T.'s 2023 Movie Year in Review
Every year, I used to primarily watch the big tentpole movies, with a couple of exceptions mixed in. I still have a file documenting every release I saw in 2014, the year I started reviewing movies in a couple of blogs I’ve now deleted; I saw twenty new movies that year, and they there mostly big-budget blockbusters.
Things began to change in the 2020s, though, even if it didn’t start out that way.
I didn’t even realize until going back through my Letterboxd that the only new release I watched in 2020 was… The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special… Though given what was going on with the world that year, you could understand why I didn’t go to the movies. Plus, I did see a few classics I hadn’t seen before, such as some old school Universal Monster movies.
In 2021, I started watching movies on a nearly daily basis, from classics to obscurities. Even so, I only watched eleven new releases that year.
In 2022, the amount of new releases I watched tied with 2014, but they had more of a variety of genres, including more comedies, horror, and smaller scale thrillers.
This year, I continued with the tradition of doubling the amount of new releases from the previous year, with over forty titles! From from adaptations to originals, from theaters to streaming, from indie to Hollywood, from American to foreign, from live-action to animation, from documentary to fiction.
With that said, I don’t watch movies just to review them or to log on them onto a website; I watch them if they sound interesting to me.
Not only do arthouse and Oscar bait movies still not interest me, but any other year, I wouldn’t have missed the third Ant-Man, The Marvels, The Flash, or the last Indiana Jones, but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by missing them now, and judging by the box office numbers, neither did the general audience. I didn’t even see arguably the two most talked about movies this year: Barbie and Oppenheimer. And no amount of good reviews could convince me to see a prequel that kills the mystique around Willy Wonka.
I did travel out of my way a couple of times to see movies that my local theater didn’t have: the compelling anime fantasy Suzume and the riveting Godzilla Minus One. When my local theater did get this one (the same week they also finally got Godzilla Minus One…), I even went to see an even more high-profile anime fantasy, The Boy and the Heron, knowing based on both the trailer and how I’ve felt about Hayao Miyazaki’s work since Princess Mononoke that it would be too weird for me.
Still, I was glad that I supported 2D animation in American cinemas anyways, and that I got to do that twice in one year. What also gave me hope about the potential resurgance of high-profile traditionally animated Amercian films was Pencils Vs Pixels, which interviews former Disney animators about the artform’s history here.
Another documentary highlight was A Disturbance in the Force, which offers a relatively painless way to watch the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special: as clips in between interviewees chronicling its making of and legacy. Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary also gives interesting insights into the making of a game I appreciate more for its highly influential place in gaming history than for its visceral content, and it makes me wish Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid also got official making of documentaries for their twenty-fifth anniversaries this year.
What I watched a lot of this year that weren’t new releases were Jackie Chan movies - a kick (hehe) that started when Rumble in the Bronx became free on Youtube - and I agree with Steven Greydanus’s take that Jackie’s a great entertainer who’s never made great movies, although he has made a handful that are close to great, such as Drunken Master II and First Strike.
One of Jackie’s 2023 releases, Ride On, where he plays a fictionalized version of himself reflecting on his life as a stuntman, felt like a fitting - albeit not entirely successful - culmination of the year. More delightful was Jackie’s and Jon Cena’s team up in Hidden Strike (Netflix), and it was also fun to hear him voice Master Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Most of the movies I had high hopes for more or less satisfied, such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Meg 2: The Trench, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, the aforementioned Godzilla Minus One, and Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie (most unnecessary subtitle ever?). I also went into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with low expectations after the underwhelming second one and was pleased that it brought everything to a satisfying close, albeit with disturbing themes that had my friend and I keep asking each other, “Is this a horror movie?”
This year also saw a couple of impressive spectacles that look like $200-million but cost less than half as much: The Creator and Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child of Fire. I enjoyed both, the latter more so than I anticipated given it’s a Zack Snyder production, and even though the former financially flopped, I hope it sends Hollywood a message that movies don’t need to cost so much to look huge, especially when bloated budgets are partly why so many tentpole movies underperformed. Godzilla Minus One even managed to look like a blockbuster for less than $15-million, though that’s in Japanese dollars.
