My Top Movies 2023
A Non-Exhaustive List of Movies I Liked This Year
2023 was a very fruitful year for cinema, and I was lucky to watch a lot of great movies this year. Indeed, I watched so many of them that I couldn’t, try as I might, whittle them down into a top 10 list. So I decided to divide my favorite movies into the following categories:
Best mainstream/wide release, best indie/arthouse, best documentaries and best animation, including some honorable mentions and my personal Top 5 at the end (don’t resist the urge to scroll down, do it, I know you want to).
If you’re an avid movie goer, I hope you’ll find something new and interesting on this list, and if you’re not, I hope you can enjoy some extraordinary movies this year. Allons-y!
The movies are, as always, in no particular order. They’re just all great.
My Top 5 Indie Movies1
1. Fancy Dance
Dir. Erica Tremblay
2023
I’ve written about Fancy Dance in my overview of the Munich Film Festival in July and just want to reiterate how great it was.
Set in the Seneca-Cayuga Nation Reservation, Oklahoma Jax, played by the incredible Lily Gladstone1, has to hustle to find her missing sister (Hauli Sioux Gray), all the while fighting an unresponsive justice system and taking care of her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson). Meanwhile, Roki is convinced that her mother will be at an upcoming nationwide Pow Wow, as they’re set to perform the mother-daughter dance together. As child protective services threaten to take Roki away and settle her with her white grandfather (Shea Whigham) and his wife, Jax sees no other choice than to kidnap her niece and bring her to the Pow Wow herself, knowing that this event will more likely be a commemoration than reunion.
The movie tackles the invisibility of Native women, who face violence at the hands of men, white and otherwise, at a disproportionate rate, and an unconcerned justice and social system which fails them every single day. However, the characters of this beautiful movie aren’t defined by their suffering, instead Tremblay creates a healing story that champions the strength of tradition, community and hope within the reality Jax and Roki have to live in. Despite the world’s cruelty and ignorance, Tremblay highlights their unbreakable bond and connection to their roots and language and lets them carve out a world of their own in which every happy moment that they’re able to share is celebrated and recorded.
Although international sales rights for Fancy Dance have been acquired by Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any information on whether they’ve sold the movie to any distributors. According to a guest column by Erica Tremblay in the Hollywood Reporter from 30 November 2023, no distribution deals have been made so far.
2. Daughter of Rage (La Hija de Todas las Rabias)
Dir. Laura Baumeister de Montis
2022
I mentioned Daughter of Rage in my overview of the Munich Film Festival as an honorable mention.
However, the more time passed, the more this exceptional movie loomed in my mind, its ferocity and lush atmosphere pulling me in whenever I remembered watching it.
11-year-old María (Ara Alejandra Medal) lives with her mother Lilibeth (Virginia Raquel Sevilla García) in a shack at the edge of an enormous landfill near Manaca in Nicaragua. Her days are filled with scaling the massive mountains of garbage and rummaging through the endless supply of human refuse. Meanwhile, Lilibeth has to hustle to keep them alive, mostly by selling the halfway useful stuff they find at the dump in Manaca, for which she has to undertake a dangerous journey and leave María behind for days on end.
To make ends meet and under threat of violence, Lilibeth agrees to breed a litter of (purebred?) puppies with her dog for a local crime boss. As the deal falls through, she panics and brings María to a recycling plant, where children make up the bulk of the workforce, promising to come back. As days go by without Lilibeth’s return, María concocts a plan to escape and look for her mother herself.
The movie is told primarily from María’s perspective, as she navigates the exceedingly dangerous and tragic situation she finds herself in. Although very determined and angry, she retains a child’s perspective throughout the entire story, with only a vague understanding as to why her mother abandoned her and of what is going on around her. María’s childlike perception is the fulcrum and one of the biggest strengths of the movie. Her quest to find her mother is structured like a modern fairytale full of wondrous forests brimming with life, prophetic dreams, and helpful friends she meets along the way.
