Favorite Films of 2023
A pretty shitty year industry-wise — minus the success of the WGA strike — and a pretty amazing year in terms of films, ranging from historical epics to irreverent comedies, heartbreaking dramas and soaring adventures. All with clear, unique visions that didn’t merely settle on genre as a crutch, but used it as a tool to express something unique.
Honorable Mentions: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves; Scrapper; Poor Things; Ferrari; Falcon Lake; Showing Up; Reality; The Royal Hotel; Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning: Part One; BlackBerry
25. Eileen
William Oldroyd follows up Lady Macbeth (the film that made Florence Pugh a star) with a pulpier period entry, one best described as Carol with a dash of true crime. This is Eileen, a film that utilizes its trappings to create an evocative & surprising thriller that alternates between uneasy and funny, romantic and terrifying. So much of it is done with such simple, yet evocative shots courtesy of Oldroyd and his incredible DP Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog; Zola; Lady Macbeth). There’s also Thomasin Mackenzie (some critics think she’s miscast, personally feel like she’s perfect for this role) and Anne Hathaway, who both have incredible chemistry with one another.
24. Godzilla Minus One
After seeing Takashi Yamazaki’s unforgettable Godzilla Minus One, I feel like I’ve been missing out on all the Japanese Godzilla films (I’ve only seen the very original from the 50s). Beyond putting the American films to shame, this is simply a thrilling Godzilla movie that contextualizes the iconic creature with Japan post-WWII. However, it’s not merely window dressing, but the crux of the entire story —Godzilla doesn’t just represent violence, but also the trauma that won’t go away. But that only works because we care so much about the human characters at the center, primarily our protagonist Kōichi Shikishima (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki).
23. Fremont
Donya (the incredible Anaita Wali Zada) is an Afghan refugee living in Fremont, California, who works in a fortune cookie factory, and wonders whether she actually deserves happiness while so many suffer in Kabul. This sounds like a depressing film, but it’s actually bleakly hilarious, with the type of deadpan that’s not merely a one-note joke, but the window into the soul of this complex character. Not incidentally, Fremont, from director/co-writer Babak Jalal and co-writer Carolina Cavalli, is also filled with a unsentimental hope uncommon to many independent films of its like.
22. A Thousand and One
A.V. Rockwell’s stunning directorial debut is a heartbreaking drama that parallels the larger-than-life story of its protagonist Inez (a vulnerable Teyana Taylor) and her son Terry with the gentrification of New York from 1994 to 2005. The context informs the story so much without ever robbing these complex characters of their agency and nuance, and it gives everything such pathos. I also don’t know how they captured the NYC of those years on an independent film budget — it’s remarkable. When it switches between what looks like archival footage and what they just captured, it’s indiscernible.
21. The Taste of Things
You could describe the plot in fifteen words or less, but that would be underselling Trần Anh Hùng’s wonderful film about a cook and gourmet who make the most beautiful (and some of the most visually sumptuous) meals on the planet. There is so much depth, nuance and feeling between these characters, using cooking as a means of expression, of love, of excitement, of pride, etc. At the center of it are two wonderful lived-in performances from Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche (who has become one of my all-time favorite actors over the last few years).
20. The Holdovers
A bittersweet but genuinely compassionate film set in the early 70s about broken people trying to find purpose in a purposeless world. Really funny, but also really moving too in ways that feed off one another. It’s a great entry into Alexander Payne’s filmography that evokes the best of his work without feeling repetitive (credit is largely due here to David Hemingson’s wonderful script). At the center are three incredible performances: newcomer Dominic Sessa, Da’vine Joy Randolph, and of course Paul “Big Fat Liar” Giamatti giving his best performance since Sideways.
