CityNews’ Best Films of 2023
Posted December 30, 2023 4:37 pm.
2023 has been a fantastic year for cinema-going audiences! Filmmakers like Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese returned with some of their finest work, animated fans were eating well with films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Nimona, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and of course we can’t forget Barbenheimer! But before we get into the top 10, let’s take a look at some of the year’s best runner-ups!
Towards the end of the year we got a bunch of films that will become new classics, including Alexander Payne’s second collaboration with Paul Giamatti in the Holdovers, and Sean Durkin’s wrestling tragedy the Iron Claw. While Marvel Studios had a rough year, they had one of their biggest successes critically and financially with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Michael Mann’s first film in 8 years, Ferrari, brought one of the best performances of Penélope Cruz’s career. Bradley Cooper acted as hard as he could in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, but one of the year’s most surprising performances came from Rachel McAdams in the Judy Blume adaptation Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. And Joaquin Phoenix had an amazing year with two disparate yet intense performances, in the surreal horror comedy Beau is Afraid and the Ridley Scott-directed biopic of Napoleon. But while all of these films were fantastic, they couldn’t quite make it into the Top 10!
10. BlackBerry
Coming in at number 10 is 2023’s finest example of Canadiana!
BlackBerry tells the tale of Research in Motion, a Waterloo-based company most famous for the creation of the once hugely successful cellphone known as the BlackBerry. Starring Jay Baruchel (from This Is the End) as the timid engineer-turned-CEO Mike Lazaridis and Glenn Howerton (from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as the bolsterous demon on his shoulder and co-CEO Jim Balsillie, the film plays fast and loose with the accurate details of the story. It instead crafts a uniquely Canadian take on the tech genre à la the Social Network or Steve Jobs. Directed by co-star Matt Johnson (from Nirvanna the Band the Show), the film shows the tempting success of business and how it can lead to ruin, keeping an empathic eye on the leads even as their decisions become dubious. It also helps that BlackBerry contains one of the funniest performances of the year, with Howerton earning tons of praise and giving many of the year’s angriest and laugh-out-loud line readings.
9. Passages
Coming in at number 9 is an unflattering look at modern day romance!
Passages is a French drama about a person who can’t choose, and doesn’t really know how to express that. Tomas (played by Franz Rogowski from Undine) is an immaculately dressed filmmaker living with his husband Martin (played by Ben Whishaw from I’m Not There) in Paris. At a party one night, Tomas meets Agathe (played by Adèle Exarchopoulos from Blue is the Warmest Colour) and spends the night with her. Tomas spends the rest of the film running between both partners, always in search of the one that can provide a momentary escape from his romantic struggles. Directed by Ira Sachs (who previously made Love Is Strange), it’s a very frank portrayal of the damage Tomas creates constantly running around in his illegitimate throuple that is also remarkably tender. Powerful yet practical, Passages is a warning and a cry of pain.
8. Anatomy of a Fall
For number 8, let’s stay in France and take a look at 2023’s Palme d’Or winner!
Anatomy of a Fall portrays a horrendous situation that no one wants to find themselves in. Sandra (played by Sandra Hüller from Toni Erdmann) discovers her husband (played by Samuel Theis from Party Girl) has fallen out of their home’s window to his death, their body discovered by their blind child (played by Milo Machado Graner in one of the year’s breakout performances). She’s accused of his murder, and goes to court armed only with an old friend acting as her lawyer (played by Swann Arlaud from By the Grace of God). The film’s focus is on the trial, showing it in great detail. Sandra’s entire marriage is effectively broadcast for the nation to see, with Hüller turning in some of her finest work. Directed by Justine Triet (who previously made In Bed with Victoria), this is a brutal watch that will leave you with one of cinema’s greatest mysteries in recent years.
7. Barbie
Next up in 7th place, hi Barbie!
The first billion dollar movie to be directed by one woman, the film that dominated the box office for the latter half of 2023, and the film that introduced the world to Kenergy. Both Margot Robbie (from the Suicide Squad) and Ryan Gosling (from La La Land) fully immersed themselves in their roles as the doll that changed the world, and Ken. While directed by Greta Gerwig (who previously made Lady Bird) as this maximalist piece of art harkening back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, Robbie excels and make the role fully her own by committing to the bit as much as a human possibly could. You will believe that a doll can enter the real world. But what’s most surprising about this film is that despite being the villain, Gosling’s Ken won over so many with his failed foray into hyper-masculine patriarchy. For many, Barbie was just a basic introduction to the tenets of feminism. But as the reaction to this film showed, a lot of people still don’t understand feminism and could do well to watch this film.
6. Priscilla
Coming in at number 6 is a film that works as an excellent double feature with Barbie!
Priscilla is exactly the opposite of the 2022 Elvis biopic, despite covering the same couple. Sofia Coppola (the director of Marie Antoinette) brings her detached, iconic style to the story of Priscilla Beaulieu (played by Callie Spaeny from the Craft: Legacy), the 14 year old groomed by the King of Rock’n’Roll (played by Jacob Elordi from Saltburn). Focusing entirely on their relationship and eschewing any musical performances of Elvis’, the film recreates Priscilla’s feeling by trapping the audience in Graceland with her. The film is frank and unforgiving of Elvis, and a film that will easily anger any fans of Elvis who believe he can do no wrong. But that’s a large part of the reason why this film excels. It shows the love that grew between them, and the power dynamic that trapped Priscilla. While Elordi has drawn tons of praise for how well he fits the outfits, Spaeny is the one holding down the film with one of the year’s most underrated performances. A young woman who can sense what is wrong, but keeps moving forward out of what she thinks is love. Priscilla is a strong film about heterosexual relationships in the spotlight, and it is definitely worth checking out.
5. May December
Coming in at number 5 is a film that shows a much more disgusting relationship than Priscilla did!
May December is the latest film from the American melodrama master Todd Haynes (the director of Carol). Natalie Portman stars as an actress preparing for her next role, a woman who was convicted of sleeping with a 13 year old boy in her 30s. Julianne Moore (from Boogie Nights) plays the now middle-aged woman, who has married her sexual prey (played by Charles Melton from Riverdale) and had multiple children with. Portman’s performance is of a woman fascinated in the tabloid sense, in that no matter how gross it appears she can’t look away. She studies their relationship from all angles, seeing the love and the power dynamic that convinces both participants they really do love each other. Both Portman and Moore are excellent in their humourously campy roles, but Melton surprised all who saw this with his insanely powerful performance. A man coming to terms with the fact that he’s a stunted boy, never allowed to mature but forced to grow up. It’s one of the year’s best performances, and hopefully the first in a long career.
4. The Zone of Interest
Coming in at number 4 is one of the year’s toughest films to watch!
The Zone of Interest is a German-language film by British filmmaker Johnathan Glazer (the director of Under the Skin), and it’s about a remarkably uncomfortable yet true story. Christian Friedel (from Babylon Berlin) plays the Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss, who lives in a house mere metres outside of the Nazis’ biggest concentration camp. The film is predominantly a domestic drama, focused on him and his wife (played by Sandra Hüller from Anatomy of a Fall) setting up their house for their family. The film keeps the atrocities at bay, but never lets the audience forget them. At no point does the camera step inside the concentration camp that killed over 1.1 million people, but we constantly hears screams and bullets fly. Smoke is frequently seen in the background, and at night the fire burns so brightly it can’t be ignored. A film about the people who commit genocide and how they live their lives and their lies, it’s a film that’s remarkably important in 2023 and one that is necessary watching. The Zone of Interest is not an easy film, but it’s one of the most important films of the 21st century.
3. Killers of the Flower Moon
Next up at number 3 is the latest masterpiece from Martin Scorsese!
The director of many crime classics like Goodfellas, Mean Streets, and the Irishman turned his next film towards a true crime story not well known by the public. Set in 1910s and ’20s Oklahoma, Killers of the Flower Moon is about the murders of the Osage, a group of Native Americans who became immensely wealthy after oil was discovered on their land. Working with his two muses together for the first time, Robert De Niro (from Casino) and Leonardo DiCaprio (from the Wolf of Wall Street) play an uncle and nephew who scheme to marry their way into a wealthy family and eventually take their money by any technically legal means. But complicating their corrupt conspiracy is the fact that DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart genuinely falls in love with his wife Mollie (played by Lily Gladstone from Certain Women). Her performance is subdued yet incredibly powerful with the pain at losing her family and seeing her culture die a slow, hopefully avoidable death. Another film about genocide and the people who commit it, Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the most impactful films of Scorsese’s entire filmography and the most important film of his 50+ year career.
2. Past Lives
Next up is the debut film from a Korean-Canadian filmmaker that stole everyone’s heart!
Past Lives tells a unique story based on the filmmaker’s real life. Greta Lee (from Russian Doll) plays Nora, a Korean woman whose family left for North America when she was a child. She grew close with a young boy in her home country called Hae Sung (played as an adult by Teo Yoo from Leto), but they grew apart only to reconnect as adults later in life. Nora’s married a white man (played by John Magaro from First Cow), but as Hae Sung comes to visit she finds herself concerned with the question of In-Yun. The idea of relationships over lifetimes, how we interact with those relationships and how we can affect them in the next life and the ones after that. At times Past Lives feels lonely and far apart, but it has an immense profundity in its brief moments of connection. A quiet film with the most emotion of the year, Past Lives reminded me of Aftersun. A incredibly powerful debut that’s that leaves all who see it weeping and wanting to hold those they love.
1. Oppenheimer
And coming in at number one is the other half of Barbenheimer!
Oppenheimer is the magnum opus of Christopher Nolan’s (the director of the Dark Knight and Tenet) career. Cillian Murphy (from Peaky Blinders) leads a gigantic ensemble cast as the man who became death, the inventor of the atomic bomb. The cast also includes outstanding performances from people like Alden Ehrenreich (from Solo), Emily Blunt (from A Quiet Place), and in one of his best performances Robert Downey Jr. (from Iron Man), finally moved on from his Marvel years. The film unfolds in two parts known as fission and fusion. Fission depicts Oppenheimer’s life moving forward as he becomes America’s greatest mind on theoretical physics leading to his role at Los Alamos, while fusion depicts a disjointed focus backwards into Oppenheimer’s past as the American government questions his value in America’s nuclear future in the Cold War. A 3 hour film that moves by insanely quickly, Oppenheimer’s two halves combine to create a powerful cinematic force, one that might represent a change in the viewing habits of audiences. Grossing nearly a billion dollars at the box office, it seems like we might be living in a post-superhero world where we enjoy cinema that’s more concerned with the ramifications of spectacle than the spectacle itself. Oppenheimer is the best film of 2023, and you haven’t seen it by now it’s time to get on that.
