2023 was an eventful year for moviegoing. It was a year of ups and downs, marked initially by the glut of branded IP product movies (Nintendo, Nike, Blackberry, Frito-Lay, Mattel, Tetris pointing the way to movies as a trending form of commercials), then the total domination of the box office and pop culture by the Barbenheimer craze, and finally dominated by the various industry strikes, particularly the SAG-AFTRA strikes, which could have the longest lasting aftereffects of all.
All in all, it was a strong year in terms of quantity and quality of films released, though an oddly muted one for documentaries. Without further ado, here are my favorites from the past year:
Honorable Mentions (In Order)
Scream VI; Suzume; Other People’s Children; John Wick 4; Elemental; Joy Ride; Air; Saltburn; Sanctuary; Priscilla; Polite Society; Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Return to Seoul; Jawan; Shortcomings
Did Not See
Fallen Leaves; La Chimera; All of Us Strangers; Four Daughters; 20 Days in Mariupol; Blackberry; How to Have Sex; Passages; Dream Scenario; No Bears; The Promised Land; Beau is Afraid; Godland
18. Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers; starring Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld
An incredible achievement in animated storytelling. Across the Spider-Verse is bigger, bolder, funnier, and even more inventive than the first, and by some distance – which I would have hardly thought possible. The filmmakers continue to get almost all of the choices right, like the expansion of certain characters like Gwen and Miles’ mom, and there are some moments of high art that will be etched in stone (the upside down cityscape frame, and the Gwen watercolor/mood ring world). It’s not quite as tight as the first, with some parts that drag and a few minor nitpicks. The biggest flaw, though, was the ending, or complete lack thereof, which really dampens your emotions coming out of the film. We are left hanging on by a spiderweb’s thread in anticipation of the next and final installment.
Now streaming on Netflix.
17. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Directed by Jeff Rowe
Chaotic energy at its best. This latest iteration of the Millennial cartoon favorite checks all the boxes – outstanding voice acting, brilliant pacing, inspired music choices, beautiful and unique visuals, simple but effective narrative choices, and constant jokes streaming out faster than you can throw ninja stars. The fact that there are not one but four main characters, mostly talking over each other, lends a special, frenetic, and genuinely funny vibrancy to the proceedings. As charming and authentic as the young leads are, Jackie Chan and Ayo Edibiri are a perfectly complement. Like most western animated films in the past five years, this owes a huge debt to Spider-Verse. Still, Mutant Mayhem edges out Across the Spider-Verse and Suzume as the best animated film of the year so far. Mind bogglingly underrated, it is a family-friendly film that audiences of all ages and stripes will eat up faster than a box of cheese pizza.
Now streaming on Amazon Prime and Paramount+.
16. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber; starting Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, and Lukas Gage
Forget the social thriller – this could mark the start of a new genre: the social heist. Taut, tense, and absorbing, each of the pieces and characters fit like the different elements of a homemade stick of dynamite, and the result is just as explosive. Based on Andreas Malm’s nonfiction book which examines the history of social justice movements and environmental justice, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is set primarily in West Texas and follows a number of different young malcontents who are spurred on to take acts of environmental terrorism and radical actions to fight against climate change. Though inherently political and philosophical, the film is structured as a heist that will keep audiences guessing while elevating proceedings with real-world stakes.
Now streaming on Hulu.
15. The Iron Claw
Directed by Sean Durkin; starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Holt McCallany
The Iron Claw is a family drama that doubles as a grounded metaphor on toxic masculinity, best exemplified by Efron’s performance and body. From the first shot, we are in awe of his muscles, his countless veins, his almost inhuman transformation. Therein is the appeal of professional wrestlers, their literal larger than life stature and physicality, as modern day mythic giants. Based on the real-life story of the Von Erich wrestling family, the events in the film had to be scaled down in some ways in order to be more believable and manageable. Yet the most impressive muscles Efron utilizes are his facial ones – belying an interiority of emotion, deep-seated fears and desires. The film as a whole is breathtaking, and it is telling that the most memorable scene is beside a quiet lake, featuring no wrestling at all. By the time the end credits have rolled, you will have felt as though you have been put through the ringer, physically and emotionally, the recipient of a thousand suplexes.
