Even with all of the delays because of the strike, 2023 was a f****** GREAT year for film. Do not let cynics tell you otherwise.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
10. JOHN WICK – CHAPTER FOUR
Yes, the story has largely remained the same for about two movies now. No there aren’t any more layers into the character of Johnny that we didn’t know before. Yes, it is going to be way too long for people who are looking for plot-driven things. But if you consider yourself a connoisseur of action films, (I’m not saying I am by the way) then it could be said that the John wick franchise has set an impossibly high bar for action films to follow for years if not decades to come.
If I gave an action connoisseur a full day to come up with the 20 best action sequences they’ve ever seen on a big screen, I’m pretty sure at least a third of their top 20 would come from films in this franchise and maybe two of those action sequences come from this movie.
9. THE COVENANT
The covenant  (or “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant”…FOH with that title BTW) is a mid-tier war movie, and that is not at all an insult. Its scale is relatively small. However, it is by far the most overachieving movie of the year.
There are a lot of specific things that great war movies do. They deliver a poignant message, they have stellar performances, the action is top-notch, and it is paced well. There have been so many good war movies that do not hit all of these points. The covenant does, and it has a director who knows how to direct action as opposed to just having the typical standard-looking shootouts that mid-tier war movies tend to have.
8. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3
Are we at the point where we can’t even acknowledge that greatness can come from the MCU anymore? They are capable of great things. We all know it. And yet, when something like this comes along and emphatically closes out what might be the best film-by-film trilogy in all of superhero movieDOM, some of y’all just can’t give this any credit. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 proves two things:
* MCU movies serve best when not involved with the multiverse storyline.
* This film (along with WANDAVISION) serves as the best MCU-related content that’s come out since avengers: endgame. Haters will say but that’s not saying much. But it is tho.
I really don’t know what people want from this genre of film anymore, but this movie excels in doing all of the good things that the good superhero movies do.
7. THE HOLDOVERS
I’m a huge fan of Alexander Payne and when it comes to his filmography, I consider the holdovers to be the bronze medal when it comes to his very best flicks. (the other two being sideways and election) I’ve always marveled at how universally relatable his content consistently is. And that is because he is marvelous at telling the tales of broken people, and the many different ways that they can find redemption or gratification. It’s a career-best (film) performance from Paul Giamatti, perhaps the biggest breakout role of the Year from Dominic Sessa, and what seems to be a surefire Oscar-winning performance from Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
Payne might be the most underrated director in all of cinema. He tends to always have performances in damn near all of his films that get nominated for Oscars. There’s a reason for that. Just sayin.
6. BARBIE
I got to say. I wasn’t surprised at how great this was. People who seem to be the most shocked are people who do not know the work of Greta Gerwig. Barbie is poignant, imaginative, funny, and ultimately a lot of fun. I don’t know what planet the Oscar voters are living on, but what Margot Robbie does here is indefinitely worth mentioning alongside any leading performance in any film male or female of this year.
After sitting with the announcement of the Oscar nominations all this time later, I can come to say with absolute certainty that the absence of her name in the Best Actress category is truly the biggest Oscar snub that I have ever, ever seen. And I’ve regularly watched the Academy Awards since the mid-90s.
5. GODZILLA: MINUS ONE
GODZILLA: MINUS ONE is not only the sleeper hit of the year but quite possibly the sleeper hit of the past four or five years. As it turns out, the most effective Godzilla story that you can tell is a story where Godzilla is the villain of the piece. That way you have to make your human characters more interesting and the story has to be heartfelt and engrossing. As it turns out, when you do that well you can have a minimalistic approach to things like music, and camera shots.
Godzilla: minus one is very unfancy in its approach stylistically. And you don’t have to be all the goddamn time when it comes to having a movie like this. This film is up for the Oscar for best visual effects, and boy would it ever be a statement if it were to win. I really, really hope it does.
4. OPPENHEIMER
I gotta say the only thing keeping OPPENHEIMER from being even higher on my list than what it is… is the narratively chaotic pace of the first 30 minutes.
Outside of that, this gives a cinephile such as myself everything that I look for when I go into movies of this kind of caliber. The Trinity test scene is the very best individual scene of all of 2023, and it’s a masterful way to build suspense. In my humble opinion, Robert Downey Jr gives what is the second or third best performance of his entire career, and is hands down a justifiable lock to win the supporting actor Oscar.
Oh, and yes it does make the most of its 70mm IMAX presentation. This turned out better than it sold itself to be.
3. POOR THINGS
Look, I’m on an island when it comes to POOR THINGS. I’ve seen it (and the other films in my top three) three times, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour movie, and even on repeat viewings, the time seems to fly by. This is an incredible coming-of-age story, with probably the most detestable screen villain of the entire year.
The visuals are on point, the screenplay is incredible, it’s immaculately paced for how long it is, and it’s also THE GREATEST EMMA STONE PERFORMANCE EVER. This is the best leading performance male or female of 2023. I hope Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone make 20 more movies together.
2. AMERICAN FICTION
My sentimental pick of the year. A beautiful character family drama about a very specific “Black elite” experience, and about trying to be honest in making artistic contributions in very corporate areas that are ignorant and misunderstood.
Every artist comes to a moral conundrum of either being honest in what you’re trying to make, or making something for the sake of making money. This is one of the better movies to ever to cover that conflict, and one that hits especially home to me being a black artist living in Los Angeles.
1. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE
Let me just break it down to you like this: the comic book geeks that I talk to about this SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE tend to agree that this is not as good as the first film of this series. And I agree. But, when we compare this film literally to the field of EVERY OTHER ANIMATED MOVIE TO COME OUT IN THE LAST DECADE OR SO other than that first movie…there seems to be a unanimous agreement that this film is better than all of those, or as good as the best-animated films of that time.
These SpiderVerse movies are artistic and storytelling masterpieces that can only be compared to themselves – mostly. I said a lot in my review of the film about how many things it gets absolutely perfect, but I will repeat one thing from that review that needs to be repeated…
If the final SpiderVerse film sticks the landing and equals the quality of the previous two films before it, then it’s only appropriate to start speaking of the Spider-verse trilogy in the same company as the greatest trilogies ever put to film.
Oh, and the soundtrack even slaps.
#1 without question.
