Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, we have the Academy Award winning Poor Things hitting shelves, alongside a fellow a nominee in The Color Purple, as well as 2023 contenders like Ferrari and Wish. Throw in a fun romantic comedy in Anyone But You, plus more, and there’s lots to dig into today. Hell, we’ve even got two Criterion Collection releases, including All the Beauty and the Bloodshed! Which films gained top honors from me? Read on to find out…
Poor Things
Emma Stone re-teamed with Yorgos Lanthimos for a damn near masterpiece with Poor Things. Hilarious, moving, shocking, and almost impeccably made, it’s both very cool and also unsurprising that this was an Oscar success. Four Academy Awards later, topped by Stone winning Best Actress, it’s now engraved in cinematic history. If you didn’t see it last year, you really should rectify that now. I did several interviews for the flick, including Lanthimos and Stone here, as well as Willem Dafoe here, alongside Tony McNamara here. Back at the Telluride Film Festival (here), I raved about the movie in my review, which started off like so:
It shouldn’t look this easy. At this point, and with the stupendous success that is Poor Things, I think director Yorgos Lanthimos can be called a master. He’s managed to take his very specific style and worldview, which is about as singular as it gets, and create a filmmaking voice worth celebrating. His latest work, a sexually free and wildly entertaining examination of female self-discovery, is not just one of the funniest movies of the year, it’s one of the best as well. Here at the Telluride Film Festival, it’s the crowning achievement of the fest.
Poor Things is the best work to date from not only star Emma Stone but Lanthimos as well. They trust each other implicitly and it shows in the final product. Daring and wild, but also incredibly playful, their spin on the Frankenstein tale is unlike anything you’ve seen, even if the narrative won’t necessarily surprise you. In their hands, you’re safe, provided of course that you don’t get offended easily.
Anyone But You
A really enjoyable romantic comedy, Anyone But You has searing chemistry between Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. That sure goes along way, but this silly film is a lot of fun. The rom com is back, baby! My highly positive review here includes the following section:
Chemistry is key in a romantic comedy. If you have it, you’re going to be able to get away with a lot. If you don’t, there’s almost nothing that a rom-com can do to make up for it. Luckily for Anyone But You, the film has chemistry between its leads in spades. Watching them spar, sparks fly, making for the main appeal here. It’s especially paramount, since aside from some surprisingly funny throwaway lines from supporting players, the central plot leaves a lot to be desired. This is a decidedly imperfect movie, but I was charmed by it to a large degree.
Anyone But You also marks the rare romantic comedy actually still getting a wide release in theaters these days. Mostly, rom-coms go to streaming now, which is a shame. Not only is this a great date movie, it’s low-key a throwback to a time where this sort of a picture was the norm. Now, its mere existence is a novelty, which perhaps contributes to why the film ultimately worked on me far more than it didn’t.
Also Available This Week
Rick and Morty: Season 7 (TV)
Suzume
Criterion Corner
All That Money Can Buy (a.k.a. The Devil and Daniel Webster)
From The Criterion Collection: “Jabez Stone is a hardworking farmer trying to make an honest living, but a streak of bad luck tempts him to do the unthinkable: bargain with the devil himself. In exchange for seven years of good fortune, Stone promises “Mr. Scratch” his soul. But when the troubled farmer begins to realize the error of his choice, he enlists the aid of the one man who might save him: the legendary orator and politician Daniel Webster. Directed with stylish flair by William Dieterle, All That Money Can Buy brings the classic short story by Stephen Vincent Benét to life with inspired visuals, an unforgettable, Oscar-winning score by Bernard Herrmann, and a truly diabolical performance from Walter Huston as the devil.”
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
From The Criterion Collection: “Fearless documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras’s career-long pursuit of truth and justice finds powerful expression in an epic story of art, activism, and survival. Made in collaboration with renowned artist Nan Goldin, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed entwines the mission of PAIN—an advocacy group she founded to raise awareness about the billionaire Sackler family’s integral role in the ongoing crisis of opioid overdoses—with an intimate journey through Goldin’s life, from her rebellious adolescence and immersion in New York City’s thriving underground arts scene to her personal experiences of addiction and the AIDS epidemic. Through it all, her indelible photographs and candid reflections on memory and trauma reveal her unyielding solidarity with marginalized communities that refuse to remain silent.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
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