Ranking 40 New Releases From 2023
As 2023 comes to a close, it’s time to rank the new movies I watched this year. I hope you’ll check some of them out if you haven’t.
UNredeemable trash
40. 65 (1/5 Stars)
Good idea for a movie.
It’s a very bad movie.
39. Ant-man and the wasp: Quantumania (1/5 Stars)
This movie wants to be Star Wars so badly, but I’m not sure it understands what actually makes the original Star Wars trilogy so great. I think there’s a good movie in here somewhere, but I don’t know what the point of this even is. It’s not a movie. It’s just connective tissue with no real purpose.
I do not remember watching these
38. Murder Mystery 2 (2/5 Stars)
I do not remember watching this movie.
37. The Mother (2/5 Stars)
I remember watching this but I have no idea what happened.
36. Luther: The Fallen Sun (2/5 Stars)
Idris Elba should be in every movie.
Wish they were better
35. Sound of Freedom (2/5 Stars)
It is a movie about stopping child kidnapping where the plan is “What if we got the bad guys to capture as many kids as possible so we can save more kids.” The logic of the plan doesn’t hold up. Since it is based on real events, it makes that a tougher pill to swallow for me. The performances overall were pretty solid, but the tone felt like a rollercoaster, especially certain music choices. It really buckles under the pressure and weight that culture put on it.
34. Silent Night (2/5 Stars)
No one makes movies like the GOAT John Woo. Unfortunately, this time that’s a bad thing!
33. Knock at the cabin (2/5 Stars)
Dave Bautista is the best but that’s about it.
32. Leave the world behind (2/5 Stars)
Have had this book for a while, just haven’t really started it yet. Decided to watch. Feel like the book has to be better than this?
A lot of flair with very little significance. Performances are the strongest aspect for me.
Wanted this to be better. Still hope Sam Esmail makes more movies.
This really should be right up my alley, but I found myself mostly bored. Admittedly, this probably would play better in a theater and not on my couch.
Side note: Feeling good about my physical media collection!
A Fun Time at da Movies
31. M3gan (3/5 Stars)
I laughed a whole lot.
30. Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny (3/5 stars)
Pros: Harrison Ford is always good.
Cons: The first third of the movie. It’s way too long. Also, the last third of the movie.
It’s fine.
29. scream vi (3/5 Stars)
28. Creed iii (3/5 Stars)
Creed doesn’t miss.
27. a haunting in Venice (3/5 Stars)
The best of the trilogy by a mile.
Had High Moments But left Me Wanting More
26. Napoleon (3/5 Stars)
The battle sequences may be some of the best I’ve ever seen. However, it feels like this movie doesn’t know what it wants to be. It jerks back and forth between narratives and there isn’t a clear picture of the story it’s trying to tell. I wish it was more focused.
25. extraction 2 (3/5 Stars)
Goldshifteh Farahani!
24. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (3/5 Stars)
Funny!
23. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (3/5 Stars)
I enjoyed a Marvel movie for the first time in a while! It was nice!
Old School Flavor
22. The boys in the boat (3/5 Stars)
Disney used to make so many of these in the 90s. I liked this a lot more than I expected to initially. It’s nothing special, but it gets the job done.
21. The Caine mutiny court-martial (4/5 Stars)
20. master gardener (4/5 Stars)
Paul Schrader completes his trilogy about sad, tortured men who are compelled to reflectively journal alone at empty desks haunted by sins.
I was shocked by the hope of this movie which isn’t as active in First Reformed (perhaps the best movie of the 2010s in my opinion) or The Card Counter. While I think those are better movies, I’m thankful for the optimism here. Though the movie is disjointed at times, I’m not sure anyone is willing to wrestle with these questions like Paul.
19. The Creator (4/5 Stars)
Didn’t know we were still looking to reckon with the Vietnam War but here we are. It may be the best looking movie of the year.
Movies That Really Went for It
18. Asteroid city (4/5 Stars)
I was out for 80% of the runtime then it all clicked. There’s a cameo at the end that really worked for me, emotionally.
17. Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse (4/5 Stars)
The best superhero movies that are being made right now and it’s not even close.
16. Barbie (4/5 Stars)
Not Quite My Favorites But Still Great
15. The Killer (4/5 Stars)
One of the funniest movies of the year and just a tight thriller. We need more movies like this.
