POOR THINGS (dir: Yorgos Lanthimos)- I am a huge Yorgos fan. I have loved every movie he made and think he is truly one of the most interesting directors working today. Poor Things is definitely unique and wildly fun, but it feels like maybe his least weird film, which was a little bit of a bummer. It is still really fucking weird though. And honestly “least favorite film from one of my most favorite directors” is actually not bad. I loved the movie a lot. It has his trademark blend of amusing and disturbing, but now with some Frankenstein-ness for added flavor. I think maybe my biggest complaint is that it felt like a lot of those early Jeunet/Caro movies like DELICATESSEN or CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. And I love those movies a lot, but up until now I don’t think I had anything to compare Lanthimos’s other movies too. Watching one of his movies has always felt like a wholly unique experience and this one did not entirely, so it lost some points. But not a lot. Emma Stone is fucking amazing in it as well. It just barely didn’t make my top 5, but I can’t stop thinking about it so I bet if I made this list again in 6 months it would.

And that’s the list. Yay.

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I always write down all the movies I watch every year and I finally decided to make a big leap. Rather than writing down all the movies I watched in a little list that I show no one, I got a Letterboxd account to track them all in front of the whole world. I love the idea of people I don’t know knowing what I enjoy and what I’m doing, so this seemed perfect and not at all intrusive and like a violation of my own privacy for no good reason.

I imported the last few years of my film watching lists and will update it as I go from now on. Now I certainly didn’t feel like I needed another social media app, I might say it is the last thing I needed, but when someone explained the site to me I was very into a lot of the features. Anyway, if you’re on there you can follow me. I don’t actually write movie reviews on there because that would be stupid of me. But feel free to follow me.

Every month I make a list of all the stuff I have coming out that month. But sometimes I miss things. Or at least, I did this month.

Turns out my DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL I made with the brilliant Mariko Tamaki and the also brilliant David Lapham is out in paperback today. If you missed it it’s a fun one. And Mariko’s Detective run rules and you should be reading that anyway. DETECTIVE COMICS: ARKHAM RISING is in stores now.

It’s Wednesday again. That means it’s time for me to recommend some comics that came out. Let’s go!

DEER EDITOR #1 by

Ryan K Lindsay

, Sami Kivela, & co. A noir story about an editor getting in over his head as he investigates a murder. And he also happens to be a deer. I would try and say something fun about this, because I love this book, but they describe it as “perfect for fans of Blacksad and Chinatown.” and that is totally true and very funny. Ryan remains one of the most interesting writers in comics and Sami never fails to make a book that is a visual joy. A truly fun and weird comic, and I can’t think of higher praise.

GHOST MACHINE #1 by Jason Fabok, Gary Frank, Bryan Hitch, Geoff Johns, Lamont Magee, Francis Manapul, Brad Meltzer, Ivan Reis, Peter Tomasi, Maytal Zchut, and co. Yes, that is a truly jawdropping list of talent. You see a list of names like that on a cover and you expect it to be absolutely amazing. And this sampler for their new shared universe is just that. A great, simple jumping on point featuring a bunch of stories by some of the best in comics. If you like superheroes, adventure stories, pulp, or action, this book and the titles that will come from it have something for you. You owe it to yourself to at least give it a shot. They made it so easy for you.

HAUNT YOU TO THE END by Ryan Cady, Andrea Mutti, & co. With the end of the world looming, an eccentric billionaire leads a team of ghost hunters to prove their is life after death. A very fun and creepy take on the haunted house story. I was a big fan of this one and it’s nice to have a pretty collection of it. If you like spooky stuff, grab it.

ASTONISHING TIMES: RISE OF THE KOKIN #1 by Frank J. Barbiere, Arris Quinones, Ruairi Coleman, & co. A prequel of sorts to the original ASTONISHING TIMES series, the new book follows the Kokin and his presence in the world. Part superhero story, part cyberpunk adventure, part noir mystery, Astonishing Times continues to be a rich universe full of big ideas and I’m happy we get to explore them further. This book isn’t out in single issues yet. It is a Comixology Amazon original, so if you want to read it now you’re reading it digitally.

IN UTERO by Chris Gooch. I love Chris’s stuff always. Just a real cartoonist’s cartoonist. Not afraid to go down weird paths, follow his heart on stuff, and still make books that feel character driven and intimate. IN UTERO finds him exploring the AKIRA space of kids in an ever-changing world getting in over their heads with big monsters and huge stakes. It’s an engrossing book and well worth your time if you like character driven sci-fi.

KLIK KLIK BOOM by Doug Wagner, Matthew Wilson, Douglas Dabbs, & co. The story of a mute assassin out for revenge in a world very alien to her. It’s a gorgeous and wild book with a lovable protagonist and a fair amount of bloodshed. It’s really just super fun.

XINO by Christopher Condon, Nick Cagnetti, Jordan Thomas, Shaky Kane, Phil Hester, David Lapham, Maria Lapham,

Alex Segura

, Zander Cannon, François Vigneault, Artyom Trakhanov, and co. An anthology of surrealist sci-fi stories for our rapidly changing world. I love anthologies always. It’s like a buffet of great art and ideas. Weirdly I don’t really like buffets though. Anyway, this book has a murderers row of great people. And pretty much anytime I can look at David Lapham and Shaky Kane art I’m happy, so this had me overjoyed.

IN HELL WE FIGHT vol. 1 by John Layman, Jok, & co. A stolen truck, a bad idea, and 3 kids and their annoying friend take off on this roadtrip adventure… through Hell. Laugh out loud funny, wildly perverse, this new take on the roadtip story is a real blast. This feels like Layman going back to his CHEW roots and giving us that same energy and I am always up for more of that.

I’m still listening to this FULL OF HELL x NOTHING collab album a lot. A great soundtrack for dreary winter months.

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That’s it for now.

Stay safe. Take care of each other. You’ll only get movie reviews from me once a year, promise.

-Matthew Rosenberg

NYC 1/24/24