My Top 6 Films of 2023
Just some recommendations for my favourite new releases of last year!
Originally published on Cinemania.
2023 had a few knock-out hits as far as the cinema goes — obviously, people were very excited about the respective releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer, but my top films of the year were a bit different.
One thing I do think unites a lot of these — and a trend I hope to see from more films in the next few years — is a trend toward more earnestness and sincerity in scripts and plot lines, and I’m hoping that trend continues!
Without further ado, my top films of 2023:
They Cloned Tyrone (dir. Juel Taylor)
They Cloned Tyrone is a fucking triumph, and hands-down had my favourite costume design of the year — it at the same time feels very vintage in places, calling heavily on the Blaxploitation movies of the 1970s and their aesthetics while at the same time dragging in more modern— and dystopian — futuristic elements throughout. Teyonah Parris is a particular triumph as Yo-Yo, but the whole cast really rocks this whole flick.
This film feels in so many ways like a fever dream, layering disparate elements and tones, and for that is all the more hard-hitting with the horror and painful realism of its cynical central plot.
If you watch a single of the films recommended on this list, make it this one.
Down Low (dir. Rightor Doyle)
This film is weird as fuck, and it makes a lot out of leaning into that. Delving into the ugly reality of down-low hook-ups on gay dating apps and dialing the chaos that can arise from them up to the max, this is a surprisingly heartfelt look at gay loneliness and isolation in the white middle-class US.
It’s fast-paced and kooky with its dialogue — Lukas Gage, of Euphoria fame, co-wrote the script with Phoebe Fisher, and Gage’s particular style of verbose and down-right weird speeches are dotted through it — and while it ultimately ends in the death you know from the beginning is coming, it doesn’t feel like it’s wholly a tragedy.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023, dir. John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein)
I don’t think I need to go into great detail about this one — Dungeons and Dragons’ newest addition to its array of canons here is a spellbinding and delightful watch. A lot of the problem with fantasy films and TV shows the past few years has been how painfully over-ironic they are, with none of them being able to just lean into their premise and accept that, yes, we’re being a bit silly, and that’s the point! But the DnD movie is just spectacularly earnest and gives itself entirely over to the wonder of its world, and that feels wonderful.
Every time I’ve watched it, which is a few times now, I’ve picked up on new fun world details or little in-jokes, and there are just so many things this film does right and has fun with, most of all making Xenk Yendar even more autistic than ever whilst also making him hot with the Regé-Jean Page casting.
And also, Hugh Grant is here playing a horrible, sleazy bastard of a wizard, and speaking of hot —
Cocaine Bear (dir. Elizabeth Banks)
Must a film be good?
Firstly, isn’t a coked-up horny female bear wreaking havoc and ripping people to shreds enough? And also, even if it wasn’t enough, aren’t so many queer characters going through the weirdest day out ever, girlbosses galore (I’m including the bear), funny as Hell dialogue, and even plot twists enough?
We saw this in the cinema on its release, and it was utterly glorious. Everyone should have the pleasure of seeing the feminist icon of 2023, the cocaine bear (sorry, Barbie), on the biggest screen imaginable, ripping into some hapless gay with full surround sound.
The Boogeyman (dir. Rob Savage)
I normally run along to see any new releases from Rob Savage as I loved Host, and The Boogeyman was so much more than I expected — bearing no resemblance at all to the original lacklustre Stephen King short story, this film really plays so creatively with light and shadow and has an honestly spine-tingling monster design that feels viscerally frightening from its introduction to its final boss battle.
I love it when a film plays with light sources, most of all when good horror does it, and this flick really delivers on that point — not knowing where light is going to come from adds extra tension when you’re trying to see into the shadowy corners, and whether it’s from the lunar nightlight, the videogame flashes, the camera, the fridge, or anywhere else, this film really has this holistic approach to light and shadow that just fucks.
The Pope’s Exorcist (dir. Julius Avery)
Again, must a film be good?
Isn’t it enough to have a coked-up bear —
Okay, I used that line already, but this time it’s Russell Crowe, and he’s doing an Italian accent, and he’s riding a little Vespa, and it’s the funniest and best thing in the world.
