My Top 10 films of 2023
and my favourite film of the year is……..
Talk about “burying the lead” eh? Oh well. Old habits die hard and as Die Hard IS a Christmas film and it’s nearly Christmas and hence, the end of yet another chaotic year of upside down madness here on Planet Starbucks, here’s my ten favourite films of 2023.
But first, some ground rules, a little context and the first link of many to come and my Top 10 films from last year:
My Top 10 films of 2022 - Originally published on medium.com
Ground Rules
Only films watched AND a spoiler free review penned are under consideration here and all have been watched and my thoughts scribbled here in this calendar year of 2023. So I hope one or two entries may surprise you with their inclusion as we go.
Stinkers to avoid like the plague
Skinamarink (2022) Mega low budget but nothing, ever, happens.
God is a Bullet (2023) There’s a really interesting film. Just not here.
Supercell (2023) Go watch the original and the best, “Twister”.
Boston Strangler (2023) Boring with a Capital B.
Snow Falls (2023) Dreadful horror.
65 (2023) NOT ENOUGH DINOSAURS!
A Man Called Otto (2022) Not a patch on the film it believes it is.
The Fablemans (2022) A Spielberg clunker.
You People (2023) One of the worst films I’ve seen in a long time.
White Noise (2022) Far, far, far worse than “You People”.
Babylon (2022) Don’t even get me started on this putrid puerile puss of piss.
The Menu (2022) “I didn’t see that coming!”. But I did. Dreadful.
For Your Consideration
So there’s a dirty dozen of doom dispensed with already.
Watched this year and heartily recommended, if not ultimately making my Top 10 include:
The Exorcist: Believer (2023) It’s an Exorcist film and that’ll do for me.
Meg 2: The Trench (2023) Jason Statham saves the world on a jet-ski!
Cocaine Bear (2023) Far more horrific fun than you might imagine.
Unknown: Cave of Bones (2023) Fascinating insight into our forebears.
Greatest Days (2023) Fun ride via the songs of “Take That”.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (2023) The film starts with “Creep” by Radiohead!
Everything Everywhere All The Time (2022) Multi Oscar winning epic.
Sharper (2023) Highly recommended and surprising treat.
Empire of Light (2023) Unrequited love and melancholy beside the seaside.
Knock at the Cabin (2023) A Birthday treat at the Cinema.
The Square (2017) One of many this year from director Ruben Östlund.
Triangle of Sadness (2022) Another from Ruben Östlund but not as good.
Blonde (2022) Sheer brilliance from director Andrew Dominik.
The Pale Blue Eye (2022) I’m a sucker for a Christian Bale film (see below!).
Jo Jo Rabbit (2017) Watched for the first time and almost made the Top 10.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) See comments above. Unreal film.
John Wick 4 (2023) My guilty pleasure but there’s no room at the inn.
A little context
So there’s 29 films noted hence far from a total watched AND a spoiler free review penned, of 68 in this year of 2023. 68 film reviews is more than a little low for me and suffice to say I’ve watched far, far more than this number but I don’t always pen my thoughts on every film watched. Take “Killers of the Flower Moon” for example. I watched this on pre-release at the cinema thanks to my brother Andy (who isn’t my brother) but as he very kindly said at the time, he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather see a new Martin Scorsese film with than me. Quite touching that, isn’t it? I’ve since seen this twice more on the smaller screen but I haven’t penned a review yet. Would you like a brief capsule review?
45 minutes too long. Robert De Niro’s performance is almost “faded out” in every scene. The characters inhabited by De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio were absolute monsters and top billing should be reserved for Lily Gladstone who is phenomenal and one hopes she’ll be holding an Oscar statuette in 2024. Here’s hoping music composer Robbie Robertson is posthumously awarded an Oscar for a quite incredible musical score too.
But I’ve been rather busy this year, what with the self-publishing of four books and the self-publishing of seven huge volumes of my past film reviews in e-book and Kindle on Amazon. I’ll link a selection of these at the end of this article. So without further ado…….
Number 10
“You Were Never Really Here” (2017) Directed by Lynne Ramsay
"You Were Never Really Here" (2017)
So I’m cheating a little with my first entry as I watched this masterpiece around its original release date in 2017 and vowed to pen my thoughts and here, 6 years later, I finally did so.
