And now, its Kim’s Top 11 films of 2023!

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It is my honor to reintroduce our special reviewer, good friend and fellow left-hander Kim J. For this segment. For those of you who may be unaware, Kim is a talented artist, writer, a man of conviction. (Kinda like me) He was a frequent collaborator and editor of the Supernaughts ,Talkbacker and even appeared on  a few of the Overground Podcasts.  He is a fan of obscure (i.e. Underrated) films from the 80’s and up and is an avid collector of physical media. With that out of the way, give it up for Captain Finland himself, Kim!

Hi, it's me, the Finnish man who is rarely seen anymore and lives buried under a workload soooo thick I wonder if I'll ever see the sun again. But enough about me and my 99 problems. Let's get to 11 things that are definitely not my problems. Our gracious webhost Stalkeye, was kind enough to ask for my input so here goes.

As always these are not in any particular order, as I don't believe in picking any one before the other - and there are 11 because I don't go with norms, either:

OPPENHEIMER 

The fact that a three-hour esoteric study of mankind’s penchant for self-destruction becomes not only Christopher Nolan's biggest-grossing movie but also one of the biggest of the year altogether can mean only two things: there's a little bit of hope for cinema yet, and whoo boy did Warner Bros. screw up big-time for letting their relationship with Nolan go sour with the botched release of Tenet...

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

The Spider-verse movies from Sony are hands-down the best Spider-Man movies ever made so far. This is f*cking ART, on the grandest of scales. And kudos to the filmmakers for also showing to the other superhero movie-factories how you do the whole Multiverse-thing properly.

EVIL DEAD RISE

My expectations were low, but holy shit if this didn't turn out to be a gore-filled rollercoaster thrill-ride very much respecting the lore created by Sam Raimi & co. in the preceding decades, from the wild visuals and bloody effects to absolutely brilliant sound-design.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

Two words: Donnie. Yen. It's like a "duh!!!" answer to the question: "what could the 'John Wick' universe need to really spice it up?". Donnie Yen is the answer. Not only does he hands-down almost steal this movie, he also gets the best part he has yet had to play in a Hollywood movie. Don't get me wrong; his turn in Rogue One was already a step to the right direction but what he does here is finally what all of us fans of his Hong Kong-work have been wishing for. Oh - and the rest of the movie is pretty f*cking great too.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

While John Wick 4 was more of a more close-and-personal type of action, Dead Reckoning was the best action spectacle of the year. The train sequence in the end alone goes to my list of the most nail-biting sequences of the year.

THE KILLER 

Now - this is David Fincher going back to his roots. Right to the Fight Club-era Fincher, where he keeps dismantling genres but with a more satirical and charcoal-black sense of humor instead of the pure nihilism of Se7en. I can almost hear Fincher pitching this to Netflix, going "Okay, I'm gonna do John Wick - but it's gonna be my version of John Wick.. ". And I feel that like with Fight Club, a lot of viewers might misunderstand this movie because it's funny as shit if you have the proper mindset 

NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU 
An alien invasion-movie where the heroine only speaks like five words during the entire runtime? Oh hell yes - that's right in my wheelhouse (speaking of the same wheelhouse, I know John Woo's Silent Night is out there but it's definitely not out HERE, so I'll probably only see it next year. It would most likely be on this list otherwise).

FALLEN LEAVES

Ah, speaking of proper mindsets. This one is a purely Finnish thing. The movies of Aki Kaurismaki go SO deep into the Finnish psyche that I'm always surprised anyone else in the rest of the world gets them. But this one has been collecting awards and audiences, so what the hell do I know?

ASTEROID CITY

I'm an Anderson-head. Have been since a friend showed me The Royal Tenenbaums all those years ago and I was like "whoa, whT the hell is THIS...?". And when Wes Anderson made the most Wes Anderson-y film he has made in a while, you goddamn right it was gonna be on this list.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOLUME 3

The best thing in the whole of Marvel's Phase five. Or Phase four for that matter, counting all the movies, streaming series and whatever other media there was. James Gunn left the MCU pretty much the same way he entered it: HIS way. 

LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND 


I don't wanna really write about this one any more than to say: the best way to experience this movie is the way I did - completely in cold. No trailers, no TV spots, no reviews, no interviews, no articles. You wanna watch this without knowing ANYthing about it. Trust me. So, there was my list. These opinions are meant to only reflect the opinions of the individual who wrote this list. Everyone else is free to form their very own opinions and they may vary. Hell - even my opinions may vary if I see some more 2023 movies that weren't on my map...


Kim J.

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