Best Films of 2023
Well, it's already early February somehow and award season for the 2023 film year is well underway. 2023 was the first year post-pandemic I was able to see the volume of new films to warrant a top 10 list - a practice I started in 2017 but abandoned after 2020 when like the rest of the world I was mostly forced to watch releases from years past on streaming services. Last year, despite my ongoing poverty, through a host of tricks, streaming services, tight budgets, and the generosity of friends, I was able to see around 40 new releases. For most of 2023, I considered it the YEAR OF DISAPPIONTMENTS. That's still my primary description of the year in film. Long anticipated and ballyhooed new films by Nolan, Scorsese, Fincher, and Wes Anderson to name a few all left me dissatisfied. Not because I am an adoring fan of these directors, but given the high regard with which they are held and given the rich subject matter on which several of these films were based, I had hoped for much more. Oppenheimer - too long (something I almost never say), with a third act that just didn’t interest me despite Robert Downey Jr.’s stellar performance. The film leaves absent the victims of the atomic bomb, not only in Japan, but in the New Mexico desert as well, sanitizing the central elements of the events it portrays. Killers of the Flower Moon - a Scorsese vanity project about a very worthy subject, the cameo by the director in the final scene just killed it for me - he just couldn’t help but make sure we knew who the true “hero” of this story was. This was a “white savior” complex in the form of a director rather than a character. There were two great elements of Killers of the Flower Moon, the historical events portrayed which deserve serious attention and exposure, and the rising star of Lily Gladstone, who deserved to be the center of the film rather than more of a supporting character (DiCaprio has twice the screentime as Gladstone and Deniro has nearly equal time). How I would love to see this film made through the vision of an indigenous filmmaker with the indigenous characters centered. Instead, we get more proof that Scorsese is primarily a genre filmmaker retelling the same stories about fallen white men, corrupted by sin over and over as long as he can include gratuitous and unnecessary screen violence as part of the mix (OK, perhaps this is a touch hyperbolic). However, apparently, the final script was a major improvement over the original and the book it’s based on which centered the FBI, so I give Scorsese enough credit to recognize how ridiculous a film that would have been. I won’t even bother commenting on The Killer, or Asteroid City as they are not worth any more of my time.
Despite these disappointments, there was much to celebrate in 2023. I resisted the trend by critics to declare 2023 a great year in film right up until the final weeks of the year. But somewhere near New Year's, and certainly after as I contemplated this list, I finally had to join the chorus of voices arguing 2023 was a damn good year for cinema. So here is my top 10 list. As usual, other than number one, I am less concerned with the actual ranking than I am with the 10 films I choose. In particular, all those with an A- letter grade could be ranked in nearly any order, basically all sitting at the number 3 spot in a sense. And of course, I can’t resist an honorable mentions list, whose length this year is a testament to how good a film year it was…
The Zone of Interest: A+
The cinematic illustration of the primary theme of Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem - “The Banality of Evil”. Arendt’s brilliant insight on how instrumental reason operated in Nazi Germany allowing for the holocaust to happen is perhaps the most enduring lesson of the 20th century (the development and use of the atomic bomb its correlate - too bad there wasn’t a film this year that captured that with the same power that The Zone of Interest did the holocaust). Mechanized death on the scale of the holocaust is only possible with the detachment, dehumanization, and destructive potential born of the heights of bourgeois industrial civilization—the witch’s brew of atomized individuation and mass conformity. Director Jonathan Glazer beautifully illustrates this through the masterful use of images and sound to capture the simultaneous horror and banality of those at the center of the Nazi machinery of death. Zone of Interest is an excellent companion to the 1984 German TV film The Wannsee Conference - perhaps two of the greatest films on the Holocaust as both illustrate the same principle in their own way (I have not seen the HBO film remake called Conspiracy, but it is my understanding that it undermines the original). Zone of Intrest's unique achievement in this pairing is the use of sound in particular to force the viewer to acknowledge the full inhumanity of those cold calculated decisions made in boardrooms. The audio equivalent of the powerful images of Schindler’s List without the sentimentality and white savior hero. Comparing Zone of Interest with Oppenheimer, where the absence of the atomic bomb victims from the lens in the Nolan film neuters the reality of its horror, the visual (but not auditory) absence of the holocaust victims in Glazer’s film is a gaping wound we cannot ignore, though the characters in the film seem quite willing to do so. What's worrying about the reaction to Zone of Interest is the level to which many critics and intellectuals pushed back against this notion of the banality of evil. Their disturbing desire for the comfort of a notion of Nazis as some alien evil that bears no resemblance to ourselves lies at the root of why never again actually means over and over again.
