For a while I didn’t want to make this video a top 10 films of the year list is far from an original concept and I didn’t know what I could add to the conversation about one of the best film years in recent memory but that’s when my reason came this is undoubtedly one
Of the best film years in recent memory I’m talking about 10 movies today but there were many more that left me excited and thrilled after watching them the films this year were Electric reinvigorating reminding me of why I love movies and what they can be capable
Of I’ll spare you the Preamble you know what we’re doing here 10 movies ranked from temp first I love them all though there will be no spoilers so you’re in safe hands but let me show my cards a bit and explain that I haven’t seen every film of the year of course not
Knowing my sensibilities I’ve come up with a list of 10 more films that might have made this list had I simply gotten around to watching them but but beyond those I did watch most major releases of the year and I feel incredibly happy with the list we’ve got so let’s start
With sad news I will not be doing piercings anymore in the Hut because there’s an arc amongst us um Cassie has nked totally fine Theater Camp is probably the deepest cut in my entire top 10 and I’ll admit it’s a film I didn’t even plan to see I had heard
About it in passing but I didn’t really have any interest however one of my friendss really wanted to see it and I reluctantly tagged long and I’m very glad I did I’ve mentioned in past videos that in my opinion the peak of Comedy is the mockumentary it’s the only format
That balances subtle jokes with the absurdity of life itself mockumentaries are often exaggerated sure but they’re based on real life Theater Camp is no exception it follows a group of children at their annual summer Theater Camp and the problems that arise when their longtime director falls into a coma the
Budget is clearly low but that’s arguably theater Camp’s big strength it’s abundantly clear that every child actor in this film is the exact kid they’re portraying and it turns a fictional film into something that feels entirely real the adult actors are fun too with many of them being well-known
Broadway figures or character actors you can tell they’re all all having a good time and for some of them their lines probably hit a little close to home theater Camp is more than just a comedy but its heartfelt moments don’t do much for me I’m glad they exist but this
Works best when it parodies a life I’m familiar with when it goes further and tries to pull heartstrings or cause Applause it lost me it didn’t lose my theater though I saw this at an AMC upon its initial limited release and my theater was full genuinely full to the
Point where me and my friends were sitting right at the front of the Full House and Theater Camp found its audience for sure because our group of viewers was crying and clapping and cheering when Nicole Kidman’s ads started playing people gave a standing ovation one guy even stood up and
Recited the entire monologue word by word while saluting Kidman make of that what you will I mean I think Theater Camp is almost too Niche I was in theater as a kid but these jokes really get into the weak needs at times and went over my head still when jokes land
They really land and these are nitpicks for an ultimately surprisingly fun time unless you can really relate to the material this won’t blow you out of the water but I really enjoyed it more than I expected to and I’m glad I was reluctantly dragged to see It I’m somewhat conflicted on poor things let’s start with the good no great poor things is a visual treat I am convinced yoro Lanos is on an entirely different plane when it comes to staging and shooting a scene he isn’t even better at it per se but he’s certainly
Going about film making in an entirely different way than everyone else poor things is also extremely well acted with Emma Stone again proving she is one of our best working actresses and William defo and Mark Ruffalo certainly do their best to keep up this film makes my top
10 solely on its imagery and inventiveness en courag To Boldly do whatever it wants Lanos seems so unaware of the larger film movements that it’s funny he continues to make movies that feel neither modern nor ancient his movies are just his and that’s all there
Is to it the score the editing the sound mixing all great here’s my issue with poor things it all just feels a tad misguided this is a somewhat unique take on the story of Frankenstein’s monster portrayed by an entirely out there Emma Stone her motivation to find love is
Certainly realistic but the whole movie just feels a bit gross poor things is funny and it is cool and it tries to say something meaningful about being a woman in a male-dominated world but it just feels a bit off Bas at times I guess I think Stone could have played
Her role with a bit more nuance and that writer Tony mcnam could have written a bit more for her to do Beyond those faults though I still had a really good time with poor things and I’d certainly watch it again I mean defo facial Prosthetics alone are just infinitely
