It’s 2023. And while life has pretty much returned to normal as far as our entertainment habits—movies are open and theatres are back in operation—it’s obvious that our viewing habits have changed. Masks and proofs of vaccination seem to be things of the past in most venues. The criteria for going to the movies for most is stricter now that we’ve spent years watching first run movies immediately to weeks later on our home screens.
So it’s been two years since I introduced the Marco Awards, where I nominate and reward the best entertainment that’s been streamed directly into my home for free.
In honor of what began as merely a “what should I watch next?” inquiry that year we had all the time and opportunity to watch everything round the clock, it’s time for my 3rd Annual Marco Awards, this week for Movies. After 3 years and all the major awards circuit making progressively bigger fools of themselves, I’m beginning to feel the Marcos are more relevant than any of the EGOT primaries. I guarantee you no one is getting bitchslapped over a Marco. At least no one that doesn’t deserve it. Plus with the state of what we’ve been through in reality for the last three years, we as a society seem progressively less interested in watching rich people give other rich people awards–and act fools while doing so.
So, again , here is is a list of my best movie recommendations from the past year, formatted into an awards show that makes sense. The rules have changed slightly this year because the Oscars screwed me over. I am still the nominating committee and the voting body. So if a movie appeared on its first in-home streaming run for free (because that is in the spirit of Covid year entertainment, when we as viewers mattered) between March 12th, 2022 and January 31st, 2023, and I saw it, it is eligible. And the 31st is a purely arbitrary date set by the nominating committee (me) giving the voting body (me) enough time to catch up and tabulate the results for release sometime around the anniversary of Covid shutdowns (now). Up until now, the last year’s Academy/Emmy/Tony Award winners were not eligible, only so my awards are never just a regurgitation of another awards ceremony. I lifted this that stipulation for this year’s Marco Movie Awards because the Oscars shifted their date from spring to 2 days before my Awards were traditionally published on the 14th, the anniversary of the day the world shut down for Covid. That gave me a mere 2 days to change votes, plus two cycles of Oscars to contend with as far as eligibility. Also, keeping it a little fresher, each season’s nominees will be a little of this year’s Oscar contenders with last years that didn’t premiere in streaming form in time to qualify, leading to some interesting new pairings. So there will be some repeats between the Hollywood ceremony a week ago and my more comprehensive list of winners here. I also postponed the Marcos a week to leave a little distance between the Oscars and today.
So, with that, Welcome to the 3rd annual Marco Awards for Excellence in Motion Pictures that appeared in your living room. Grab a drink. Slap youself silly if you want. I’m your host, Mark Briner, and may the best pictures win (finally). The nominees are:
The 3rd Annual MARCO AWARDS 2023: the MOVIES
BEST MOVIE
All Quiet on the Western Front—The classic story of a young German boy’s introduction to the horrors of war during WWI. Tight direction and a compelling young Felix Kammerer as the central character make the movie excel and retain it’s horror even in modern times.
The Banshees of Inisherin—When a resident of a small fishing town’s lifelong best friend decides he no longer wants to be friends with him, extremely dark comedy results. Benefiting from strong performances all around, this may just be the saddest comedy ever.
The Batman—Director Matt Reeves dredges up the third film franchise of the DC antihero, this time starring an unlikely but effective Robert Pattinson and a vast array of Gotham villains including an abused and damaged Catwoman, big mobster Penguin, and the most insanely warped Riddler seemingily modeled off the Unibomber. Not your grandmother’s Batman, or even your older brother’s, but thrilling even as it continues to confuse.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once—An incredibly original movie about an ordinary middle-aged Chinese woman who’s life is falling apart from every angle, but just might be a ninja superhero in a distant parallel universe. Equal parts sci-fi, action, martial arts, comedy, and family drama with great multiple portrayals from every cast member.
My Policeman—A bittersweet love story that starts at the hard end and flashes back to show how the participants got there. Great writing, great acting, and a great leading performance from former One Direction frontman Harry Styles.