Now available to rent.
14. Afire
Directed by Christian Petzold; starring Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, and Langston Uibel
Petzold’s film is a literal slow burn. The main character is an aspiring writer, Leon (Schubert) who spends most of the runtime navigating the almost non-existent line between being a sourpuss and an outright prick, wholly self-absorbed and determined to be as miserable as possible on his getaway as he struggles with writing his book. The extent of his assholery is striking – usually there is a positive quality or two that allows a curmudgeon to eventually redeem himself in the viewer’s eyes, but Leon is eminently unlikeable. Yet the viewer is retained by the deft hand of Petzold (and the charm of Beer as Nadja). The other characters – his best friend Felix, the beautiful and bright Nadja, and her lover Devid, complete the quartet who eventually find themselves isolated in their vacation home while fires surround them, and metaphorical flames begin to ignite as well.
Now streaming on the Criterion Channel.
13. R.M.N.
Directed by Cristian Mungiu; starring Marin Grigore and Judith State
Mungiu strikes again. The Romanian filmmaker has a clever ability to take pressing social issues and turn them from hardened ideological positions to uniquely empathetic and human situations. He is also never afraid to dig into the ugliness of humanity to find some kind of truth. Here the story is inspired by true events of a local bakery which decides to hire foreign Sri Lankan workers. This boils over into a simmering cauldron of economic frustration and intergenerational xenophobia as tensions rise among the village locals over the unwanted newcomers. Although the film is set in a little Romanian village, the film’s narrative conflicts and socio-political and racial themes feel universal. R.M.N. is thoughtful and thought-provoking throughout, with some memorable long takes and in typical Mungiu dramatic style, a crescendo into a shocking and head-scratchingly complex ending.
Now streaming on Hulu.
12. Talk to Me
Directed by RackaRacka; starring Sophie Wilde and Alexandra Jensen
This directorial debut of Australian brothers Danny and Michael Phillippou (better known as the creators behind the YouTube channel RackaRacka for the last ten years) is one of the cult hits of the year. The story follows a few high school friends who come across a severed, embalmed hand that allows a randomly selected spirit to communicate with and possess the living person for up to 90 seconds. RackaRacka’s guerilla-style YouTube experience serves them well in successfully making this leap to feature length films, while losing none of the whooping sense of physicality and personality to the story, the characters, and the set pieces. It is always refreshing to see wholly original content do well, and the ending is perfect, but it is really the handful of hair-raising, I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-seeing set pieces in the middle that will stay with you.
Now available to rent.
11. The Killer
Directed by David Fincher; starring Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, and Tilda Swinton
The Killer is a beautifully contained and delicately crafted hitman procedural, with some all-time great voiceovers. Fincher’s latest film starts off as an exercise in style – confident, quiet, careful and, to paraphrase the film, redundant. Fassbender is an unassuming, paranoid assassin who is forced to reckon with consequences of a hit gone wrong. This is also, subtly, one of the funniest movies of the year, with its dryly ironic humor. Each sequence shows a different side of the killer (including an incredible hand to hand combat sequence later on that is as good as anything you’ll see this year). This is not Fincher’s best film, but it is a welcome return to form: dark and melancholic, cynical and nihilistic, filled with repression and machismo and single-mindedness.
Now streaming on Netflix.
