2023 Movie Year in Review

Jan 22, 2024 23:38

Once upon a time, the "Movie Year in Review" was by far my most extensive and interesting entry into the yearly "year-in-review-apalooza." Then a pandemic and a toddler happened. To recap the recent years:

- 2020 got off to a good start with 8 films in the theater, and then I watched another 14 more on streaming once the pandemic hit.
- In 2021 I was reducing to only streaming, and saw a total of 7 films.
- 2022 sank to an all-time low of 6 films, all streaming.

So the bad news is that in 2023, I only saw 7 movies total. The good news is that I made my triumphant return to the movie theater, and didn't watch a single movie on streaming. I'm sure it's possible to have a super great home movie system that makes it feel like you're in the theater, but I don't have that, nor do I even particularly want it. The movie theater experience is great and given infinite time and money I could go all the time.

Here is the list of movies that I saw in the theater in 2023.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - CN, F 4/14
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb - CN, R 5/04
Summertime - CN, T 6/13
Stop Making Sense (40th Anniversary Edition) - CPT - M 11/06
Killers of the Flower Moon - RR - W 11/08
The Searchers - CN, F 11/17
The Boy and the Heron - VV, T 12/12

4 CN = Cinematheque (originally for "Cinematheque, New")
1 CPT = Capitol Theater
1 RR = Rocky River AMC
1 VV = Valley View Cinemark

It says something about my long relationship with the Cinematheque that when I went to my first movie of the year there, both John (the director) and Genevieve (the assistant director) said " where have you been?" To be fair, it had been just over three years.

My first movie back was one I'd missed when it originally came out. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a beautifully shot movie. The cinematography is by Roger Deakins, who is often cited as one of the greatest cinematographers, and he once said it's his best work. It's worth the price of admission for the visuals of the opening train robbery alone, and that's before we talk about the script and the cast, both of which are excellent. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are both in top form. There's even a tiny Nick Cave cameo (he did the soundtrack). It was great.

My second movie of the year was also at the Cinematheque. Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb is mostly a documentary for people who wish that Robert Caro, age 88 at this writing, would finish the fifth and final of his LBJ books before he passes away. Speaking as someone who finished the third and fourth books of the LBJ series in 2023, plus Caro's memoir and one of his speeches that was published in a collection of speeches by biographers... I'm this guy. This is a bit of shame, because Robert Gottlieb was a legendary editor in his own right who also had substantial non-literary accomplishments. He edited every one of Caro's biographies starting with The Power Broker, and in the documentary he expresses both hope and frustration that Caro will finish before he dies. That, alas, did not happen, as he passed away in June 2023 at the age of 92 a scant month after I saw this movie. I really enjoyed this film, but I recognize that it will probably only be of interest to my fellow Caro fans (waves at Wayne).

Those two films were easily my personal highlights for the year. As for the others:
- I enjoyed finally seeing Stop Making Sense in a theater. I'd seen it on a tv many times, most recently when I held a newborn Birdie and watched it in 2021. I didn't see any major differences in the 40th anniversary edition, but I also will never be unhappy to see this film.
- Summertime was a thank you film to Cinematheque donors. It's a very beautiful movie shot on location in Venice in the 1950s with a pretty boring plot. I'd have preferred to see the exact same shots with Katharine Hepburn just talking about the scenery.
- Both M and I read and enjoyed the book Killers of the Flower Moon, so the adaptation was the rare Martin Scorsese film that we both wanted to see in the theater. We each went solo and enjoyed it. Speaking for myself, it moved quickly and never felt like a 3+ hour movie, which is an impressive accomplishment. On balance, I'd say it was pretty good. De Niro was more restrained than he has been in ages, and DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone were both convincing in very difficult roles. It was worth seeing, although if you ask me to pick my favorite Scorsese film I'd pick several before I got to this one, most notably Silence.
- The Searchers has long been lauded as one of the greatest westerns of all time. After seeing it at the Cinematheque, I have to admit that I don't see it. John Wayne is great, the scenery is great... the script needs some pretty serious work in my opinion, with weird tonal shifts that don't really work very well. But then who are you going to believe, me or the thousands of critics who think it's great?
- It was an unexpected delight to get an unexpected new film from Miyazaki, the first since 2014. Kevin and I caught The Boy and the Heron together in December. I'll have to think about where I'd rank it in his overall catalog, but I will say that if you dislike dream logic you won't like this movie, as it's essential a tower of dream logic. As always, my personal rating is "do I think this is ridiculous DURING the movie, or AFTER the movie?" DURING is bad. AFTER is not a problem. The Boy and the Heron was solidly in the AFTER category. I'm glad I saw it, and if Miyazaki makes more movies I'll certainly line up to see them.

2023 brings my lifetime movie total to somewhere around 1329 in the theater. I don't anticipate it will rise that much in 2024, but I'll pick my spots and get to at least a few things throughout the year.

year in review, year in review - cinema, cinema

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