Ara Alejandra Medal is extraordinary in her role as María, especially considering that it’s her first, and according to the director, last role. Every moment of her performance is intense and fierce. She portrays María’s emotional journey from a curious almost detached existence to intense rage and finally to a fragile hopefulness and acceptance in such a raw, sincere and painful manner that I couldn’t stop staring at her, even when she shared a scene with someone else.
Mirroring María’s internal development, the world she exists in and has to traverse is constantly in flux. Aided by the dynamic cinematography of Teresa Kuhn and the sound design by Lena Esquenazi, every scene, every set and interaction take on a life of their own. Be it the overwhelming mechanical drone of the dump contrasted with María’s dreamlike POV as she plays with her mother’s puppies, the incessant chirping and movement of forest creatures in her dreams, or the dry whispering of an overworked plantation she finds herself on near the end of the movie – everything has a constant sound to it, making Daughter of Rage a very pleasantly noisy movie.
It’s not difficult to figure out what’s happened to Lilibeth, and Baumeister de Montis uses the resulting tension by contrasting the cold and uncomfortable truth with María’s journey of coming to terms with her abandonment and her aethereal flimsy hope for a better future. Our “adult knowledge” doesn’t contradict or affect María’s quest in any way. On the contrary, against all odds, I found myself hoping that her version of reality will somehow come true.
As of 19 February 2023, the international sales rights for Daughter of Rage are owned by Brussels-based distributor Best Friend Forever who have sold the film to distributors in France, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan and Eastern Europe. The film has already seen a limited release in Spain, Switzerland and France.
3. Augure (Omen)
Dir. Baloji
2023
Another movie that stayed with me after the Munich Film Festival for much longer than I expected.
Omen tells the story of Koffie (Marc Zinga), a Congolese immigrant living in Belgium, who returns to his hometown for the first time in his adult life to settle some family matters and introduce his pregnant white wife to his mother. Koffie has been shunned by his family his entire life prior to immigration, due a birthmark that covers half of his face, which was deemed the mark of the devil by the backwards community his family belongs to. As he returns and the first meeting with his mother and sisters goes awry, he has to reconsider his understanding of home and family and whether it’s possible to abandon your roots completely.
Koffie is not the only main character in the story, however, which makes Omen an intricate jumble of POVs, with all of the characters experiencing phantasmagorical prophetic dreams, dreamlike real-life events and painfully realistic visions. Their stories collide with a world where tradition and superstition are strongly intertwined with everyday life, love and grief, and explore whether there’s a place for forgiveness in this unrelenting society.
Omen has been picked up for US distribution by Utopia and had its theatrical release on 15 Nov. 2023 in Belgium, so let’s hope for a wider European release in 2024. The movie has also been selected for the Belgian entry into the Best International Feature Film category for the 2024 Academy Awards. Godspeed.
4. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Dir. Raven Jackson
2023
Like poetry in motion, we follow Mack (Kaylee Nicole Johnson/Charleen McLure) as she grows up and falls in love, through tragedies big and small, through life as it is – no linearity, thoughts and emotions intertwined. Her inner world is illuminated by intimate close-ups, with the cinematography (Jomo Fray) especially zoning in on touch, hands and physical contact in general, resulting in the best hug I’ve ever seen on screen. Mack’s hands sifting water, her crawling on a plush carpet while observing her parents dancing in a loving embrace at a party: all this is accompanied by a silence so full you don’t even notice that there’s no incidental soundtrack. Until, in a moment of power and beauty, the soundtrack by Sasha Gordon and Victor Margo hits you right in the gut.
Watching All Dirt Roads is an incredibly tactile experience, as the dreamy landscape of Mack’s mind, bathed in natural light, harsh Mississippi sunlight or serene rainy twilight, invites us to accompany her through love and heartbreak, tragedy and happiness, incredible tenderness and contemplative moments, while she listens to the sound of rain – pounding on the earth, reverberating in her body and soul.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is distributed by A24 and was released in US cinemas for a limited release on November 3, 2023 and is steaming on all relevant platforms in US since the beginning of 2024. I wasn’t able to find any information on a European release outside of film festivals, yet.
