Favorite Films of 2023
(Clockwise from bottom left): Passages, A Thousand and One, Fallen Leaves, and The Zone of Interest. Courtesy of Focus Features/MUBI/A24.
Constructing a list of the top films of the year always feels like a rather strenuous psychological exercise. How do you set parameters? Should you count out 2023 premieres that hit screens in January or February of 2024? Will I be clocked for omitting Anatomy of a Fall? Possibly to my detriment, I cultivate my top ten as more of a favorites list, leaning into my subjective relationship with the films that I have loved and championed throughout the year. Across the board, 2023 has churned out so many spirited films from creative voices across the globe: blockbusters, micro-budget indies, and everything in between.
In 2023, cinema has continued to face an unpredictability that has kept movie lovers on their toes: Barbenheimer, SAG/WGA strikes, Taylor Swift aiding box office revenues, the return of the (slightly more promising) platform release, and the collapse of the MCU obsession have all made significant moves in changing the landscape of the industry. Yet another year has come and gone, once again proving that the precariousness of the world is genuinely imitated in the art that is created and consumed. Now, enough rambling, let us get to the main event: my favorite films that were theatrically released in the U.S. this year.
*At the end of this feature, you will find a list of honorable mentions, as well as favorites that have not yet been released in theaters*
10. ‘The Eight Mountains’ (dir. Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch)
The Eight Mountains won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2022, played at Sundance earlier this year, and was finally released in U.S. theaters over the summer. Directed by partnered couple van Groeningen (known for the critically panned Beautiful Boy from 2018) and Vandermeersch, The Eight Mountains is adapted from a novel of the same name. The film follows the evolution of a decades-spanning friendship between two men –– played by heartthrobs Alessandro Borghi and Luca Marinelli –– as they cyclically grow together and apart throughout their lifetimes. As poetic and captivating as its Italian Alps setting, The Eight Mountains is a wonderfully tender portrayal of male friendship unlike any other ever represented on the silver screen in recent years.
The Eight Mountains is streaming on The Criterion Channel.
9. ‘Priscilla’ (dir. Sofia Coppola)
I am so unabashedly thankful to be a millennial gay who grew up on Coppola’s movies. For me, Priscilla feels like a 20th-century Marie Antoinette mixed with the muted loneliness of Somewhere and touches of the moody color palette and sexually charged youths of The Beguiled. Working on a smaller scale and reportedly tight budget, the intimacy created in the narrative of Priscilla and its characters function in great harmony, showcasing the iconic style and sensibility of Coppola's vision as well as the promising talent of Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as Priscilla and Elvis. Working in the post-war period for the first time, the traditional gender dynamics of the era lend themselves to Coppola's everlasting fascination with female characters in flux, and the film captures Priscilla's evolution from teenager to young woman with the sensitivity and interiority that the director is so respected for.
Priscilla is available to rent and purchase digitally.
8. ‘Fallen Leaves’ (dir. Aki Kaurismäki)
Simultaneously hilarious, romantic, and heartbreaking, Finnish filmmaker Kaurismäki's Fallen Leaves felt like a restorative 81-minute breeze compared to many of the exhaustively drawn-out films released this year (Babylon, Beau is Afraid, Oppenheimer, and too many others). Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes this year, Fallen Leaves overlooks the marvelous Art Nouveau architecture of Helsinki to focus on the bleak lives of two struggling middle-aged members of the proletariat who prevail over the trials of their day-to-day troubles and develop a charming connection. Filled with droll humor and references to movies and filmmakers –– including Bresson, Godard, and Jarmusch –– Fallen Leaves uses its simplicity to its favor, building an unexpected love letter to both cinema and the toils of the working class. This was the first of Kaurismäki's movies that I have seen, but I am looking forward to checking out others in the future.
Fallen Leaves is playing in select theaters and will be available to stream on MUBI in the coming months.
7. ‘A Thousand and One’ (dir. A.V Rockwell)
A Thousand and One piqued the interest of many after its world premiere at Sundance in January, where the film was awarded the festival's Grand Jury Prize. An exquisite debut feature from Rockwell, A Thousand and One paints a moving illustration of a Brooklyn forgotten about by many. Teyana Taylor shines as Inez –– the heart of the film –– a single mother who toils endlessly to give her son a great life. Journeying from the mid-1990s into the 2000s, A Thousand and One captures an evolving and gentrifying New York with such detail, and its narrative portrait of Inez and her chosen family is so fully fledged. Every element of this movie functions in lyrical unison and shows Rockwell's tremendous creative talent.
A Thousand and One is available to rent and purchase digitally.
