Welcome to the Betters
Welcome to the Betters
Days before the Oscars, we look back on the year in movies and present our own, Better awards.
Elliott: Welcome to the first annual Better Awards! The Betters are named after our site, but in our heavily biased opinion, we also think they’re an improvement over the Oscars. Remember in 2019 when the Academy failed to nominate Lupita Nyong’o for her bone-chilling, masterful turn in Us, but decided to nominate Charlize Theron for portraying Megyn Kelly in the same year? Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff we don’t put up with. Here at the Betters, we don’t discriminate against genres or films that were released in the first half of the year.
Joining us in this venture is our #1 movie pal, Michael Brooks! The committee of Michael, Shawn, and myself put together our picks for best performances, director, needle drop, and our top 10 films of 2023. We each wrote about a personal favorite from each group. Let’s get to it!
Best Supporting Actor
Charles Melton (May December)
Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry)
Donnie Yen (John Wick: Chapter 4)
Janne Hyytiäinen (Fallen Leaves)
Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)
Michael: Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry) — Is there a better line reading from last year than Glenn Howerton as former BlackBerry co-CEO Jim Balsillie proudly declaring “I’m from Waterloo, where the vampires hang out” at the top of his lungs in a room filled with NHL executives who can’t stand him? Fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have long known that Howerton, a former Juilliard graduate, has the juice (present company included) but I still left the theater grinning from ear to ear after catching his bombastic performance in the latest from writer/director/co-star Matt Johnson. Howerton’s skills go so much deeper than Balsillie’s frequently hilarious outbursts, there’s a certain type of loneliness I can’t quite put my finger on that he carries on his face throughout BlackBerry that culminates in gut-wrenching realizations and desperation as his world turns upside down and the company behind the world’s first smartphone dies a fiery death. Not to be too dramatic but if this role doesn’t lead to more opportunities for Howerton then I’ve lost all hope in humanity.
Shawn: Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) — They’re not exactly pumping out guys who look like Dominic Sessa these days, but The Holdovers suggests…maybe they should? Plucked from boarding school obscurity before becoming the stuff of viral red carpet legend, Sessa served as an unlikely anchor of Alexander Payne’s cozy new holiday classic. Sure, he’s broken and lonely just like his two companions left behind for the holidays at Barton Academy, but the kid brings a certain gangly, nervy edge that’s missing among the new class of not-quite-movie stars. He’s rangy and capable enough to tango with his more celebrated co-stars, and fully delivers in the climactic, heartbreaking reunion with his father. I don’t know if we’ll wind up thinking of Sessa as The Holdovers kid years from now, but a healthy Hollywood ecosystem could find a lane for him.
Elliott: Donnie Yen (John Wick: Chapter 4) — The best action flicks have great foes (Hans Gruber, Agent Smith, The Evil Ice Cream Man), and Donnie Yen as Caine took the Wick franchise to soaring new heights. Yen convincingly portrays a blind assassin who doesn't need eyesight to kill anybody and everybody else in the room. Beyond being an ass-kicker, Yens brings pathos to the film when you don’t expect it. The Sergio Leone influence is palpable throughout the final (and best) John Wick entry, specifically The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with Wick and Caine shifting between friends and foes. It's like watching prime Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal go head-to-head, and then watching them play a match together as doubles partners. I could keep writing words about Donnie Yen, but it almost feels silly when you can just watch this.
Also, none of us wrote about Charles Melton but he’s possibly our shared favorite in this category, and no doubt the biggest Oscar snub this year. Ethan Hawke in First Reformed level snub. Octavia Spencer in Ma level snub.
Best Supporting Actress
Paula Beer (Afire)
Carol Duarte (La Chimera)
Pom Klementieff (Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning)
Rachel McAdams (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.)
Julianne Moore (May December)
Elliott: Carol Duarte (La Chimera) & Paula Beer (Afire) — Carol Duarte (Italia in La Chimera) and Paula Beer (Nadja in Afire), are the souls of their films. Afire and La Chimera feature self-interested, wounded men at their center, and both women contain a depth that's revealed as the movies progress; shifting the characters, our experience as viewers, and the movies themselves. They only become more enchanting the more we get to know them. Italia and Nadja (along with Mollie Burkhart, more on her later) moved me more than any other characters this year. That's what the Betters are all about: above everything, we value the performances that have stayed with us, the ones that have buried themselves deepest in our dang hearts; whether that’s bringing us to tears…or being sick and menacing as hell (right Shawn?)
