2023 marks my ninth year of writing for RogerEbert.com, and though Indie Outlook remains on an indefinite hiatus due to other projects, I couldn’t resist publishing my annual compilation of everything I’ve written for the esteemed site where I proudly serve as its Literary Editor. My first year of married life has gone by in a blink, with my wife Rebecca and I caring for our adorable puppy Daisy Bowie. I have kept busier than ever, which is why my review output over the past twelve months has been so low. I enjoyed each of the five films I was assigned to review listed below, with the first one ranking among my favorite documentaries of recent years. Click on each title, and you’ll be directed to the full review…
“If you’re fortunate enough to see this picture on a big screen with an engaged audience, you will be reminded of why we, as a species, go to the movies in the first place: to enter the lives of others and perceive the world through their eyes until our hearts have become intertwined with their own. With fascism posing a consistent threat to the future of democracy, here is an example of grassroots activism that manages to achieve what few had thought possible, while refusing to let the cries of the people be silenced.”
“The film’s loveliest moment takes the form of a literal calm before the storm as we peer through a doorway at María dancing with Rafaela, who asks how she learned such moves. ‘Just looking,’ María replies. Indeed, González has the keen eye of a documentarian that can perceive the very details that normally escape one’s gaze. His film demonstrates just how much we can glean by slowing down to savor the sights around us and those who inhabit them.”
“The film itself is gorgeously lensed by Jurgen Lisse, who plays with the duality of light and darkness expressed throughout both the work and personal struggles of Morton, as he straddles the line between occupying the art world and the impoverished existence of his mother. Yet Boesten and her editor Ephraim Kirkwood also structure the film like a portrait that only gradually reveals itself as each detail is added to the canvas.”
“The film is ultimately more of a self-reflexive exploration than a straightforward dramatization. What anchors the picture throughout its all-too-brief 75-minute running time is the brilliance of trans historian Jules Gill-Peterson, whose insights somehow cause the film’s many intricate layers to coalesce while beautifully articulating the essence of Joynt’s intent.”
“The film does a fine job of detailing how McEnroe was a formidable force to be reckoned with from the moment he made his debut at the French Open and Wimbledon in 1977 at the mere age of 18. Whenever McEnroe stops complaining and simply plays, the archival footage of him darting back and forth on the court, scoring hits that would be out of reach for most mortals, is utterly thrilling.”
No matter how busy my schedule gets, however, I still make time to speak with as many filmmakers as I can about their work when it touches my soul. I had the tremendous privilege this year of speaking at length with the extraordinary artists behind some of my favorite films of all time, including a Judy Blume adaptation released this year that I saw more times during its initial theatrical run than any other picture—a grand total of five—as a result of me wanting to share it with as many people as possible. I shall never forget sitting with my grandma as the end credits rolled on the screen. Tears glistened in her eyes as she told how this is the sort of movie that could make the world a better place. I couldn’t agree more. Click on the name of each interview subject—four of whom I spoke with for my wife’s site, Cinema Femme—and you will be directed to the full interview…
“We should be able to feel what we want in life and feel safe to do so, but oftentimes we don’t. That’s what I have felt, and I’ve always been able to feel freely through film. I would just hope that anybody watching it could either feel this release or have an opportunity to feel, to let go for a moment—even if it’s the weirdest feeling they’ve ever had in their life.”—Wendy McColm, director/star of “Fuzzy Head”
“I feel like almost everything I’ve produced thus far is healing to the people involved, and I’m really only interested in helping people when their project is personal because it can be so therapeutic. It is a gift, and I think that the truer you are in your work, the more people it will touch.”—Jessica Barr, writer/star of “Sophie Jones”
“I feel like it is an enormous privilege to be able to represent these stories. To compromise my comfort for a moment in time for the sake of storytelling is nothing at all like the lived experience of people actually going through these situations. I think actors are incredible, but I don’t think of it as anything as remarkable as surviving in real life.”—Lily McInerny, star of “Palm Trees and Power Lines”
“I started this festival because I realized that the audience for our magazine mostly consisted of emerging filmmakers who were interested in reading our interviews with underrepresented artists who were like them, specifically women and non-binary people. They were starting to feel seen for the first time, so it made sense for me to create an event that would enable them to connect with these industry professionals on a personal level.”—Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, founder of the Cinema Femme Short Film Festival
“The competition out there is incredibly fierce, especially after Covid. So many films weren’t screening for a long time and are now all competing for attention. My film illustrates the importance of having a safe space, and I feel that festivals like this serve as a safe space for female filmmakers. You know that the people around you have gone through the same things, and may have had the same questions regarding their capabilities or how they will balance work with motherhood.”—Clelia Goodchild, director of “Pluma”
“Stories like ‘Honk for Jesus’ are important, and they get you down to the basics of acting and character. You’re not working with a green screen on a soundstage. You’re really right there, in the hot sun under a tree, and there’s something really romantic about that type of filmmaking. I think about films that have effected me and made me want to become an actor. I don’t want to just watch them, I want to have the opportunity to be a part of those films too.”—Regina Hall, star of “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.”
