Halfway Mark Pt 1: Fav Films & Cinematic Achievements

by Nathaniel R 

Film years always start slow because distributors don't do their work evenly. The second half is more robust of course and we've just entered it. Though I always hope to have screened 50 films from the new year by approximately the halfway mark, this year I'm managed 41 to date. Neverthless, let's take stock of January 1st through July 11th (since we're posting just after Superman's opening). Yes, it's slightly more than six months of cinema but close enough. It's not that all of these "bests" from a shallow pool will linger as "favourites", but neither should they be automatically sacrificed to recency bias in December! 

The unofficial honors (with several write-ups) come after the jump...

Before we begin, I should note that I haven't seen everything I was interested in for various reasons. For instance I have yet to see: Bring Her Back, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Familiar Touch, How to Train Your Dragon, Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning, Old Woman and the Knife, The Old Guard 2, One of Them Days, The Phoenician Scheme, Queens of Drama, Queen of My Dreams, The Shrouds, and Sorry Baby.  I won't get to them all but if you want to stick up for any of them, please do!

PICTURE

LOVE (SEX, DREAMS)

• Love (Sex Dreams)  AND Sex (Dreams Love) These are two separate movies but I don't think I will be able to separate them in awardage come year's end, as the titles are truly interchangeable and they play like variations on a theme.  They're two thirds of the provocative 'Oslo Trilogy' from rising Norwegian director Dag Johan Hagenrud. They're just lovely and dreamy and open minded and I can't stop thinking about them. The soul-stirring in both 'variations' springs initially from a disarming conversation between two co-workers (in Sex it's two middle aged men, and in Love a female urologist and her male nurse) and the spillover of those conversations into their relationships. Both are (mostly) centered on heterosexual couples but are infused with a distinct queer sensibility; I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like these. Absolutely cannot wait for the final film, Dreams (Sex Love), which won Berlinale earlier this year. [IN THEATERS]

• Mickey 17 - Bong Joon Ho's eccentric sci-fi dramedy about a clone and a society led by unethical religious politicians apparently had too much flavor for general audiences but I for one appreciated a non-derivative and unpredictable ride. [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON MAX] 
  
  
• A Nice Indian Boy - Romance blossoms between a lonely closeted Indian doctor and a disarmingly earnest white man (with quite an unusual backstory) in this endearing drama. [AVAILABLE TO RENT] 
  
  
• Sinners - A muscular swing and triple for Ryan Coogler with this time-transporting mashup between vampire thrillers, period gangster dramas, and juke joint musicals. It's not perfect but it sure is riveting. [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON MAX] 
  
  

DIRECTOR 

MICKEY 17

• Bong Joon-Ho, Mickey 17
• Dag Johan Haugerud, Love (Sex Dreams) AND Sex (Dreams Love)
• Luis Ortega Kill the Jockey for his surreal stylish and very cinematic playfulness [IN THEATERS NOW]
• Roshan Sethi, A Nice Indian Boy
• Ryan Coogler, Sinners

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

MATERIALISTS

• Love (Sex, Dreams)  AND Sex (Dreams, Love) - Dag Johan Haugerud
• Materialists - Celine Song's follow up to Past Lives, about a matchmaker and her two primary romances, isn't as effortless in execution but it's still stirring and thoughtful. A rare film to address uncomfortable transactional truths about modern dating. [IN THEATERS NOW]
• Misericordia - I had more than a few qualms about Alain Guirardie's execution of his own material, but the screenplay for this sexually impulsive French thriller is nervy and so weirdly matter-of-fact about its perversity that it turns the corner into being quite funny, too. [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON CRITERION CHANNEL]
• Sinners - Ryan Coogler
• Viet and Nam - Minh Quy Truong strange, political, meditative look at two coal mining lovers yearning for a life abroad in Viet & Nam. [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON MUBI]

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

A NICE INDIAN BOY

• Mickey 17 - Bong Joon Ho riffs on the novel "Mickey 7" by Edward Ashton. 
• A Nice Indian Boy- Eric Randall adapts the play by Madhuri Shekar to screen.
• Thunderbolts* - Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo adapt from various comic books and Marvel characters. [AVAILABLE TO RENT]
• The Ugly Stepsister - Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt harnesses "Cinderella" for her body-horror debut. [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON SHUDDER / AMC+] 
• The Wedding Banquet - Andrew Ahn modernizes and repopulates the screenplay from Ang Lee's 1993 film. [AVAILABLE TO RENT]

COSTUME DESIGN

THE UGLY STEPSISTER

• Kill the Jockey - Beatriz di Benedetto
• Materialists - Katina Danabassis
• Paddington in Peru - Ahmed Younes & Charlotte Walter [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON NETFLIX]
• Sinners - Ruth E Carter
• The Ugly Stepsister - Manon Rasmussen. That image of silkworms repairing Cinderella's blue ball gown is really something, grounded in the grotesque (like the rest of the films) but with an otherworldly beauty all its own.

