Keanu Reeves

THE MOVIE MUSINGS’ FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2023


2023 was a mixed bag. I saw 186 films during the year.
There were a lot of old films, the oldest being made in 1931 (Frankenstein).
I finally got round to watching for the first time: Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960), De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948), Brook’s The Producers (1968), Levinson’s Diner (1982) and Kurosawa’s Ran (1985) and I loved them all (except for parts of Diner).

I saw Raging Bull in 4K at the cinema and there were a tonne of rewatches, highlights being Cape Fear (1991), J.S.A. Joint Security Area (2000), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Wages of Fear (1953), Angel Heart (1987), The Consequences of Love (2004), Memories of Murder (2003), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), State of Grace (1990), Kundun (1997) and I saw The Wicker Man-The Final Cut (1973) in December. All in all a top film watching year.

This year my top 17 came from South Korea, Japan, Denmark, France, Finland, Ireland and the U.K., Australia and America.

The list below is in no hierarchical order of quality or preference.
They are merely in the order that I saw them throughout the year.
Each of the films I loved for different reasons and this list reflects that.

So, here goes……..


JOHN WICK 4
In March 2023 I saw John Wick 4 at a screening on a huge screen at Event Cinemas, George St in Sydney that I had been kindly invited to by Studio Canal, the Australian distributors of the film and I had SO much fun. So much so, that when it was released proper a few weeks later I went to the cinema again to revisit the ride. And at 10 minutes shy of a 3 hour running time, that’s impressive.
So good, I saw it twice.
Check my review out HERE.


MONSTER
The latest film from Japanese director, Kore-eda Hirozaku is a film about the information we receive and how we fill in the blanks to end up with a conclusion that is wrong more than it is right.
I saw it at the Sydney Film Festival and loved it. I was a big fan of the director’s previous work, Shoplifters and this one was thought provoking and moving.
Monster is beautiful, tender and unfolds with skill and depth.


REALITY
Sydney Sweeney is a top actor. As Cassie in the excellent Euphoria she manages to display an insecurity and vulnerability that we rarely see so well played and in The White Lotus Season 1 she imbues Olivia, an entitled girl, a humanity that we would not have gotten from a lesser performer. She was nominated for both of these roles at the Emmys in 2022.
In 2023, she became the brand ambassador for everyone, made this indie film (Reality) based on a play, based on the transcript of the F.B.I. interrogation of the American Intelligence Agent, Reality Leigh Winner and a Christmas rom com that is doing well at the box office.
Here, she brings a layered take in a brilliant film about truth, deception and national security. 
This is a tense thriller that runs in at 82 minutes and takes you on a journey that unearths the feelings many have about national security and what the public should be aware of. Well worth a watch.
So good I saw it twice.


COBWEB
This was a joyous farce. A film about the making of a film within the film. One of my favourite actors Song Sang-ho stars as the director Kim who dreams that his recently finished film will become a masterpiece if only he can film the ending again to make it perfect. Comic absurdity follows as he tries to navigate 1970s South Korean Government Film censors, need and emotional actors, the studio head who hasn’t given him permission to film the extra days and his own (maybe justified) insecurities.
So good I saw it twice.
Read my review HERE.


TALK TO ME
The best, most original and entertaining horror film of 2023. Made by a couple of Australian brothers, Michael and Danny Philippou AKA YouTubers, Rakka Rakka.
This film about grief and the ‘other side’ was scary, well acted and became the horror film of the year. Check my review out HERE.


SISU
Visceral, satisfying and violent. An absolute romp. 
The killing of Nazis has never been so enjoyable.


SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
The sequel to the excellent Into the Spider-Verse brings us more, much more.
So. Many. Spider-Mens. And Women’s.
Smart, beautifully realised and maybe the best animated action film of the year.