Top Gun: Maverick—One has to understand how substantial this nomination is from someone who has made a side career out of detesting Tom Cruise’s shenanigans to the point of refusing to even watch his films. But the Oscar and Globe attention it received forced me to give it a chance and, despite all Cruise’s off-screen foolishness, in a movie no one asked for, I have to admit it’s one of the best sequels made to a mediocre movie ever. Bonus points go to a strong supporting cast of fresh young actors and the genius to accommodate an ailing Val Kilmer to reprise his critical role of Ice (now Admiral Ice).
West Side Story—Stephen Spielberg’s highly anticipated and equally feared remake of the Academy Award Winning classic musical was an artistic triumph (but box office disaster). It didn’t appear on streaming in time for last year’s awards, but still merits the nomination even after the original luster wore off. Spielberg and his winning cast all delivered strength to the movie. The only liability was Tony Kushner’s unnecessarily leaden book with awkward PC additions (the Sharks speak Spanish with no subtitles, because that would favor Americans in viewing; for extended periods of time and he doesn’t address the Jets by name so that we don’t know them any better than the Sharks, resulting in an sadly flat “Gee, Officer Krupke”) and useless back stories thrust upon the leads (I’ll only say it one more time, Tony never went to prison. Never. He just grew up and quit the juvenile foolery of the gang.)
Ineligible: Last year’s wonderful, heartwarming Oscar winner Coda.
WINNER: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. While at the beginning I didn’t know what to make of this movie, by the end I give them great credit for providing me the most original movie in years, and something the like of which I’ve never seen before. Bonus points for giving middle aged women roles in an action movie that everyone kicked out of the water. Great performances over all, from vets Yeoh and Curtis, to Hsu’s captivating debut and Quan’s emotional comeback, plus great, exotic visuals and exciting martial arts made this the movie that just resonated most as art—and fun.
BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale (The Pale Blue Eye)—The always dependent Bale gives a strong center to this story of an investigator assigned to solve the murders of cadets at turn of the century West Point, teaming up with an astute Cadet Edgar Allen Poe, Bale navigates the twists and turns of a seemingly simple solution that gets very convoluted by tale’s end.
Austin Butler (Elvis)—The former Nickelodeon teen actor who could never land a steady show apparently saved it all for this moment, when he emerges as a compelling Elvis Presley, singing and swiveling and swooning through a score of the King’s greatest hits and accomplishments. Butler coveys Presley’s dark side and captures the essence of this unique performer in a way no other actor has.
Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)—The movie succeeds because of Farrell’s darkly comic delivery that makes this sad movie quietly funny. The lines aren’t funny, his delivery is. Farrell, one of this generation’s best actors, is long overdue for a nomination and this role undeniably breaks the dry streak.
Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front)—The young star of the brutal war film is the major reason it succeeds. Filmed in German with minimal dialog, we see the disillusionment creep into his innocent face until events take turns much darker than his youth camp every prepared him for.
Robert Pattinson (The Batman)—In this third cinematic incarnation of the DC Dark Knight, dark horse Pattinson sets all his Twilight beginnings aside and shows a compelling darkness that carries the odd new telling of the myth. Like former costar Kristen Stewart, time has deepened his talents and made him a formidable actor.
Ryan Reynolds (Spirited)—Yes the movie was holiday fluff, but Reynolds is a star and the reason it works. Plus, who else this season sang, danced, and tapped to get themselves on this list. Not even Austin Butler. Reynolds can do no wrong and deserves acknowledgment for his unique sense of humor, engaging screen personality, and the talents we are still discovering within him. And just for being a really nice guy.
Harry Styles (My Policeman)—The One Direction front man and pop sensation throws himself into this period of innocence lost and sexuality discovered, showing unexpectedly great promise as a leading man.
Ineligible: Brendan Fraser’s recent Oscar winning performance in The Whale which hasn’t debuted on free streaming yet. And Will Smith not so much for winning last year’s Oscar but for being a douche and assaulting Chris Rock on national TV. Unlike the Oscars, the Marcos do not reward toxic asshole behavior.