CINEMATOGRAPHY 

• F1 The Movie - Claudio Miranda. This level of commercial gloss is rarely what I want from cinematography but it's right for this film. [IN THEATERS]
• Materialists - Shabier Kirchner
• Mickey 17 - Darius Khondji
• Sinners - Autumn Durald Arkapaw
• Viet and Nam - Son Doan

PRODUCTION DESIGN

28 YEARS LATER

• 28 Years Later - Carson McColl & Gareth Pugh. Included here mostly for Dr Kelson's private sculptural skull park. [IN THEATERS]
• Materialists - Anthony Gasparro
• Mickey 17 - Fiona Crombie
• Paddington in Peru - Andy Kelly
• Sinners - Hannah Beachler

MAKEUP AND HAIR

SUPERMAN

• Mickey 17
• Paddington in Peru
• Sinners
• Superman. For Metamorpho, sure, but has Supes spit-curl ever been this beautifully incorporated into the character's look before? [IN THEATERS]
• The Ugly Stepsister

FILM EDITING

F1 THE MOVIE

• 28 Years Later - Jon Harris
• F1 The Movie - Stephen Mirrione
• Mickey 17 - Jinmo Yang
• A Nice Indian Boy - Stephanie Kaznocha
• Sinners - Michael P Shawver

VISUAL EFFECTS

• Elio [IN THEATERS]
• Jurassic World Rebirth  [IN THEATERS]
• Mickey 17
• Superman
• Thunderbolts* Sentry's void, like a shadow-blast version of 'the snap', is unusually haunting and low-fi for this sort of picture.

ORIGINAL SCORE

SEX

• Elio  - Rob Simonsen
• Love AND Sex  - Peder Sjellsby. This composer is definitely adding to the unique personality of this thoughtful trilogy
• Mickey 17 - Jung Jae-il
• Paddington in Peru - Dario Marianelli
• Thunderbolts* - Son Lux

ADAPTED OR SONG-HEAVY SCORE

COMPANION

• Companion -I loved the cheeky satiric sensibility of "How Deep is Your Love" and especially Book of Love's "Boy" in the mixtape with the original score. [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON MAX]
• Disney's Snow White - Pasek & Paul's song score is their weakest yet but at least it has the very effective (if somewhat generic) "Waiting on a Wish!" [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DISNEY+]
• F1: The Movie - Hans Zimmer and various artists
• Kill the Jockey- Sune Wagner and various artists
• Sinners - I am firmly aware and happy that Ludwig Göransson will undoubtedly be up for the Best Original Score Oscar for this hit. Yet in my mind it's much more of a Song Score than a regular Original Score. I wish the Academy hadn't given up on ever deploying that category as they used to when they had a reason.

SOUND

• 28 Years Later
• F1: The Movie 
• Jurassic World Rebirth
• Mickey 17
• Sinners

ORIGINAL SONG

SNOW WHITE

• "Give Your Love" - Ballad of Wallis Island [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON PEACOCK]
• "I Lied to You" - Sinners  
• "Pale Pale Moon" - Sinners 
• "Soda Pop" - KPop Demon Hunters [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON NETFLIX]
• "Waiting on a Wish" - Snow White Did Pasek & Paul know this project was a lost cause? Well, at least there's one good song. 

CASTING

• Companion - Nancy Nayor
• Love  AND Sex -unknown
• A Nice Indian Boy - Breanna Amodia, Judy Lee, and Maia Michaels
• Sinners - Francine Maisler
• The Ugly Stepsister - Luise Nes, Milosz Sawicki, and Catrin Wideryd

POSTER DESIGN 

• Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story [AVAILABLE TO RENT]
• Mickey 17 
• Novocaine [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON PARAMOUNT+]
• The Ugly Stepsister
• The Wedding Banquet

MUSICAL SCENE IN A NON-MUSICAL

PADDINGTON IN PERU

• Dogman  - "I'm so lonesome I could cry" montage [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON PEACOCK]
• Kill the Jockey - dancing jockeys and their bizarrely stiff gangster audience
• A Nice Indian Boy - principal cast at the climactic Wedding
• Paddington in Peru  - Olivia Colman's cheeky performance of "Let's Prepare for Paddington"
• Sex - An avant-garde performance from a Christian choir. Solo by Thorbjørn Harr

MUSICAL SCENE IN A MUSICAL OR PERFORMANCE HEAVY FILM 

SINNERS

• Ballad of Wallis Island - "Give Your Love" I'm such a sucker for any scene of talented people casually and intimately creating or recreating beautiful music.
• K Pop Demon Hunters - "Soda Pop", an instant viral hit, from the demonic boy band Saja Boys. 
• Sinners - "I Lied to You" Miles Caton stuns the crowd and even the heavens, transcending time and summoning the undead.  
• Sinners - "Pick Poor Robin Clean" Remmick (Jack O'Connell) and his vampire trio attempt to prove their bonafides to gain entry to the club. What a song choice given their predilections.
• Sinners -"Rocky Road to Dublin" - It's a vampire dance ensemble!

Also of note: Apologies to other numbers from Ballad of Wallis Island (Concert Medley) and KPop Demon Hunters (Golden, Your Idol, What It Sounds Like) but Sinners has insatiable bloodlust for this category here and I even had to leave some of those out ("Travelin', 'Pale Pale Moon', and "Will Ye Go, Lassie Go").