Much like the DnD movie, The Pope’s Exorcist really leans into its premise and just goes really earnest about it — it doesn’t take too much time to sardonically comment on the ridiculousness of its own universe, and that makes it feel really fresh compared to a lot of other big studio horror films. It’s silly and stupid and mixes more impressive scares in with the cheap ones, and it’s just a really fun movie to watch with friends.
30 notes
·
View notes
You so much seize Deacon, I would love to see the taken of the old HQ, how he react and survive
Maybe realized even if he intend not to leek with others, he may worry for tinker tom and glory and try hard to save them (but never admit he put himself in danger for their lifesake)
And maybe a though for old Whisper (Silver/Nora take the nickname of Whisper then when deacon give her the Deliverer, it's seem to mean much)
Hope to have exprim adequately, I'm continue to trying improv my english
The Big Leagues™︎
part five : deacon (continued)
| deacon (1) | maccready | gage | hancock | butch |
>> the big leagues™︎ is a series of origin stories that express my takes on the pasts of the companions. there is no sole survivor included in these. please do not regard these as canon, and no characters belong to me, all belong to bethesda and the writers of fallout four
!TW!
mentions of blood & gore / death
>>
Deacon had to admit, he was good at knowing things. His gut never seemed to fail him — he knew when someone was lying, he knew when things were about to turn south, he could just sense it somewhere deep inside of him.
But, that day, that horrid, dreaded day, he didn’t have a clue. And that made it all the worse.
The Switchboard had fallen straight into the hands of dozens… no, hundreds of gen-ones from the Institute. How they’d learned their location, nobody had a clue. But all that was on Deacon’s mind now was to just freaking survive.
The synths were pouring in from every entrance, pinning Deacon and the rest of the railroad in the center of the building. They’d flipped some tables to make some sort of shield against the laser guns, but it didn’t do much when they were shooting from every angle.
They’d already lost agents. Everyone in the tunnels would’ve had to have been dead in order for the synths to get that far. Beatrice, Ms. Boom, Francis, Maven, Roger, Kelly, Mr. Mathers and Nicholas — they were all on patrol in the tunnels that day, and the Institute had forced past them.
Deacon tried to shove the thoughts of them away as synths poured into the main room of the building. Desdemona was crouching next to him, behind the same metal table. It wasn’t but a few moments ago she’d tasked Tommy Whispers and Tinker Tom with wiping the terminal systems of the Railroad’s sensitive information. They’d taken off up the stairs like men on a mission, but Deacon wasn’t sure how far they’d get.
He kept his body as close to the table as he could while shooting, albeit pretty blindly, at the synths past it. Desdemona was still barking out orders he wasn’t paying any attention to. Deacon glanced around, spying Glory and Drummer Boy behind a table adjacent to theirs. A few more agents — Raven, Jonas, Penelope — were holed up behind furniture, but for the most part, the only company they had were bodies. So many bodies. The room was full of them. There had to be three times as many Railroad bodies as there were synth bodies, and the synths seemed to be an endless army. One synth went down, three showed up in its place, like an ancient Greek monster. Deacon was starting to think, maybe he was afraid of monsters.
“-Deacon!”
He whipped around toward Desdemona, who was staring at him with wide eyes. His panicked heartbeat was thudding in his ears and his adrenaline was through the roof. “Go support Tinker Tom and Whispers, now! We can hold them off here!”
He knew better than to question her. But, glancing around the room at the handful of terrified agents left, he wasn’t so sure if they could actually hold them off or not.
Without replying, he took down a few more synths. They were just metal, and wiring, and they took at least five bullets each to actually kill. And he was already running low. She wants him to what, now? He couldn’t focus.
“Deacon, go!”
He kicked himself into gear and sucked in a deep breath, sprinting from behind one cover to another. Blue lasers followed him the whole way, burning small holes in the concrete floor and leaving little puffs of smoke in their wake.
His mind was swimming, not only with the terrifying circumstances, but all the anxious thoughts that were clawing themselves up his throat. How many were dead? Would he even survive? God, this was the end of the Railroad, wasn’t it?
