Dec 14, 2023 10 min read

A Year in Movies

This Was 2023

This is the time of year when film critics share their Best of 2023 lists and write-ups. I have a Top 10 of 2023, certainly, and I love those movies dearly. So do a lot of intelligent people who’ve written about them already! For the sake of it, fine, I’ll share my top 10, but then we’re moving on:

Asteroid City (5 stars)
May December (4.5 stars)
Fremont (4.5 stars)
Poor Things (4.5 stars)
The Boy and the Heron (4.5 stars)
Fallen Leaves (4.5 stars)
Priscilla (4 stars)
Blackberry (4 stars)
Afire (4 stars)
Enys Men (4 stars)

Great movies one and all! A wonderful year for the movies.

Now then, what I’ve decided to do today is dive deep on my 2023 Letterboxd stats. If you’re not aware, Letterboxd is a social media platform that allows for logging, rating, and reviewing your movie watching, and it tracks your stats throughout the year before giving a comprehensive wrap-up at the end of December. But at this point, we’ve mostly seen what there is to see, so today seems like a good time to take stock of a year in movie watching, and the year in the life that went along with it.

My Biggest Movie Week

January 2 - 8 (13 movies)

On January 2nd, 2023 I succumbed to the COVID-19 virus. I was the first in my family to do so, and so I had a few days to watch movies by myself in the guest room. But then my family began dropping like dominoes, meaning we were all stuck at home enjoying frequent family movie time, while I spent my free time squeezing in movies for work. We’ll get to most of that material in other pockets of this rundown, but a few notables:

Roald Dahl’s Matilda: the Musical, The Pale Blue Eye - two movies I watched in my sickbed, lying on my side with my headphones pressed against my ear, my entire body made of phlegm. I dozed through much of The Pale Blue Eye, but did you know Edgar Allen Poe is a supporting character in that movie? Isn’t that weird? Oh, and Matilda was all right. A little slick and glossy, with music that sort of goes in one ear and out the other, but it passed a morning of deathly illness.

Big Hero 6, The Road to El Dorado - two movies I watched with my kids. Big Hero 6 became an instant favorite for my then-four-year-old son, and remains in the rotation. I’m comfortable with that—it’s a solid family entertainment, if a bit plotty and convoluted. The Road to El Dorado, on the other hand, is a bomb! Ugly treatment of a fictionalized indigenous group, pale attempts at humor, a story you couldn’t care about if you were paid to care about it–just the worst. So that explains why nobody ever talks nostalgically about it, I guess.

Milestones

First Films of the Year: Sunday in the Park with George, Steve Jobs

My second viewing of the PBS broadcast of Sondheim’s musical, as well as my second viewing of Boyle’s film, both watched January 1st as part of an attempt to write about them in tandem for this newsletter. I wrote maybe half of that post the next morning when I woke up feeling poorly, but once I tested positive for COVID, it died on the vine. Long story short: Sunday in the Park with George and Steve Jobs are basically the same movie.

50th Film of the Year: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

In June, I traveled to beautiful Tulsa, OK to present at World of Dylan, the massive Bob Dylan conference held at a hotel in the heart of the city. I took the opportunity to visit the Bob Dylan Center, where I saw incredible Dylan artifacts, and learned fascinating information I have to remember to put in my book. My presentation was a bit of a flop—I didn’t have a strong grasp on what I wanted to say, but I muddled through. In the meantime, I watched a lot of movies, and one was my first viewing of E.T. Now, I’m going to say something horrible: part of the reason I’d never gotten around to E.T. was my feeling that, like, I get it. I’ve seen E.T. without seeing E.T. And y’know what? I was right. I’d seen probably 80% of that movie in montages of great movie moments, great Spielberg moments, etc. I guess it was good to get it into my system font-to-back, but…I get it! It’s E.T.! What do you want from me, a 37 year old man watching it for the first time? It passed the time at the airport.

100th Film of the Year: The Iron Giant

I watched this one with my daughters, while my son refused because it wasn’t on the list of movies he already likes. He missed out—this movie is pretty perfect for an almost-five-year-old boy, as well as, evidently, almost-seven-year-old and almost-three-year-old girls, and a solidly-37-year-old man. Perhaps the best-crafted American animated movie of the last 30 years? Crazy thing to say? Give me your counterargument, then.

