My favorite films of 2023 (number three of four recaps)
This was a great year for film, particularly if you look beyond Barbenheimer.
This is the third entry of four, you can find my favorite music and my favorite books of 2023 in previous posts.
When I write my list of favorite films, I have the opposite problem to establishing my favorite books: over-enthusiasm. I could easily write a list of fifty films, in part because I watch so many (one a day on average), and in part because cinema can be very exciting to me. Also, with streaming (not so much Max and Netflix, but the holy quartet of Criterion Channel, MUBI, OVID and Film Movement) and the determined labels who continue putting great stuff out on disc (Janus/Criterion, Cinema Guild, Vinegar Syndrome and its many partner labels, Arrow, etc.) there is a treasure trove of stuff from the past and present to watch.
As with books I would find it very facetious and silly to come out and say something like “my favorite films of 2023 are by Bergman and Tarkovsky” because to me the point of writing them is to take a chance on some works before they undergo the filter of canonicity.
Thusly, my list of favorite films are movies that released in a way available to me between 2022 and 2023, with a date of production no earlier than 2021, that I saw for the first time in 2023. Because I live in St. Louis and not in New York or, I wish, Los Angeles, many of the films I truly like do not open in theaters here, and I often am unable to see them until they are released in streaming or disc. This is why the list does not consider works which might as well have made it, like Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses or Wim Wenders’s Anselm, which may be in the list of favorites of 2024. There are also films I have not seen because I am not sure they are worth three hours of my time (Killers of the Flower Moon), because I am fairly certain I will hate (Napoleon) or because I will probably like them but not love them (May December).
In any case my list of favorites is pared down here to twenty, which is the shortest I could come up with without leaving out a film that would have hurt to exclude. I do have favorites. Probably the best film I saw was Return to Seoul, in part because it is very hard for me to be surprised by a movie, and this one blew my mind. I will not say more to avois spoiing it. The number two is Celine Song’s Past Lives, a perfect movie that shows what US filmmakers can do at their best when they are not bound by the stupidity of the industry. I also think it was particularly good to have seen it after seeing Return to Seoul, because they are diametrically different brilliant answers to the same concerns about identity, origin and place. Jafar Panahi, a director who works in some of the most difficult conditions in the world, continues putting out provocatively original and powerful films and No Bears, my number three film of the year.
I generally dislike the consensus Hollywood films of the year. I lasted 30 minutes before shutting Maestro down, found The Holdovers to be mediocre and reactionary, and I considered Oppenheimer to be flat and boring regardless of its bells and whistles. I also disliked Tár, a film that undermines its many aesthetic virtues and great acting with a cartoonish storyline that echoes in too many silly ways the US liberal views of issues of gender and genius.
I did enjoy going to Barbenheimer and the energy of the going to the theater during that collective phenomenon, which was a breath of oxygen after years of choking theaters with MCU garbage and its pale DCU imitators. I am very hopeful that the fact that those films tanked badly this year will at least help in getting a more diverse fare in movie theaters, something desperately needed in a city like mine where it was oftentimes impossible to see something other than those films in the best-quality screens.
I really liked Barbie, which I have seen three times. It is not a favorite, because it is not the kind of film that matters to me in the way a favorite does, but I had a hell of a good time watching it. People are moralizing about it a lot, but in the universe of blockbusters and with the limitations of the material (it was intended to be a monetization of commercial property, after all), it is above and beyond what anybody could have assumed. The production qualities are superb, from the use of Technicolor and the citations from Jacques Demy’s comedies, to Rodrigo Prieto’s astounding cinematography, to Greta Gerwig’s inspired direction. I really hope Hollywood takes many lessons from this one, particularly letting the talented people do their thing rather than working in micromanaged franchise environments. I am interested in seeing how Gerwig tackles Narnia. But cranky as I can be about commercial US films, I do celebrate this one exists.
For what is worth, there are three more films I found endlessly fun, even if they are not particularly good: Cocaine Bear, Prey and Bodies Bodies Bodies. The one fun movie that was a favorite for me is John Wick 4, which I enjoy because it is a turbocharged film that echoes some of the best Asian action films and dramas, while building a really brilliant aesthetic that holds well over a few films and even the lesser TV show The Continental.
I constantly rewatch films too, and beyond the ones I usually revisit (like Chunking Express, which I probably watch twice every year), there were some works I was really excited to see again. Wim Wenders is one of my favorite directors. His film Perfect Days, in the list, is his best fictional work in decades, and it made me interested in returning to the work of his that introduced me to his cinematography, Lisbon Story, which remains wonderful in its earnest love of cinema. Wenders’s refusal to cave to cynicism and irony makes his best works windows into the possibilities of love and joy.