Green Border: A
Green Border is a micro view of the “never again” is actually over and over again reality that we live in that I referenced discussing the Zone of Interest. As the product of American Poles who grew up with a slight touch of the same ethnic pride common in most working-class American families with memory of immigrant origins (even if 2 or 3 generations removed) but also as someone with a deep aversion to the predominate Polish American, and Polish attitudes toward race, politics and a “troubled” to say the least contemporary history, it is always a great relief to me that Poles like director Agnieszka Holland do exist. Lone voices in the wilderness it seems, but loud and prophetic voices nonetheless. Holland made the film despite severe obstacles put up by the previous right-wing regime in Poland, an orchestrated effort to suppress the film by the same authorities upon its release and at significant personal risk. Green Border should be required viewing given our own national moment with a migrant crisis. One of the great strengths of the film is its ability to capture the viewpoints and motivations of multiple actors without diminishing the centrality of the perspectives of the victims of the events illustrated. Something films like Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon could have benefited from.
Poor Things: A-
The true feminist film triumph of 2023 with almost as much pink in some scenes as Barbie. Yorgos Lanthimos continues to prove to be one of the most entertaining while also thought-provoking directors of contemporary cinema. I am always excited to see what he will do next and we won’t have to wait long as he has another release coming in 2024. One of the year's best comedies, with some truly laugh-out-loud moments and perhaps the year's best non-diegetic soundtrack. One of the most thoroughly enjoyable experiences I had with a film last year.
Anatomy of a Fall: A-
Just fantastic writing, fantastic performances, and one of the most memorable uses of diegetic music in 2023. A wonderful illustration of our frequent inability to communicate and understand one another.
The Teachers Lounge: A-
Anyone who has spent any time as an educator in a K-12 classroom can’t fail to appreciate this film. Such thought-provoking insight into how elements of class, race, ethnicity, and power dynamics all interact in any institutional educational setting. It’s telling how the origin of the story derived from an experience of the director’s in school decades ago. This film is a reminder of the impact educational professionals can have on their students. Tremendous performances and direction of young actors.
Fremont: A-
Several films this year placed working-class characters center stage (Fallen Leaves, Full Time, R.M.N., The Teacher's Lounge, Rye Lane, Green Border, even Poor Things). Fremont is one of the best examples of the bunch. A social realist tragicomedy with a rom-com element in it's final act, it’s a terrific and incredibly funny portrayal of immigrant working-class life, that despite it’s humor does not hide the sadness and deep pain the characters also experience. Some scenes are easily the most hysterical of any film of 2023, while others emphasize the devastating sense of displacement and survivor guilt that so many refugees experience. Full of desperation, tedium, and loneliness but also hope and perseverance. The brutal reality of U.S. empire and its outcomes lie below the surface of the narrative but the protagonist, an Afghan refugee, finds a possible path to happiness nonetheless. Includes a wonderful but brief cameo by Boots Riley - when is he going to make another film?!
Saltburn: B+
Creepy kid on screen again! What's not to love? Though I perhaps saw more of him in this film than I need too. ;) “Creepy kid” is my nickname for actor Barry Keoghan, who I gave the name after seeing Yorgos Lanthimos's Killing of a Sacred Deer. It's a name that still fits somehow despite him no longer being a kid, and for me it’s an endearing one. I love Barry Keoghan! When is this man going to win an Oscar? He deserved one for The Banshees of Inisherin (what a great film). This film has been one of the most controversial of 2023 but I think too many people either overthought the movie or did not think about it enough. In particular, there seems to be a critique that the film's portrayal of class, which is the film’s central theme, was too forgiving to the upper-class elites portrayed in the film and too hostile to the middle-class (faux working-class) protagonist/ultimate villain. I saw it rather much like Brecht’s Threepenny Opera. An indictment of the class system that does not require a heroic (or even anti-heroic) protagonist with which we can identify. Capitalism corrupts all - is it any wonder that its predatory nature occasionally turns the hunted into the hunter? A friend called the film a “horror film for the filthy rich”, which I think is a very apt description. It's not any deep analysis of class society, just an entertaining tale of the turning of the tables. Though I will admit the film's final ten or so minutes seem nearly as preposterous as the purposefully farcical finale of Threepenny Opera.
All of Us Strangers: B+
Another example of strong diegetic music choices this year. Yes, there is the obligatory (and sadly predictable) Pet Shop Boys song to signify the 80’s, but The Housemartins! And the Fine Young Cannibals from their first album when they were good! That's thinking outside the box. And so well placed in the plotline. And of course the Frankie Goes to Hollywood track which is central to the film's emotional punch. After the film I found myself spending too much time trying to parse the clues to the implied but not explicit narrative - was Andrew Scott’s character Adam dead as well? Almost certainly the empty apartment block was some sort of purgatory. But none of that matters, it's all beside the point. What matters is the powerful meditation on love and loss, loneliness, and companionship that the narrative provides space for. Just an undeniably beautiful film.
Fallen Leaves: B
A simple film. A tragi-comic rom-com by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki who specializes in humanist portrayals of working-class characters. A much more hopeful update of sorts to the bleak and unforgiving 1990 Match Factory Girl. Though the degree to which the material world of the characters has not evolved much is quite depressing. Then again the dated, seemingly lost-in-time interiors and exteriors of Fallen Leaves seem to be part of the humor in this case - a visual representation of the old-fashioned nature of the tale. The lack of advance in material culture is matched by the lack of progress in human communication, though it’s fertile ground for both humor and hope in this film rather than hopelessness and despair as in the earlier film.
Rye Lane: B
One of the funniest movies of the year, in a year with some very funny movies (Fremont, Poor Things, Fallen Leaves, and yes, even Barbie). Terrific working-class characters, set in the multi-ethnic south London communities of Brixton and neighboring Peckham, home of the Jamaican diaspora community in London, home of Ska and Punk, and at least one of the members of the Clash, how could I not love this film! For someone steeped in the musical culture born from this community, it was love at first sight, even if that is a minor element of the film. I have read some critics refer to it as “Before Sunrise set in London's West Indian boroughs”. There's much truth to this comparison.
Honorable Mentions:
R.M.N.: B-, A perhaps even more bleak and depressing examination of xenophobia than Green Border with a tremendous ensemble scene, that rivals the work of Ken Loach. The surrealist ending however left me scratching my head.
Full Time: B-, Another great example of centering working class characters this year but again, in this case, the deus ex machina ending ruined the film for me.
Foe: B-, I wanted this one on the list only because I don’t get the 25% Rotten Tomatoes score? It's not that bad. Actually, it has some truly powerful scenes by Paul Mescal.
Maestro: B-, Just a really enjoyable film with a great performance by Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein.
May December: C+, A potentially great film, with an especially strong performance by Charles Melton ruined by an awful soundtrack.
Dungeons and Dragons: C+, Another laugh-out-loud funny film in a year full of them.
The Creator: B-, Proof that the sci-fi theme of artificial intelligence remains fertile ground for exploration. I particularly liked the use of the theme to highlight the class conflict between the advanced capitalist economies, especially U.S. empire and the global south.
Rustin: B-: Any film highlighting a gay, socialist forgotten hero of the civil rights movement deserves some attention, even if it’s a rather standard biopic that leaves out far too much.
Barbie: C+: Took a lot of convincing for me to see this but I must say, I hope a good number of kids asked their parents to define patriarchy after seeing the film so they understand that, as Ken explains, it's not really about horses. Another strong comedy in a year full of them.
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