Oppenheimer
Killers of The Flower Moon
Wonka
Past Lives
Godzilla Minus One
Into The Spiderverse
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning
John Wick 4
Barbie
Guardians of The Galaxy 3
Dungeons & Dragons
Air
I'm not even going to include things that came out in the US in 2023 and only hitting UK now like
The Holdovers
The Boy & The Heron
Poor Things
I am seeing American Fiction tomorrow too and heard that's amazing too!
Wildly good year for Cinema imo
Leave the World Behind was brilliant and the ending was perfect. So many hidden Easter eggs that it rewards further upon rewatching too. I love that is was part of the same fictional Universe as Mr Robot too... which is easily a GOAT series for me.
For instance, without giving too much away here's one I bet you missed...
The radio station in Ethan Hawkes car is tuned to 1619... the ship you see is called "The White Lion"... and if someone can name the store, you'll see where this is all going. The first slave ship to America was called The White Lion and it arrived in 1619.
I won't comment on what it all means for fear of spoilers. However, I will say this movie can easily be taken at face value, sure. But Sam Esmail will often interweave the true meaning of things in a cryptic fashion throughout his work. I'm looking forward to his next project after seeing this!
This is why films and ones personal taste is so subjective.
Every other film you mentioned up there are particularly brilliant, well, bar Air, Wonka and GoG3 (which are entertaining but very, very average, especially GoG3), beyond those three, for each one of those other greats, there are dozens of disappointments and flops. Last year was better than the post COVID years have been, I'll admit that, but it was far from vintage.
Most stuff is poorly written drivel that's made to be completely forgettable. I can count the fingers on my hands the number of films this year that I'd bother to watch again, let alone buy a copy of.
As far as 'Leave the World Behind' and Sam Esmail; I don't want to have dig out loads of little Easter eggs from multiple rewatches or have to have a deep rooted understanding of the lore and universe of Mr Robot. Cryptic Fan service only. I thought all that kind of writing was left behind in the decade and a half since 'Lost' ended.
Why does everything have to be bloody secretly interconnected these days.
At least this film wasn't ANOTHER damn superhero movie though, so +1 point.
The Holdovers and Past Lives were my favourite movies of last year's crop and I'll be picking those up.
Along with Godzilla -1, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Boy and the Heron as well. Oppenheimer is already on the shelf. Not going to bother with the others. I've yet to see Poor Things but heard good things.
6 movies I enjoyed enough to want to buy from last year.
Hardly a lot but about right for me. Super hard to please.
I think 2022 only had 5 in total that year I ended up buying for the collection.