Sunday, December 31, 2023

2023 Movie List - The Top 225 of the Year So Far


THE STANDOUTS (18) - This should go without saying, but these are all must-sees.

Jamojaya ***1/2
Society of the Snow ***1/2
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie ***1/2
Woman of the Hour ***1/2
Nyad ***1/2
Past Lives ***1/2
Memory ***1/2
Air ***1/2
BlackBerry ***
The Iron Claw ***
American Fiction ***
The Holdovers ***
The Beasts ***
Flora and Son ***
Theater Camp ***
Reality ***
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One ***
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ***

THE GOOD (51) - These represent quality filmmaking all around.

A Thousand and One ***
Flamin' Hot ***
Hit Man ***
Fair Play ***
Reptile ***
The Killer ***
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant ***
Joy Ride ***
You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah ***
Elemental ***
All of Us Strangers ***
You Hurt My Feelings ***
Somewhere in Queens ***
The Teachers' Lounge ***
Sick of Myself ***
Dream Scenario ***
The Equalizer 3 ***
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ***
Talk to Me ***
The Jewel Thief ***
Sympathy for the Devil ***
The Burial ***
El Conde ***
Passages ***
Kandahar ***
Good Boy ***
Sharper ***
Bruiser ***
I Got a Monster ***
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret ***
Tetris ***
When Evil Lurks ***
The Boogeyman ***
About My Father ***
The Marsh King's Daughter ***
You People ***
Creed III ***
Pamela: A Love Story ***
Missing ***
Extraction 2 ***
The Pez Outlaw ***
The Super Mario Bros. Movie ***
Cat Person ***
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny **1/2
Godzilla Minus One **1/2
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life **1/2
The Little Mermaid **1/2
Champions **1/2
My Animal **1/2
Always, Lola **1/2
This Place Rules **1/2

THE GOOD... BUT SHOULD'VE BEEN BETTERS (33) - Why weren't these good movies better? I don't really know. But they should've been. Hence, the name of this section.

Oppenheimer ***
Anatomy of a Fall ***
Killers of the Flower Moon **1/2
Magazine Dreams **1/2
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 **1/2
No Hard Feelings **1/2
Next Goal Wins **1/2
May December **1/2
Rustin **1/2
R.M.N. **1/2
Origin **1/2
The Flash **1/2
Luther: The Fallen Sun **1/2
To Catch a Killer **1/2
Knox Goes Away **1/2
Butcher's Crossing **1/2
Sly **1/2
Finestkind **1/2
Holiday **1/2
Inside **1/2
I Like Movies **1/2
Magic Mike's Last Dance **1/2
The Boys in the Boat **1/2
Big George Foreman **1/2
Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia **1/2
Landscape With Invisible Hand **1/2
The Integrity of Joseph Chambers **1/2
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre **1/2
Barber **1/2
The Dive **1/2
Paint **1/2
Rotting in the Sun **1/2
BS High **1/2

THE GUILTY PLEASURES (40)- These are movies that I shouldn't like but I do, for one reason or another. I only feel ashamed because the Internet tells me I'm supposed to.

God Is a Bullet ***
Gran Turismo ***
Saw X ***
Strays ***
Blue Beetle ***
The Wrath of Becky ***
Bobcat Moretti ***
Cocaine Bear ***
Old Dads ***
Transfusion ***
M3GAN ***
The Mother **1/2
The Family Plan **1/2
Sound of Freedom **1/2
The Passenger **1/2
Fast Charlie **1/2
Manodrome **1/2
River Wild **1/2
80 for Brady **1/2
Anyone But You **1/2
Thanksgiving **1/2
Quiz Lady **1/2
V/H/S/85 **1/2
The Out-Laws **1/2
Fast X **1/2
Plane **1/2
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire **1/2
Silent Night **1/2
House Party **1/2
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines **1/2
Shotgun Wedding **1/2
Inside Man **1/2
We Have a Ghost **1/2
The Price We Pay **1/2
The Machine **1/2
Family Switch **1/2
Retribution **
Night of the Hunted **
King of Killers **
Meg 2: The Trench **

THE UNDERWHELMING DISAPPOINTMENTS (69) - Chalk it up to expectations but these movies just didn't cut it for me.