WINNER: Austin Butler. As much as I wanted to give Colin Farrell the win for his sweetly sad-funny performance that makes Banshees work, I can’t deny the bulk of the awards circuit that Butler meets all my criteria for what I call the Sissy Spacek trifecta, after the greatest Oscar winning singing/acting/becoming performance in screen history. Like Spacek as Loretta Lynn, Butler successfully transformed into Elvis, did his own singing, and looked great in all the cool lamé costumes, with all the odds of failing to do so against him.
BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams (Disenchanted)— Always the Awards bridesmaid but never yet the bride, the perpetually underrated Adams makes everything look too easy even when playing a completely different role in every new character she finds. Even reprising her leading lady debut as a real fairytale princess rudely relocated to present day New York poking fun at every Disney trope ever, she spins a new fairytale as her enchanted story continues in the suburbs where she becomes a stepmother, and this time pokes villainous fun at all the implications as such. I maintain that sometimes the performance transcends the material. Adams always does.
Angela Bassett (Wakanda Forever)—One of Hollywood’s most riveting and powerful actresses is the only reason to watch this disappointing sequel to the Marvel franchise’s best movie. While the franchise was blind-sided by the death of Black Panther star Chadwick Bozeman, the best answer may have been to build the sequel around the star quality of Bassett, not the weaker actress who was only cast to be a supporting role. The Globes and the Academy billed her as supporting actress, but she’s the only truly stellar thing in this big screen disappointment.
Cate Blanchett (Tár)—Blanchett is her usual flawless self as Berlin Philharmonic conductor Lydia Tár, whose career comes to a halt when her star on the rise suddenly plummets as her personal and professional lives intersect tragically.
Viola Davis (The Woman King)—Davis brings her usual srong excellence to this tale of a warrior queen who ruled with the power of any King. Like Bassett, Davis is a force of nature in any role she inhabits and is rightly the most deserving recent addition to the EGOT roster.
Ana de Armas (Blonde)—De Armas is a revelation, giving an amazing insight into the delicate and sad world of icon Marilyn Monroe. Hers is perhaps the first performance to truly capture Monroe’s elusive combination of beauty, vulnerablility, and fragility, particularly interesting because the unconventionally told biopic filters the story through Monroe’s sad lens of her mental instability. Again, as weird and loopy (and biased) as the movie was, like Adams, de Armas ascends above the product.
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everwhere All at Once)—Yeoh, who made a memorable stateside debut in the martial arts reviving Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, once again goes all out ninja as the mild-mannered, put-upon heroine who finds hidden strength in the women she is in all her distant alternate universes. What other nominee gets to show her tender side while kicking villainous ass at the IRS?
WINNER: Michelle Yeoh. In a crazy competitive category with Blanchard giving one of the best performances of her lauded career, and always strong performances by Bassett and Davis who I think should just win all the awards (and are owed Oscars for What’s Love Got To Do With It and The Help respectively), Yeoh reemerges for a major comeback and figuratively and literally kicks ass as a middle-aged female action hero who pulls great performances out of every one of her costars. Again, being alternately comical, heartbreaking, and in effect playing half a dozen various roles in alternate universes, Yeoh had the magic charm this year.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
David Alvarez (West Side Story)—The former child prodigy Tony winner (best actor for the title character in Billy Elliott at age 12) is grown up and threatening as Bernardo, the proud gangleader of the Sharks, and his strong dancing is a highlight of the show.
Mike Faist (West Side Story)—the Broadway dancer (Dear Even Hansen, Newsies) is perhaps the most compelling recast in this contemporary update. His take is exceptionally fresh and exciting, even if he is saddled with that lamest version of “Cool” ever to try and sell.
Harry Melling (The Pale Blue Eye)—Melling gives a compelling performance in the pivotal role of Cadet Edgar Allen Poe in the West Point mystery thriller. He conveys all the quirks, darkness, and antisocial awkwardness the eventual horror writer would be famous for.
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)—If you had told me in 1986 I’d be nominating Short Round for a major acting award, I’d have rolled my eyes faster than that giant stone ball in the Temple of Doom. But Quan gives a fascinating performance as he switches universes faster than anyone in this fast paced, good time adventure from mousy husband to high tech ninja superspy trying to save the multiverse..
