Hey everyone! Glad to see you all made it to 2024 in one piece—and if you didn’t that’s really none of my business! As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, one of my goals for this year was to watch more movies. That was also a goal last year, and while I didn’t watch that many movies, I did watch more than I did the year before and the year before that! We’re only getting better at this! In what is hopefully the last year-in-review post of mine (until December of course), here are my favorite movies that I’ve seen in the year 2023 (but not all of them came out in 2023—I’m very far behind!). In no particular order:
Blockers (2018)
Back in 2018 I watched a lot more movies in the theater—that’s what happens when you live in a town with a $3.50 matinee ticket (with a student I.D.)—but I didn’t manage to see Blockers when it came out and it’s been on the backburner of movies ever since. It’s about three best friends who all decide that they want to lose their virginities on their senior prom night and then their parents, who used to be friends but then fell out over time, find out and try to stop it. The synopsis does sound pretty bad but I can assure you it is not. The way they navigate teen sexuality, parenthood, and coming of age was honestly so genuine and done in a very tasteful, hilarious way. I watched this movie alone at 11:00 at night and I was laughing out loud. I never laugh out loud. Please watch this movie so that I can talk about it with someone! Nobody’s seen it!
No Hard Feelings (2023)
We’ve had a sex romp drought these past few years and No Hard Feelings was the rainfall we needed to keep the crops from dying this year. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, who is hired by a nineteen year-old boy’s parents to help him lose his virginity before college, this movie also sounds bad when you say the plot out loud. But let me assure you that this is a good movie and also very, very funny! And not as creepy as you think it is! We need more mid-tier sex comedies, and maybe this movie was the catalyst to bring it back.
Barbie (2023)
Of COURSE I liked Barbie! Who has eyes and ears and a brain and doesn’t like the Barbie movie? We as a culture have discussed Barbie enough, but it sure is a favorite.
Bottoms (2023)
There has never been a movie made that is so relatable to me specifically as someone who was also gay, ugly, and untalented in high school. Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri are two loser best friends who start a fight club to try sleeping with their hot cheerleader crushes. Things then get absurd, but let’s be real it was absurd from the start. I am obsessed with this movie and think everyone should watch it.
Scream VI (2023)
Of course I liked the new Scream movie. A lot of people don’t like the revamp but there’s really not much I need to ask out of the Scream franchise. They’re all supposed to be a little campy and dumb and are a reflection of the other horror movies of the time it was made, and sorry to say it’s not 1996 anymore! Chad getting stabbed so many times and still surviving is a great bit! (Spoilers, sorry). Still the scariest thing out of this franchise was Courtney Cox’s bangs in Scream 3.
Saltburn (2023)
Yeah, I’m one of those girls who liked Saltburn and didn’t think it was that weird. What can I say? I think Jacob Elordi is very hot and I also used to be on Tumblr in the early 2010s. The cinematography is beautiful and there were scenes more uncomfortable than the sex ones you hear about on the internet. Also, it is a beautiful period piece of the best time to have been alive: 2006.
Gone Girl (2014)
As a Ben Affleck fan I am a hack and a fraud for not having seen his whole filmography already, but I’m slowly filling in the gaps. I think she did nothing wrong.
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
Also an old one and it’s a little hard to find, but my friend has it on DVD and we finally got around to watching it. It’s so funny. It’s very dark but honestly it’s a perfect movie.
Honorable Mention: Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023)
I don’t think this is a particularly amazing movie, it was just fine, but these days I feel like any movie that uses practical effects just needs an extra shout out—maybe to encourage big studios to use practical effects again so their movies don’t look like shit (they won’t). The animatronics looked so good they had me foaming at the mouth. Of course they did, they’re from the Jim Henson Creature Shop.
Ghost Rats are kicking off the year with two shows at the Bughouse! On Thursday 1/4 we’re opening for 2pm Mistress at 8:00pm and on Friday 1/5 we have our first Date Night with the Rats of 2024 at 10:00pm.
Also! Please vote for us in the Chicago Reader for “Best improv/sketch group” and “Best comedy show.”