10. Scrapper
Directed by Charlotte Regan; starring Lola Campbell, Harris Dickinson, and Alin Uzun
“Now that I know you, I can’t really not know you.” Historically speaking, it is a risky proposition to center a movie around a child – for every instance of The Kid, Bicycle Thieves, or ET, you have hundreds of instances of movies that hinged on kid performances that couldn’t quite cut it. Campbell doesn’t quite hit those aforementioned heights but nonetheless impresses in carrying a huge part of this film on her back. Playing a ten-year old girl whose mother has recently passed away and who has been scrapping and scraping by to make a living and stay off the state’s grid, she suddenly is introduced to the father (Dickinson) she never knew. Dickinson himself is a manchild, and the result is a beautiful, funny and heartfelt indie drama that is something of a cross between The Florida Project and Paper Moon.
Now streaming on Paramount+.
9. Killers of the Flower Moon
Directed by Martin Scorsese; starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert DeNiro
Every new Marty Scorsese film is a gift to be cherished. He is as safe a pair of hands as we have in filmmaking today, the cinematic equivalent of grandma’s cooking. This isn’t quite the tippy top of the Scorsese echelon but is still miles better than almost any other filmmaker alive – at his age, his creativity, ingenuity, and boldness still astounds. Delving into the oil-rich history of the Osage nation and all-American themes of greed, corruption, and racial power dynamics. Killers is a rich feast – a sprawling, novelistic epic, a rare story told in a way we have never really seen before, with Scorsese and Leo pushing their boundaries, and Gladstone nothing short of a revelation.
Now streaming on Apple TV+
8. Master Gardener
Directed by Paul Schrader; starring Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, and Quintessa Swindell
Schrader has been writing and directing masterpieces for 50 years, and he has not lost his edge. Master Gardener is a Schrader film through and through, “man in a room” stories of obsession and self destruction, told by voiceovers. His latest film is as quietly compelling as ever, with Edgerton playing Narvel Roth, a horticulturist at a wealthy estate with a mysterious and dark past but could probably have a successful second career creating a gardening ASMR Youtube channel. The film explores nature versus nurture in a way that gives new meaning to the phrase “go touch earth.” Master Gardener is not as fiercely haunting as First Reformed or quite as morose as The Card Counter, but this is Schrader’s most accessible and hopeful entry in his so-called “Lonely Man” trilogy. If a workman is known by his tools, never has a pair of pruning shears seemed so sexy, or menacing.
Now streaming on Hulu.
7. Monster
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda; starring Sakura Ando, Soya Kurokawa, and Eita Nagayama
Unsurprisingly, Kore-eda does it again. Returning to Japanese-language filmmaking almost feels like a cheat code at this point in his career, but he applies his unique touch and command of tone to this gently devastating nesting doll drama that is his own Rashomon. A young boy begins to act strangely after some incidents at school, and we are told the story through the eyes of the mother, teacher, and then child. Like in real life, there is a natural tendency to get entrenched in your own view and perspective, but the layers of truth can start to be peeled back as we shift perspectives. The last one, from the point of view of the children, is particularly breathtaking, akin to a modern day Bridge to Terebithia. The score is incredible and the writing is top notch but Kore-eda brings all of these elements together (with some typically precocious child acting) in a masterwork of storytelling, and one of the most important and compelling films of the year.
Now available to rent.
6. Anatomy of a Fall
Directed by Justine Triet; starring Sandra Hüller, Milo Machado-Gra, and Swann Arlaud
Anatomy of a Fall is hard to categorize, but it might be best described as a relationship procedural. As anyone who has been in a courtroom (or a marriage) might be able to tell you, the presumption of innocence can sometimes feel like a fiction when one is forced to defend themselves against emotional accusations and to literally re-litigate moments from someone’s private life and conversations and arguments. Triet remains deliberate and true to life in composing and framing the film, pointing out some of the inherent absurdities of criminal investigations and murder trials. The climax of the film is a statement showpiece that rivals anything you’ll see in Marriage Story or Kramer vs Kramer. Leaving you with a beautiful ambiguity and plenty of room for interpretation, the film is ultimately a Rorschach test – you are both viewer and juror, and you get to make your own choice.
Now available to rent.