Cooler than like 90% of anything most films do and poor things is literally 130 minutes of smart people doing fun things on camera when poor things works it’s my movie of the year but there are about five or six scenes that don’t work and it’s enough to push the film to the
Lower half of my best of list hey Felix is everything okay yes why you seem annoyed about something it seems like every few months there’s a film that’s labeled as shocking or wild and you’ve got to see it for yourself because it’s that crazy I mean this is
Pretty clearly a marketing tactic but I will say that I’ve really grown to dislike films that are crazy for the sake of being crazy saltburn was labeled as such and so I went into it with fairly tempered expectations now that I’ve seen it I’ll be the first to admit
That this film is not all that wild sure it maybe goes a little further than we’re used to but it’s honestly a pretty straightforward narrative about a guy who becomes enamored with what and who the saltburn estate has to offer it’s told conventionally it even holds itself
Back at times Emerald finel directs and writes the film and while I still prefer her debut promising young woman she’s proving that she’s a pretty promising young filmmaker herself I watch anything she does going forward salurn is among the most confident films of the year every decision finel makes might
Convince you she’s been around the block for years and that confidence results in a film that is so sure of its decisions that you can’t help but smile even if you consider them the wrong ones saltburn is a film about lust and greed and opulence and it shares all of its
Themes and ways that seem designed to get you to talk this is a film you’ve got to have an opinion on and I loved it what I want from a movie is to feel something if I watch a comedy make me laugh if I watch horror I want to be
Scared I squirm Med during salurn pretty much every 10 minutes and it’s because every scene twists and turns like a snake that always stays on target this is not absurd or Wild for the sake of it it’s a well-crafted statement on Greed that got exactly what it wanted from me
It’s not a film I can really review without spoiling which I’m committed to not doing but I will say that saltburn is another Unforgettable movie in a year full of them and its music sets performance perces and scenes will leave you feeling something you’re either
Going to love or hate this and I hope that’s enticing enough to convince you to find out for yourself that’s how you are I don’t know what you said but must have been Indian for handsome devil as soon as I first heard that Martin soresi was going to be making his
Version of a western starring Leo and dairo and Jesse plens and based on the novel killers of the flower Moon I was incredibly excited so excited in fact that I read killers of the flower Moon that was late 2020 and 3 years later the book still impacts me it’s a great story
Expertly researched by David Gran and a fitting tribute to such a tragic story Gran’s book follows Tom white an investigator sent to oage County to investigate a string of murders it’s written as a murder mystery of s s with the readers being completely in the dark
As to who is killing the oage overall it’s a great book and I think it is better than sori’s film sori’s film changes the perspective of the story instead following Ernest Burkhart who is played pretty brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio in his best performance since the Wolf of Wall Street probably the
Genre shifts too it’s no longer a mystery and the audience is Led in on who is killing the O AG almost immediately unfortunately I don’t think any changes done here really helped the film they certainly beef up DiCaprio’s role he was almost a minor character in the book but
Every benefit done for DiCaprio here is done at the expense of others Molly ernest’s wife sees her role greatly diminished and plens is almost a glorified Cameo it’s a shame that such a rich story went through so many changes but killers of the flower moon is still an exhilarating film for starters
Despite being told through a white lens this is probably the most care that a Hollywood film has ever shown Native American tribes apparently the entire oage Community contributed to this film from language coordinators to designing the sets and costumes this is a period piece of 1920s America and I think it is
Among the most accurate the period has ever been represented killers of the flower Moon absorbs you once you settle in and start to hear the drums of the O people as they dance through an oil shower you’re in at least I was despite knowing exactly what would happen next
At every turn I was transfixed and every aspect of the film seemed to work in harmony to produce a truly moving poignant Love Letter to one of the great tragedies of American history and there’s still so much story Left To Tell the film is a long three and a half
Hours and it really feels it at times especially in the back half I don’t wish killer the flower moon was shorter but I would love to see this in the mini series format it so clearly was meant to be told in still there’s so much to appreciate here Lily Gladstone
Disappears into the role of Molly and I wish we got more of her again my biggest fault here is that there is just too much of DiCaprio I’ve never been a huge DiCaprio fan and I think his ego can often be the undoing of some of his
