In 2023, I watched 12 new films in the cinema.
I was on track for more, but then I broke my leg. A determination to watch Napoleon was on of the things that helped get me out of the house.
The very best film I saw last year was Blue, which I saw with R as part of the Horrorshow exhibition (https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/the-horror-show) [fuller review of the show eventually].
If we agree that art is trying to convey experience through a medium, Blue is exceptional. It's undoubtedly one of the greatest works of art I've seen in any medium.
The chance to see things like that, so utterly better than any of this year's films (most year's films), is why I have a separate category for films not released in that year.
I was also lucky enough to see Dr. Strangelove and Grand Budapest Hotel at the Electric Cinema (https://www.electricbirmingham.com/)
For films released this year, I am applying my usual 4 criteria:
a – did the film do what it set out to do?
b – did it use its resources to its best ability? A £250,000 film is not going to have as good explosions as a £25,000,000 film, or it shouldn’t, and if it does, there’s something wrong with the £25,000,000 film. Basically, it's a technical merit score.
c – Intellectual satisfaction – does the film’s plot pull some really stupid move at the last moment? Does the plot rely on characters being more stupid than they are?
d – Does this work as a whole? Did it work for me? I am aware that this is the most subjective of subjective criteria!
1 - Polite Society
This gets both style and ridiculousness points, and extra bonus points for Eunice Huthart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Huthart) [every girl my age wanted to be Eunice Huthart when we grew up] and introducing me to Nimra Bucha.
It also get a bonus for not being based on a pre-existing media property.
2 - Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning
If you'd told me that Mission Impossible 7 would be one of the freshest films I'd see all year I would have laughed at you. It is still a series of action set pieces barely held together with a plot and the lead villain is miscast, and everything I loved about Elsa Faust's fight choreography in Fallout (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2019/04/06/mission-impossible-fallout-is-solid-but-the-fight-scenes-are-exceptional/) this one got wrong.
On the other hand, Vanessa Kirby, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cserny and Shea Whigham's Briggs. I am so easily pleased.
3 - Across the Spiderverse
It's not Across the Spiderverse's fault it's not as good as Into the Spiderverse. Unfortunately, some of it did feel like filler when they realised that they'd made one and a half films and they needed to turn it into two.
I also really don't like cliffhangers.
4 - Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Was it "a bit much"? Yes. Does James Gunn need someone to shout "no" at him? Yes.
On the other hand, did I go in knowing that? Yes. Did various bits of it, not least of all Teefs, break me in the way James Gunn always breaks me? Yes.
It was horrific, in a way this sort of film often isn't, but probably should be. It also had the best explanation of why I skew Marvel rather than DC - "everyone deserves a second chance."
5 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Could I have done without the romance? Yes. Other than that, it was pleasing Turtle-y nonsense.
6 - Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania
To return to the cake metaphor I first used for the first of the Fantastic 4 films, bad superhero films are like bad cake. Yeah, it's bad, but it's still cake.
And this was only mediocre cake, not actively bad cake. I didn't like what they did with MODOK, and it was too obviously setting up Wave 4 rather than being its own film (see also my problems with Stephen Strange 1 and 2) and there wasn't enough of team minor criminal, but it was bland not bad.
7 - Indiana Jones 5
I know what they were trying to do, it just didn't work for me. Sallah steals the film entirely.
8 - Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves
I am the problem with this one.
My first exposure to D&D was Neverwinter Nights so I totally squeaked when they moved around Neverwinter, and when I play that I almost always play a lady barbarian so Holga, entirely my speed, ditto Doric.
On the other hand, it was just too ironical for my tastes. I find irony fine seasoning but a poor main course.
9 - John Wick 4
The problems with John Wick 4 were accidentally caused by John Wick 3. That was a series of excellent set pieces barely held together by some excellent acting. In this one, the thread holding the action set pieces didn't work, because John spent 3 desperately trying to find the Elder, only for spoiler to happen at the start of this.
Okay, given spoiler, ragnarok is coming for the High Table. I could get behind that.
Only then they don't do that either.
The plot made no sense!!!
10 - Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan/Three Musketeers: Milady
If this ranking was just based on the acting, the set design and the lighting, these films would be in second.
The directing would have moved them down anyway (directors, we have steady cam, use it).
And then we hit the screenplay. May the good Lord grant me the self-confidence of someone who adapts one of the most popular books in the world, one which has been consistently popular since its release, and then changes every single bit of the plot.
By the end of the second film, it wasn't even suggested by Dumas anymore.
Also, given they changed everything, one of the revelations in part 2 means someone's actions in part 1 make no sense, and it's just urgh!
I can happily recommend everything down to 3, would say 4-8 depend on people's likes and dislikes, and several of them have been moved around in this ranking every time I sat down to update it, while 9 and 10 had serious flaws.
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