Chris' Top 10 of 2023
Although no single film stood out head and shoulders above the rest, it will still go down as a pretty decent year for movies with some bold newcomers and subversive filmmaking.
How do you define a movie year as good or bad?
Sometimes you can love one or two films so much it can seem like a banner year, when in fact it’s hard to name more than a handful of truly stellar cinematic efforts. I would say 2023 is the opposite of that — no one film stood head and shoulders above the rest, but overall the quality of moviemaking I saw impressed me.
We witnessed the entry of some bold new voices as writer/directors — Cord Jefferson, Chloe Domont and Celine Song among them. We also saw sophomore films, like Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn,” that did not settle for the conventional and safe.
I look forward eagerly to their next efforts.
The biggest upstart, of course, is Greta Gerwig, the director and co-writer of “Barbie,” the highest-grossing movie of the year. It’s ironic that someone who came up acting in teeny little indie films is now an overnight A-list director. I wonder if she’s begun to grasp how much her life and career are about to change.
As a critic I think my tastes tend to run largely to the mainstream. And yet, once again my best-of list is filled with eclectic choices and small films you may not have seen — or possibly even heard of. You’ll have to take my word that I’m not just trying to be precious.
So here are my picks for the best films of the year, divided into an ordered list and then the also-rans, movies I cherished but that didn’t quite make the cut. I also will follow my tradition of highlighting the movies that disappointed — not necessarily bad films, but ones that failed to live up to expectations.
1. All of Us Strangers
An incredibly human story, starring Andrew Scott as a lonely writer and Paul Mescal as the apartment building neighbor who becomes his lover. I adored director/co-writer Andrew Haigh’s elegant device to frame the slightly supernatural conversations the protagonist has with his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy). The most empathetic film experience I had this year.
2. The Holdovers
Paul Giamatti reunites with “Sideways” director Alexander Payne and delivers another career high point, playing a lonely and alienating instructor at an elite boys’ prep school. Forced to watch over a small gaggle of students over the holidays, he sees something of himself in a struggling young man, and also bonds with the school kitchen manager. Mordantly funny, bleak and yet… full of joy. And I still want to know how Giamatti did that thing with his eye.
3. American Fiction
I’ve moved this one up and down my list, and even left it off at one point. But Cord Jefferson’s acidly funny satire is truly audacious filmmaking, even if the film stumbles a bit about three-quarters of the way. Jeffrey Wright plays an unheralded writer who pens a mockery of popular “urban” Black fiction, and then finds the joke’s on him when it becomes a huge cultural hit. Beautiful three-dimensional characters with a biting commentary about how we live in a society that perpetually seems to value the wrong things.
4. Dumb Money
Puzzled and sad this didn’t make more of a mark culturally and at the box office, since it’s the sharpest send-up of the corrupting power of high finance since “The Big Short.” Paul Dano plays the basement leader of a revolution, as “nobody” stock traders buy up shares of a moribund video game retailer to make a point, and wind up taking on the biggest of evil capitalist goons. The sort of movie that cloaks genuine anger behind uproariously funny social commentary.
5. Rustin
Another film that punched below its weight from a pop culture standpoint. Colman Domingo gives a career-changing performance as the gay Black civil rights organizer whose legacy has been diminished because he didn’t fit in the round hole others proscribed for him. A singularly distinctive character standing amidst the clashing typhoon of history.
6. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
I had low hopes for this adaptation of the seminal Judy Blume novel about an almost-12-year-old girl struggling to fit in at a new school while dealing with family and “development” problems. But it’s simply one of the best family films of recent years, splendidly acted (Rachel McAdams is a standout as the mom), heartfelt and immediate.
7. Blackberry
I came very late to this one, a biting look at greed and power in the early Information Age wars. It’s a classic tale of hubris, as smart but clueless engineers create the first true all-in-one cell phone but need a shark-like business guy to sell it to the world. Jay Baruchel’s coming-of-age role, and Glenn Howerton plays a loud-mouthed a-hole, and yet is somehow endearing.
8. The Color Purple
Another film I did not have high expectations for, and was just bowled over. The 1985 original has some problems but still launched a lot of careers, so did we need a new, musical version? Yes, yes we did. An amazing cast headlined by Fantasia Barrino, who hasn’t gotten a lot of traction in the awards season so far but definitively deserves to. Possibly the most beautiful-looking movie of the year.
9. The Lionheart
The best documentary I saw this year played at Heartland Film Festival, looking at the life, career and untimely death of racer Dan Wheldon. Unlike most such docs, it doesn’t just focus on hagiography but follows the life of Wheldon’s widow and their two sons as they grieve and grow in the years after his passing.
10. Memory
There was a point in watching “Memory” where I wanted to shut it off. Its depiction of the relationship between two very damaged people, played by Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, can be off-putting and even traumatic. A man with memory dementia and a single mom overcoming addiction are thrown together in unexpected ways, but it just works. Another tiny film I’m hoping more people get to see.
The Best of the Rest
(Listed alphabetically)
Air — Who knew you could make a movie where sneaker billionaires are the heroes?
Barbie — I’m not as high on it as others, but it truly is a masterwork of blending pop culture tropes with a sly critique of gender roles, all while working in the format of a big-budget picture with the toy overlords looking over your shoulder.
Beau Is Afraid — It’s so weird, even Nicolas Cage’s “Dream Scenario” seems staid by comparison. It’s never not interesting.
Golda — A terrific performance by Helen Mirren in a movie nobody saw.
Greener Pastures — An amazing documentary that walks alongside small independent farmers and sees their humanity.
The Lost King — The great Sally Hawkins is terrific in this terrific film few people saw.
Nimona — The best animated film I watched this year, from a platform (Netflix) that has quietly surpassed Disney/Pixar as the best in the biz.
Past Lives — A terrific debut by Celine Song as a Westernized Korean woman returns home to explore the never-was romance with the boy she grew up alongside.
Poor Things — Another film I think is just very good, not great, but I recognize it as a boundary-breaking film. It would be the most out-there Best Picture Oscar nominee — maybe even winner???
When Evil Lurks — As one who was weaned on horror flicks, it’s hard to scare me. This Argentinian film legit did.
The Disappointments
Anatomy of a Fall — All year I heard this French crime/courtroom drama was the best foreign language film. I found it curiously flat and even boring.
Bottoms — I wanted to love this movie so much, and didn’t.
The Creator — I was all-in for Gareth Edwards’ big-ambitions space epic, but it was clunky and unaffecting.
Killers of the Flower Moon — Currently the front-runner for awards glory, and I’m baffled. I have many complaints, the chief of which is it’s a movie about the systemic oppression of native peoples that shunts them to the background of the story.
The Marvels — For my money “Captain Marvel” is one of the best MCU flicks, and while not bad this one is very uneven and undermines the character.
May December — Another film many are loving that I did not.
Monster — I liked this Japanese movie about the troubled friendship between two boys more when it was made in Denmark last year as “Closer.”
Napoleon — Not a bad film at all. Epic battle scenes from one of my favorite directors, Ridley Scott. Vanessa Kirby is outstanding. But it’s hard when your main character just isn’t that interesting.
Priscilla — I really liked Sofia Coppola’s first two films, and none since. Jacob Elordi, who also played in “Saltburn,” is going to be a star.