This is the 'feel good' mike leigh film. (I think that label should probably go to either one of his earlier tv movies or topsy turvy but due to the title and general vibe, this is often labeled that way.) It's about making your own happiness (which is continued in what i consider a sort of sequel: another year) and the way we mistake happy people's work and good choices for being lucky. Obviously the title is a double entendre: poppy is 'happy-go-lucky' but also, people who stay happy... get lucky. This film is full of miserable people, all of whom end up in shit. Poppy is insufferable to miserable people simply because they assume she's lucky and they're not. Sally Hawkins gives what I believe to be the best performance in any Mike Leigh film which sort of means it's one of the best performances of all time. Eddie marsan is close behind with easily the best supporting performance in any mike leigh film. The dialogue in this is the most charming even if it gets corny when it tries too hard. The vibrancy of this world sticks out like a beautiful, colourful sore thumb amongst the rest of leigh's bleak, grey filmography. I'm usually not so much a fan of leigh's single-protagonist films (Mr turner, vera drake, hard truths) with this and Naked being clear outliers. Both this and naked do feel more like ensemble pieces than the other films i mentioned due to the wider journeys the characters go on, meeting all sorts of characters and environments. It's the best. :)

This movie is quite possibly my favourite of all time. It's a shame that true provocateur or 'weird' directors give films like this a bad rep; to anyone who doesn't understand the context or Aster's influences, this may appear to be a giant prank that Aster is playing on the audience. It's also a shame that Aster's previous two films were relatively accessible and therefore a lot of the audience for this film expected more of the same.  Although Aster's 'style' is fairly obvious, I think what makes his films really special is his process. His research is so deep and detailed I have no clue how he manages to get through a film every two years.  Beau is Afraid is the clearest example of this. Oh my god the amount of little details and references and homages to other films, novels and plays. Most other directors have to try their best to fill all their compositions but Aster can't help it. There's so much stuff he wants to fit in his movie that the task is instead, cramming it all in. I wish there was a single other director out there that CARED as much as Aster does about his movies. You really feel his love for what he's writing and it makes you care too.  Yes, this film is hella weird and I have no idea how he got so much funding for it. It's not for everyone... or much of anyone at all, but there really is nothing else like it.

The way Love Exposure is structured is absolutely baffling but also I think it might be perfect. The first hour kinda functions like a regular first hour in a 2 hour film but then after we reach what feels like the midpoint, we get 30 damn minutes of extra exposition then another 15 mins of setup for the real midpoint. It sounds like an absolute mess, and it is, but it genuinely works. Maybe this is aided by the fact I didn't really get invested in the characters and therefore just being in the world that Sono creates is enough to keep me engaged. Either way, somehow these 30-45 mins that go absolutely nowhere and don't reveal any groundbreaking information other than some backstories are some of the most electric minutes in the whole film.  Of course the final act is the best. That shot of Koike's face as she stabs herself is incredible and the use of Beethoven's 7th, both main times it appears, is one of my favourite needle drops ever.

The final 45 minutes of this film are easily the best 45 minutes of any film I've ever seen so far. Nothing else really even comes close. It's just as bleak as a story can possibly get. It's not just an apocalypse - which is kinda the highest stakes possible - but it's an apocalypse started by humanity itself, fully consciously and intentionally. Not only that, but once they get a chance to return and to live again, everyone on earth apart for two people cant bring themselves to return. It's awful. And the worst part is that it's hard to argue against humanity's choice. Anno doesn't even give us a genuine reason why they're wrong, it's all just wishy-washy 'life is worth living because of course it is' stuff. It's obvious in the end Anno is feeling suicidal and this faux-hopeful ending is just him trying to lessen the bleakness.  I don't think I would feel so positive about this ending or this film as a whole if it wasn't for Shiki Jitsu which Anno directed a few years later in 2000. The rebuilds have been talked about as the true, matured, hopeful ending to evangelion but I really feel as though that came in Shiki Jitsu.  Also, although it's been talked about to exhaustion, the visuals and music in the third impact sequence are so impactful and brutally depressing. I can't quite explain what it is about the imagery in this sequence that makes it so special

This is the 'End' of Evangelion in the sense that this wraps up what Anno was trying to say in that series. Shinji is kind of split into both of these characters in a way. I think this film happens during the third impact, both characters are broken and lost, but ends in the same place as Evangelion, just more developed: they're all ready to go on living again. They've resolved their familial trauma and moved on. Also, I'm really amazed how well Anno's visual style translates to live action. This is possibly the best-looking live action film ever.

This is such a weird redemption story in which the character never really does anything right but instead his partner finds herself doing exactly what he did, proving they're the same. It's kind of what people actually do: we only resent people if we feel morally superior. When we inevitably stoop to their level, we have no other option but to accept that we're all only human. This film is a little slower than Ostlund's other films but is probably more controlled than the admittedly indulgent later films.

This is the only film on this list that I wouldn't recommend to most people. It's a pretty good coming of age love story which definitely has its place in the Ghibli canon but it's nowhere near as technically brilliant as some other Ghibli films - at least not to general audiences. The reason I love this film so much is because it is scarily similar to a time in my life. When I was 13ish and starting out as a writer and composer, it was the most exciting but as time went on, scary, time in my life. There are so many story beats in this film that, verbatim, happened to me. Most of all, the feeling of this film and Shizuku's emotional arc are so real and accurate to the early teenage artistic experience. Not every artist has the same experience, for some people its a more social, collaborative thing, for some people its just fun and no pressure, but for a particular type of artist, this film is a perfect depiction. I'm not entirely sure who has proper writing credit as Miyazaki is credited for the script but I know in Ghibli, the director usually tells the story through storyboards and the script doesn't really exist. Whoever is really responsible clearly wrote this semi-autobiographical.

I think this has cemented Ari Aster as my favourite filmmaker. Such a funny and intelligent depiction of society that ends up pretty universal despite being so specific to the US. His only film with no supernatural elements is somehow almost as insane as Beau is Afraid. I don't feel like this film is political or apolitical, it's just anti-stupid. All characters to varying degrees, regardless of their political standpoint, clearly don't believe anything they say. It's pointless conflict for the sake of feeling like you matter.  This is another great continuation of Aster's tendency to let the characters write the film. The whole second half feels as though it was written by Joe Cross, descending into heroic delusion.

If I had to pick a 'greatest film of all time' it would probably be this one. It's one of those films that's about everything. Our place in the world. It's the film that we should show to aliens to explain who we are. Also, no fantasy world even comes close to the magic and life that spirited away's world has. The only one that kinda comes close is the boy and the heron.  It would be my all time favourite film if it wasn't for the giant gaping hole which is its ending. It's so anticlimactic and not in an ambiguous artsy way, in a thrown together, rushed way. I would've preferred for them to just end it after she helps Haiku remember his name, even if that leaves a bunch of unresolved questions. The way it's resolved with the silly test that chihiro clocks immediately and then goes home is so pointless. What was the point in the test if it doesn't provide any kind of obstacle. Maybe at least they could have shifted the tone to make me think she might get it wrong, but no, it's over before it even starts and none of the characters even show any fear or doubt. Anyway a long rant of complaining about a film that, despite its flaws, I adore.