Shawn: Pom Klementieff (Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning) — That’s right! I felt almost profound disappointment walking out of the latest Mission for the first time (then saw it again, loosened up, and had a much better outing). But there were no early hesitations about Pom Klementieff’s Paris, who barrels into the movie like a shot of adrenaline during the Rome car chase sequence. After she giddily smashes through dozens of parked motorcycles in a huge armored SUV, Hayley Atwell’s Grace exasperatedly asks Ethan what we’re all wondering (“Who is that person??”) and the film wisely gives us nothing else in the way of backstory. In just a few significant scenes, with minimal dialogue that isn’t cackles or screams, Klementieff offers a reminder of what this franchise can be at its best: a callback to silent film era slapstick, with overly expressive, playful physicality (a perfect successor to Henry Cavill cocking his arms in the bathroom). Paris keeping a pulse in this movie’s final moments gives me the most hope for the next (and maybe last?) one delivering on its promise.
Michael: Rachel McAdams (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.) — Put some respect on Rachel McAdams’ name! Delivering a career-best performance in writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig’s wonderful adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. as Barbara Simon, McAdams’ portrayal of a mother who’s simply trying to do her best is endlessly charming and tender at every turn. After their family moves from the city to the suburbs, Barbara tries her hand at homemaking and attends PTA meetings in the search for domestic bliss but she also secretly misses being a painter—the most quietly devastating scene in the movie comes when she tries to paint a bird she sees outside of her window, only for it to flutter away as soon as her brush strikes the canvas. And that’s just a brief glimpse of what McAdams has to offer here! Judy Blume, I owe you an apology. I wasn’t really familiar with your game.
Best Actor
Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin)
Shah Rukh Khan (Jawan)
Benoît Magimel (Pacifiction)
Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid)
Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City)
Shawn: Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin) — We’ve seen directors harness his bruising physicality and comedic chops before (to varying effect), but M. Night Shyamalan managed to get something new from Dave Bautista in Knock at the Cabin. As Leonard Brocht — an ostensibly gentle giant of a second grade teacher, who fervently believes the apocalypse is imminent and can only be stopped by convincing one particular family vacationing in rural Pennsylvania to sacrifice a member — that imposing presence complicates his pitch. I thought about the ambiguity of Sandra Huller’s Anatomy of a Fall performance when watching him the second time — and the directive she was supposedly given to play it innocently. (Instead of a “did she do it?” poll flashing up before the movie, Universal could’ve tried “is he a lunatic?”) In the end, Shyamalan’s film rules much more decisively on the matter than Anatomy, but its prolonged lingering in the gray area gives Bautista so much heartrending space to explore how tricky it is to pass off your zealotry as reason.
Elliott: Shah Ruh Khan (Jawan) — Nicolas Cage, Deborah Kerr, Peter Sellers, Jeremy Irons, Lindsay Lohan…all performers who gave terrific performances as multiple characters in the same film. Go ahead and add Shah Ruh Khan to that elite group. In Jawan, SRK plays a father and son that, to quote my pal Shawn, has "the highest swag levels from a familial duo since LMFAO." We talk a lot about the era of movie stars being a bygone time; well, India doesn't have that problem. They build movies around their (and the world's) biggest star — giving Khan dual roles where he can showcase his action prowess, his waggish comedic chops, and his heartthrob face, swagger, and dance moves. SRK can du it all. Dude has the most natural male screen presence that I've seen since like, I don’t know, Cary Grant? And like Grant, SRK can go from suave and sexy to a goofy buffoon in an instant. If you haven’t seen a Shah Ruh Khan film, almost all of his movies are streaming on either Netflix or Prime. Go meet the world’s greatest movie star if you haven’t yet. It will make your life better; that’s the Du’s promise.
Michael: Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City) — Looking back, Jason Schwartzman really had one hell of a year. There’s no doubt that his roles in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes padded his stats just enough to make him Letterboxd’s most watched actor of 2023, but it was his guest appearance in the latest season of I Think You Should Leave and most importantly his portrayal of war photographer Augie Steenbeck in Asteroid City that reminded me just how much I love the guy. Schwartzman has been making movies with Wes Anderson for over 25 years now and their latest collaboration feels like a true watershed moment for both of them, a deeply existential, darkly comedic, and above all else, thoughtful deconstruction of art, life, grief, space… everything? Haven’t been this moved by Schwartzman since I first heard “West Coast” by Coconut Records as a freshman in high school, which is the highest praise I can give.
