The writer’s strike cast a pall over 2023. Plus, with no RRR or Everything Everywhere, the top of the year isn’t quite as strong as last year. Not everything is bad though: Barbenheimer really took the movie world by storm, displacing superheroes atop the movie world for the first time in a long time. Could this be a changing of the guard? Are we gonna get more event films going forward over Captain America 8 or whatever sequel is next? Only time will tell, but that’s at least something exciting and new.
And even though there weren’t any all timers for me in 2023, there’s a strong contingent of great ones, very similar to 2012, where everything was solid across the board. That’s thanks to an intimidating overseas movie bombardment, with the top 3 films of the year made outside the US.
Here are the Honorable Mentions, all solid in their own right:
Genres always need new blood. In this case, the action/martial arts genre gets Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) aka “The Fury” on her YouTube channel. No movies are made about Pakistani British women who desire to be stuntwomen. So director Nida Manzoor makes up her version of what a movie like that might be like. It be like one of the best takes on a martial arts/spy movie, as Ria tries to stop her sister from going “Full Jane Austen” and giving up her life for a boy, filled with all sorts of incredible humor and inspired action that will have you giddy with delight at what you’re seeing.
This is very much in the Christopher Nolan wheelhouse, but that’s a good thing. Adapting the story about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb, Nolan masterfully wrangles in the complex science of the movie into an immersive feast for the senses. You don’t just watch that bomb drop, you FEEL in in your every being. Cillian Murphy delivers on his big chance as Oppy, a complicated genius after Nolan’s own heart who experienced multiple lifetimes of experiences. This is as rich of an experience you’ll have in a theater in 2023.
Judy Blume’s wonderful novel should be read by 11 year old girls (and probably boys too) everywhere, as it deals with rites of passage all women have to go through. Kelly Fremon Craig’s movie adaptation thankfully does service to the important novel, smartly translating it to a movie medium. Abby Ryder Fortson and Rachel McAdams give girls everywhere hope that they’re not weird or strange, and teaches everyone that an open heart makes the world a more wonderful place for everyone. As well as some tips for how to increase your bust.
Daniel Goldhaber’s ticking clock thriller will have you on edge beginning to end. In addition to being an exciting heist movie the film also doubles as a scathing indictment on the oil and gas industry, which makes money at the expense of the poor and disenfranchised. Incredible acting, a perfectly modulated script, and a purpose? Sign me up everytime.
Achingly beautiful. Like the all time great movie love stories, Celine Song’s romance for the ages is almost equally forlorn and hopeful. Capturing connections at ages 12, 24, and 36, Song’s tale is a sweet, beautiful study about how time and location could be factors in how people fall in love with one another. The movie asks big questions like “are we falling in love with the person or the idea of that person?” and “Can anything stop someone’s romantic fate?” while making us swoon on Skype and through New York City with Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro.
While everyone in the world gets caught up in the true crime podcast waves, Todd Haynes gives us this biting dark satire showing how we might be the screwed up ones. Similar to the Mary Kay Letourneau story, an actress (Natalie Portman) researches a role about an older woman’s (Julianne Moore) affair with a younger man (Charles Melton) decades after the incident, with the couple now happily married in the suburbs. The movie is juicily evil, especially because of the welcome of Black Swan Natalie Portman, one step removed from reality convinced she’s not. Just a cruel delight, thanks to the cast and Todd Haynes’s excellent direction, especially his score.
Despite the precarious state superhero movies are in right now, one of the best movies of the year rises above all that fear and anxiety. That’s because Phil Lord and Christopher Miller just exude creative magic. Their sequel to the surprise of 2018 Into the SpiderVerse is even better: a dazzling real life moving comic book as miraculously animated any movie I’ve ever seen. Plus, Miles Morales’s story is even more emotional and exciting in this one, challenging the very nature of how heroes become who they are but doing it while having a million laughs and fun stuff for kids, parents and everyone to enjoy. If Beyond the SpiderVerse sticks the landing, this becomes a straight masterpiece.
Never has a mundane, ordinary life been so chilling in Jonathan Glazer’s stunning return to movies. We see a military officer (Christian Friedel) going about his job, while coping with family problems (big year for Sandra Huller, as you’ll see below) like any other father or worker. Except this isn’t just anyone. It’s a Nazi SS officer, overseeing a concentration camp, in 1930s Germany. The results are about as brilliant, and unnerved, as I’ve been watching a movie in some time.
First Time I agree with the Cannes Film Festival about the best film of the year. Justine Triet revives the legal thriller with this one. A brilliant Sandra Huller is defending her life, trying to convince a jury of her peers she did not murder her deceased husband who fell from a 3rd story window. The movie, like a great trial, has twists and turns, incredible performances, and a well of themes and ideas that are riveting to explore.
Thank goodness Ukranian Journalist Mstyslav Chernov got his footage out. It captures something we’ve maybe never seen before: the start of a war in real time, as Russia invades Ukraine on February 24, 2022. We then see not only merciless murder and war crimes against innocent civilians, but in essence, the death of a city, as Mariupol slowly turns into a hellscape for the poor citizens unable to escape. Chernov gives us the John Ford “Battle of Midway” for our times.
