okay, i know we're fist deep into 2024, but life is complicated and if the oscars were just a week ago that means it's perfectly fine to do my year end list now. no arguments.

TOP 10 FILMS

1 POLITE SOCIETY
2 GODZILLA MINUS ONE
3 BOTTOMS
4 JOY RIDE
5 POOR THINGS
6 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
7 KNOCK AT THE CABIN

yes, i called it a TOP 10 despite knowing i only had 7. do something.

honorable mentions to the "fun for the whole family" BLUE BEETLE and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MUTANT MAYHEM. OPPENHEIMER probably could have made the list if they cut everything after the bomb (or just did this and cut straight to to credits), alas.

and finally... the recipient of the FILMMAKER WITHOUT BALLS award goes to david fincher for his "killer" not killing the fucking dog. if you make a movie about a sociopathic assassin who has absolutely no qualms (exclusively) killing brown men, women, and sex workers, here's a piece of advice: don't have him spend 10 minutes saving a dog. it's weird.

more advice: if you make us watch a relatively innocent black man die on the ground choking on his own blood in 2023, maybe don't let the rich white dude actually responsible for all the killer's problems live at the end??? never has it been more clear a film was made with not one person of color on the creative team around to say, "hey... bad idea."

my favorite albums of 2023 were noname's SUNDIAL, kelela's RAVEN, fever ray's RADICAL ROMANTICS... and probably the new christine and the queens, though i kinda got mad and stopped listening to it when he cancelled his montréal concert without any word to ticketholders/fans. still holding a grudge, chris.

really though, all my favorite music was stuff i heard on montréal's excellent french college radio station CISM, including the obgms album THE ENDS from 2020. i had no idea toronto was rocking so hard.

i'd say cheers to a better 2024, but... that clearly isn't happening. so in these bleak times, with the news filled with genocide and insanity and life filled with violence... all we have are those little moments when art reminds us that maybe we're more than this stupid fucking bullshit.

so, cheers to that.

2025.03.19