I may make it to 150 films this year—I’m currently at 142, so I’d put the odds at about 50/50. Not my biggest movie year ever, and down from the past two, but what can I say? It’s called depression, baby, and the one I experienced in the first half of this year wasn’t the kind that manifested with movie watching. Oh well. Maybe next year will be more cinematic.

Most Watched

Labyrinth (thrice)

I spent much of this year suffering the worst writer’s block of my life (see: “it’s called depression, baby”). At one point, Bright Wall/Dark Room put out a call for submissions on road movies, and I thought about writing something on The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth as hero’s journeys. There was something there—Jim Henson’s two fantasy projects as on-the-road narratives. But I couldn’t make it work. I watched Labyrinth again for an episode of Authorized Novelizations, the podcast for which I joined the hosting rotation this year—I brought A.C.H. Smith’s novelization to the group (as well as inviting the great Sydney Urbanek on as a guest to cover the Bowie of it all). Great episode! My third watch came about after my two co-hosts, Andrew and Hannah, both had mixed responses to the movie. I sort of watched it again to spite them. It’s worth three watches in a year!

Rio Bravo (twice)

I kicked writer’s block this summer, and by the fall, I was ready to dip my toe back in at Bright Wall/Dark Room for the first time since my departure from the editorial staff a year earlier. I asked editor-in-chief Chad Perman for an assignment for their Westerns issue–I couldn’t quite come up with a topic, but I wanted badly to be in the mix. So he assigned me Rio Bravo, and I watched it twice. You’re welcome to read my thoughts on it, but the gist is: really, really good movie!

Southland Tales (twice)

Just prior to being invited onto the Authorized squad, I did my third guest spot, bringing them the Southland Tales graphic novel prequel saga as an ancillary text that fit under the show’s loose umbrella. As prep, I rewatched this movie I love so much, as well as rewatching the less successful Cannes cut. It was a wonderful experience; the episode was a bit of a mixed bag. I thought I could sell a group of not-quite-strangers-but-not-quite-friends on the Southland Tales master narrative. What was I thinking?

Alita: Battle Angel (twice)

Another podcast prep double header, this one for an appearance on my beloved We Love to Watch. I had skipped this one on release because—how to say this—it looked stupid. And then the army of fans it amassed intimidated me, but y’know what? Alita sort of rocks. I watched the movie twice, I read a bunch of the manga, I watched the anime, all to prep for that episode, and I don’t regret a minute of it. I had a blast. Bring on the Alita sequels!

Stars

Frank Oz, Steve Whitmire, and Dave Goelz (Labyrinth, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Muppet Movie, The Dark Crystal)

This was the year of Henson for me by virtue of my new One Heat Minute show The Great Henson Caper. By rights, the Muppet performers should each have two more credits, for The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan, both of which I…sort of watched with my daughter as podcast prep. But both days, the Muppets lulled me into a bit of a doze, so I didn’t log those “watches.” I’ve seen them enough times, it’s OK. Still, I watched part of at least six movies featuring each of these guys, not four.

Seth Rogen (Dumb Money, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Steve Jobs)

What a big year for Rogen! Dumb Money sort of stinks, and Mario reeks of plastic, but TMNT was a barn-burner. Plus I got to tie on his beautiful dramatic work in Steve Jobs–what perfect casting he was for Wozniak, using all his charm and all his then-schlubbiness to his advantage. Danny Boyle! Smart director!

Clarence Nash (Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Fun and Fancy Free, The Three Caballeros, Saludos Amigos)

We’ll get to all this.

My goodness, what a couple of years for Hong Chau! The Menu and The Whale were COVID sickbed watches, and neither was enough to raise my spirits—The Menu at least has a perverse watchability, even if I think it’s dumb as a box of rocks, while The Whale was the most torturous movie experience of the year. Showing Up is a low-key charmer and she’s low-key charming in it, while Asteroid City is a stone-cold masterpiece in which she doesn’t necessarily stand out among the ensemble (I remember her now, but it took me a minute). I wouldn’t have remembered this as the year of Hong Chau, but I’m glad she’s staying booked and busy.

Directors

Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Wilfred Jackson, and Norman Ferguson (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Melody Time, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, The Three Caballeros, Saludos Amigos)

By far the heaviest hitters in my year came from this stable of animators, all of whom had some hand in some of the movies listed above (Kinney seems to be the uniting thread). I binged these movies in January as part of a piece I was writing for Polygon on the wartime “package films” of short subjects Disney released between in the ‘40s. What I discovered was that a lot of these shorts are either a little or a lot racist, and so no fun to think or write about. You can read the resulting piece if you want to.

