🎵 Climbing The Down Escalator 🎵
I enjoy the song those lyrics are from. I also enjoy writing this newsletter.
The following tweet is the ethos of this newsletter. I could try to explain and explain the point of the gibberish I write here, but this says it better than I ever could.
Aerial Shot started in January of 2022 and now that we’re in January of 2023, that means that we made it one full year together.
It’s been a good run.
Also, don’t worry. This isn’t the start of an obituary, as there will be plenty more nonsense in this newsletter in the future.
We’ve got July 21, 2023, the day in which Barbie and Oppenheimer will release opposite one another in theaters. And maybe Colin Farrell winning an Oscar. And a new Scorsese. And a new Miyazaki. And M3GAN in a few days.
If you didn’t see it, I broke down every new movie I saw last year. And we’ve already begun 2023’s list.
If you can believe it, I have a few other things I wanted to mention from the year in movies. Some relevant to 2022. Some very much not. Then the year will be over and we will move on to 2023 and Kevin McCarthy stepping on ladders for 365 days in a row.
1.
There’s a good chance that LCD Soundsystem’s “New Body Rhumba” makes my top songs of 2023, as I can’t stop listening to this earworm. The lyrics were the title of this newsletter in case you were wondering. I really enjoyed White Noise but the entire movie pales in comparison to its closing sequence, which is fun and weird and a real swing. It’s so funny that Netflix spent millions upon millions of dollars for Noah Baumbach to write and direct an adaptation of an inscrutable novel that has often been claimed: “unadaptable.”
2.
I’d like to congratulate Ryan Reynolds on winning the inaugural Aerial Shot Secret Enemy award. What this means is that I dislike this person even though I’m sure they’re fine and haven’t actually harmed me in any way. Sidenote, but I initially thought of this, because there’s a guy at my gym that I can’t stand. He’s constantly talking about his new apparel and workouts and doing his own thing during the classes and … I don’t know. Sometimes you just can’t stand a person. Anyway, that’s Ryan Reynolds’ 2022 for me when it comes to Secret Movie Enemies. The guy put out Red Notice and Spirited and had an irritating cameo in Bullet Train. Even the new Deadpool/Hugh Jackman teaser annoyed me. I’m tired of his shtick, and he’s destroying movies. Seems like a nice guy, I guess.
3.
I know no one saw it and it’s been classified as a bomb, but Babylon fucking rules. You can’t convince me otherwise. There’s a chance we look back at last year and it’s the most memorable movie of them all. Anyone who doesn’t like it is an idiot. It’s that simple. Don’t be on the wrong side of history.
4.
I watched Federico Fellini's 8½ for the first time recently, and that’s gonna be a no from me. It reminded me so much of Bardo, as it’s also a dreamscape filled with diatribes in which a pompous man has a hard time being too famous. To be honest, I found it grating. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, however, is great. It’s funny looking at La La Land now and seeing how much of it is directly influenced/stolen from this 1964 classic, but this doesn’t take away from La La Land. I still very much enjoy it. This isn’t really part of my 2022 Final Takes, but it’s my newsletter and I wanted to write something about these movies.
5.
It kind of feels like Robert Eggers’ The Northman is being forgotten about when it comes to end-of-year accolades, but let’s not forget that this movie is fun as hell. Seeing this in a theater was one of the best activities one could do all of 2022. It was in my Top Ten, and I hope Eggers gets to keep making whatever the hell he wants to.
Okay, that’s it. Probably. For now.
I have some big ideas for this newsletter for 2023, and I hope you stick around. If you have any thoughts on things I should write about or check out, please throw them in the comments below. It’s time to move on to the year that will be, which means next week we’ll be doing [redacted].