I’ve spent most of the year relatively radio silent in comparison to other years, I feel as if I have a lot to say about a lot of the movies and TV shows I loved this year, because there’s a lot. Isn’t there always?
I’m going to talk about some of my favourite films of the year, and 3 of my favourite seasons of television of the year as well. There’s also going to be a dozen more honourable mentions as well. I haven’t found the chance or opportunity to talk about most of what has been released this year, so this is going to be my 2023 year in review.
To start, 2023 has been a really complicated year. I’ve personally felt burnt out for the majority of it. I had many ideas and plans to start a project and to continue my coverage on tv and film, but I could never find the energy to face this empty white page. As the year progressed, we saw massive strikes, and a genocide that is unfolding on our social media in real time. It makes writing really fucking hard, and even harder for me to justify doing so.
During my time off in the past year, I found myself thinking I’ve forgotten how to write and often forgot to call myself a writer. While I had many thoughts weekly about how it’s time to stop trying. I often talked myself out of it, but the thought came back often enough. My time away from writing instead has given me a bit of a rejuvenation of sorts to art, and allowed me to enjoy or not enjoy my time from the theatres. I kept going nearly as frequently as before, but allowed these times and trips to the movies for myself, and the loved ones I went to the movies with.
That being said, my hiatus also backfired, because without writing, I often found myself lost. It became a bit of a cycle. But here we are, I’m trying to come back and do some writing again and doing things in this field again. We’ve taken a bit of a break, but we’re ready to return, but more on that soon.
As always, our Best Of’s usually come out at the beginning of the year after since there’s usually a few films that might not make it to Toronto in time. I got to see a good chunk of the films that I felt I needed to see before I could hit publish on this post, but there are dozens that people might yell at me for not seeing or missing on the list.
Before we get to my favourite things of the year, here are some of the honourable mentions that could have been on this list if you ask me tomorrow.
In film: American Fiction, Barbie, Blackberry, Blue Beetle, Cobweb, Dream Scenario, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Godzilla Minus One, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Joy Ride, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Passenger, Perfect Days, Sanctuary, The Settlers, Theatre Camp, and The Zone of Interest.
I’m also positive I’m missing some as well, but these are the films I loved and also could be on this list.
And now, here are 15 of my favourite films of the year.
Film
All Of Us Strangers
Dir. Andrew Haigh
There’s part of me that thinks this film will likely become my favourite film of the year, but I decided not to name any actual definitive number one, so Instead, I’m happy I got to start this list with this gorgeous film.
All Of Us Strangers follows Adam (Andrew Scott), a screenwriter who meets and starts a relationship with Harry (Paul Mescal), who seem to be the only two people living in their building in London. While this relationship begins, he also begins going to visit his old home and the parents he lost when he was 12.
His parents, played by Jamie Bell and Claire Foy (credited as Dad and Mum) still look as they did when they died. He gets to sit down for dinner and update them on things that they never got to know. It allows Adam to make sense of his relationship with his parents, as a gay man who never got to come out to them. As you could imagine, there are a lot of emotions that come out with those moments. I had started crying early on in the film and haven’t really stopped since. That isn’t entirely surprising as I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve teared up from watching the trailer alone.
There’s a moment in the film that plays in the trailer as well, his father apologizes for not coming into his room when he heard him crying as young boy, and as Adam tries to belittle the moment by bringing up how for him how the moments were so long ago, he finds himself unable to finish his sentence. To his body, the time removed doesn’t change that moment for him. These core moments anchor us. The good and the bad, and no matter how much we’re removed from that time, those scars don’t heal the same way, and they’ll always be tender.
All of Us Strangers hit a chord early with me and never let go.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig
Rachel McAdams should be in the award race.
I absolutely loved Are You There God? so much more than I anticipated. A movie so perfectly wholesome and inspiring, while still trying to tackle a serious topic in this film. Which brings me back to my first point, McAdams deserves to be in the award race because she is incredible in this movie. It has both Barbara (McAdams) and Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson who is also a delight) as the heart of the film and McAdams is that incredible. Barbara wants to be herself, and not have to be what the world thinks a mom should be. In one scene, she finally gets a moment to paint as a bird stops outside her window before the doorbell rings, and the bird flies away.
Margaret and her friends are in grade six and and are wanting to carry themselves much older than they are. They, like most of us have been at one point, are eager to get on with the rest of their lives. They are excited and wanting to get older so they can be these people they look up, but not realizing how much harder it might get as we get older.