There were also a number of titles I admired in a lot of ways but can’t quite recommend, including Totally Killer - a time travel slasher comedy that I’d be an outright fan of if it weren’t for its vulgar humor - and Polite Society - a martial arts comedy based around Indian culture with a charmingly and hilariously campy edge, but also with a cynical view of marriage as a killer of women’s dreams.
The Super Mario Bros Movie took video game movies in the right direction by being perfectly fine. It could have raised the bar higher had it let itself breathe, but it was no better or worse than a Mario movie needed to be. The most interesting thing about it for me is that its success is leading to a live-action Legend of Zelda movie, and given how much that franchise means to me, I need that one to be better than passable. More typical of the genre’s reputation was my least favorite movie of 2023: the confounding Five Nights at Freddy’s.
The most disappointing movie of the year, though, was an original property that has its worthwhile moments but also a lot of missed potential: 65, a dinosaur thriller with futuristic technology starring Adam Driver from the writers of A Quiet Place. I thought it was decent on first viewing, and I wish I hadn’t watched it a second time and opened my eyes to the movie that everyone else saw.
Given my taste for escapism, dramas don’t usually interest me, at least not unless they’re crowdpleasing, and I did enjoy several of those this year (I tried to watch A Good Person, and… that was not my kind of drama), such as True Spirit, The Lost King, A Million Miles Away, and (the albeit often vulgar) Flora and Son. Ride On was actually the weakest drama I saw this year, and the best drama - which I’ll highlight later - was actually the opposite of the crowdpleasing I veer toward, but it utterly wowed me.
I didn’t think to catch up on streaming exclusive movies until the last couple of months, so in 2024, I’m going to subscribe to streaming services in the middle of the year, cancel before their renewals, then re-subscribe at the end of the year so that I’m not scrambling to catch up on everything at once, and also so that I won’t be giving evil corporations a year’s worth of revenue.
Even though I watched more movies this year than in 2022, 2022 overall had more great movies, such as Top Gun: Maverick, RRR, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Belle, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and - even though it’s more a masterpiece in its spectacle than in its pacing - Avatar: The Way of Water.
Still, what I watched in 2023 resulted in a pretty solid movie year, with so many titles I liked that I can’t highlight them all in the top fifteen listed below! You can find every 2023 title I watched in my Letterboxd list, “T.’s 2023 Viewings”. And even then, there will be stragglers I won’t be able to get to until after I post this, such as Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom, one of the movies I was really anticipating.
Now, with the hope that 2024 will also be filled with recommendations, I present my top fifteen favorite movies of 2023. Have a Happy New Year!
15. Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (NR, w/ PG-13 themes)
Telling the true story of one man’s quest to prove that pinball isn’t a gambling game that deserves to be outlawed in 1970s New York, it has some secular cultural attitudes that I can’t endorse as a Catholic, but its sweet nature won me over, as did its creative use of narration with a clever commentary on how movies based on true stories often fabricate details. B-
14. True Spirit (Netflix) (TV-PG)
Engagingly dramatizing Jessica Watson’s quest to become the youngest sailor to circumvent the globe, it’s honest about the emotional toll such a journey would have on both the adventurer and her family, and its tone is wholesome, albeit despite Jess's provocative outfits. It also features what may be the most positive image of homeschooling I've ever seen in a movie. B
13. Suzume (PG)
Makoto Shinkai co-wrote and directed one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen in Your Name., and he left me a bit cold with Weathering With You, but he’s won me over again with Suzume. It has its head-scratching moments, and I wish its emotional moments got me emotional, but the journey’s high stakes, quirky humor, humanity, imagination, and wondrous animation kept me invested. B+
12. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (PG-13)
You know it was a good movie year when the Mission: Impossible movie doesn’t even crack my top ten! The biggest things holding it back are an essential sequence in a pretty risque nightclub, a slightly dragged out finale, and a cliffhanger ending that doesn’t feel dire enough to justify a part two. Still, I love Hayley Atwell’s addition to the franchise, and it offers more of the grounded yet creative thrills the series is famous for. B+
