I found this year’s list to be quite tricky. I’m quite happy with my order from ten through six but the top five have changed a fair amount over the last month or so. Like with any list I guess, it’s just a temperature test of how you’re feeling at that time. I also wrestled with the inclusion of my choice for number ten but sometimes you just have to be honest with yourself and admit when you’ve really enjoyed a movie. On an observational level, there’s slightly less animation on this year’s list than there has been in previous couple of years. The latest Spider-Verse instalment, which I have got in my honourable mentions, could’ve made the cut but it feels like the first part of a wider story. If they stick the landing with Beyond though it’ll likely retroactively push Across higher in my estimations. Anyway, onto the picks!
Honourable Mentions: Killers of the Flower Moon, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Barbie, Pearl, Bottoms, Broker, Avatar: The Way of Water
10. AIR | Ben Affleck
Look, if you want to get into the ethics of a movie about a major conglomerate’s marketing department performing a successful brand acquisition, you can, and Air doesn’t really have a leg to stand on in that field. However, if you are going to make that movie, then make it how Affleck has made Air. Big speeches, big needles drops and even bigger wigs. Air is a glorious throwback to those root-for-the-little-guy dramas of the 80s and 90s. I just wish the little guy wasn’t Nike.
9. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM | Jeff Rowe
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a watershed moment for mainstream American animation and Jeff Rowe’s latest take on those ragamuffin amphibian shinobi is the proof. It’s a film that embraces Spider-Verse’s ability to meld form and narrative as the turtles are rendered as wonky and lopsided, with the world around them brimming with grime and scratches. These clever details craft a perfect encapsulation of the teenage propulsiveness and awkwardness that lies at the heart of the story.
8. THE KILLER | David Fincher
Fincher’s assassin thriller is both a self-aware return to form and a fun, throwaway, pulpy genre movie. As you’d expect from the renowned perfectionist, this is a very well-made film but it also revels in its narrative simplicity and the tropes that come with the typical hitman drama. I’m always a fan of when an artist tries something new so to be honest, it’s just nice to see Fincher diverge from his usual lengthy, head-spinning mysteries, of which I’m a big fan, and venture into relatively fresh territory.
7. EO | Jerzy Skolimowski
EO features one of my favourite sequences of the year. It comes when his original owner Kasandra visits him after he is taken away to live a quiet yet lonely existence at a farm. When Kasandra leaves, Eo attempts to follow her but finds himself lost at night in a nearby forest filled with tall trees and looming creatures. It’s a sequence which is very unsettling yet completely magical as Skolimowski heavily embraces colour and sound to convey the strange wonder of Eo’s newfound journey into the unknown.
6. THE FABELMANS | Steven Spielberg
Spielberg casts his warm, nostalgia gaze over a prickly time in his family’s life. I really was not expecting to like The Fabelmans as much as I did but it stuck with me and lingered and the more I thought about it, the more I found it interesting that one of cinema’s most naturally gifted storytellers decided to apply his signature sensibility to try and get to the root of a difficult time in his family’s history. With this and West Side Story he’s definitely now found himself in the midst of an impressive late-career run.
5. RETURN TO SEOUL | Davy Chou
I really like how Davy Chou chose to tell Return to Seoul across a series of impactful individual moments. Some big and some small. As the audience we wonder in and out of Freddie’s life, we see her change and evolve and stay the same. It’s a tale of searching. Both for family and for a sense of self. He’s a filmmaker I’m so glad to have discovered. Can’t wait to see what he makes next.
4. DREAM SCENARIO | Kristoffer Borgli
As a big fan of DN alum Kristoffer Borgli’s previous feature Sick of Myself, which made its way onto my Top Ten from London Film Festival in 2022, I was keen to see what the Norwegian filmmaker had for us next and Dream Scenario most certainly did not disappoint. Borgli’s Kaufman-esque, culture-war drama carries the same awkward, prescient tension of Sick of Myself but this time with more heart, and that’s thanks to a truly sensitive and nuanced central performance from Nic Cage.
3. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 | Chad Stahelski
An action epic of grand proportions. At this point the John Wick franchise is very self-aware and kind of a parody of itself but it’s also just such a really good time. There were multiple moments in this movie where my jaw hit the floor from the sheer inventiveness of its action. Four films into a franchise you’ve got to freshen things up and Stahelski somehow does that in spades with an amazing sequence set at the Arc de Triomphe, a Sisyphean stair challenge, and a moment where the camera goes aloft in full video game mode. And that’s not even mentioning the boss fight sequences against Scott Adkins, Bill Skarsgard and my personal MVP Donnie Yen. It’s also just absolutely wild to me that this is a near three hour movie because it completely flies by.
2. TÁR | Todd Field
I watched Tár at the beginning of the year and it set a very high bar for 2023. It’s labelled a psychological drama but, for me, that doesn’t begin to cover the half of it. I think what surprised me most about it was how Field was able to subtly weave through moments of tension into horror into something more darkly comic into a personal drama and then back again. It doesn’t settle, much like its titular character, who Cate Blanchett embodies with a real sense of presence and deceptive poise.
1. PAST LIVES | Celine Song
What impressed me about Past Lives most was the maturity of the film and the way it pushes past traditional drama. When Nora’s husband Arthur learns of her relationship with Hae Sung he doesn’t implode or force her to chose between the two men. Instead, there’s an understanding of the power of connection and its importance. There’s a respect between them all which is handled delicately but honestly. As I said at the start, I could give any of these last five films the top spot in this list and today I’m giving the crown to Past Lives. Sorry Keanu.
You can check out the rest of team DN’s Top Ten picks here