It’s Me, Margaret takes place in 1970, and it adds to the nostalgia of the story. Whether you’re an adult trying to remember your own time in the sixth grade, or being younger and getting a glimpse of both sides of the coin.
Benny Safdie in this and in general as a performer this year might be my favourite surprise.
Beau is Afraid
Dir. Ari Aster
It’s not an accurate year without the latest Ari Aster film on my best of list. A film that further continues to have him move away from the horror field, and move into doing whatever he wants. Which, I’m all up for moving forward. Aster has always used the horror genre as a means to an end for the story he’s trying to tell, at least at its core.
I love a big swing from director’s I love. An attempt to know we may not be able to do this again. Aster’s film fits perfectly in this category as we see him continue to tackle similar themes in his films, but none more prevalent than the relationship between the children and their parents.
Joaquin is such a fascinating fit with Ari Aster, able to really play with the different genres and styles in this film. It’s a few as each act of the film has a different segment and each segment is equally as outrageous as the last one before it, but yet, there’s a sadness that is felt through each of them. Joaquin is set to star in Eddington, Aster’s next film. It’s being described as a “Western-noir dark comedy” which seems as if we’re
Beau is Afraid is one of the funniest films of the year.
The Boy and The Heron
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Or “How Do You Live?” The original title is far more apt and overall a better title suited for the film.
Leading up to TIFF’s premiere of the film, this was being announced as Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, but there have been talks saying that he will not actually be retiring and is working on another film. That being said, it does feel like a bit of an ending note to an incredible career.
While the film has elements that might remind us of some of his past films, but not necessarily done in the style of a “greatest hits.” Not quite, he’s still doing something different but entirely himself and his style.
In The Boy and The Heron, we are seeing another magical glimpse hidden in a horrific moment or event. We are finding another realm and finding the ability to build universes and tell stories and being given the choice of what to do with that opportunity. It is difficult to watch the film without thinking of Miyazaki’s career, of the universes and stories he’s built and created and then to provide them to someone else and tell them it’s their turn.
It feels finite, but seemingly, it’s not the case. The world is a bit more magical thanks to the beauty found in Miyazaki’s films, and the more of them in the world, the better. He has this childlike nature in his film that brings us back to that time period, and it reminds us to look and admire the beauty in ways that we feel we haven’t since we were a child.
El Conde
Dir. Pablo Larraín
I have a (fairly big) list of filmmakers that I try to run to their latest film, and Larraín’s name is high on the list. It was a rollercoaster of emotions first finding out about El Conde, as I found out about for its premise alone. While he’s made three films about what life was like in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s reign, this would be the first time he has made Pinochet the focus of the film, as if he never died. Not only never died, but was in actuality, a vampire that has lived for far too long and went into hiding after his actual death in 2006. The movie paints him as a monster, and also as a coward.
El Conde is the only film that I ended up watching twice in a day. After finishing the film during the day, my mom texted me saying that she found her last name on one of the tombstones in the film. Which is “funny,” because I found my last name in there as well. I had noticed mine during my watch, but didn’t notice both. This started me rewatching it to pay attention to the tombstones she was looking for, but I ended up getting distracted and watching the film in full and loving it even more on a second watch.
Larraín’s films always have a way of having me question my identity as a Chilean, who was born in Canada nearly twenty years after the coup that eventually led my family to come to Canada. While my extended family still has their roots there, and return often, my parents tend to opt out of returning. Part of that comes from the fact that my parents separately left their home at the age of 12 and 13, and their memories of home aren’t as pretty as others. This film reminds us of that time and how the horror of it will have its presence felt for generations, even for those who had to leave their home to find a new one.
The film, like another project on my list, feels like it’s been brushed with a Succession influence, as a family reconnects and tries to fight for their inheritance. It’s got a meanness in its witty dialogue that feels distinctly Chilean, or just reminds me of my own family. Maybe it’s both.
Ed Lachman’s gorgeous black and white cinematography makes the vicious acts we see even more horrifying. I wish I had the opportunity to see this film on the big screen. I did get to see No during it’s theatrical run, and since then, I’ve loved having the opportunity to see his films thanks to TIFF.