Works killers of the flower Moon still really works in large part due to scorsi and Gladstone and production designer Jack Fisk and composer Robie Robertson but I just feel this could have been even better still it’s clearly one of my favorite films of the year and I’ll be
Rooting for it come Oscar season we’ve never seen such a nuanced love letter to the oage people and in a year full of unique perspectives this is one of the richest now Feel the year’s highest grossing film is also one of my favorites something that is usually never the case typically for a film to make as much money as Barbie did it’s got to appeal to an extremely wide net of people it likely goes Broad in its Strokes which doesn’t do much for
Me when I’m looking for a film that deeply connects with me however Barbie is just so much fun I’ve talked a bit already about theatrical experiences and how 2023 was full of great ones and Barbie was no exception theaters all over the world put life-sized Barbie boxes in lobbies allowing people to get
Photos while dressed in pink and the pink I mean in my lifetime I can’t remember a film where everyone just collectively agreed they were going to wear a specific color and go all out with it a movie theater is by design an isolating Place ideally you’re not paying attention to the people around
You when you watch what you bought tickets for but Barbie was an experience more than just a movie and it’s the first true event of a film since the start of the pandemic I had forgotten how much I missed that collective experience it also doesn’t hurt that
Barbie is genuinely a very good film the music is so catchy I mean there are three songs from Barbie alone that are in discussions for an Oscar in the vernacular from the movie has already enter into the sets and costumes were fully realized with a distinct visual style that was absolutely nailed the
Performances especially by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were incredibly solid and while I don’t think either was truly worthy of an Oscar’s win both actors put their all into this film everyone did this is one of those movies where you can tell the people working on it knew
They were working on something special nobody is phoning it in the message of how hard it is to be a woman is definitely a very important one I still consider Little Women my favorite of gret gerwig’s works and I think Little Women has the same message of how it is
To be a woman but I think that that work says it much more effectively with more nuance and deeper understanding but gerwick herself has explained why Barbie’s message is so heavy-handed claiming she wanted to leave absolutely no room for potential misinterpretation it’s a fine reasoning and Barbie’s message is certainly
Admirable I do think though that the movie sacrifices Nuance repeatedly to avoid miscommunication every film in my top 10 is nuanced with Barbie is the sole exception and while I don’t hold it against Gerwig or her writing and life partner Noah bomach it does hurt the film slightly in my estimation Barbie is
A movie for the masses and it’s super inspiring to see such a visually inventive and creative and unique film appealed to such a wide subsection of the world there’s not a ton I could take from watching Barbie over and over again but ultimately that’s fine this is a
Really fun fun movie and sometimes that’s all that something needs to Be I will always bet on hayom Miyazaki in high school my brother and I did a watch through of this at the time complete box set of every one of his films and it still remains one of my favorite movie marathons I’ve ever done since then I’ve seen most of those films
A second third fourth fourth or even 10th time in the case of Pono or my neighbor todoro if I were to plot every Miyazaki movie on a bar graph with fantasy as the x-axis and Adventure on the y- axis I can pretty clearly determine that most of my favorite
Miyazaki are medium fantasy low Adventure the boy and the Heron is closer on the graph to the high fantasy high adventure films which is a pretty great thing clearly as I’ve got it this high for the year but I won’t lie and say that I wanted a bit less fantasy and
A bit less Adventure by the time the third act rolls around and most of the plot points reach their discordant climax I was more interested in the score than what was happening on stream and of course let’s talk about the score I love miyazaki’s themes of Nature and
Adolescence my favorite through line of all of his work is his longtime collaborator Joe hasashi hashi’s score here is maybe his best ever and I really don’t say that lightly I can’t include too much of it at the risk of copyright infringement but it is a beautiful mix
Of his signature piano and sweeping strings it’s a score fit for miyazaki’s final Masterpiece and I’m so glad I was able to see it on the big screen more than the sum of its parts the boy and the Heron is a poignant farewell from the greatest director to ever work in
Animation in 2013 Miyazaki retired With The Wind Rises a deep personal tribute to airplanes and Aviation another defining theme for Miyazaki but with the boy and the Heron Miyazaki gives us a perhaps self-indulgent tribute to Art and mentorship and arguably a tribute to himself it’s rare that we can see such
