What are your favorite/best/whatever criteria you want to use movies of the year? I have a Top 10 list, but that doesn't mean you have to!
Honorable Mentions:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Even more innovative than the original. Love the focus on Gwen.
Anatomy of a Fall - Really gets inside our relationship with the truth (or what we want it to be, anyways).
Oppenheimer - Maybe not Nolan's best film, but definitely his greatest technical achievement.
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret - Haven't seen a movie for this age demographic that respects them this much in some time.
10) Rye Lane
The romantic comedy will never die as long as the genre continues to be refreshed like this. A very kinetic film that takes some settling into, but once you do, its charismatic leads take you on a really fun ride. Yeah, overall the plot ends up kind of rote, but that's part and parcel with the genre, and it's about the journey of trying to steal back your Tribe Called Quest LP from your toxic ex than it is about the destination. One of the greatest cameos of all time, too.
9) Beau is Afraid
I know that, for a lot of people, Ari Aster was let a little too off his leash with this one, but I enjoy him leaning more into the absurdism that in previous films has been more of an undercurrent, and as someone with terrible anxiety, this one hits hard. Joaquin Phoenix gives a great performance as a dude living in a world where everything that the nightly news, social media and the worst parts of our own brains tell us are going to happen actually happen.
8) Godland
Just the cinematography of Iceland itself makes this an incredible watch, but the slow burn as Lucas's arrogance and sense of superiority over his fellow humans slowly drags him down and down, in a story reminiscent of both Bergman and Leone. Do men of God really get to consider themselves as apart from everyone else? Probably not, says Hlynur Palmason.
7) Sharper
This one doesn't do anything too different from other films in its genre, but the cast elevates this to one of the best crime films of the year. Justice Smith and Julianne Moore are great, but it's Sebastian Stan who really shines. Dude is a hell of a lot of fun when he's not tied to the dourness of Bucky Barnes.
6) Past Lives
A beautiful, aching film about the choices we make. What could have been and whether that is what should have been. So much of this quiet movie just breaks your heart and it's definitely the directorial debut of the year.
5) Killers of the Flower Moon
It's always nice to see that an absolute legend can still put out some of his best work at the back-end of his life. Killers of the Flower Moon is Scorsese at both his most compassionate and his most biting. The fact that the karmic bill white America has racked up against the native people of this land will probably never be paid by anyone of consequence is one of the greatest tragedies in history, and Scorsese shows us what a small fraction of that bill looks like. Also neat to see DiCaprio stretch his acting muscles in new ways.
4) Foe
This one has been derided a lot as melodramatic and stilted, but I do not care. Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan are both fantastic, and the way it uses sci-fi trappings to explore human relationships, and what we owe each other in those relationships versus what we owe ourselves, makes this a film greater than the sum of its parts.
3) The Holdovers
Giamatti and Payne reunited and it feels so good. While I love Sideways, The Holdovers is a much more mature work, eschewing middle-aged manbabies for a dynamic between deeply wounded people and how they manage, with each other's help, to maybe find themselves a bit. Great script, great performances, and cozy filmmaking techniques make this an instant add to the Holiday rotation.
2) The Boy and the Heron
The slow-burn of the first half to the absolutely off-the-rails second half, combined with Miyazaki at his most existential, make this my favorite of his since Spirited Away. The main character is much more subtle than most Ghibli protagonists, while the film itself is intentionally un-subtle, especially when compared to its predecessor. While Hayao may not be done making movies yet, this still feels like a goodbye, in its own way.
1) May December
This film took a bit of rumination before I was ready to declare it best film of 2023, but the way that each time you peel back a thematic layer, there's more underneath, really cements it for me. Portman gives a career performance as Elizabeth Berry, who sees her subjects as pawns while seeing herself as a decent person who only wants to help Joe, even as she gets sucked in to the appeal of being someone like Gracie, someone to whom the rules do not apply, and Charles Melton makes his presence as more than just that dude from Riverdale known in his performance as the vulnerable, childlike Joe. I need to rewatch this film soon to see what I missed but it really is, for me, the best this amazing year in cinema has to offer.
Honorable Mentions:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Even more innovative than the original. Love the focus on Gwen.
Anatomy of a Fall - Really gets inside our relationship with the truth (or what we want it to be, anyways).
Oppenheimer - Maybe not Nolan's best film, but definitely his greatest technical achievement.
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret - Haven't seen a movie for this age demographic that respects them this much in some time.
10) Rye Lane
The romantic comedy will never die as long as the genre continues to be refreshed like this. A very kinetic film that takes some settling into, but once you do, its charismatic leads take you on a really fun ride. Yeah, overall the plot ends up kind of rote, but that's part and parcel with the genre, and it's about the journey of trying to steal back your Tribe Called Quest LP from your toxic ex than it is about the destination. One of the greatest cameos of all time, too.
9) Beau is Afraid
I know that, for a lot of people, Ari Aster was let a little too off his leash with this one, but I enjoy him leaning more into the absurdism that in previous films has been more of an undercurrent, and as someone with terrible anxiety, this one hits hard. Joaquin Phoenix gives a great performance as a dude living in a world where everything that the nightly news, social media and the worst parts of our own brains tell us are going to happen actually happen.
8) Godland
Just the cinematography of Iceland itself makes this an incredible watch, but the slow burn as Lucas's arrogance and sense of superiority over his fellow humans slowly drags him down and down, in a story reminiscent of both Bergman and Leone. Do men of God really get to consider themselves as apart from everyone else? Probably not, says Hlynur Palmason.
7) Sharper
This one doesn't do anything too different from other films in its genre, but the cast elevates this to one of the best crime films of the year. Justice Smith and Julianne Moore are great, but it's Sebastian Stan who really shines. Dude is a hell of a lot of fun when he's not tied to the dourness of Bucky Barnes.
6) Past Lives
A beautiful, aching film about the choices we make. What could have been and whether that is what should have been. So much of this quiet movie just breaks your heart and it's definitely the directorial debut of the year.
5) Killers of the Flower Moon
It's always nice to see that an absolute legend can still put out some of his best work at the back-end of his life. Killers of the Flower Moon is Scorsese at both his most compassionate and his most biting. The fact that the karmic bill white America has racked up against the native people of this land will probably never be paid by anyone of consequence is one of the greatest tragedies in history, and Scorsese shows us what a small fraction of that bill looks like. Also neat to see DiCaprio stretch his acting muscles in new ways.
4) Foe
This one has been derided a lot as melodramatic and stilted, but I do not care. Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan are both fantastic, and the way it uses sci-fi trappings to explore human relationships, and what we owe each other in those relationships versus what we owe ourselves, makes this a film greater than the sum of its parts.
3) The Holdovers
Giamatti and Payne reunited and it feels so good. While I love Sideways, The Holdovers is a much more mature work, eschewing middle-aged manbabies for a dynamic between deeply wounded people and how they manage, with each other's help, to maybe find themselves a bit. Great script, great performances, and cozy filmmaking techniques make this an instant add to the Holiday rotation.
2) The Boy and the Heron
The slow-burn of the first half to the absolutely off-the-rails second half, combined with Miyazaki at his most existential, make this my favorite of his since Spirited Away. The main character is much more subtle than most Ghibli protagonists, while the film itself is intentionally un-subtle, especially when compared to its predecessor. While Hayao may not be done making movies yet, this still feels like a goodbye, in its own way.
1) May December
This film took a bit of rumination before I was ready to declare it best film of 2023, but the way that each time you peel back a thematic layer, there's more underneath, really cements it for me. Portman gives a career performance as Elizabeth Berry, who sees her subjects as pawns while seeing herself as a decent person who only wants to help Joe, even as she gets sucked in to the appeal of being someone like Gracie, someone to whom the rules do not apply, and Charles Melton makes his presence as more than just that dude from Riverdale known in his performance as the vulnerable, childlike Joe. I need to rewatch this film soon to see what I missed but it really is, for me, the best this amazing year in cinema has to offer.
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