The Ten Best Performances of 2023

December 29, 2023 by Matt Oakes Posted in Lists, Most Popular Tagged All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, Andrew Scott, Barry Keoghan, Emma Stone, Jeffrey Wright, Margaret Qualley, Mark Ruffalo, Molly Gordon, Paul Giamatti, Poor Things, Rosamund Pike, Saltburn, Theater Camp 2 Comments

It has already begun: the long march towards coronating a new quartet of actors whose performances are deemed the finest of 2023. And while the Oscars, Globes, and flurry of other guild awards tend to recognize the same handful of actors over and over again, here at Silver Screen Riot, we have our own version of who offered the best performances of 2023. So now that we’ve already gotten our way through the Ten Best TV Shows of 2023, and the Ten Best Movies of 2023, it’s time to move onto the Ten Best Performances of 2023.

Though it should go without saying, by “best”, I mean entirely my favorites so no need to send over an Excel sheet proving me why my preferences are wrong. From a year teeming with standout performances, several noteworthy ones made the greatest impact, though I could probably double this list and be more happy with it. But time is finite (mine and yours) and so here they are: Read More

Noirish ‘THE BATMAN’ Reveals Man Swallowed By Mask

March 1, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Movie Reviews Tagged Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, Greig Fraser, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Matt Reeves, Michael Giacchino, Movie Reviews, Paul Dano, Peter Craig, Robert Pattinson, The Batman, Zoë Kravitz 1 Comment

We’ve seen the man become the bat plenty of times. In Matt Reeves’ The Batman, we see the bat become a man again. The Batman, a singularly gloomy noir caper that feels stylistically more akin to Se7en than The Dark Knight, presents one of the most distinctive versions of the iconic “superhero” (that term is used very loosely here) to ever grace the screen. Reeves’ vision is a far cry from the rinse-repeat superhero fare that so frequently pummels their way through the multiplexes. There’s sparse humor or frivolity and even less charm. As much as Batman can be grounded, stripped down to his essence as a character, and seen for the disturbed outsider that he truly is, this is what Reeves seeks to accomplish. And he largely does just that. Read More

‘THE FRENCH DISPATCH’ Is An Inaccessible Patchwork of Withering Pretension

October 19, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adrien Brody, Alexandre Desplat, Anjelica Huston, Benicio Del Toro, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Christoph Waltz, Edward Norton, Elisabeth Moss, Frances McDormand, Henry Winkler, Hugo Guinness, Jason Schwartzman, Jeffrey Wright, Léa Seydoux, Liev Schreiber, Mathieu Amalric, Owen Wilson, Roman Coppola, Rupert Friend, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Willem Dafoe 2 Comments

Structured like a New Yorker zine and just as wryly smug and pandering to the self-proclaimed intelligentsia, The French Dispatch is an ego-driven misfire for visionary director Wes Anderson who has done little more than projectile vomit his signature quirk on the screen in thick gobs, forgetting to actually make a movie along the way. Read More

‘NO TIME TO DIE’ Kills Off Daniel Craig’s Reign as 007 in Sullen, Disappointing Fashion

September 29, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ana de Armas, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Christoph Waltz, David Dencik, James Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Lashana Lynch, Léa Seydoux, Neal Purvis, No Time to Die, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Robert Wade 1 Comment

With No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s run as gentleman spy James Bond has reached its final stop. And it’s with a heavy heart that I tell you that Craig’s last turn as 007 is a lumbering swan song at best; a heaving disappointment all in all, lacking in wit, memorable spectacle, even semi-logical villainy, and sensical plotting. For a near-three hour capstone to the Daniel Craig era of James Bond, No Time to Die is both overly-plotted and undercooked, too short on whizzbang set pieces and long on trying to tie up all the loose continuity of his run. It is, in a phrase, more than past the moment to let this particular iteration of the character go. It is indeed time to die.

Murray, Chalamet, McDormand, Swinton, Moss, and Many Many More Assemble for Wes Anderson’s ‘THE FRENCH DISPATCH’ Trailer

February 12, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers Tagged Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Elisabeth Moss, Frances McDormand, Jeff Goldblum, Jeffrey Wright, Lea Seydoux Owen Wilson, The French Dispatch, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Tony Revolori, Trailers, Wes Anderson Leave a comment

Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Timothee Chalamet, Frances McDormand, Benecio del Toro, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Elisabeth Moss, Tilda Swinton, Lea Seydoux, Owen Wilson, Henry Winkler, Rupert Friend, Jeffrey Wright, Tony Revolori. When you have Wes Anderson behind the camera, you know the cast is gonna be God-status but my lord is The French Dispatch absolutely stacked. This could quite honestly go down in history as one of the very best casts in history and they’ve joined Anderson to tell the tale of a fictional American newspaper in a fictional French city. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE GOOD DINOSAUR’

November 25, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Jack Bright, Jeffrey Wright, Meg LeFauve, Out in Theaters, Peter Sohn, Pixar, Raymond Ochoa, Reviews, Sam Elliot, The Good Dinosaur Leave a comment

Semi-charmed The Good Dinosaur is slight Pixar but nonetheless a small triumph of wonder and good-nature. Its lack of the distinct creativity that so often characterizes Pixar’s products is overshadowed by a big heart and a resplendent aesthetic palette. Even though the narrative is admittedly quaint, thinly plotted and largely derivative (The Good Dinosaur is essentially a mild repackaging of The Lion King), the overwhelming sense of goodness emanating from the center of Pixar’s 16th feature film had it strike poignant blows at my admittedly exposed softer spots. As Pixar is known to do. Read More