Personal stories told with such care and reverence and while I’d argue Miyazaki may have lost the plot more than a few times you’ve got to forgive large leaps if it means we land on specific steps the creativity is there the animation come on the animation is there this is
Not an aging filmmaker appeasing the masses with one last runaround this is a master of film making painting the screen with a work that fits amongst his filmography like a glove the biggest compliment I can give to the boy in the Heron is that it feels like it has
Always existed my box set was just somehow missing it but it has finally been uncovered and it’s a film I hope to never forget it now I am become death the destroyer of worlds I suppose we all thought that one way or another Oppenheimer is a film
That I’ve gone back and forth on a lot since seeing it in July and ultimately a top five spot seems about right to start with a few minor critiques I still don’t think Christopher Nolan understands women or rather he’s just not that interested in them Emily blunts caffine
Is maybe the strongest female character in any of his works and even she is continuously shafted to make room for more of oppenheimer’s internal struggles people have been calling Christopher Nolan out about this issue for years but I find it particularly more egregious in the context of barbin Heimer if you
Watch Barbie first and see how that film treats women and then go to Oppenheimer the difference is striking one offre repeated stat is that it takes 20 minutes for a woman to get a single line and then 1 minute later she’s having sex with our lead that is an egregious
Oversight and it’s worth calling out but I still have Oppenheimer as a top five film of the Year why it’s a really good movie like killers of the flower Moon its pacing could use a bit of work seriously these editors need to be a bit more ruthless and trimming and chopping
But beyond that I find it to be an almost perfect movie it’s insanely gripping especially in theaters Nolan’s films have always excelled in that aspect aspect and while I’ll always prefer story and script over sound mixing and editing Oppenheimer is pretty much a master class in the ladder the
Performances are also being rightly laed as career best for pretty much every actor though Florence Pew’s career best will always be Little Women and she totally should have got the Oscar for that but it feels redundant to praise Oppenheimer for the same things every critic with a Twitter account has been
Saying for months one of the reasons the top films of the year list is so exciting is due in part to the fact that films can often go much beyond their Silver Screen borders I didn’t just see Oppenheimer in a theater in July I saw Oppenheimer in Memes I saw Oppenheimer on t-shirts and I saw its dual release date with Barbie take the World by storm in one of the most fun months of movie goinging I have ever lived through my favorite part of Oppenheimer has nothing to do with its test sequence or final lines I love how
Unpredictable it’s success was I’ve been known to bemoan the death of movies for a few years now and while that is certainly a tad dramatic it should not be forgotten how genuinely impressive oppenheimer’s success is this film is a three-hour biopic on Jay Robert Oppenheimer in
2023 and that film made nearly a billion dollars for all of the talk about movie theaters dying Oppenheimer and the barbin Heimer phenomenon should be C celebrated films from extremely competent filmmakers performing at Heights that are completely unexpected one thing that we do on this channel a lot is examine Oscar
Ceremonies I’ve always felt that more than an indicator of the year’s best films the Oscars is an indicator of that year through films it’s a pretty important distinction and while I don’t think Oppenheimer would be my best picture if it does end up winning the top prize at this year’s ceremony I
Think it’s the perfect best picture for 2023 it reminds us that people will see good movies and that name recognition alone is not enough as someone who loves movies it makes me so genuinely excited to see Christopher Nolan course correct so hard from tenet and come back with
One of the best films of the year more than a great movie Oppenheimer is a look at the past and a promise of the future and I’m so glad that it exists oh Presto Cherry’s Jubilee o shouldn’t it just go out when I first saw the trailer for The
Holdovers it didn’t do much for me I thought it seemed a bit disjointed and a bit too in love with the 1970s style over substance I guessed but 2023 has been the year of film surprises and the holdovers was one of my biggest the writing in this film is superb this is
Writer David Hon’s first screenplay to be turned into a feature and one look at his IMDb shows a long labored career of writing subpar television and assumingly waiting for his big break I am so happy for him that his script became a reality and that it was made with so much care
And attention to detail what I called a love letter to the 70s could be more aptly described as an actual real life 1970s film because you cannot tell that this was made in 2023 it is shot in great film with low natural lighting its pacing is slower too enveloping you in