How to Blow up a Pipeline
Dir. Daniel Goldhaber
How to Blow up a Pipeline is one of two films that played at TIFF in 2022 that rightfully made the best of lists of many of my peers who saw the film at the festival that I ended up missing until their wide release. It’s the two films I’m sad I missed during the festival because just like those peers, it would have been on my list then just as it has stayed near the top ever since I got the chance to see the film.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline feels like a shot of adrenaline that had me forgetting to breathe at many moments in the film. Adapted and inspired by a novel of the same name, the film follows 8 young adults who decide to blow up a pipeline for a variety of reasons, but they meet because of their anger of the titular pipeline.
Intercut with our heroes’ backstories as what led to them making this fiery stand as we watch them risk their lives to first create the bombs and then the act of them using it while trying to get away from it. You’ll forget to breathe at moments.
How to Blow up a Pipeline is loud, and explosive, as it should be. Daniel Goldhaber, director and co-writer (alongside star Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol) makes a film that has such extreme stakes and tension.
I cannot wait for Goldhaber’s next film, Faces of Death.
I Like Movies
Dir. Chandler Levack
This was the second film that played at TIFF that I’m sad I missed out on.
I didn’t quite have a friend that used to come over and watch SNL with me as we ate Swiss Chalet, but I am very familiar with those containers, and the commercials we saw. There’s an ongoing theme of finding myself in these films and how they spoke to me, and with I Like Movies continues that theme with having parts that reminded me of my own upbringing.
I didn’t get the chance to work in a video store, but I’ve spent a lot of time in them. I did what many others have done before me and have done so, watched as much and as quickly as I could. I wanted to know what I was missing out on, so I obviously tried to watch as much as the “best films” ever, and then would go out based on directors I encountered along the way.
Slowly, I figured those lists are kind of bullshit as everything is extremely subjective, and all art is art (I understand the irony as I’m writing about my favourite films of the year), and in the end, talking about movies shouldn’t (usually) be used as way to judge yourself or others, or to make yourself seem superior because of your own personal taste, but instead should be a way to communicate and share stories with other people.
As I said before, I wish I saw this film during its festival run. I remember seeing We Forgot to Break Up as the short at the Lightbox and loving it, so I’m all in to see whatever Levack does next.
The Iron Claw
Dir. Sean Durkin
As someone unfamiliar with the story, this isn’t necessarily an easy watch. A biopic on one of the most important families in wrestling history, the Von Erich family. It’s easy to find yourself going down the rabbit hole of the family and finding out that yes, there is even a brother that was not brought up in the film, but would have made the situation even sadder. There’s a dread that hangs over the course of the film starting when Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) mentions the curse of his family after losing the oldest brother. It’s this dread that also propels the film forward as we watch these events unfold, it’s not just heartbreaking, but it’s earth-shattering events, one after another after another.
Zac Efron is another actor that should be getting named as one of best performances of the year and be in the award race as well. Outside of just a physical transformation which alone is insane as is, but Efron’s work is extraordinary as our protagonist and as we witness the events of his life through his eyes as someone who just wants to spend time with his brothers.
I haven’t seen any of Durkin’s past work, but after watching The Iron Claw, I plan on changing that moving forward.
And for those, who decide to quote a line after I just pulled myself together from bawling my eyes about it is unfair because it is a moment and line that is meant to destroy you in a way that yes, lets you finally get to rebuild after holding it in for so long, but it still is utterly painful. I know I typically lean into emotionally heavy films and while I do love The Iron Claw, it is definitely a film I will cautiously revisit, when I’m emotionally ready for that ending.
No One Will Save You
Dir. Brian Duffield
I remember the quiet rollout of the film. Seeing the name, the release date, and the star and being intrigued but not knowing anything else. Regrettably, I didn’t take a look at who wrote and directed the film. My mistake.
It wasn’t until scrolling through Twitter I saw a page of the written script for the film, albeit a bit of a spoiler, after realizing that Brian Duffield is the mind behind the film, I knew I had to watch the film as soon as I could.
Duffield is an excellent director and writer, his directorial debut Spontaneous to me, was the film of 2020. It’s a film I go back to and often try to show friends without giving any warning, which they don’t appreciate when they’re crying by the end of the movie. By the time Spontaneous ends, you’re in a puddle of tears but ready to tackle the world. This is all to say, when I realized that Duffield wrote and directed a virtually dialogue-free alien invasion movie starring Kaitlyn Dever, I fucking ran to my TV to watch it. A la Prey, I wish Hulu/Disney had actively released the film in theatres, but that doesn’t devalue how this film doesn’t let you go. And I loved every minute of it.
