Checking in at the halfway point to see how things are shaping up for my working list of top films of the year. Best, favorite, I know there is a distinction. But for me those lines get blurred fairly quickly when I’m sitting down and looking through which titles must be represented. Perhaps a better phrasing might be “most memorable”. These are the films I’m still thinking about the most in terms of my viewing experience.
Looking at where my list was at the first quarter back at the end of March, I’m noting a good deal of change and shuffling with a handful of titles holding strong. There might not be a ton of 4.5 or 5 star experiences, but this year has been really strong at the 4 star level. Thus, all of my honorable mentions could easily contend for a spot on my top 12 on a different day and/or with a rewatch.
I’ll begin with the best of the rest:
The product origin stories: Blackberry, Tetris, Air, Flamin Hot, Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game
If anyone has an answer for this recent trend, I know of a good deal of Film Twitter that would love to hear it. That puzzle aside, I’m here for it. Air remains one of the most fun theatrical experiences of the year, its energetic script proving to be a genuine crowd pleaser, while Blackberry boasts some surprising artistic merit and indie cred with some captivating performances anchoring a familiar story in some surprising twists and turns. Pinballs melding of doc and drama played nearly as strong as the accompanying mustache, while Flamin Hot inspired while fostering some interesting conversation regarding how legacies get written and told adjacent to the products. And then there’s Tetris. One of the best globe trotting action/spy thrillers of 2023? Bring on the trend.
The 2022 Holdovers: Broker, No Bears, A Quiet Girl, Close, Women Talking
All of these films could be wrestling for my number 1 spot, so I figured I would spotlight them given their wide release in 2023 conflicts with their awards season representation and/or official release date in 2022. Broker leads the pack with one of the great Directors of our day (Kore-eda) demonstrating his penchant for strong themes and emotional gut punches mixed with humor and reflection on found family, forgiveness, all mixed with a good dose of moral ambiguity. Another iconic Director (Jafar Panahi) delivers what i think might be his most personal and intriguing work to date in No Bears, fusing his personal experience with film about telling the necessary stories in a messy and difficult and often dangerous world. The Quiet Girl is a profound exploration of telling stories without unnecessary words, while Women Talking is a powerful film about giving voice to the voiceless. And if Close has its way, it binds the quiet and the voice of the voiceless to a startling exploration of finding closeness in a world made of social constructs designed to keep us apart
Polite Society
In case we mistake a continually struggling box office with an absence of good, original fare, Polite Society braved those obstacles on its way to giving us a charming, creative indie action drama that hits in all the right ways, exploring a familial setting rich with cultural touchpoints and sibling dynamics. Flew under the radar, but absolutely deserves to be seen and celebrated.
The Indies: Brother, Hannah Ha Ha, Until Branches Bend, The Last Film Show, The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Retrograde, A Thousand and One
Smaller films that deserve some attention, beginning with Clement Virgos Brother, who continues the trend of excellent dramas set in Scarborough (see last year’s Scarborough). It tells a story of siblings facing the challenges of growing up as black men in an impoverished neighborhood. The jumping back and forth in the timeline is a bit messy but the films attention to detail, intimate characterization, and the crafting of some really strong sequences more than make up for it.
Hannah Ha Ha is a startling achievement given a film so seemingly small in scope. It was shot on 75mm in IMAX format. The strongest case for why even the smallest films deserve to be seen on the big screen outside of A Thousand and Ones brilliant recreation of 90s era New York. The way this film is shot accents not just the landscape, but the scope of the challenges Hannah faces in the seeming smallness and mundaneness of her isolated life. In Sophie Jarvis’ impressive visually driven debut, the experience is shaped in the opposite direction, taking big and seemingly insurmountable challenges and making them small in the life and context of this community and the young woman at the center of its struggles. Smaller yet is the confined setting of Retrograde, a window into generation Z by way of simple conversational sequences.
And then there are two films, The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic and The Last Film, which work to reframe our perspective. In the case of the former, an astute human drama fused with romance that, using a cinematic approach, works to place us into the experience of a blind man trying to find his place in the world. In the latter, a film that plays reminiscent to Cinema Paradiso, celebrating the art form that allows Directors to do just that.
Dungeons and Dragons
In case you missed it, a film many wrote off turned out to be one of the freshest, fun and entertaining big budget blockbusters of 2023 thus far. A complete delight from start to finish
The Dramatic Comedies: You Hurt My Feelings/The Swearing Jar/Somewhere in Queens
The small dramatic comedy isn’t dead yet, even if the box office wants to make it appear that way. This is situational comedy at its best, and Julia Louis Dreyfus leads the way in an extremely relatable and hyper focused scenario driven story about the ways we relate to one another. Occupying a similar space is the relationship driven dramatic comedy The Swearing Jar, which uses music and cleverly designed narrative structure to sneak up on you with a big emotional punch. More rugged and given to its natural dialogue and dry sense of humor, Somewhere in Queens rounds this out as a wonderful exploration of familial relationship and generational divide.
