In lieu of writing reviews for every single movie I watch, I've decided to just publish an end-of-the-year review of all the films I've seen released the preceding year. I don't have the skill or the motivation to to record an opinion on every film I watch, especially when I average something like 2-3 films per week. I refuse to sink to the level of cheap reddit-tier one-liners pervading the Letterboxd community. Of course, if a movie is exceptionally good or bad I'll publish a review for it, but a vast majority of films I see just aren't worth it in my opinion. This is in no way a comprehensive review of 2023 in film - I got so busy I missed many films this past Spring and Fall I had every intention of seeing; rather, this is a way for me to summarize the year in film from my perspective.
I'll start out this blog with a movie that wasn't even released in 2023 (December 23, 2022), but seen by me for the first time in 2023. If I didn't record my thoughts on it here, I wasn't going to record it anywhere. It follows the interconnected stories of 5 individuals from all walks of life - a Mexican immigrant underling-turned-film-producer (Manny), a crazy actress from out East (Nellie), a Chinese cabaret singer (Fay), an African-American jazz musician (Sidney), and a fading silent film star (Jack). The film starts in the drunken reverie of 1920s Pre-Code Hollywood and transitions to the hard times of the 1930s and how each character was affected by the transition. My main fascination with this film was how I was haunted by it months after it came out. I kept thinking to myself stuff like "What was that kino I watched recently about the Mexican who made it in Hollywood but was forced to flee? Oh right, Babylon. What was that film where a tabloid writer lectured an arrogant film star on how celebrities need the paparazzi as much as the paparazzi needs the celebrities? Right, Babylon. What was that film where Brad Pitt's character chose to kill himself rather than surrender to a life of mediocrity?. Babylon, of course. What was the kino that showed a compilation of notable films throughout history, but rather than put some pretentious, melancholy orchestral Hans Zimmer composition over the compilation which would have made sense in the context the director decided to use an upbeat jazz piece because the film was, at its core, a celebration of Hollywood with all its warts and skeletons? It was Babylon, of course." Perhaps one would argue that Babylon didn't set itself apart enough in my mind because I had to put some effort in remembering what film these plot points belonged to, but my mind was a mess all year with my job. I've seen many comparisons made to Sunset Boulevard, which is also one of my favorite movies, but in all honesty I think the better comparison is Boogie Nights. Sunset Boulevard covers themes like the brevity of fame and the transition from silent film to talkies but Boogie Nights is in many ways the 1970s-1980s analogue of this film's 1920s-1930s, just with slightly less controversial subject matter. All the performances were good, although in all honesty I'll watch any film with Brad Pitt in it. Margot Robbie reprised her role as Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad in being the most irritating character on-screen, but that was the point of her character. I wasn't really familiar with any of the other cast (besides Tobey Maguire), but they all gave excellent performances. This was the quintessential Damien Chazelle movie, featuring jazz in a prominent position and an engaging Americana story. I would recommend everyone I know to watch this film.
Growing up, my family were Patriots fans and while I regrettably didn't follow football too closely during Tom Brady's prime it was still heartbreaking to see his downfall. 80 for Brady is the story of four elderly ladies who have lived relatively mediocre lives living it up by attending Superbowl LI, the legendary game where the Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit against the Falcons. It's your pretty standard 1.5 hour, feel-good, mixed-review, cameo-ridden buddy comedy that touches on friendship and growing old; there's not much else to say about it. I'm glad I saw it, but I will probably never watch it again. If like most of the country you hate the Patriots you will probably hate this film.
Film's second attempt to create a movie centered around a pair of plumbers from Brooklyn murdering turtles trying to do some nefarious deeds is certainly better than the first, but still falls short. Of course, I knew this going in but I try not to miss major pop culture phenomena. The first issue is the subject matter itself - I will never understand why Mario would even theoretically be a good movie. The second issue was choosing Illumination studios for the animation work, the studio that through years of painstaking work spamming awful Despicable Me sequels and spinoffs have mastered the craft of getting tech-addicted, tweaked out, ADD-riddled gen-alphas to pay attention to a noninteractive experience for 1.5 hours with the use of bright colors and merchandisable characters. The story consists of Bowser threatening to nuke Mushroom Kingdom if Princess Peach doesn't marry him, so the protagonists enlist the help of the Kong Kingdom who agree to help but get wiped out before the final battle anyways. Somehow, the video game characters break through into the real world (Brooklyn) and duke it out and the good guys win. About the only good thing I can say about this movie is that I appreciated all the references to Nintendo video games. It also spawned about the only SNL skit worth watching in years. Unfortunately, it also predictably spawned the idiotic Peaches song meme; I honestly think that song was mathematically optimized to increase the likelihood it would turn into a meme. The creators wasted a ton of money on hiring well-known actors like Crisp Rat, Keegan Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Jack Black to voice act, but Pratt and Key did give quite a nice performance. Pratt's Brooklyn accent was subtle and believable. I would have walked out if I had to hear Mario's bing-bing-wahoo voice lines all throughout, so giving Mario a Brooklyn accent was a wise decision. I have nothing to say that the rest of the internet hasn't already said. The film is almost universally reviled for anyone above the age of 10, and I am one of those revilers.
