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2023's Top Ten Films
Many critics and journalists have described 2023 as the year America went back to the movies. That’s true to an extent, as the total box office was the highest this decade. There’s still not as many people going to films as there was pre-pandemic, but we are moving in the right direction. With a smaller movie output this year, due to the recent Hollywood strikes, it’s unclear if the positive trends will continue. The success of Dune, Part Two is a hopeful sign for 2024. Another hopeful sign is movies reasserting their place in popular culture. The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon helped bring movies back as a topic of discussion beyond film geeks like me. It became cool to go to the movies again. More movies, even those made by streaming services, had a decent theatrical window so audiences at least had the option to see them on the big screen. Overall, 2023 was a strong year in quality, as just about every week you could find something interesting to see. This included standouts in just about every genre and type, which is reflected in my Honorable Mention list: Honorable Mention: Air American Fiction BlackBerry Golda Io Capitano The Iron Claw Jules Killers of the Flower Moon Origin Rye Lane My top 10, while eclectic, does have a common theme. Most center around people uneasy in their current environment, and in some cases actively struggling against it. While these films were planned years ago, seeing them during the past twelve months seemed to reflect the general uncertainty or even anger in our society at large: 10. Fallen Leaves (dir. Aki Kaurismäki) – While I don’t drink martinis, I’m confident that none prove drier than this romantic comedy from Finland. Two lost souls looking for a connection keep missing each other through circumstance and stubbornness. Yes, we’ve seen that before, but not like this. Writer-director Kaurismäki fills his film with deadpan faces, especially his two leads, Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen. Both Pöysti and Vatanen convey so much beneath their still exteriors, and it’s largely due to them that we can identify with their characters. Some critics have compared Kaurismäki to Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch (with Kaurismäki even paying tribute to the latter through a clip of The Dead Don’t Die). Fallen Leaves has a sense of whimsical humor reminiscent of Anderson, but with the lived-in, blue-collar quality of Jarmusch. Kaurismäki brings the film in at a lean 81 minutes, with a less-is-more style that does not shortchange the characters or the story. 9. All of Us Strangers (dir. Andrew Haigh) – All of Us Strangers could not be further away from Fallen Leaves. Writer-director Andrew Haigh wears his heart on his sleeve in this emotional, earnest, tender film. Famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner said that acting is “finding truth under imaginary circumstances.” Haigh finds truth through a fantasy, with Adam (Andrew Scott) reconnecting with his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), who had died in a car accident when he was twelve. Adam does this against starting a relationship with fellow lonely soul Harry (Paul Mescal). All of Us Strangers explores how relationships with parents both evolve and stay the same. Scott may still be best known in America as “Hot Priest” in “Fleabag,” but here shows considerably more range and depth. His scenes with Bell and Foy, where their characters share so much love and regret, are heartbreaking. Few films have ever looked at grief’s lasting impact in such a creative and powerful way. 8. A Thousand and One (dir. A.V. Rockwell) – Rockwell takes a well-established trope, the struggling African-American single Mom, and turns it on its head. She never tries to make the mother, Inez, heroic, showing her as, at times, selfish and barely more mature than her son Terry. A Thousand and One subverts audiences’ expectations in both storytelling and characters. Rockwell takes the time to develop and then evolve the relationship between Inez and Terry. Fortunately, Rockwell found the right partner in Teyana Taylor, who owns the screen from the beginning. Taylor’s raw, charismatic, and textured performance puts us right there with Inez. Taylor didn’t garner the attention she deserved during awards season, but if she gets more parts with the richness of Inez, she will be a star soon. 7. Past Lives (dir. Celine Song) – Song’s delicate film luxuriates in its stillness. She avoids the easy choices, showing restraint in this story of lives and lives that could have been. Song based this film on her own experience as a successful playwright whose family emigrated from Korea when she was young. Her Korean childhood sweetheart once visited her and her American husband. I know how difficult bridging a cultural, and sometimes a language, gap can be, and Song’s depiction here felt authentic. Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro echo Song’s subtlety in their understated, internalized portrayals. We feel for all three of them. The ending, without any spoilers, respects both the characters and the audience, and is fitting for such an emotionally intelligent film. 6. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) – On the other end of the spectrum from Past Lives resides the big, bold and brash Poor Things. Lanthimos creates a heightened baroque sci-fi reality that’s visually stunning. He endows that world with an internal logic that makes the story work. Emma Stone takes a crazy concept, a grown woman with the mind of an infant, and makes it both credible and hilarious. Lanthimos uses Stone to make clever points about gender roles but does it in a funny way that never feels preachy. Willem Dafoe plays to his strengths as the woman’s mad scientist “father” while Mark Rufalo gets laughs going against type as a caddish lawyer. Lanthimos has now directed Best Actress Oscar winners in his last two films, and Poor Things serves as a perfect example of why actors want to work with him so much. 5. Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet) – One of the best courtroom dramas in recent years, Anatomy of a Fall spins its mystery more through the characters than the plot. Sandra Hüller, as a writer who may or may not have killed her husband, gives a compelling performance while keeping the audience at a distance. Not only are we not sure whether she did it, we are not sure whether we like her. Newcomer Milo Machado-Graner matches Hüller’s with a soulful portrayal of a son who must grow up much too soon. In the middle of the film writer-director Justine Triet takes us from the case to an argument Sandra had with her husband shortly before his death. Suddenly Anatomy of a Fall becomes an Ingmar Bergman film, with this scene of a marriage disintegrating into resentments before our eyes. On paper this shift shouldn’t work at all, but Triet pulls it off masterfully. When we come back to the trial the stakes are even higher, with an earned tension that keeps growing. Triet respects her audience enough not to tie up everything in a bow, but to leave room for debate well after the credits roll. 4. To Kill a Tiger (dir. Nisha Pahuja) – A documentary of quiet outrage and quieter courage. Pahuja focuses on a teenage girl that was gang-raped in a rural Indian village and her determined father. The village elders claim that they can address the crime internally. One solution they offer is the girl marrying one of her attackers. Both the girl and her father reject these offers as they strive to hold her rapists accountable. While she spends some time with activists, Pahuja for the most part patiently stays with the girl and her father. They take on ostracization from their community and indifference from an overworked and undermanned justice system. The more time we spend with these two people, the more we see their steely resolve under their low-key demeanor. By not consciously trying to make an inspiring film Pahuja lets her subjects inspire us naturally. 3. The Taste of Things (dir. Anh Hung Tran) – I’m getting hungry just thinking about this film again. Tran adapted the novel La passion de Dodin Bouffant into this love letter to cooking and dining. He sucks you in during the first 40 minutes by showing gourmet meal preparation with the same passion that the chef Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) shows for her food onscreen. The love for cooking naturally flows into the love between Eugénie and her gourmand employer Dodin (Benoît Magimel). Food comes first because that’s how they relate to each other. Binoche and Magimel (who used to be married in real life) have an effortless chemistry and make you care about Eugénie and Dodin, even when they are not in the kitchen. In lesser hands, The Taste of Things could have devolved into food porn. It does not because Tran makes the film about what it means to be so committed to making the best possible food, and to enjoying that process so much. Anyone who has this type of passion about anything will connect with this sumptuous film. 2. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (dir. Kelly Fremon Craig) – For more than 50 years, Judy Blume rejected offers to adapt her seminal coming-of-age novel into a film. It was worth the wait. Kelly Fremon Craig showed a deep understanding of teenagerhood in her debut film, The Edge of Seventeen and does so again here with adolescence. The film, like the book, takes place in the early 70s, and Craig keeps the focus on challenges girls faced in those rapidly changing times. Both the comedy and the drama come from Margaret desperately trying to meet those challenges, which is why they blend together so well. Young Abby Ryder Forston amazes in the title role, with expressiveness and an ease on camera that most adult actors would envy. The always underrated Rachel McAdams gives life and complexity to Maragret’s mother, which Craig wisely expanded from the book. All these years later, Maragret’s story has lost none of its relevance in our own rapidly changing times. 1. The Holdovers (dir. Alexander Payne) – At his best, Alexander Payne tells humanistic stories about people whom life forgot. He outdoes himself with The Holdovers, a return to form after the disappointing Downsizing. Payne has mentioned how the great 70s director Hal Ashby has influenced his work, and The Holdovers, set in the early 70s, feels like a film Ashby would have made. Like Ashby, Payne has a firm but gentle touch. He lets his characters breathe and develop with a very naturalistic visual style. That’s the prefect approach for this story of a bitter teacher, a grieving cook and an insolent 15-year-old who are stuck for the holidays together at their prep school. Paul Giamatti combines perfect comic timing with pathos and heart, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph underplays her role, saying so much with her silences. Newcomer Dominic Sessa combines the right amount of cockiness and uncertainty. In this funny, bittersweet, and touching film, every moment feels authentic. Adam Spector April 1, 2024 Contact us: |
