(This article is part of our Best of 2023 series.)
2023 was an odd year for me. Much like the previous year, my love of cinema had diminished to the point where I could no longer muster the energy to watch anything. I would go weeks without wanting to put something on and even then, it wasn’t a guarantee I’d even watch something when the mood struck me. If I couldn’t find a thing to watch within 30 minutes, I’d give up and go back to YouTube or video games. It felt like I watched nothing and yet, this holds the record for the most amount of new releases I’ve watched within a year. I watched every single movie I wanted to see minus Zone of Interest. Watched all the Oscar contenders, the critically acclaimed horror movies and indie darlings. Since I saw so many films, I’m going to be splitting this up into three parts and like always, they’ll be ranked worst to best.
These are my five favorite films of 2023 (plus 65 honorable mentions). Check out Part I here, Part II here, and Part III here.
10. American Fiction
American Fiction is an exploration of artistry versus selling out, the value of image and the hypocrisy of race in the literally world. It’s a satire about stereotypes while also being a tender family drama. The targets it’s aiming at are the same Spike Lee attacked in Bamboozled but where I think this film works and that film doesn’t, is the fact that it’s more than just a soapbox. The message is omnipresent but it’s balanced out by the main character’s home life. If it was nothing but his trials and tribulations trying to make it in an industry that celebrates mediocrity, it wouldn’t work. It would still probably be funny and Wright would have still given an award worthy performance but its his home life that’s the real heart of the film. His sister (played by Tracee Ellis Ross) challenges his bullshit and brings a warmth to the film. His brother (played by Sterling K. Brown who’s on fire in this film) is on a path of self discovery that’s as transformative as it is destructive and his mother (the always amazing Leslie Uggams), who’s issues are admittedly a plot device, still manages to give a heart-wrenching and nuanced performance. These characters are why the film works, everything else is just amazing toppings on an otherwise perfect sundae.
09. BlackBerry
The true value of a film critic isn’t just to save you some money from telling you not to see something awful but to give you the gift of discovering something you might not have ever found on your own. If Ebert was passionate about a movie (say Hoop Dreams or My Dinner With Andre for example), or a director (like Martin Scorsese or Rahmin Bahranir), he’d bang the drum for them so passionately, you could’ve help but want to check them out. I would’ve saw BlackBerry whether I knew about the director beforehand or not but I don’t know if I would have dug further back into his career based solely on the strength of the movie. His previous films look amateurish and extremely independent, so I might’ve written them off as the work of an inexperienced director who was grinding away until he got his big break. While I don’t watch his channel as much as I used to, if it wasn’t for Adam Johnston from Your Movie Sucks, I potentially never would’ve discovered the genius that is Matt Johnson. As much as I like BlackBerry (and I really like BlackBerry), it’s probably his least impressive project to date. The Dirties was a no budget film about a school shooter that shot in an actual school. Operation Avalanche was a no budget film about the faking of the moon landing that actually shot in NASA and his show Nirvanna the Band the Show did crazy shit like that constantly. To be clear, the director did not have permission to film in these locations, he just had big balls and a very good lawyer. Johnson is a wild man who takes crazy chances and has a unique cinematic voice. I didn’t think he was ever going to go the “commercial” route but I’m glad he did. He shows that he’s not just a gimmick, he’s the real deal.
BlackBerry is Fincher lite and I don’t mean that disparagingly. It has all the hallmarks of The Social Network but with a fraction of the budget. If Johnson could have hired Reznor to do the soundtrack or Sorkin to write the screenplay, it probably would’ve had the Hollywood shine Academy members look for when nominating things. They never look at low budget movies and this is most certainly a low budget movie. There’s only one aspect of BlackBerry that can easily go toe to toe against that film and that’s the performances. Jay Baruchel has never been better but Glenn Howerton is a revelation. Anyone watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia knows how good he is comedically but this is the best example of just how great he can be dramatically. He takes the unbridled rage his character from that show is famous for and puts it into a wheeling and dealing business weasel and the result is absolute gold. I know a lot has been said about Gerwig and Robbie getting snubbed but for anyone actually paying attention, this is the real snub of the year. There may not be a more entertaining performance this year and I’m including Gosling from Barbie. He’s an absolute maniac and listening to his rants never gets old and watching him desperately trying to stay afloat while clearly drowning shows how talented he really is. He’s really good at portraying anger and desperation with just a look. Sometimes both at the same time. It’s my favorite performance in quite some time and I really hope Johnson writes more characters like him in the future
08. When Evil Lurks
If I was David Gordon Green, I be so embarrassed that I released Exorcist: Believer in a year when this movie dropped, that I would never make another horror film again. Since Blumhouse spent a gazillion dollars acquiring the rights to that franchise, the next director they hire to helm the sequel will make sure it’s a hit, regardless of quality. No offense to James Wan, who I think is incredibly talented, but he’s the safest possible choice, so that’s who they’ll most likely get. But if they didn’t care about box office and actually wanted to produce a good movie for once, they’d immediately offer the gig to Demián Rugna. I consider his previous film Terrified, among the best horror films of the 2010s. It’s the closest any director has gotten to capturing the spirit of The Evil Dead. Most directors, like Peter Jackson for example, were inspired by the sequel but few try and tap into the original film’s sense of dread, unrelenting scares and constant invention. Rugna not only nails that feeling but in many regards, tops the Raimi masterpiece. I truly think it’s one of the best constructed cinematic haunted houses ever made. Which made the anticipation I had for his follow up feel like a crackhead jonesing for another hit. It took a minute before he came back with that sweet crack rock but man, it was worth it. When Evil Lurks isn’t as consistent as Terrified but what it does have are more shocking moments. There are about five or so scenes that had my jaw on the floor. It’s the type of film that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go till the credits role. Horror films need to be more like this, and less like whatever the fuck David Gordon green is doing.
07. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
The highest compliment I can give a film is that it doesn’t feel like it was made today. This probably doesn’t make sense to anyone but myself but How to Blow Up a Pipeline feels like a ’90s film that’s emulating the style of a ’70s film. It has the hallmarks of both decades, which is high praise. I’m amazed any new director can produce something that feels that authentically raw and gritty but what’s even more shocking to me than that, is the fact that the director seems to primarily work within the realm of horror. His previous film and his upcoming film (which is a reimagining of Faces of Death of all things) are both horror, so it’s weird to me that he decided to tackle something like this. The film follows a group of young activists that want to blow up an oil pipeline. Simple premise but the execution is the key to this film’s success. It’s structured like a heist film, where it starts with an assembly of the team, why they want to be involved and what their abilities are and then watching them plan the big score. And like all great heist films, it is filled to the gills suspense, tension and dramatic plot revelations. There’s no twists per say but it does have a couple of story beats you won’t see coming. If I was Gene Shalit, I would say How to Blow Up a Pipeline blew me away but since I’m not, I’ll simply say it was great.
06. The Holdovers
I held off watching this for the longest time because I truly didn’t think I’d like it. I’m not a fan of Alexander Payne at all. None of his films have ever worked for me. I just don’t gel with his style and sensibilities, I guess. But this one I loved. It feels like a cinematic warm hug. There’s a life affirming quality to it that lonely housewives look for in Hallmark Christmas movies but unlike that pap, it actually has substance. It doesn’t spoon feed you any message and it doesn’t sand off the rough edges of the characters to humanize them, to make them more likeable. You understand more about Paul Giamatti with his interactions with Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa but he’s still the same downtrodden curmudgeon in the end as he is in the beginning. Learning more about Sessa’s character informs his behavior but it doesn’t stop him from making terrible decisions that will make you want to throttle him. These are real characters connecting with one another. It’s a simple story that has no larger point it’s trying to make or agenda it’s trying to push. It’s a throwback to a time in film history when little character dramas could be sold solely on the strength of their performances. Films like this rarely get made anymore and let alone justifies its existence.
05. Poor Things
It’s amazing that this movie, which is basically the weirdest, most artistic mash up of Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenhooker imaginable, is essentially the same story as Barbie. Both films deal with body autonomy and what it means to be a woman. But both go about it in radically different ways. This is Barbie for goth chicks who idolize Mary Shelley and watch hardcore hentai. Which is to say, it’s not for everyone. I saw this in a crowded movie theater packed with elderly people (I saw it early in the day, the only time the old come out) and by the 30 minute mark, half of the theater was empty. And I love that. In a movie landscape primarily dominated by superhero movies and nostalgic reboots, Yorgos Lanthimos is out here making whatever the fuck he wants and that’s inspiring to me. It gives me hope for the future of cinema. We desperately need more big swings from maverick filmmakers and this is about as big a swing as you could take. Some will dismiss it as just 2 and a half hours of Emma Stone naked and fucking everything in sight but that’s missing the point entirely. This isn’t a Skinemax film. The sexual content isn’t too titillate but to shine a light on the theme of the film. It isn’t about her having sex non-stop, it’s about the fact that she can. This is a world free of prejudices. She has the freedom to find herself and is having a good time doing whatever she wants. The only people who are trying to stop her are the men trying to control her. It’s the kind of film annoying douchebros on the Internet will drag because anything labeled feminist is automatically trash in their eyes and nothing with a ton of sex can possibly be empowering. Bella’s arc is by far the most interesting of the year. The way she moves about the world, seeing everything anew with child-like wonder. How quickly she learns things about herself, her wants and desires and causes she cares about. Her interactions with the world reminded me of other great “alien” type performances most notably Daryl Hannah in Splash and Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin. It’s probably the best work Stone has done and that’s saying a lot. And speaking of career best performances, Ruffalo is incredible as a silver tongue devil who wins her affection with his bravado and then emotionally falls apart when she tires of him. Watching him regress into a child, is the polar opposite arc of hers and it’s wonderful. Willem Dafoe is also great as the mad scientist that brought her to life. The only reason it’s not higher on the list is that I do think it spins its wheels a bit around the hallway point, with certain themes and scenes getting repeated a bit too much. But those are minor nitpicks. It truly is a masterpiece from a director who just keeps getting better with each new film.
04. Anatomy of a Fall
If it wasn’t for the unanimously glowing reviews of this film, I never would’ve checked it out. Not that it looked bad or that I doubted its quality but because of the runtime. I’m so tired of every movie being 150 minutes or longer, that I’m immediately disinterested in them when I see how long they are. That used to be a length only reserved for the yearly epic. Your Titanics, your Bravehearts, your Lawrence of Arabias. But at some point, it became the norm and I disagree with this trend. It took me half a year to watch the new Mission Impossible because it’s almost longer than the first two Mission Impossible movies combined. But where that film didn’t justify its length at all, this film somehow felt tight at such a long runtime. There isn’t a wasted scene or an ounce of fat on this steak. It’s a lean mystery that kept me engaged throughout. A woman (Sandra Hüller) is suspected of her husband’s murder, and their blind son (Milo Machado-Graner) faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.
Although the movie focuses on the woman who may or may not have killed her husband, the audience is meant to see her through the eyes of her son. Which I know is ironic since he’s blind but since the majority of the film takes place in a courtroom, we only know as much about her as what the film wants us to know about her. We get the evidence of her character but no context. It paints a complex character who does and says things that could be read either way. She lies. She’s cheated. She’s in a marriage that makes her miserable and she resents her husband for the accident that blinded her son. Is that circumstantial evidence or the behavior of someone ready to snap? I won’t reveal whether or not I think she did it but I will say, I made up my mind pretty quickly and no amount of evidence ever swayed me or made me second-guess myself. I’m not saying that’s a failing on the movie’s part, because I’d rather stay in one lane of belief than get tossed cliche bombshells throughout the movie. I just wish I had the excitement of the narrative roller coaster other people might have with it.
03. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The first Spider-Verse film was a revelation. The art style was wholly unique, Miles Morales’ story was compelling, the additional Spider-Men were fun and it had some of the best needle drops in history. The sequel had huge shoes to fill and for the majority of its runtime, I didn’t think it did. It was entertaining but it didn’t hook me the same way as the first film did. That is until they introduced the “canon event” and it all started to click. What I love about this movie, is that it’s the first superhero movie to ask the question, “Is canon important?” I love that question because it shows to me the filmmakers care more about telling new and interesting stories with characters we know, then doing the same thing we’ve seen a million times. We don’t need anymore superhero origin stories. We really don’t. They’re all the same fucking story. This is the first film since Burton’s Batman that tosses that shit aside but this one goes a bit further by asking when we can officially retire it. But that’s just one small element I love. I love the art style, that continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in animation. I love the character designs and how they are depicted. I absolutely love the villain who brilliantly ties into the first movie and is both a hilarious loser and an actual threat. And I know I’m alone but I love the audacious ending. Ending a film on a cliffhanger is always ballsy but it’s even more ballsy when the next one ain’t coming out for at least another three years. I like leaving the theater excited to see how they’re going to wrap it up in the next one. The people who are bitching about it now, won’t even remember it was even an issue when the next one is out and they’re able to watch them back-to-back. Sony might be shitting the bed with every other spider-related comic book movie they’ve been shitting into theaters but this is why it’s important for no one studio to have a monopoly on media because while those movies are awful, these two easily balance them out and are important because Disney, the brand that owns everything, would never and could never make these.
02. Barbie
Who could’ve predicted that a movie about a plastic doll would be the most controversial and divisive of the year? Odds are you fall into one of two categories: 1) you love it for its bubblegum aesthetic, humor, and message or 2) you felt it was too preachy and it hates men. It’s not one or the other but it does feel like the most passionate about it fall into either of these categories. And I simply do not get the people in the first category. I understand if you simply don’t like it but to say it’s trash because it’s too preachy or that it hates men, is insane to me. That’s overlooking every other element of the film and just focusing on the two things you dislike about it. It’s also missing the fucking point by a county mile.
I can’t say whether it’s too preachy or not because that’s a matter of opinion and you think it is, fair enough but to say it hates men is patently false. It satirizes specific types of men. The incompetent man, the asshole, the douchebag, and the man-child. If it hated men, every man in it would be awful and Alan (Michael Cera) is clearly an ally. Why? Because he doesn’t view women as conquests, prizes, or objects. I truly feel like the people who think this movie is anti-man have said the phrase “not all men” in response to any woman’s encounter with a terrible dude. If they want to dismiss this movie for ridiculous reasons, I ain’t gonna waste any more time trying to convince them otherwise. I have better things to do with my life… like rewatching this movie for the umpteenth time. Because every time I do, I like it just a bit more. The things that stand out the most to me besides the writing and direction (which are a given considering everyone won’t shut up about Gerwig not getting a nom), is the art direction (it’s the most visually arresting film since The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), the performances (everyone brings their A-game but Gosling steals the show), the catchy songs, the staged musical and battle moments and the humor. Basically, everything. There’s not a single element that doesn’t work for me. I think Gerwig and Robbie really did the impossible here. They made what is essentially an expensive toy commercial into a work of art.
01. The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart
Objectively, this is nowhere near the best film I’ve seen this year. Hell, I wouldn’t even put it in the top fifteen best episodes of the series. But The Venture Bros is my absolute all time favorite thing ever, so there was no way this wasn’t going to be at the top of the list. When it was unceremoniously cancelled in the middle of production of the intended Season 8, I was crestfallen. The show had been in my life for so long, it never occurred to me that it would end on anyone but the creators’ own terms. So when it was announced that HBO was going to produce a feature length movie to wrap up the show, I couldn’t have been more excited. We were finally getting answers to questions and fan theories I’ve been living with for over two decades. Since the movie is a truncated season with additional arcs to tie everything up, it feels a bit underwhelming in a way. There are so many story threads that will never get resolved (Grover Cleveland’s time machine, the identity of Scare Bear, the origin of Monarch’s hatred for Dr. Venture) and characters that were clearly meant to have a bigger role in the universe that are now left wayside, but that’s The Venture Bros. The foundation of the show is built on failure. Every character, to one degree or another, is a failure and this isn’t the first time major storylines have unsatisfactory resolutions (the orb). There was no way for this to live up to my expectations. Simply because I didn’t want it to end, so any conclusion by its very definition would be disappointing. But this is all i have left of my favorite show. It’s not the perfect send off but since I know I’m going to watch it every year till I die, it’s by far my favorite thing of the year.
Part III | Most Anticipated 2024 Movies
What do you think of my ranking? Which films from 2023 that I missed should I watch as soon as possible?
