2023 has come and gone and will probably go down as an eventful year. A year marked industrial action and a box office having more misses than hits and the rare hits of the year were more unexpected. Trends that started at the decade began to come ahead, like streaming and the dominance of the superhero movie hitting it's zenith. There were also some good movies.
BARBIE
Greta Gerwig brings out a wonderful toyetic mediation on a gambit of different themes ranging from feminism, masculinity, existentialism and gender. It is also a funny film with jokes that you wouldn’t expect in a film about a doll. Barbie is a great thematically humorous film.
GODZILLA MINUS ONE
Takahashi Yamasaki brings the King of the Monsters back to postwar Japan to tell an amazing story. Making the Godzilla a metaphor for survivor’s guilt and PTSD, while having the nuclear element still linger on, Godzilla Minus One is a amazing meditation on those themes allowing the human element to shine through the awesome, yet scary monster action.
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4
The little action film series that could, going from small modern revenge thriller riff to globe spanning, gunfighting, grief examining tableau John Wick: Chapter 4, potentially ends the series on a high note. Raising the stakes and having some great new additions like Donnie Yen, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Rina Sawayama and Shamier Anderson and some magnificent action scenes and including an overhead oner, a tense duel near the Arc de triomphe and an infuriating fight up some stairs. The film still manages to keep it’s cool and effortlessly.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Martin Scorsese’s epic about the real life Osage murders sees him wade into the western genre but still brings his themes of greed and guilt. On the performance side of things, Leonardo DiCaprio is on top form being both sympathetic and heinous and Lily Gladstone gives a breakthrough performance here as well. It may be on the long side, but it does so just to make sure you understand the full extent of the story of the film and it’s place in history.
OPPENHEIMER
The other half of BarbEnheimer is an captivating tell of man’s drive to succeed, but looking what gets pasted by in the process. A loaded cast led by an terrific Cillian Murphy and probably one of the most beautiful and horrifying scenes all year round, cements this as one of Christopher Nolan’s best.
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Across the Spider-Verse isn’t as great as his predecessor, it’s on equal measure as it follows on the themes of identity, family (relative and blood) and self worth in an visually stunning, rich and detailed feat of animation that combines the better elements of comic book event style storytelling.
NIMONA
In a year marked by industrial action and news of studios discarding already made films, Nimona finally gets a second life after being cancelled after the shutting down of Blue Sky Studios and is a lovely forward looking film. Bring the art style of ND Stevenson to life with great animation and managing to go through a lot of themes Nimona is a great little film.
RYE LANE
A visually stunning and creative love letter to South London held up with two great lead performances by David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, Rye Lane is funny and heart warming romantic comedy. A great debut from Raine Anne Miller.
TALK TO ME
Combing the elements of cursed object movies like Ringu and One Missed Call along with the metaphorical horror films like Hereditary and Drag Me to Hell, Australia’s Talk to Me is a instant classic. Combing a hefty amount of scares and a breakthrough performance by Zoe Wilde Talk to Me is one of the years’ scariest horror films, but also gives time to have more relaxed moments sandwiched between the horror.
THE BOY AND THE HERON
2023 was a year filled of some of the world’s best filmmakers firing on all cylinders, old masters and new recruits, but coming back was Hayao Miyazaki with probably one of his most personal fantasies. While containing his familiar trademarks there’s a sense of melancholy and reflectiveness that comes with age that makes an enduring fantasy film.
And those were my favourite films of 2023. May 2024 be just a good year for films and this one was.
