(This article is part of our Best of 2023 series).
I prefer to do 2023 retrospectives as things I saw rather than go by a strict calendar and do a ranking of what came out or whatever… I know that’s a bit rogue! However, we are always reading about new and upcoming stuff, so hopefully not too annoying. I know it wouldn’t bother me as a reader and it makes life easier to think about my personal year rather than the industry’s. But, yeah, three of my five favorite films are 2023 U.K. releases. I’ve seen so much that I could have done a Top 30 but here are my absolute Top 5 of the year.
Suzume
While I enjoyed Makoto Shinkai’s breakout crossover hit Your Name and his follow-up Weathering With You, I wasn’t as blown away by either as I’d hoped to be given their popularity. There was a slight disconnect, something that didn’t quite reach me, so I went into Suzume without the expectation of loving it. I loved it so much that I was back in the cinema just a couple of days later to watch it again, dubbed instead of subbed so I had a bit more of a reason to see it again so soon, but mostly I just needed to check… did I really love it as much as it felt like I did the first time?
The answer was yes, it’s just the right blend of ridiculous fun and sentimentality and pure thrills, even with stiff competition from what I’ve seen this year there hasn’t been another film to dethrone it. Suzume tells the story of a girl who gets embroiled in a quest to keep literal demons at bay by locking up doors all over Japan that unleash disaster. She reckons with her past in the process, and meets some unusual characters along the way, including the best personification of an inanimate object since the magic carpet from Disney’s Aladdin. A madcap adventure with a poignant metaphor at its heart, Suzume is an absolute must-see.
Past Lives
It’s great that a film this quietly contemplative and gently stirring, a debut feature without a starry cast, is continuing to receive significant attention and be recognized as one of the year’s absolute finest releases. I adored Past Lives and how much it said with so much restraint, how it trusted its conceit and avoided unnecessary melodrama, and how much space it left for the viewer to project and interpret whilst still being immaculately crafted. I could not be more excited to see where Celine Song goes from here.
La Chimera
I caught a preview of this so it’s not something everyone had the chance to see in 2023 but much like another of my fav watches this past year, La Chimera has been impressing on the festival circuit, and deservedly so. It’s the first feature that I’ve seen from Alice Rohrwacher (so now I really need to make time for 2018’s Happy as Lazzaro) and I couldn’t be more into everything it was trying to do. The film is centered on a fantastic role for the UK’s own Josh O’Connor as a tomb raider the likes of which you’ve never seen before — the disheveled Brit traipsing through Italian landscapes using divination and a ragtag group of fellow plunderers to achieve his goals. A wistful, melancholic family drama of sorts about a haunted criminal, La Chimera is not to be missed!
Priscilla
I would consider myself a fan of Sofia Coppola, so I was definitely predisposed to liking this one, but I really, really liked it. Focusing on the surreal and singular life experience of a young Priscilla Presley, who was thrust into a world of fame and fortune when Elvis took an — inappropriate to say the least — interest in her, Coppola’s film touches on familiar territory for the filmmaker as it portrays Priscilla’s gilded cage and unique coming of age story. It looks amazing, it sounds amazing, and (considering it has Priscilla’s approval) is surprisingly unafraid to be uncomfortable viewing. A welcome perspective hot on the heels of Baz Luhrmann’s lurid, dizzying ode to The Pelvis.
The Breaking Ice
Anthony Chen’s quiet drama takes a disparate trio and throws them together in a snowy China, the collective finding themselves drawn to one another after some initial travel plans go awry. Incredible at building mood and character, The Breaking Ice explores loneliness and fleeting, unexpected connection with an effortless charm that I couldn’t stop thinking about after watching.
What are your thoughts on the movies that made my top five? Share them down below!