Then there are the seven directors by whom I saw two movies each. They are:

Hayao Miyazaki (The Boy and the Heron, Howl’s Moving Castle)

I saw the new one, duh. I also rewatched Howl’s with the kids in a fit of “they watch too much noisy CGI dreck, time for some culture.” It went over about as well as you’d expect a strange and often abstract semi-adult cartoon would go over with a six-, four-, and two-year old.

Martin Scorsese (The Last Waltz, Killers of the Flower Moon)

I saw the new one, duh. I also went to the local multiplex for the 45th anniversary screening of The Last Waltz, and I felt nothing but transcendent gratitude for this whole silly medium we call the movies.

Jim Henson (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal)

Already discussed!

Darren Aronofsky (Noah, The Whale)

The torturousness of The Whale has been discussed. As for Noah–what a picture! I revisited it for Authorized, and I had forgotten how grand and strange and eerie and compelling the first hour is. The second falls off a cliff (into a flood) a bit, but nothing can detract from that opening that asks, “Why can’t the Bible be Lord of the Rings?”

Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)

The transcendence of Rio Bravo has been discussed. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was another World of Dylan watch, stuck in my hotel room, mildly terrified to go out and be confronted by bigger Dylan nerds than I who might make me feel inadequate. Great movie! Colorful, funny, lively, and lovely. Hawks had range!

Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Men in Black 3)

I revisited the first for Authorized. One of the perfect films! I visited the third because I recalled Paul Thomas Anderson saying it had made him cry. I guess I see where he cried; it didn’t get to me quite that way. On the other hand, it’s nice to see Sonnenfeld get on base with that movie after a few decades of mostly striking out.

Bob Dylan (Eat the Document, Renaldo and Clara)

More to come in the forthcoming book When I Paint My Masterpiece: Bob Dylan on Film.

Screenwriters

Charles Dickens (Scrooge, Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol, Scrooge, The Stingiest Man in Town, Rich Little’s Christmas Carol, An American Christmas Carol, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, Scrooged, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Ebenezer, A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, Spirited, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol)

Yes, I racked up 20 screenwriting credits for Charles Dickens over the course of preparing the Christmas Carol advent calendar. I melted my brain, and I had a blast. Blake and I have been rolling out those videos all month over at One Heat Minute, and they’ll be rolling out until the 24th. (Not sure why four of the adaptations I watched seemingly aren’t credited to Dickens but I’m not digging into that today.)

Producers

I really admire the range of projects Ferrell attaches his name to, and I fully had no idea he was part of my beloved Sleeping With Other people, nor the extremely just-OK Theater Camp. I don’t know how involved he is in most of these projects, but I do know his name must have helped get them over the line, which is great.

Rated Higher Than Average

Southland Tales, Sleeping With Other People, Elvis, Under the Silver Lake, Between the Lines (5 stars each)

Look, these are all perfect movies! Are they flawless? I’d argue for Sleeping WIth Other People and maybe Between the Lines. In the other cases, the flaws are somewhat beside the point! The blemishes don’t detract from the luminosity of the whole, and if you don’t see what I see in these movies, I’m just plain sorry.

Noah (4 stars)

Again, first hour! Why aren’t we talking about it all the time?

Rated Lower than Average

Dream Scenario (1.5 stars)

I was looking forward to this one based on the premise, but I found its spiral into panic over campus culture a little NYT op-ed on-the-nose. That tanked basically all the goodwill I had for the movie, but Nic Cage’s performance was enough to eke out a star and a half.

The Whale (1.5 stars)

It’s been discussed. It stunk up early January and the stench has lingered all year.

A Christmas Carol, Spirited, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (1 star)

That would be the terrible Kelsey Grammar musical version, as well as the two newest adaptations. Lousy one and all, but apparently I’m harsher on them than most.

A Christmas Carol (.5 stars)

That would be the Jim Carrey version, and if you see a single redeeming quality in that movie, God bless you, every one.

So that’s a wrap on 2023 in movies, I guess. Honestly, not a year I’ll look back on as exceptionally rich in the viewing department, but I have high hopes for changing that next year. We’ll talk about that in 2024, though.