Hello, movie lovers!
A few days ago I talked about books from 2023, but now is my favorite part because Movies Meet Their Match! Whenever people ask me what I like to do, "watch movies" is definitely up there because I love exploring stories. And I love lists. Therefore, making list by summarizing the movies I watched is my ultimate jam. And I hope it is for you guys, too! Enjoy!
Want to see what I watched in previous years? Here are the previous lists for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.
Because I rewatch too many movies, I don't count them here, these are only new-to-me movies.
It is underlined if I cried during.
Ones with a caret (^) means I watched it for a class
Ones with an asterisk (*) means I watched it more than once this year
New-to-me movies:
Dune: Part One (2021)
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The Third Man (1949)
Jackpot (1950)
Barbie (2023)~*
The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming (1966)
Uncharted (2022)
Yellowstone (1936) (There are no words to describe how insane this was. My family still talks about it)
Total: 20
I also did something this year that I hadn't really done before ("really" being the exception with STAR WARS IX): I saw a movie in theaters that I had previously seen outside of theaters! Like with Jurassic Park (1993), how they brought it back for an anniversary, they also brought back Howl's Moving Castle (2004), also known as my favorite Ghibli movie. So of course I went and saw it. Highly recommend the experience. I then dressed up as one of the characters for Halloween, as you do.
Series:
I didn't keep track as strictly with numbers of episodes like I usually do, but here's to the best of my memory!
Arcane: League of Legends:
The last episode. It took me awhile to be prepared for it, okay?
Cinderella and the Four Knights:
Rewatched part.
Crash Course in Romance:
Hotel Del Luna:
Star Wars Droid Tales:
XO Kitty
The Babysitter's Club:
Season 1 and part of season 2
Clone Wars:
The Flash:
Gilmore Girls + A Year in the Life:
Leverage:
Merlin:
Miraculous!: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir:
White Collar:
Wild Wild West:
A lot of these were watched with other people outside of my sisters, which was new because usually I watch things with them or myself. There were the usual watching in a different language to try to learn it, so let me know if you can figure out what those were!
My 10 Favorite New-To-Me Movies:
1. Barbie (2023) and Dungeons & Dragons: Honors Among Thieves (2023): These two movies are tied. I cannot chose between them. I love them both for such different reasons: Barbie is so nostalgic and says things I never knew needed to be said while D&D is full of heart and world building and creativity to fill my writing dreams. If these being tied for first place doesn't say anything about my personality, I don't know what does.
2. Living (2022): This is so inspiring in simple ways. It feels like the last few years I've been watching a lot of action packed movies and I have fun with them, but movies like this cut so deep.
3. Jurassic Park (1993): I saw this in 3D in the theater for the first time and I can't believe it took me so long. Just like with watching Star Wars for the first time and you learn it's not just about battles in space. This is not just a movie about dinosaurs: it's about a paleontologist who doesn't like kids being put in charge of kids. IT'S ADORABLE. And I also cried because I was so stressed.
4. Dune: Part One (2021): Do you guys remember when I read this 2019? And I hated it? Well, a case of liking the movie better has finally emerged. This is so epic and everything I want in a story. So I'm stoked for Part Two!
5. The Little Mermaid (2023): A trend with some of these movies is "I don't like the original". That's why remakes are still being made! Because I dig them! I thought Ariel and Eric's relationship was vastly improved with both of them being adorable.
6. Wonka (2023): This and The Little Mermaid are about tied. I just had a jolly old time with both. Which is odd that I enjoyed it so because I do NOT like the 1971 movie, but here, any time they referenced it I got emotional and teary. I want to write a post about this because it felt like a love letter to creativity as opposed to economics.
7. Uncharted (2022): Yes, MC, we get that you like the action movies. Especially heists. This one was super fun because even though it has uncountable backcrossing (is that the term?), I mean, double crossing moments, the whole movie is about being a decent human. As Nathan Drake is. I also thought it was quite funny.
8. Romero (1989): There is so much conflict in this movie. It is so wild that this was made while there were still so many shootings in El Salvador. It is a moment in time that should not be forgotten.
9. The Third Man (1949): This movie wins the award for one of the weirdest movies I've ever watched. I think it gives an important look into the aftermath of WWII that I wouldn't have thought of. The ending made me simultaneously mad and cheer.
10. The Hunt for Red October (1990): This is one of my dad's favorite movies and he talks about it all the time. "One ping, Vassily!" I love that it has so much suspense even though the locations do not change all that much. So much of it is figuring out what the characters motivations are.
I had two goals for 2023 that I was really trying to achieve:
- 20 is less than half of my usual 40+ new watches. That's because one of the goals was to only watch as many new movies as the books I read. Because these last few years I've slacked in the reading category. Well, I read 21 books, and watched 20 (new-to-me) movies, so I succeeded! Part of that was achieved through allocating more time to shows because I forgot to count those, but I still count this as a success!
- The second goal was to watch more films from the 20th c. Last year only about 6.5% of the movies I watched were from the 20th c. and while I love new movies, I felt horrified and that I couldn't call myself a classic movie fan. This year, 50% were from the 20th c. and 50% from the 21st! So another success!
Now, goals for this next year, 2024. I proved to myself that I can cut back, so I'm not going to put limits. Especially because I am taking a film class this next semester, so watching movies will be the homework. However, maybe on series, as I should reverse roles with what I did this year.
Have you guys seen any of these movies? What are your thoughts? Did you notice what is missing from my favorites? Have you ever been tied on two movies when you don't know which you like better? Do you want to hear my thoughts on any of these? I would love to hear thoughts from all of you!
What are some movies that you are looking forward to coming out in 2024? I'll love to be excited about it with you! Thanks for reading!
