Top Five Movies (and TV) Watched in 2023

The Pirates of Penzance (1983)

I had read the libretto to the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta before and thought it amusing, but it turns out that seeing it performed is another level of hilarity altogether. I'm not sure I've ever seen something so utterly un-self-consciously cheesy and goofy—it's like everybody involved said "we are going to play this Victorian-era satire with a completely straight face and endless pratfalls and not care who laughs at us," and the result is great fun. Note, there is a live filming of the Broadway production from just a couple years before, with mostly the same principal cast, on YouTube, and though some of the choreography and singing is a touch more polished in the movie, I actually found the stage version to have even more charm in spite of the low film quality! (The comic timing in the scene following "My Eyes Are Fully Open" is simply screamingly funny.) It also has the advantage of not cutting "How Beautifully Blue the Sky" and verses from several other major songs (plus the Major-General's speech about his ancestors at the beginning of Act II, which I can't understand leaving out of the movie).

Out of the Past (1947)

I couldn't make a steady diet of genuine film noir, but I had often seen references to this one as a classic of the genre and was curious to see it, and it fully lived up to expectation. The quintessential noir plot of a man unable to escape his past, of one bad decision pulling the protagonist into an ever-downward spiral of frame-ups and blackmail, it's gorgeously shot, and keeps you engrossed with wondering just how many more twists and double-crosses can be fit into one story. (Without giving any spoilers, I'm honestly surprised Jane Greer's performance didn't rate some kind of award nomination.)

A Few Good Men (1992)*

CAVEAT: I watched this movie with its (plentiful) strong language aired out and one brief scene skipped. In that state, I found it a really fine, absorbing courtroom drama with good character development and fine performances. (I couldn't help reflecting that, with the omissions for content I mentioned, you could have shot the same exact script in the 1950s and come up with an equally powerful film. And really, the same could have been done in 1992 if the filmmakers so chose.)

Bleak House (2005)

A solid, entertaining adaptation of what I've come to believe is one of Dickens' finest novels (a lengthy miniseries is definitely the format to go with when adapting a book of this size). Its one chief drawback is a very distracting filming style, with a lot of abrupt cuts and zooms and 'sinister' sound effects. I re-read the novel after watching it, and was able to appreciate way Andrew Davies' screenplay nips and tucks a hugely sprawling plot into a sufficiently streamlined narrative while remaining essentially faithful; though there are necessarily depths to the book which don't translate to the screen. Like a lot of Dickens adaptations, especially recent ones, it does focus in more on the darker elements and sideline the comedic a bit (and one doesn't always get the sense of how a few subplots, for instance the Jellyby/Turveydrop scenes, are connected with the main body of the story). The central performances are all excellent, though—and Mr. Guppy steals the show; probably the most Dickensian personality in it.

The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)

I finally got around to seeing this, and found it really lovely and enjoyable. A simple story set on the World War II home front, about an educated young woman who enters a marriage of convenience with a quiet, considerate young farmer to avoid the scandal of an unwed pregnancy, it's homey and heartfelt and incidentally chock-full of the loveliest 1940s costumes you've ever seen (check out this post from Heidi at Along the Brandywine if you want to feast your eyes on all the screencaps).

Honorable mention for best re-watch: All About Eve (1950)

Runners-up:  The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956), Northanger Abbey (2007)*, Evelyn (2002)*

Previous top-5 lists: 2022, 2021, 2020. (You can see top-ten lists for earlier years, plus everything else I watched during the year if you're interested, at my Letterboxd profile.)

* watched a version edited for content