5. Poor Things
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos; starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo
What must it be like to be inside Lanthimos’s mind – bursting with grotesque creativity, boundless demented humor and furious jumping? There is so much to say about this film that it is perhaps best to say very little at all. Poor Things is an exciting and transgressive stylistic, cinematic, and thematic mashup of Frankenstein and Beauty and the Beast that results in an X-rated version of Barbie. It is a most extraordinary and clever Bildungsroman, fish-out-of-water satire that explores the boundaries of humanity and the absurdities of social and patriarchal norms and conventions, ranging from conversations to marriage and sex to social classism. Somehow, Lanthimos has become increasingly mainstream even as he is being let off the leash more and more with each film. Poor Things is, like its protagonist Bella Baxter declares herself, a changeable feast.
Now streaming on Hulu.
4. Perfect Days
Directed by Wim Wenders; starring Koji Yakusho
Wenders and Yakusho combine in this meditative and achingly beautiful film about a Tokyo toilet cleaner who has his daily routine down to a science, living a peaceful but self-reliant and purposefully lonely life. His days are filled only with diagetic sounds of the city and his impeccably tasteful 70s American music that reflect his moods and each moment of his life much better than any voiceover explanation could. Perfect Days shines a light on the invisible workers in our society, but more importantly, it is a gentle reminder to look up every once in a while, and to live in the moment always. We set the soundtrack to our own lives. “Next time is next time. Now is now.” Ten out of ten on the beautiful slice of life movie scale.
Now playing in theatres and available for rent.
3. The Holdovers
Directed by Alexander Payne; starring Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Payne is one of our great working directors, though not the most prolific. His latest character-focused dramedy, The Holdovers, is well worth the wait. Giamatti plays a New England prep school classics teacher who is tasked with watching a handful of students over winter break who have nowhere else to go. The film is not only set in the 1970s, but – with its 1.66 aspect ratio, grainy film texture, and Cat Stevens score – looks and feels like it was made fifty years ago. Giamatti is brilliant as a curmudgeon muttering insults about his students that could double as an SAT study guide (“vulgar philistines”, “fetid layabouts”, and “hidebound troglodytes” are among some of his gems). The aphorism is that they don’t make them like this anymore, but with The Holdovers, Payne has not only proved the exception to the rule and defended his belt as the master of the sad-sack comedy, but has done the nearly impossible by making a brand-new holiday classic.
Now available to rent.
2. The Taste of Things
Directed by Trần Anh Hùng; starring Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche
Touch, smell, and taste: all of these senses are important when it comes to food (unless you’re eating ortolan) – so how do you make a great food movie? Trần’s secret ingredient in his latest film is the voluminous, all-diagetic sound: of boiling, pouring, sizzling, of clinking pans and scraping utensils, and even of chewing, sucking, and slurping. You can almost smell, touch, and taste the food too. If there was ever any doubt that that food could be a love language, The Taste of Things clears that up frame by resounding frame. It is a love letter to food and gastronomy but also to love and life and creativity and seasonality. This film belongs on the Mount Rushmore of great food movies, celebrating cooking as the perfect marriage of science and art and adventure. Any Instagram influencer with Yelp elite status might think of themselves as a foodie, but watching this film, you are reminded that there are levels to this. We may live in an age of food porn, but this is food love.
Now playing in theatres.
1. Past Lives
Directed by Celine Song; starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro
The alluring, almost irresistible idea of “what if” has often been explored in films, but rarely so precisely and so poignantly as Song does here, in her semi-autobiographical story centering on the lifelong connection between Nora (Lee), who moves from Korea to Canada as a child and later to New York as an adult, and her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Yoo). Nora and Hae Sung’s relationship passes through time like the Before series, except all compressed into a single film. Past Lives is a tale told with poetry, prose, pauses, and stunning shot composition. It is an intimate memoir that captures that special kind of feeling that makes your heart flutter, your stomach drop, and your mind roam. It’s a story of in-yun. This is, by some distance, the best film of the year.
Now streaming on Paramount+.