Origin
Dir. Ava DuVernay
Origin was one of the surprise additions to the festival as it was ongoing. It had previously premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and with Ava DuVernay as writer/director, it had buzz but I didn’t really understand what I was about to experience. Origin feels like an exploration of narrative as the film goes back and forth between DuVernay’s documentary work and fiction work. It is also a partial adaptation of the novel Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson and Wilkerson’s life as she wrote her novel.
The film and novel tries to get to the bottom of hatred between the “others.” How this hatred doesn’t stem from our race since other places in the world do work similarly within their own race with the caste system in India. While Isabel Wilkerson (played expertly by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) tries to figure out the root cause of this evil, she’s also dealing and facing her own personal tragedies.
Kris Bower’s score is breathtaking as we go through time, and across the world trying to find the answers. This screening was a bit emptier and quieter than I expected, and the Q&A with DuVernay felt special to witness, as does the film.
Past Lives
Dir. Celine Song
Past Lives didn’t hit me during the credits, or the subway ride home, but slowly over the rest of the year. Now there are days where I’m reminded of a moment in the film, before I’m teleported into a memory of my own.
Often when a film can reach into yourself and remind you of a core memory you feel like you’ve forgotten, it’s not hard to want to return to it, as if it’s a way to return to those past moments, and literal, past lives we’ve lived.
Very few films capture what it feels like to fall in love over the internet as well as Past Lives does. As Nora uses Facebook as a way to find out about the people she’ll never see in Korea again, she finds and remembers her first big crush. It turns out he has been thinking of her as well, and looking for her too. They reconnect, and they remember a bit of who they used to be. The film so eloquently reminds us how often someone can act as a way to remember who we used to be, a bridge to a memory of ourselves that we’ve locked away.
When they finally meet again, and the film cuts back to their last day together before she leaves, we’re reminded of that moment, those 24 years in between and the way they missed each other for so long. Their initial shock of seeing them in front of you after so long being unable to make the other feel tangible. Nora explains the transition to some boy in her head, to a boy on a screen, to someone she can hug. For it to have him taken away, to become another memory.
It’s sweet and devastating as she’s embraced by Arthur. When I think of Past Lives, I think of those very real and familiar emotions and I’m left remembering all of my past relationships and lives.
Poor Things
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Of all the things I expected going into Poor Things, finding out it is also one of the funniest films of the year, tied with Joy Ride and Beau is Afraid. My second watch made me fully give in to Yorgos’ breathtaking vision for this film and also grasp what he’s tackling. The entire film is laced with an essence of nihilism but mixed with hope. We follow Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) as she discovers herself, and the world. The movie goes through Bella’s life as she gives into her pleasures and tries to figure out what it means to grow up, but also questions if we’re able to change even if we are delighted or always lean into being cruel when we can be.
It’s not quite “nature vs nurture” but in a sense it’s close to it. There’s a cruelty in human nature, and for some, their first reaction to the frog is to squish it before realizing the consequences of their actions. It’s human nature and far too common for people to behave in self-destructive behaviour.
I think I’m finally on the same wavelength as Yorgos in his latest film, but every aspect of Poor Things worked for me and worked even stronger on my rewatch. I think Tony McNamara is a great writer that really works extremely well with the entirety of the cast. It’s unsurprising that Emma Stone is continuing to work with Yorgos as regardless of the overall reaction to Yorgos’ film, one thing is certain, he is undeniably unlike every other filmmaker. That being said, between this and The Favourite, there’s something so Kubrickian in his films. It feels so precise but with such a strong removal that includes any judgement on their characters, but also, stylistically, it’s hard to not see.
I’ve watched The Carmichael Show way too many times in the past year or so, so it’s extremely exciting to see Jerrod Carmichael in Poor Things and get to ring true in some of his cynicism that is seen in some of his other projects. This is also a reminder that the phenomenal On The Count of Three is still unavailable in Canada and is frustrating as I’ve been dying to rewatch it.
Priscilla
Dir. Sofia Coppola
I remember thinking to myself how I could cry during the opening credits of the film, because I was happy at the pastels that were being used.