BARBIE
I didn’t do a review of this because everyone has said EVERYTHING about it already. Brief thoughts; this film was so much more important than it seemed. A Barbie movie that very smartly and succinctly commented on feminism, the patriarchy and the status quo in a way that was never preachy, mean or lacking a massive sense of humour. Absolutely brilliant.
Maybe my favourite film of the year.
So good I saw it twice.


BOTTOMS
So much anarchic merriment. Two high school loser lesbians start a fight club to meet girls. The teen romp that we didn’t know we needed. Starring Rachel Sennott (who also co-wrote it) and Ayo Edibiri (so so good in The Bear, one of my favourite tv shows of the year), this film isn’t afraid to have heart and stupidity playing at the same time. Brilliant.


PAST LIVES
Greta Lee is wonderful. Here, she gets to play the lead in the best romantic film of the year directed by first timer, Celine Song, a film that bypasses all of the usual tropes and delivers an emotionally intelligent, honest take on a ‘could they’, ‘would they’, ‘should they’ romance.
So good I saw it twice.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM
I think I may have enjoyed this more than the Spider outing. But only just. I definitely laughed out loud a lot by myself in the cinema. The first Turtles film I have ever seen and the only one I need to. The voice cast has heaps of fun with the teen toitles this time actually played by teens and having actual chemistry that brings a massive heart to the film.
Jackie Chan has a blast as Splinter, Ayo Edibiri gives humour, comic timing and dimension to April O’ Neil and Ice Cube probably has the time of his life playing the villain, Superfly.
Hands down, the best needle drops of the year with M.O.P.’s Ante Up, De La Soul’s Eye Know, O.D.B.’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya and A Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It?
Absolute quality.


ANATOMY OF A FALL
The best courtroom film we have seen for many years. This drama about the death of a father and husband at a chalet at the foot of the French alps that leads to the mother being accused of his murder is a masterclass in acting especially from Sandra Hüller, who is magnificent.


THE BOY AND THE HERON
When this was announced 5 years or so ago I bought the book, How Do You Live by Genzaburo Yoshino that it was going to be based on. The book is lovely and when I read that the film would be VERY loosely based on it, I was a touch disappointed but when I finally saw the film, I rejoiced. It is pure Miyazaki, his greatest hits and if it really is his final bow, it’s an incredible one.
Strange, beautiful, touching and magical. 


POOR THINGS
There are very few, if any, film-makers like Yorgos Lanthimos. He evokes Terry Gilliam’s set design and strangeness in this Emma Stone-athon. She is utterly fabulous and free in this strange Frankenstein-like tale of a young woman discovering the world and all its joys and despairs.
Who else out there would commit like Stone did? Willem Dafoe is an acting God, Facts!!!! and Mark Ruffallo gives the best man-child performance of many a year. Surreal and sublime.


GODZILLA MINUS ONE
The Zilla film I have been waiting for. Finally, they understood that the sight of Kaiju mashing up the town, city or world is nothing without the human, the acting and the heart elements.
Here, we get the Godzilla film we deserve. 


LEAVE THEM ALL BEHIND
This was a late contender as I only watched it on the 28th December and really wished that I had gone to the cinema to see it. Netflix only gave us a week to see int on the big screen, I think.
Hey Netflix. Not good enough!!! 
The film that brings ALL the conspiracy theories together and chills you to the bone. Written and directed by Mr Robot’s Sam Esmail this film is helped along by a great script, top actors; Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha’la and Kevin Bacon, and a wonderfully ominous and eerie musical score by Mac Quayle. Tension at its finest. Quality apocalyptic fare.


HOLY SPIDER
A serial killer film that is brutal, gritty, tense and has something to say about society.
Set in Mashhad, a holy city in Iran and based on an actual killer from the early 2000s, this takes you on an ugly journey directed by Ali Abbas, who directed the last two episodes of the excellent video game HBO adaptation of The Last of Us earlier in the year. 
Maybe a Holy Spider/Barbie double bill?????? Holy Barber, Batman.

And that’s the list. 2023 in a bag. I missed a few, I saw a few.
Let me know your favourites in the comments. It’d be lovely to hear from you other movie lovers.