It’s Joaquin Phoenix directed by Lynne Ramsay so treat yourself sometime!
“Joe” (Joaquin Phoenix) Of the 53 acting credits listed against the Puerto Rican born Oscar winner, 15 of those are attributed to either short films or TV series, Hill Street Blues and Murder, She Wrote among them. Of the remaining 38 big screen feature film roles, I’ve seen 15, from 8MM and Gladiator at the turn of the century through the 2000’s and his collaborations with Lynne Ramsay here as well as M Night Shyamalan and Paul Thomas Anderson and now up to the present day with his brilliantly controversial Oscar turn as “Arthur Fleck” and the Joker in 2019 as well as the underrated joy that is the Mike Mills directed C’Mon C’Mon in 2021.
Beau is Afraid, directed by Ari Aster, is due for release in April of this year.
In a film of just 89 minutes and 32 total characters many of whom are deliberately vague and purely periphery, Phoenix has to carry this film and he does so magnificently. After a wordless opening of deliberately obscure camera angles and “Joe” never fully shown, what is portrayed is a scene of murder, bloody violence, a hammer and a half shown man meticulously cleaning away the grisly evidence of an unseen killing. Leaving the scene of the crime and what appears to be a hotel, Joe sets off the fire alarm before being seen for the first time in full. Unkempt and bearded, he cuts a physically broken figure and is immediately randomly attacked in an alleyway. Violently headbutting his assailant and breaking his nose, it’s quickly apparent that Joe is a “gun for hire” and he has nothing left to lose. An abuse survivor and veteran haunted by his experiences of war, Joe is also visited regularly by the nightmares of his life post war and his oft refrain of “What the fuck are we doing here?” juxtaposed with the debilitating waking nightmares that drive him regularly to try to end his life. Joe is suicidal with only a singular care left in a world he wants to permanently leave behind.
Thus he’s perfect for his next “job”.
Number 9
“Boiling Point (2021) Directed by Philip Barantini
Since penning this spoiler free review in March after watching this incredible panic inducing film for the first time, season one of the television show based on the film was released in October and as at the time of writing, this has missed my radar.
But not for much longer.
“Andy Jones” (Stephen Graham) Head chef at an upmarket London restaurant that carries his family name, Andy arrives for a busy pre Christmas night of fine dining at the end of his tether and at the end of two months that has seemingly seen his world turned upside down and constantly “living out of a suitcase”. Chaos abounds within the small team of youthful cooks, service waiters and waitresses, as well as an under pressure restaurant manager as this is both a pre festive period in their well regarded if declining restaurant and the end of a working week for an array of obnoxious customers, lively fun loving parties, a restaurant critic, “bullshit influencers” and Andy’s worst nightmare, an ex partner who seemingly wants everything from him, and someone who believes he’s “needed to push him to greatness”. Never stopping to catch his breath, Andy turns in an instant from barking orders to continually saying “sorry”, over and over again to everyone, as he requests every member in the team around him to “give me a minute” or “I’ll call you back” to a telephone that refuses to stop ringing as everyone, be it his team or the customers, busily talk and shout over each other at a million miles an hour as he’s caught in the middle of a maddening maelstrom, and a life spinning desperately out of control.
Number 8
“The Lobster” (2015) Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
As well as the films of Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, 2023 was also the year I finally made my acquaintance with the incredible and often difficult to watch or even comprehend films of Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. Being a fan of Colin Farrell it was either this or “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” but despite an inferior second half compared to a ridiculously good first, “The Lobster” makes my top 10 of films watched for the first time this year.
Following a lengthy list of countries including Ireland, the UK, France, Greece and The Netherlands, as well as numerous independent film production companies and their national affiliates are all detailed in minute font against a plain dark black background, the film commences with a close-up shot of a woman driving a car in the pouring rain. After stopping the car the camera never moves from the vantage point of the passenger seat as the woman exits the car and walks into a nearby field before shooting dead a donkey. As another donkey slowly walks in front of his now deceased friend, the woman trudges back to the car through the pouring rain as the opening title of “THE LOBSTER” is shown centrally on the screen amid another plain dark black background.
