Best of 2023: Movies
Arezou: Elemental & 65
If you had told me back in 1993 that two of my favourite movies of the year 30 years later would have been Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. I would have said “yes, correct, it’s good to see you still have exquisite taste when you’re an old lady”. Part nostalgic, part self-aware, both movies delivered exactly what I wanted them to and then some — and I honestly wasn’t expecting all that much.
Pixar’s Elemental really took me by surprise, and wound up being a lot more meaningful than the marketing suggested, though I will give them credit where its due for not only making a romantic movie, but marketing it as such. Love and romance aren’t stupid, or shameful — and we’re certainly not living in an era where there’s too much of it. Not to mention that ending? I openly wept every single time I watched it. I’m talking about the ending-ending to be clear, not the Reylo-coded climax of the movie.
Oh hey, speaking of Ben Solo…
Honorable mention for the year goes to 65. Not because it was some epitome of cinema, not at all. But what it was was a solid 90 minutes of movie that delivered exactly what it said it would: Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs on prehistoric Earth. How refreshing that that particular tidbit (the prehistoric Earth bit) wasn’t kept as some secret reveal but part of the marketing. The movie itself was solid, but it also proved to be the gift that keeps on giving, with images and gifs being used as a post-TROS Ben Solo for moodboards and manips.
Candace: Barbie
It might sound cliché to declare Barbie as my favorite movie of 2023, but it truly provided the most enjoyable cinematic experience for me throughout the year. Despite the extensive hype surrounding the film, it lived up to expectations and surpassed them. Never before have I watched a movie that induced both to laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes and also cried. Sharing this experience with my mother made it even more special; she was the one who bought and played Barbies with me during my childhood.
Chelsea: Nimona
When I first read the graphic novel Nimona by N.D. Stevenson in 2022, I knew it would translate well to the big screen solely thanks to our heroine Nimona’s ability to shapeshift. Who wouldn’t want to see a young woman transform into a shark, a rhino, or a cute little kitty? Luckily, none of the magic of the graphic novel was lost when it was made into an animated movie this year. And with voice actors like Chloe Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, and Eugene Lee Yang, there was no way that this movie could disappoint.
Nimona looks like a regular girl at first, but she turns out to be a chaotic shapeshifter who is simply looking for a true friend and a place to call home. When the brave knight Ballister Boldheart is framed for murder, these two people with seemingly nothing in common end up helping each other in ways they didn’t expect. This story is sweet, violent, funny, and meaningful in all the best ways. The animation team also brought their best work to this project and their visuals never disappoint.
Hope: Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning
While it’s certainly not the best-made film I saw in 2023 (because that would definitely go to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), the movie that I had the most fun in theaters this year was Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning. With next year being the 25th anniversary of Digimon Adventure and I personally have a soft spot for the 02 kids, I eagerly bought my ticket for this Fathom event to ride that nostalgia train. It had to be the cheesy dub, just like my childhood, and boy was that the right choice. The campy 90’s dialogue was needed to balance the surprising amount of body horror and child abuse in this film. And it somehow still really worked. The story has stuck with me weeks later, and I find myself still thinking about it.
What sold the movie for me, though, was the experience. The theater handed out booster packs of the Digimon card game for viewers. Afterward, the audience hung out in the theater, swapping cards until we got what we wanted. The nostalgia of going on another adventure with these characters I loved my whole life mixed in with a card swap like we used to do on the playground made Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning my favorite film of the year.