Last year’s Elvis was too much for me. While being a fan of Baz Luhrmann’s take on The Great Gatsby and loving Moulin Rouge, I thought I would have at least enjoyed it. His maximalist style didn’t work for me, and gave me a headache. Hearing about Priscilla while watching Austin Butler win awards for his performance, I became fascinated with what Coppola’s take on the relationship told from Priscilla’s point of view would look, and I was excited for a new Sofia Coppola film.
Priscilla feels like a return to form. I appreciated The Beguiled and On The Rocks, but truthfully, I haven’t returned to them since their theatrical run. I still find myself returning to The Virgin Suicides, Somewhere, Marie Antoinette, or yes, even The Bling Ring on occasion. Priscilla fits right in with her earlier work. As one would expect from a Sofia Coppola film, the lavish design and cinematography, with a killer soundtrack to help showcase the highs and the lows of the relationship.
Elordi towers over Cailee Spaeny and his presence looms large, but it is Spaeny’s film through and through. Just as Coppola has done in the past with her female leads, she helps bring an extremely vulnerable performance out of a performer we’re not too familiar with, but will be paying attention to, very soon.
Scream 6
Dir. Tyler Gillett & Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
I’ve said a lot about the franchise, but truthfully, right now we stand with Melissa Barrera and are angry at Spyglass for the decisions they made, but more importantly, the stand they decided to take. That will absolutely influence how we will cover the next film and other Spyglass films moving forward.
Last year’s Scream was my favourite of the year, and I stick to it, but I think Scream 6 is an improvement. The core four are really lovely together, and as much as this film made me fall in love with them.
That being said, I know last year I did end up saying that Scream was my favourite film of the year. When I did, I owned all the biases that come along with it. Saying that, I think this film is an improvement to last year’s film. There is a meanness to some of the deaths, that I normally don’t like leaning into, but something about that ladder scene that made me angry in ways I was not expecting and haven’t since maybe Randy’s death in 2.
Christopher Landon has walked off of Scream 7, so it currently has no director (or announced), and that makes me happy. Landon would have killed (pun intended if we’re being honest) and been a great choice as the filmmaker, but it’s not worth it. We love his films and watching Freaky in theatres reminded me of what it was like to see Scream for the first time again, so I’m always rooting for anything and everything Landon can work on. I’m looking forward to what the cast and crew of Scream and Scream 6 get up to next as well.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers
Even after watching Scream 6 maybe 6 times already, I think Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is still the film I’ve watched the most this year. Especially out of the new releases. I’ve seen it a few times in theatres and plan on going again when it’s re-released in a few weeks.
Across The Spider-Verse is the continuation of the Spider-Verse animation saga from Sony Animation. Its first film, Into The Spider-Verse is arguably the best Spider-Man film so far and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at 91st Academy Awards, besides making the lists of many best of’s lists, including ours.
ATSV (even the acronym feels too long of a title) builds on what its predecessor did and improves on it. Not just more Spider-Men and easter eggs, but adds to the emotions of us loving Miles and understanding the struggle of trying to make him be his own person and how he stands out from the rest.
It’s also how his parents get more fleshed out and we get incredible moments with him and Rio (Luna Lauren Vélez) as she begs him to try and protect himself as well. An overbearing Spanish mom (that Puerto Rico flag in the finger snap is an all-timer detail) will also add to my emotional connection to a film.
The score for this film helped me write most of the write-up.
TV
There was so much great TV out this year, and as always, I’m sure I missed out on tons as many of my friends who are able to keep up on way more than I can.
Here are my honourable mentions but I wanted to briefly talk about 3 of my favourite shows of the year.
In TV: Barry, The Bear, Beef, Gen V, Loki, Only Murders In The Building, Poker Face, Reservation Dogs, Succession, Ted Lasso, and Yellowjackets.
Lastly, here are my favourite shows of the year.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Created by Mike Flanagan
And thus ends Flanagan’s era on Netflix. His show feels like it too. He continues to work with his favourite cast and crew members. It is the last of his Netflix properties, reteaming with a cast and crew that goes back before The Haunting of Hill House and back to Absentia, as his team stays consistent. He likes working with this found family, and so much so, seems like he wanted to show his love to his favourites by giving them brutal deaths. This is a situation where the horror genre makes it more exciting to watch a family be killed off one at a time back-to-back as opposed to making me bawl my eyes out.
