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Best and Worst Films from January 2023

Best Films from January 2023:

3. Escape from Alcatraz

This seventies prison movie was an evident influence on Stephen King. It is a film that stood the test of time and is still just as exciting as it was back then. Though the ending was anti-climactic, the movie was very much grounded in reality, which gave it extra suspense. The first half is particularly thrilling.

2. Close

Close is a Belgian drama that can be understood to be an LGBT romance story, but it just as well could be taken as a story about male friendship. Dealing with fragility versus masculinity, it’s a very personal film for its director, but in its second half it becomes more universal for better and for worse with the introduction of death as the main theme. It’s a powerfully acted, moving film that was the best of the Oscar-nominated foreign films of the year.

1. Speak No Evil

This Danish-Dutch co-production just might be the scariest movie I watched in years. Speak No Evil is at first dramatic and thematically complex, but then it switches gears and turns into a pure horror in its incredible third act that is bound to disturb everybody watching it. It’s an extremely sophisticated movie that also truly gets how people act, which is something that most horrors fail to do. Thus, it deserves more attention among genre fans in particular, though it just may be too smart for your regular viewer. For me, it is the best movie I saw all month and one of the best films of 2022.

Worst Films from January 2023:

3. White Noise

White Noise is a movie that tries to be this genre-bending showcase of different tones and experiences, but it fails miserably at every single one of them. This postmodernist bullshit represents the worst that Noah Baumbach has to offer and it’s frustrating that this usually great director could ever make such a misfire.

2. Bardo

Probably the worst and most pretentious movie that Inarritu has made so far, which in and of itself is impressive, Bardo features such annoying dialogue and such a lack of self-awareness that it’s mind-boggling to witness. This director really needs an awakening sooner rather than later.

1. Blonde

But the worst movie I saw this month has to be Blonde, an absolutely horrible exploitation piece about Marilyn Monroe that treats her like a victim throughout without ever developing her properly. It’s a visually sumptuous movie for sure and it is well acted, but it’s so unpleasant and nasty that it’s better to evade it altogether.