Films, Albums, TV & 4Ks — Adam’s Top MEDIA of 2023!
January 9th, 2024 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
It’s a new year, so why not start it off with a list of things I loved last year? Seems like an afterthought, but it’s been a complex journey getting this list together. I thought I hadn’t seen much or heard much. The form the list took was even different. In years past, I would compile films in one list, and 4K discs in another. This year, I decided why not throw in my favorite music and TV shows… Who doesn’t like more work, am I right? So read through my list of favorite media of 2023, and let’s see if our tastes align, shall we?
Continue reading ‘Films, Albums, TV & 4Ks — Adam’s Top MEDIA of 2023!’
And with that, another year of cinema has come to a close. As always, there were standouts, letdowns, pleasant surprises, and your generally fun popcorn films. Reflective of 2023’s greatest pictures, the award ceremonies should be interesting in early 2024. Just when you thought Cillian Murphy was a shoe-in for a Best Actor Oscar, here comes Bradley Cooper in Maestro. That’s a potential coin flip right there. Meanwhile, Carey Mulligan seems to have the Best Actress category all wrapped up, in my humble opinion. Those things aside, the following list, as always, is not totally focused on critical acclaim, but what films I enjoyed the most this year. With the formalities out of the way, let’s get down to business!
It was the year of debuts on a number of levels in 2023. As a result of Disney being the largest shareholder of 20th Century Fox, the Predator and Alien franchises saw their mini-series come out under Marvel instead of Dark Horse. In another publisher switch, Transformers and G.I. Joe recently got their reboot under Image instead of the recently familiar IDW. Meanwhile, characters like DC’s Beast Girl and Marvel’s Hallow’s Eve made their entrances this year as well. But after all the firsts, which titles rose above the smoke?
Lots of big splashes were made in the industry this year with Detective Comics releasing its DC vs. Vampires miniseries and Marvel delivering the Judgement Day event. Meanwhile, Aliens and Predator both saw their respective miniseries get launched for the first time not under the Dark Horse label. And speaking of firsts, Batman and Spawn teamed up for the first time in years to put the dark duo back in the hands of fans. But who stole the show as the year’s best?
In good years and “bad” years at the movies, there are still great films gifted upon us. Old faithfuls deliver and new voices step into the light. Small films will climb high and a blockbuster or two will remind people of why something needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. And in every year, as a film writer, we craft together our Top 10, 20, 30…films of the year. No matter the year, its never an easy task for people who appreciate the art and love and live for the medium. For 2022, culminating a top 10 was aggravating as the cuts to make were pretty deep. There were films I’d love to highlight, but being honest with myself, I have to go with what meant more to me while at the same time not being phony in trying to include what I “should” or exclude something because plenty of other people will have it on their lists and I want to be hip and different just for the sake of trying to stand out. As I say every year, there were plenty of films I still wish I would have been able to get to, but at some point, you have to call “time” and just get to it. With all top 10s, its that person’s film experience for the year. Whether they were able to see 12 films of 200, their top 10 is their top 10. So, let’s get to cracking on my Top 10 Films of 2022! 
A full year of movies in the cinema! Granted, that happened last year too, but it’s great to have normality back in the mix for consecutive years, even if it feels like the cinema is slowly passing away, sadly enough. Nevertheless, the early part of 2022 saw a few films that made the most of a cinematic experience, certainly ones you will see on this list. Marvel dotted the landscape with its expected trio of films this year, streaming services continued their increasing library of solid films, and finally, an old friend from the 90’s showed up to close out a trilogy. One film I did not get to see in time was the James Cameron epic, Avatar: The Way of Water. Then again, I fell asleep in the first one so perhaps that omission isn’t a drastic one. That aside, 2022 gave us plenty of other titles to fill our lists with.
2022 is coming to a close as possibly the strongest year for 4K we’ve seen or may yet to see. Many gigantic staples of cinema made their jump this year as well as some regular offenders in the collectibles department. Blu-ray was solid, but this was the first year I noticed a shift and found it hard to scrape up a list. Or, moreso easier to. The 4K list could have been a top 50, but we are going to stick with 10. As I did last year, I’m doing these via videos again. One video is for my favorite standard Blu-ray releases of 2022 and the other my faves in the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray department. As always, thank you for your reads, comments and pre-orders throughout the year. I’m already excited for 2023’s first couple months for 4Ks and am excited as the rest of the year unfolds. Next year I’ll also hit 10 years of writing physical media reviews here at Why So Blu? which feels utterly insane! 
