Farewell, 2023

Welcome to 2024! It looks to be a rocky year in a lot of respects, and I hope it’s an illuminating one for us, but in the meantime, we’re not quite done with 2023. December was unusually light on blockbusters because of the strikes, and what we could see was pretty lackluster (ahem, Rebel Moon, Candy Cane Lane, and Leave the World Behind), but there was still some fun to be had. Mostly, anyway.

Without further ado, I give you December’s top five:

Love At First Sight

This movie is supposed to be a romance, but with the exception of a plane ride from Boston to London, our potential couple, Oliver and Hadley spend more time running to find each other than they do actually being together. Plus Love At First Sight so obviously tries to be Douglas Adams-lite, but a bit less clever, and it doesn’t stick to the format enough to mean much. Not a great movie, not by a long shot, and barely memorable, but pleasant nonetheless.

The Color Purple

The Color Purple is a huge, rollicking, boisterous musical that’s not hard to enjoy, but given its story, I felt as if it skimmed over the top of what made these characters’ journeys so significant. While the bad characters are still bad, they’re not as bad as they were in the original movie; in fact, Mister is much more of a charmer in this version, at least on the surface. For one thing, in his spare time he enjoys riding his horse while strumming his banjo. It’s as if The Color Purple got the Disney treatment.

Ferrari

Oh my word, people. Ferrari is a wild ride that’s easy to get caught up in and Adam Driver as the title character brings it. His co-star, Penelope Cruz, brings it even more. It also nails the look of the 1957 Mille Migria, an event that would impact Enzo Ferrari’s life for years afterwards. At my screening, the entire audience went dead quiet during the fateful crash scene, and as the doomed Alfonso de Portago’s car flew through the air, I heard a woman say, “Oh, no,” and then an audible ripple of shock went across the room as the damage got worse. We may have another Oscar contender on our hands here.

Wonka

This is Wonka as a young man trying to break into the chocolate business only to be stopped cold, at least temporarily, by his proverbial enemies, Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber. Timothee Chalamet is a wonderful Wonka, and pretty dead-on as far as capturing the look of the character, at least the way he would have been during his salad days. It’s pretty shocking that this turned out to be of my favorite movies of December. It’s not perfect, but dangit, it sure is fun.

Godzilla Minus One

By far one of the best movies of December, and possibly 2023, Godzilla Minus One is a surprisingly human story about a young kamikaze pilot, Koichi, dealing with the after-effects of the war, including his neighbors’ resentment of the fact that he didn’t die in the war like a proper kamikaze pilot. Some Godzilla movies can be laughingly goofy and others are ernest and mildly terrifying. Minus One is the latter, only it has some pretty healthy stakes on offer.

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Which movies did you see last month? Which ones were your favorites? Leave a comment below! As always, thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you on January twelfth for another post. Here’s a hint: The word, “smeg,” is a thing. Have a good one…

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