Best Actress
Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Talia Ryder (The Sweet East)
Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)
Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One)
Michelle Williams (Showing Up)
Michael: Talia Ryder (The Sweet East) — Up-and-comer Talia Ryder stars as the manic picaresque dream girl in cinematographer Sean Price Williams’ polarizing directorial debut The Sweet East, slyly delivering one of the best performances of the year. To give too much away about The Sweet East would be a genuine disservice to anyone reading this who might want to eventually check it out, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention “Evening Mirror,” Best Original Song snub at the #FRAUDscars (see also: “Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)” from Asteroid City and “Live That Way Forever” from The Iron Claw), a Jon Brion-esque tune sung by Ryder which is simply delightful. “Part of growing up is realizing that most men around you want something from you, and it’s also okay to want something from them,” Ryder said at Cannes when the film premiered there last May, which is actually a pretty good TL;DR for her character Lillian. All of the people we meet in The Sweet East can’t help but fall for her (see also: MJ Lenderman “You Are Every Girl to Me”) as she shrug emoji’s from one oddball to the next. Mortgage your home. Cash out your 401(k). Sell your old baseball cards. Do whatever it takes to buy all of the stock you can in Talia Ryder because a star is in the making.
Shawn: Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One) — It’s a shame the Oscars’ recent streak of nominating and crowning Sundance/SXSW darlings couldn’t extend to Teyana Taylor in A Thousand and One, because this is pretty much as good as that stuff gets. Can’t really call it a debut (that would be Stomp the Yard: Homecoming back in 2010), but this is easily the most compelling breakout star turn I’ve seen this year. Playing Inez, who’s released from Rikers Island at the start of the film and, legally speaking, abducts her son Terry from foster care to reunite, she’s an often intimidating, desperate, and fiercely protective presence. As the story navigates through decades of Inez scraping by to build a sustainable life — despite a city, landlord, and structural racism bucking her efforts at every turn — Taylor sells the righteous outbursts. But the naturalistic, tender moments of living between the roadblocks, whether it’s teaching Terry to read in bed or a close-up of her eating microwavable ramen noodles in front of the TV were what sold me above all else that she’s got the goods. Not a doubt in my mind that she’s ready for prime time with PTA.
Elliott: Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) — The academy has the rare opportunity on Sunday to give a statuette to the actual best performance of 2023. What's wild about Gladstone is this isn't even the first time she's done that. I could watch every single performance from 2016 and nothing would move me more than her turn in Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women, the superb film that put her on Scorsese's radar. From the first glimpse we see of Mollie Burkhart, there is a gravity and warmth to her presence. As tragedy, injustice, and illness all pile up on her, her unbreakable spirit persists. Despite formidable showings from Scorsese's most utilized muses (De Niro and DiCaprio), all of Flower Moon's best moments are with Gladstone. We miss her when she's offscreen, yet she’s always felt, bringing a grace not often seen in Scorsese pictures. Every year I tell myself that I don't give a darn about what happens in the silly Oscars, but I'll be pretty bummed if they blow their chance to give Gladstone the extremely deserved prize.
Best Director
Kyle Edward Ball (Skinamarink)
David Fincher (The Killer)
Daniel Goldhaber (How To Blow Up a Pipeline)
Todd Haynes (May December)
Alice Rohrwacher (La Chimera)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Elliott: Kyle Edward Ball (Skinamarink) (content warning: mentions of abuse) — Kyle Edward Ball made a remarkably sad experimental horror film in Skinamarink, a film that captures the feelings of confusion and terror that come with living with an abusive parent in an abusive household. It’s a movie that explores the loss of play, when laughter and a joyful childhood are stolen. Ball foregoes narrative, perceptible characters, even dialogue to create these feelings; it's a movie that's fully sensory-driven. He understands that pain and horror can be just as felt and truthful when things are not said. Movies are sound + images, and more than any other movie I saw in 2023, Skinamarink only works as a movie. No other art form could replicate it. Shot on digital video on a budget of just $15,000, Skinamarink became a word-of-mouth/social media sensation and ended up grossing over 2 million bucks (over 140 times the film’s budget!!) I’d wager at least half of the people walked out before it ended, and that’s fine; an experimental horror film where, as many people said, “nothing happens”, managed to connect with a whole lot of people. To me, Skinamarink’s success is a beacon of hope in a time when directors profiting from their uncompromised visions are at an all-time low.
