The 25 Best Films of 2023: A Video Countdown
I always look forward to David Ehrlich’s annual love letter to cinema and his favorite films of the year. So put this thing on the biggest screen you can find, slap on some headphones, and get ready to put a bunch of excellent films on your must-watch list. This year in conjunction with the video, Ehrlich is raising money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
You can also watch this video on YouTube and past countdowns on his website.
Discussion 4 comments
This year's countdown synthesizes some of the experiments introduced last year (using aspects of a single film to punctuate/thread the whole video; bad-lip-syncing the music to a carefully chosen edit; stringing a series of shots to suggest cause and effect) into something far more cohesive. I always come away from these videos feeling like these 25 films must be kinetic masterpieces. And every year there are moments of real genius: the "baby baby baby" sequence, the brilliant use of the Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" to underscore the theme of three different films in turn, and especially the long repeated coda of the song; using every single part of "I'm Just Ken" like it was a whole cow. David's yearly essay rekindled my love/appetite for movies after the long, repetitive, animated desert of raising kids. Thanks for introducing us to it.
The "baby, baby, baby" thing was brilliant; I laughed out loud when it happened.
And Godzilla singing. And the intermission.
The intermission had me cracking up. The Lenny's passionate conducting of the doofy Mario theme, which then seamlessly cutting to "I'm Just Ken" in perfect tune… just masterful!
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation..
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!