For best-of end of the year lists, I normally would talk about my favorite new movies that came out, but I didn’t see much new movies this year, I just watch a lot of older stuff on streaming. So this is a much smaller list of my favorite new movies.
The French Dispatch, directed by Wes Anderson. I really enjoyed this a lot. I’m hit or miss with Anderson’s quirky style, but this I liked. It was detailed with rich character performances, an incredible ensemble cast, was a mix of dark humor and emotional moments, and it felt peppered with a lot of small details that I’m sure I’ll catch on a re-viewing.
Together Together, directed by Nikole Beckwith. This was a unique romantic comedy of sorts where Patti Harrison is a twenty something loner who becomes the surrogate for Ed Helms’ single middle-aged guy who wants a kid. They don’t fall in love or anything like that, but it’s an interesting movie about this relationship between these two people that is transactional on the surface, but becomes a much more meaningful friendship, with complicated feelings involved. Harrison’s character was a teen mom who gave her child up for adoption, and is estranged from her family as a result, and Helms’ character didn’t get to have a kid with his ex of eight years and wants the same love of fatherhood that his partnered peers have. It’s a really good movie on Hulu.
Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall. This was both a beautiful and somber film about two old friends (Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga) who are Black women in the 1920s and can both pass for white, which brings on a lot of issues about race and class, as Negga’s husband, a blatantly racist white man (Alexander Skarsgaard) doesn’t know she’s Black. The film’s themes are very deep, and I enjoyed how beautifully shot the film is in black and white, and the loving and warm connection that Thompson and Negga portray as old friends reuniting, they had great chemistry with each other. It’s on Netflix.
Plan B, directed by Natalie Morales. I’ve liked Natalie Morales for years, a funny and sharp actress who has the bad luck of ending up on shows that get cancelled (Santa Clarita Diet, The Middleman, some forgettable Fox sitcom), and deserves a bigger career. She directed this really good teen comedy about two best friends, both nerdy girls, who are on a quest to get the morning-after pill after one of them loses her virginity at a party and is freaking out the next day. They are denied the pill at a pharmacy according to a sexist law where the pharmacist can deny teen girls the pill based on their moral judgment, so they have to drive out of state to get to the nearest Planned Parenthood. It’s a road trip comedy featuring an Indian and Latine best friend pair, they run into weird situations, one of the girls is queer and finds a connection with a cute acquaintance, and the story hammers home how important it is for women and girls to have access for their reproductive health. It’s on Hulu.
Pig, directed by Michael Sarnoski. This is a quiet and meditative drama on grief and loss where Nicolas Cage plays a former chef turned truffle hunter who lives out in the rural wilderness of Oregon with his pet pig, and one night, his home is ambushed and his pig is stolen. He goes on a journey to his former home of Portland to find his pig and get it back, but this isn’t John Wick, it’s not a vengeance killing spree. It’s a slow burn drama, that’s quiet and moody and sad, and I feel like I should watch it again to really get it. Cage is really good in this, it’s always nice to see him show he knows how to act with subtlety when he has a really good script. It’s on Hulu.
The Harder They Fall, directed by Jeymes Samuel. This was a really fun and stylish Western featuring a majority Black cast that is both a revenge drama and a war between two outlaw gangs. The film is just packed with talent like Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, Damon Wayans, Jr., LaKeith Stanfield, and others. I was thrilled to see the singer Alice Smith in a saloon scene, as she’s been making more of a comeback lately after a long music hiatus, and I loved Regina King’s long button-down coats that fit the badass outlaw look that she had. It’s on Netflix.
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