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Seth’s Favorite Film Discoveries of 2023

Every year, I watch a lot of movies. My total for 2023 is 270, most of which were released in previous years. In fact this year marked my 4,000th film viewed in my lifetime. Of all the older films I watched, these were the pictures and filmmakers who stood out to me the strongest. These are the pieces of art that I’ll carry with me into the new year and beyond. They are works of such beauty & humanity, movies that made me laugh & cry & most importantly think about my own life and the world we all inhabit. Here are my favorite film discoveries of 2023.

Seth’s Favorite Television Watched of 2023

Yellowjackets Seasons One & Two (Showtime)

I initially skipped over this one because I thought it was something else. For some reason, I thought this was another show streaming on Prime about teenage girls trapped on an island. When I finally did watch Yellowjackets, I was greeted with one of the best cold open teases from the first episode I’d seen. Using a mix of flashbacks and present-day plot beats, the show tells the story of a girls’ soccer team from New Jersey whose plane crashes over the wilderness of the Canadian Rockies in the 1990s. Only one adult survives, and he’s seriously injured, so these young women have to band together.

Ariana’s Favorite 2023 Reads

It’s that time of the year when we sort through all the books we read and try to find some favorites.

Seth’s Favorite Books Read of 2023

Fiction
In A Lonely Place: Stories by Karl Edward Wagner

This was a republishing of an out of print horror short story collection by Wagner, a fellow native of Tennessee. He set out to become a doctor in the late 1960s but became quickly disillusioned with the medical industry’s focus on reactive rather than preventative care. Instead, he leaned into writing with horror & fantasy being his favorite genres. Wagner struggled with mental illness and used alcohol to self-medicate. He died in 1994, at age 48, from heart and liver failure due to alcohol. His stories are in the classic pulp vein, a little sleazy & very scary.

Seth’s Favorite Solo Tabletop RPGs of 2023

In 2023, I tried out two new features on the blog. The first was Looking at Art, where I would feature a single painting or sculpture, engage with it as someone with little background in art history & critique, and then do some research to better understand the piece. That proved to be an overwhelming task, and I decided to stop a quarter into the year. I did learn a lot, but the specifics of these mediums are so outside my current understanding that I was overwhelmed.

My Favorite Coen Brothers’ Supporting Performances

Paul Adelstein as Wrigley
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

It may not be the most beloved Coen Brothers’ film, and it was their first work-for-hire gig, but it still has some fantastic comic moments. Paul Adelstein plays the admiring legal partner & friend to George Clooney’s Miles Massey. The film is meant to be in the style of a snappy Howard Hawks or Preston Sturges comedy, and it nails the tone quite well. Adelstein is pitch-perfect as the type of supporting player in those directors’ films back in the 1930s & 40s. His reactions are broad but not cloying & hammy. It’s a great example of how, even on a studio-made picture, the Coens could inject a captivating personality into every player’s role.

My Favorite Films of 1983

The Outsiders
Written by Francis Ford Coppola & S. E. Hinton
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

It was partly made out of Coppola’s dire need to pay off accumulated debts and an homage to the rebel films of the director’s youth. Based on the first young adult novel, The Outsiders follows teenager Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) as he grows up in a small Oklahoma town where the poor kids are constantly being targeted by the wealthy ones. Pony’s best friend Johnny (Ralph Macchio) accidentally kills one of these preppies out of self-defense, which sends the two boys scrambling into hiding. Through this trial, they are forced to confront the fragility of life and the beauty that each new day brings. Coppola created an emotionally moving and volatile film that captures the chaos of being a young adult. There are some stunningly beautiful images here where the director embraces the intentional artificiality of film in order to strengthen the visuals. The film also introduced us to many white boys who would dominate movies over the next decade, including a pre-dental work, Tom Cruise.

Read my full review here.

My Favorite Films Released in August

While its reputation has improved slightly in recent years, for a long time August was seen as one of the worst months for seeing a new release (though nothing can top the wasteland that is January). The peak of summer dwindled down with the most prominent releases coming in that space between Memorial Day and the 4th of July. By the time August rolled around schools were starting to go back into session and so you didn’t have the younger audience as a available to watch your popcorn flicks. There are some fantastic August releases though and I’ve made a list of some of my favorites here.

My Favorite Willem Dafoe Performances

Happy Birthday to Willem Dafoe, born William Dafoe, who turns 68 years young today (July 22). His unique first name resulted from a high school nickname that the actor kept using to distinguish himself on lists of actors during auditions. Today, he’s become one of the most respected character actors. Below are some of my favorite of his performances, those that stick in my brain the most. He may be named Dafoe, but I like to think of him as Dafriend.

My Favorite Films with a Fireworks Scene

Blow Out (1981)
Written & Directed by Brian De Palma

It’s fireworks season in America now, as millions of people celebrate their “independence” by igniting explosives and permanently wounding themselves because they don’t know how to handle fireworks. In the spirit of that, I am sharing my favorite films with fireworks scenes related to the plot. I have provided the actual fireworks scene when available for each film, but I provide a trailer if that particular moment wasn’t clipped on YouTube.