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

Clint Eastwood and Dwight Yoakam in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Cry Macho’

The 1975 book Cry Macho by N. Richard Nash was rewritten from the earlier screenplay, which was also written by Nash. That the book was received well, experiencing some starts and stops along the way to the directorial and starring hands of Clint Eastwood. With Nash and Nick Schenk receiving writing credit, we present our impressions of the movie Cry Macho (2021).

(Dwight Yoakam as Howard Polk in the Clint Eastwood movie Cry Macho).

Filmed in New Mexico, the movie itself introduces us to 1980 Texas with retired rodeo star Mike Milo down on his luck following an injury. Milo, portrayed by Eastwood, has been out of work for a year when his former boss, Howard Polk, hires his former hand to travel to Mexico City, Mexico to locate Howard’s 15-year-old son and bring the boy, Rafo, back to the United States. Dwight Yoakam portrayed Howard Polk.

(Fernanda Urrejola as Leta in the Clint Eastwood movie Cry Macho).

When getting into Mexico, Mike Malo meets the boy’s mother. Leta, as portrayed by Fernanda Urrejola, presents herself as an alcoholic. Malo picks up on the point that the environment isn’t great for Rafo, and if he wants to honor the deal with the boy’s father to bring him across the international border. The question for this Western becomes what the noble thing is, and whether he, Malo, is willing to do it.

(From left, Clint Eastwood as Mike Milo and Natalia Traven as Marta in the Clint Eastwood movie Cry Macho).

In the face of opposition from Leta and her support crew, including Aurelio as portrayed by Horacio Garcia Rojas. Rafo forces Milo’s hand. This brings Marta and her three grandchildren, as portrayed by Natalia Traven, Elida Munoz, Abiah Martinez and Ramona Thornton, into the larger drama of danger and risk. Eduardo Minett portrayed Rafo. What becomes of Rafo, Milo, Marta, the grandchildren, and those at odds over what happens with Rafo is the point of the movie.

(From left, Elida Munoz as 14-Year-Old Granddaughter and Eduardo Minett as Rafo in the Clint Eastwood movie Cry Macho).

While Cry Macho might lack some of the punch of a movie starring a more youthful Clint Eastwood in the starring role, the substance of the conflict and the secondary stories that come into it are not without merit. That the underlying moral question raised have you considering right and wrong, and the space in between, offers something fruitful. I give the movie Cry Macho as directed and partially produced by Clint Eastwood 3.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, March 22, 2023