We cut to an over the shoulder shot of a partly obscured “David” (Colin Farrell) who appears crestfallen, listless and with only his dog “Bob” for company. The doorbell rings and soon a female narration commences that although “someone doesn’t love them anymore, he doesn’t cry” before a further cut now follows a white van along a non-descript road.
Immediately we cut to a now fuller profile of David as he disconsolately and distractedly answers a raft of questions from an unseen woman off screen. Downcast and deadpan, he answers incredibly personal questions regarding his longest relationship “11 years, 1 month” before admitting to a homosexual relationship whilst at college and, after an incredibly long pause, he confirms his sexuality as heterosexual. A quick cut to the exterior of the building establishes a grand hotel structure on the shore of a lake before we return inside to David confirming that the dog isn’t in fact his but his brother’s, and the woman questioner now shown fully for the first time confirming he has been allocated a single room for the next 45 days and “If you make it, you’ll move to a double room”. David is now required to strip naked to his underpants and provided a standard set of clothing and two pairs of shoes as “personal belongings” are not allowed, before he joins a small gaggle of similarly naked men and women sitting on chairs at the side of the room.
The next cut finds David standing in just his underpants in “Room 101” with his brother’s dog as he stares out of the window and onto the adjoining lake. The woman’s narration continues as David searches through the wardrobe to find four identical blue or dark coloured shirts and trousers, there is a tranquiliser gun hanging on the wall and twenty darts sit on a nearby table. The camera now pans from David’s viewpoint out of the window and downward to the tarmac road where there is a collection of bodies described by the narrator as “loners” arranged in a neat row.
There is a knock at the door before a number of hotel staff and the “Hotel Manager” (Olivia Colman) enter David’s room. A very straight forward, unsmiling and taciturn lady, she quickly confirms that David has exactly 45 days in which to find love and find a partner, or else he will turn into an animal of his choosing. We now cut to a continuing downcast and unsmiling David with Bob the dog sprawled beneath the window. David confirms that he wishes to transform into a lobster “because they live for a hundred years” before one hand is manacled behind him and attached to his belt by a member of the hotel staff. Both the manager and her staff exit David’s room.
Welcome to The Lobster!
Number 7
“The Whale” (2022) Directed by Darren Aronofsky
I have an obsession for the films of Darren Aronofsky and one day over a couple of packets of chocolate biscuits and a limitless supply of piping hot tea, I’ll tell you all about it. But for now, here’s some words on “The Whale”.
“Charlie” (Brendan Fraser) Oscar nominated for an actor in a leading role, Fraser produces the finest work of a career I’ve appreciated since the turn of the century and The Mummy franchise as well as Crash in 2004. In a somewhat paradoxical way, Charlie only sees the very best in other people as he exclaims excitedly that “people are amazing!” yet he doesn’t see that quality in himself. Despite his size, ill health and a seriously debilitating and failing heart, he refuses to go to the hospital and “I’m not interested in being saved”. He seemingly has no time for the labels of life be they a carer, a religious missionary or even an errant daughter, rather he wants their friendship and companionship when not busy with the twin passions of his life, eating and being an online English tutor. Tellingly towards the end of the film, he invokes his students to write from the heart and to be themselves as he too reveals himself on a webcam for the first time to the gasps of horror from his students. “Mr Positive” he may be, but Charlie has been on a downward spiral toward his own death for some time now and whilst infuriating a carer who desperately wants him to seek hospitalised care and help, he only wants to spend valuable time with a dangerously wayward daughter he only sees the very best in, and to say “sorry”, repeatedly, over and over, and over again.
“Sorry”.
Number 6
“The Machinist” (2004) Directed by Brad Anderson
Another mini cheat as I originally watched this masterpiece nearly two decades ago but I barely remembered a single scene, which is quite apt considering the film poster tagline of “Fight Club meets Memento”. Not as monumentally great as either the David Fincher masterclass or Christopher Nolan’s greatest ever film, but Christian Bale is incredible in a quite incredible film. Treat yourself sometime!
It’s 1.30am and I have a confession to make. It’s always 1.30am when you haven’t slept for what seems like an entire year and someone is messing with your mind by leaving post-it notes on your refrigerator. Maybe I need some sleep but in all probability I won’t be able to as there’s duplicity in the air, a riddle I can’t solve, and I have a confession to make. Even the confession itself may be a trick of my own imagination or the salve repeatedly placed over an open wound and memories I’m desperate to forget. Who knows? All I do know is it’s 1.30am, it’s always 1.30am, and I have a confession from a dangerous mind that may or may not be as true as those post-it notes you keep leaving for me in a house that’s crumbling around a shattering mind.