He scanned the synths. There weren’t any paying close attention to the stairs, but that would change as soon as he made a move for them. How was he supposed to get up a staircase without getting shot? Zigzag? Book it? Creep and hope they don’t notice? Every idea sounded bad. Probably because they were.
Pick your poison, he guessed.
Running would be fine.
There were currently six synths in the room — two on Des, two on Glory and Drummer boy, and two on the others. None on him, not anymore. The staircase on the right was darker, so he chose that one. And after a mental count of three, he sprinted.
Lasers started spraying past him as soon as he moved. He stuck close to the wall and darted up the stairs as fast as he could. But it wasn’t fast enough. A familiar searing pain shot through his left shoulder right as he made it to the top of the stairs, the power from the laser radiating through his entire body like he was being electrocuted. Everything went numb, and his legs gave out, sending him straight into the floor. His ears were ringing and his entire body was practically vibrating. He could’ve swore someone shouted his name but, then again, he couldn’t really hear.
But the lasers were still spraying. He didn’t have time to be hurt.
So he pulled himself up, numbly, and crawled through the doorway without his gun. Where was his gun? He looked back behind him and saw his pistol laying on the second step to the top. Lasers were still flying up the stairs and burning the wall behind. There was absolutely no way for him to get it back.
He stayed ducked below the windows as he closed the doors on either side of the room, barricading them with whatever he could, which wasn’t much. His shoulder felt like someone had ripped his entire arm right off, but he couldn’t act like it. He had to continue on like he wasn’t hurt, because if he slowed down, it would be harder for him to speed up again.
The sad barricade definitely wouldn’t keep the synths out if they decided to chase him, but he was out of furniture. He tried not to pay attention to the bodies that lay in the room with him, but quickly failed when one caught his eye. It was Nadine, a courier. And she had a shotgun on her.
Deacon’s head spun slightly as he pulled the sling from around her unresponsive corpse, searching her clothing for shells. He found, maybe ten, shoving them in his own pockets. She was staring up at him with a blank face and dead eyes. A blank face and dead eyes that had once been bright and full of life, sauntering into HQ with stories to tell. And now she was dead.
He suddenly felt nauseous, and he had to force whatever bile was rushing up his throat back down as he loaded the shells into the shotgun with horribly shaky hands. Every time he moved a single finger on his left hand, a terrible pain shot through his entire arm. Something inside of his shoulder was screwed.
After fumbling with the shells for a few seconds too long, and shoving his nausea away until it faded, he advanced through the double doors and into the quaint little hallways of the Switchboard. There were halls everywhere, several different directions for synths to come from. It was empty, for now, but he was at the mercy of whatever decided to pop out of the other hallways. And that made him anxious.
Get it together, Deacon, He told himself. He stepped quietly down the hallway, shotgun raised and finger hot on the trigger. There were sounds coming from the end of the hall — where he needed to go — but nothing close to him. But that didn’t mean there weren’t synths close to him. His heartbeat grew increasingly loud in his head as he inched forward, eyes bouncing from one direction to the next and repeating.
He took a left, coming across a few synth bodies. The noises got louder. He could roughly make out voices — Tom and Whispers. He sped up slightly, turning to the left and-
BAM!
Oh God, he was a goner.
Wait, no… he was the one who pulled the trigger.
The head of the synth in front of him flew off backwards, and the entire rusty machine clattered on the floor like a rag doll. He glanced down at the shotgun, cocking it again despite the pain in his left arm. Thank God his body was moving faster than his head. He forced himself to move forward, toward the double doors that led into the terminal room. They were open, and he hardly had two seconds before a pair of synths came running out when he got near, shooting wildly. He cringed as he pulled the trigger twice, recoil absolutely beating him up as he sent buckshot flying into their direction. Mercifully, both of them fell on the immediate.
He hated shotguns.
He stepped over the downed machines, peering into the room. The desks and terminals were all in place, displayed neatly around the room. Only a couple in front of him were glowing. He wasn’t paying attention to that, though — he was looking for Tom and Tommy Whispers’ bodies. He crept forward, biting at the inside of his cheek as the fear of seeing their lifeless forms sprawled across the floor ripped through him like a tidal wave. But the floor was devoid of the dead besides the synths he’d just shot.
Great, so where were they?
