Posted on December 29, 2023 at 8:00 am
These were my favorite films of 2023. As usual, they’re in alphabetical order because it is too hard to try to rank such different films against each other and I love them all. “Air” “American Fiction” “Barbie” “Bottoms” “The Holdovers” “Killers of the Flower Moon” “Oppenheimer” “Polite Society” “Rye Lane” “They Cloned Tyrone” Runners-Up: Carmen, …
Continue reading “My Top 10 Movies of 2023 — And Runners-Up”
Posted on December 24, 2023 at 5:04 pm
A-| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, sexual content, violence and language |
| Profanity: | Strong and racist language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Sexual references including rape by a step-parent and a husband, non-explicit situations |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking and drunkenness |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Domestic violence, attack, character beaten by police |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 25, 2023 |
Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple is the acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Celie, a young Black woman in the rural Georgia of the early 1900s. Through her letters, written to her sister Nettie, we learned the story of her horrific abuse, told in the simple language of someone who had no education and little …
Posted on December 21, 2023 at 2:12 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for language and sci-fi violence |
| Profanity: | Some strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Beer |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended comic-book style fantasy action, some disturbing images of characters getting burned and stabbed, zombie-like characters, monsters |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 22, 2023 |
I get the feeling everyone was just calling it in on this one. The DCCU is getting a makeover under James Gunn and Peter Safran and who knows what will happen given the prospect of the catastrophic leadership of David Zaslav burying his bad decisions and collecting a huge paycheck with a possible sale of …
Posted on December 17, 2023 at 4:30 pm
B +| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for some language and drug use |
| Profanity: | Strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Sexual references and situations, adultery |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Alcohol and drugs, cigarettes |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Tense emotional confrontations, serious medical problems, sad death |
| Diversity Issues: | Some references to antisemitism and prejudice against LGBTQIA people |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 15, 2023 |
There are moments in “Maestro” that are as stunning and bravura as the works of the brilliant man who is the subject of the film. It is the story of one of the formative figures of 20th century music, composer/conductor/musician/educator Leonard Bernstein. Bradley Cooper co-wrote, directed and stars as Bernstein, whose music provides every note …
Posted on December 17, 2023 at 4:25 pm
A-| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for language throughout, some drug use, sexual references and brief violence |
| Profanity: | Very strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Sexual references |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking and drugs, references to drug dealers |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Brief graphic violence, reference to suicide |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 22, 2023 |
“American Fiction,” from first-time writer/director Cord Jefferson and based on the 2001 novel Erasure, by Percival Everett, is a biting satire of just about every aspect of American life, especially academia, publishing, and racism. It is also a heartfelt story about family connections and the conflicts that strain them. It is provocative, funny, and searingly …