As I’ve traversed the rocky road of life, whenever someone, anyone, be it a current love of my life, a mate, a lifelong friend or passing ship in a sleepless night has asked me whether or not I’ve seen The Machinist, my stock answer has always been that yes I have and it’s an incredible film with a skeletal, anxiety inducing performance from Christian Bale. That much is true. Kind of. For I have seen this film before but not for many a sleepless decade and so I hadn’t bargained for how unsettling and horrifying this film truly is. You know what’s coming, it’s just that you have to go through a paranoid panic attack to get there. The film poster above connects the dots from David Fincher’s Fight Club through to Christopher Nolan’s impeccable Memento. High praise indeed for two films I’m already obsessed with and I have no doubt whatsoever that there will be an insomniac reading this in some faraway future who will revere this film as I do the two masterpieces noted above, or the other immediate film that struck me on this evening’s re-watch, Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys. Maybe it’s just that one, repeated, heart breaking scene and maybe it’s the trick of the mind at 1.30am and the memories of a tortured soul that may never find some peace or the relief of some restful sleep.
Number 5
“Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning” Directed by Christoper McQuarrie
"Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning (2023)
Here’s my chart of the MI films in order of cinematic greatness:
Mission: Impossible (1996) (directed by Brian De Palma)
Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018) (directed by Christopher McQuarrie)
Mission: Impossible III (2006) (directed by JJ Abrams)
Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015) (directed by Christopher McQuarrie)
Mission: Impossible II (2000) (directed by John Woo)
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011) (directed by Brad Bird)
So in reverse order: Ghost Protocol is utterly dreadful and a run of the mill action film that bears very little resemblance to a Mission: Impossible film. From Hungary to The Kremlin in Russia and a bad guy or boogeyman called “Cobalt”, I cared very little for it a decade ago and even the ridiculous stunt on the outside of a Dubai hotel couldn’t save it from being the least regarded in my affections. MI2 starts brilliantly with the snatching of a deadly “Chimera”, an early inversion in the use of the rubber face masks so indelibly linked to the series and Tom Cruise as headliner once more “Ethan Hunt” free climbing a rockface. But director John Woo’s trademark slow motion shots continue to frustrate me and like Ghost Protocol above, it just doesn’t have the feel of a Mission: Impossible film for me.
Next up is the first of four instalments (present and future) from the directorial skills of Christopher McQuarrie and arguably the first of two back-to-back sequels in the series as Rogue Nation sees “The Syndicate” (which morphs into “The Apostles” in Fallout) with the same brilliant enemy in the guise of actor Sean Harris and my goodness is this a REAL Mission: Impossible film! No doubt well regarded and known as the film whereby Tom Cruise clings to the outside of a military aeroplane climbing into the sky, we also have the delights of travelling from Belarus to London, Washington to Morocco and Berlin before the opera in Vienna and all within a film that brilliantly showcases the comedic acting prowess of Simon Pegg. I love Fallout more even though it’s seemingly sponsored in every cinematic frame by BMW (even more so than every other film in the series) but continuing a theme of bad guys at number 3 we have the magnificent and much missed presence of Philip Seymour Hoffman as perhaps the most repugnant and vindictive bad guy in the series so far and the chasing of a “Rabbit’s Foot” from Berlin to China through to Vatican City, as well as yet another ridiculous stunt with Cruise base jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper and a very early cameo appearance from Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame.
Fallout too is very much in the category of being the archetypal Mission: Impossible film and directed once more by Christopher McQuarrie, a huge reason for my excitement in watching the seventh instalment in the franchise for the first time today. But lastly and before we get to that, we must return to the beginning and the reason we’re all here in the first place and the Brian De Palma directed original from 1996 and THE Mission: Impossible film that still stands the test of time and a bona-fide masterpiece. Here we have a “NOC-list”, an early representation of a rudimentary internet and arms dealers as we traverse the globe from Ukraine to the Czech Republic and THAT exploding fish tank scene. But we also have a stellar all-time cast list from John Voight to Jean Reno, Emilio Estevez to Ving Rhames and of course Vanessa Redgrave and the star of the show for the next two decades and more, Tom Cruise.
