Top 20 Films Of 2023 (Part 1: 20 -11)
It’s weird to say that a Best of 2023 list coming out in February 2024 is finished early, but the fact that I managed to get this year done up before the Oscar ceremony means I’m doing better than the last couple. Now like all years I didn’t get a chance to see everything, so if you’re wondering where a certain film is then either I didn’t see it, or it was shit.
Some honourable mentions before we start;
The Holdover – Simultaneously a warm, comforting hug and a realistic depiction of depression and the importance of connections.
American Fiction – Probably the funniest film about racism this year, with a charmingly pretentious performance from Jeffrey Wright
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves – Not only the best D&D movie to date, but the most accurate to the chaotic energy of the game and an entertaining blast of High Fantasy that we’ve been missing from theatres.
Joy Ride – Until a film later on in this list, this was the horniest film of the year and a great example of both sex positive R-Rated humour and a strong emotional core of self-identity and female friendships.
How To Have Sex – What starts as an all-too realistic depiction of Brit Teens on holiday turns into an all-too realistic depiction of sexual assault and the grey area between men who think not being told no is a yes and women too scared to say no in fear of the consequences. It’s a creeping dread of a film and enhanced by a star-making turn from Mia McKenna-Bruce.
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20: No One Will Save You
I went into No One Will Save You blind knowing nothing other than some decent reviews and knowledge of it being an invasions flick. What makes it stand out is that, for all intents and purposes, it’s a silent movie with basically no dialogue and how the film is able to portray loneliness and isolation through main character Brynn, the mystery of what she did to become a pariah and how coping with that trauma will save her from her home invaders became a lot more of a stronger narrative pull that I anticipated. It’s a gimmicky concept but they pull it off well, thanks in large part to Kaitlyn Dever who coveys all of Brynn’s fear, strength, intelligence and depression through facial expressions and body language, helping sell the uniqueness of the film and the arc of her character.
19: The Killer
In hindsight, I’m not sure why I expected a typical Hitman film from David Fincher. Within the first five minutes he’s built up a perfectly focussed man of murder and then had him fuck it up so badly, then in his attempts to un-fuck himself he ends up fucking it up even more. And it’s all played so dryly that the humour might pass you by if you aren’t on board with the film’s tone. Thankfully I was and I loved how Fincher and Fassbender used the tried and true trope of the perfect killer to demystify the hitman profession while at the same time, making the titular Killer a pretentious hypocrite who whines about ‘The Normies’ without realising he’s one of them, with every part of his life commercialised, including his own job. It’s strange to recommend a film that spends it’s running time shitting on it’s very subject matter, but Fincher made it work and I’d recommend others give it a shot as well.
18: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
2023 was the year I finally got Taylor Swift, it had been a slow build up since I decided to check out folklore in 2020 and finally broke through when I listened to Midnights and 1989 (TV) and decided to check out her back catalogue. The fact that Taylor had a concert movie coming out the same year, and that apparently it was really good was a happy coincidence but it did mean that I pretty much had to check this one out. And wouldn’t you know it, it did turn out to be really good, not just as a concert film but as a well-produced piece of media and a celebration of Taylor’s varied artistry. Each era is unique in aesthetic but all recognisably Taylor, from the pop perfection of 1989 to the cottage-core of folklore to the maturity of Midnights. And you can tell that Taylor went out of her way to make each song a performance and the effort shows on screen, Willow’s coven-esque witch vibe, The Last Great American Dynasty’s ballroom extravagance, My Tear’s Richochet’ funeral procession. I finally got into Taylor Swift because her song-writing is strong and her production is entertaining, but The Eras Tour proves she is a performer and a damn good one at that.
17: Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
I didn’t put Into The Spider-verse any higher in my 2018 list because it came off like a proof of concept, that they had proved they could make varied animation styles and multiversal Spider-man work and that it would improve with the next film. Well Across The Spider-Verse is an improvement, but I’m not putting it any higher because it’s only half a film and the lack of closure – especially with Beyond The Spider-Verse now without an official release date – does hurt the film as a whole. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the good stuff, Across The Spider-Verse is even more vibrant and colourful and fucking beautiful than the first – Gwen’s watercolour world is phenomenal to look at – the scope of The Spider Society is immense with the new characters making a big impression, from the over-serious Miguel to the fun-loving Pavitr Prabhakar to the film’s best new character Spider-Punk who is both the funniest character, the best designed character and perfectly captures the Fuck You anti-authority of proper punk attitude. And at the heart of it all, Miles Morales trying to find a place to fit in and being told he’s can’t be part of the team is both a strong character drive that has implications in the final act I won’t spoil here, and a meta response to critics of Miles’ character in recent times due to his inclusion in the Spider-Man PS5 games and his place within the Spider-Man canon. With any luck Beyond will stick the landing and I can retroactively call this a fantastic trilogy, but for now, I can call Across a great first half in need of an ending.
16: Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning
Speaking of great first halves in need of an ending, Mission Impossible’s 7th outing (formally a Part 1 but they seem to have dropped that after the rough box-office) is what we’ve come to expect from that fucking madman Cruise and his team but that doesn’t stop it from being an absolute blast. It’s admittedly a little far-fetched at first once you realise it’s Ethan Hunt going up against HAL 9000 but Dead Reckoning pulls it off but pitting the high-tech IMF against their own hardware, leaving them to go back to basics and it often not going the way they want it to. For a nearly 30 year old franchise to still be churning out film’s this entertaining is a feat and a half and with hem continually bringing in new blood, here in the form of Pom Klementieff’s mute psychopath Paris and Haley Atwell’s charming thief grace who isn’t afraid to call out Ethan’s crew for being batshit crazy, there’s a chance for bigger and better things and I am very excited to see the fallout from this film going into the next.
