Fridays are my movie night. I usually watch one movie each Friday night with the occasional casual viewing throughout the week in addition. I'll start a movie on a Monday evening and watch a bit each night, which, is a strange way to watch movies according to my friends.
In 2023 I watched 70 movies, with 20 of them being released last year and the rest older films. Ten of those are rewatches, which I don't count towards my favorites or least favorites, since a majority of them were previous years favorites. Most movies fall into the speculative fiction category, often times horror of some sort.
5 Best Movies
1. The Menu, Directed by Mark Mylod (2022)
★★★★★
I loved this movie! I never knew where the plot was going which is something I really enjoy in movies like this. It felt original and the subject was something I'd never seen explored before. I do tend to think that fancy food, such as portrayed in The Menu, is pretentious and the portion sizes too small, so I really enjoyed that the plot didn't dance around that aspect. The most annoying character was the food reviewer, who just reminded me of the need to place meaning on every single thing. Not everything needs to mean something philosophical. Dark humor is my favorite type and the social commentary in this movie was on point. Art is meant to be enjoyed, not picked apart to oblivion.
2. Hereditary, Directed by Ari Aster (2018)
★★★★★
This was one of the most suspenseful films I've watched this year. There were a lot of shocking moments, and the person I thought was the main character turned out not to be the main character. I loved all the subtle details included in various scenes. The doll's house was a great way to portray the actual situations of the characters. Toni Collette is a master of emotional portrayal. That scene at the dinner table was amazing! Alex Wolff, who I'd only ever seen in cheesy coming-of-age comedy's definitely surprised me with his acting skills in a more emotional and raw role. I'll definitely be watching his other more dramatic films in the future. Everyone should watch this horror movie!
3. Last Night in Soho, Directed by Edgar Wright (2021)
★★★★⍣
This was a movie that I didn't expect to be as good as it was. I think that's because I went into it not quite knowing what it was about. I watched the trailer and knew it was about a fashion student, but I didn't catch on that there was a time travel aspect. Honestly, I watched it because I knew Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith were in it. I didn't see the twist at the end coming and it's pacing kept my attention at every turn. I loved how the music added to the plot and atmosphere as well. The visuals felt very unique and there were some interesting camera angels that added to the suspense. The acting was great and it was a very immersive experience as a whole.
4. Smile, Directed by Parker Finn (2022)
★★★★⍣
Smile was a very unique horror film in a already packed genre. It was a mixture of possession and a haunting type. It could have gone very cheesy, with overly creepy smiles being a main focal point, but they were utterly creepy and horrifying. It felt somewhat inspired by It Follows, which I rewatched immediately after this, but it still managed to feel unique in the way that the main character was haunted and slowly driven mad. I spent a large chunk trying to figure out where the main actress was from until I looked it up and realized Sosie Bacon was in Thirteen Reasons Why. She did such a good job of portraying a character slowly crumbling and losing touch with those around her. There were some truly creepy scenes in this in this as well, and the jump scares didn't feel overdone.
5. Triangle of Sadness, Directed by Ruben Östlund (2022)
★★★★☆
Triangle of Sadness was one of the most outrageous films I remember watching in recent years. Anything with Woody Harrelson is bound to be funny, but some of the stuff that went on in this movie was so out there. I'm a big fan of the reality series Below Deck, so I loved to see parallels between that series and this movie. There was an almost ten minute vomit sequence was hard to watch, and I had to mute due to the noises. And that was just one scene that was crazy. Overall it was a really great movie and I enjoyed it a lot. This had the kind of ending that hit just right and the cinematography was just *chef's kiss*.
5 Worst Movies
1. At the End of Eight, Directed by Rankin Dean (2019)
★☆☆☆☆
Look at this poster! The worst movie of the year goes to one that has so many accolades and with a that premise sounded promising. I have heard this was a student film so I don't want to bash this too much, but it was on the brink of unwatchable. The acting was supbar at best as there was no emotional depth to any of the characters. They would be in the middle of what should have been a tense situation but the line delivery would make you think that you were in line at a McDonald's and they were taking your order. If this director didn't take inspiration from Don't Breathe, it would be amazing. Honestly, the opening was great! It was well shot, it was suspenseful, and it made me excited to watch the rest of the movie. Sadly, that was so disconnected from the rest of the movie that it may as well have not been shot.
2. Alone at Night, Directed by Jimmy Giannopoulos (2022)
★☆☆☆☆
The end of this movie was so blatantly obvious that I wonder how this was supposed to be suspenseful in the first place. The second a certain character showed up, I knew exactly what his role was and how it was going to end. This was a Covid movie, and the main character was a camgirl. Played by Ashely Benson, I expected the acting to be good, which in all honesty, it as for the script she was given. The dual storyline with the reality show was very unnecessary. Instead of focusing on the horror of being stuck alone in a creepy cabin during a storm, there was a bunch of filler that took away from the story.
3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Directed by David Blue Garcia (2022)
★⍣☆☆☆
There was one legitimately scary scene in this movie that was well shot and well acted that earned that extra half star. Sadly, that was the only scary scene. This movie destroyed a great franchise, in my opinion. Why do people keep creating subpar sequels to fantastic horror films! The script was so bad. There was Gen Z slang everywhere and we literally got to know none of the characters other than the fact that they are urban millennials trying to take over a rural town, and that they kicked a woman out of her own house. It was not scary, and I sort of found myself rooting for the bad guy. I'll be the first to say it, they deserved it.
4. The Invitation, Directed by Jessica M. Thompson (2022)
★⍣☆☆☆
How is it possible to make vampires this lame? The bones were there but nothing was executed well enough to be considered a good paranormal movie. Was this supposed to be horror or was it making fun of the genre? It could have been either one because all the tropes were there but at the same time it felt like it was trying to subvert it, but then it failed to do so. The pacing was way too rushed, there wasn't enough backstory, and while the acting was fine, the main character was far too trusting to begin with. The villains were not convincing enough to be considered scary and there wasn't enough tension to be suspenseful. It felt like a badly written paranormal romance book that as turned into a movie that didn't improve upon it's source material.
5. Locked In, Directed by Nour Wazzi (2023)
★★☆☆☆
I am just now realizing that 3/5 of my least favorite movies were Netflix exclusives. Should I cancel my subscription or just be more picky about what movies I watch? Locked In suffered from trying to do too much with too little. There was little to no character development, the romance felt unrealistic, the conflict felt unrealistic, the characters felt unrealistic. There wasn't a single thing that felt like it could actually happen besides from the medical professional that cared too much. With such an atmospheric setting, I feel like this had a lot of potential, yet it focused in on some twisted evil-stepmother trope that felt sort of incestuous. If this movie had one message, I can only think of it being "rich people can get away with literal murder". This felt like utter nonsense but I gave it two stars because, although it left me wondering how this movie got made, the characters at least had motivations that made them somewhat interesting to follow.
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