Extremely Critical Belgian’s review published on Letterboxd:
Happy New Year!
If there's one way to describe 2023, it would be this. An excruciating pain in the ass that I will look back on with a great fondness. I had so many crazy experiences, struggles and moments of sheer panic, and I truly believe it made all me a better person in the end. And while it started horribly, it did have a pretty happy ending.
- I met a lot of great people, one of whom I've contacted on Discord and continue to talk to on a regular basis. I even helped him in his entrence to film school and was happy to hear he got accepted.
- I had a stupid argument with someone under an Into The Spider-verse review, and we ended up being pretty good friends.
- I got to participate in a podcast for the first time with AdrianSwitchDog and his friend, DanTheFilmGuy. He even went as far as gifting me a Patron subscription. I can't thank him enough for that!
- I shared what was probably my biggest hot take of all time, which for some reason came from a stupid kids film that nobody was talking about the month after it came out, instead of the 6/10 I gave to possibly the biggest animated film of the last decade.
- I watched a lot of directors' filmographies for the first time, two of which were Akira Kurosawa, with the only movie that ever made me cry twice in the same sitting, and Bong Joon-Ho, with an incredible murder mystery that I didn't give nearly enough credit at the time.
- Netflix was very helpful in filling out my Bottom 5 with atrocious animated shlock and a Jackie Chan film with some of the worst special effects I've ever seen. They did release my favorite movie of the year, so that was nice.
- I managed to avoid everything Disney released this year. I didn't watch Wish, I didn't watch their live-action remakes, I didn't watch anything related to Star Wars or Marvel. The only thing they made that I paid to see was Elemental.
- Oh yeah, there was also that whole Kyler situation. I never heard from him again, and I think that's for the better.
- I revealed the big movie that I had kept a secret for years. I'm usually not a fan of my longer reviews, but I spent a very long time working on that one and I'm very proud of how it ended up.
- I posted my first ever review to make it to 100 likes. In fact, by the time you read this it has already made it to 200.
- I watched the single worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life. A film so bad that I don't even want to count for my Bottom 5, because to call it a film is not the right way to describe it. Photoreceptive torture. That's what it is.
- It is the only year so far where I didn't watch a single thing for the first time that I ended up giving 5 stars. That was until the very last day when I handed it to 12 Angry Men.
As sad as that is, it is quite an achievement, and probably the most emblematic of how far my cynical attitude has come. My ranking of the year is still ongoing until the next Oscars ceremony, but the year itself wasn't exactly a nice one for me when it came to movies in particular. Let's hope (but not expect) that this year will be a step up. If I can find just one film that absolutely blows me away to the same degree as RRR did in 2022, then that would be good enough for me. I wish you all a happy 2024, and I'll see you in my next review.
