Best Movies of 2023
So this is my final list for last year, counting down the best things about Cinema in 2023. This was one of the better years for movies, probably the best since at least 2019 in my opinion. I found plenty to love in the year through streaming or by going to the theater with the wife probably more times than ever (thanks AMC movie Stub Pass!). In past years I listed movies here I found overrated or bad, but I’m not going to do that this year. Look- we are all entitled to our own opinions, if you want to ask if one of your favorites didn’t make my list I will honestly tell you what I thought of it because based on what critics love or what is nominated for Awards season my list will confound some people as it’s a mix of what I thought deserved to be here.
The 15 movies I am putting on here I did truly love, and as with any year if you search hard enough you will find the ones that move you in some way. As time goes on and the true masterworks stand as out as they always do, I will revisit the year as there are many I have not had a chance to see yet (Godzilla One, Zone of Interest, Afire, Napoleon, Fallen Leaves, just to name a few). You may see my list and say something different, or that these 15 didn’t live up to your expectations! To Each their own, I’m just sharing my thoughts.
After today I’ll be counting down my 15 favorite movies of the year one at a time, there were just too many great ones this year to only do 10! Here are the honorable mentions:
Asteroid City – One of Wes Anderson’s more intricate movies, so if you are a fan of his newer movies like I am, you are probably on the wavelength of this story within a story of a camp in the desert for children and their parents who are also going through drama of their own. Many things happen in the background like nuclear testings and the questions are asked over if this town is an alien landing spot is posed as well. The characters are as still as the background…
You Hurt My Feelings – A movie by intimate director Nicole Holofcener that may have flown under the radar for most, Julia Louis-Dreyfus shines in a performance about her marriage not being as supportive as she thought it would be. It weaves around her sister (Michaela Watkins) and mother and the job of the husband (Tobias Menzies) as a therapist who has had enough of one famous real-life couple – daivd cross and Amber Tablyn- who wins the prize of the most annoying couple on screen this year (purposefully).
The Caine Mutiny Court-Marshall – a continuation of the famous ending and only the ending of the 1954 Humphrey Bogart classic, the final role of Lance Reddick and of course the final movie of director William Friedkin. A great couple of courtroom scenes from Jason Clarke and Keifer Sutherland. It tells an old fashioned story and morality tale, but it still resonates today- even in the courtroom it’s not all black and white/ there are many shades of gray in doing what is just and right for your fellow man.
How to Blow up A Pipeline – A true indie maverick of a film with a daring message, the ensemble cast of beginning actors do a great job and each get a back story as this group of eco-terrorists that prove why it is valuable to be anti-oil in this insane story of big companies who act as planet killers. If we keep going the way we are going, there will be no Earth left to plunder.
Scrapper – The intimate story of a father and his child, told through the eyes of a 10 year old (brilliant Lola Campbell) who learns to survive on her own after her mother’s death by stealing bicycles and selling them for parts. Her father (rising star of the year Harris Dickenson) comes back into the picture, and he is less mature than her in some ways, but maybe he can help her out and the partnership becomes mutually beneficial. But how long can it last?
Air – Ben Affleck triumphs again as actor/director telling this real life story of the Air Jordan shoe launch. Matt Damon does the heavy lifting by acting in most scenes, but this brotherhood team formed with Chris tucker, Jason Bateman and Viola Davis as Michael Jordan’s mother inspires more than you think it would.
Elephant 6 Recording Company– A documentary about outsiders who made some of the best pop music in the world in the mid to late 1990s, this was about reliving my childhood as I loved all these groups growing up- Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, and especially Olivia Tremor Control made up so many happy memories for me. To learn their roots and how they all met and worked on each others albums is as inspiring 25 years after the fact as it is was then. Music created with lo-fi Home recordings sounds easy- but anything like this that actually comes off as good is never that easy- real art takes supreme sacrifice and dedication. That being said, it’s a joy to watch and they make it all seem very fun and simple!
