Doug's Favorite movies of 2023

Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse

 The Holdovers

American Fiction

Leave the World Behind

Judy Blume Forever

Oppenheimer

Still

HONORABLE MENTION:

Tetris

Godzilla Minus One

It’s a strong but melodramatic drama about a disgraced kamikaze pilot and his surrogate family disguised as a Godzilla movie. Filmmakers postulate that not everybody in Japan was in favor of the war. The government exploited its citizens and made them expendable. There were heroes that were anti-war, too. This revises history and entertains, and could subversively be considered a sequel to Oppenheimer.

Ferrari

I was expecting, basically, a sequel to Gucci – an orgia of Italian stereotypes. Except for Penelope Cruz, the acting is a little more subtle here. It’s Michael Mann’s driving scenes that are “turbolento.” Juxtaposed is the family stuff and relationship drama, which actually drives the plot. Although sometimes it feels filmmakers are biding time until the big, flying car crashes, the family dramas actually come full circle and skillfully resolve, which is nice.

Violent Night

Rewatched this new Christmas classic. Some of the plotting and characterizations are clunky, but watching Santa Claus pummel a couple of dozen armed militia with a sledgehammer warms my little grinchy heart.

Rebel Moon

Lucasfilm and Zach Snyder developed this as a Star Wars movie. And then it was dumped, but still filmed as a non-Star-War. Remember when Trader Joe's use to sell their Dr. Pepper rip-off “Dr. Joes”? It’s kind of like that. A knock-off. So, on the surface, it still really feels like a Star War. But the Jedi universe mines the nature of good and evil and lots of pseudo-philosophy to keep it interesting. Rebel Moon is all about grain. No, really. Lke: “The fascists are stealing our grain. We have to rise up and stop them, so the wonderful grain we grow can be ours, and we can make bread and tortillas and stuff.” And the Magnificent Seven plot plays out after that. The designs are wonderous, to be sure. But the plot and the heroes feel like fan-fiction – great warriors in courageous, highly-sparkly battles, but their purpose lacks emotional weight.

The Meg 2

This lacks the monster-movie playfulness of the first one, and that was all it ever had going for it. So how do you raise the stakes for a shark that’s already the length of an aircraft carrier?

Haunted Mansion

The second movie that I know of based on the Disneyland ride. This means well, and some of the actors are having fun with it, but it’s not really funny, and it’s certainly not scary. The point seems to be to behold the amazing effects – a lot like an amusement park ride. But effects-wise you can pretty much do anything these days, so effects extravaganzas feel a little empty.

Maestro

Everything about Maestro is perfect in every way. Bradley Cooper’s voice and mannerisms are finely studied. His hair is immaculately coifed like Leonard Bernstein’s. The fake nose is faithful to its subject. His movements when he conducts are impeccably timed and excellent. Carey Mulligan’s blueblood accent is unmatched. Her acting is brilliant. Her hair is dreamy. The cinematography is the best this side of the Mississippi. Camera moves are precise and inspiring. The sets and scenes are gloriously designed; the style is gorgeous. The switch from black and white to color is awesome. The changes in the aspect ratio are pitch-perfect. The cinematography is stellar; perhaps Nobel prize winning. Steven Spielberg’s superb producing is wonderful and marvelous. I’m sure the Twizzlers at craft service were delicious and fresh and not even remotely stale. Everything, and I mean everything, about this is divine and ineffable and unparalleled in the history of art throughout the known galaxy. A+++. 

 So, it’s kind of annoying. I feel dumb, but I didn’t really get into it.

The Abyss

I’ve seen this 35-year-old epic at least 35 times over the years. After all this time, it still never fails to move and evoke. It’s a stellar achievement. At the recent screening, the ending is even MORE terrible, if that’s at all possible. But 9/10ths of this is a masterpiece.

Eileen

This nutty, lesbian homage to DePalma starts out great and unravels skillfully. Jojo Rabbit’s Thomasin McKenzie’s brave, risky take on a kinky innocent is fascinating. Anne Hathaway nails her trickster/disrupter bombshell like the “A” student she is. A supporting character’s harrowing monologue will stay with you for days. But it’s only 2/3rds of a movie. There’s no ending and no resolution. It’s like the filmmakers ran out of money and said, “Well, let’s just end it there.” It’s too bad, because for while there they were really dabbling in some freaky, kinky territory.