Movie #10 of 2023: Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road (2023) Disney+ has decided to label this festive Doctor Who outing as Special 4, which suggests a certain close continuity with the recent David Tennant / Catherine Tate trilogy that doesn’t really pan out in the episode itself. Instead, as expected, the script is …
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Movie #9 of 2023: Doctor Who: The Giggle (2023) In hindsight, I probably should have approached these three David Tennant/Catherine Tate Doctor Who specials as a single season of television, miniature though it’d be, rather than a trilogy of discrete movie equivalents. More even than the previous round of Tennant specials that followed series 4 …
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Movie #8 of 2023: Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder (2023) The second of three David Tennant / Catherine Tate specials we’re getting this year is even better than the first. It’s less busy, for starters, with a premise that’s mostly just the Doctor and Donna exploring a derelict spaceship at the very edge of existence. …
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Movie #7 of 2023: Doctor Who: The Star Beast (2023) Doctor Who is back! In so many ways. David Tennant has returned to the starring role he held in the early days of the modern series (as we learned he would when Jodie Whittaker regenerated at the end of her own run last year), and …
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Movie #6 of 2023: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) After ten smash albums over the past seventeen years — roughly half her life to date — the country-turned-pop artist Taylor Swift has amassed a body of work well worthy of retrospective. That’s the motivation behind her recent Eras tour, and so too this concert …
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Movie #5 of 2023: Barbie (2023) Heartfelt, hilarious, and swathed in a vivid color palette — this movie about the titular doll isn’t really meant for the kids young enough to play with her, but it is very much a feel-good female empowerment hit for the rest of us. In this story all the Barbies …
Movie #4 of 2023: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) Another rollicking cosmic thrill ride, and one that doubles as an apparent farewell to this creative corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Never say never where comic book characters are concerned, but with visionary director James Gunn now working for the DC competition, this …
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Movie #3 of 2023: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) It looks like I’m out of step with the critical consensus on this one, based on the early reviews, but whatever: I really liked the latest piece in Marvel’s increasingly complex cinematic universe! Maybe I’m just riding the high of being back in a movie …
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Movie #2 of 2023: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) Perhaps inevitably, this sequel is not as strong as its rather extraordinary 2018 predecessor. But it nears that level of quality at times, and might well be the best possible follow-up given the awful loss of original star Chadwick Boseman to colon cancer in the intervening …
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Movie #1 of 2023: The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022) This seemingly-unnecessary feature film installment for the long-running Fox cartoon turns out to be a delightful surprise, especially coming after several seasons of television that haven’t struck me as all too creatively fruitful. Perhaps the production team’s attention was on this project instead? Whatever the reason, …
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