I hate Marvel. I hate the cookie-cutter stories, the boomer-wooing special effects, the forced jokes every other line, the insufferable Iron Man, the inability for the films to take themselves seriously, the blatant fan-service, and the ubiquitous pop culture references. I've always been a DC guy - The movies are bad, I can acknowledge they are bad, but at least they take a risk in taking themselves seriously. It's far too easy to create a funny, metacommentating Rick and Morty style romp nowadays because somehow 15 years of 4th-wall-breaking still hasn't gotten old in the eyes of the American public. I honestly haven't seen a Marvel movie since Iron Man 2. That said, I always suspected I'd like Guardians of the Galaxy. I've listened to and loved all the Awesome Mixes which are all excellent curations of the best 70s music. I've always liked films that bring together people with disparate backgrounds and focus on their interpersonal relationships. In preparation for this film, we watched the first 2 films the day before this one released so we had some context, although in my opinion this wasn't really required after having seen the film. The story focuses on Roger's origin story as a genetically engineered creation for Counter-Earth, a utopian society created by the High Evolutionary. Rocket was part of a later-obseleted test batch with 3 other animal hybrids; at some point they were scheduled to be executed but only Rocket managed to escape in a truly heart-breaking sequence. All of this is recalled by Rocket as he's lying unconscious and dying after an attack at the beginning of the movie, which leads into the main plot of the movie - The High Evolutionary's company embedded a kill-switch inside Rocket which needs to be disabled. They travel to Counter-Earth to accomplish this, and discover that the so-called ideal society was really defective, with crime and social classes like any normal society. The High Evolutionary's hubris leads him to destroy his imperfect society culminating in an epic battle sequence featuring my personal favorite shot in any Marvel movie ever, when Adam Warlock reaches out to Peter to save him in space forming an imitation of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Overall, this was one of my favorite movies to come out this year. I was happily proven wrong that every Marvel movie is cookie-cutter garbage, and despite the movie being lighthearted it had several serious moments that were not cut short by a cheap joke. The idea of someone trying to create a perfect society and failing is a very interesting concept, but I haven't really ruminated on it enough to comment whether it was well done or not.
The anticipation for this movie on the internet was through the floor. I dreaded it for the reason everyone else dreaded it - no one wants live-action remakes of beloved animated classics. I was willing to try this one out, however, solely because I actually quite enjoyed the Aladdin remake. I figured if the earnestness of that remake could transfer to this one it would be fine. I was right - the movie was totally worth watching at least once. Excellent casting decisions (with the exception of one character) and tasteful enough modifications to the story to prevent Ariel from being solely an object of the Prince's male gaze; however, Lin Manuel-Miranda's additions were pretty awful. The one horrible mistake made by the director was casting Awkwafina. I never heard of Awkwafina before this movie, and I hope I don't see much of her anymore. Her awful, grating, voice penetrates through your eardrum, into your brain and your very soul testing what you're willing to bear. The awful voice culminated in the performance of "The Scuttlebutt". Overall, I'm glad I saw this film once, but will probably never see it again. I love Disney's 2D animation and I don't have a taste for these live-action remakes.
Yet another Disney release, this film allegorizes the immigrant experience in a large city like New York City by presenting different races as different elementals in an attempt to show off the animation capabilities of Pixar. I couldn't relate too much because my parents were pretty Americanized by the time I was born, and I would say that I had a typical American upbringing besides eating different food than my peers but I could certainly sympathize, especially growing up with other South Asians whose parents more resembled the parents in this film. The movie is pretty inoffensive and short and interesting enough to warrant a rewatch or two.
I hate it when auteurs try and write a comedy - they always end up unfunny snooze-fests; a good comedy to me has a healthy mix of intelligent, witty writing and brainless slapstick, favoring neither. This one was no different. Wes Anderson reprises his patented style of minimalistic, symmetrical shots, overly verbose writing, and complex characters. It wasn't really funny in any way as expected, but the story itself was enjoyable enough even if it was frustrating constantly being reminded by Walter White that this was a film about the creation of a play and that the scenes were not to be taken as actually happening in the story. The story follows the creation and production of a play about a stargazing convention that an alien decides to visit. The story started out strong, introducing new characters in a rapid mafia-movie style and establishing their backstories, strengths, and flaws. My interest in the movie waned about halfway through when the quarantine resulting from a visit from an alien failed to have any type of coherent effect on the characters, or perhaps they were so quirky that a forced quarantine really wouldn't have affected them anyways. There were a couple of excellent scenes in the movie - the daughters of the main character burying the urn carrying their mother's ashes and the scene where the main character encounters a character cut from the play and shares a kino moment as the cut character recites her lines for the play and causes the main character to understand the role he's been struggling with the entire movie. I love basically all other films in Wes Anderson's repertoire (especially The Grand Budapest Hotel), but this one just didn't cut it for me.
