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alright been meaning to post my list but busy with the holidays: 1. Hana-Bi (1997): The only rewatch I've included in my list (if I included all my rewatches I'd fill the top 10). Just an incredible movie about depression combined with yakuza and cops. Beat Takeshi is phenomenal at what he does with his gangster films. I love his performances, his writing, and the directing here. World-class filmmaking and easily puts him as top 5 director for me. 2. Pearl (2022) - I had no idea Ti West had this type of movie in him. Maybe its Mia Goth, idk. While I enjoyed X, it was a fun enough throwback to slashers, this is on a whole other level. Mia Goth gives an outstanding performance as Pearl, the desperation to escape and how she eventually loses it due to her inability to escape is so well done. I liked how it ties itself to COVID via the spanish-flu as another way to drive home the isolation. The movie looks amazing and that finale, man what a film. 3. Clearcut (1991) - Very cool and intense movie. I never quite knew where it was going to go next and Graham Greene gives an incredible performance. 4. May December (2023) - Hey a 2023 flick! Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman are so good at playing the terrible characters in this, but Charles Melton steals the show with his performance of a 30 year old still clearly trapped with the mentality of a teen. It has some great comedic beats helped by the overly dramatic music, but it all plays into how gross the abusive relationship dynamics are. 5. Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! Final Chapter (2015) - Kojij Shiraishi is one of my favorite filmmakers, and easily my favorite director making found footage films. This was the "finale" to a series of films he did about a 3 person paranormal investigative team looking into spooky cases around Japan. As the films go on there's callbacks and tie-ins to the previous entries and even Koji's other works like Occult, Record of a Sweet Murder, and I think Noroi: The Curse too. He weaves this into a time-traveling multiverse spanning epic on a shoe string budget that works so well... if you dig his style. 6. Synecdoche, NY (2008) - The funniest movie I have ever seen about grief, depression and the fear of aging. Philip Seymour-Hoffman was a magnificent actor and this might one of his finest roles. I love the little gags that keep building up like the house on fire, the funerals, the every growing cast for his show. Really good poo poo. 7. Crimes of the Future (2022) - I'm a sucker for Cronenberg and this was no different. Highlights were the all the gross surgery/body part art and KStew being just a creepy weirdo. Really unique vibes and I dug the approach to evolution and environmentalism. It kinda reminded me of that old book about evolutions from the future that's filled with weird creature designs "Man After Man" mind you I've never read it so I'm just going off imagery and the idea of people becoming well.. beyond people. 8. The Great Silence (1968) - Top tier western about a gunslinger trying to save a down from being lynched by some bounty hunters. Gorgeous snowy setting that plays into the bleak cold nature of the story and Klaus Kinski turning in another amazing performance. I almost put Nosferatu in this slot since it was another movie that blew me away but I'm giving it to this western instead. Gut wrenching ending 9. Charley Varrick (1973) - Cool rear end crime movie. Walter Matthau is effortlessly cool. Love all twists it takes as Charley tries to avoid the enforcer hot on his heels. Joe Don Baker makes for one mean son of a bitch, loved the Molly character. Did not expect it to end with a plane and car chase action sequence but it was awesome to watch it unfold. Great flick. 10. Ponyo (2008) - Great family movie and a wonderful spin on the little mermaid. My kiddo absolutely adored it (she also loved Totoro which we watched this year). The animation is amazing and I enjoyed the dub cast. honorable mention to Madeline, Study of a Nightmare (1973) a movie about a woman plagued by dreams that begins to cheat on her husband as she questions reality around her. Incredibly oppressive and one of the bleakest endings I've seen from an Italian horror flick. ------------------------------------------------ Top 10 just 2023 Ok this list is admittedly pathetic, I only watched 36 films from 2023 and most of them were genre trash. I haven't got to some of the really good flicks from 2023 and welp. 1. May December (4.5/5) - see above 2. When Evil Lurks (4/5) - Badass demon possession film with some great effects work. There's some really terrifying poo poo on display and by the end I was ready to scream along with the protagonist. 3. TMNT Mutant Mayhem (3.5/5) - TMNT nostalgia got the better of me and I loved this updated take and the artstyle they went with. Isn't going to blow anyone away but hey, I'll take it over the Bay produced ones. 4. The Killer (3.5/5) - Fassbender does a ton of work to make this film be as good as it is. The voice-over can be tricky to pull off but this one is great specifically because of how it used. 5. VHS 85 (3.5/5) - Not my favorite VHS flick, but a solid time and they at least try to replicate the look and feel of VHS films with some of the segments which makes them stand out, particularly the first one with the people at the lake being murdered and the follow-up to it with the family getting raided by the police. 6. Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva (3.5/5) - A Tubi flick that punched above it's weight class and a huge step up from the first one. Some really intense sequences and the story of the missing person was done very well compared to the first one. 7. The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (3.5/5) - A great ending to a tv series I'll always hold dear. Hanks quest is great, Orpheus as Zed is too loving funny. I also dig that it isn't just a Brock highlight reel, him being more sidelined was something that I appreciated. I'm glad we got this even if I would have preferred one more full season to close it out. 8. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (3.5/5) - Way better than it had any right to be. Cast rules, Hugh Grant as a the rogue is inspired casting and Michelle Rodriguez rules. The actions scene are pretty solid with the dragon one being my favorite. A great popcorn flick. 9. Spiderverse 2 (3.5/5) - Step down from the first one, a bit bloated and of course ending where it does after being as long as it is was a let down. That said I'm a sucker for the art style and I really like Gwen and Miles in these. The added cast is pretty cool, but I think it's doing a little too much with both the Spot and Miguel stories running parallel. 10. Totally Killer (3.5/5) - Another solid horror spin on a classic genre setup, this time combining slasher with back to the future. Some of the "oh man the 80s sure were problematic!" jokes are cringe tho. There's some fun setups, I really dug the cabin in the woods scene and the cast is fantastic for both the present and past characters. Honorable mentions to: The 10th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special and The History of the Minnesota Vikings which I didn't feel right including since the first is more of a tv special and the second is a mini-series documentary, but both rule hard. Like I said my 2023 list is weak as hell and I appreciate this thread giving me some solid 2023 recs to make sure I get to in 2024 lol. E: typo MacheteZombie fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 01:01
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 06:54 |
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Very cool list
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Dec 31, 2023 23:28
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Definitely should become an annual thing
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Dec 31, 2023 23:41
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I'll definitely leave this open a bit then move it to the goodmine. Shooga, thanks for this doing this! I noticed you kept the LB list set to private, can you make it public? I like to like lists so I can access them easier and I plan to use it as a watch list lol. Thanks everyone for participating!
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Jan 2, 2024 02:03
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Also I echo the sentiment that it should be new watches over the year and not just 2023 releases.
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Jan 2, 2024 02:05
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Movies rule
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Jan 2, 2024 02:21
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 06:54 |
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Appreciate everyone that participated it was a lot of fun!
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Jan 8, 2024 19:37
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