Top 5 In-Theater Films
You know the Stinnetts lead a pretty busy life, whether it’s watching movies, or participating in a Bollywood Dance class, but this year we did make it to quite a few fine films.
These are the top 5 in-theater movies of the year!
- Past Lives Saw this pretty early in the year and it stayed solidly at first place. Great movie with great acting, and an ending full of melancholy.
- Poor Things Perverse steam punk Frankenstein-ish story by the dude that made The Lobster. What’s not to like??
- Fast X One of my favorite movie tropes is when the hero of the story helps the villain. Sometimes the villain humbly accepts the help, like in Kung Fu Hustle. Other times the villain rejects the help, and their spaceship and everyone on board is blown up, like in Star Trek. Fast X is the latest film to handle this topic. When ““The Rock™️”” joined the Fast family in Fast 5, he was welcomed by the merry band of Vin Diesel regulars…however he couldn’t appreciate it. While promoting this, and the next few Fast films he was lucky enough to take part in, he had nothing but mean things to say about Vin Diesel. Were these mean things true, or was he jealous of the Diesel fandom? Their feud almost split the family apart, but this family is strong, and survived just fine without ““The Rock™️””. Fast forward a few years, the world is sick of ““The Rock™️””, and his movies are failing at the box office. Why did we ever think he would be a good fit? Who would ever give ““The Rock™️”” another shot? Vin Diesel, that’s who. Welcome back to the family ““The Rock™️””. Try not to mess it up this time!
- Theater Camp Quirky theater fun! Wish it was a little longer, some things seemed rushed, but overall loved it.
- Bottoms Didn’t expect to like this one much, but ended up being great! The world needs more surreal comedies like this.
Full list can be found here
Top 5 Surgery Recovery
I had to have a little surgery towards the end of the year, which knocked me out of work for a couple weeks. Everything totally fine, nothing to worry about, the re-absorbed twin was successfully removed, and he’s now out living his own independant life.
This unexpected free time gave me the chance to watch more movies! There are a lot of foreign movies on my watchlist that I hadn’t gotten to, mainly because they are in a foreign language…and I’m lazy. With my newly found free time though, decided to get some of those things watched, and I’m glad I did! Here are the top 5 of the post surgery movies:
- Rashomon A new favorite Kurosawa film for me. It’s a simple story of a murder, told from 4 different perspectives. Gripping from start to finish, feels more like a play than a movie, in the best way.
- The Fifth Seal A movie out of Hungary set in WWII. It follows the lives of a group of villagers trying to wait the war out talking philosophy. Eventually the war and their conversation collide, and we find out if they stay true to their philosophical views.
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days A Romanian film about a woman trying to help her friend get an abortion in the 1980’s, when both abortion and controception are illegal. Feels pretty relevant.
- Dersu Uzala Another great Kurosawa film, but this time set in Russia. Just a bunch of dudes befriending a local wilderness guide, and their friendship through the years.
- Rififi Great french jewel heist movie.
Top 5 New Horror
2023 was a pretty good year for horror! Although the real horror starts next year, as James starts his first year up at Roanoke College. It’s scary how fast they grow up…
Here are my top 5 horror movies released this year!
- When Evil Lurks Super brutal movie from Argentina. Had to turn my head a couple times it was so nasty.
- Infinity Pool Perfect 2nd Generation Cronenberg film.
- Talk to Me Amazing spooky and gross film by a couple YouTube content people from down under. Looking forward to what these folks do next!
- Godzilla Minus One In general, I don’t really like Godzilla movies (except Shin Godzilla). This was different though. Great story that just happens to have a giant lizard show up and wreck things every so often.
- Night of the Hunted Cool little Shudder film about a woman trapped in a gas station by a sniper.
Biggest Surprises
Everyone knows I’m a creature of habit, but sometimes it’s fun to step out of the normal comfort zone and find something new! A few years ago, I started doing a podcast called Imminent Teachnology with my friend and colleague Rochelle. This year we were invited to speak at a local tech conference called All Things Open, on the topic of Inclusion, it was a blast seeing so many tech folks in person again after so long being locked down. Having weekly conversations about DEI and Belonging continues to bring new good surprises in perspective to me, and I’m thankful we can continue doing it.
Here are the 2 movies that surprised me most though:
- Journey to Bethlehem Seeing the preview had me laughing and groaning. When it finally hit streaming, I buckled in for some awfulness, but after about 15 minutes, I found myself really liking it. The music was for sure cheesy, but everyone in it was giving their all, and in the end, I really enjoyed the whole thing…even the scene where Joseph dance fights himself in a dream world.
- Sound of Freedom I was hoping this would be a fun hero-worship exploitation film. It ended up just being 100% creepy and boring from all sides.