Barbie **1/2
Saltburn **1/2
Royal Hotel **1/2
Maestro **1/2
Ferrari **1/2
Napoleon **1/2
The Creator **1/2
Asteroid City **1/2
Dumb Money **1/2
Eileen **1/2
The Zone of Interest **1/2
Poor Things **1/2
The Color Purple **1/2
The Last Voyage of the Demeter **1/2
No One Will Save You **1/2
Knock at the Cabin **1/2
Pain Hustlers **1/2
Shortcomings **1/2
Master Gardener **1/2
Boston Strangler **1/2
The Lesson **1/2
Rye Lane **1/2
Renfield **
John Wick: Chapter 4 **
Heart of Stone **
Evil Dead Rise **
Biosphere **
White Men Can't Jump **
A Lot of Nothing **
Leave the World Behind **
Sanctuary **
The Pope's Exorcist **
Maggie Moore(s) **
Fremont **
Foe **
Daddio **
Share? **
Boy Kills World **
Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain **
It Lives Inside **
Totally Killer **
Murder Mystery 2 **
65**
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania **
AUM: The Cult at the End of the World **
The Tutor **
Your Lucky Day **
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial **
Wonka **
Haunted Mansion **
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts **
Candy Cane Lane **
The Beanie Bubble **
Buddy Games: Spring Awakening **
Hell of a Summer **
Bad Behaviour **
Trader **
The Good Mother **
Justice **
Victim/Suspect **
Scream VI *1/2
Infinity Pool *1/2
The Marvels *1/2
The Exorcist: Believer *1/2
It's a Wonderful Knife *1/2
The Old Way*1/2
American Outlaws *1/2
Naga *1/2
Cobweb *1/2

THE BAD (14) - For better or worse, I just don't know what these movies were thinking.

Showing Up *1/2
Beau Is Afraid *
They Cloned Tyrone *
Bottoms *
Five Nights at Freddy's *
Hypnotic *
Dark Harvest *
Dicks: The Musical *
Mother, Couch!*
All Fun and Games *
Malum *
Skinamarink *
The Tank 1/2*
Children of the Corn 1/2*

IN PROGRESS (8) - I started watching these but I never quite finished. Make of that what you will... but not always. Sometimes, it's just a matter of viewing circumstances.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (30 minutes)
Fingernails (45 minutes)
A Haunting in Venice (20 minutes)
Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (30 minutes)
Pacifiction (45 minutes)
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (45 minutes)
The Pigeon Tunnel (25 minutes)
Priscilla (35 minutes)

EMBARGOED (0) - Silence is golden... for now.

DON'T FORGET (5) - I first saw these 2023 movies a while back. This list is for me, so I don't forget them.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline ***
Sisu ***
Palm Trees and Powerlines ***
Sick ***
The Blackening **

OOPS, I MISSED (118): 97 Minutes, The Adults, Afire, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, American Symphony, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, Anselm, Aporia, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Artifice Girl, Assassin Club, The Baker, Birth/Rebirth, Black Ice, Book Club: The Next Chapter, The Boy and the Heron, Brother, Cassandro, Chevalier, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, La Chimera, Chupa, Comandante, Consecration, Corner Office, The Country Club, Coup de Chance, Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe, The Delinquents, Devil's Peak, Divinity, Earth Mama, Emily, The Engineer, The Eternal Memory, Exp4ndables, Fallen Leaves, Fancy Dance, Final Cut, Fool's Paradise, Four Daughters, Freelance, Freud's Last Session, Frybread Face and Me, Genie, Ghosted, Godland, God's Time, Golda, Good Burger 2, A Good Person, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Influencer, Insidious: The Red Door, Judy Blume Forever, Jules, The Kill Room, Kokomo City, Land of Gold, Last Stop Larrimah, The League, Leo, Linoleum, The Locksmith, Mafia Mamma, Marlowe, Maximum Truth, Medusa Deluxe, Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros, A Million Miles Away, Migration, The Mission, Monica, Monster, Moving On, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose, Nimona, The Nun II, Occupied City, Office Race, On a Wing and a Prayer, One Day as a Lion, The Origin of Evil, The Outwaters, Padre Pio, Perfect Days, Play Dead, The Pod Generation, Polite Society, Prisoner's Daughter, The Promised Land, Quasi, Rare Objects, Reggie, Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce, The Retirement Plan, Robot Dreams, Scrapper, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, She Came to Me, Sheroes, Spinning Gold, Spy Kids: Armageddon, The Starling Girl, Suitable Flesh, Surrounded, The Taste of Things, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Trolls Band Together, The Unknown Country, Unwelcome, Vacation Friends 2, What Happens Later, Who Done It: The Clue Documentary, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Wish, Zombie Town