19. Barbie
18. Bottoms
Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott’s follow-up to their original comedy Shiva Baby comes closer than any teen comedy in recent memory to capturing the dark comedy of Heathers. Even if it never goes as far as the Winona Ryder/Christian Slater cult classic, Bottoms is still remarkable and insanely funny because how far it’s willing to go. It doesn’t hurt to have a great supporting cast of up-and-comers as well, including Havana Rose Liu and especially Nicholas Galitzine (primarily known as a YA heartthrob, who should be in more comedies).
17. The Iron Claw
Sean Durkin’s film about the Von Erich “curse” shows how this beautiful family succumbs to the circumstances of their upbringing, to the transparent tyranny of their father (a horrifying Holt McCallany). But it’s not merely a sad tale, there’s joy in the early sequences — we see a family that loves each other deeply before the poison starts to take over. There’s a not-not-horror element to this film (coined by Joe Reid) that is resonant (like previous Durkin films), not just with filmmaking but the context you go into the theatre with — you know this is all finite, no matter how much you want to believe otherwise.
16. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse does more to fight back against the hegemony of the superhero genre — in such a thrilling way — than its quippy brethren. It’s not merely self-referential, but a film that viscerally confronts the idea that tragedy is the only thing that makes us great. It’s also a stunning leap forward in animation (just look at the first 10 minutes alone), as if this film opened a door we didn’t even know was there. This isn’t just in terms of wonder in major action sequences, but smaller, emotional moments as well.
15. The Starling Girl
The most underrated film of the year, Lauren Permut’s directorial debut is the story about a teenager, growing up in a vaguely cult-like religious community, who ends up in a relationship with a married pastor. There are such obvious routes this story could’ve taken, and given the scenario, many of the expected beats do happen, but it’s so much more nuanced and complex than you would expect. It trusts the audience’s ability recognize subtext, without ever having to be didactic. It imbues this story with such a specificity & richness that it makes it unforgettable. With this, Babyteeth and her breakout role in Sharp Objects, Eliza Scanlen is quickly proving to be one of the best actors of her generation.
14. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Kelly Freamon Craig wrote and directed one of the most underrated coming-of-age films with The Edge of Seventeen, so it only makes sense for her to tackle one of the seminal coming-of-age novels of all time. Like her previous film, she doesn’t look down onto the problems of her young protagonists — she gives them the gravitas they deserve (even when allowing some humorous context), and finds humanity and grace even in the most minute of struggles. Rachel McAdams is as great as she’s been hyped up to be, but so is the ensemble as well, especially Kathy Bates as Margaret’s grandmother.
13. John Mulaney: Baby J
A miracle act from one of our great comedians, John Mulaney manages to bridge the persona that made people adore him with the nearly unvarnished reality of his off-screen struggles with addiction. He doesn’t sanitize his experiences, nor does he treat them as a source of familiar sorrow, but instead highlights the absurdity of it all, and in doing so more effectively communicates the visceral horror of what he endured than if he simply did it without comedy. It’s an incredible evolution as a comedian, a major step forward that doesn’t ignore everything that came before, but helps us to better understand the man at the center.
12. The Teachers’ Lounge
A jaw-clenching thriller set at a middle school where the very fabric of the school slowly comes undone when one idealistic teacher tries to do the right thing. This isn’t a gimmick, but empathy operating in an uncomfortable visceral state. The Teachers’ Lounge is both a remarkably realistic portrayal of a school (the kids, teachers, etc.) while also operating as a metaphor for democracy, and how due process is easier said than done. It’s so nerve-wracking because it’s so deeply human — there’s no “convenient” conflict, or aberration — it’s simply inevitable, a testament to the script from Ilker Çatak and Johannes Duncker.
11. Priscilla
This year I became an almost unapologetic Sofia Coppola stan — I dove into her earlier work and was blown away by such beautiful films about girlhood, loneliness, wealth, and the quiet moments that fill up space and time. Priscilla is a welcome entry into her filmography, an incisive, intimate film that manages to both place you firmly in the perspective of its protagonist (especially as a doe-eyed teenager), and allow the unease and horror of the situations to resonate. It’s a remarkable balancing act. Cailee Spaeny is obvious fantastic as Priscilla, but shocked so few people are talking about Jacob Elordi’s performance as Elvis which is such a great facsimile of “the King” and Elorid himself.