The world of this New England prep school with the intensity of a warm gentle hug the holdovers follows the students and staff of Barton Academy a fictional Academy at the cusp of winter break most students go home for the holidays but there are a select few the
Holdovers that have nowhere to go Paul Giamatti plays an English Professor with the unfortunate task of watching this group of kids and it’s in part because he has nowhere to go either but The Breakfast Club this is not it’s tough to explain the appeal of the holdovers
Without describing it as gentle which is such an odd adjective to describe a film like I said it’s a warm hug of a film there is conflict of course but it’s quiet conflict one of our key characters is divine Joy Randolph’s Mary lamb the school’s head cook that is silently
Mourning the loss of her young son in the Vietnam War at one moment her grief reaches its Breaking Point a lesser film would show this moment in a shouting match with God where lamb curses the world crying and giving the most performance instead of the best one not
The holdovers Mary’s grief is quiet lonely devastating that’s what the holdovers is full of every time the plot advances forward we pull back the camera watches from a safe distance and you feel as though You’ stepped into a scene that you weren’t supposed to see it is so
Rare to see a film like the holdovers because a film like this needs such a mature cast and crew the humor feels earned the twists unexpected characters are sweet when they feel like being sweet and snippy when they’re feeling snippy nobody is one note here and it’s
Such a refreshing look at people that for all intents and purposes we should be pitying but if you pity these characters you’re missing the point this is a movie about togetherness in the inherent good in everyone in 2023 it’s needed if you pass on the holdovers I
Strongly urge you to check it out it’s one of the best films of the year or at the very least one of the kindest you know you only speak in Korean when you talk in your sleep dreaming a language that I can’t Understand it’s like there’s this whole place inside of you where I can’t go it seems like every year there’s a film that makes it through the Festival circuit right at the beginning of the year and then said film is still in discussions come Oscar season past lives was this year’s version of that
Phenomenon meaning that I had known about it for about N9 months before I was finally able to see it earlier this month these nine months have been filled with people raving about how good no great no uh Monumental past lives is and so I was worried that it might not hold
Up to these impossible expectations I can confidently and gladly say that my fears were unfounded past lives is the feature film debut of Seline song and what a confident and Powerful debut it is the film follows Nora a Korean immigrant living in New York City when she receives word that
Her best friend and First Love from childhood High s will be visiting for a few days on vacation it is an incredibly simple Le concept but one that is full of devastating realizations about timing and fate and beliefs there is so much to love here the film opens on a scene of
Nora High song and a third character in a bar across the room two bar patrons play a game where they try to discern the story of these three strangers they make several guesses and we are as in the dark as they are as to which is
Correct and then song starts to fill in the pieces is this type of opening that makes you want to sit down and write a screenplay yourself because Selene song clearly knows what she’s doing and you’ve got some catching up to do more confident creative deep Wells of scenes
Soon follow there’s one great meta sequence halfway through that calls out both the audience’s expectations as well as throws into question what type of film this is past lives is Loosely based on the real life of song a fact so devastating that I immediately respect her more for sharing such a personal
Story to Millions to talk about past lives without spoiling it is difficult but I can say with confidence that this is a film you need to see beyond the technical Artistry and strong performances and yada yada yada past lives says something completely unique about soulmates and Destiny that I have
Never seen a film say but that feels so true it’s funny I watched this film with my girlfriend and we didn’t cry during it it is sad sure but no tears fell when the credits rolled though we began to talk about what we just watched and it
Suddenly became all the more sad despite being an incredibly straightforward 100-minute film past lives is an onion of trauma with each layer like an onion bringing More Tears it only took about 5 minutes of discussing the film for tears to fall it’s so rare that a film can
Elicit such a visceral reaction from me one sequence right at the end involving an Uber almost made me want to pause the player turn the movie off and write my own ending I wrote in my letter box review that past lives had a few decisions I probably would have written differently
But I realize they’re probably the wrong ones this is a film about our existence and that can often be a really messy place it doesn’t matter if you can relate to Nora in any way past lives is universal and you need to give it a shot huh tried to protect us with
