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

Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine in the Jonathan Demme movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’

A psychological horror movie based on the 1988 Thomas Harris novel The Silence of the Lambs captures our attention today. Released this weekend 32 years ago, we look into the Jonathan Demme directed movie The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

(From left, Scott Glenn as Jack Crawford and Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The Silence of the Lambs opens with an introduction to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) trainee Clarice Starling, as portrayed by Jodie Foster, being withdrawn from her Quantico, Virginia training by Jack Crawford of the FBI‘s behavioral analysis unit for a special assignment. Crawford, portrayed by Scott Glenn, assigns Starling to interview former psychiatrist and cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter, in furtherance of the investigation of an ongoing set of serial crimes occurring in the present day.

(From left, Anthony Heald as Dr. Frederick Chilton and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The visit to the so-called Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane introduces us through Starling to Lector, as portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. It is here that much of the significant groundwork is laid for aiming to gain insight into the Buffalo Bill serial killer, the complex psychology of Lecter, and the unseemly motivations of many attached to the storylines of Lecter, his stay at this hospital, and the underlying criminal behavior in play with Buffalo Bill. It is at this hospital that we are introduced to Dr. Frederick Chilton and orderly Barney Matthews, portrayed respectively by Anthony Heald and Frankie Faison.

(From left, Brooke Smith as Catherine Martin and Ted Levine as Jame Gumb in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

A further intrigue for The Silence of the Lambs deals with the disappearance of Catherine Martin as portrayed by Brooke Smith. Martin is the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin of Tennessee, as portrayed by Diane Baker. That there’s a connection to Jame Gumb, as portrayed by Ted Levine, is part of the underlying notion of pulling Lecter and Starling into the notion of conversing in the first place.

(From left, Diane Baker as U.S. Senator Ruth Martin, Kasi Lemmons as Ardelia Mapp and Darla as the dog Precious in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The compelling ways that the threads of the characters tie together, along with the emotional weight of the darkness motivating and acting on multiple characters in this narrative, lend strength to the ways the personal stories of this larger narrative work together in delivering strong psychological impact to the stories. The sympathetic roles of Ardelia Mapp, as portrayed by Kasi Lemmons, and Precious further this impact. Darla portrayed Precious, the dog.

(From left, actor Anthony Hopkins, actor Frankie Faison and director Jonathan Demme on location for the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The staying power of the underpinning story of The Silence of the Lambs rest largely with the character of Hannibal Lecter. The deviance from societal norms on multiple fronts, with a resonating portrayal of him by Anthony Hopkins, sticks with me many years after my initial encounter with him. The sensibilities of the era the story lives in are captured well, too. I offer The Silence of the Lambs as directed by Jonathan Demme 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, February 11, 2023

Psychological profiles with ‘Whoever Fights Monsters’ by Robert K. Ressler

American criminologist Robert K. Ressler served for the United States Army and that country’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ressler explains his career in the book he wrote with Tom Shachtman, namely Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI. Whoever Fights Monsters offers insight into the real life formation of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. It was Ressler‘s work in the formation of this unit as well as the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) that, along with the methodology and thinking behind those programs, that interested me in the Whoever Fights Monsters book.

(Robert K. Ressler, left, and Tom Shachtman, right)

Ressler described his work in contributing to the formation of the BSU, which in part started with the thinking that helped coin the term serial killer. (The definition from Psychology Today is included in the link contained in the previous sentence). Much of that psychology is performed based forensic analysis of crime scenes, the evidence gathered at those scenes, and the collected wisdom of the thinking of criminals in the past. Beyond this means of making cases against criminals, much of what fascinated me in reading this book was the interviewing of convicted serial killers in gaining insight into what makes those that have committed crimes tick.

(Friedrich Nietzsche‘s warning to interviewers)

The insight of dividing criminals into organized, disorganized, or those that switch between default forms was intellectually interesting. The subject matter was rather dark, and certainly not for everyone. The Thomas Harris book (and subsequent movie) The Silence of the Lambs was inspired by information sharing that Ressler briefly described in Whoever Fights Monsters. The television series Criminal Minds on the American Broadcasting Corporation in the United States also owes something to the methodologies of the BSU.

Perhaps my timing in reading this book during the fall was inspired by the autumn season. The diminishing hours of daylight each day played their inspiring role. That Halloween would soon be approaching with the return to standard time rather than daylight savings time also played a role. I give Whoever Fights Monsters 3.5-stars out of 5.

Matt – Sunday, November 5, 2017