15. American Fiction
This movie is a unique way to tell a type of story that has been told before, a book author writing a bad book on purpose that gets accepted by the masses more than his intellectual work that means more to him. Jeffery Wright triumphs in one of the best roles of his career and definitely one of the best of the year, as a man torn between that old conundrum- what does it mean to sell out? The fake book is written by alias Stag R. Lee and the final title of it well….you will just have to wait and see. As he states in the movie, “the dumber I act, the richer I get!” He is supported by Tracie Ellis Ross as his sister and Sterling k Brown as his brother, making up quite the dysfunctional family that is a joy to watch unravel. He also begins a relationship with a neighbor of his mother Erika Alexander, but manages to do a great job of self-sabotage in basically all his links to other people.
If it was only about what the trailers tell us though, American Fiction wouldn’t be as good- beneath the premise it is actually a deep family drama with many surprises and twists along the way. Our family in the end may not always support or understand us, but they are still our family and eventually find a way to show it. Having good friends could mean the difference between life and death, or at the very least artistic freedom. First time director Cord Jefferson takes on a challenge balancing comedy and satire with an ending of multiple possibilities at the end, I guess we can take our version of the story, or really the story is never finished? This movie is based off of a book called Erasure, and there was also a great song by Corrine Rae Bailey in 2023 with that same name, the concept spiraling against what it means to be African American in the present time and how often history repeats itself. Does the movie come off as preachy or make the viewer feel guilty for enjoying the concepts behind what its saying? Well maybe a little bit actually, it’s not perfect and throws perhaps too many ideas at us. But I cant think of a way to broach this subject without being a little risky…and the questions in this movie are all worth exploring.
14. Anatomy of a Fall
This two and a half hour movie of whether a woman killed her husband or whether he died by accidental fall out of a window would have been just about perfect as a hour and forty five minute one. Still, what is left is a great movie in so many parts, a powerful courtroom drama in a year filled with so many mediocre ones. Sandra Huller shines as the lead wife in question, who we learn to love as a complex character who struggles like many artists (she is a famous author) to be free but is not exactly where she wants to be in life and her marriage. The title of the movie references the James Stewart movie of another great courtroom case, Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
Her son (child actor Milo Graner) who is blind but witnessed the whole thing, wonders whether he is changing his story based on “seeing” what his mother wants him to out of duty to her. We as the audience wonder as well and are never really given a clear answer- or perhaps there are crumbs a long the way if you look hard enough. Anatomy of a Fall starts off very slow but then gets really good, and though the ending might be left unresolved to some people to me it felt totally complete. The thing to me that makes this movie special are how real the performances are and the emphasis that sometimes the answers we seek in life we never truly find and how the story is not tied up in a neat little bow at the end. Sidenote, though mainly in French, quite a bit of the dialogue is in English.
13. Ferrari
Michael Mann is back and I am so glad. His kind of visceral action dramas are such a rarity in our time, in fact I would never accuse him of making a movie to win awards (and this wasn’t up for many) though it features tour de force performances from Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, and supporting cast of unbelievably good racecar drivers. Mann is that rare director that always makes his movies actions packed- whether he is dealing with actual races or editing between relationships and the way people relate to each other, look at how Adam Driver as Ferrari tries to take on everyone in the world at all times and how Cruz as his wife its constantly trying to fight for control with him. Only Ferrari's mistress Shailene Woodley comes off as somewhat of an innocent, even though she is also fighting for control in a more subtle way with her son and her relationship to Ferrari.
The actual famous Mille Miglia race in France is saved until the end and easily the most thrilling element of the movie, but learning about this exact period in Ferrari’s life brings to the screen why he feels everything had to be so complicated and his relationship he and his wife and mistress had to be split in some way. He was a huge force, but not an unstoppable one, in fact maybe he wanted to be stopped. Director Mann is underrated in how he enacts period detail and fluid editing; he may seem old fashioned but no one alive thinks about the future more than him. Notice also how we did not get an overlong movie here, as in real life there was a years long courtroom drama they could have tacked on at the end of the movie, but chose not to. Sometimes not making a movie overlong is a good, invisible choice. This is his best movie since at least Collateral (2004) or The Insider (1999).
12. Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
I am one of the biggest Albert Brooks fans on the planet so in many ways a movie doc made by Rob Reiner about him is easily my favorite doc of the year. But that would be unfair, and as shown in this movie Brooks knows he would never top any list of the greatest anything by the majority. In a vast career full of iconic comedy, chilling villain roles, and standup comedy he remains destined to be someone who changes the world but is never recognized for it. In this documentary we all learn his life story and many things about his parents and his early career. He was a pioneer in Saturday Night Live history- originally they wanted him to be the host EVERY week back in 1975, but he suggested to Lorne Michaels they alternate hosts every week. As a writer for the first season and others here and there, he pioneered “digital shorts” and “live street interviews” which are used by so many people today and evolved into the Digital Shorts so popular form Adam McKay, Andy Sandburg, etc.
The first movie Albert directed, was Real Life (1979) which basically showcased how reality Tv shows work now; of course he made it funnier by having the camera of the crews look like scuba diving helmets! Brooks is self-described in one of his most famous jokes as what you call ‘unfunny’, as in the joke is there and its laid out but it’s always old and everyone knows it so there is a layer and anger to it. He is always tired of every joke he writes or movie he makes before he is done stating his opinions on it. The next thing is always more interesting to him, as there is a weariness to Brooks form of artistic expression that makes it never get old to me. So yes a Brooks Documentary on his life is always going to be just about my favorite thing of the year, its only this low on my list because I just wanted to make way for other movies that were not documentaries, but hopefully even if you don’t know about Albert Brooks I have encouraged you to check out some of his comedic masterworks. The fact that he is a keen dramatic actor is just icing on the cake. What exactly makes him so consistently watchable? Well, it’s what you call un-describable….
11. Maestro
Bradley Cooper does so much right in Maestro it is hard to believe his movie is not more praised than it is. It seems destined to be forgotten in a weird way sort like title character Leonard Bernstein. Here me out- Bernstein I have always heard of my whole life growing up around classical musicians, but I never really dove into his background much mainly because I don’t have a passion for classical music or conductors in general. But, there is an argument to be made that he has brought classical music more to the forefront of our society more than anyone in recent memory. So in making a movie about this figure more accessible to the general public who might know of his many popular film/ musical contributions (soundtracks to Our Town, Westside Story, and On the Waterfront just to name a few) Cooper chose to focus almost entirely on his marriage and relationships rather than on his artistic accomplishments.
The movie is about a great songwriter and composer but mainly about his love life- everything else is in the background. You could argue he was perfect at the other aspects of his life, but here we focus on his flaw- his ability to maintain a stable relationship. His siter (Sarah Silverman) and his ever loving wife (a masterclass performance by Carrie Mulligan) are there for him in everyway, too bad he is constantly torn between his music and of course his parade of sycophants that worship him/ leech off his fame and kindness. The movie is a spiral down into a predictable collapse of a relationship, but it’s a gripping watch, and easily the best movie Bradley Cooper has directed while being one of his best acting jobs as well. It’s just interesting to me that just like his subject matter, Cooper’s movie is destined to be misunderstood and flawed in many people’s eyes. To me and many others that are open minded in a certain way, I feel like I learned quite a bit.
10. Rye Lane
Rye Lane is a perfect little movie with tons of heart and a lot of interesting ideas behind it. It's my favorite Romantic Comedy of the year. Director Raine Allen-Miller is relatively new to the scene, but a name to watch. Her use of camera angles, animation, and vibrant colors are unique to her and to movies of the 21st century in general. Lead acting pair David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah do a great job on the old classic he's 'too uptight' and she is a 'free spirit' thing, and each have exs they are hung up on and each have hilarious plans to get even with the ones who wronged them.
While the story is one you have seen before, the execution is not, making Rye Lane a movie for the ages. Also helping is the dialogue, which seems sharp and more pointed than most films like this- credit the screenplay of team Bryon/Melia. The movie is funny but also touching in a way thats hard to forget. It got more attention by British Award shows than by American ones so its destined to be overlooked, but don't let it pass you by.
