Films in 2023: February

As expected, I did more movie-watching related to this Oscar season in February, which included several screenings with this year’s nominees, all thanks to the American Cinematheque: Sir Roger Deakins; Martin McDonagh, Colin Farrell, and Brendan Gleeson; Brendan Fraser; and Paul Mescal. On top of seeing those Oscar nominees at the Aero, I also got to see Paul Thomas Anderson again, this time with John C. Reilly for the world premiere of Boogie Nights in 70mm. Another screening trend for me was a delightful handful of screwball comedies: Ball of Fire and a Preston Sturges double feature at the Academy Museum, and a Claudette Colbert double feature at the New Beverly. And two more movies I want to mention that I enjoyed seeing on the big screen (at the Academy Museum no less) were Now, Voyager and Catch Me If You Can, both on 35mm! Anyway, March looks to be a promising month, with at least one more screening with some Oscar nominees before the Academy Awards in less than two weeks. And as usual, I plan to make my annual Oscar picks and predictions post before the ceremony. But before we move ahead to the next 31 days, a quick look back at what I watched over the last few weeks.

New-to-Me Films by Decade:

  • 1910s – 0
  • 1920s – 0
  • 1930s – 1
  • 1940s – 1
  • 1950s – 4
  • 1960s – 2
  • 1970s – 2
  • 1980s – 1
  • 1990s – 5
  • 2000s – 0
  • 2010s – 1
  • 2020s – 6

List of New-to-Me Films:

  1. The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
  2. Murder, He Says (1945)
  3. Appointment with Death (1988)
  4. Highway 301 (1950)
  5. 1941 (1979)
  6. Rhubarb (1951)
  7. You Never Can Tell (1951)
  8. Seven Psychopaths (2012)
  9. Waiting to Exhale (1995)
  10. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
  11. The Gilded Lily (1935)
  12. Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
  13. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
  14. Summer and Smoke (1961)
  15. Little Big Man (1970)
  16. Empire of Light (2022)
  17. EO (2022)
  18. Le pupille (2022)
  19. The Sea Beast (2022)
  20. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
  21. School Ties (1992)
  22. The Mummy (1999)
  23. Blast from the Past (1999)

List of Re-Watched Films:

  1. Kiss Me Kate (1953)
  2. Hangover Square (1945)
  3. Ball of Fire (1941)
  4. Fargo (1996)
  5. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
  6. Boogie Nights (1997)
  7. Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
  8. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
  9. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)
  10. Midnight (1939)
  11. Now, Voyager (1942)
  12. In Bruges (2008)
  13. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
  14. Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)
  15. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
  16. The Third Man (1949)
  17. The Whale (2022)
  18. Hunt the Man Down (1950)
  19. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
  20. Aftersun (2022)

List of Films I Saw in Theaters (re-watches marked in italics):

  1. Ball of Fire (1941)
  2. Fargo (1996)
  3. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
  4. Boogie Nights (1997)
  5. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
  6. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)
  7. Midnight (1939)
  8. The Gilded Lily (1935)
  9. Now, Voyager (1942)
  10. In Bruges (2008)
  11. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
  12. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
  13. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
  14. The Third Man (1949)
  15. School Ties (1992)
  16. The Whale (2022)
  17. The Mummy (1999)
  18. Blast from the Past (1999)
  19. Aftersun (2022)

One thought on “Films in 2023: February

  1. How cool it must be to see all those movies, old and new, at all those old-time theaters! Are there any more in your area that you haven’t yet visited, but would like to see a movie at?

    Of your new-to-me films, I really love ‘Seven Psychopaths’…but then, I’ve loved every one of Martin McDonagh’s films, and I only recently discovered that he had a new one out. And I thought ‘Highway 301’ was a good, unheralded little noir…always a treat to find one of these out there.

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