What a fantastic year to uncover some new favourite films I watched for the very first time.
What a fantastic year to uncover some new favourite films I watched for the very first time. My goal in 2023 was to hit 125 movies. While this was lower than usual, I was still able to watch 132 movies in total. All of the films mentioned in this article can be viewed on my First Time Favourites: 2023 list.
My list this year is again a solid mix of older films with newer releases. In 2023, I managed to make a good dent in the Academy Award Best Picture films. There are only 12 left on my list, mainly from the 1980s and 1990s, which I’m hoping to watch over the next year.
Below are some of my favourite first watches of 2023. I hope you enjoy and add some new films to add to your watchlist for 2024!
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the first films I watched in 2023 and is a remake of the 1930 movie by the same name. While the original was incredible and horrifying, I appreciated this new version for being made in German as it captures the perspectives of the young men having to fight for their country, which ends up on the wrong side of history.
The 2022 film was bone-chilling and completely encapsulated the horrifying realities of trench warfare and WWI. It was easily one of the most realistic depictions of war that I’ve ever seen on screen. Despite the ending being different than the original, it still had a lasting effect that was just as heartbreaking.
Favourite Line: “A man is born alone, he lives alone, and dies alone.”
The Women (1939)
The Women has to be one of the wittiest films ever made. The dialogue is driven by an all-female cast that follows a happily married woman who lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband cheats on her.
Although the female friendships can be a bit harsh, the all-female cast was absolutely everything and so unique even to this day. Norma Shearer excels in her role as Mary Haines, the sweet and jilted wife caught up in the mess. Rosalind Russell should always play a gossipy friend like Slyvia Fowler. And, of course, Joan Crawford stuns as the conniving mistress Crystal Allen.
Favourite Line: “A woman’s compromised the day she’s born.”
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
What an unbelievable film. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane follows two aging film actresses who live together in an old Hollywood mansion as one of them starts to go slightly mad.
Jane Hudson (Bette Davis), who was once a successful child star, is crippled by jealousy as she now has to take care of her disabled sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), whose career surpassed that of Jane. The pair’s relationship eventually reaches a boiling point as their mutual envy, hate and revenge for each other becomes too much.
Favourite Line: “I don’t want to talk about it! Everytime I think about something nice, you remind me of bad things. I only want to talk about the nice things.”
Gaslight (1944)
Ingrid Bergman is one of my favourite actresses, and she did not disappoint in Gaslight. Berman plays Paula Alquist, a woman going mad when strange things start happening in her family’s mansion as her husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), manipulates her into believing she is the crazy one.
Throughout the entire film, Boyer does a remarkable job as the villainous Gregory, literally gaslighting the heck out of Paula and making her feel like she’s going mad. The scene with the brooch is just one example of his masterclass on screen.
Favourite Line: “It isn’t here, you must have dreamed you put it there. Are you suggesting that this is a knife I hold in my hand? Have you gone mad, my husband? Or is it I who am mad?”
A Place in the Sun (1951)
A Place in the Sun is pure, melodramatic gold. George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is an ambitious young man working his way up the societal ladder who wins a heiress’ heart. The only thing getting in his way is a working-class woman who refuses to leave him.
When George meets Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), he falls madly in love despite his former flame Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) being pregnant with his child. George has to figure out a way to “resolve” the situation before it goes any further. You can figure out the pieces as to what happens next.
Favourite Line: “Seems like we always spend the best part of our time just saying goodbye.”
The Sting (1973)
While I watched The Sting trying to finish watching all the Academy Award Best Picture winners, it ended up being a real delight. Set in the 1930s, two professional grifters, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) and Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford), try to con a mob boss that murdered one of their gang.
Newman and Redford paired together again was another match made in heaven, just as they were in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It’s definitely a gem coming out of a list of Best Picture winners that can certainly be hit or miss.
Favourite Line: “Your boss is quite a card player, Mr. Kelly; how does he do it?” “He cheats.”
Double Indemnity (1944)
It took me a couple of tries to finish Double Indemnity since I started it on a flight, but it was still just as intriguing as if I had watched it in full. The film follows Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), a rich woman who enlists the help of a calculating insurance agent, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), to come up with a plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy.
The partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance money, which pays double if the death happens to be accidental. Of course, things don’t always go as planned.
Even thinking about the plot makes me want to give this an immediate rewatch.
Favourite Line: “It’s just like the first time I came here, isn’t it? We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet.”
Barbie (2023)
Hi Barbie! What a beautiful, heartfelt piece about the human experience to come out of 2023. Playing with Barbies growing up and the rollercoaster of relationships some of us have with the women in our lives, this film really got me.
Yes, I did cry like a baby both times I watched it in theatres, and yes, I would totally do it again. Plus, everyone dressing up in pink to watch the movie or watching it as a double feature with Oppenheimer was special (watching Barbie after Oppenheimer was the correct formula).
Barbie really is everything.
Favourite Line: “I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know.”
Marty (1955)
Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine) has to be one of the most endearing characters I watched on screen over the past year. The socially awkward butcher lives in the Bronx with his mother and has had trouble finding the right girl for him. Unmarried at 34, Marty’s family constantly hassles him about his bachelorhood. I’m sure we can all relate to that one.
Marty finally finds Clara Snyder (Betsy Blair), a school teacher his friends and family view as unattractive. As a result, they try to convince Marty not to see her again, even though the pair hit it off. Overall, it was such a sweet and simple film.
Favourite Line: “All my brothers and brothers-in-laws tell me what a good-hearted guy I am. You don’t get to be good-hearted by accident. You get kicked around long enough, you become a professor of pain.”
Chinatown (1974)
Chinatown was one of the last movies I watched in 2023, and boy, was it a memorable one. Who would’ve thought that a film about water could be so intriguing?
Private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by beautiful socialite Evelyn Cross Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband’s extra-marital affair. Nicholson fully embodies his role and is swept into what seems like a neverending case that starts and ends in cold blood.
Favourite Line: “Isn’t that something? Middle of a drought and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A.”
Other Notable First Time Favourites: The Best Years of Our Lives, Notorious, Aftersun, Theater Camp, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon
