The Year 2023 in Movies

Continuing with the final part of our year in review, Matt Lynn Digital invites you to look back at the last year in reviews of books, movies, music and television. We look at these with individual categories, one per day through today. Today we share the forty-seven (47) movies from nine (9) decades reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital in 2023.

(The 1972 movie The Godfather).

The top rated movie we watched in 2023 was The Godfather (1972). Earning 4.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5, the film presented solid exposition of the power dynamics and traditions for the family as established by the family patriarch Vito, along with the command-and-control structure of the working the business.

(The 2023 movie Oppenheimer).

Four movies earned 4.5-stars in 2023, including the movie Oppenheimer (2023). The movie detailed the role American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer had in the development of the atomic bomb. The further movie Gone Girl (2014) was joined by There Will Be Blood (2007) and the movie Mystic River (2003).

(The 2023 movie Killers of the Flower Moon).

The movie Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) leads a dozen movies that earned 4.25-stars from Matt Lynn Digital. The ongoing murders of members of an affluent Native American tribe for profitable mineral rights, under the guise of marriage and love, made for a somber yet at times poignant movie. Other films to earn 4.25 stars included the movie The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), the biopic King Richard (2021), the biopic The Aviator (2004), the animated movie The Incredibles (2004), the pandemic-fueled horror movie 28 Days Later (2002), the alcoholism-fueled movie Leaving Las Vegas (1995), the coming-of-age movie The Breakfast Club (1985), the supernatural comedy Ghostbusters (1984), the political history movie Reds (1981), the independently released Friday the 13th (1980) and, finally, the movie Apocalypse Now (1979).

(The 2022 movie Death on the Nile).

The mastermind detective movie Death on the Nile (2022) leads a group of nine (9) movies to earn 4.0-stars from Matt Lynn Digital in 2023. Other quality movies in this group include the movie The Hateful Eight (2015), the biopic Walk the Line (2005), the historical drama Gladiator (2000), the movie The Big Lebowski (1998), the psychological horror movie The Silence of the Lambs (1991), the comedy Home Alone (1990), the science fiction movie Planet of the Apes (1968) and, finally, the film noir movie The Maltese Falcon (1941).

(The 2019 movie El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie).

Eighteen (18) movies earned the 3.75-stars rating for 2023, led by El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). That coda to the Breaking Bad (2008-2013) television series spells out what happened with character Jesse Pinkman. Other movies earning 3.75 stars include the science fiction movie Alien: Covenant (2017), the animated movie The Secret Life of Pets (2016), the animated movie Inside Out (2015), the live-action animated movie Paddington (2014), the movie Chef (2014), the supernatural horror movie Oculus (2013), the biopic The Express (2008), the comedic movie Clerks II (2006), the science fiction blockbuster War of the Worlds (2005), the comedy Freaky Friday (2003), the movie Frequency (2000), the science fiction movie The Fifth Element (1997), the crime drama Absolute Power (1997), the family movie Hocus Pocus (1993), the neo-noir movie Blow Out (1981), the dystopian crime movie A Clockwork Orange (1971) and, finally, the animated movie Cinderella (1950).

(The 2021 movie Cry Macho).

A pair of movies led by the western movie Cry Macho (2021) earned 3.5-stars from Matt Lynn Digital. The other is the fantasy comedy Jack Frost (1998).

(The 2023 movie Nefarious).

Alleged demonic possession was in play for the movie Nefarious (2023), which at 3.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 completes our reviewed movies for the year. Having felt manipulated by this film to make a political point, our feeling was that we could have enjoyed this movie more if the presentation had taken a different approach.

Matt Lynn Digital appreciates your continued interest in the content we offer. Should you have albums that you’d like us to review, or similar work to that mentioned above, please be sure to let us know.

Matt – Sunday, December 31, 2023

Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and Billy Crudup in the Ridley Scott movie ‘Alien: Covenant’

A second Ridley Scott prequel to the movie Alien (1979) is our subject today. With the franchise original reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital here, and the first prequel Prometheus (2012) reviewed here, we pickup the tale for how the menace we first encountered back in 1979 came to exist as the menace we first cinematically met some 44-years ago. The name of this movie is Alien: Covenant (2017).

(From left, Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland and Michael Fassbender as David in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

The story of Alien: Covenant picks up neither with the remaining crew of Prometheus expedition, of the 2012 movie Prometheus, nor with the crew of colonization ship Covenant. Instead, we are given a prologue that predates the both movies with the introduction of the android David, whose role had been instrumental in the original prequel movie. We see David with his creator, Peter Weyland, in the moments following David’s animation. Guy Pearce and Michael Fassbender portrayed Weyland and David, respectively.

(From left, Billy Crudup as Christopher Oram, Katherine Waterston as Daniels and Michael Fassbender as Walter One in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

Eleven years after the Prometheus expedition, we meet the crew of the expedition ship Covenant. The Covenant, with 2000 colonists in stasis and 1,140 human embryos preserved for future life, is seven years from the planet the flight intends to colonize, Origae-6. Walter, an advanced android that resembles David and is portrayed by Michael Fassbender, wakes his 14 human crewmates when a solar flare damages the ship. In the reanimation process, ship’s captain Jake Branson, as portrayed by James Franco, dies.

(From left, Danny McBride as Tennessee and Amy Seimetz as Maggie Faris in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

It is during the ship repairs that a human voice from a habitable nearby planet captures the attention of the Covenant. Despite the arguments against investigating this nearby planet as made by Branson’s widow, Daniels as portrayed by Katherine Waterston, new captain Christopher Oram decides the crew will investigate. The investigation takes them to the planet encountered by the Prometheus expedition, which is where the group encounters David, eventually learning the fate of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw of that original expedition. Oram was portrayed by Billy Crudup. Carmen Ejogo portrayed Oram’s wife, Karine Oram. Noomi Repace portrayed Shaw.

(From left, Nathaniel Dean as Tom Hallett and Demián Bichir as Dan Lope in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

The investigation of the planet sees husband Tennessee keep Covenant afloat in orbit as his wife, Maggie Faris, flies a lander to the planet’s surface. Danny McBride and Amy Seimitz portrayed the pair, respectively. The action and horror of this science fiction movie take off at this point with the experiments of David driving many of the storylines that follow. The personal connections among characters that underpins much of the remaining story development does the movie credit in avoiding some of the problems present with the David Fincher directed Alien 3 (1992).

(From left, Carmen Ejogo as Karine Oram, Jussie Smollett as Ricks and Callie Hernandez as Upworth in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

The movie Alien: Covenant did much to align the Prometheus movie with the Alien franchise overall. What remains of the prequel stories, especially in what becomes of the characters portrayed by Katherine Waterson and Michael Fassbender in getting to the character portrayed Sigourney Weaver, remains a fascinating possibility to be explored. It is from this place that I grant the movie Alien: Covenant as directed by Ridley Scott 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, April 19, 2023