COMING SOON (0):

The InSneider's Top 10 Movies and TV Shows of 2023

You know the drill. This Top 10 is my ever-evolving personal list of favorites in both film and television. I also included my Worst 10 films of the year, plus lists of my most anticipated movies and shows in 2023. Enjoy!

TheInSneider's Top 10 Movies of 2023...

1. SOCIETY OF THE SNOW - Just an incredibly director survival story that, sure, we've seen done before, but not nearly as viscerally as this. JA Bayona knocks it out of the park and makes sure we remember these names long after the credits roll. One of the best plane crash sequences ever put to film.

2. STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE - This is a truly beautiful love story about two people who have upheld the "in sickness and in health" part of their wedding vows. Another film that speaks to the triumph of the human spirit and the will to survive. At no point does MJF wants us to take pity upon him, or think of him as a victim whose job is to suffer. We see him on his bad days here, not just when the People magazine photographer is there to shoot a two-page spread.

3. NYAD - A movie for anyone who's ever been told they're too old. too washed up, too whatever to succeed. Nyad said she was going out on her own terms. She's a fighter who embodies the human spirit and the triumph of the will. In addition to accomplishing an extraordinary physical feat, the movie lends a window into the mental strength required by Diana Nyad. 

4. (tie) PAST LIVES and MEMORY Think about it, Past Lives is a movie about someone obsessed with their past, who sets out to change their future. Memory is a movie about living in the moment, for all we have is the present. We can't change the past, and the future will be what it will be. Can you live in the now, not knowing if there will ever be a later?

5. (tie) AIR and BLACKBERRY - Paired together for obvious reasons

6. AMERICAN FICTION - I thought long and hard about whether to go with The Holdovers or American Fiction here but I went with the latter scenario because I think it succeeds on multiple levels and generally had greater degree of difficulty. Both of them are the kind of gems that could push Oppenheimer for Best Picture. Jeffrey Wright is great in this film, but Serling K. Brown is even better, and it's great to see Erika Alexander in a substantial role like this again.

7. THE HOLDOVERS - Just a warm hug of a movie led by a terrific Paul Giamatti performance that deserves to win the Oscar for Best Actot. Da'Vine Joy Randolph is the film's secret weapon and she seems like a lock to win Best Supporting Actress come March. 

8. THE IRON CLAW - A devastating film about four brothers who didn't want to disappoint their father and paid dearly, featuring a transformative Zac Efron performance and a breakout turn from newcomer Stanley Simons. 

9. THEATER CAMP - This movie is so fucking perfect, it scares the shit out of me. It is so brilliantly observed. I went to an all-boys Jewish summer camp for 12 years, so it was a little bit different, but I also went to Tisch, and that was like where all the Theater Camps across America ultimately lead. I know these people and this movie captured their essence with humor and heart. Molly Gordon is a delight, and keep an eye on Ben Platt's boyfriend TK, who steals the show here in more ways than one.

10. GOD IS A BULLET - I know everyone has been talking about The Holdovers being a throwback to another era, but this movie was a true throwback to a time when chaos reigned. This is a movie that walks the fucking walk. Maika Monroe and Karl Glusman deliver two of the most convincing performances of the year, and writer-directors Nick Cassavetes is just a madman. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Honorable Mentions: Fair Play, Flora and Son, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Palm Trees and Power Lines, Reality, Reptile, Sisu, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, A Thousand and One

And now for The InSneider's Worst 10 Movies of 2023. Apologies in advance!