6. ‘R.M.N.’ (dir. Cristian Mungiu)
Since premiering at Cannes back in 2022 and hitting U.S. theaters in April of this year, Mungiu's R.M.N. may have been forgotten by many viewers, but it has cropped up in my mind time and time again since first seeing it. Mungiu is always a filmmaker whose work provides critical commentary concerning his home country of Romania, and R.M.N. serves as a fascinating look at a multi-ethnic Transylvanian village whose residents are challenged with conceptions of xenophobia and their community's precarious positioning in relation to the rest of Europe. The movie's narrative focus oscillates between various perspectives of its village's community members, shifting from successful business owners to the town priest to migrant workers from Sri Lanka. Mungiu addresses Romania's historically shaky position between the Eastern and Western worlds through these eclectic outlooks. Slow-burning tensions and intriguing near-genre twists from a director whose sensibilities have been so connected to social realist filmmaking deliver a reinvigorated direction in Mungiu's almost twenty-year career.
R.M.N. is available to rent and purchase digitally.
5. ‘All of Us Strangers’ (dir. Andrew Haigh)
The interaction between the past and present in All of Us Strangers is so profoundly peculiar and passionate. Haigh channels much of this exchange through queer male perspectives of different generations, superbly embodied by Andrew Scott (Adam) and Paul Mescal (Harry). The film never leaves behind its distinctive DNA, even when its moving narrative opens itself up to the universality of family reconciliation that many endure in life. While a particular population of young queer critics and movie lovers have provoked more cynical reactions to the sentimentality of the movie, it is critical to see queer stories by queer filmmakers on the silver screen, and All of Us Strangers possesses a certain appeal that can move many types of audiences.
Click here to find showtimes for All of Us Strangers near you.
4. ‘Showing Up’ (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
Another late-releasing Cannes 2022 title on this list is Reichardt's Showing Up, starring Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, and John Magaro. The film marks the fourth collaboration between Reichdart and Williams and works in many ways as the director's most personal and uncompromising film to date. William stars as Lizzy, a student-turned-sculptor-turned-administrative assistant at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, working up to the last minute on her upcoming show. As Lizzy's opening grows closer, her emotions and reactions to the world around her are heightened and cause her to feel estranged from her social circle. Weathering the agony of the creative process with a soothing distraction in the form of an injured pigeon, Lizzy works through her feelings of artistic insecurity and inferiority to her peers. Showing Up is just as thoughtful and unpretentious as Reichardt's other films, with an elevated sense of humor and autofictional narrative perspective.
Showing Up is available to rent and purchase digitally.
3. ‘May December’ (dir. Todd Haynes)
Haynes' May December is a film that provokes a patchwork of audience reactions, creating a cultural conversation around it that feels so stimulating within the landscape of cinema and how it is talked about in contemporary times. Whether perceived as a campy dark comedy or an emotional exploration of power and control, May December features a thorny narrative, unforgettable performances, and some of the most quotable movie moments of the year. The film departs from the far-away period settings of Haynes' most recent work but still illuminates the compelling central characters found throughout much of his filmography, feeling like something fresh for the director as well as a return to form after his last few films. In my mind, May December has already solidified itself as a movie with tons of rewatch value. Viewers will surely piece together more fascinating details after a second or third screening. "Insecure people... They're very dangerous. Aren't they?"
May December is now streaming on Netflix.
2. ‘Passages’ (dir. Ira Sachs)
Effortlessly sexy and electrically toxic, Sach's Passages is the highlight of his filmmaking career. The movie’s messy starring throuple is perfectly cast, with Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adèle Exarchopoulos serving up intricate performances as individuals whose love lives are held together by fraying threads. Passages is a movie reflective of passion and desire without ever trying too hard or offering all the answers. Its visions of romance serve up such a cutting yet naturalistic perspective, tying the film so critically to current times and what it is like to navigate the difficulties of love in the real world. P.S.A.: Your significant other will potentially become hot and bothered (in a good or a bad way) if you choose to watch Passages with them.
Passages is now streaming on MUBI.
1.‘The Zone of Interest’ (dir. Jonathan Glazer)
Since its Cannes premiere back in May, The Zone of Interest is a film that I have thought about every single day. As hypnotizing as it is haunting, Glazer's exquisite direction and creative collaborations on this film beget an audiovisual experience like no other of 2023, simultaneously formal and experimental in the most idiosyncratic manner.
Liberally adapted from a 2014 novel of the same name, The Zone of Interest revolves around the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their Aryan flock, who are building their quintessential German life just beyond the perimeters of the camp. The Höss family glorifies their success without ever contemplating the violence and brutality upon which it has been built. Glazer sheds the narrative complexities of the source material to create a film that feels so terrifyingly rooted in modern times and, more significantly, humankind's innate ability to oversee the suffering of others all around. Every facet of the film’s construction comes together to build a jarring sensory journey that is impossible to leave behind. After two screenings, I am itching to see The Zone of Interest again and again, regardless of the movie's challenging nature. Demanding in the most wicked of ways, this is a film that will never leave viewers with warm, fuzzy feelings, and how could it?
Click here to find showtimes for The Zone of Interest near you.
Honorable Mentions:
Eileen
Godland
Joyland
Origin
The Color Purple
Favorite 2023 Premieres Yet to Be Released:
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Evil Does Not Exist
La Chimera
Pictures of Ghosts
The Settlers