How To Blow Up a Pipeline
Plays like a thriller. Acts like a thriller. Sounds like a thriller. Which makes this small, unassuming tension filled indie romp an edge of your seat experience. It’s not perfect, but it definitely plays
The Horror: Skinamarink, Emily, Knock At The Cabin, Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism
Skinamarink came out early and divided audiences. You either connected with it or you didn’t, and the film doesn’t leave much space to operate inbetween. For me it brought all my childhood nightmares, chronic as they were, straight to the surface. Little did me in like this experience. On the other end of the horror spectrum is Emily, a much more studied period piece that digs deep into the profundity of its questions relating to the fears that drive us forward and hold us back. The cinematography is particularly memorable, as is the literary approach. There is also the rich themes found in M. Nights Knock At The Cahin, led by a memorable performance by Batista, and the visceral experience of Eastfield, a film that will evoke the full spectrum of emotions (pair that with the Pope’s Exorcist like a fine wine)
A Good Person
This one fought the hardest for a spot in my top 12. The reaction for this one was mixed, but it really resonated with me in a big way when it came to the performances, the story and the themes. Speaking of “most memorable”. This one continues to linger,
Top 12 at The Halfway Point of 2023
12. Elemental
An animated film that plays to an older crowd, delving deep into generational trauma, the parent-child relationship, immigration, coming of age, cultural heritage, growing old. For a film that appears to rest on very obvious and surface metaphors, this one does a lot to bring the depth underneath to the surface in a satisfying way, boasting a nice visual style and some interesting world building.
11. Riceboy Sleeps
Reminiscent of Minari, if not quite as rich in its thematic focus. Where it excels is in immersing us in the world and experiences of a Korean immigrant widow and her son attempting to find their way in a foreign land (Canada). The film represents a gut punch, and there is so much beauty and sadness in the way these two people try to find their way together.
10 The Artifice Girl
A profound film in terms of its embrace of tough, philosophical questions. Even more impressive given the small budget and even smaller scale that informs the storytelling. What does it mean to feel. What does it mean to be human. What does it mean to exist. All of these questions begin to blur together into a singular existential concern when it comes to imaging a future driven by increasingly adaptive and intelligent AI. Lest we feel like this is a question for later generations, the film ŕeminds us that we are very much already here.
9. Linoleum
I wrote in my initial review that this film reminded me of why I love movies and what makes them so special. It’s quirky, unique, creative, and rich in its ability to tap into the core of the human experience. The film might set its ambitions on the big existential questions that accompany space exploration, but its true interest is the relationships on the ground.
8. I Like Movies
Still one of my most memorable movie going experiences this year. This tapped into nostalgia for a bygone era. More so it gave me a lens through which to see my own experience as someone who grew up with the majestic old downtown theaters and the onset of home VHS and DVD rentals. It allowed me to consider what that meant to me growing up, and how it became a place where I could fit in where I otherwise did not.
7. Asteroid City
Symmetry, color, comedy, visual storytelling, philosophical wonderings, quirky characters. It’s all here in a film that feels as much a call back to Andersons earlier work as it does a spiritual sequel to French Dispatch. Equal parts captivating and brilliant from one of the great modern visionaries.
6. Beau is Afraid
This is what happens when you give an already unhinged Director a blank check and free reign. Its bizarre, at points nonsensical and outrageous, but never less than captivating. The danger might be to assume the film fails to say anything coherent, but that would be to betray its narrative brilliance. And as someone who struggles with anxiety and who has mental illness in the family, the film hit a resonant note for me personally, and its one I’m still thinking about quite a bit.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Volume 3 caught me off guard with just how meaningful it proved this franchise and it characters to be. This final goodbye pulled on the heartstrings and left me with all the feels, showing how you wrap up a trilogy with respect and care. One of my favorite MCU entries.
4. The Eight Mountains
Visually stunning, this big in scope intimate in detail story about a life long friendship contending with the hard realities of this world is a true cinematic experience. It blends metaphor and experiential drama as it finds its way into the different conflicts embedded into this reality. It leaves you with questions to ponder long after the credits roll
3. Showing Up
The follow up to the profound First Cow, Showing Up manages to exhibit a similar intellectual and artistic focus while treading new ground and exploring new space. It’s dialed back in all the right ways, focusing the expansiveness of its questions not on social and political constructs but on the nature of art, artist and viewer. The intricacies here show the filmmaker at her most open and intimate.
2. Past Lives
Rich in nuance and overflowing with visual and narrative poetry, the best way to describe this film is “prose in motion”. Less an intellectual exercise meant to be understood and more an experience meant to immerse yourself in. The past lives motif functions on multiple levels, but perhaps it’s most profound accomplishment is making the particulars of its story applicable on such a universal level.
1. Are You There God, It’s Me Margeret
I never expected a movie about a preteen girl going through puberty to land at my number one spot at the half point of the year, and yet here we are. Honest and authentic to its core, it’s a film about how to grow up with our questions and our struggles. Given the way the film parallels questions of God’s existence with the uncertainties of puberty, I think one of its most profound sentiments is the idea that whatever it is that we sacrifice for the sake of the self, it doesn’t take long for that allegiance to betray its need to be anchored in something bigger than the I. Which is why the grace notes we all need to navigate this thing we call existence arrive against expectations. That is what we call an exercise of maturity, and this just might be one of the most mature films I’ve seen in a long, long while, beginning with one of the best lead
The Stories of my Life 