Happy 2024. May it be filled with the best of movies, joy, happiness and creative satisfaction.

JOHN WICK 4 (2023)

John Wick 4 poster

John Wick 4

On March 7th 2023, approximately 9 years after it first came out, I watched John Wick.

Let me rewind a little, I had been invited to a screening of John Wick 4 by the kind people at Studio Canal and I had a dilemma. I had never seen any of the earlier films so do I watch Chapter 4 cold without seeing the threevious ones or do I embark on the journey properly and go back? Having consulted my dear friend and fellow cinema-ista, Adam Nightingale, I was given the recommendation to go for it and watch them all in the order they is meant to be seen “It is an ongoing saga with its own rules and laws and expanding universe. To go in cold would be to deny yourself the pleasure of seeing the world unfold”.
He was not wrong.
As it happens the first 3 films are all on Netflix, so I began at the beginning.

John Wick is a fun, very well made, action-er that is hugely enjoyable not least for the incredible cast and Keanu getting to do what he does very well and that is actioné. Michael Nyqvist is superb as the villain and it was with sadness that I found out he had passed away back in 2016.
John Wick is retired and mourning the death of his wife (Bridget Moynahan) but some Russian gangsters played by Alfie Allen and Toby Leonard Moore pay him a visit and make him very angry and thus Baba Yaga is back in business. Special mentions go to Dean Winters (Ryan O Reilly from HBO’s Oz) who should be in more films, of course, the master, Willem Dafoe playing John Wick’s former colleague and friend and John Leguizamo as the owner of a car shop.

All of the John Wick films are directed by Chad Stahelski who was a former stuntman and the stunt double for Keanu Reeves in The Matrix films and Brandon Lee in The Crow. The first three of the chapters were written by Derek Kolstad who created the franchise.

This is a good sign. Through-lines and consistencies. I like it.

John Wick and his dog

One man and his dog

John Wick-Chapter 2–Just when I thought I was out.

This chapter sets the tone for what probably follows in 3 and 4. Let’s do this.
One of the many things I appreciate from having Stahelski direct is the care and attention to the filming and editing of the choreography. He knows his stuff. A lot of fight choreography in film is ruined by the editing, it is so chopped up that the beauty and flow is lost and turned into something lesser than is originally intended. Some of this is to usually to make the actors look better than they are but if you have the talent like the artists in Gareth Evan’s The Raid you will see grace in the movement and Stahelski creates that here, the fights are brilliant, brutal and balletic and have a rhythm that flows and ebbs beautifully.

We get some Peter Stormare at the beginning, who plays the brother of Michael Nyqvist’s character from Chapter 1 and that’s always fun. The original Django himself Franco Nero plays the manager of the Continental hotel in Rome. We are then introduced to Morpheus, sorry, the Bowery King played by Laurence Fishburne, an underground crime boss who runs his empire through fake homeless people and pigeons. The big bad here is played by Riccardo Scamarcio as a Camorra crime boss who calls on John Wick to settle a blood oath and drags him back into the world of death and Baba Yaga-ing. The mirror scene at the end brings to mind the classic Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon finale and is shot beautifully.

Riccardo Scamarcio and Ruby Rose in John Wick Chapter 2

Riccardo Scamarcio and Ruby Rose in John Wick Chapter 2

John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum. This is where the series really hits its stride. The first two were brilliant set ups and here we have the main course, a deeper dive into the mythology.

I have served. I will be of service.

Just before I saw this I heard the sad news that the great Lance Reddick had passed away so watching this had a bittersweet effect. He gets to fight in this one so that was fun to see him alongside Keanu taking out the enemy.
R.I.P. Lance Reddick, thank you for your work.

