2023 Review: Movies

Welcome back to a new year and a new series with WholeHeartEd, the relationship education program where we give you the tools you need to build healthy relationships! , and if you’ve been following us for awhile, you already know that means it’s time for the 2023 media review where we will look at the top movies, podcasts, music and shows of the previous year, evaluate the messages they are propagating into the culture and determine whether or not those messages are healthy. Today, WholeHeartEd is going to the movies!

The top ten highest grossing movies at the domestic box office for last year are:

10. Sound of Freedom

9. John Wick: Chapter 4

8. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

7. Avatar: The Way of Water

6. The Little Mermaid

5. Oppenheimer

4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

1. Barbie

Right from the start, we can see a huge trend as Hollywood continues to play it safe with sequels and previously established intellectual properties, with only two of the top 10 falling outside of that description. Easily the biggest surprise on the list and what many would consider to be an industry upset would be number 10, Sound of Freedom.

Sound of Freedom overcame multiple hurdles in order to secure the number 10 spot. Its July 4th opening weekend saw it going head to head against a revived iconic Disney series, Indiana Jones and the dial of Destiny. It also had to beat out the latest in the Mission Impossible franchise and, I am extremely grateful for this one, just narrowly snagged its top 10 position over Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The heavy competition was not the only obstacle as both the lower budget due to coming from independent Angel Studios and the subject matter put a target on its back from the onset. Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caviezel in the based on a true story of federal agent Tim Ballard as he works to track down and rescue child victims of a human trafficking ring. The film shines an uncomfortable light on a criminal industry which has been dragged into the light kicking and screaming with the arrest and alleged self-deletion of Jeffrey Epstein as well as the more recent trial of his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell and the “list” of somewhere around 150 wealthy and powerful people who flew with Epstein to his private compound, dubbed after his arrest as pedophile island by the media. For some unknowable reasons - wink, wink, cough, cough - major news organizations around the country put out what could be seen as hit-piece articles, smearing the real life man the film was made about, misrepresenting the facts of the true story compared to the film, and attacking the motivations of the filmmakers behind it. Obviously, it is not at all - again, not at all - because there are still a lot of creeps and predators in high profile positions of wealth and influence in our national media. It’s definitely not that.

Definitely not.

Moving on, in John Wick, we thought we saw the emotional conclusion of a man taking revenge for the murder of his dog, which was actually a symbol for the love and devotion he had to and from his deceased wife, and then after the money came in we started hearing early talk about John Wick 5. Taken as a metaphor for a tragic love story, the overall message of the John Wick franchise has much more to do with the redemptive power of love on a man’s soul and how far he is willing to go to preserve a glimmer of the resurrected life he experienced before it the darkness of the world he lives in tries to pull him back down into the darkness. That’s the heart of the story, just told with countless bullets, knives and graphic fight scenes.

Ant-Man was lame, but only because Disney forgot how to create good art and has instead opted to drive all of their properties into the ground with bad writing while trying to squeeze every last ounce of money they can from them. Avatar was not bad, but unnecessarily long and not really adding much story wise from the first film. The Little Mermaid was bad. If you want to know what it felt like watching that movie with my kids, just look at Javier Bardem’s face literally any time he appears onscreen as King Triton and that about sums it up. We already covered Barbenheimer earlier this year, so if you want a more in-depth response to either of those movies, be sure to check out our previous video on those. Guardians 3, as has been the case with the two before it, did a fun job of ripping your heart out and then making you love them for it. The balance of humor, action, vibrant colors and emotional depth was masterfully handled and proves that when Disney lets their artists create actual art, something worthwhile can actually come of it. Spider-Man explored similar themes of family dynamics held against growing in different directions with a super-hero backdrop and Super Mario Bros. delivered one of the most fun and CLEAN children’s movies in a long, long time. As a father, I can’t overstate how appreciative I was that this was a kids movie, made for kids, without the use of innuendo and hidden sexual jokes and it was actually really, really good.

So, what is our takeaway? Family, love and redemption were huge through lines woven through the fabric of many of the top films last year. Once again, the stories that grip us are the ones that reflect the deeper themes and core desires of the human experience in fun and unexpected ways. Whether you’re watching a bloody action movie like John Wick, a super-hero family like Ant-Man and the Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man, or  a dramatic retelling of a real life rescue mission like Sound of Freedom, pay attention to the parts that hit you in the gut. They are the ones speaking to a deep need we have for relationship; with one another and even with God. We all need to have people who will be there for us when everything feels like it’s falling apart and we all need a Savior who loves us and is willing to do whatever it takes to bring us home.

Next week, we’ll be looking at the top podcasts of last year. What do you think will make the list? Also, what did you think of our take on last years movies? Let us know in the comments section below!