Having spent 2022 recovering from a major medical operation, 2023 had to have been a great bounce back year for me right? Nope. It was so uneventful I almost skipped writing a recap of the year. With very few films standing out to me and writers and actors striking for a chunk of it, 2023 doesn’t have too many strong points. There are films I missed or intentionally skipped for whatever reason, but even the movies I did see didn’t leave a lasting impression. There are a few I definitely enjoyed and will own (or already do), but as a whole I won’t be looking at 2023 as a glorious return to cinema. I’ll start with positives and snowball from there.
If there is one thing that 2023 will be remembered for it’s Barbenheimer. I only cared about half of it and that half certainly exceeded expectations. Oppenheimer is my favorite film of the year. From a filmmaking aspect I don’t know how it’s not everyone’s clear cut Best Picture. With Christopher Nolan’s direction, the cinematography, the tension and drama plus the cast, it’s what cinema should be. Cillian Murphy is my Best Actor and the supporting cast of Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey, Jr. and more are top notch. I was absolutely enthralled in the theater and walked out as happy as I could be with the resulting film. Nolan delivered an epic experience about a bunch of nerds doing science. It’s not a war film despite it being about ending World War II. It’s not an action flick despite it being about destruction. It’s about the greatest scientific minds of their generation and it’s phenomenal.
Speaking of action, 2023 should have been the king of action flicks. With new films in the Mission Impossible franchise, the Fast & the Furious franchise, the Transformers franchise, the Expendables franchise and a new Indiana Jones adventure, 2023 should have kicked butt at the cineplex. I liked Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One a lot, but it disappointed at the box office. Fast X didn’t have an ending. I genuinely forgot Transformers: Rise of the Beasts came out this year. Expend4bles is watchable, but I forgot it existed while originally writing this. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is as generic as its name. But 2023 did give us John Wick: Chapter 4 and that might be the greatest action flick of all-time. Yes I’m serious. I love the John Wick movies and Chapter 4 was my most anticipated film of the year. I had super high expectations and sat there clapping and cheering throughout. I loved this film. If I could have watched it again immediately after my first viewing I would have. If Oppenheimer wasn’t the cinematic experience it was, John Wick: Chapter 4 would probably be my favorite film of the year.
Honorable mention to Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim (maybe my Best Supporting Actor for the year), a look at desperation during the fall of Afghanistan. Probably the least Guy Ritchie film of his career and a movie Peter Berg or Kathryn Bigelow wish they made.
If action wasn’t the king of 2023 then horror certainly had a chance. We opened the year with a killer doll flick (M3GAN), got another Scream movie, a new Evil Dead film, the Five Nights at Freddy’s adaptation, The Exorcist: Believer, The Boogeyman, sequels to The Nun and Insidious and more. Unfortunately I don’t care to see any of them ever again, well I might rewatch M3GAN at some point. We had some fun horror comedies in Renfield and Thanksgiving, but the clear cut standout horror film of 2023 is Saw X. I saw it at the theater and recently rewatched it on Blu-ray. Tobin Bell gives one of the year’s best performances and again, yes I’m being serious. He plays John Kramer more than Jigsaw and crushes the role because of it. As someone who’s gone through medical issues and had a friend with cancer at the same time, seeing John Kramer go after medical scammers is exactly what the doctor ordered.
If Barbenheimer didn’t dominate the headlines then 2023 would have been known as the year comic book movies died. We talked about comic book movie fatigue and the over saturation of product in theaters and streaming and because of it, most comic book movies absolutely flopped at the box office. James Gunn announced a rebooting of DC movies so flicks like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Blue Beetle, The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom came and went with little fanfare. Marvel took its punches too with the MCU seeing its lowest numbers in a decade. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania bombed in February and Marvel got its first taste of how the year was going to go. The Marvels hasn’t even cracked $90 million domestically (at the time of writing this) and MCU movies used to open over $100 million. The only saving grace is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. I liked the film and it’s a good ending for these characters. Rocket takes us on an emotional journey and the action is fun with a great soundtrack, but even this film isn’t perfect. Adam Warlock was wasted. I grew tiresome of the new Gamora quickly, but at least Vol. 3 feels like a Phase 2 or 3 film with characters we already like and not something in place to set up future storylines. Will Deadpool 3 save comic book movies in 2024? Guess we’ll find out.
