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| Sandra Hüller in "Anatomy of a Fall" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
10. Anatomy of a Fall - If there’s one film in 2023 that could spark fervent debates after it ends, it’s director Justine Triet’s challenging courtroom thriller. The story follows Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), who tries to prove her innocence after her husband’s death at their isolated mountain house. Hüller delivers a powerhouse performance that shows how strongly her character adheres to her innocence, and she makes her role compelling enough to always have us study her to see if she has any tells that could prove otherwise. The screenplay by Triet and Arthur Harari offers plenty of drama both in and out of the courtroom, providing a view into the life of the defendant. With the many details that come out of the trial, the story keeps the viewer going back and forth as to whether or not we believe Sandra, and we’re driven into a whirlwind of speculation as many people are brought in to give their opinions on whether they think Sandra had anything to do with her husband’s death. It’s an intriguing character study as we find out newer and newer aspects as to the background of Sandra’s marriage, but we still always feel in the dark because we’re always assuming that there are things being kept from us, and that’s what keeps you invested. “Anatomy of a Fall” doesn’t offer easy answers, and it’ll be poking at your brain for days after watching it.
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| Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in "Past Lives" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
9. Past Lives - Writer-director Celine Song’s feature filmmaking debut is one of the most genuine romances that I’ve seen in a while. Her movie follows Nora Moon (Greta Lee) and Hae Song (Teo Yoo), who were childhood sweethearts in South Korea before Nora and her family emigrated to Toronto. Twenty-four years later, they must figure out their futures when Hae Sung travels to reconnect with Nora, who’s now living in New York City. Lee offers a complicated performance of someone who shows the heartrending dilemma of not knowing whether to keep living her life in NYC with her husband (John Magaro), or restart what she had with Hae Sung. Meanwhile, Yoo provides beautiful work as someone who thrusts himself into a new world to see his friend, hoping for them to fall in love again, despite knowing that Nora has built a new life with another man. Song’s screenplay deftly goes between the different time periods of the main characters’ lives, giving us plenty of context for how much they connected when they were children, which provides the groundwork for the emotional heft that comes later on. Through Song’s tracking shots that have the warmth and uncertainty of this couple unfold, she and cinematographer Shabier Kirchner construct an atmosphere that floats between melancholic and joyful, making this an emotional journey that you must take. This movie may be called “Past Lives,” but as you watch it, you’ll feel very much in the moment.
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| Miles Morales/Spider-Man (Shameik Moore) in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - This animated adventure joins the ranks of sequels that are even better than their original. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson continue the story of Miles Morales/Spider-Man (Shameik Moore), who does his best to balance his life as a superhero and high-school student. When he’s faced with a new villain called The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), he teams up with Spider-People from other universes to bring him down. Moore provides a vocal performance that builds on what he gave in the previous film, “Into the Spider-Verse,” showing a character who’s maturing and faced with choices that are more difficult than what he’s encountered before. Alongside Moore are Hailee Steinfeld and Oscar Isaac, who give poignant voice work as Gwen Stacey/Spider-Gwen and Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099. The screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham does a stellar job at expanding what came before by bringing us several new characters, vibrant settings, and rich emotion in Miles’ ongoing journey. This is an ambitious script that doesn’t feel bloated in the least, but is instead in full control of its grand-scale elements. Meanwhile, directors Dos Santos, Powers, and Thompson heighten the groundbreaking animation of the first film to display something that’s truly spectacular. Boasting an abundance of thrilling action and hard-hitting drama, this is a superhero movie that holds a massive vision, and you’ll be engrossed with every frame.