15: Barbie
I can already tell my sister is going to shout at me for not having this in the top 10. Barbie hold the distinction of being the only film I saw twice in the cinemas last year, once by myself as part of the Barbenheimer double feature, and once with my sister because I knew she would enjoy it but wouldn’t go herself. Honestly the fact that Barbie is that good on a premise that weak is something to be admired, making it less about the doll and more about what the doll represents and using that to tackle societal expectations, the varying faces of feminism and the rise of toxic masculinity in young men being torn between a world that tells them they’re on top because they’re straight white men and a society that shits on them for being straight white men. But even without the gender politics, Barbie is just an incredibly well-made film, the production design of Barbie-Land is perfectly pink and plastic, the soundtrack is pop brilliance – and proves Charli XCX makes everything better – and the dual leads are fantastic with Margot Robbie nailing both Barbie’s naivety and her growing sense of self-worth as her whole world view is shaken, and Ryan Gosling’s Ken is sure to become a cultural icon thanks to his comic timing, his surprising turn in the second half, his arc which is arguably better than Barbie’s and speaks more to the men who refused to see this film because it’s a Barbie Movie, and for his goddamn theme song which is still stuck in my fucking head.
14: Poor Things
It’s a shame Oppenheimer got linked to Barbie due to their shared release dates because in a different world, Poor Things is the double-feature Barbie deserves, following similar paths of female identity in a masculine world just a LOT more explicit. But rather than for shock value or needless titillation, Poor Things uses it’s explicit content to convey it’s message, utilising Bella Baxter’s – an incredible Emma Stone is what might just be her best performance to date – exploration of the new world to celebrate her awakening and interest in new things ranging from sex to philosophy to chastising the men in her life who applaud her sexual expression as a – from their perspective – child-minded imbecile but insult her free thinking philosophy and sexual exploration as she matures and becomes her own woman. Much like Barbie as well, it’s core message is bolstered by a brilliant cast – Mark Ruffalo is hilarious is the pompous dickhead Duncan – and a production design befitting it’s weird and wonderous steampunk world of joyful colours and unfortunate realities of senseless cruelty and hypocrisies, but where Barbie worked hard to find her place within the world, Poor Things has Bella reject the world’s expectations and ignore polite society because polite society doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.
13: Sisu
Sisu is the type of film that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t apologise for it, think spaghetti western with landmines. In a similar vein to One Man Army films like John Wick or Nobody, Sisu pits a silent bad-ass protagonist against a group of retreating Nazis, lays a bag of gold between them and just lets fucking loose. There’s no deeper meaning to this flick, who this old bad-ass is doesn’t matter, what the motivations of the Nazis are has no business here, we’re just watching an old bad-ass kill Nazis in the most brutal fashion and it’s glorious. It’s gory and dirty and grimy and often makes no fucking sense – watch how our old bad-ass breaths underwater – but it’s a film that decided to forego originality and instead aimed for execution, and it ends up being one of the best damn examples of the One Man Army genre with a nice little sprinkle of dead Nazis just to make it that much better.
12: Bottoms
I was already on board with Bottoms as a send-up to high-school cliches, taking everything to the nth degree to pure chaotic fun, but then they needle-dropped Avril Lavigne and that sealed its place on the best of the year list. This is a film that isn’t afraid to be a bit weird in the name of setting a tone, the whole premise of a lesbian fight club to get laid is ridiculous but it pays off, the two leads – future stars in Ayo Edebiti and Rachel Sennott – are simultaneously endearing and charming but also selfish and unlikeable and helps make them and their flaws fit within the insanity of this world, Nicholas Galilzine is fucking brilliant as the himbo villain Jeff who might have made me laugh more than anyone else this year. Most importantly though, it never breaks away from it’s own madness in the name of going too far, because it does go too far and is all the better for it, whether it’s the stereotypes of high-school archetypes being overplayed for comedic effect or the finale on the football field which gets real weird, real quick, Bottoms sticks to its guns and I applaud it for doing so. Easily the funniest film of the year.
11: Anatomy Of A Fall
I’m not nearly smart enough to explain all the intricacies and layers that makes Anatomy Of A Fall so great, this was just recently knocked out of the top 10 and even now I’m still debating if I could push it up or not. It’s a frustrating film both in terms of the courtroom drama to examine if a man’s death was suicide, murder or accident, leading to hearsay and speculation as the only evidence for the court, and in terms of the breakdown of a marriage as both victim Samual and defendant Sandra are revealed to both be shitty people in a shitty situation and making each other shittier as a result but whether that constitutes murder or not is the focal point of the court case. That frustration is why the film is so good, it makes you mad to watch this circus play out but never lets you fall one way or the other, everyone will interpret the film differently and get mad for different reasons. It’s a gripping murder mystery that, by the end, shows that sometimes it’s not about the truth that people need to hear, but a good story that they want to hear that can save a life. I honestly cannot do justice to the film and it’s layers, from a steel-drum cover of 50 Cent, to the best Dog Acting of the year, just watch it yourself and see what I mean.