Lance Reddick in John Wick Chapter 3-Parabellum

Lance Reddick in John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum

In Chapter 3 we are introduced to the adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) who is not well pleased with Ian McShane’s Winston or Laurence Fishburne’s the Bowery King because of the High Table’s perception of them helping John Wick in Chapter 2 and so a new dimension is brought to the series. John Wick is ex communicado now and has a multi million dollar bounty on his head that was revealed at the end of 2 and sees every assassin in New York coming after him. The ante is massively upped. There are, as usual many fantastic action set pieces and the film plays heavily on the mythology and is so much fun. We are introduced to the world of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate led by the legendary Anjelica Huston. Here we get some great (actual) ballet sequences and a peek into John’s earlier years. Halle Berry is fierce as Sofia who owes John a debt and Jerome Flynn has a blast playing a member of the High Table, Berranda. The fight sequence with Wick and Sofia is exquisite and the use of the dogs is tops.

Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry in John Wick 3 - Parabellum

Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry in John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum

Mark Dacoscas has a lot of fun playing Zero, a Japanese assassin with two students played by the great Yayan Ruhian (The Raid) and Cecep Arif Rahman (The Raid 2), all three get to have fun fights with Wick and are given more than the usual fare.

Si vis pacem, para bellum-If you want peace, prepare for war.

John Wick Chapter 4

Keanu Reeves is John Wick in John Wick 4

Keanu Reeves in John Wick Chapter 4

Nowhere to run.

And now for the reason we’re all here. Seeing this on the big screen with an audience was heaps of fun. The series continues with our titular (wanna be ex) assassin, Jonathan Wick still on the run from the High Table, now being chased by seemingly everyone. The always brilliant Clancy Brown rocks up in Harbinger duties bringing a weight to the proceedings and giving Ian McShane’s Winston a dark message from the Marquis de Gramont, devilishly played by Bill Skarsgård, the main foil to Johnny W.

Ian McShane and Clancy Brown in John Wick 4

Ian McShane and Clancy Brown in John Wick 4

John goes to Osaka to a Continental hotel over there to visit and get help from his old friend Shimazu Koji played with the usual excellence by Hiroyuki Sanada, who runs the hotel with his daughter played by English singer/songwriter, Rina Sawayama in her film debut. Donnie Yen turns up early on as ‘blind man assassin’, Caine, an old friend of John’s who is blackmailed to kill him and gives a lovely performance filled with heart and fists and feet and swords and guns and a pencil.

Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård and Marko Zaror in John Wick 4

Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård and Marko Zaror in John Wick 4

From Japan, John seeks out help from his old family the Ruska Roma clan where the head, Katia played by Natalia Tena agrees to help him if he will kill the man who killed her father and therein we get to a very entertaining part of the film as we meet Killa played with relish by English actor and martial artist, Scott Adkins who chews up every moment playing the head of the German table in a large person suit that makes him look like he is straight out of Rammstein’s music video for Keine Lust. (Check it out if you haven’t seen it).

Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins in John Wick 4

Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins in John Wick 4

Adkins’ large person suit is a nod to the great Hong Kong martial artist Sammo Hung and the fight sequence in a rainy club!!! is alls in and alls out nuts.

A nice addition to this chapter is Shamier Anderson, who I had never seen before but puts in a solid committed performance as an assassin for hire, Mr Nobody/Tracker with his bad ass Alsatian dog.

Shamier Anderson in John Wick 4

Shamier Anderson in John Wick 4

One thing to point out is the cinematography in all of the films, the symmetry is spectacular and Chad Stahelski clearly has an eye for the mise en scene. There is a nice nod to Walter Hill’s The Warriors and the final sequences at the Arc de Triomphe and the Sacre Coeur are epic.

This is a film that demands to be seen on the big screen, it is spectacular and Stahleski has created a franchise that is by far the best action film series of the 21st century thus far. 

Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen in John Wick 4

Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen in John Wick 4

It’s big, bold and more than a bundle of fun.

Thanks to Studio Canal for the invite and thank to Addz for the advice. I had an absolute blast.

Check out the trailer:

If action films are your thing or you want to be entertained………

Go. See. It.

Out now in cinemas everywhere.