Brendan Gleason (The Banshees of Inisherin)—Gleason is pathetic as the middle aged man who no longer wants to be friends with his lifelong best friend. The depths he sinks in his depression only act as a springboard for all the insanity in this darkly sad comedy.
Barry Koeghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)—In the possibly oddest comedy in existence, Koeghan shines as the biggest goofball to provide much needed clear comic relief from all the somber souls in the story.
David Dawson (My Policeman)—Dawson as the central point of this marital triangle is critical on the movie’s success. His scenes with Corwin are sweet, his scenes with Styles are steamy. He successfully makes his character not really antagonist of villain, just human.
WINNER: Ke Huy Quan. I had favored Koeghan up til this publishing for his charming, hilarious, and eventually heartbreaking performance that was the only genuinely funny thing in this very dark comedy, but how does one argue that Quan is sensational in the comeback of the year. A child actor who aged out but took a break behind the camera in production and stunt work for 35 years to reemerge playing a variety of roles like Yeoh, from docile, middle-aged husband to sexy action hero in one film. Job well done, Short Round.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Carrie Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)—as the single voice of reason in this movie of dueling quiet insanity, Condon grounds the tale in the sadness of an impoverished fishing town, refusing to get carried into the nonsensical feud.
Aunjenue Ellis (King Richard)—Will Smith got all the Oscar buzz (in ways he never even imagined), but Ellis’ portrayal of the Williams progenies’ mother who grounds them and protects them, preserving the family from the circus as best she can is the performance that gives the family movie true heart.
Marlee Matlin (Coda)—Matlin gives her expected sympathetic portrayal as the deaf mother of a frustrated hearing child, torn between her needs and her daughters. Mature shades of the actress who won the Academy Award for Children of a Lesser God.
Janelle Monáe (Glass Onion)—The movie was boiler plate diet Agatha Christie, all word play and red herrings, but Monáe anchors the fun parody of celebrity decadence with a solid surprise performance.
Rita Moreno (West Side Story)—Moreno, DeBose’s predecessor as Anita in the original movie, here plays a new role written for her as Doc’s Puerto Rican widow who is the emotional center of the story, made more powerful by her delivery of the theme ballad “Somewhere”. Moreno could have potentially made Oscar history as the only performer to win for two different roles in the same story. But that’s a different multiverse.
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once)—Hollywood royal legacy enters the fourth reinvention of her career, from teen scream queen to Hollywood bombshell to cool mom and now bad ass senior as an intimidating IRS agent—and that’s her least scary incarnation in all the universes.
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)—Hsu (Nora from Queens, Broadway’s Be More Chill and The Spongebob Musical) is the breakout find of the season as the angsty daughter from all the Everywheres.
Ineligible: Oscar winner Ariana DeBose who slayed the awards-bait role of Anita.
WINNER: Jamie Lee Curtis. This again boiled down to the Oscars issue of a truly amazing debut by Hsu in a variety of comically over-the-top multiverse villains versus Lee in a showcase for all her comic (and martial arts!) abilities. I have to admit sentiment also played a role in this decision. I fell for the Hollywood legacy that neither she nor either of her old school movie star parents have won an Oscar in any of their distinguished careers. I favor the former scream queen in the Marco equivalent of a multigenerational lifetime achievement award—that I can make a case for though. This is not a total gift.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Call Me Miss Cleo—The behind the scenes tale of everybody’s favorite phone psychic, Miss Cleo, in an expose of all the shady business dealings the Psychic Network performed to promote her as poster girl and eventually throw her under the bus.
Lucy & Desi—Director Amy Pohler and daughter Lucie Arnaz’s behind the screen love letter to the real life and love of America’s original First Couple of Television, as well as the savvy businesspeople they were that invented the television business as we know it today.
The Martha Mitchell Effect—A documentary inspired by the podcast Slow Burn (which also inspired Starz’s Gaslit with Julia Roberts and Sean Penn) is named after the now legitimate psychological phenomenon wherein a patient makes incredulous and improbably statements that turn out to be true. In this case, all the claims by the Watergate whistle-blower who told everyone Nixon was behind it all, including incredulous reports of being held hostage and tortured in a California hotel room while her sleazy husband ran back to DC to manage the press and lay the groundwork for the cover-up, which in the last 50 years all turned out to be 100% accurate. God rest her soul.