It’s also scary as heck and I will not hear otherwise from the haters!!
Michael: Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) — Although some might argue about the potency of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the sophomore feature from Daniel Goldhaber, I consider his adaptation of Andreas Malm’s 2021 nonfiction treatise of the same name to be an impressive feat. Whether or not the film is truly radical is for you to decide but I still have to tip my hat to Goldhaber for even getting this kind of movie made in the first place. I mean, it certainly doesn’t hurt that I think almost everything about this movie rules (what can I say I’m a sucker for a good heist flick and I crave anarchy) and I know I’m not the only person here at The Betters who believes it to be among the best films of the year! Goldhaber commands this procedural eco-thriller with a deft touch as he carefully weaves together the stories of eight people working together, slowly dialing up the tension as they make their way towards blowing up, you guessed it, the titular pipeline. His next movie, a remake of Faces of Death which has already finished filming, is one of maybe five things I’m actively looking forward to. Fingers crossed we get to see that one soon.
Shawn: Todd Haynes (May December) — Please don’t yell at me: it was a deep year for movies. One of the best years ever? Not even close really. From where I’m sitting, 2023 saw a bunch of top-line auteurs turning in their fourth, fifth, sixth (or 12th) best movies — and in very rare instances, some reached a new career pinnacle. Todd Haynes was one such case with May December, the sensational psychodrama that rivals his best films. After tackling Sirkian period melodrama, horror, and, more recently, the legal thriller, he fields a shocking, lurid, and hilarious screenplay from Samy Burch to push his strengths into new terrain. Always an incredibly deft image-maker, May December highlights not only his ability to tightrope these clashing tones, but affirms him as one of the greatest living directors of actors. Few filmmakers could steer two highly decorated actresses and an ex-Riverdale star toward such a resonant, darkly comic mode that flips the mirror on Hollywood’s most sociopathic tendencies when it comes to portraying abuse, trauma, and truth.
Favorite Needle Drop:
Michael: Dan Deacon’s “The Crystal Cat” in Priscilla
Sofia Coppola’s decision to soundtrack such a pivotal moment in Priscilla with Dan Deacon’s pulsating “The Crystal Cat” is a stroke of genius, ranking among the best needle drops in her entire career. And that’s really saying something. Fuckin’ A!
Elliott: Pino Donaggio’s “Body Double theme” in Air
I watched Air (dad movie of the year?) with my parents and I startled them pretty good when the film started playing the Body Double theme. Soundtracking the reveal of the first pair of Air Jordans to the score that plays when Craig Wasson is peeping on Melanie Griffith doing a striptease in De Palma’s masterpiece… that’s heroic shit. Put that moment next to Gone Girl and the Armageddon commentary in the Ben Affleck Hall of Fame.
Shawn: Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s “P.I.M.P.” in Anatomy of a Fall
Does it count as a needle drop if it’s diegetic? Assuming this one does, I can’t think of a song’s placement in a movie that would make said movie drastically worse without it. Sure they wanted “Jolene” first, but just think how that would’ve robbed us from hearing the judge spell out P-I-M-P so fast and Frenchly.
Top Ten Films of the Year !!
Michael’s Top Ten
May December
Beau Is Afraid
Asteroid City
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Oppenheimer
Killers of the Flower Moon
R.M.N.
John Wick: Chapter 4
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
The Killer
Shawn’s Top Ten
May December
Skinamarink
Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros
Killers of the Flower Moon
Knock at the Cabin
The Holdovers
Anatomy of a Fall
A Thousand and One
Oppenheimer
The Boy and the Heron
Elliott’s Top Ten
La Chimera
The History of the Minnesota Vikings
In Water
Close Your Eyes
Asteroid City
Skinamarink
How To Blow Up a Pipeline
Jawan
May December
Afire/Pacifiction/Boston Johnny/Killers of the Flower Moon/How Do You Live?/Ferrari/Falcon Lake : )
See you next year!!
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