It’s that time of the year again (the beginning). I watched 157 movies in 2023, 1 less than my current record of 158 in 2020. As with most years, I watched 40 movies from the 2020s, 20 of them in theaters. After that, I watched the most movies from the 1990s, 25 of them to be exact.
Since 2020, I’ve been watching the lion’s share of movies at home, which means in turn I watch a lot more older movies. So instead of listing my favorite movies that came out this year–which would probably be a subset of most critic’s lists anyway–I’m going to list my favorite first watches in 2023, regardless of when the movies came out. This list isn’t really in any meaningful order.
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
I posted a hot take shortly after I watched this movie. I’ll summarize my thoughts here in case you don’t want to read all that.
A Bridge Too Far is a dramatization of the Allied Operation Market Garden during WW2, where there was a failed paratrooper invasion German-occupied Netherlands. Scoping the movie to just this operation is great because it ultimately the operation failed. Seldom do we get war movies with a fairly sad ending like this.
The cast is also just great: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Elliott Gould, Robert Redford, James Caan, Gene Hackman, just to name a few. We have a bunch of micro-plots with many of these characters and it weaves a whole picture that’s just excellent.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
I was frankly blown away by how well this movie sucked me in. Sharp writing combined with amazing acting turns a mostly single location drama into a firecracker of a movie. The plot itself is extremely simplistic; all of the sauce is in the actors bouncing off each other in an extremely compelling way.
Creed III (2023)
A movie from this year!
So I do have to address that Jonathan Majors, who plays one of the main characters, was recently convicted of assault and harassment. For that reason, I don’t know if I can recommend watching this movie in a way that would financially get back to him. I saw this movie before the allegations came out. It is also really unfortunate because his performance really makes this movie sing.
I really enjoy the Rocky franchise, but I had kinda given up on it after Creed II, which was kind navel-gazing and backwards looking, lacking much of the verve of the better installments. Creed III for once in the Creed series takes a somewhat new direction. Dame Anderson (Majors)–a friend of Adonis Creed (Jordan)–is released from prison after serving for an assult that Adonis himself committed as a teen. Dame is determined to become a boxing champion. Adonis supports him with his resources as the former heavyweight champion, at least partially due to his guilt over Dame being convicted for his crime. I won’t say more because seeing it for yourself is worth it.
However, I will say that this is probably the best Rocky movie since Rocky VI at least and maybe even arguably Rocky II. It really knocks it out of the park with great melodrama, exciting boxing scenes, and overall compelling presentation.
Gettysburg (1993)
This movie is over 4 and half hours long, and I was riveted for every second. As you probably expect this is a dramatization of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
The writing is great at dramatizing all of the factors the ultimately led this battle to being a turning point in the war. And that writing is supported by a great cast including Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen, W. Morgan Sheppard, and Sam Elliott.
The film makes a great choice of focusing mostly on Col. Chamberlain (Daniels). This grounds the action in the specifics of defending a hill, meaning dealing with ammo shortages and casualties.
We also get to see the perspectives of the commanding generals, including a great turn of Martin Sheen as General Robert E. Lee.
Giant (1956)
I decided to watch Giant because it gets put on a lot of best of lists. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.
The plot itself is truly epic, spanning nearly 25 years. Thematically it deals with racism, generational wealth, the corruption of money, the rotten core of Texan patriotism and American exceptionalism.
This movie is over 3 hours, but it’s worth every minute.
The Fabelmans (2022)
Speilberg has done it again. And more than that, he did it while showing you how it’s all a trick. Some movies are described as a “love letter to cinema” but I don’t think anything holds a candle to this.
The plot is mostly a fictionalized account of Speilberg’s own upbringing. Michelle Williams plays Mitzi Fabelman, a homemaker who obviously loves her own children and husband, but also loves her husband’s friend Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogan). Paul Dano plays Burt Fabelman, a computer engineer who cares for his family but is focused on making his professional ideas come to fruition. The main love triangle put in a performance of a lifetime and are worth the price of admission alone.
Sammy Fabelman is our Speilberg who is a teenager for most of the film. We see his development as a filmmaker while dealing with the trials and tribulations of his home and personal lives. All of these threads intertwine in such a compelling way.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
I don’t think I really need to introduce a film as well known as this, but I’ll do it for completeness. Lawrence of Arabia is the story of T.E. Lawrence’s among the Arab Bedouins during WW1. He shaped the burgeoning ethnic group into a fighting force for the Allies against the Ottoman Empire.
The film itself feels amazingly ahead of its time in some ways, portraying the Arab characters with respect for their culture. Alec Guiness portrays Prince Faisal in what can only be described as brownface. This is not acceptance, but he is far from a caricature. Guiness’s protrayal shows a subtle and clever man who was doing his best to unite dozens of disparate tribes under one banner for thier own self-determination.
Paths of Glory (1957)
I had originally put this on my watchlist in an effor to watch every Kubrick film, but I was not expecting this one to become my favorite.
I think this might be the definitive World War 1 movie. This really gets at the heart of the brutality of the war: it’s banality. A offensive happens even though it has no chance of suceeding because every link in the chain of the command is just saving face for their superiors. When the men rightly run away from certain danger, they are punished for it in the form of three enlisted men court martialed as an “example”.
The battle scene might be the best I’ve ever seen. One can compare the one from Saving Private Ryan for similar levels of scale and complexity, but I think this one is overall much better. For one, the overwhelming sense of desperation makes it more compelling. It really puts you in the shoes of the soldiers who are risking their lives for a meaningless hill, which makes the rest of the film work.
Missing (2023)
This is the spiritual succesor to Searching (2018) and similarly has the gimmick of everything you see being on a computer screen. As far as the gimmick goes, this movie plays with the formula a little more. There’s fewer scenes that require explicit explanations as to why there’s a camera in a particular place.
I really liked Searching, so it pleases me to say that the plot of Missing is even better. It has more and better twists which are both reasonable and surprising. The plot includes talking about modern true crime culuture in a way that builds the drama for the film but also makes a good point about the way people treat real life as entertainment now.
Polite Society (2023)
A lot to love here. We have these three friends, including our protagonist who are just a blast to watch bounce off of. The film uses fight scenes like musicals use dancing and singing: entirely there to express character emotion with no diagetic weight. This one is just a blast, well worth a watch.
Poor Things (2023)
I think I’m not alone liking this movie, it seems to be a bit of a breakout hit. I was excited about this as soon as I heard there would be a Frakenstein pastiche by Yorgos Lanthimos, whose previous work in The Lobster is adored.
What we got was so so much more than I was expecting. There’s elements of Frakenstein there, but it’s really just a jumping off point.
The visual style is amazing, like a more slightly more subtle Tim Burton. We get a lot of weird camera angles and moves as well as several uses of a fisheye lens.
All of this is backed up with an incredible cast. We of course have Emma Stone who I love is just getting weirder as time goes on, but does an incredible job with our protagonist Bella Baxter. Mark Ruffalo’s preening womanizer Duncan Wedderburn really steals the show in a lot of ways; it makes me excited for his future roles. Willem Dafoe as always does a great job with a weirdo fucked up guy.