Like I said at the start of the year: I'm done being an awards season completist. Only 128 entries in my Letterboxd, plus a lot of TV, though still a far cry from my 2020/2021/2022 numbers (I believe there's no returning to those days anymore). The upside is that I ended up seeing 77 pieces of theater, so best to take that earlier declaration with a grain of salt. Now let me leave you with just a top three--as usual, culled from the year's titles and the previous year's leftovers: a trifecta that forms a prescient, frightening, hope-diminishing picture of the world we now live in.
1. 'The Rehearsal' Season 2 (HBO; created by Nathan Fielder)
The best thing I saw this year, a complete overhaul of the phrase "committing to the bit." Fattest brain in the entire universe, in the most Filipino sense. And a richer, far more insightful and expansive look into this pocket of the manosphere, the patriarchy, and the emotional circuits of these effing males, than that British miniseries with the one-take schtick.
2. 'No Other Land' (dirs. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor)
The defining global event of our time; the unmasking of the so-called modern benevolent White Westerner; the ultimate test of our individual and collective moral compasses--all simultaneously complicated and rendered crystal-clear in one of the bravest pieces of filmmaking ever made.
3. 'One Battle After Another' (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
I know, I know, it's a very US film/problem, but it may as well be about us.
* * * * *
Here are the rest of my 5-star titles in alphabetical order, and hyperlinked to my Letterboxd review where applicable:
- 'Alipato at Muog' (dir. JL Burgos)
- 'Asura' (Netflix; dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
- 'Bugonia' (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
- 'Come See Me in the Good Light' (dir. Ryan White)
- 'Common Side Effects' Season 1 (Adult Swim; created by Joe Bennett & Steve Hely)
- 'Dying for Sex' (FX on Hulu; created by Kim Rosenstock & Elizabeth Meriwether)
- 'An Errand' (dir. Dominic Bekaert)
- 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You' (dir. Mary Bronstein)
- 'I'm Still Here' (dir. Walter Salles)
- 'Kinakausap ni Celso ang Diyos' (dir. Gilb Baldoza)
- 'My Sunshine' (dir. Hiroshi Okuyama)
- 'Nananahan' (dir. Dwein Baltazar)
- 'Only We Know' (dir. Irene Villamor)
- 'The Perfect Neighbor' (dir. Geeta Gandbhir)
- 'The Phoenician Scheme' (dir. Wes Anderson)
- 'Platonic' Season 2 Episode 3 (Apple TV+; dir. Francesca Delbanco)
- 'The Pitt' Season 1 (Max; R. Scott Gemmill, creator & showrunner)
- 'Some Nights I Feel Like Walking' (dir. Petersen Vargas)
- 'The Studio' Season 1 (Apple TV+; created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory & Frida Perez)
- 'Your Mother's Son' (dir. Jun Lana)
- 'Zootopia 2' (dirs. Jared Bush & Byron Howard)
PLUS--26 more titles worth checking out (my 4-star babies, basically):
'15 Ways My Dad Almost Died' (dir. Sura Mallouh); 'All We Imagine as Light' (dir. Payal Kapadia); 'Babygirl' (dir. Halina Reijn); 'Cloud' (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa); 'Cover-Up' (dirs. Laura Poitras & Mark Obenhaus); 'Daisy' (dirs. Aditi Dixit, Pepot Atienza & Shecid Dominguez Aguilera); 'Frankenstein' (dir. Guillermo del Toro); 'Hacks' Season 4 (Max; created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky); 'Hard Truths' (dir. Mike Leigh); 'It Was Just an Accident' (dir. Jafar Panahi); 'Journeyman' (dirs. Christian Paolo & Dominic Lat); 'Kampana' (dir. Mark Mendoza); 'Long Story Short' Season 1 (Netflix; created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg); 'Lunod' (dir. Mads Miraflor); 'The Mastermind' (dir. Kelly Reichardt); 'Mickey 17' (dir. Bong Joon-ho); 'A Nice Indian Boy' (dir. Roshan Sethi); 'Objects Do Not Randomly Fall From the Sky' (dir. Maria Estela Paiso); 'Overcompensating' Season 1 (Amazon Prime Video; created by Benito Skinner); 'A Real Pain' (dir. Jesse Eisenberg); 'The Room Next Door' (dir. Pedro Almodóvar); 'Say Nothing' (FX on Hulu/ Disney+; created by Joshua Zetumer); 'Sorry, Baby' (dir. Eva Victor); 'Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat' (dir. Johan Grimonprez); 'St. Denis Medical' Season 1 Episode 12 (NBC; dir. Heather Jack); 'Weapons' (dir. Zach Cregger)
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