Wrestling he said if we were the toughest the strongest nothing could ever hurt us I believed him we all did and we end this with the most numbing film of the year the iron claw is based on the true story of the Von Erics a multi-generational wrestling family that
Saw their chances at Fame sabotaged by tragedy I’ve never been a wrestling guy and so their names did nothing for me but I’ve always loved wrestling in film Beyond the put upon Glamour and showy performances wrestling is one of the most intimate Sports out there and it translates brilliantly to a more
Grounded film medium this movie is phenomenal in all aspects but the wrestling sequences are as well shot as anything I’ve seen bodies fly past the camera in and out of focus as we Linger on sweat dripping and fist Landing unlike the holdovers which pulls back the ironclaw Zooms in daring us to look
Away from a sport we can’t possibly comprehend but we don’t I must have audibly OED several times during the wrestling sequences wincing at low blows and earned victories but I couldn’t look away pulling us in is what the ironclaw excels at due in no small part to some absurd performances from an ensemble
Cast I knew Jeremy Allen White was a good actor but come on Hope malleny is brilliant as Fritz Von Eric the domineering father figure that you will hate come closing credits he is so icy and calculated in this role Mora tyy was also really good she’s not getting much
Attention online but she played Fritz’s wife Doris with a forced restraint that is really difficult to nail she is so pained in every scene and you can’t help but hate her for entirely different reasons than Fritz and Sack Efron I didn’t think Efron was ever a bad actor
But I didn’t know he was this good this is a star making performance if I’ve ever seen one and I hope he lands roll after roll moving forward the ironclaw really Nails its ideas of masculinity and how dangerous masculinity can be a strong script and Direction helps that
But the real kicker here that makes this entire film work is that our Leading Men are so shockingly tender the iron claw follows four vonic brothers and their interactions are often highlighted by shows of affection kindness kisses and hugs and Helping Hands these men are the exact opposite of what their bodies
Indicate and director sha Durkin spends time visually to highlight this distinction we spend just as much time on sweat dripping as we do tear shedding just as much on cursing and anger as we do words of love and affirmation you just don’t see this type of relationship
In film if you’re noticing any sorts of Trends in what types of film I love it’s ones that are full of emotion and power but more unique in how they choose to share this emotion I love films about family about love films that are wellsh shot and well written and the iron claw
Has all of this I saw a great review on letterbox by user Kinsey vunu describing the iron claw as Little Women for boys and I think that’s actually a perfect encapsulation if the iron claw was simp simply a movie about passion and how wrestlers abuse their bodies to reach
Top prizes it would still be effective sure but in between these moments of blood and taunting and losses and wins we see the Von Erics dance at weddings sneak out to a frat Party play football in their backyard that’s what makes this movie work more than any other film this
Year I care deeply about Devon Erics and wanted desperately for only the best for them every character is given at least two or three scenes that are entirely their own the von Eric tapestry is woven in just over two hours and by the end of the film my theater was collectively
Breathless I want to end this video by saying that this year was full of moments like that moments that left me breathless and laughing and crying and smiling and scared 2023 has been my favorite year for movies since 2019 and it’s been such a treat to cover so many
My favorites today the range of voices in my top 10 is maybe the most diverse it has ever been and that’s super exciting we’ve got films from five different countries 11 different directors stories that are completely different and more importantly original I know with 20124 on the horizon and the
After effects of a strike still largely unseen we might be looking at a slight dip next year but if the movies are right I’ll come back with another top 10 then we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of this channel and while we’re still learning exactly what people
Want to see it’s pretty cool that I can share my love of movies to people who actually want to listen if you’re subscribed I really appreciate it and if you’re not subscribed get on it I’m just kidding obviously but seriously thank you for watching and joining our growing
Community we’ve got tons of videos of all different sizes in the works expect more Oscars videos more classic film videos more disturbing films and let us know what you want more of there are millions of stories that deserve to be told and I love being able to help tell
Them thanks for watching and until the next time I’ll see you at the movies
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