Just gonna throw in various movies I saw in 2023 as well
Excalibur (1981): 10/10, a new all time favorite. Visual perfection, and despite critics maligning the lack of character development, I feel anything but that. Boorman did not want to focus on individual characters instead of the flow of time, but the characters' lives are still written and as a result the character can immediately intuit and ruminate on what they've been going through and experienced in the large leaps forward in time periods. Also one of my favorite climaxes of any movie I've ever seen. Can't praise this one enough.
Stalker (1979): 7/10 First Tarkovsky film I've seen, was honestly slightly underwhelmed, but at the same time there is a great deal to think about and interpret from the film's final stretch. He's widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time, so I think I need to give some of his other movies a try and see how they gel with me. Could definitely be missing something here.
Eraserhead (1977): Despite being a huge David Lynch fan I somehow never watched this. Actually haven't finished it yet but for all its surrealism it really captures the feeling of being a stranger to a new family, struggles of raising a child and so on.
Barbie (2023): 7/10 Was hoping it would be a bit more ambitious, but it was still ultimately enjoyable and the depression of parenthood scenes hit the hardest. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling rule (I am Drive's strongest soldier) so even if it sucked I would've enjoyed it just for them. I wanted it to be the Transformers: Dark of the Moon of Barbie toys but it didn't quite hit those deranged highs.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023): 6/10 A frustrating movie that has plenty of enjoyable moments but never reaches the completely deranged denseness and chaos of the Bay movies, while also not really delivering hard enough on the more down to earth aspects and ultimately feels too influenced by the MCU craze even if I prefer it to most of those. The human lead this time around is funny as hell though and I didn't expect to like him anywhere near as much as I did. Optimus Prime remains the coolest dude in history and keeping him as a wartime hero willing to rip out somebody's spine if he needs to (which despite what fans will tell you is more or less how the character is usually portrayed across comics etc) made me like the movie way more than I would have otherwise.
Unfortunately, it does a cardinal sin to me of pulling punches: the fight in Peru structurally should have been a big pivotal moment, and the short section we get there between Prime and Scourge are by far the most engaging and kinetic setpieces in the movie. All for the fight to be cut short! Why? Why would you do this? This should have been your Forest Fight, Caple. The Museum fight and Peru fights needed reversed pacing. The conflict between both Noah and Prime's motives being at odds with each other is also resolved in a disappointing way, as there is never any development that should convince Noah to put any faith in Optimus and they don't get any (admittedly very cool) time together until the ending. Pete Davidson robot also doesn't really fit in as it seems his storyline got cut. I realize this must sound insane coming from a guy who ardently defends the Bay movies but those movies are unrestrained and utterly bizarre and layered with confusing subtext. This movie was "just" an action movie, and that's not enough for me if the action isn't also going to be top notch, which it never quite reaches. Also Bumblebee really sucked this movie and I've never disliked him prior, the movie quotes were grating and cheesy after a while.
Heat (1995): 8.5/10 First Michael Mann film I've seen and pretty fantastic the whole way through, especially the way the philsophies of the main characters come to an inversion near the end. There is one plot thread that just makes so little sense it took me out of the movie a bit (I normally give a lot of leeway to plot consistency because it's not the be all end all of art, but here it derailed the movie quite a bit) but the rest is solid.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023): 5/10 We took my son to see it as his first movie theatre experience. Didn't really do much for me, feel like it could've been great but was ultimately just kinda color by numbers nostalgia bait. Great for kids though.