“A lot of the film’s nudist storyline is pulled from my own life and my streaking, particularly during my nudist days in college. While working on ‘GLOW,’ we did a lot of non-sexual nudity, and it sounds so strange to say this, but it really felt like that’s a big part of who I am. I am a comfortably naked person. I love representations of nudity in film that are not over-sexualized, and in this movie, it also made a lot of sense to incorporate it.”—Alison Brie, co-writer/star of “Somebody I Used to Know”
“In the case of ‘Psycho,’ the idea had been boiling that the ’50s were over, and the moment of Mother ripping the curtain open essentially announces, ‘Welcome to the ’60s! We’re not pretending anymore, we’re in a different world now.’ So people freaked out in part out of recognition that this film was telling them the truth, and that’s why it resonates.”—Alexandre O. Philippe, director of “Lynch/Oz”
“Certain moments, such as when we see Margaret put on a pad for the first time, felt quietly revolutionary. I’m 42, and I’ve never seen another human being do that. There were a bunch of men on the set, and after we shot that scene, one of them came up to me afterwards and said, ‘You know, that was so amazing to see because this whole time, I thought the sticky side went up!’ [laughs] I was like, ‘Thank god the movie exists!’”—Kelly Fremon Craig, director of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
“She is the sort of person who doesn’t think before she speaks, which comes from a place of self-preservation. As an actor, it all starts from a place of empathy. You look for what they are missing or what they want, and it’s usually something that they are not getting, which is the conflict that you want to solve throughout the movie.”—Kim Cattrall, star of “About My Father”
“People are fallible, and getting the chance to recognize the credence in everybody’s story is the thing that I love the most about acting. You can’t judge somebody and play them at the same time. You learn something about yourself sometimes, and you learn something about humanity with each character, thus releasing judgment. I cannot think of anything more spiritual.”—Sterling K. Brown, star of “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.”
“It’s about people who you know and live with and walk next to on the sidewalk, people who fall through the gaps and parents who don’t know quite how to support their child. People who are really lonely or bullied or dysfunctional and find themselves at the worst moment in their emotional life can just walk into a gun shop and be sold any number of weapons for a good price. I think it’s time that America stood up and said no.”—Essie Davis, star of “Nitram”
“The Marine Corps is where I learned how to talk to people who were different from me. We had this understanding that I can only go as far as we can go together because we need each other to survive this. As a Black gay kid, I found a middle ground with so many people who I never thought I would see eye to eye with, and they are now some of my closest friends because of that experience.”—Elegance Bratton, director of “The Inspection”
“I’m trying to unlearn that tendency to keep people at a distance now in my adult life. Of course, when you’re young, you think you’re the only one feeling these things and I also thought that was very linked to me being queer. I had seen this as being a queer experience, but what these boys showed me and what they gave me is this realization that it was actually about being a man, and I wanted to speak about that.”—Lukas Dhont, director of “Close”
“The sort of family portrayed in ‘Murina’ remains very normalized not only in Croatia but I believe everywhere else in the world. You have these strong father figures who are raising his daughters to listen to their husbands, while raising their boys to man up and not to cry. I think that’s very toxic and problematic. For me, this movie was not just about pointing fingers, it was also a way for us to tell young people, ‘You too have a voice. It doesn’t have to be like this. This is a generational trauma, but you can stop it.’”—Gracija Filipović, star of “Murina”
“There are so many other films that have had similar scenes that show so much more and are so much more violent and vulgar. And yet, somehow, there are some people who can’t tolerate being put in this teenage girl’s perspective. That’s literally what we’re doing and it’s just unbearable to some people.”—Jamie Dack, director of “Palm Trees and Power Lines”
“It was important for both of us to keep our hooks in the audience’s hearts so that whatever questionable things Bunny did, we were always pulling the audience with us. That was such a crucial part of crafting the story and building the character in terms of keeping our audience with us along the way. So often there is a commentary about people not being accepting of unlikable female characters. Why does she have to be likable?”—Gaysorn Thavat, director of “The Justice of Bunny King”
