Some titles we had been waiting for a long time, others surprised us by making their way through festivals and rankings. Thanks to the Barbenheimer effect, in 2023 we truly returned to the cinema, but we didn’t forget what the world of the small screen had to offer. If you missed any of the movies or TV series below, hurry to catch up—they are unmissable for us!
TV SERIES
The Last of Us
The Last of Us was everything. It was a highly successful experiment of a video game transformed into a TV series. It was a success in terms of both numbers and critics. It was the turning point in Pedro Pascal’s career. It also made us reflect on how what we see in TV series may not be so far from reality.
Beef
There’s always a show that starts quietly and, through word of mouth, becomes a must-watch. For us, that show this year was Beef. The mutual hatred of the two protagonists, growing from episode to episode, is what brings them closer in a whirlwind of situations on the verge of reality.
Succession
We couldn’t exclude the season finale of one of the best series in recent years that has garnered much attention. Since 2018, we had been waiting to understand who would take the place of the feared Logan Roy. We took sides, changed our minds, hoped for a name, and the finale gave us a slap in the face because, in the end, it’s all about business… even in the family.
The Bear
The return of Carmy Berzatto and his family is what we awaited the most, and going back inside the kitchen of The Original Beef of Chicagoland was both frightening and eagerly anticipated. Christopher Storer managed not to disappoint our expectations, and who knows if the third season will be in our ranking next year.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Broadly inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s story, this series available on Netflix is perfect for horror genre lovers, but not only. The narrative, playing with temporal jumps and explosive twists, deserved a place among our favorites.
FILM
Aftersun
The beginning of the year was both romantic and melancholic, with a story about the sweetest relationship that can exist, that between father and daughter. Everything here is perfect—the performance of Paul Mescal, the timing, the cinematography, the music, and, despite everything, even the ending that breaks our hearts as only real life can.
The Whale
Among the films at the 2022 Oscars, the one that left the strongest impression on us was undoubtedly Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. A room, a man, and an external world that sometimes manages to intrude but is not enough to cure the protagonist’s illness, obesity.
Air – La storia del grande salto
There were many films that saw the friend duo Ben Affleck-Matt Damon share the screen, and this year they did it again to tell a story that we at Collater.al particularly liked. Everyone can bet on who has already reached the top, but only the best have the courage to bet on someone who has yet to prove the best of themselves. Is it a gamble? Yes. Is this how the best stories are born? Yes. And that’s exactly how the bond between Michael Jordan and Nike and the timeless Air Jordan 1 was born.
Barbie
Barbie‘s communication strategy led us to the cinema with the idea that we had already seen the movie or heard so much about it that watching it might be pointless. Luckily, we went to the cinema and immersed ourselves in Greta Gerwig’s pink world, who took the ultimate symbol of the objectified woman and gave her a personality, a voice, and morals.
Oppenheimer
It was the most anticipated film, partly because Nolan is someone who knows how to intrigue his audience, partly because when you read the names Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh all together, you can’t help but rush to the cinema and buy a ticket. Here we are biased because we loved it immeasurably, and it couldn’t be missing from this list.
There still tomorrow
We couldn’t be happier to include an Italian film, and we’re not doing it out of bias, but because this time it deserves it as much as the others. Paola Cortellesi, making her directorial debut, managed to make us cry and laugh, talk about us today, returning to post-war Italy, reminding us that even though we often feel alone and abandoned, we continue to be part of a society, and someone like us, with our ideals and ethics, exists—we must have the courage to stand tall.
Anatomy of a Fall
The reason we liked Anatomy of a Fall is that it’s a film built on gaze, on the visible and the invisible. Not surprisingly, two of the most beautiful shots in the film are two subjective shots, both falsified. The first is a top-down shot capturing the moment Sandra and Daniel look at Samuel’s body. The second is Daniel’s subjective shot sitting between the benches in the courtroom, facing his mother. Those clear gazes are not the protagonists, they are ours, the same ones that fight from the beginning to the end of the film to decide the innocence or guilt of the protagonist.
