2023 was a busy year for me. I cut a feature film that I’m very excited about, was fortunate to have editing work throughout the WGA and SAG strikes, and watched our infant turn into a toddler. Of course that all means that the moviegoing was even less intense (“This is healthy?” I tell my therapist, uncertain). So there are a lot of 2023 releases that feel like they might distinctly be my jam, but I haven’t had the opportunity to see. Plenty of catching up to do, as per! With that said…
(Letterboxd version of this list here which, by the way, is the most delightful social network on the internet).
My favorite film of 2023:
BEAU IS AFRAID, Ari Aster
Aster’s first two features were horror films that everyone seemed to love and I, just… liked! But this divisive, dense, genre-hopping work of epic proportions rocked me to my core. It is a visceral, subconscious-probing, visually arresting three-hours, seemingly unconcerned with appealing to all audiences (which i find refreshing). My kind of picture: singular.
Here’s the rest of my top 25 of the year, in a very loose order that changes every time I look at it:
OPPENHEIMER, Christopher Nolan
PASSAGES, Ira Sachs
SICK OF MYSELF, Kristoffer Borgli
THE ZONE OF INTEREST, Jonathan Glazer
THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch
THE HOLDOVERS, Alexander Payne
PAST LIVES, Celine Song
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, Martin Scorsese
POOR THINGS, Yorgos Lanthimos
PERFECT DAYS, Wim Wenders
MAY DECEMBER, Todd Haynes
DREAM SCENARIO, Kristoffer Borgli
A STILL SMALL VOICE, Luke Lorentzen
AFIRE, Christian Petzold
BARBIE, Greta Gerwig
ANATOMY OF A FALL, Justine Triet
BAD PRESS, Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler
PRISCILLA, Sofia Coppola
FALLEN LEAVES, Aki Kaurismäki
FERRARI, Michael Mann
INFINITY POOL, Brandon Cronenberg
THE KILLER, David Fincher
MONSTER, Kore-eda Hirokazu
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, Christopher McQuarrie
I also enjoyed:
aka Mr. Chow, Asteroid City, The Delinquents, Divinity, Dreamin’ Wild, Eileen, Full Time, Godzilla Minus One, How to Blow Up A Pipeline, The Iron Claw, Memory, Mister Organ, No Hard Feelings, Pamela: A Love Story, The Pigeon Tunnel, Poison, The Ratcatcher, Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, Scrapper, She Came to Me, Showing Up, Society of the Snow, The Swan, Talk to Me, The Taste of Things, Tori and Lokita, Wham!, When You Finish Saving the World, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
And I’m eager to eventually see:
32 Sounds, About Dry Grasses, The Boy and the Heron, Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World, Earth Mama, El Conde, Godland, In Water, Joyland, La Chimera, Monica, Occupied City, One Fine Morning, Pacifiction, Pictures of Ghosts, The Promised Land, Reality, R.M.N., RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop, Rye Lane, The Settlers, The Teacher’s Lounge, A Thousand and One, Trenque Lauquen, Walk Up, When Evil Lurks
