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

Sean Patrick Flanery, Jordan Belfi and Tom Ohmer in the Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon movie ‘Nefarious’

The movie Nefarious (2023) was set primarily the day Oklahoma had set for the death penalty by electric chair for serial murderer Edward. Based on the 2016 political novel A Nefarious Plot by conservative talk show host Steve Deace, Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon direct their own screenplay asks a psychologist to decide if Edward is faking an alleged demonic possession to avoid his fate.

(From left, Tom Ohmer as Warden Moss and Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin in the Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon movie Nefarious).

The movie begins before Edward’s scheduled execution day with psychiatrist Dr. Alan Fischer, portrayed by Mark De Alessandro, ending his own life. Fischer had been tasked with judging whether Edward was competent to receive his death sentence. It is against this backdrop that we are introduced to Dr. James Martin, a subsequent psychiatrist tasked with determining the mental fitness of the condemned death row inmate. Martin, as portrayed by Jordan Belfi, is escorted by Warden Moss to a place where Martin can meet with Edward. Tom Ohmer portrayed Moss.

(From left, Daniel Martin Berkey as Fr. Louis and Sean Patrick Flanery as Edward aka Nefarious in the Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon movie Nefarious).

Sean Patrick Flanery portrayed Edward, who upon meeting Dr. James Martin, presents himself to the doctor not as Edward but as the personality of a demon whose name translates in English roughly to Nefarious. The film focuses heavily on the argumentation not of the justice of the death penalty, but on moral qualities embodied in United States political policy using an absolute Christianity as the basis of the proposed self-evident basis of those moral qualities.

(From left, Sean Patrick Flanery as Edward aka Nefarious and Cameron Arnett as Trustee Styles in the Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon movie Nefarious).

The movie addresses an escalating series of mortifying personal experiences in the life of Dr. James Martin. Edward in his guise as Nefarious argue against a bald self-righteousness with intimate knowledge of Martin’s personal life to make the point the arguments that even for purported atheists like Martin can become more just in the Christian political morality that the movie was advocating. The reverse psychology of the argumentation could convince many, though whether it should is another question altogether.

(From left, Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin and Glenn Beck as himself in the Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon movie Nefarious).

The movie Nefarious makes its arguments largely through the shared stories of Dr. James Martin, Dr. Alan Fischer, Edward aka Nefarious, and Warden Moss. The place this movie went was one that I find myself interested in, though I feel unfairly manipulated by its tone and approach in making the case that it did. Given my disappointment in the storytelling, which perhaps clouded my engagement with the performances of Flanery and Belfi especially, I give Nefarious as directed by Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon 3.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, May 3, 2023