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| Christian Friedel in "The Zone of Interest" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
7. The Zone of Interest - A moviegoing experience that you won’t be able to shake for a while is this unsettling historical drama from writer-director Jonathan Glazer, which is based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis. The movie follows Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), a husband and father who tries to provide an idyllic life for his family in their home, which is next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Friedel is very disquieting as a Nazi officer who nonchalantly goes about his day-to-day murderous duties, while Sandra Hüller, as his wife, Hedwig, is just as unnerving as a woman whose only concern is maintaining their peaceful existence. The screenplay by Glazer narrows the larger scope of Amis’ novel and focuses on just Höss’ family and their home life for most of the runtime, and it works to tremendous effect. This approach allows us to see the small details of the family’s daily life, details that speak to the bigger picture of what’s happening beyond the walls of the ill-gotten Eden at the center of the story. Through Łukasz Żal’s restrained camerawork, Mica Levi’s chilling score, and Johnnie Burn’s sound design that mixes what you hear both inside and outside the walls bordering the Höss’ property, Glazer brings us a chilling view of the evil that carried out these crimes against humanity and the haunting casualness of those who benefited from their wartime gains. When this film ends, you’ll feel it lingering like a ghost.
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| Emma Stone in "Poor Things" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
6. Poor Things - When you’re given a new Yorgos Lanthimos movie, you always know you’re going to get something that’s distinct, both in terms of visuals and performances. Lanthimos’ bold vision is greatly utilized in this adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel. It tells the story of Bella (Emma Stone), a dead woman who, after being resurrected by an eccentric surgeon, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), sets out on worldly adventures of self-discovery with a smitten lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). Stone gives a performance where she fully commits to the strangeness of the scenario, making us laugh at her physical comedy and line deliveries, but also diving into the character’s existential side as she learns more about life. Ruffalo is hilarious as the controlling, yet inept Wedderburn, and Dafoe is powerfully solemn as Godwin. The screenplay by Tony McNamara is a superb adaptation of the source material, maintaining the scope and heart of Gray’s strange and beautiful adventure, all while capturing Bella’s fascinating character development. Meanwhile, Lanthimos and his team craft a steampunk aesthetic that results in some of cinema’s most uniquely designed environments of the last few years, resulting in art direction and camerawork that are more than deserving of a theatrical setting. This movie’s a stunning achievement by everyone involved, absorbing you in the complex details of the world that unfolds in front of Bella. And, just like her, you’ll be left in awe.
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| Dominic Sessa, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Paul Giamatti in "The Holdovers" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
5. The Holdovers - You couldn’t find a more loving, tender comedy-drama from 2023 that could top director Alexander Payne’s Christmas-set story. In 1970, New England boarding school teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is charged with taking care of a handful of students who don’t have anywhere to go during Christmas break. As time goes on, he and troubled student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) begin to understand each other and build an unexpected friendship. Giamatti delivers a funny, compassionate performance as a by-the-books instructor who learns to loosen up. Sessa provides terrific breakout work as one of the left-behind students. Then, there’s Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who gives an emotional performance peppered with some wit, portraying the head of the cafeteria staff who’s grieving the recent loss of her son during the Vietnam War. The screenplay by David Hemingson offers engaging characters with whom it's a pleasure to spend time, allowing us into their personal lives as they build humorous and emotional bonds. Meanwhile, Payne is careful to not let the poignancy become overly sentimental, but rather makes it all feel very real as the three main characters go through the highs and lows of where they are in their lives at the moment. This movie has all of the makings of a Christmas classic, and it’ll surely reach that status in the future.
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| Ryunosuke Kamiki in "Godzilla: Minus One" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
4. Godzilla: Minus One - Given the countless movies that’ve been made about the iconic atomic creature, I never would’ve believed you if you said that his latest outing would be one of the best films of the year. And yet, writer-director Takashi Yamazaki delivers a big, special-effects spectacle that, just like the 1954 original, shows these types of movies can also excel with compelling characters and a hard-hitting story, which takes place in post-WWII Japan as Godzilla rises to wreak destruction. Ryunosuke Kamiki gives a superb performance as a kamikaze pilot suffering from survivor’s guilt and trying to do what he can to prove himself when he and his new minesweeper crew are challenged by Godzilla. The screenplay by Yamazaki gives the movie a story that’s not all about the titular monster and special-effects sequences, but one that is also committed to focusing on engaging characters in a heartbreaking story that exhibits the sense of loss that everyone feels. Yamazaki films the human drama just as well as he writes it, all while providing big-scale creature scenes that display how far visual effects have come in terms of showcasing Godzilla on screen. This makes the film everything that a science-fiction movie should be and shows why the titular beast has endured over the decades. Even though this is the 33rd movie in the Toho Studios “Godzilla” franchise, Yamazaki doesn’t make this an auto-pilot effort. Instead, what he has made is a monstrous achievement.