So to today and accompanied by my movie loving son we decamped once more to the reassuring darkness of our local cinema and first things first, you simply have to, given the means and opportunity, see Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning — Part One on the cinema screen. It’s the very epitome of a “big screen movie”, loud, wide, fast, breath taking and a rip-roaring ride of excitement and edge of the seat thrills. All of which you’d expect from the franchise but it’s reassuring to note that all of this and so much more was present and correct. The dead reckoning from the movie’s title refers to an undetectable and “invisible” Russian nuclear submarine traversing the bottom of the Bering Sea and quickly we’re transported to a gun fight in the Saudi Arabian desert, the beauty of Rome and Venice before the heavily trailed denouement over two hours later with perhaps the most outrageous stunt Tom Cruise has ever pulled off throughout the franchise as he roars a motorcycle off the edge of a mountain before parachuting aboard the Orient Express!
In between are set pieces and stunts galore, the highlight of which is a car chase through the winding streets of Rome that is as brilliantly breath taking as anything seen in The French Connection, Ronin or The Italian Job, and all within the cramped confines of a speedy runaway Fiat 500 as our hero is handcuffed to yet another duplicitous scoundrel and soon to be love interest in Part 2. Probably. The set pieces and stunt action sequences never let up and if you think driving a motorcycle off the top of a mountain in order to catch up with a speeding train is audacious, wait until you see what happens when our hero actually boards the train!
Number 4
“Wham!” (2023) Directed by Chris Smith
I’m a sucker for a damn good documentary series or film and this is one of the VERY best.
“How could these two idiots become so bloody massive?”
George Michael.
So begins Wham! which here in the UK had a one-off cinema screening night in late June before becoming widely available to stream via Netflix and perfectly in keeping with one of the documentary’s opening lines from George Michael above, this documentary film is irreverent, fun, full of joy, laughter, love and smiles as George and Andrew Ridgeley narrate us through just four short years of their meteoric rise and the year or so before as they forged the career they both dreamed of as schoolchildren. From children in school and Andy immediately volunteering to look after the “geeky” looking new kid in the over-sized glasses he soon simply called “Yog” (abbreviated from Yorgos, Greek for “George”) through to their final sold out Wembley Stadium gig in the Summer of 1986, watching this film quite simply made my day as I smiled royally throughout.
The obvious confession I have to make is that I’m not, or was ever, a fan of Wham! I found their music to be too “poppy” and young even though I lived through their stratospheric rise as an impressible teenager. Back in those early to mid 1980’s my musical tastes were moving from, and shaped by, the “New Romantics” of Depeche Mode, then Simple Minds before a dalliance with the harder, metal sounds of Guns ’n’ Roses before I graduated to Bruce Springsteen and U2. From the 1990’s onward and way past the shortened career of Wham! I became a fan of independent and prog rock music with Pink Floyd and Radiohead pretty much topping and tailing my musical desires, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves and away from those halcyon teenage years of the 1980’s which from 1983 through to 1985 was largely dominated by the sounds and creations of two school friends, one of whom was driven to be THE number 1 sound of global music.
Number 3
“Inside” (2023) Directed by Vasilis Katsoupis
I watched “Inside” purely on the strength of my adoration for Willem Dafoe and was utterly blown away by a fantastic film that ends with a Radiohead song. What further recommendation do you need?
“Nemo” (Willem Dafoe) One of only eleven credited roles of which only three are notable, this is Dafoe’s film entirely, and he’s entirely front and centre as he turns from gamekeeper to poacher, obsessional sketch artist to art thief in a heist that goes horribly wrong and he’s left to his own devices locked inside an opulent high rise apartment with seemingly no means of escape. From “Art is for keeps” through to “There is no creation without destruction”, Nemo is abandoned and alone when the security of the apartment traps him inside an incredibly expensive exhibit to modern art as well as living art. With the air conditioning malfunctioning, next to zero long term food in a refrigerator that plays the song “Macarena” if left open for more than twenty seconds and no water or fluids except for a quickly exhausted bottle of vodka, he is forced to drink from and bathe in the indoor swimming pool as he tries every means of escape from a soundproofed cage as the weeks slowly become months of isolation, dreams, nightmares, hunger, delirium and solitary madness. The telephone line isn’t working. Nor is the television. He doesn’t have a mobile telephone and the battery on his walkie-talkie has long since died. He is alone among the art works he once coveted but which he now destroys in anger at a situation he cannot control and a world he can only see through the vast windows of a cage cannot escape.
