Pundits and box office analysts can debate the financial health of moviegoing, but no one can dispute the diversity and quality of films that graced the silver screen in 2023. Sequels and established intellectual property (IP) dominated ticket sales. From Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to Avatar 2: The Way of Water and John Wick 4, the box office Top 10 was populated by superheroes and other established cinematic universes.
It was the best film year since 2019. For each bombastic spectacle hitting the multiplex, there was a handful of lower budget releases hitting the arthouses. Do you want to see Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom or Yorgos Lanthimos’ fantastical Poor Things? If Transformers: Rise of the Beasts wasn’t your June cup of tea, you could absorb the much quieter power of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City instead. If you didn’t make it to the theater as often as you wished, seven of my Top Ten films of the year are already available on video on demand (VOD). Use the doldrums of January to catch up on some of the best that 2023 had to offer.
# 10 Dream Scenario: Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is all bark and no bite, and the bark is mostly a whimper. He’s the type of person who seems to have no control over the outcome of his life. He’s indecisive and hates himself for it. Life has a way of simply happening to him. When you enter middle age, you become invisible to certain segments of the population. Then one day, Paul achieves notarity in the oddest of ways: people begin dreaming about him. Ironically, Paul is just an observer, a spectator in the dreams of others, which is perfectly on brand for the man we’ve briefly gotten to know. A24, the production company behind Dream Scenario, is known for it’s dread-inducing horror movies and edgy thrillershi. Contrary to that reputation, this film is an absurdist comedy shot through with dark humor. Dream Scenario has a lot to say about fame in our social media world and the dangers of having your dreams come true.
# 9 Anatomy of a Fall: In the opening moments of the film, Samuel Maleski plunges to his death from the third floor of his family home. Was it an accident? Was it suicide? Or was Samuel “helped” over the railing by his wife Sandra (an award-worthy Sandra Huller)? While accident reconstructions examine the forensic details of Samuel’s fatal fall, the testimony of the witnesses recreate the emotional details of a fractured marriage. Anatomy of a Fall is simultaneously a compelling courtroom mystery and a nuanced character study. Much like To King a Mockingbird was more about race relations than a rape trial, Anatomy of a Fall is more about the secrets we keep from the ones we love than an edge-of-your-seat murder inquiry. The film is less concerned about whodunit and more interested in examining how well any of us know the people who rest their heads on the pillows beside ours.
# 7 American Fiction: This directorial debut from TV veteran Cord Jefferson is a satire with bite. Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) plays Monk Ellison, an African American college professor and author. Monk aspires to write the Great American Novel as he teaches undergrads who aspire to drink and party. When Monk meets with his agent about his most recent novel, he’s told that publishers don’t think it’s “black enough”. In a contemptuous rage, Monk holes up in his office and pounds out the most stereotypically ethnic novel he can conceive … and it ignites a bidding war among the publishers he’s courting. Sterling K. Brown (This is Us) steals every scene he’s in as Monk’s wild, partying gay younger brother. He’s the very definition of a Best Support Actor. American Fiction is a caustic examination of racial stereotypes and the fictional versions of ourselves we create for public and online consumption.
# 6 The Zone of Interest: Writer-director Jonathan Glazer doesn’t make feature films very often (four in 23 years), but when he does, the results are never less than impressive. Glazer follows up his 2013 release Under the Skin with this unconventional take on a Holocaust film. The Zone of Interest is polarizing, taking a love it or hate it approach to its subject matter. New York Times
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# 5 Killers of the Flower Moon: You know you’ve succeeded when the debate among filmgoers and critics alike is whether Killers of the Flower Moon is the best Scorsese film ever or simply one of the best Scorsese films. As I wrote in my full-length review of the film: “Is Flower Moon a masterpiece with a capital M that stands shoulder to shoulder with Raging Bull and Goodfellas? Not for me. It wouldn’t be in my all-time Top 5 of Scorsese films. But that’s not the metric at work here. It’s still a brilliant movie and one of the best films of the year.” The film examines the systematic murder of the Oklahoma Osage Indians in the 1920’s by white businessmen intent on snatching up their oil rights. Killers underwent massive rewrites to avoid disenfranchising the Osage Nation and turning their story into a crime procedural about white investigators prosecuting white criminals. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro live up to their high acting standards, but the standout performance is Lily Gladstone as Molly Burkhart, an Osage woman who loses her family one by one to the treacherous schemes of her white persecutors while simultaneously being in love with one of them.