Because I got a 4K set, I rewatched all the Resident Evil films starring Milla Jovovich, and they are really excellent. Not flawless, and a bit uneven, but their action sequences and their plotting stand very well. It was also very satisfying to revisit Medicine for Melancholy in Criterion’s release and the 4K of Heat, two more examples of US cinema at its best.
Of the older films I watched for the first time, Lou Ye’s Suzhou River, a Chinese film from the year 2000 was the best (a Criterion disc is on its way, but it is in a few platforms). It is a wonderful romance film that also captures the contradictions of China’s economic rise with an intelligence that rivals the best work by Jia Zhangke.
In terms of Mexican films, my top three were Huesera, a fantastic motherhood horror film that I like more every time I think about it; La Caja, a very intelligent and devastating portrayal of the maquiladora economy and Eye Two Hands Mouth, a perfect short film that in my opinion surpasses Avilés’s good but not great recent feature Tótem. Other films are more interesting for their political reflection than their cinematic work, like Beristain’s Ruido, which is a worthwhile film to watch. I did enjoy Elisa Miller’s adaptation of Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season, which must be approached as an aesthetically different take on the same story rather than as a straight adaptation to be fully appreciated. It does have some inconsistencies and is not great, but it definitely shows a director that, after early promise, is finally finding a footing for her considerable talent.
Regarding the rest of the list, I will just mention a few considerations: I like nearly everything by Miyazaki, Wim Wenders, Hong Sang Soo and Aki Kaurismaki, so you should not be surprised their latest films, all a peak within their respective careers, are here. Anatomy of a Fall is a brilliant film and I liked it more than the other great French courtroom drama, Saint Omer, which felt a little too comfortable with its subject matter and a little flat in its documentary approach. Speaking of documentaries, I hope more people watch The Super 8 Years, which got dismal distribution regardless of Ernaux’s Nobel, it is at the level of her best books. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is incredible, and the best documentary I saw all year. Eo, Pacifiction and La Chimera are obvious choices for anyone who likes art film: three great directors delivering bold films.
I have developed a new liking for films which provide an intelligent view of adult relationships, including the down and dirty of sexuality, which I feel have fallen out of favor in our sensitive times. Earlier in the year I liked and loved Jacques Audiard’s Paris 13th District for this reason, and even wrote a post about it. The other film in this list that came from that energy is Andrew Bujalski’s There There. Even though the mumblecore movement that Bujalski led has been deeply influential and brought to the fore some of the best talent in the US film industry (Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, as well as the Duplass Brothers and Josephine Decker started there), I found Bujalski’s early films like Funny Ha Ha to be exceedingly manneristic and annoying, In this one, a more mature Bujalski has distilled the best of his work—the quality of dialogue, intelligent minimalism, the ability to move the quotidian into the devastating—into a film that no longer has the tries-too-hard vibe of his earliest films. It was a real discovery.
The final discovery of the year was an Argentine film, Demián Rugna’s Cuando la maldad acecha (When Evil Lurks). Sadly trapped like Huesera in Shudder and AMC+, lacking the full visibility it deserves, it is a masterclass of a demonic horror film that recalls in part Ti West’s reinventions of the 1970s, but with a much more powerful sense of horror and monstrosity. If you can stomach gory horror films it, you should check it out.
This is the list of my twenty favorite films, listed by director’s last name. My last recap, the post on my 2023 publications and media, will be posted before January 15.
Lila Avilés. Eye Two Hands Mouth.
Jacques Audiard. Paris 13th District.
Andrew Bujalski. There There.
Davy Chou. Return to Seoul.
Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux. The Super 8 Years.
Michelle Garza Cervera. Huesera.
Hong Sang-Soo. Walk Up.
Aki Kaurismaki. Fallen Leaves.
Hayao Miyazaki. The Boy and the Heron.
Jafar Panahi. No Bears.
Laura Poitras. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
Alice Rohrawacher. La Chimera.
Demián Rugna. Cuando la maldad acecha.
Albert Serra. Pacifiction.
Jerzy Skolimowski. Eo.
Celine Song. Past Lives.
Chad Stahelski. John Wick 4.
Justine Triet. Anatomy of a Fall.
Wim Wenders. Perfect Days.
Lorenzo Vigas. La caja.