When it comes to comedies, well that genre has been dead for a few years now. Because people are afraid of being cancelled for offending others, we don’t get too many movies that push buttons. Comedies did try to make a comeback this year and I hope that trend continues in 2024. We got the Jennifer Lawrence raunch-fest No Hard Feelings, but the screening I went to was so awful I can’t tell you if I liked the movie or not. I remember laughing at things, but it’s a movie I’ll have to revisit to really have an opinion on. I liked Strays more than others, but I can see why swearing dogs might not work for everyone. I agree Cocaine Bear needed more bear on cocaine action, but I laughed at that more than others too. Two of the biggest comedians in the world put out movies, but no one saw Sebastian Maniscalco’s About My Father or Bert Kreischer’s The Machine. But the biggest comedian in the world, Bill Burr, did put out the funniest film of the year, Old Dads. For the over 40 crowd it is laugh out loud hilarious and classic Burr. Bokeem Woodbine, Bobby Cannavale and Burr get huge laughs if you are of a certain age and mindset. I’m shocked Netflix has a movie like this on its roster.
Old Dads isn’t the only film geared towards an over 35 crowd. 2023 brought us sequels that nobody asked for in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Book Club: The Next Chapter and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 plus films like 80 for Brady, but the best adult movie (not porn pervert) is AIR. Ben Affleck’s look at how Nike signed Michael Jordan and changed basketball, sneakers and pop culture is a highly entertaining film starring Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis (who deserves award buzz), Chris Tucker, Marlon Mayans and more. It’s The Social Network for sneakers.
I will say that 2023 saw a nice return to Hollywood indie films, lower budgeted flicks with Hollywood names in them. Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is easily one of my top five films of the year if not top two or three. It’s picking up steam in awards season so I expect it to make waves especially the independent film awards. It’s a 1970s based New England flick and as a born and raised Masshole, I totally dug it. Paul Giamatti is one of the best actors going who can handle both drama and comedy and he shines here as the teacher all the students hate. Expect Giamatti to be a player for Best Actor awards. Da’Vine Joy Randolph and newcomer Dominic Sessa will deservedly get awards buzz as well. It’s funny, charming, heartfelt and well made in all aspects of filmmaking.
Past Lives is this year’s little film that could and boy can it. The directorial debut for Celine Song, Greta Lee is amazing in the film. As a Korean woman who emigrates to North America, the film shows long lost love and reconnecting with people from your past. As a woman married to an American, Lee reconnects through the years with a friend from her youth. It makes you question who you are as a person and who you once were. Lee’s performance is one of the year’s best and if you watch her closely, you see her look at both men differently, her friend from the past that might be her actual soulmate and her husband she’s committed to. The film has you guessing what will happen up until the end. One of my favorites of the year.
Other smaller films I enjoyed this year:
Priscilla, You Hurt My Feelings, Asteroid City, Champions, A Good Person
Of course 2023 had other disappointments besides those previously listed. Here’s a quick rundown of other films that disappointed me:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie – I tend to enjoy Illumination films and grew up on the original Nintendo games, but this one didn’t do much for me. The kids loved it though.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – I loved the first film, but the lack of an ending in this left me disappointed.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – I know people who absolutely loved it, but I wanted more from the sword & sorcery flick.
Killers of the Flower Moon – Scorsese, Leo, De Niro and more made a film that I have no reason to ever watch again. It’s excessive and over hyped. Robbie Robertson’s score is the only thing award worthy to me.
The Creator – A beautiful to look at film, Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi flick wants you to root for robots over humans and that’s not gonna happen.
Poor Things – I had been 50/50 on Yorgos Lanthimos films previously and got absolutely nothing out of this one.
Napoleon – As a history buff Ridley Scott’s film should be called Napoleon & Josephine because it’s more about their relationship than anything historical.
Beau is Afraid – Now I probably shouldn’t comment on this film because I walked out of it half way through and have yet to finish it, but the fact that I walked out and never gave it another attempt is all you need to know about it.
Skinamarink – Probably the worst thing I’ve seen all year. I can’t even call it a movie because it doesn’t have a narrative. Unwatchable in my eyes.
There are movies I haven’t seen either intentionally or I just haven’t gotten around to them. I’m still not close to being 100% healthy so there are days I just can’t do much. I’m sure there might be some gems in there, but honestly the only film of 2023 I feel like I’ve really missed is The Iron Claw. I know once I see it I’ll probably be forced to re-evaluate things, but as of right now I haven’t seen the Von Erich wrestling brothers movie starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White and more.
I’m not even sure what we have coming in 2024 because of the strikes and projects being moved around, but hopefully 2024 has some better movies for us!
The Nerds Templar 