……………………………………………………….

Best and Worst Films from June 2023

Best Films from June 2023:

3. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. is a wonderful, timeless coming-of-age flick. It’s the kind of movie that could have been made decades ago. It deals with a variety of interesting issues in regards to puberty, and although it tackles most of them with kid gloves, it still felt universally relatable in its approach. It’s a heartwarming, feel-good movie that is very difficult not to like. In a weak month for me, this movie easily takes the third spot.

2. Henry V

1944’s Henry V is an audio-visual marvel of storytelling. Laurence Olivier did an amazing dual job here as both actor and director, in particular excelling in the latter role. His decision to frame the movie as a real stage play as it must have been like back in 1600 was brilliant and this made the movie truly unique, though he didn’t stick with it throughout. It’s a unique adaptation that mostly stood the test of time.

1. Ko to tamo peva

And the best movie I saw this month is a classic from my home country’s cinema. Wonderfully written and directed, Ko to tamo peva also benefits from a superb ensemble cast with every actor delivering a terrific performance. Its diverse, colorful cast of characters made for such a memorable movie. The dark, brutal ending is iconic and so is the song sung by two gypsies that serves as the narration for the film’s story. The imagery of this bus on its last doomsday trip alone made for one iconic, highly cinematic movie. It’s one of the best Serbian movies of all time.

Worst Films from June 2023:

3. Who’s That Knocking at My Door

The plot in this movie is basic and it failed to fully explore its central theme of religion’s role in sexuality, but the black-and-white cinematography is terrific and at times even quite artistic. The rough editing, pacing and too many unnecessary detours in plot definitely made the movie feel too amateurish at times, but for Martin Scorsese’s debut, it was perfectly fine.

2. Air

A thoroughly pointless excursion, Air is this very boring business movie that failed to focus on the one thing that was most interesting about this story and that was Michael Jordan’s mother played wonderfully by Viola Davis. Other than her, the movie is not worth seeing as it was overly populist in approach and annoying in characters, dialogue and thin plot.

1. The Purge

Though well made and reasonably diverting, The Purge is a horror movie that failed to make proper use of its admittedly terrific premise. It abandoned its dystopian SF tropes in favor of home invasion elements that for the most part were uninspired and far from original. Thus, it was the worst movie I watched this month.