10. Fallen Leaves
A movie that manages to be so bleak and make you go “awwwww” without ever feeling disingenuous, Fallen Leaves is a wonderful gem from writer/director Aki Kaurismäki that manages to tug at your heartstrings without resorting to cheap trickery or “likable” protagonists. Set in Helsinki, with the Russian Invasion of Ukraine not far away, the central lovers try to carve out some space for love amidst the struggles of their lives (no money; alcoholism; etc.) and the violence nearby. But it’s also such a genuinely funny film, with a mordant sense of humor and a whimsy that actually feels Chaplin-like, down to its final shot.
9. The Zone of Interest
One of the most striking illustrations of the banality of evil. It never succumbs to maudlin impulses or cliches, but simply presents its story as is with context. It could have been so easy to reduce these characters to caricatures, but by emphasizing the nuance and complexity, writer/director Jonathan Glazer illustrates what evil actually is. More than a formal exercise, The Zone of Interest forces you to confront your relationship with cinema itself and the expectations & biases you have, to see these people as they are… or as much as one could see people like them.
8. Passages
So many movies about affairs are about hiding and secrecy. Ira Sachs’ new film is about someone who is pretty upfront about his affair from the very beginning. This isn’t just a break from form, but reflective of who Tomas (a charming Franz Rogowski) is — he doesn’t think it’s a big deal. It foreshadows the instinctive & destructive path he will go on throughout this film that’s often hilarious & heartbreaking at the same time. Tomas toys with people’s emotions, and betrays the people he cares about, all for the sake of being “true” to himself, no matter the consequences.
7. Anatomy of a Fall
Writer/director Justin Triet’s searing and complex look of one woman’s unraveling as she faces a justice system where she finds herself torn between her authentic self and “performing” to save herself, only to be excoriated for doing the only thing she could do to save herself. It’s an incredible, thrilling piece of social commentary, but it’s also deeply human as well. Anatomy of a Fall is centered around Sandra Hüller, giving one of the year’s best performances — vulnerable, loving, inscrutable, angry, clear as day in one moment and mysterious in the next.
6. May December
There’s a scene early on in the film where Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), a famous actress, meets Tom Atherton (D. W. Moffett in a small but powerful performance) at a cafe. She’s trying to understand how Tom felt when he learned his now ex-wife Gracie (Julianne Moore) had an affair with a seventh grader. He tries to be neutral, poised… but the truth still hurts. It’s painful, it’s devastating, and unnerving.
It’s the type of scene that makes this film so miraculous. May December— from melodramatic connoisseur Todd Haynes and writers Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik — is a film that plays with melodramatic tropes, ranging from satirical bits to scathing moments of empathy. But these are not easily digestible truths, but messier and much more disturbing than one may expect.
5. Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese’s brutal excavation of American capitalism and white supremacy, and how so much of those elements go hand-in-hand, to devastating effect. Even the “love story” that is central to this film’s emotional heft is corroded by capitalism — Ernest (a never-better Leonardo DiCaprio) only courts Molly (an incredible Lily Gladstone) because she’s wealthy. Yes, there might have been something beautiful in their relationship before violence slowly revealed itself, but their love was poisoned from the beginning. It’s a complex relationship that is both compelling as an intimate exploration of a marriage and a symbolic exploration of genocide, each informing the other.
4. Asteroid City
Twice in this film, Jason Schwartzman’s character notices an atomic test going off near by, a mushroom cloud in a distance. It’s played as a joke the first time… but by the second time, it’s clear that this is the monster under the bed, the ghost that haunts these characters and us. Yet it’s not played as straightforward horror (like the #1 film on this list), just another quirk that could ultimately spell doom for us all. Is this our fate? Our destiny? Who knows? These are the questions that Wes Anderson asks throughout his magnificent & quietly moving Asteroid City. Many people are puzzled by this movie — including myself — trying to make sense of all its strangeness, its cryptic ideas. However, the cryptic nature of this film is the point — it’s about embracing the unknown in all its strange beauty, and finding a way to live — as best we can — with what we don’t understand.