9. Origin
Ava DuVernay is an amazing director, and she has found a project worth her ambitions once again with her latest film. Her previous feature – the adaptation of the nearly impossible to adapt book A Wrinkle in Time (2018)– was ambitious though maybe not a complete work, however she showed what she could do with a larger budget. But honestly she always excels on the more intimate story, with a subject closer to her heart. Her early indie Middle of Nowhere (2012) I have talked about in length before, while her breakout movie Selma (2014) about the MLK Selma march which remains an underrate classic by many. With Origin she combines everything she does well- the hard to adapt book (Caste from 2020 which was best seller on the New York Times list for a while) and matching with sensibilities that remain close to her heart- make this a truly one of a kind movie going experience.
Her work on documentary The 13th (2017) finds a master experience that blends with this story about combining the history of slavery with the treatment of Jewish people in WW2 and the current caste system in India and other similar countries. Stated many times in the movie but always with good reason, main character Isabel Wilkerson (Ellis-Taylor) channels the director by stating slavery of African Americans was more about ones place in a class/Caste system than race, and the parallels she draws make this plain to see even though it is a difficult subject to broach. Performance by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Jon Bernthal make this a very poignant romance on top of telling and important story and her character Isabel suffers family loss after loss trying to adapt the book. Some have accused the movie of being too didactic, but I find it extremely well made and not only entertaining but powerful and life-altering. The fact that it got nominated for zerooooo major awards means Duvernay is coloring outside the lines for sure in the way she makes movies, making her one of the most interesting directors of our time.
8. Monster
The best foreign movie I saw this year was form a director I have already admired a lot, Hirokazu Kore-eda who made one of my all-time favorite movies in Like Father Like Son (2013) over 10 years ago. He has a way of pulling the rug out form under us, so that even a basic plot synopsis is not good enough indication of what his movie is all about. As soon as Monster was over I wanted to watch it again, the ending of the movie changes the entire perspective of what came before. Its basically 3 stories in all: the point of view of a concerned mother in her child’s school system and what bullying has done, the point of view of the teacher who cares about his students but is very awkward and stuck in an odd position which shed new lights on his perspective of what happened at this school, and the child’s point of view and his relationship with his best friend which again highlights other details.
There is also a 4th story, that of minor characters at first including a possible girlfriend for the teacher and a devious principal, and the more we learn the richer the movie becomes. The ‘monster’ of title I am not sure about, there may not even be one on first glance, but I believe I know who the real monster is in this movie and it defies easy explanation. The genius of Kore-eda movies is he also writes the screenplays generally or works closely with a great one (here he uses Yuji Sakamoto), and here he has told an updated version of Rashomon (1950) that is just about as philosophical as that classic and helps highlights him as perhaps the best Japanese Director of 21st century.
7. Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese will probably never stop making stimulating movies that push boundaries until the day he dies, so if this is the movie he goes out on he really once again makes a giant impact around the world. Overshadowing his unique re-interpretation on the book (written by Eric Roth and rumored to be co-written by Paul Thomas Anderson??) Scorsese gives us a novel of his own with a 3 and half hour behemoth of a movie that is intimidating in length but also has to be seen to be absorbed and cherished. I may never forget going to a theater to see it, I made sure the wife and I got recliner/comfortable seats and we both loved it! The score by Robbie Robertson is kind of a part of the movie itself, the heartbeat of the Native American people was what he was born to write about and the final piece of music he ever did (RIP).
The characters are also vividly drawn, the seedy qualities that also draw your sympathy in Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), the overlording Oklahoma style mobster of Will Hale (a beautiful turn by De Niro doing what he does best) and of course a star making performance by Lily Gladstone in one of the most understated performances by an actress this year. Another trick the movie pulls seems to be surrounding us with a supporting cast of musicians-turned actors (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Pete Yorn, Jack White) that all pull off their own kind of magic and of course a rare cameo from Scorsese at the end of one of his own movies. Oh sand Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, and Jesse Plemons sneak in toward the end NO WONDER the budget on this thing was so high! But when you are a giant making giant movies…..the movie is well, “Giant” (1956).