“Many of the female characters I grew up watching who made me want to do what I’m doing now and what I will hopefully be doing for a very long time were the figments of a man’s imagination, and that is so mind-boggling to me. That realization made it so much more important for me to identify the rooms that I want to be in and the people that I want to work with and then take that and run with it.”—Sofia Joanna, star of “Babyface”
“I feel that a female perspective can illuminate the tenderness and vulnerability in stories about men. I want to see way more women in front of the camera and more stories about women, because men can relate to women as well, but I also feel inspired to write for both genders. I would love for men to write more women characters because I think it increases your empathy and your understanding of the people around you.”—Emily Hagins, director of “Sorry About the Demon”
“During the opening credits of “The 400 Blows,” the music starts out very florid, and then the beautiful theme for the film’s main character, Antoine Doinel, emerges. It just kills me. Another work that has that kind of quality is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” You can listen to the score and dialogue altogether as if it were a piece of music. I’ll never be able to have it go away—it’s in my bloodstream. That’s the way I feel about a lot of movies in that they get in me. It’s like having a dormant virus that can come out.”—Tamara Jenkins, director of “Private Life”
“I feel like so much of that character became infused in me, so I’ve had some emotional moments in rewatching ‘Prancer’ where I’ve felt like that little girl has become combined with me. I’d like to think I’ve done her right. I’ve followed in her spirit, her gumption and her persistence in believing that it’s not all bad and we can find the good. If we all just do the right thing and take action, there can be healing at the end of that.”—Rebecca Harrell Tickell, star of “Prancer”
“We didn’t want to be afraid of going deeper than people might expect when things get more dramatic. It was important for us to not shy away from some confrontational moments where there may be an inclination for us to ask ourselves whether we should infuse a dramatic scene with a couple of jokes. Our answer to that was, ‘No, this deserves to be its own thing. Let’s allow the emotion to really land.’”—Dave Franco, director/co-writer of “Somebody I Used to Know”
“While there are palm trees and power lines and blue skies and sunshine and the beach, there are also all of these people living behind closed doors in $39 a night motels up and down the 5 freeway, the 405 and the 101. All of these things that seem to connect us in California actually create a false picture because there is so much loneliness and so many things happening that we don’t know about.”—Jonathan Tucker, star of “Palm Trees and Power Lines”
“My whole idea for the story in ‘Nine Lives’ between Robin Wright and Jason Isaacs was the banality of the setting, the fact that it was a supermarket where you don’t expect high emotional stakes to be played out. Obviously, the cemetery as a setting is more loaded with meaning. I like that a supermarket has no baggage, no load. You always know what Robin is thinking or feeling just by looking at her, and the same is true of Jason. They did a great, great job. I always remember her face after he kisses her belly, and it’s like a train just ran into her.”—Rodrigo García, director of “Nine Lives”
“I think what Margaret is really looking for is a friend, someone to talk to, instead of trying to label herself as a member of a specific religion. I think she’s just trying to figure out what she believes while different sides of her family are telling her what she ‘has’ to be. I think the way that it is portrayed both in the film and the book leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which I really loved.”—Abby Ryder Fortson, star of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
“I know it’s weird, I know it’s off-the-wall and I know it doesn’t fit into what would be considered a ‘Black film.’ I’m excited to expand the vocabulary of cinematic language regarding what Black film can be. Jordan Peele is putting Brown people in spaces that we’ve been shut out of, or just didn’t have the opportunity to participate in, and I’m on a mission to do that.”—Tiffany Tenille, star/director of “Albion Rose”