This movie was destined to be hated. This presents one of the most popular characters in American culture as a defeated old man who's unable to fill the void created from failing to settle down and start a family. Everyone loves the power fantasy of Indiana Jones, not his deepest darkest regrets. I loved this movie though; in fact, I would label this as my favorite movie of 2023. Mads Mikkelsen fulfills his villain type-cast well, and the secondary protagonist, portrayed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is just the right level of annoying given her background. Many claim Indiana Jones' character was crucified in this film, that he was emasculated. I disagree - this broken down old man is exactly what I would expect from a lifetime adventurer who never settled down. This film manages to be fresh by covering a completely different open secret than the other films - the U.S. poaching of Nazi scientists after WW2. The movie ends in the redemption of Indiana Jones as he was about to make the biggest mistake ever - changing the history he spent his entire life studying and interpreting. This high-note ending is the perfect ending to such a beloved franchise - I really hope Disney doesn't ruin it and make another movie.
Yet another movie destined to be hated, this time because some Qanon members produced it. This movie delves into the very real issue of human trafficking by adapting a sting operation performed by Tim Ballard and his Operation Underground Railroad on sex trafficking in Colombia. Jim Caviezel is probably the most notable actor in the credits, and there are no surprises from him. He plays the same tough, soft-spoken chad in every piece of media he does, be it a football coach, Jesus, or former green-beret. Regardless of how well the film matched reality, I thought the film was a good one-time watch, I don't think I'll ever watch it again.
We finally arrive at the most impactful cultural event of 2023 - Barbenheimer. I don't have much to say about Oppenheimer to be honest. I didn't really like it - it engaged too much in scientist worship for my taste at least. I guess watching a jar slowly get filled with marbles, a bunch of former comedians say sciency words, and Cillian Murphy reprising his role from Peaky Blinders as a reluctant mafia boss was entertaining for some people but I didn't really get it. The film also engages in the demonizing of politicians, which I guess a lot of people can get behind. I won't claim to know Oppenheimer's true motivations for his work, but I'm sure some historian can interpret what we have to point to Oppenheimer's intentions being about as pure as Strauss'; no one's a saint in $CURRENT_YEAR. I probably would not watch this movie again but I'm glad I participated in a major cultural event for once.
And we come to the other half of Barbenheimer. This one had a great soundtrack, and Margot Robbie didn't make me want to tear my hair out so that's a plus. The movie actually made me laugh a couple of times, and truly lived up to the text in its trailer - "If you love Barbie, if you hate Barbie, this movie is for you." I know a lot of people claim this movie deals with existentialism, but this is just reddit-tier pretention. Any media that discusses a purpose for existing discusses existentialism. Naruto hammers in your face the meaning of life and no one's calling Naruto an existential tv show. This movie isn't really that deep - it's basically a discussion on navigating society as a woman in $CURRENT_YEAR with some fair points. Featuring a strong beginning and a kino ending, but hampered in the middle especially by the unbearable Will Ferrell, this is a solid movie and in my opinion the superior of Barbenheimer but I honestly have no desire to rewatch it anytime soon.
I was really excited for this film. I was first introduced to the director, André Øvredal, via The Autopsy of Jane Doe which reeled me in with a mysterious title and left me with a new favorite horror film. Unfortunately, The Last Voyage of the Demeter did not live up to this reputation. Being a huge extrapolation off of a single chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula, it recounts the story of how Dracula entered Western Europe by stowing away on a ship that set off from Eastern Europe. Hindered by an incoherent story, unnecessary jump scares, and a conversion to a corny Blade origin story at the end, this movie really let me down. I think the movie would have been a lot better if Dracula were already a fully formed humanoid and deceptively did vampirey things while the crew of the Demeter helplessly investigated the cause of the deeds a la And Then There Were None. I haven't read Dracula myself so I don't know how the source material dealt with this but I would imagine if Dracula becomes more humanoid with every human he eats and he already terrorized Transylvania before catching a ship to Western Europe, he would already be a pretty fully formed humanoid.
I love a good 2+ hour science fiction film. I was reeled in with the wide nature shots and mysterious nature of the promotional material, and to be honest I wasn't disappointed. I had to overcome a little bit of bias because this is one of those "Will AI ever be human enough to be afforded human rights?" stories, kind of like Detroit: Become Human or I, Robot. As someone who works in AI, I would answer with an emphatic "NO!". Once I got over this bias, I found a heartwarming and heartwrenching film underneath, about a misunderstood people, an oppressive government, a child who struggles to understand the world, and a man dealing with loss. The ending was pure kino, and overall this would probably be my second-favorite film out of 2023.
I missed a lot of movies this year unfortunately. Being a student, I have time to see all the summer blockbusters I could desire but spring and fall represent pretty strained times in my schedule. I'll definitely catch up with the movies I had every intention of seeing including Napoleon, Saw X, Knock at the Cabin, Cocaine Bear, Jesus Revolution, Wish, and Killers of the Flower Moon.