Movies are very personal. What I love, you may hate. But we can all agree that sometimes there are moments in a film that make you sit up and go, “Wow!” Or that make you smile when you need it most or least expect. Or that surprise you with bold creativity. So in this season when we are inspired to give thanks, here are my very personal 10 favorite moments I had in the cinema this year. Some are from great films but some merit mention precisely because they are great moments in a less than great film.
1 – The extended juke joint musical number taking us through centuries of Black music in Sinners
Ryan’s Coogler’s Sinners pulls off a tricky high-wire act, delivering a big-budget horror-action film as well as a personal story about Black culture and Coogler’s Southern roots. And while there was a lot in the film to awe the audience, the scene many were discussing around the water cooler the next day was the extended sequence where the music comes pulsing up through the floor so you feel it viscerally in your body as it pierces the veil between time and dimensions, life and death. So while we are in 1932 Mississippi, we also spy a DJ spinning records, a man playing electric guitar, and African dancers. It’s surreal, sensual, and hypnotic.
The sound and music design is also richly layered and as riveting as the visuals. The scene climaxes with Sammie’s music burning down the juke joint (take that as literally as you want in this fantastical moment) and exposing the partygoers to the malevolent demons outside.
2 – Tom Hiddleston dancing in The Life of Chuck
Thanks to social media, everyone probably knows that Tom Hiddleston can dance. And not just dance but make you want to stand up and cheer him on to dance forever. I give Christopher Walken the edge as the actor I most love to see break into dance in a film but this unexpected and extended dance scene in Life of Chuck just brought me joy in the same way that Naatu, Naatu did in RRR in 2022. Part of the joy comes from the fact that the character Hiddleston plays is an accountant leading a sort of a ho-hum life and one day while walking and hearing a beat, he breaks into dance, stirring up warm memories of dancing with his grandmother.
The film had flaws, but this scene was sheer perfection.
3 – Jack O’Connell’s Irish song in Sinners
Sorry, but I have to return to Sinners for another stellar moment to be thankful for. In the film, evil arrives in the form of Remmick (Jack O’Connell), a vampiric demon who seems to have been conjured up or pulled from the other side by Sammie’s soul-piercing blues music. The tagline for the film warns, “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” And Sammie’s preacher pop warned him that he’s a sinner for playing that music.
Remmick’s arrival seems to be the preacher’s warning manifesting itself. Remmick uses a traditional Irish song as a kind of rebuttal to Sammie’s blues to fire up his vampire horde and as a kind of seductive enticement to the partygoers. The Irish music feels as forceful as Sammie’s, but in this context it also has an ominous edge. Coogler layers ideas about cultural appropriation and colonization into what is also just a heart-pounding and tense standoff between humans and vampires.
4 – The car chase over hilly roads in One Battle After Another
Car chases have been defined by Bullitt and The French Connection as frenetic and fast-paced, with the editing building the tension. But Paul Thomas Anderson turns convention on its ear to deliver a jaw-droppingly tense chase in which the tension is created not through the speed of the cars or a series of rapid cuts but rather simply through Anderson’s clever use of the landscape and framing. The tension arises from the fact that the hilly terrain prevents us from seeing what is in front of or behind the drivers.
Kudos also to cinematographer Michael Bauman and editor Andy Jurgensen. You could feel people strain to look up over the hills from their seats. That’s superb craftsmanship.
5 – Krypto in Superman
So this moment sort of happened in the trailer for James Gunn’s Superman in advance of the film opening, but when Krypto comes to rescue Superman, all my doubts about the need for another Superman movie flew out the window. In the film, Gunn wisely uses Krypto early to win our hearts.
Independent Film Company and Shudder Release)
6 – Indy in Good Boy for being a very good boy
And while we are talking about dogs, Indy as the star and protagonist of Good Boy deserves all the doggie treats in the world. Krypto may have been inspired by Gunn’s real dog but he was all CGI in the film.
Indy is a real dog just trying to please his master, filmmaker Ben Leonberg. The moment I loved was when we see a scary moment for Indy and then he suddenly wakes up. Yes! Dogs do dream and now we know.
Also, I loved the little documentary on the making of the film that ran post credits in the cinema. The film itself was flawed but that making-of documentary made me want to love the movie.
7 – Flamethrower duel in Ballerina: From the World of John Wick
Len Wiseman is no Chad Stahelski when it comes to action. And try as it may, Ballerina is not on par with even the weakest John Wick entry.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a fun ride and I appreciate a female lead in an action film. However, it just lacked the innovation and flair of the other John Wick films… except for a dueling flamethrower battle. Now THAT was unexpected and fun.
8 – The tank flip in Sisu
OK, the tank flip was amazing and totally unexpected, and you could hear the entire audience react in a combination of glee and WTF astonishment. But seriously, almost any of the elaborate and inspired action scenes instigated by the senior citizen action star Jorma Tommila as Aatami Korpi merit inclusion on this list. The film was just one jaw-dropping action sequence after another. I was a little sad that he was no longer killing Nazis (his new enemy is the Red Army) but revenge served on this scale is always sweet.
Huge thanks to Jalmari Helander for bringing us a joyfully violent sequel with a high body count.
9 – Amy Madigan’s first appearance in Weapons
I had issues with Weapons as a whole. I loved the narrative structure and the buildup, but the resolution was a major letdown. It was a film I enjoyed watching once and will likely never return to because there is nothing new to glean from a second viewing. But… when Amy Madigan appears, I did sit up and take notice because I could not figure out who the actress was! Her voice was familiar. I felt I knew her but I had to wait till the end credits to realize it was Madigan.
The character, the performance, the wacky makeup, the incredible clothes… it all came together for a fabulous moment to introduce her character into the narrative.
10 – Trailer for Naked Gun
As with Superman, the moment from both films that I loved was teased in advance in their trailers. Again, I thought we do not need a remake of a perfect film. Leslie Nielsen was flawless. But the trailer, which as with Superman took from its opening scene, delivers such a hilarious gag with Liam Neeson playing it so Nielsen-deadpan that I was won over. The film had the right spirit and some additional hilarious moments but there were also considerable doldrums where jokes were not paying off and there were not enough of them layered to distract us. But Neeson’s reveal from little schoolgirl to Frank Drebin was comic gold.
- Bonus moment: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face on the money in The Running Man. Nice and clever homage to the original running man by Edgar Wright in his remake.
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