ACTION SEQUENCE

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH

• 28 Days Later - pursued by Alpha (part 1 evening / part 2 crack of dawn)
• F1: The Movie - final race
• Jurassic World Rebirth - swimming dinos shipwreck setpiece
• Novocaine - Nate vs bank robber in kitchen
• Superman -Final three-way / two-way setpiece.

Also of note: Any other race in F1; It's a trap --they're all each other's targets in Thunderbolts*; the cord snap in Last Breath (uh-oh); the avian dino cliff-face setpiece in Jurassic World Rebirth

KISS

LOST IN STARLIGHT

• Lost in Starlight - "Nan-Young" & "Jay" [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON NETFLIX]
• Materialists - Dakota Johnson & Chris Evans
• A Nice Indian Boy - Jonathan Groff & Karan Soni
• Snow White - Rachel Zegler & Andrew Burnap. She's got 'Princess Problems' but hot Broadway hunk Burnap isn't one of them.
• Superman - David Corenswet & Rachel Brosnahan. Lois nabs an exclusive "interview"

SEX SCENE

VIET AND NAM

• Baby - Two rentboys and a voyeur - it doesn't go according to plan. [AVAILABLE TO RENT]
• Holland - tall Nicole Kidman & short Gael Garcia Bernal get horizontal but it works* for them... until it doesnt. (*Unfortunately very few things do in this awkward thriller.) [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON PRIME]
• Mickey 17 - Mickey (Robert Pattinson)  is none too pleased with sharing horny (Naomie Ackie) with another Mickey (Robert Pattinson)
• Sinners - Spouses reunited in this steamy tryst between Michael B Jordan and the always watchable Wunmi Mosaku
• Viet and Nam - No sex scene this year committed as fully as this one in a pitch-black coal mine, like floating in an unforgiving cosmos

Also of note: We should be so lucky!  Movies are way too sexless these days and it's always a struggle to even find enough sex scenes to fill up a worthy top 12 at year's end (i.e. semi-finalists, finalists, and five nominees) and in case you're wondering even Sex (Dreams, Love) has zero sex scenes. Ha!

OPENING SCENE

ELIO

• Companion - A grocery store meet cute
• Elio - "Aliens abduct me!" montage
• Paddington in Peru - lost with oranges
• Superman - whistling for Krypto
• Thunderbolts* - Yelena's heart just isn't in it anymore in this unexpected mopey action sequence. It's a strangely perfect tone-setter for the film ahead

Sadly none of these really qualify as great opening scenes. Still (impatiently) waiting for a movie to begin with perfection in 2025

ENDING

BABY

• Baby - a cherished rooftop memory is a lovely way to wrap this tense but surprisingly hopeful LGBTQ Brazilian gem about an 18 year old newly released from juvenile prison.
• Elio - Not Yet
• Love (Sex, Dreams) - Centenary / Ferry
• A Nice Indian Boy - Wedding
• Viet and Nam - Lost Cargo

CREDIT SEQUENCE / TITLE DESIGN

• Baby - inmates as marching band in a juvenile prison (opening credits)
• Companion - pink with blood splatters (end credits)
• Holland - recreated town (opening credits) 
• Mickey 17 - flipping like old train station destinations (end credits) 
• Thunderbolts* - black and white magazines (end credits) 

A BAKER'S DOZEN OTHER MEMORABLE SCENES

BLACK BAG

• 28 Years Later  - Meeting Dr Kelson 
• Black Bag - Dinner Party Game [AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON PEACOCK]
• Black Bag - Lie Detectors
• Companion - Reprogramming Patrick
• Elio - Sneaking Into Camp
• F1: The Movie - High Stakes Poker Game
• Kill the Jockey - Exit Remo / Enter Dolores
• Materialists - Bad News (Foreground) / Good News (Background)
• A Nice Indian Boy - "I want those same things"
• Sex (Dreams Love) - Story of An Unfortunate Tattoo
• The Ugly Stepsister - Silkworms & Ball Gown
• Viet and Nam - Father/Frog/Cave
• Viet and Nam - Psychic in the Graveyard

TOMORROW: FAV PERFORMANCES FROM 2025 (THUS FAR) 

What movies do you most recommend from the year so far? 

Comments

[Wae Mest]

Definitely THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, honey! It would fill out at least half these categories!

[Mr Ripley79]

I haven't seen very much and what I have seen is mostly in the genre of horror or thriller,I have not much interest in Mickey 17,Superman and most of the blockbusters bar the new Jurassic Park and a big no to any sort of animation

I enjoyed these 4 films but I have only seen about 8 films this year.

Wolf Man
Drop
Liza
G20

I have been revisiting the 50's Oscars and films I haven't seen for while.

[Finbar McBride]

Oooh, the 1950s.

My picks for the best of the decade

Best Picture
It’s all about Hitchcock - Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and North By Northwest

Best Actor
Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront

Best Actress
Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen, Summertime and Suddenly Last Summer