If you may have been following his career, you’ll likely recognize that while they do excitingly add Mary McDonnell and also Willa Fitzgerald. As a big fan of the Scream tv series, I was ecstatic to see her join the cast and she is excellent as a young Madeline Usher. McDonnell plays present day Madeline and she is frightful as she leads the family along with Rodrick (Bruce Greenwood as present day Roderick, and Zach Gilford). The rest of his cast is filled out with Kate Siegal, Rahul Kohil, Samantha Sloyan, Henry Thomas, and even newcomer to the Flanagan family Mark Hamill.
Similar to The Midnight Club, and The Haunting of Bly Manor, Flanagan’s latest show is an adaptation of many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works. With this, we get to see a variety of deaths, and not quite in more violent ways, but it’s a case of watching an evil family destroy itself. It is absolutely one of the darker projects and endings for a Flanagan project, but there’s a moment when Verna (Carla Gugino) tells Lenore (Kyliegh Curran) about the moments that will happen after the end of the series.
Flanagan has The Life of Chuck coming out hopefully within this year and you know I’ll be there ready to talk about it, it was strange not talking about House of Usher, so it makes me happy to finally talk about how much fun this show is.
The Last Of Us
Created by Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
I won’t say too much about The Last of Us as it was one of the very few things I wrote about last year but it’s absolutely one of the best things that came out last year. For those who played the game and are familiar with it, we were treated with new gifts that made the TV experience new and nearly as special as it might have been the first couple times we’ve played the game. And for those who haven’t played the game or not familiar with the story since the show, it was a show that grabbed everyone’s attention from that terrifying cold open in the first episode, to one of the greatest hours of television with “Long, Long Time” to frankly, many other incredible hours of television.
The games have made me cry enough times, I should have known I was going to do so a dozen or so more times during the television adaption. Since it was co-adapted by director of the game, Neil Druckmann and as well as Craig Mazin (creator of Chernobyl and TLOU massive fan), they were able to go back and forth to figure out what structurally needs to stay, and what aspects can be set aside an as easter egg.
HBO also put out an official podcast that was hosted by Troy Baker who brings Druckmann and Mazin on every week to discuss the show after each episode. It made the show feel so much more special. Some of the announcements for the second season of The Last of Us makes me extremely excited for the second season.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Created by BenDavid Grabinski and Brian Lee O’Malley
A lot of Edgar Wright’s films mean a lot to me for a lot of different reasons as his films have consistently found me in different places of my life and helped push me in ways I didn’t think. Yes, even Scott Pilgrim Versus The World. While I briefly wrote about it for its 10 year anniversary, I brought up how the film is about deeper than just an incredible cast fighting each other, but more about our relationships and finding self-worth. The film briefly touches on that subject for Scott, but not so much for Ramona and the rest of the cast.
Scott Pilgrim, both the film and now the animated series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is about our own personal luggage in relationships, and while in your twenties in the mix of it, everything feels sudden and immediate, so it becomes a competition. Scott needs to prove his worth by fighting her seven evil exes and maybe showing that he’s better than them. With that in mind, Takes Off takes a new viewpoint at the story, and improves on Wright’s film.
At first, I was worried about Takes Off. It seemed that at first, I was mostly aware of the show thanks to Wright himself who has spent the past few years sharing links and promoting anything related to Scott Pilgrim over the past few years. Whether it was the release of Brie Larson’s version of “Black Sheep” or in this, finding out that the cast was returning to the series. I thought that the show would be a “true adaptation” of the graphic novels. Spoilers for the show, but after one episode in and realizing that no, it is not a true adaptation but a continuation in ways I never expected. It uses the film as a shorthand, as a possibility of what that life would look like, but not in the reality we’re watching. Instead, we’re getting Ramona’s story, and frankly, everyone else’s story as well.
While at first, you could assume that since the show is 8 episodes, you would have had each episode be facing the next ex as the story progresses, it’s a massive delight realizing that while the face off are still there, it is far more of a healing process. It is a story that can only be told thanks to the passing of time. With enough time removed from a relationship or a moment, you’d be able to see the full story and not just your own. With a literal pun in the title, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off helps make Pilgrim less of a creep who dates two women at the same time – one of which, being underage – by taking him out of the equation and allowing Mary Elizabeth Winstead truly shine as Ramona Flowers.
Another year of some phenomenal films and shows that as we move onto 2024 and forward, I’ll continue to go back to these projects as the properties I spent the most time thinking about and will continue to do so as we move away from the year.
The UnderSCENE 