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American Fiction (2023)
It is a cruel twist of irony that sees writer Monk Ellison’s parody of exploitative Black novels exalted as a serious piece of literature in American Fiction, and one which Cord Jefferson wields impressive self-awareness over, sharply satirising the liberal elite’s attempts to assuage their white guilt by gleefully consuming African American trauma in media.
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Dune: Part Two (2024)
Denis Villeneuve’s extraordinary adaptation of Frank Herbert’s unfathomably vast imagination incidentally demonstrates his own in Dune: Part Two, further developing his elemental worldbuilding and biblical iconography through the darkly subverted monomyth of a prophesied Messiah, and pushing the parable’s cinematic spectacle to astonishingly creative lengths.
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2023 in Cinema
Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist odyssey ventures into the surreal heart of womanhood, Chad Stahelski lifts the John Wick franchise to transcendent new heights, and Barbenheimer draws crowds to the cinema for a double feature of conflicting blockbusters.
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Fallen Leaves (2023)
The working-class lovers of Fallen Leaves may be set back by personal flaws, but the string of unlucky coincidences playing a greater cosmic joke on them can’t be ignored either, as Aki Kaurismäki’s minimalist comedy-drama stubbornly seeks romance within the deadpan mundanity of downtown Helsinki.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
It is in the anarchic rejuvenation of animation itself that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem fully embraces the rebellious spirit of its outcast heroes, emulating the sort of colourful scrawls and grungy imperfections that might be found in a teenager’s sketchbook, and vividly manifesting the coming-of-age tale which underlies its kinetic superhero action.
