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

Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue and Julian Sands in the Mike Figgis movie ‘Leaving Las Vegas’

There was potential for slipping into cliché with the movie adaptation of the John O’Brien book Leaving Las Vegas. The screenplay written and directed by Mike Figgis as the movie Leaving Las Vegas (1995) achieves much while sidestepping the central subject of end stage alcoholism in a way that speaks to something else completely.

(Nicolas Cage as Ben Sanderson in the Mike Figgis movie Leaving Las Vegas).

The movie Leaving Las Vegas offers an intense and full look into pain confronted with a capacity for tenderness, sweetness and giving. The characters at the center of this are an alcoholic intent on killing himself through this disease, and a prostitute with a heart for providing love in a circumstance that promises little hope for ongoing reciprocation.

(Elisabeth Shue as Sera in the Mike Figgis movie Leaving Las Vegas).

The alcoholic underpinning this story lost his family and left for Las Vegas, Nevada. Ben Sanderson as portrayed by Nicolas Cage gets to the gambling town and nearly hits prostitue Sera, as portrayed by Elisabeth Shue. The immediate impression between the two was less than perfect, leading to the introduction of Sera’s pimp, Yuri Butsov.

(Julian Sands as Yuri Butsov in the Mike Figgis movie Leaving Las Vegas).

Butsov, a Latvian pimp being pursued by Polish mobsters, ends his relationship with Sera in as noble a move as he makes in this film. The intention there was to protect Sera’s safety, with Butsov having been portrayed by Julian Sands. This separation allows Sera to pursue something deeper with Sanderson after Ben seeks an emotional connection without physical strings attached during a $500 session wherein Sera had expected to apply her trade.

(From left, Nicolas Cage as Ben Sanderson and Elisabeth Shue as Sera in the Mike Figgis movie Leaving Las Vegas).

The sheer complexity of the relationship between Sera and Ben that follows, with no demands beyond understanding the other’s journey with empathy and compassion, unfolds with an unexpected compassion that I hadn’t foreseen. The psychological insights of killing oneself as a way of drinking, and the understated understanding to accept what could be offered by Ben to Sera for Sera was as amazing as it was astonishing. This exploration of a truth brought a sympathy and compassion that defies many stereotypes for what one might have expected from this movie.

(From left, actress Elisabeth Shue with screenwriter / director Mike Figgis onsite of the Mike Figgis movie Leaving Las Vegas).

The movie exceeded the expectations I had for this movie from the start. I grant Leaving Las Vegas as written for screen and directed by Mike Figgis, which experienced the 28th anniversary of its release last month, 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, February 1, 2023