We're already doing it differently, obviously, given that it's the end of April and I'm just now getting to it. I inadvertently set myself up to approach this post differently this year when I wrote the preamble to this year's round-up, so I suppose it makes sense to continue to deviate from my routine way of reflecting on a year of movies.
My plan for this year is to write the round-up in three installments:
- Part 1: Overview
- Part 2: The Worst Movies
- Part 3: The Best Movies
I'm actually kind of excited to try out this version of the round-up, because in honesty writing the one-big-post version is kind of a bear. It's one of the longest and most labor-intensive posts I do each year. As we've already established, I just don't have time for that kind of task right now.
So now, let's commence Part 1: The Overview!
As you'll see below, in stark contrast to this year (so far, at least), I watched A TON of movies last year. In fact, I watched the second-most number of movies last year in the entire history of this blog, with the sole exception of 2020 (aka the other year I had a parental leave) (but also the year the pandemic started), during which I watched a whopping 95 movies.
Those movies were:
1. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (4)
4. The Automat (4)
5. The Banshees of Inisherin (5)
6. Failure to Launch (2)
7. Emily the Criminal (5)
8. Wall Street (2)
9. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (4)
10. Notting Hill (1)
11. This Changes Everything (3)
12. Art and Craft (4)
14. Spirited Away (5)***
15. Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King (3)
16. Norma Rae (5)
17. Luca (3)
19. Thelma and Louise (3)
20. Now You See Me (2)
21. Inside Man (4.5)
22. Crazy Rich Asians (3)***
23. Late Spring (5)
24. To Catch a Thief (3)
25. The Philadelphia Story (4)
26. The Apartment (4)
27. Cléo de 5 à 7 (4)***
28. Early Summer (5)
29. Designing Woman (3)
30. Woman of the Year (2)
31. From Up on Poppy Hill (2)
32. The Big Sleep (3)
33. Rome, Open City (5)
34. Belle de Jour (2)
35. When Marnie Was There (3)
36. Murder on the Orient Express (3)
37. Red Notice (3)
38. Broadcast News (5)
39. Magic Mike (2.5)
40. Audrey (2)
41. The Princess Bride (4)
42. Die Hard (5)***
43. Bad Boys (2)
44. The Lego Movie (5)***
45. Palm Springs (5)***
46. Shadows (4)
47. Winter Light (4)
48. Autumn Sonata (5)
49. Funny Face (2)
50. Malcolm X (4.5)
51. Rye Lane (4)
52. Le Samouraï (5)***
53. The Brady Bunch Movie (4)***
54. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2)
55. The Goonies (2)
56. Minions: The Rise of Gru (4)
57. Despicable Me (3.5)***
58. Despicable Me 2 (3.5)
59. Wish Dragon (5)
60. Minions: The Rise of Gru (4.5)***
61. Stutz (5)
62. Plus One (5)
63. BlackBerry (4)
64. Heat (4)
65. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (5)
66. Dancing with the Birds (5)***
67. Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia (4)
68. The Jewel Thief (4)
69. Barbie (5)
70. Running with Speed (5)
71. Joy Ride (4)
72. Barbie (4)***
73. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (4)
74. Nosferatu (3)
75. Quiz Lady (3.5)
76. Moana (4)***
77. The Lego Movie (5)***
78. No Hard Feelings (4)
79. Best. Christmas. Ever! (1)
Overall, I'm not only pleased with the quantity but also the quality and breadth of the movies I watched last year. I watched movies from a variety of eras, genres, and countries. I watched children's movies, documentaries, silly movies, movies important to the history of cinema, and movies I'd never heard of before.
I watched a lot of movies I'd seen before and overall enjoyed revisiting. As a reminder, these latter films are indicated thusly: ***. In the past, I've used * to indicate that I got nauseated while watching a movie and ** to note that I fell asleep while watching a movie. Happily, neither of those indicators were necessary last year.
I'm also thrilled with the number of movies I wrote about last year. A variety of post structures made that possible, including writing perhaps my favorite double header ever, but mostly trying and finally succeeding at keeping myself to slightly briefer posts of a couple of paragraphs is what clinched 2023 as the most prolific blog year to date by number of posts.
Unlike in 2020, I allowed myself to be guided much more by my instincts and interests rather that curated should-y seeming lists of what other people consider to be the best or most important or whatever movies. Taking that latter tack in 2020 got me into some trouble, including watching some of my least favorite movies of that year. I'm thankful to have moved past the sense of obligation to decide what to watch based on other people's opinions, because I truly do feel content and satisfied with what I watched last year.
And with that, I think we'll conclude Part 1. I'm excited to get into the worsts and bests, hopefully very soon!
{Heart}
