I watched a lot of movies in 2023. The most movies I have ever watched in fact.
As of this writing — with just under a week to go in the year — my Letterboxd log tells me I have watched 184 movies since Jan. 1. One every other day on average. That means 2023 was the year I made movie-watching something more than a pastime: It’s my hobby. Maybe even my personality.
How did I do it? Commitment.
I’m a fan of my local arthouse theater, Liberty Hall. There’s been some talk about the “death of cinema” in recent years, and I decided at the outset that if we were going to lose our big screens it damn well wasn’t going to be my fault. I was there just about every week. Liberty Hall helped my cause by starting up a series that brought in a bunch of classic movies — everything from “Serpico” to “Dr. Strangelove” to “The Thing” and “E.T.” — that offered a chance to see old favorites on the big screen once again. But I also saw more new movies in the cinema than I had seen in quite some time.
By my quick and rough calculations, I saw 42 movies at Liberty Hall this year, including a couple of screenings by outside groups. And I saw probably another 10 movies on big screens elsewhere.
Committed.
That still leaves 130 movies or so seen on the small screen. And that’s where my 15-year-old son comes into play. This is the year that he really embraced action, sci-fi and horror — and asked me to introduce him to some mostly older movies that he hadn’t ever seen but read about. A lot of which I originally saw… when I was right about his age.
So. Every Friday night it’s a new movie for us. We get a pizza and watch something. “Predator.” “Robocop.” “Face/Off.” “Prometheus.” And so on. You get the idea. It’s been a delightful journey. He’s into his own things that I just can’t get interested in — video games, Minecraft — but this is one time a week when we can share an experience we both enjoy.
After that, the bulk of my at-home viewings came from two sources: I have a standing subscription at Liberty Hall that allows me to check out two DVDs at a time. (Physical media is where it’s at, baby.) And for streaming, I’m a lover of the Criterion Channel. It’s great.
Some highlights:
Best new movie I saw in 2023. I didn’t see everything new, I’m not a movie critic. But I find myself, months later, thinking about “Killers of the Flower Moon” again and again. It’s not a perfect film — it could’ve used an intermission, and there’s the persistent question of who gets to tell these kinds of stories — but it’s one that provokes the most thought. The last seen between the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lilly Gladstone sticks with me most: She wants him to confess what he’s done — even hinting they can move forward together if he can admit that he nearly killed her. And he can’t. He can’t face it, can’t admit it. The relationship is sundered. And all of a sudden last week, I realized that scene isn’t about them. It’s about us. Duh.
Best new-to-me movie I saw in 2023: After William Friedkin died, I finally got around to watching “Sorcerer,” his little-seen 1977 about a group of criminals driving dynamite through the jungle to put out an oil fire. It’s a quiet movie that managed to stress me out. It’s a masterpiece and you should see it. I loved it so much, I went and watched the movie that inspired it: “The Wages of Fear.” Folks, that was excellent too. I’ll be adding those to my DVD library in the near future.
Best blockbuster I saw in 2023: Like a lot of Americans, apparently, I’m done with superheroes and tired old franchises. Two exceptions: “Godzilla Minus One” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” The latter movie was amazing for its sheer spectacle. The first, though, might be a movie I watch again — not just because my son is a kaiju fan, but because it tells a human story: It’s not all about the monsters. If the ending is a bit cheesy, well, it’s worth it for everything that comes before.
Best small-stakes movies I saw in 2023: It’s a tie between “Past Lives” and “You Hurt My Feelings.” About relationships, thwarted ambitions, and the kinds of problems most of us face. They were funny and lovely and satisfying.
Funniest movie I saw in 2023: “Bottoms.” Am I (a middle-aged man) the target audience for a raunchy tale about “gay teens who set up a fight club in order to win the affections of their school cheerleaders?” Almost certainly not. I still laughed out loud.
Best experience: “Stop Making Sense.” My son danced in his chair. In public.
2023 movies I really liked (Includes 2022 movies that were still in theater when I saw them)
Godzilla Minus One
The Holdovers
Anatomy of a Fall
The Royal Hotel
Killers of the Flower Moon
Bottoms
Past Lives
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
You Hurt My Feelings
Blackberry
The Quiet Girl
EO
Corsage
New-to-me movies I really liked
Meet John Doe
Serpico
Remember the Night
The Innocents
The Wages of Fear
Enough Said
Stop Making Sense
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Prey
Sorcerer
Cluny Brown
To Be or Not to Be
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Hello, Bookstore
The Post
How Green Was My Valley
Memoria
I can’t possibly watch this many movies again in 2024. But 2023 was a fun journey for me.
Your Friday movie nights with your son sound wonderful! I can't compete with your totals, but I watched a fair number of movies myself. Feel free to peruse my top 10 watched films here: https://inmedias.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-10-best-movies-i-watched-in-2023.html
Lots here I don't know much about! Bookmarking some for myself in 2024. Curious about how you kept track of what you watched and your impressions at the time.