December mixtape

Anatomy of Fall: Out in theaters now. Technically French, but most of it’s in English. It’s a genuine masterpiece. One that makes other modern dramas look like overcooked film school capstone projects. The story couldn’t be more simple: a woman is on trial. Her husband is dead. That’s all I’ll say. What impressed me more than anything was the film’s ability to wrestle with multiple overlapping themes (marriage, parenthood, gender, the nature of truth, the purpose of stories, what constitutes evidence, why belief requires decision, and decision requires belief) while never losing sight of the particular details and situations that made these characters feel realer than real. It’ll revive your faith in cinema.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The pacing, the pacing, the pacing. Every frame is as sharp as a knife. I couldn't get through The Irishman and thought it was basically Scorsese playing homage to himself, but KOTFM is an absolute masterclass in re-inventing yourself at the age of 81. Scorsese knows he has an incredible story on his hands and he lets that story tell itself on its own terms without the flourish and intercession a younger director would have used to show just how clever he is. Scorsese has nothing to prove, which freed him to make one of the best and most original films of his career.

Seconds (rent on YouTube, AppleTV, etc.): A 1966 John Frankenheimer film that flopped on release but has since been (rightly) re-considered as a classic well ahead of its time. It’s about a middle-aged banker whose life is fine but not all that exciting. He’s given a second chance to be a younger man, and, well, let’s just say that changing yourself entirely doesn’t always make you someone else. It’s a film about the fetishization of youth as a stand-in for immortality, the impossibility of true re-birth, and the eternal Dionysian fools gold of California. It’s a satire, yes, but also a tragedy. Life often isn’t long enough to apply what we’ve learned.