The best movies of 2023
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — I've never made an end-of-year list that I felt was definitive. There’s always room for change and time certainly has a way of enhancing or diminishing the way I feel about movies and art in general. What made sense in 2007 might not connect in the same way in 2023. I like to be challenged by art. I don’t mind being wrong and sometimes feeling uncomfortable is the biggest indicator that filmmakers have succeeded in making something real and vibrant. It can also mean they’ve made a terrible movie. There’s the reason why “Poor Things” makes my list and “Beau is Afraid” does not.
You’ll notice that “Killers of the Flower Moon” is absent. I disliked it. It was beautifully shot and Lily Gladstone is fantastic. However, the focus of the script and Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance didn’t work for me. You might be able to talk me into revisiting the film a few years down the road. Right now, I’m not remotely interested.
You will, however, notice that "Wonka" is on my list. It was one of the two films that I vividly remember smiling from start to finish. The other, oddly enough, is David Fincher's "The Killer." With "Wonka," I felt that the film captured a sense of my childhood imagination. Throw in Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy the Heron” and a little Star Wars and you’d have a nearly complete view of the world Little Ryan wanted to paint around himself. It’s a place on my timeline I find comfort in returning to.
Here’s my top 5 for 2023 followed by an additional 20 films in alphabetical order that were in contention.
5. The Zone of Interest
Studio Synopsis:The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
Why I Love It: Since visiting Germany in the late 1990s, I’ve been keenly interested in the social atmosphere that allowed Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. How did that happen? “The Zone of Interest” doesn’t answer the question but it does give a glimpse into the day-to-day life of a high-ranking officer and his family. The horrors the officer oversees aren’t on direct display. They simply permeate the narrative by taking place just out of view. It’s a devastatingly effective experience.
4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Studio Synopsis:Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most. Anyone can wear the mask – it’s how you wear it that makes you a hero.
Why I Love It: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was a game changer that pushed the limits of storytelling by embracing the ever-changing nature of its source material. Would its sequel prove to be as revolutionary? Not quite, but its experimental sound design and its determination to not simply regurgitate the first film is more than enough to land the film in my top 5. I regret not getting to see this one more than once in theaters.
3. Asteroid City
Studio Synopsis:The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
Why I Love It: Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” is something of a Russian nesting doll in that it is a film about a television program about making a film about an alien visitation that takes place at a Junor Stargazer event. On paper the plot looks like a tangled bowl of spaghetti. In motion the story is Anderson at his best as he manages to explore death, loss, and outliving purpose in the middle of a B-movie sci-fi spectacle about making a B-movie sci-fi spectacle. I didn’t care for “The French Dispatch.” I absolutely love this.
2. May December
Studio Synopsis: Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple (Julianne Moore, Charles Melton) buckles under the pressure when an actress (Natalie Portman) arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Why I Love It: With “May December” Todd Haynes has built the most delicious dark comedy about society’s obsession with tabloid journalism and Hollywood’s flimsy justification for exploiting society’s obsession with tabloid journalism. It’s so camp that you might not realize how vicious the social commentary truly is. Natalie Portman has never been better, and Charles Melton and Julianne Moore absolutely keep pace.
1. Past Lives
Studio Synopsis:Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.
Why I Love It: We’re taught that certain kinds of love are better. We’re programed to want a certain ending. What if what we think we want for a character isn’t really what that character needs? I love the way that Celine Song’s “Past Lives” uses the traditional audience expectations of romantic dramas to encourage me to want something that I probably shouldn’t. Some movies crash in like a revelation and widen the way that I look at the world. I’m not the same person I was and I’m grateful for it.
American Fiction
Studio Synopsis:AMERICAN FICTION is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Studio Synopsis:For over fifty years, Judy Blume's classic and groundbreaking novel Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. has impacted generations with its timeless coming of age story, insightful humor, and candid exploration of life's biggest questions. In Lionsgate's big-screen adaptation, 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is uprooted from her life in New York City for the suburbs of New Jersey, going through the messy and tumultuous throes of puberty with new friends in a new school. She relies on her mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams), who is also struggling to adjust to life outside the big city, and her adoring grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), who isn't happy they moved away and likes to remind them every chance she gets.
Barbie
Studio Synopsis:To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a fullon existential crisis. Or you're a Ken.
The Boy and the Heron
Studio Synopsis: A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
Earth Mama
Studio Synopsis:With two children in foster care, Gia, a pregnant single mother pitted against the system, fights to reclaim her family. In her close-knit Bay Area community, she works to make a life for herself and her kids, in this singular debut feature from filmmaker Savanah Leaf.
Godzilla Minus One
Studio Synopsis:Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.
The Holdovers
Studio Synopsis:From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, THE HOLDOVERS follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them -- a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) -- and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
The Iron Claw
Studio Synopsis: The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports
John Wick: Chapter 4
Studio Synopsis:John Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
The Killer
Studio Synopsis:After a fateful near-miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal.
Maestro
Studio Synopsis: Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.
Mission: impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Studio Synopsis:Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission - not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Oppenheimer
Studio Synopsis:Experience the breathtaking global phenomenon that has captivated audiences around the world. Written for the screen and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer thrusts audiences into the mind of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), whose landmark work on the Manhattan Project created the first atomic bomb. An unprecedented cinematic event, Oppenheimer features an all-star cast that includes Emily Blunt, Oscar winner Matt Damon, Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr., Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, and Oscar winners Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh
Polite Society
Studio Synopsis:A merry mash up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold action, POLITE SOCIETY follows martial artist-in-training Ria Khan who believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.
Poor Things
Studio Synopsis: From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the tale of the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Showing Up
Studio Synopsis:A sculptor (Michelle Williams) preparing to open a new show tries to work amidst the daily dramas of family and friends. A vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art & craft from beloved filmmaker Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Certain Women), and with an endearing and charismatic ensemble cast including André Benjamin and Oscar-nominated actors Hong Chau and Judd Hirsch.
Talk to Me
Studio Synopsis:When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits with an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill and high-stakes party game - until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Studio Synopsis:After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.
A Thousand and One
Studio Synopsis:Convinced it's one last, necessary crime on the path to redemption, unapologetic and free-spirited Inez kidnaps 6-year-old Terry from the foster care system. Holding on to their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in New York City.
Wonka
Studio Synopsis:Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children’s book and one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, “Wonka” tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.