Listener reviewers Sarah Watt and Russell Baillie choose the best 20 films of the year, listed here in alphabetical order.
Aftersun
This dad-and-daughter tale made for a quietly devastating debut feature for Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells as it followed single father Calum (Paul Mescal) and 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) on a 1990s package holiday to Turkey. Their vacation was mostly uneventful, but it certainly explored some emotional territory in a film delivered with both warmth and quiet dread. And it featured movie soundtrack standby David Bowie and Queen’s Under Pressure in such a way that you may never hear it quite the same way again.
See it: SkyGo, VOD
Anatomy of a Fall
A French courtroom drama that dissected a suspicious death and the fallibility of human emotions and perception, this Palme D’Or winner stunned with its gripping analysis of whether successful author Sandra (Toni Erdmann’s Sandra Hüller) was responsible for her husband’s fatal plunge from their alpine chalet.
See it: Cinemas, VOD
Barbie
The mainstream movie phenomenon of the year came from a seemingly unlikely combination – the mischievous feminist sensibility of indie writer-director Greta Gerwig, the star power of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and the beloved toy line, which got the biggest marketing campaign in its 64 years. Robbie was plastic and fantastic, Gosling’s Ken was hilarious, and the film was so very pink that it risked frying cinema projection systems of the world.
See it: VOD
Creed III
The title of best sequel of the year goes to this unexpectedly great boxing movie, with this round of the Rocky franchise directed by its star Michael B Jordan. Adonis Creed (Jordan) is enjoying the fruits of his success when childhood friend Dame (a captivating Jonathan Majors) gets out of jail and comes for his just deserts. Delivering a layered performance of his own, Jordan’s inaugural captaining of such a much-battered piece of film IP was a triumph.
See it: VOD
Ennio
Maestro Ennio Morricone, composer of more than 400 scores for film and television, (and a whole lot of pop music besides), was the worthy subject of this enthralling cinematic documentary by fellow Italian Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso). Through fascinating talking-heads interviews with filmmakers and musicians, as well as the legend himself, we gained a deep appreciation of the gift of Morricone’s nine-decade life and indelible impact on the screen.
See it: Rialto channel from January 11.
Living
In this British remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 classic Ikiru, Bill Nighy earned his first Oscar nomination in a five-decade career as the intensely private and dignified civil servant whose terminal diagnosis prompts him to re-evaluate his life. Nighy’s subtle and affecting performance was matched by a series of younger faces whose characters enriched the old-timer’s understanding, and ours, of what life should be all about.
See it: Prime Video, Neon, SkyGo
Loop Track
Tom Sainsbury wrote, directed and starred in this accomplished, devilishly funny and imaginatively startling horror movie set in NZ bush. Seeking a few days’ peace to get away from his troubles, meek Ian finds himself ambushed by a trio of well-meaning hikers insistent on bringing him out of his funk.
See it: Cinemas
Monolith
An assured Australian indie movie with an unassuming premise, Monolith impressed as a one-woman, one-location show about a podcaster investigating the appearance of mysterious black bricks. Centred by a strong lead in actress Lily Sullivan, the simple story turned into a nightmare of suffocating tension.
See it: VOD
Notre-Dame on Fire
Moving like a documentary, but using a mix of actors and real people to re-enact the 2019 disaster at the world’s most famous cathedral, this exhilarating and moving film was also an insightful depiction of the Parisian authorities’ exhaustive attempts to save the landmark from going up in flames.
See it: VOD
Past Lives
Korean-American writer-director Celine Song’s debut feature might have been yet another autobiographical migrant-identity tale. But framed as a story of lost love, and moving on with our lives, it became something more – the year’s most touching and authentic screen romance.
See it: VOD
Poor Things
From our forthcoming review of the film, based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, which reunites director Yorgos Lanthimos, writer Tony McNamara, and The Favourite star Emma Stone: “When Lanthimos last directed Stone in the McNamara-penned The Favourite, the result was a brilliant upending of the royalty period film. Here, they’ve repeated the trick with Frankenstein-like mad scientists and their creations. It’s a film which out-Burtons early Tim Burton and out-Lynchs Elephant Man-era David Lynch.
See it: Cinemas from January 1
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s film about the father of the atomic bomb was one big, sexy science lesson. The ballistic boffin biopic reminded us that the brilliant, conflicted physicist wasn’t great at coping with life above subatomic level. And Nolan’s big-bang screen fireworks aside, much of the film belonged to Cillian Murphy’s mesmerising portrayal of Oppenheimer, a man who changed history, then tried to deal with the consequences.
See it: VOD
River
What’s the annual New Zealand International Film Festival for if not to bring you slivers of cinematic pleasure you’d never happen upon otherwise? Low budget but high concept, River was just that: a tricky tale about folk in a small Japanese village who suddenly find themselves caught in a recurring time loop of precisely two minutes. The farce that ensues feels fresh, clever and exhilarating.
Saltburn
This glorious mash-up of Brideshead Revisited meets Tom Ripley in the 21st century showed writer-director Emerald Fennell’s gift for black, barbed wit and shock tactics in this psychological thriller. Poor northern lad Oliver (a very committed Barry Keoghan) ingratiates himself with the posh family of his Oxford classmate at the country pile of the title.
See it: Prime Video from December 20
Scrapper
Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) showed his incredible range in this touching dark comedy as the absent father who shows up uninvited to parent a self-sufficient tween when her mother dies. The debut feature of British director Charlotte Regan, and with a terrific performance from pint-sized newcomer Lola Campbell, Scrapper was a pitch-perfect odd-couple tale of love and inescapable family bonds.
See it: VOD
Tàr
Cate Blanchett wowed with yet another compelling performance in this twist on the traditional #metoo premise: that of a lauded female conductor whose outed bad behaviour threatens to bring her professional and personal downfall. Director Todd Field’s superb screenplay and adept use of long talky scenes, tricky edits and sensational music delivered far more than just a morality tale.
See it: Prime Video
The Fabelmans
Veteran film-maker Steven Spielberg made his most personal film yet in this thinly veiled autobiography of growing up as the geeky Jewish kid in the 1950s white American suburbia of Arizona and California. With a fabulous turn by Michelle Williams as his mother, Spielberg’s story of his own beginnings in film and his parents’ divorce comes across as neither a tell-all nor vain rewriting of history, but a moving, fascinating and funny origin story.
See it: SkyGo, VOD
The Holdovers
From our forthcoming review of the film that reunites director Alexander Payne with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti, who plays a New England private school teacher put in charge of the kids who can’t go home for Christmas: “We all have teachers we remember, for good or bad, and this twist on Dead Poets Society meets The Breakfast Club dressed up in hideous 70s attire may leave you nostalgic for your own school days.”
See it: Cinemas from January 11.
The Killer
Assassin movies are two a penny, but when it’s David Fincher directing Michael Fassbender, high hopes are justified. Fassbender’s blankly unmemorable hired killer messes up a job in Paris and is forced to protect those he loves from a vengeful client. With Fincher’s eye for detail, the superb photography and breathtaking sound design elevated this déjà vu plot to a stylish and riveting thriller.
See it: Netflix
Theater Camp
Paying homage to the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest (notably Waiting for Guffman), this straight-faced and often hilarious romp followed the stage directors and theatre kids who come together at an American summer camp every year to “turn cardboard into gold”. Affectionately mocking but never snide, the laugh-a-minute script full of in-jokes and nose-taps proved delightful viewing for anyone with twitching jazz hands.
See it: Disney+
“VOD” is video on demand, rental streaming services including AroVision, Mubi, Academy OnDemand, YouTube, Apple TV, Neon.
