Rather than grapple with things like rankings and ratings and “bests” or even “favorites,” here is simply a list of five things I loved from this year and wish to share with you, in alphabetical order.
Visit my Instagram @JMWwrites for the full posts, including Honorable Mentions.
Image Credit: Skitterphoto
5 New Films I Watched and Loved in 2023
alphabetical order
Barbie
If you make things better for the disenfranchised, you make things better for everybody. It’s a true statement. A work of fiction cannot prove an idea as much as explore it. But with Barbie, Gerwig does her very best to show how that statement can look to the world, even if the burden of proof remains on us here in real-life. Chock full of ideas–almost more than it can truly handle–this journey of a plaything to real life and back again (and then back to reality one more time) is in turn funnier, more brilliant, and more tear-jerking than expected. Look. Hollywood did something right.
Maestro
Cooper has two films now, both about tortured musicians and the exchange of lifeforce between them and their partners. His likeness to the maestro–courtesy of hair and makeup–is more to write home about than his performance; Mulligan’s turn as Felicia Montealegre is the real show-stopper here. But in movies full of music, Cooper continues to astound with what he can do with silence and stillness as a director. Beautiful cinematography frames a meticulous production, exploring the rift between the inner and outer lives of a creative personality and the toll it takes on the people around him.
A breathless, three-hour, non-linear montage that whips between the actions and consequences of a brilliant and heedless historical figure. I was nervous that this film would be all grandeur and no delusion, but I was pleasantly surprised at the nuance with which a Hollywood studio summer tentpole rendered the much-mythologized dilemma at its core. The race against the Nazis fired the starting gun. But the film does not neglect the concerned scientist who points out, “Germany’s about to surrender, the Japanese are losing. It’s no longer the enemy who are the greatest threat to mankind–it’s us.”
Saltburn
This movie is filthy and beautiful. It made the audience squirm in their seats in my theater, but I was so enraptured by the music and cinematography that I managed to stomach my way through. It also made critics layperson and professional squirm in their reviews, calling it derivative of Brideshead Revisited and the Talented Mr. Ripley. But I haven’t seen either of those movies, so the film-making on display here was all delight and no derivation to me. Fennell is two-for-two with the elevated social revenge flicks, as far as I’m concerned.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
In an overwrought and undercooked media landscape flooded with more content and less creation, my new metric for how good a thing is is how much it makes me feel. By this metric, Across the Spider-Verse takes the top prize. I felt things on opening night that I haven’t felt in a theater in ages. Every element of the production, from the rich visuals to the thrilling music to the touching story, brought me to cinematic heights I will never forget. It breathes creative vision into both superheroes and multi-verses, two things I was ready to be done with. This film is the artistic achievement of the year.
5 New TV Episodes I Watched and Loved in 2023
1 per show, alphabetical order
The Bear 2.7: Forks
I try not to generalize. Only a Sith deals in absolutes. But Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie Jerimovich is the best character on television right now. It’s only fitting that he was given the best episode of the Bear’s varied sophomore season, and one of the best episodes of the show so far. This is well noted, but it’s the moments of peace, of calm, of quietude in the midst of the show’s addictive, trademark chaos that really seal the deal on the Bear’s greatness. With “Forks,” the series sticks the landing on alternating chaos and calm to take its best character on the journey of his life.
The Last of Us 1.3: Long Long Time
I would be hard pressed to identify an episode of television that has ever had a more lingering impact on me than this one. For days afterward, I felt the echoes of this episode like a weight in my chest. It would make me sad, simply recalling the episode’s dramatic beats. For yanking on my heartstrings so hard that I was moved to tears just thinking about this episode days later, this episode has earned a spot in my list of all-time greats, not just for 2023. With the show serving largely as a literal translation of the game, it is clear that “Long Long Time” is the show’s reason for being.
Loki 2.6: Glorious Purpose
I will be the first to admit that I almost gave up on Loki Season 2. I watched three episodes and felt aggrieved at the meandering and uninteresting plots, inconsistent characters, and hollow, repetitive dialogue. However, I will also be the first to admit that the series finale left me pleasantly surprised and genuinely impressed by the story of character transformation it had to tell. Vonnegut said that you should be cruel to your characters in order that we may see what they are made of. Watching Loki (the show and the man) prove himself in this final episode was a glorious journey.
Our Flag Means Death 2.6: Calypso’s Birthday
The “calm before the storm” can be a powerful force if a story remembers to show it, to linger in the joyful, intoxicating temptations of peace. Things go very wrong for our heroes here. But before they do, things go very right. The characters let down their guard. They celebrate. They rejoice. They heal. We’re treated to the most pleasantly surprising rendition of La Vie en Rose I’ve seen on screen in a long time as we see the miraculous redemption of one of TV’s most despicable characters this year. It’s hard not to fall for these pirates acknowledging and accepting their better selves.
Poker Face 1.5: Time of the Monkey
Poker Face is not only the sole property that’s ever convinced me to subscribe to Peacock, but proof-of-concept for the whole Rian-Johnson/T-Street brand. The show has a charming hook: Columbo how-catch-em via Natasha Lyonne. Johnson, of course, brings his own bag of tricks to the table, along with a top-notch crack team of collaborators (including Lucky McKee, director of this episode, and its writers, Wyatt Cain & Charlie Peppers). “Time of the Monkey” is the episode when the show’s unique rhythms and patterns really sink in, really find their groove. Plus it’s just plain entertaining.
JMW Writes 
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