“My father came here at 15 years old and he didn’t know the language. He went on to build three businesses, start a family and build a home from nothing. I really wanted to show in the film that it’s possible in America to make your dreams come true. There are people who were born here and still speak the same language who haven’t done half of what he did.”—Sebastian Maniscalco, co-writer/star of “About My Father”
“I know what it’s like to be in David’s world and to have to do something a little bit differently as an actor. Maybe you don’t know everything, but I think that there is also a really amazing opportunity to pivot and just commit to what you do know. You create your character and then allow yourself to be in his hands.”—George Griffith, star of “Twin Peaks: The Return”
“I do think that you have to be open to all of Lynch, even in the case of ‘The Straight Story.’ It is the easiest film of his to consume, but you still have to be open to watching a guy drive his lawnmower across multiple states. [laughs] If you want to go into it hating the work, you can hate everything that Lynch has done. But if you want to go into it with open palms, the rewards are endless.”—Scott Ryan, author of Lost Highway: The Fist of Love
“I could’ve easily stayed on that shot for another five or ten seconds. That is such a moving scene, and when you do something abstract or withhold certain information—in this case, keeping the camera on the actors’ backs and not showing their faces, thereby letting the audience sit like these two guys are sitting and contemplating—you will, as a spectator, fill in what the meaning of that is from your own emotional landscape. Those are the films that you can’t stop thinking about in the morning.”—Mary Sweeney, editor of “The Straight Story”
In addition these interviews and reviews, I also provided coverage of the 2022 BendFilm Festival in Oregon, where I served on the Documentary Feature Jury and gave an award that I got to name myself—the Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Personal Filmmaking—to one of my favorite films of that year, David Siev’s “Bad Axe.” I was honored to write the tribute to master composer and frequent David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti when he passed away last December at age 85 (his score for “The Straight Story” ranks among my very favorites). The only two articles I posted on Indie Outlook were my picks for the Top 20 Films of 2022, led by Audrey Diwan’s profoundly timely “Happening,” as well as the people I wished to see nominated during that year’s awards season.
In January, I reported on the opening of an Alamo Drafthouse theater in Wrigleyville, which is located within walking distance of Rebecca and my apartment. Though the flashy venue is too pricey for me to attend as often as I do Chicago’s unparalleled Music Box Theatre, I have become addicted to its wonderfully curated rental store, Video Vortex, from which you can rent three titles at a time for free, provided you return them within five days. At the end of April and beginning of May, my wife held her first-ever in-person installment of the Cinema Femme Short Film Festival at the Music Box, and it was a resounding success, with filmmakers flying in on their own dime from various corners of the country to view their remarkable work in a theater with an engaged audience. I was thrilled to moderate the festival’s virtual Tribute Q&A with the sublime filmmaker Emily Hagins, whom I had first interviewed a decade ago about her exuberant and disarmingly sincere feature efforts, the first of which she helmed at age 12.
This year marked the tenth anniversary of Roger Ebert’s passing, and no film at Ebertfest 2023 better exemplified his belief in the life-altering power of cinema than “Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself.” It was all set to debut at SXSW when Covid cancelled the festival in 2020. Hulu picked up the film and released it on its platform in 2021, leading it to become my favorite movie of that year, but it never had the opportunity to be shown on a big screen in front of a packed theater—until April 21st of this year. I had the immense honor of moderating the onstage Q&A with the film’s director, my lifelong hero Frank Oz, and its brilliant writer and star, Derek DelGaudio. In attendance were the film’s wonderful producers Vanessa Lauren and Jake Friedman, as well as one of its earliest champions, the amazing former head of SXSW, Janet Pierson. And to top it off, one of the film’s executive producers, Stephen Colbert, recorded a special intro for the screening. It was, without question, one of the greatest moments of my life. You can view our full hour-long conversation in the video embedded below…
Here are links to Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6, Vol. 7 and Vol. 8 of my published work at RogerEbert.com.
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