Throwing back to the weekend of February 27, 1954, Doris Day held on to Billboard’s top spot with ‘Secret Love.’ At #2 was a song that had been moving up the chart for about a month, Jo Stafford’s ‘Make Love to Me.’
This song would reach #1 the following week and alternate in the top spot with ‘Secret Love’ for more than a month.
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2023
#6. Poor Things
If you liked the themes in Barbie but felt the movie was missing graphic sex scenes and a chicken dog, have I got the film for you!
Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein-esque fairy tale stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a suicide victim whose body has been reanimated with the brain of the fetus she was carrying. The film traces her development from toddlerhood through sexual awakening and intellectual enlightenment.
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2023
#7. Barbie
All hail Greta Gerwig, queen of the coming-of-age film!
The writer-director’s first two movies explored young women finding their place in the world, in early 2000s Sacramento (Lady Bird) and Civil War-era Massachusetts (Little Women). Both are masterpieces, and both are on my list of the ten best films of the previous decade.
Now, with Barbie, Gerwig has tackled her favorite subject matter in a far different context: a big-budget blockbuster produced by a toy company. And somehow she still manages to deliver a touching look at a character discovering what it means to be a woman and a human being.
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2023
#8. All of Us Strangers
In recent years I’ve come to embrace imperfections in the movies I love. In the past, I’ve found myself rationalizing moments that don’t quite land, as if in order to treasure a film I have to first sand away any rough edges. Now, I’m quicker to say “that part didn’t work, but this is still a five-star masterpiece.”
What does that have to do with writer-director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, you ask? Well, there’s an element of this film that I haven’t quite wrapped my head around. I really need to rewatch it to figure out how certain pieces fit together with the whole (I apologize for the vagueness, but I’m avoiding spoilers).
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2023
#9. The Iron Claw
My unwritten rule when it comes to biopics is the less familiar I am with the subject matter, the more likely I’ll enjoy the film.
My familiarity with professional wrestling basically starts with Hulk Hogan in Rock III and ends with Florence Pugh in Fighting with My Family, so the extraordinary true story of the Von Erich family was not on my radar.
Turns out it’s the perfect raw material for a heartbreaking, yet life-affirming, movie about pain and perseverance in and out of the ring.
Meet Me In Montauk 