Dafoe is magnificent and considering the singular nature of the film he has to be. Vasilis Katsoupis’ direction is stylish, often with his star in close up or from above as he prowls through the apartment seeking his escape. The film as a whole consists of two halves, the first a desperate attempt to escape, the second an allegory to life and death, heaven and hell before, rather brilliantly and very aptly, “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead plays out across the film’s closing credits, with stories of “Black eyed Angels”, “A moon full of stars and astral cars”, “Past and Futures” and journeying to heaven “in a little row boat”.
Highly recommended.
“There was nothing to fear, and nothing to doubt”.
Number 2
“Asteroid City” (2023) Directed by Wes Anderson
Confession time. I didn’t overly care for “Asteroid City” on first viewing and probably because I admire the films of Wes Anderson so much I wanted it to be so special I’d instantly fall in love with it. Which I did the following day when I watched it again at the cinema. Then the next day when I watched it again, and now several more times on the smaller screen. It’s not his best but with further viewings, I couldn’t help but fall in love with this beautiful gem.
The opening quarter of an hour brilliantly sets up the surreal main course that follows, of directors playing directors, actors playing actors, a play within a play within the background to the play and the supposed real life surrounding our actors and directors in the world of Asteroid City (“population 87”) and its half built bridge and a motel owner who starts every sentence with “Of course, I understand” and the car chase and shoot-out between cops and robbers that runs through this one-horse town or rather in the background, the ultimate background and backdrop being the asteroid crater and the convention of “Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets”. Entering into this fictional world is a teacher with her ten, sometimes nine, children (eight if you count the young rascal caught smoking with the band around a campfire!) and a lifeless war photographer, a grieving father, a “Brainiac” of a son and an emotionless actress who one fears will maybe one day follow the path of Marilyn Monroe but not here, not in Asteroid City. That will come later in another world away from the one created by Wes Anderson, of a vibrantly colourful picture book world that just looks so goddamned beautifully unreal.
Oh, there’s also an alien and over an hour, a day and a week of quarantine our somewhat hapless heroes and heroines explore the meaning of life, death and the importance of family in the uncertainty and curiosity of the exploration of life and the world immediately surrounding us. It’s the circle of life of unrequited love and the losing of the love of actually living.
And it’s “today again”.
Number 1
“Oppenheimer” (2023) Directed by Christopher Nolan
A masterpiece.
Act Three: Genius
Cillian Murphy confirmed the entire shoot for Oppenheimer took 59 days (WTF with Marc Maron podcast, episode 1453) 59 days! But the London born filmmaking genius has done it again. There’s little point in hiding any of my biases or my unabashed love for the movies he’s created (though Insomnia leaves me cold and you can explain Tenet to me any time you wish!) so as you would expect I LOVED this film. Oppenheimer can only age like a fine wine akin to The Prestige, and I can’t compliment Nolan’s latest creation any higher than that.
From ambitious idealist to conflicted outsider blacklisted in a “Kangaroo Court” from the profession he loved surrounded by spooks and spies and character assassinations based upon political ideology, this sets the table for the McCarthyism of the early Cold War and the war with Russia that has been raging, cold or hot, since the end of World War II and which shows no signs of abating to this very day.
Oppenheimer is a towering achievement from Christopher Nolan and I’ll leave the final words to my son who upon seeing it 24 hours before I did remarked that whilst he liked it, “Dad is going to LOVE this”.
And I did.
Thanks for reading. Congratulations if you made it this far and if you have, well I have some more reading for you and, should you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package, all seven mighty and lengthy volumes of my “Essential Film Reviews Collection” are free to read. Here are the odd numbered volumes for your perusal:
"Essential Film Reviews Collection - Vol.1
"Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.3
"Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.5
"Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.7
Thank you for telling me what to see and also what to avoid....