He carefully inched out of the room, cocking the shotgun again. His left arm was in so much pain that it was going numb. He’d have to assess the damage later — laser was always a little worse, a nasty burn and a gaping hole, but that or the blood turning his entire left sleeve red wasn’t his focus. Was he even focused? He couldn’t focus enough to decide.
Suddenly, a slam of metal on metal made him flinch. It was loud. It had echoed from down the hallway, toward where the bank vault was. Immediately after the bang, a dozen, if not more laser shots rang out in the air.
What was he doing again? Oh yeah, finding Tom and Tommy. Everything inside him told him to flee, but instead, his feet pushed forward, toward the doorway of the safe room. The door was standing wide open. It had gone silent apart from quiet mechanical whirring and infrequent synthetic voices coming from inside.
He pressed himself against the wall beside the door with a sharp breath. What good was he for Tom and Whispers if he couldn’t get in and help them?
The synths heard him.
And they all came barreling through the doorway he was standing right beside. Like clockwork, one, two, three, in just a matter of seconds, one with a shock baton and two with guns. Deacon’s brain went fuzzy as he blindly pulled the shotgun’s trigger thrice, not even moving from his position — dropping one synth and after a moment, a second. The synth with the baton was still standing, and it was swinging at him.
He panicked, throwing himself across the hallway like some kind of terrified cat. The synth missed the swing aimed at his head, and he cocked the shotgun, bringing it up and pulling the trigger, not just once, but for all five of his remaining rounds. The robot fell back against the wall and slid down into a heap on the floor, whirring fading into silence.
That’s what made him nervous — the silence. Tinker Tom was never silent.
He quietly stepped into the safe room, glancing around warily. There were a few synth bodies, but everything else seemed in place. Well, everything but the safe door, which was pulled shut, but the bright green words on the terminal showed it was unlocked. He stepped closer and — what was that noise? Was it coming from inside the safe?
He stepped forward again, cocking his empty shotgun… for what? Intimidation? Habit? He didn’t know. What he did know was that, through the safe door, he heard someone crying.
“Tom? Whispers?” His voice came out sort of hoarse, but it was enough to grab the inhabitants attention.
“…Deacon?” Tinker Tom’s voice came from inside.
“Yeah, it’s me,” He replied. He stepped back and grabbed the lip of the door, pulling it open and glancing in.
The first thing he took in were the shelves that seemed to be intact and still holding their important items. The second thing he took in, though, was Tinker Tom, on his knees, blood absolutely covering his clothes and drenching his hands like he’d dipped them in a bucket of crimson paint. Tom was staring up at him with wide eyes, tears streaming down his face faster than the Niagara Falls. And the third thing Deacon saw—
Oh God… oh God…
Deacon dropped his shotgun.
Tommy Whispers lay in front of Tom, red pooling beneath him in a puddle. He’d gone eerily still, eyes staring up at the ceiling. He wasn’t blinking, wasn’t grimacing, wasn’t breathing.
Wasn’t… wasn’t breathing.
Deacon, although he felt like he was going to scream, vomit, faint, and fall over all at once, stayed completely glued to his spot. He got so dizzy and nauseous he was sure he was swaying. Tommy Whispers was dead? He couldn’t be dead. Deacon had known Tommy Whispers for as long as he’d been in the Railroad, he couldn’t possibly be dead. But the sight in front of him told a different story.
“I’m-I’m-I’m sorry, I-I really tried to save h-him, I really t-tried… really tried to save him…” Tom’s words came out more as a desperate stutter than anything else, hardly able to push a full word out. He looked back down at the body, blood-soaked hands hovering above the corpse searching for something to do, someway to help.
Deacon swallowed down bile for the second time, blinking back burning behind his sunglasses as he mentally kicked himself back into gear. He was afraid he would puke if he opened his mouth to speak, so he just leaned down, gently grabbing onto Tom’s wrists. God, he was so bloody.
Tom’s eyes stayed fixed on the body as Deacon tried his best to keep his eyes fixed on him. Was Tom hurt? Was he bleeding? A quick once over told Deacon no, but he wasn’t exactly in peak examination mode right then. He guided Tom out of the floor by his wrists.