3. The Boy and the Heron
The incredible animation — a mix of evocative hand-drawn & visceral CGI animation — alone would be enough to recommend this film, but it’s more than that. Hayao Miyazaki’s new film is a a triumphant, magical, endlessly creative, and existential adventure through a mystical world that reveals itself to be a plea for empathy amidst the encroaching darkness of our world. Like one of my favorite films, Pan’s Labyrinth, the magic is liberating not because it’s a distraction, but because it’s willing to engage with the brutality — to find grace amidst tragedy. It’s one of my favorite films of Miyazaki’s, and considering his titanic legacy, that’s saying something.
2. Past Lives
A love story through the ages, in every sense of the word. Not a romance per say, but a story about love, the love people once felt, the love people no longer feel, and the love people can still feel. A gentle story about gentle people that refuses to succumb to easy conflict, always finding the most human response to any given situation. What makes Celine Song’s striking feature debut so moving is how it’s not about bad people, but about inherently kind people forced to deal with a bad situation… and who try to deal with it in the most generous of ways.
1. Oppenheimer
“You can convince anyone of anything, even yourself.” After viewing this film for the second time, I was most struck by J. Robert Oppenheimer’s defense of continuing to work on the atomic bomb after the German surrender, saying that once they show the power of the weapon to the world, it will ensure peace for mankind. Did he genuinely believe it? Did he know he was full of shit? Was he trying to convince himself that it was true to keep himself on track?
So much of Oppenheimer is like that, this blurring of morality with narcissism, repentance, self-righteousness, etc., refusing to dole out simple, clean answers, and instead asking tough questions about how we deal with the horrors of the world. It gives this film a heft that puts it on par with the greatest biopics (Lawrence of Arabia; Malcolm X; etc.) that center the complexity of its titular characters. Like those films, it features an incredible actor at the center — in this case, it’s Cillian Murphy giving the performance of his career — subtle, nuanced, both inscrutable & empathetic (paradoxically so). It’s also Christopher Nolan’s best film since The Dark Knight, a film that also redefined its genre, using the tools of the genre to examine his own anxieties and fears of the world we live in… for now.
Most Underrated Performances
Usually I would use this section to talk & list my favorite performances of this year. So many of them are the performances you’d expect (Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer; Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon; Ryan Gosling in Barbie; etc.). So this year, I really wanted to highlight what I feel are the most underrated performances — the ones either in films that most us have seen, and the films that few people actually have.
There’s of course Anaita Wali Zada’s stunning & acerbic breakout in Fremont. Lewis Pullman gives a shockingly frightening turn opposite Eliza Scanlen in The Starling Girl. Joel Edgerton brings nuance and specificity to what easily could’ve been a caricatured white supremacist in the flawed yet fascinating Master Gardener. Similarly, Paula Beer is luminescent in Afire, providing so much nuance and specificity to a character that could have easily been played as a generic manic pixie dream girl. Glenn Howerton is genuinely scary as the larger-than-life Jim Balsillie in BlackBerry. Ben Whishaw breaks your heart in Passages.
Hong Chau, one of the most versatile actors out there, gives my favorite performance of hers to date as a narcissistic artist in Showing Up, who may or may not be casually oblivious. The renaissance of great kid performances in indie films continues with Milo Machado Graner and Lola Campbell’s work in Anatomy of a Fall and Scrapper respectively. In addition, amidst an incredible cast of A-list actors in Oppenheimer, Gary Oldman gives an unforgettable one-scene performance as Harry Truman, which, like De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon, hides his monstrosity under a mask of folksiness.
Lastly, let’s not forget the incredible dogs of Anatomy of a Fall and Fallen Leaves.
