this year was an AMAZING year for film!!!! so many incredible directors and creators released highly anticipated work and there was also a lot of really great work from the indie scene too. i discovered so many amazing works and really connected to some of them in particular. here’s a recap!

BARBIE : as someone who has been a huge fan of greta gerwig, margot robbie, and ryan gosling separately for years, Barbie was basically my own personal Avengers: Endgame. i love love love how greta gerwig is able to really dig into what makes humanity so special, all the little moments and connections and all the imperfections, whilst also creating an unbelievably amazing plastic world for the dolls to live in. it’s funny, it’s so much fun, and it makes me feel alive. i watched it 20 times this year (no i’m not exaggerating actually) and i would watch it 20 more. it’s 2 hours of absolute joy! getting transported to a different world and going through barbie’s journey alongside her as she becomes less of a plastic doll and more a living breathing human being always makes me feel a little bit better about the “real world” that i live in, too. barbie makes me want to appreciate each day more, margot robbie gives a beautiful, nuanced, incomparable performance, and ryan gosling makes me giggle a lot. what more could i want?

POOR THINGS : god. what a movie. i’ve seen it described as Barbie for mentally ill girls, which is so true in certain regards. the movie follows bella as she realizes the life she’s been living isn’t all of what the world has to offer, and as she explores the world and challenges her own role in it, she comes to understand what makes life worth living. it’s stunning cinematography, the worldbuilding is so cool and i loved how much they leaned into surrealism. the score, also, was absolutely fantastic, and finding out that it was the composer’s first film score ever blew my mind. the costumes were absolutely to die for, and emma stone really killed it in a role that was really different from anything i’d ever seen from her!

ASTEROID CITY : another film that made me feel grateful to be alive. wes anderson did it again, i truly believe this is a masterpiece. it has all the classic wes components, dry humor and quirky characters and jason schwartzman and symmetrical shots and quick pans to reveal more of the story (or often a punchline). additionally, the film really digs into the creation of art, and with that, the way in which we live. one particular scene really stuck out to me and was part of the pull for my multiple repeat viewings, and it involved the aforementioned schwartzman fearing he didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t understand the meaning, desperately wanting to get it but couldn’t. adrien brody responds, “it doesn’t matter. just keep telling the story.” so often i feel so stuck in place because i don’t know what to do or where to go from wherever i am, but this reminder to just keep moving and allow things to fall where they may really spoke to me!

MAY DECEMBER : wow. wow wow wow. such a huge topic to tackle and who better to do it than todd haynes? his work is always a little subversive, he takes risks often which is what makes his films so interesting. but there’s so much here; the exploitation of the story by the media but with little to no actual care for the victim, the exploitation of the story by hollywood under false claims of “seeking the truth,” the craziness of method acting, the long term effects of trauma and finally seeing it 19 years too late. julianne moore and todd haynes are magic together like always, natalie portman is of course a star, but charles melton’s performance as a young dad whose teenage kids seem more grown up than him in some ways is what really brings everything together. a harrowing watch for sure, but very worth it.

PRISCILLA : a new sofia coppola too?! so many auteur films lined up and released in the same year, how lucky we are! i loved this film, it portrayed loneliness so well. the mundanity and frustration of the isolation priscilla experienced was felt by the audience, which i believe is why i heard a few complaints about it being “boring”– that’s sorta the point! her life was not as glamorous as it looked on the outside. cailee spaeny is absolutely fantastic as priscilla throughout multiple different phases of her life, and jacob elordi effortlessly morphs into elvis, making me forget what real elvis actually looked like. (i just see jacob elordi now). sofia coppola is known for her depictions of loneliness and being trapped in a gilded cage, being misunderstood, etc, and it’s so interesting to compare marie antoinette’s life with priscilla presley’s. both thrust into the spotlight too young and kept away from society in many ways, forced to play a role they don’t want to play.

BOTTOMS : i was so lucky to be able to see the world premiere at sxsw and the energy in the theater was AMAZING. every joke landed, the laughs were so genuine, and the applause afterwards was enormous. this movie is genius, it satirizes so many of the teen comedies that came before it while also creating a story that is easy to get invested in and characters that are so entertaining (if not always likable). a few lines made me gasp–i couldn’t believe someone said that in a movie! the bloody ending was pretty unexpected yet somehow landed perfectly on its feet. havana rose liu was such a standout to me, i had seen her in No Exit in a very serious and intense role, and she morphed flawlessly into the character of isabel. all the actors were so committed to their roles! i love when friends make movies together and you can just feel how much fun they were having on set.

EILEEN : i loved the book, so when i found out the author, ottessa moshfegh, was co-writing the screenplay for the film adaptation, i was stoked! i think the film captured the essence of the book really really well. the griminess, the loneliness, the obsession, all intertwined to create a malignant mass that weighs heavy on the chest. thomasin mackenzie and anne hathaway, both of who i was somewhat skeptical about since they didn’t really match what i saw when i read the book, absolutely nailed their roles, with thomasin’s anxious wandering eyes and stiff posture seeming so natural and familiar, and the visions/daydreams were done in such a way that kept everyone in the audience guessing, not knowing if or when we might wake up from the tragedy before us.

ANATOMY OF A FALL : i’m a sucker for a good court drama, and this one was really fantastic. the way that the media loves to pick apart women’s lives, and the way events get twisted to create a more interesting narrative even if the story’s fake, is really prevalent in today’s world. sandra’s predicament is devastating, and i found myself sympathizing with her even when it looked really bad for her. the language barrier added an extra layer of miscommunication and discomfort, and the dog gave one of the best performances i’ve seen from an animal ever. i hope he joins jenny the donkey from Banshees of Inisherin in the animal actor hall of fame.

honorable mentions that i loved but didn’t write about: The Boy and The Heron, Past Lives, The Holdovers, American Fiction, Saltburn, All of Us Strangers, Sanctuary, Killers of the Flower Moon, Theater Camp, Dream Scenario, Polite Society, & The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes