The film landscape has changed dramatically in 2023, thanks to the gradual fall of a giant – namely the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After 15 years of box office (and cultural) dominance, the MCU faltered in February with the scattered film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Things got somewhat back on their feet with the assured Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 until it fell to the ground in November with the dreadful The Marvels, the sprawling franchise's worst-performing entry. Considering Disney+'s over-the-top Secret Invasion and the disappointing Loki Season 2, the once-mighty Titan finally seemed to be on its last legs, ending an era of seemingly unshakable dominance.
As audiences seemingly grew tired of superhero fare, they turned their attention elsewhere, including modern and historical dramas – be it Celine Song's failed romance debut “Past Lives,” Martin Scorsese's crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” or Todd Haynes' art imitating life May December, Cord Jefferson's satirical American Fiction, Justine Triet's courtroom crime novel “Anatomy of a Fall” or Jonathan Glazer's unique Holocaust nightmare The Zone of Interest. Of course, there was at least one affair with men in tights that thrilled critics and audiences alike: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson's spectacular Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Nonetheless, moviegoers were hungry for something new above all else, and nowhere was that more evident than in the cinematic event of the last twelve months: Barbenheimer, the two-for-one weekend spectacle that made both Barbie and Oppenheimer the hot topics of the summer .
Completely different and yet characterized by a similar authorial spirit, the blockbusters by Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan are undoubtedly what we will remember most this year. So it's no surprise that at least one of them features prominently in our list of the best films of 2023.
Stream now on Paramount+
“The Eternal Memory,” winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is the most heartbreaking film of the year – a tragedy about Alzheimer's disease that is also a testament to true love. Chilean director Maite Alberdi's documentary is an up-close and personal look at the lives of Paulina Urrutia and her husband Augusto Góngora. Urrutia is an actress who served as state culture minister, while Góngora is an acclaimed journalist known for his socio-political reporting during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. As Góngora's sanity begins to fade and his self-confidence falters, Urrutia tenderly cares for her spouse, and the proceedings transform from a simple harrowing study of loss and devotion to an examination of the many ways in which memory defines and binds us.
Stream now on Netflix
David Fincher taps into a powerful noir vein with the fast-paced and subtly satirical “The Killer,” in which Michael Fassbender's hitman is forced to go on the run – and seek revenge on his deceitful employers and ruthless enemies – after an assassination attempt goes wrong. Fincher's genre work pokes fun at the emptiness of modern culture while delivering the elegant, sharp, kill-or-be-killed stuff. It is both a story and an example that rigorous meticulousness is a path to success. The director's direction is brilliant, coupled with a standout (and slyly amusing) turn from Fassbender as a hollow man forced to confront the limits of his code. It defies expectations right to the end, being sparse, mean and bitingly dark.
Now in the cinema
Frederick Wiseman may be 93 years old, but with “Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros,” the legendary documentary shows no signs of slowing down. A four-hour portrait of La Maison Troisgros, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Roanne, central France, Wiseman's latest work takes the form he prefers: the film offers long, farm-based looks at the countless components of a well-oiled machine where products are stored, to the offices where business and menu strategies are developed, to the kitchens where artisans create amazing culinary delights. Over the course of its extended run, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros demands and encourages attentive engagement with the people and processes at the heart of this renowned establishment, all of which are equally important components of a process of artistic invention.
Stream now on Criterion Channel
A weekend trip to a beach house turns extremely unpleasant for a questionably talented writer (Thomas Schubert) when he learns that he will be spending his vacation in the company of a fascinating stranger (Paula Beer) in Afire, German director Christian Petzold's incendiary story of arrogance. Insecurity and separation. Personal and romantic tensions are commonplace in this quiet enclave, whose dynamics become increasingly tense as the residents become more intertwined and wildfire slowly breaks out. Petzold traces the line between transition and stasis and imagines his story as a powder keg about to explode. But even when that explosion does occur, it does so in a beguiling way that keeps everything – including the nature of Schubert's complicated protagonist – up for debate.
Now in the cinema
Alexander Payne's The Holdovers is everything a holiday film should be: bitingly silly, genuinely sweet, and attuned to both the intimate warmth and cool melancholy of the holiday season. A film from 1970 (the year in which it is set), it follows a curmudgeonly teacher (Paul Giamatti) who is tasked with supervising a wayward student (Dominic Sessa) at his private school who is away for Christmas break goes home. Accompanied by the facility's grieving cafeteria manager (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), it is a fable about weathering personal storms – of loss, abandonment, disappointment and loneliness – through unlikely surrogate family relationships. His portrayal of his era is as confident as the sensitive portrayal of his charming characters, embodied with endearing depth by Giamatti, Sessa and Randolph.
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Ari Aster has never played it safe and goes completely out of control with “Beau Is Afraid”. On a far greater scale than its predecessors, Hereditary and Midsommar, the writer/director's latest book is a hallucinatory journey of surrealistic weirdness that follows a loner named Beau (a manically uninhibited Joaquin Phoenix) as he navigates the hellscape of his own neuroses travels. They were all rooted in his messy feelings for (and relationship with) his mother. Hilarious, disturbing and wildly original, Beau falls down a dark, insane rabbit hole of messed up social and psychosexual fears and issues. It is completed by animated interludes, theatrical performances and a fight between its protagonist and a giant phallic monster. Films are rarely so intoxicatingly idiosyncratic.
Coming to cinemas soon
Perfect Days is the story of a Japanese public toilet cleaner (a phenomenal Kōji Yakusho) whose days and nights are governed by orderly rituals. “Perfect Days” is a quietly moving gem from German director Wim Wenders. The director, who co-wrote the film with Takuma Takasaki, finds lyrical grace and sadness in the humble plight of his lonely, middle-aged protagonist. The film shows this lonely person visiting Tokyo's various restrooms and scrubbing their surfaces, avoiding their customers and dealing with a chatty colleague. It is a haunting snapshot of a life characterized by routine, from which Yakusho's protagonist draws meaning and satisfaction. Far from being monotonous, however, Wenders' drama ultimately punctuates its tranquil plot with unexpected arrivals and interactions, turning it into a complex rumination on the joys and heartaches of solitude.
Now in the cinema
“Poor Things” is a bizarre and rollicking take on Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” and offers director Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Lobster,” “The Favorite”) an ideal outlet for his unconventional art. The coming-of-age saga follows a resurgent young woman (Emma Stone) who, along with a dissolute lawyer (Mark Ruffalo), leaves the confines of her mad doctor-maker (Willem Dafoe) to experience the world's many joys and depravities . Along their journey, the film discovers and indulges in distortions at every turn, presenting an eccentric vision of a world shaped by attitudes, dynamics and paradigms that are distorted beyond repair. It's a wonderfully strange marriage of style and substance, and also features the best performance of the year thanks to Stone, whose reincarnated baby in the woods proves to be a clumsy, funny and fiercely independent feminist heroine.
Stream now on Prime Video
Wes Anderson reaffirmed his unparalleled skill in 2023 with a series of Netflix shorts (based on stories by Roald Dahl) that introduced the act of adaptation in stunning new ways. But his tour de force this summer was “Asteroid City,” a seriocomic cross-section of grief, love and hope set at a stargazing competition in the desert in 1955 that is interrupted by the arrival of an alien visitor. Full of adult longing, regret and despair as well as youthful wonder, curiosity and fear, it is a star-studded retro-futuristic wonder – led by Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Steve Carell , Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Rupert Friend, Hong Chau, Maya Hawke, Stephen Park, Willem Dafoe and Margot Robbie (!) – this is a testament to the director's impeccable, meticulous aesthetic along with his trademark wry humor and bittersweet kind of heart.
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There were great films in 2023, but only one true masterpiece: Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer,” a massive work of formal and moral complexity that far surpasses the majority of movies. Nolan's subjective character study of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a conversation-driven three-hour biopic that moves like a thriller and brims with the horrific ominousness of a horror story. It's a multi-layered memoir of ambition, ingenuity, regret, honor and betrayal, featuring career highlights from Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. and standout performances from Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Benny Safdie. From the classrooms of the University of California at Berkeley to the desert outposts of Los Alamos (home of the Trinity Test) to a private interrogation room where Oppenheimer's past and loyalties are questioned, Nolan's historical drama is a powerful and intoxicating portrait of the Father of modernity – and without question the best of the year.
Recognitions
American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Eileen, Infinity Pool, Personality Crisis: One Night Only, The Promised Land, Sanctuary, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Zone of Interest.