David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock. And I’m sure EVERYONE on social media has their very strong opinions on it for better or for worse. Either way, I love seeing that big dork in the white mask return again and again on the big screen. Also returning in Halloween Ends is Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 rock staple “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” the first song ever featured in a Halloween movie. While Halloween has been more known for scores than they have soundtracks, there are some notable songs featured in the films and even attempts to nab a hit single and sell records while counting box office receipts. I wanted to look at each film in the series and select one song that significantly ties into the movie in some way, SHAPE or form that feels memorable. Some are less memorable than others, some are a bit of a stretch, and some you may not even remember. 
Talented actor 
2021, amirite? We’re now over a year into the current generation of consoles, yet being able to actually purchase a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X/S is still nigh impossible. Proving what we already knew: scalper bots are truly the worst. The shortage of chips and other factors have made the supply fall far short of demand. Fortunately, many of the year’s best were playable on the older PS4s and Xbox Ones too. Meanwhile, Nintendo released an OLED version of their Switch alongside the first Metroid in years. The year in games saw plenty of highs, although nothing hit the masterpiece level of 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2. Instead, 2021 spread the love with different kinds of experiences: an incredible shooter that heralded the return of Master Chief, a colorful Pixar-level tale featuring not one but two Lombaxes, and plenty of abominations courtesy of the Umbrella Corporation.
I must start this year’s top ten list off by radiating my excitement about this particular list. I have been lucky enough to write for Whysoblu for approaching 3 years now. I have written reviews, top ten lists, and published PR too. I have loved all the work I’ve been able to do – even when the movies haven’t been great. The fun of this list for me, and what makes me so excited is that I’ve finally seen enough movies to make a year-end list, and it’s been a blast being able to take in so many varied movies… The good, the bad, and the ugly…
Last week was the favorite physical media I had to weed down to a short list, this week its the actual films of 2021 to which I must choose a mere 10. As is true in any year, its hard as hell to crack this thing down to 20-30, let alone 10. But, that’s the sort of “fun stress” we film writers/reviewers tend to enjoy putting ourselves through. This year seemed super loaded with filmmakers I admire and adore and it pained me to cut some of them from this list. At the end of the day, there were films I just found I want to watch more and others that surprised me or took me for a wild and unique journey, while some just kind of did their thing (very) well. My final cut that didn’t make the list might end up being one I revisit or think about more than some of these on here. I’m pretty certain there’s a few here I like more than most and are probably on the other end of the spectrum and despised by people. But here, on this day, this 29th day of December at the end of the year, this is how I have felt in this moment, in this capsule. 
I feel like a broken record spewing the same sob story every year, but in calendar year 2021 I saw the least amount of movies ever in recent memories.
2022?! But we just started 2021! Yes, time does seem to be flying by awfully quick these days, but I’ll take it considering the further we move ahead, the more we can eventually put Covid-19 in the rear view. Speaking of which, before we get to the films on the list, can we just look at how much better things are right now than they were twelve months ago? Yes, I’m aware numbers are spiking, but the things we can do in society today that we couldn’t a year ago is quite the positive upswing. In over a decade of writing for Why So Blu, last year was the first time my Top 10 list was shrunk to a mere five films. This was of course due to the tremendous lack of new releases combined with the closures of cinemas across the country. But, here we are.
The year comes to a close in a matter of days, so that means its time break out the obligatory end of year/best of/top 10 of things from 2021. This year saw a nice surge in titles coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, ending the year with Criterion FINALLY getting on board and getting involved in a big way to launch. Up front, time has not been something I’ve had much of in the past few weeks, so I’ll be delivering both my Top 10 standard Blu-ray list and my Top 10 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray lists via my 4K BLUsday method – on video! For those who like to read, As much as I appreciate your love of the typed word, my digits didn’t have it in them this year for that. I’ll provide you a cheat sheet below the video, but if you watch the video you’ll receive my reasoning for each choice. Thanks, as always, for indulging me!