“I’m-I’m-I’m sorry,” He repeated, clearly in a worse state of mind than Deacon expected. He led him numbly away from the safe, pushing the heavy door closed the best he could with his leg. He released Tom’s wrists, but he just kept mumbling: “I’m sorry, Deacon, I’m so sorry, I’m-“
Tom was standing- no, Tom was grabbing him. He had the front of Deacon’s white t-shirt balled in his bloody hands, blubbering like a child, not making an effort to conceal or wipe away the tears that were all over his face. Deacon flinched when Tom jerked him forward and… what was he doing? Wait, he was hugging him.
Wait, he was hugging him?
Tom had latched his arms tight around Deacon’s neck. God, he was covered in blood, and now Deacon was covered in blood. Tommy Whisper’s blood.
He could feel Tom trembling, or was that him? Actually, they were both trembling, he thought. Tommy Whispers was dead and they were covered in the blood. Tom had a death grip around Deacon’s neck and was weeping like a widow at a wake. What was going on? Why was he asking himself that? He knew what was going on. Deacon’s head was spinning, and he was glad Tom’s grip was so tight or he might’ve fallen over on the spot.
He found himself blinking back tears again. It wasn’t often he willingly thought about his past, but Tom, the first Railroad Agent he ever met was a crying, bloody mess. The same way Deacon was a crying, bloody mess when Tom first met him. And just like Tom was the first Railroad Agent Deacon saw, would he also be the last? Deacon forced himself not to think about it and, instead, brought his arms up to gently peel Tom away.
“We need to go,” He whispered. Why was he whispering? Was it because Tom was a mess, or was it because he was afraid he’d break if he spoke any louder than that?
Deacon and Tom gathered whatever remnants they had left of their bearings, starting toward the door in a dazed, weaponless frenzy. As soon as they crossed the threshold into the hallway, he slammed into someone, and glancing up, he caught Desdemona’s eye. She looked horrified. Walking behind her was Carrington, supporting a half-dead Drummer Boy against his side, and Glory was behind them with her minigun.
“Deacon- we’re leaving,” Desdemona ordered simply. The group didn’t even stop walking, and Deacon and Tom cut in right behind Des. They were heading toward the front entrance, through the old Slocum’s Joe. That probably wasn’t the best idea, but he didn’t have any will inside of him to mention it.
“What-what about the others?” Tom questioned. Des sucked in a breath from in front of them.
“There aren’t any others, Tom,”
Deacon would’ve froze if his legs hadn’t already been moving by themselves. That was it?
They were it?
Of course, they had agents across the Commonwealth, but the bulk were in HQ. And the bulk were dead. And Deacon was suddenly reminded that he was covered in Tommy Whispers’ blood.
With those few thoughts bouncing around in his head, the small group made it up and out of the Slocum’s Joe. There wasn’t much resistance. Or… maybe there was. He didn’t remember. The whole thing was fuzzy and he didn’t really know what was happening until they stepped out into the harsh commonwealth sunlight, and there were, finally, no more synths. It was just them and the sunlight.
The group walked only a little ways away before they stopped in a lightly wooded area. Carrington sat Drummer Boy down on the grass to tend to him the best he could. Tinker Tom was still crying, and slid down against the bark of an old tree to continue. Glory patrolled like her life depended on it, never batting an eye at her comrades. Desdemona propped herself against a tree across from Tom. Everyone was silent apart from Drummer Boy’s groans and Tom’s repetitive hiccups.
Deacon glanced down at his shirt as his mind cleared, and the weight came crashing back on. The HQ was gone, Tommy Whispers was dead, along with ninety percent of everyone he knew, and he was covered in blood that wasn’t his own.
He was sure he made some kind of sound when all the realization crashed back onto him, because Des and Glory looked at him weird. He hadn’t heard it.
He needed to get out of there.
He turned on his heel and walked. Disappeared deeper into the wooded area, far from his comrades so they couldn’t hear or see him anymore. He was shaking now, like an earthquake, and one last glance at the blood on his shirt made him — finally — get payed a second visit by everything he’d eaten recently. What was he supposed to do?
Barbara was gone, and now the Railroad, too.
28 notes
·
View notes