14. Anatomy of a Fall (4/5 Stars)
This may have the most iconic use of a song ever. It’s a really great update to the courtroom drama and a clever story. Check this out if you haven’t! Sandra Hüller gives one of the best performances of the year.
13. Afire (4/5 Stars)
12. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (4/5 Stars)
Salute the flag that is Tom Cruise!
It never drags. It's just energy from start to finish. The villain is probably the worst of the series, but I don’t care.
I’m still thinking about the AI suitcase/sarcophagus on the train. That’s a good bit.
Also Hayley Atwell!
The most consistent franchise we have.
11. May December (4/5 Stars)
The Top 10
10. Are you There God? It’s me, margaret. (4/5 Stars)
In a perfect world, Rachel McAdams would get an Oscar for this.
9. Maestro (5/5 Stars)
It’s a movie that’s more about Bradley Cooper, his relationship to fame, and the inability to separate a public and private persona, than it is about Leonard Bernstein.
I found that to be absolutely fascinating.
8. The boy and the heron (5/5 Stars)
A culmination of every Miyazaki project to this point. I am forever grateful that I finally got to see one of his movies in theaters. It’s something that I won’t forget.
7. GoDzilla Minus One (5/5 Stars)
I cried during a Godzilla movie, more than once!
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (5/5 Stars)
A titanic achievement. I think this movie is nearly impossible for me to write about in a coherent way. The weight of the dread is so profound and yet it only scratches the surface of the reality of the hurt this community and many others experienced. Having read the book prior, this work of adaptation is a clever and effective as I’ve seen.
5. The Holdovers (5/5 Stars)
A new Christmas classic and one of the more emotionally effective movies I’ve watched in quite some time.
I’ve had all 4 of these ranked #1 at different points in the year
4. Past Lives (5/5 Stars)
There is not a movie that made me feel the way this movie made me feel this year.
3. John Wick: Chapter 4 (5/5 Stars)
In the conversation for the best action movie I’ve ever seen.
2. Oppenheimer (5/5 Stars)
“But now we got weapons
Of chemical dust
If fire them, we’re forced to
Then fire, them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side”
I haven’t gotten these lyrics out of my head since I first heard the song years ago. My mind drifted to them as we entered the second half of Oppenheimer, a titanic achievement.
What are willing to sacrifice for brilliance?
What are we willing to overlook for innovation?
Who becomes the arbiter of good when theory is all we have to throw at each other?
These questions carry through, and I found the ideas of theory vs. practical application to provide considerable tension throughout. The use of color harkens back to Nolan’s earlier escapades in Memento, which offered differing narratives of truth for the viewer to reconcile through subjective and objective points of view.
There’s a scene near the middle of the film that really knocked me out and that was when I fully bought in. As Oppenheimer hears the screams of victims in his mind and transposes his doting audience post-bomb drop with the victims of the blast, I found myself frozen in place. The theory of his fears became realized through practical application.
As I walked out of the theater, my mind continued to churn through different ideas to grapple with. The runtime is a marathon, and it’s very talky, which wore me down, but perhaps that was intentional. We experience a sense of the weight of guilt carried as we find ourselves running out of steam.
The discombobulating movement from the wonders of the test sequence to loading the bombs to be dropped only makes the slow descent of guilt more palpable. Was it worth it? We’re left to sit with what all this means.
Christopher Nolan offers his answer.
(Side Note: On my second viewing, the young couple that sat in front of me put their fingers in their ears for the Trinity sequence. Then right before the blast of sound, they took their fingers out cause they thought the silence would last forever.
I had to try not to snort laughing at them when they about jumped through the ceiling.)
1. Ferrari (5/5 Stars)
Michael Mann is my favorite filmmaker and he’s been making the same movie for around 40 years. Tortured men who claim to live by some sort of code in their work are torn apart by their personal lives. It works every time and his take on Enzo Ferrari is no different.
Enzo, crippled by the loss of a son, and torn between a marriage to his partner at work and a second family, hidden in the shadows, is on the brink of financial ruin. His hard-charging leadership will push his racing team toward excellence.
But will this success be worth the carnage and sacrifice required to succeed?
There is a moment near the end of this film that I could have never seen coming. The gasps in the theater were unlike anything I’ve experienced. Metal and machine meet the beauty of the Italian countryside as pain and loss pave the way for immense power. I can’t wait to watch this again.