“It’s like poetry -They rhyme.” -George Lucas
In 2023, I did something a little crazy. Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER was re-released in IMAX at the same time that Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was also running in premium formats. Having already seen both movies more than once, it didn’t seem too far-fetched to catch an IMAX double feature. Maybe it was spending 6hr and 20min with the bloody sins of the American Experiment, but the two films started to talk to each other, back and forth.
“You don't get to commit the sin, and then ask all of us to feel sorry for you when there are consequences,” Kitty Oppenheimer said in one film, essentially laying out Ernest Burkhart’s entire arc in the other. It also struck me that the combination of cowboys, atomics, and patriotism made it feel like the films were in conversation with another film from that year, Wes Anderson’s ASTEROID CITY. It was like the three films rhymed.
About a month ago, it happened again. I was going over my favorite movies of the year and these rhyming couplets began to pop up, enough that they could comprise my entire top 20 of the year, and so I’m running with it, for this year at least. The Holistic Top 20 may never happen again, so let’s enjoy this while we can.
Whether it’s the twin gentrification stories of EVIL DOES NOT EXIST and ROADHOUSE, or the pot-addled navel-gazing of MEGALOPOLIS and RAP WORLD, the video game flourishes of AGGR0 DR1FT and HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, or the protective patriarchs of TRAP and JUROR #2, certain films from this year just seem to fit together. And over the course of January, I will be celebrating that here.
The Holistic Top 20 begins later this week, and here’s what you can expect from the 10-part series:
ROADHOUSE, EVIL DOES NOT EXIST, and The Chaos of Gentrification
MEGALOPOLIS, RAP WORLD, and A Stoner’s Attempt To Make Something…Anything
AGGR0 DR1FT, HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, and Video Game Cinema Comes Of Age
THE BEAST, CHALLENGERS, and The Thrillingly Aware Spectator
CLOUD, LA CHIMERA, and The Modern-Day Outlaw
FURIOSA, A REAL PAIN, and The End Of History
A DIFFERENT MAN, OH, CANADA, and The Man In The Mirror
TRAP, JUROR #2, and Daddy’s Little Girl
HERE, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, and The Homes We Make
NO OTHER LAND, THE END, and The Non-Renewable Resource Of Trust
I told you it was going to get weird.