Watergate—This 50th Anniversary of the buffoonery that became Watergate and brought a Presidency down was a thorough and unflinching look at one of the most embarrassing moments in American history. Well, the most embarrassing of the ones we’ve got caught in or admitted to……
WINNER: Lucy & Desi. It took all I had to admit that sentimental favorite Being the Ricardos or its stars did not win the Marcos last year. But in a less sensational year of documentaries with no exposés we didn’t already know about, Pohler and Arnaz’s valentine to the incomparable Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, highlighting not only their on-screen chemistry and accomplishments, but the business decisions and industry pioneering they excelled in at Desilu was just the tribute to let me reward this once in a lifetime couple.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Lightyear—Disney/Pixar’s only real competitive movie, it was fine but a pale second generation from the brilliant, game changing trio of predecessors (yes, trio; Toy Story 4 does not exist in this universe) from which its mythology came.
Pinocchio—Benicio Del Torro’s revisionist WWI fantasy retelling of the lonely woodcarver and his quest to replace his late son with an enchanted puppet, De Torro takes his usual darkest fantasy approach to weave a familiar but new tale where the villains aren’t foxes and cats and donkeys but Mussolini and youth encampments. It’s not Disney, but it oddly works.
WINNER: Pinocchio—With Disney turning out a crap year with films so bland they didn’t even merit a nomination to take up space, Del Torro’s alternate Disney telling of the familiar tale with interesting new visuals and social implications make for an easy win. A jolt for Disney to do better and return to their winning formula they defined and perfected before we all write them off.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT RECOGNITIONS
While having nowhere the time to watch dozens of old movies as in the original homebound 2020 seasons, the only real silver screen revisits worth mentioning were the original West Side Story and the memorial theatrical re-release of Grease after Olivia Newton-John’s tragic passing. Both have solidly held up the test of time.
I will with no apology or fake gratitude for the revised version maintain that the 1961 West Side Story, despite all its present day virtue signaling criticisms, is still a masterpiece. In that era, there is no one who could have played Maria better than Russian-American Natalie Wood and Greek-born George Chakiris is still the definitive Barnardo. Plus Rita Moreno in her Academy Award winning role as Anita who pulls the whole story together is enough to justify that this classic is worth keeping. Did we need a remake by Mr. Spielberg? No. Was it good? Yes, it was a worthy salute to the original (except where it decided to stray), but it did nothing better. The original Oscar winner will still be the superior version despite its stagy looking sets, clearly 30-something gang members, and improbable Jerome Robbins choreographed jetéing Jets. Remaking and updating doesn’t have to cancel classic work.
As for Grease, I maintain the movie is still the best and most palatable and perfect adaptation of the 50-year-old stage musical. Again, despite the solidly 30+ cast playing high school seniors (albeit rough, hard-looking ones), with 5:00 shadows by noon and the perfect Stockard Channing looking more like a teacher pondering an approaching retirement, the musical has the energy and vivacity to carry itself like I’ve never seen actual teens or even 20-somethings ever achieve, and with true star quality. But, as I felt then in the midst of my original love affair, it all hinges on the pivotal role of Olivia as Sandy, the sweet character in the midst of all the rough and tumble foolishness. Again, there was not one of the possible starlets screentested (everyone from Ann-Margret to Susan Dey to Marie Osmond) that could have matched her magic as the perfect ingénue and no one has ever sung that score as flawlessly as she. And I have to say, under the circumstances, the re-release took on new levels of emotions. Olivia’s final “Goodbye to Sandra Dee” reprise brought tears, as did the ending I’ve denied since the movie came out that the car took off into the heavens at the end. There was no denying that now, and the floodgates opened all through the closing credits. Plus all the 50s cameo stars like Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Alice Ghostly, and Dody Goodman that we’ve also lost since then. The movie is perfect. These re-viewings cemented that despite the snarky criticisms aimed at both, the 1961 West Side Story and 1978 Grease still reign as two of the best movie musicals ever.
Come back next week for the Marco Awards for Television.