11. No One Will Save You (Hulu) (PG-13)
One of the most unique alien invasion movies I’ve ever seen, albeit with an ending that’s rather horrifying underneath its happy surface, but the ingenious telling of its whole nail-biting story with virtually no dialogue, anchored by a terrific lead performance by Kaitlyn Dever, makes it really memorable for me. B-
10. The Artifice Girl (NR, w/ R-rated language)
Structured like a three-act play about a programmer and the increasingly sentient AI simulation of a young girl he’s created to lure out child predators, the story deals with harrowing subject matter tastefully, explores thought-provoking themes, and shows a ton of potential for writer/director Franklin Ritch in his feature debut, even if the thought of artificial intelligence gaining human rights and even outliving us troubles me. B-
9. A Million of Miles Away (Amazon) (PG)
This dramatization of immigrant José Hernandes’s journey to becoming an astronaut may not be in the same league as the riveting Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, but it may be the most wholesome and inspiring live-action family film I've seen in years, with genuine craft behind its decency. The rare kind of movie I can recommend for anyone. B+
8. Go West (NR, w/ possibly PG-13 themes)
The humor in this satire on the Wild West can get rather morbid, but it's all covered in the thick layer of absurdity that's both expected from the original cast of Studio C and right up my alley. B
7. Missing (PG-13)
This little franchise that’s told thrilling mysteries through simulated computer recordings in Searching and Missing has proven to be not only quite inventive but also moving, with this entry especially making me want to never take my parents for granted. It’s not as grounded and easy to follow as its predecessor, but it’s still worthy of it; I really hope they make a third one. B+
6. Mr. Monk’s Last Case (Peacock) (TV-PG)
A Monk revival is something I've wanted for years, and this did not disappoint. The mystery is not perfectly plotted, and it misses opportunities to bring back familiar faces, but the laughs along the way and the poignant resolution to Monk's new and heartbreaking personal struggle, which gives his wife Trudy the most active role she’s ever had even from beyond the grave, manage to make this feel like an essential piece of the series. B+
5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (PG-13)
I wish this didn't carry the "Dungeons & Dragons" label so that I wouldn't scandalize anyone in my Catholic circles that I watched this and enjoyed it, as I did when I was tweeting about it; regardless of the game’s potential spiritual issues, I’m not interested in RPGs. As for this movie, an at once tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt medieval fantasy romp, it’s not in the same league as Lord of the Rings, but it is one of the few well-made examples of my favorite genre, and the downright funniest. B
4. Godzilla Minus One (PG-13)
Not only is Godzilla himself in this reimagining more powerful than we've ever seen him, but so is the human element in a thematic and emotional sense, and as someone who grew up on Godzilla movies, I never thought I’d care this much about the humans in any of these movies. A maddening misstep of a final minute prevents it from being a masterpiece, but it still may be the greatest Godzilla movie ever made. B+
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (PG)
Into the Spider-Verse is one of my favorite movies of all time, and this followup continues to dazzle with inventive storytelling and visuals. Like with Dead Reckoning, it’s held back by the fact that I can’t fully judge it until its next entry. If its followup sticks the landing, though, this trilogy would hands down be one of the greatest of all time, if not the most visually accomplished period. A-
2. Tetris (Apple TV) (R)
A funny, suspenseful, and creatively edited history lesson - regardless of innacuracies, including an unfortunately whitewashed lead casting - about how Tetris the game left the confines of the USSR and legally became a worldwide phenomenon, though a number of viewers may be put off by its vulgar and profane language. A streaming exclusive, I wish I could have seen it in theaters, or be able to buy it physically. A-
1. Full Time (NR, w/ limited R-rated language)
Never would I have thought that I’d list a French drama as my favorite movie of any year, but this one about a divorced mother trying to stay financially afloat feels like a thriller for how stressful it is to watch even with barely a threat of violence, for how it made me feel like it took me on a ride without any stunts or showy special effects, and thankfully with a light at the end of its tunnel. It may resonate with me especially because this is the scale of a production I’d have to start with as an aspiring independent filmmaker, and for how it makes me more thankful for my own day-to-day life. A