# 4 How To Blow Up a Pipeline: This examination of “How far is too far?” when it comes to political protests plays out like a lo-fi heist film. On a glitz and glamour scale, it’s Ocean’s 1 ½. A group of environmental activists are weary from their ineffective petitions and having their non-violent protests go unheard. So how do you hit an oil company where it hurts? You attack their profitability by targeting their infrastructure. Pipeline asks its audience if violence is ever justified when it comes to furthering a political cause. Can killing or wanton destruction of property be an act of self-defense for the planet itself? The film asks a very matter-of-fact question: If you marginalize protestors, deny them a voice in the political arena and ignore their environmental concerns, do violence and acts of terror become their only option? Pipeline is simultaneously a top-notch thriller and an examination of our modern political system where the voices of individual citizens seem to carry no weight.
# 3 The Holdovers: It was a good year for comedies, and the top of the heap was The Holdovers from director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways). The original screenplay from David Hemingson is smart, witty and emotionally resonant. Throw in stellar performances by Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and newcomer Dominic Sessa, and you have one of the best comedies in recent memory. Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a curmudgeon of a teacher at Barton Academy who relishes failing the wealthy scions of New England’s rich and famous. He’s disliked by students, faculty and administration and seems to like it that way. So, it’s no surprise when Mr. Hunham is “chosen” to look after the students who are unable to go home for Christmas vacation. What follows is a touching and often funny tale of three damaged people – teacher, cafeteria manager and student – that never becomes sappy or maudlin. Giamatti and Randolph turn in career best performances and are solid candidates to bring home Oscar gold in March.
# 2 Past Lives: This debut feature from writer-director Celine Song weaves a “what might have been” failed romance and a story of immigrant identity into the richest narrative tapestry of 2023. Greta Lee plays Nora, a young New Yorker who was born in South Korea and immigrated to Canada with her parents while she was in middle school. Nora left her childhood crush, Hae Sung (played by Teo Yoo), behind along with her Korean identity. Past Lives deftly explores the Roads Not Taken and the nature of identity. We are the culture we are born into, but we’re also the product of the choices we make in life. Past Lives is astute and sharply-observed, emotional without being sentimental. It has lived rent-free in my mind since I saw it six months ago. It’s not to be missed.
# 1 Oppenheimer: No one could have predicted that the best film of the year would drop in July in the middle of tentpole blockbuster season. As I wrote in my full length review, “It feels appropriately meta that the first masterpiece of the fall awards season is about a genius who fired the biggest peremptory shot in the history of the world.” Christopher Nolan, the man who aspired to be the post-pandemic savior of theaters everywhere with his 2020 film Tenet, instead put an unprecedented number of butts in seats three years later with this three-hour epic about … nuclear physics? Conventional wisdom says that prestige Oscar films should be released in the fall to remain firmly in voters minds as the New Year rolls around. Since the release of Oppenheimer, we’ve had three epics from three master filmmakers – Killers of the Flower Moon from Martin Scorsese, Napoleon from Ridley Scott and Ferrari from Michael Mann – and yet Nolan’s chronicle of the Manhattan Project and the development of the weapon needed to end World War II is still the top of the 2023 cinematic heap. Oppenheimer even reinvigorated home video sales, selling out in brick and mortar stores across the country. It’s a master filmmaker at the peak of his powers giving us his masterpiece. It’s proof positive that quality story-telling can dominate the box office.
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