The 26th Academy Awards (1954)
Nominations: 13
Wins: 8
Is there a more romantic scene in cinema than Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr making out on the beach in From Here to Eternity? I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this scene parodied, from Airplane, to The Nutty Professor, to multiple times on The Simpsons. Little did I know the scene in question is depicting two adults committing adultery. Is From Here to Eternity an edgier movie than I thought?
2023 was a year of extremes. We had the crushing lows with box-office bombs like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Marvels and glorious highs like the cinematic triumph that was Barbenheimer. We had big stretches of nothing in the summer and then a boss rush of awards darlings all crammed into December.
As usual there are more than a few movies I wish I’d made the time to see before making this list. This year’s collection of neglected hopefuls includes;
Past Lives
Priscilla
May December (ya know, a lot of Colin movies)
And some Sean movies like John Wick 4 and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning.
Also, The Iron Claw, (which feels like a real John movie). Otherwise I’m happy with my list. Aw, here it goes….
What a wealth of quality shows last year! Though if you’ve been watching any of the recent awards shows, the only four shows that exist are; Succession, The Bear, Beef, and The Crown. Admittedly, those are tough ones to beat, even for coveted spots on this list by yours truly.
My two big regrets this year are that I didn’t budget enough time for Beef and Fargo. Two shows that I know I would have liked and would have landed on this list. Yet, I somehow managed to watch all of the The Idol. Oh man, let’s try to pretend that one was a bad dream. Anyways, here’s my list…
I once read a survey that said on average, most people stop looking for new music at the age of 30.5. I’m older than that so the fact that I find any new bands is a good feeling, but if I ever reach an age where I do stop looking, I’m okay with that.
2023 was the first year I didn’t stress about “discovering” new music. I am no longer concerned with trying to “out-cool” anyone by slotting “hip” new artists into my top ten. I check Pitchfork sometimes. I listen to KEXP when I can. Occasionally, I find cool new stuff on my Spotify “Discover Weekly” and occasionally, I don’t.
I’ve been spending a lot more time digging into artists from the past I’ve never given much time to. Just today, I finished listening to Cat Stevens’ last album he did before leaving music for 28 years. Did I really need to listen to 11 Cat Stevens’ albums instead of seeking out more 2023 albums? Probably not, but it made me happy, and at the end of the day, that’s why we do it, don’t we? So here is my stress-free list of 2023 albums I somehow listened to.
It’s funny that the whole idea of doing “Possession” films for this year’s Shocktober was inspired by Exorcist: Believer when there were so many other (better) possession films released this year. I loved Evil Dead Rise, and I haven’t seen The Pope’s Exorcist yet (Expect a review from Sean later this week) but even its unimpressive 48% RT score is double Exorcist: Believer’s paltry 22%. Then there’s Talk to Me, a low budget, Australian Indie from a pair of YouTube creators, and it’s arguably the best horror film of the year.
We couldn’t call this a “Possession Month” at Mildly Pleased if we didn’t cover at least one Exorcist movie. So I decided to cover two! Why two? Because, much like conjoined twins, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: The Prequel to the Exorcist will always be inextricably intertwined. Even unpacking why is complicated, but let me try.
The Amityville franchise is beyond repair. Just to fill in the uninitiated, Amityville is a town in New York and thus the title, “Amityville” cannot be copyrighted. What this means is that any slob with a camera can film anything, call it “Amityville BLANK”, and people will watch it. Why? Morbid curiosity? Absolutely. Then again, I think it can be said the original story of the Amityville Horror still resonates with people today.