I know the movie has its detractors, from people who prefer the book or how the story was told in the book, to those who watched it in several settings and sy it is just too long. But I also know that famous Roger Ebert quote: “A good movie is never too long, and a bad movie can never be too short.” That is basically how I feel about this movie (just so people reading this know, I did feel The Irishman was too long so I’m being objective here!). The story is one that deserved ot be told on an epic scale, even if it is 100 years too late. It’s a sad but necessary piece of the nations history.
6. To Catch a Killer
While not a prestige awards movie, I always try to keep an open mind on my lists for movies I just liked or responded too- being objective is a key to being a critic. This move was a surprise for me in many ways, it seemed like it would be a forgettable thriller at first. But thanks to the acting, sharp script, and overall shape of the direction I found it to be very moving and poignant overall. One caution: this is a very violent movie and realistic depictions if some random mass shootings so if you can't handle that subject matter which is understandable- Do not watch! If you can take the topic though, it is definitely worth your time- Shailene Woodley portrays a cop very convincingly, a person that wants to trust but has had that trust broken in her past. When a good detective (played by Ben Mendelsohn, playing a good guy for once! He kills it of course) comes a long a gives her a chance at a big case, they try to track down someone who appears to be killing people at random in a large metro area. Woodley and Mendelson were both in 3 or 4 movies this year and they were great in all of them, just a side note
The heart of this movie is centered around trying to find a motive for senseless violence. People that murder and kill do not always have a reason, they could be damaged beyond recognition or they could have given up hope, they also could have grew up in a household where they were taught different things about life and what it means to be a person in this world. It could be a mix of all of the above. What struck me most about this movie is how it used suspense to create a story that we have seen hundreds of times but find something new within it. What does it mean to actually catch a killer, and how many lives are lost along the way senselessly? What makes it worth it, there are so many questions asked and it's an insanely powerful film by new writer / director Damián Szifron.
5. Sanctuary
So yea……I wont talk much about the lot of Sanctuary here. Suffice to say, it’s the kind of movie I wouldn’t normally be drawn too unless I read or heard good reviews about it and I did, so I watched it. Wow…..it kind of blew me away! There are only two characters, Margaret Qualley (Rebecca) and Christopher Abbott (Hal) and its about their power dynamic, their relationship to each other and what people will do for a secure place in their world. Money, power, all the things that drive us as humans. At the time I saw it, I figured it was too racy for award shows. But compared to some of the films that got nominated this awards seasons (ahem Poor Things ahem), this is actually pretty tame. Rebecca is pretty transparent about what she wants, where Hal is reserved and the relationship cannot work that way or continue as mutually beneficial. One thing about movies that really work, they paint a picture in your mind you revisit over and over. They earn their place in your memory as they push the other things out. Sanctuary is that kind of movie. So if you feel like taking a risk, here is one of the more unique movies of the year.
4. Dream Scenario
It’s just a joy to watch Nicolas Cage these days. Whether it’s a crappy action movie he does to pay the bills or an art house out-there masterpiece like this one, you just get mesmerized by the guy on screen. He seems to care so much, I think that is the key that makes this movie work. The more I thought about it, the more I like it. Unique to him- he has an idea of being the smartest man around but he is totally insecure, he loves his wife but once he achieves a kind of stardom he lets his vanity loose and sort of fools around with somebody else (in one of the most hilariously awkward scenes of the year for sure). He and his wife are obsessed with Talking Heads which is their little in joke, and everything fits here as the movie is as much about family and growing up and it is about the fantasy element involved.
So plot: one day, mild manner college professor Paul Matthews (Nic Cage) starts appearing in everyone’s dreams. At first it is nice, he is just there in the background and his students love it, but soon it turns awkward and too weird, and then it turns violent. There is an aspect of mob mentality involved, blaming someone for something they didn’t do but you feel like they deserve blame for. Luckily the movie (slight spoilers ahead) never really tells us why Matthews appears in the dreams, and I’m glad it doesn’t- a literal explanation would have taken some of the magic out. A great supporting turn by Julianne Nicholson as his long suffering wife, and Michael Cera as an ad exec who wants to exploit Matthews to make him a big star, there are all sorts of surprises ahead for those who watch this movie. My guess is that it will be remembered as an awe inspiring movie for a long time.