10. SCREAM VI

9. THE MARVELS

8. THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER

7. BEAU IS AFRAID

6. BOTTOMS

5. HYPNOTIC

4. DICKS: THE MUSICAL

3. MOTHER, COUCH!

2. SKINAMARINK

1. (tie) CHILDREN OF THE CORN and DARK HARVEST

Dishonorable Mention: Crappy Sequels - Besides the three listed above -- Scream, Captain Marvel, and The Exorcist -- who could forget Ant-Man 3, Murder Mystery 2, Meg 2: The Trench, Buddy Games: Spring Awakening, and especially John Wick: Chapter 4, which ran a jaw-dropping, ass-numbing 169 minutes. Note to John Wick -- you're not killing the Flower Moon, my guy. Move it along!

Don't forget the Top 10 Movies I Missed in 2023...

1. American Symphony
2. The Boy and the Heron
3. Afire
4. The Taste of Things
5. Perfect Days
6. Fallen Leaves
7. Godland
8. Birth/Rebirth
9. Monica
10. Nimona

And finally, my Top 24 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024. An asterisk indicates that this film also appeared on my Most Anticipated of 2023 list.

1. The Crow
2. The Order
3. Joker: Folie a Deux
4. Havoc*
5. Blitz
6. Furiosa
7. MaXXXine
8. Juror #2
9. The Substance
10. Rebel Ridge*
11. Trap a.k.a. Good Grades
12. A Quiet Place: Day One
13. Black Flies
14. Holland, Michigan
15. Longlegs
16. Rich Flu
17. The Actor
18. Carry-On
19. Freaky Tales
20. Mickey 17
21. Unfrosted
22. Greedy People
23. Gladiator 2
24. The Rule of Jenny Pen

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And now for the TELEVISION portion of this year-end list!

The InSneider's Top 25 TV Shows of 2023

1. Fargo S5 (Fx/Hulu)
2. Poker Face (Peacock)
3. Shrinking (Apple TV+)
4. Ted Lasso S4 (Apple TV+)
5. The Righteous Gemstones S3 (HBO)
6. Hijack (Apple TV+)
7. Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix)
8. Mayor of Kingstown S2 (Paramount+)
9. Reacher S2 (Prime Video)
10. The Idol (HBO)
11. Winning Time S2 (HBO)
12. Dave S3 
13. The Continental (Showtime)
14. Barry S4 (HBO)
15. (tie) SNL (NBC/Peacock) and Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs (Netflix)
16. South Park: Joining the Panderverse (Paramount+)
17. Surviving Barstool (FX on Hulu)
18. Hunters S2 (Showtime)
19. Special Ops: Lioness (Paramount+)
20. Black Mirror S6 (Netflix)
21. (tie) American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing and Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning (Netflix)
22. John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix)
23. You S4 (Netflix)

Honorable Mention: The Curse (Showtime) - I still haven't finished The Curse, but it sure is a weird show...

And now for The Top 15 TV Shows I Either Missed or Didn't Quite Finish in 2023...

1. Reservation Dogs S3 (FX on Hulu)
2. The Bear S2 (FX on Hulu)
3. Copenhagen Cowboy (Netflix)
4. The Curse (Showtime)
5. Gen V (Prime Video)
6. Beef (Netflix)
7. Love and Death (Max)
8. Bupkis (Peacock)
9. Full Circle (Max)
10. Only Murders in the Building S3 (Hulu)
11. Secret Invasion (Disney+)
12. Dead Ringers (Prime Video)
13. That '90s Show (Netflix)
14. Dr. Death S2 (Peacock)
15. Invincible S2 (Prime Video)

Top 10 Most Anticipated New Scripted TV Shows of 2024 - Honestly, I have no idea what shows are supposed to debut this year. I could barely name 10, let alone 24...

1. True Detective: Night Country (HBO)
2. Masters of the Air (Apple)
3. The Penguin (HBO Max)
4. The Sympathizer (HBO)
5. Alex Cross (Prime Video)
6. Disclaimer (Apple TV+)
7. Ripley (Showtime)
8. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Prime Video)
9. Fallout (Prime Video)
10. Straight Man (Peacock)

Top 10 Most Anticipated Returning TV Shows of 2024...

1. Curb Your Enthusiasm S12 (HBO)
2. Severance S2 (Apple TV+)
3. Hacks S3 (Max)
4. The Boys S4 (Prime Video)
5. Dave S4 (FX)
6. Always Sunny S17 (FX)
7. The Righteous Gemstones S4 (HBO)
8. Black Mirror S7 (Netflix)
9. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit S25 (NBC)
10. Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)