The Brown Note Movie Review

My irregular feature on outstanding masterpieces touches down (after another pinnacle year for Stevens with his latest high-water mark album, Javelin) with the album that made his name, still one of the most ambitious and successful album length projects this century.

Pitchfork music magazine has apparently been executed, the century's most important music bible being folded into GQ magazine by its evil corporate overlord Conde Nast. As a devout consumer of Pitchfork since the turn of the century, I've been predicting this for the last five years - the post Fetch the Bolt Cutters years, but really the five years that editor in chief Puja Patel has been in charge, and until I hear otherwise, misguidedly shaped the direction of Pitchfork into oblivion. Conde Nast bought Pitchfork over a decade ago and it survived, it's the direction the publication took under Patel that killed it. Sidelining music that was it's core audience to promote music for people that never even read Pitchfork. A sad day.

I walked in expecting a fairly decent 6/10 movie that had been review bombed into the dust by bro-tastic Brie Larson haters, I got literally the worst MCU film yet and kick off the year with a big fat zero out of ten. Even the terrible Thor 4 and Antman 3 have so many more things going for it than this abysmal travesty of film-making.

Director Ridley Scott is having a grand old time of it his later years, putting out some of his wildest films. The Last Duel was a totally underrated true life historical movie, yet actually it's House of Gucci that Napoleon is far closer to. It fails its main job of delivering a convincing biopic of its titular character but succeeds in being entertaining - if draining - due to how completely crazy it is.

Since I recorded this, Gervais' latest special won a Golden Globe, remarkable in a few ways. I almost gave up on Ricky's stand ups after the very tepid, Humanity, but this one, though not perfect, has a lot more fire and reason to be.

Sadly the weakest of the probably six Chappelle specials I've reviewed. Certainly with the least amount of top tier material and reason to exist.

Emerald Fennell's follow up to the outstanding debut, A Promising Young Woman, isn't as vital or brilliant, but certainly has plenty to recommend. Mainly it's pairing of Barry Keoghan and a stellar Rosamund Pike. It's an often great, if superficial and fairly meaningless collision between Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Hearing this was a young adult romance and musical, there was no way I was going near this with a fifty foot pole, but being desperate I did. After nearly cringing myself to death during the opening half hour, a surprising good story developed. Although it doesn't really dove-tail into the most iconic YA film series of all, I've nothing but respect for a director with this much narrative NOT splitting it into two films (I see you Zack Snyder). Overall a surprisingly good and intelligent watch.

Zack Snyder came out of the DC Extended Universe something of a cult hero, neutered from his vision by an uncaring world and leaving the unexpectedly superb Snyder Cut of Justice League as a goodbye. Next to James Cameron and Christopher Nolan, he also has one of the most annoying online fan-bases of any director, just without the great movies. The aggravatingly titled and critically mauled Rebel Moon, earns its atrocious reviews. It is nearly so bad it's good and there is some fun to be had playing guess the movie, as it is the most derivative movie I have ever seen.

In a banner year for big, great and terrible movies, my best and worst films of 2023.

 

Emperor's New Clothes award going to, Killers of the Flower Moon, sadly.