3. Sharper
Sharper is an old fashioned, film noir tale of people cheating each other out of money and femme fatales getting their way. Julianne Moore shines here (much more than in her lauded performance in May December) as someone who knows exactly what she is doing and has no qualms or conscience about it. Sebastian Stan and new comer Justice Smith are the other men in her life, but who exactly are they to her and who can be trusted? Also there's supporting performance from John Lithgow, who seems to be popping up in all the prestige movies this year.
Every time you think you know what’s happening in Sharper, it turns out you don’t. The fact that it manages to mix in multiple love stories and makes you care about these characters is just part of the fun. Brianna Middleton plays Sandra, who comes into Tom’s life and is the perhaps the only one who really cares about him. But every character has motivations of their own, and person can have a reason for doing something with ulterior motives and not necessarily be a bad person. Not black and white….these lives are always shades of gray. They sure don’t make them like they use to make them good like this sometimes anymore.
2. The Holdovers
The most loveable movie of the year. Finally, another true classic Christmas movie that holds up on its own as well. Luckily here, old fashioned does not mean dull and really it hardly means old- Paul Giamatti carries the title role as Paul Hunham in yet another movie about a college professor (trend this year?) who is under appreciated in his work and his skill set. Dominic Sessa plays Angus in his very first movie role shines as one of his students, a lost child whose parents have better things to do on their Christmas then spend time with him and he is able to illicit sympathy from us even though at first he appears to be a spoiled little rich kid. They get stranded together over the Xmas holiday at the boarding school where neither wants to be there, and balancing out the trio is Da’vine Joy Randolph’s chef Mary who recently lost her son in the army and definitely still has some rage about that.
So they all riff off each other and help each other on a unplanned trip to Boston, but Alexander Payne directs it as someone who really knows how to do reveals about characters at the right time, and here he has created just about a perfect script- an original story at that. The Holdovers is a movie that surprised me and even if you know where its going, it is a pitch perfect story where all the right things fall into place. For a movie with three great stand out acting performances, it also has great background characters- think about the group of classmates Sessa has at the beginning and how they relate to each other- they are not really ‘friends’ but people stuck together in a boarding school class. Think about all of the teachers, including the one Paul obviously has a crush on and how that scenario plays it self out. I loved this movie the more I thought about it, and despite the familiar subject matter I do think it is actually Alexander Payne’s best movie, screenplay, and best acted especially by Giamatti.
1.Memory
Memory is my favorite of Michel Franco's directed films and honestly my favorite movie of 2023 overall. It gets everything right about the nuances of dealing with people who have had trauma in their past (Jessica Chastain) and trauma in their current life (Peter Sarsgaard) that keeps them from being the complete people they want to be. To say trauma might be an understatement for what these characters have been though, and together they might actually be the only ones who are able to heal each other. The story is full of twists and surprises and i really did not know what to expect next, I rarely say this but don’t read spoilers on this one as its quite good with all the reveals.
Though it has a short 1 hour and 40 minute running lime, it is a perfect length and never drags; it feels truly lived in and real. All the cinematography is invisible and the settings they use to create the atmosphere and climates of the characters are perfect to match. Supporting cast is perfect, everyone gives 'just enough to make it a true ensemble: Merrit Wever is perfectly cast as Sylvia’s sister, who always supports her despite her strange (to most people around her) behavior; her mother played by Jessica Harper is the exact opposite. Brooke Timber as the daughter Anna has a more subtle role to play, slowly realizing the depth of her mother’s trauma. Where so many other movies of the year try to have this kind of out-there style, excess running times, and flashy storytelling and sublime meaning, Franco makes a movie that tells a simple story and gives us all hope for humanity. It is a reminder that sometimes all you need is a well told, well-acted, well directed movie to make the biggest emotional impact.