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| Mahito Maki (Luca Padovan) and The Grey Heron (Robert Pattinson) in "The Boy and the Heron" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
3. The Boy and the Heron - After Hayao Miyazaki’s 10-year hiatus, it was a warm, cinematic welcome-back as he gave us another poignant and magical adventure that further cements why he’s the best director working today in animation. He brings us into WWII Japan on a journey with young Mahito Maki (Luca Padovan), who’s led into a strange world by a mysterious Grey Heron (Robert Pattinson). The entire voice cast, which also includes Karen Fukuhara, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, and more, give their characters the power that such a mystical story deserves, but Pattinson is the standout. He renders himself unrecognizable with what he does with his voice, bringing us an intriguing character who eases us into its extraordinary world. Miyazaki’s screenplay delivers his usual inventiveness when it comes to the characters and scenarios that he constructs. It’s a grand, intricate fairy-tale that comes loaded with the imagination for which Miyazaki is known, letting his story unfurl in such a way that allows us to absorb the details of his meticulously built mythology, while also maintaining a thrilling unpredictability of what might happen on Mahito’s quest. As always, Miyazaki supports his larger-than-life stories with epic-scale animation that demands to be seen on a big screen, gifting viewers with astonishing visuals that show why Miyazaki’s work in animation is unmatched. As is the trend that’s been set with his other movies, this one won’t leave you anything less than enchanted.
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| Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in "Killers of the Flower Moon" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
2. Killers of the Flower Moon - In the most recent film from director Martin Scorsese, he tackles the Western genre for the first time, where he chronicles the events behind a series of deaths involving affluent Native Americans in Oklahoma’s Osage Nation in the early 20th century, after their tribe gains vast wealth from oil that’s found under their land. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers one of his most challenging roles to date as Ernest Burkhart, a man who falls to the corruption of evil at the hands of his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro). Lily Gladstone gives an outstanding performance as Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman whose family is one of the main targets of the killings. Meanwhile, De Niro offers a quietly venomous performance as William Hale, the orchestrator of the murders. The screenplay by Scorsese and Eric Roth captures the scope of David Grann’s 2017 book, displaying an ability to share its focus on the many characters and events that unfolded in the source material and making every part of the three-and-a-half-hour runtime seem necessary. Working with his usual collaborators, both in front of and behind the camera, Scorsese brings tension and poignancy in a movie that never lags, but keeps a pace that allows us to get a full view of all the factors within this tragic story. As someone who thrives on bringing us complex epics, Scorsese has outdone himself, yet again.
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| Cillian Murphy in "Oppenheimer" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
1. Oppenheimer - Christopher Nolan is one of the most ambitious movie directors in modern cinema, and his latest film is a colossal achievement. Here, Nolan tells the story of American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and the creation of the atomic bomb. Murphy, who has been in supporting roles in several of Nolan’s other films, delivers an understated, yet mammoth performance as a scientist on the brink of a world-changing breakthrough. He’s backed up by a stacked and thunderous supporting cast where everyone makes the absolute most out of their screen time, whether it be several scenes or just a few minutes. The screenplay by Nolan, which is based on the book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, juggles three timelines with expert ease, showing us the preparation of the bomb, Oppenheimer’s security hearing afterward, and the senate confirmation hearing of Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), who tried to bring about Oppenheimer’s downfall. While this movie is one that lives on its dialogue-heavy approach, your attention will never falter because of how engrossingly each scene transpires amongst the film’s army of memorable characters. Meanwhile, Nolan uses his behind-the-scenes team to have an epic, three-hour biographical film move along like a fast-paced thriller. This was a towering moviegoing experience, and when we look back on Nolan’s filmography years from now, this is the one that could very well be seen as his magnum opus.
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