5. The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)
Dir. Colm Bairéad
2022
The shy Cáit (Catherine Clinch), is growing up with five siblings, an overworked pregnant mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) and an alcoholic gambling father (Michael Patric). While her siblings somehow manage to carve out a space for themselves, Cáit is quiet and often invisible, which makes her the problem child, as far as her parents are concerned. As Cáit has a minor incident in school, they decide to ship her off to her mother’s distant cousin Eiblín Kinsella (Carrie Crowley) and her husband Seán Kinsella (Andrew Bennett) for the summer, without asking or telling Cáit.
When her father drops her off at the Kinsellas’ house and drives away with her suitcase still in his car, Cáit is confused and scared, cautiously taking in her new surroundings. While Eiblín welcomes her with open arms and takes over as a surrogate mother quite quickly, Seán is more reserved, which intimidates Cáit even more.
During the summer, however, Seán warms up to Cáit, and with both his and Eiblín’s unconditional love and attention, Cáit grows into a more confident and visibly happy child. This change happens very gradually, and she never loses her reserved quiet nature, which is the lynchpin of the movie.
Caít is constantly talked over by the adults in her life, but rarely replies or tries to get the adults' attention in any other way. This happens frequently with strangers, but also with her parents at the beginning of the movie. As they’re not privy to or interested in her thoughts, they treat her like an object. A unit that can be shipped off like luggage, eats a certain amount of food and can do a certain amount of labor. Her humanity and individuality are treated as non-existent.
Therefore, her interactions with adults throughout the movie put the burden of advocating for herself solely on her shoulders, and in turn her quietness is interpreted as not honoring this unspoken agreement. Only when Seán acknowledges her reserved nature as a strength to her directly, later in the movie does their relationship finally transcend into a warm parental bond.
The Quiet Girl is a very introspective slice of life, and Catherine Clinch is a great lead. She plays Cáit’s growth in a tender and subtle way. Great touches like Caít’s smile turning from a functional tight-lipped one, intended to please the adults around her, to being more natural and childlike during the summer, until it goes right back when Cáit has to go back home, are at the core of Clinch’s performance.
It’s a heart-wrenching movie, which will gut you at the end, but it's also a reminder that giving unconditional love and attention to a child is the most important thing for their development and mental stability.
The movie has been sold to distributors across the globe by its sales agency Bankside Films and has been nominated in the Best International Feature Film category in the 2023 Academy Awards. The film has since seen a wide release in several countries and is available on the usual streaming platforms (except Netflix) in the US, Canada and parts of Europe, although not in Germany for some reason. It’s also available on Blu-Ray.
My Top 5 Documentaries
1. Your Fat Friend
Dir. Jeanie Finlay
2023
Read my full review of Your Fat Friend here.
Following fat activist Aubrey Gordon from her days as an anonymous blogger to a successful writer and podcaster, the movie takes an incredibly tender look at fatness, activism, human mistakes and so much more. You will laugh, you will cry, and, I promise, if you watch this movie, you will be changed forever.
Good News Everybody! Your Fat Friend has been picked up by Together Films for international sales, so let’s hope they manage to sell the film to distributors around the globe. Jeanie Finlay has also been on extensive film tours throughout the year, so watch out for this movie in your town or (fingers crossed) on a streaming platform near you.
2. She Chef
Dir. Melanie Liebheit, Gereon Wetzel
2023
Read my full review of She Chef here.
An informative and heartfelt look at high gastronomy, fine dining and life in general, through one female chef’s eyes. Confident, competent and charming, Agnes Karrasch is a very sympathetic protagonist to her own life, and you’ll find yourself rooting for her every step of the way. Despite the trial and tribulations of the pandemic and an industry in crisis, it is a true joy to witness Agnes succeed and find a place among the very best and creative in high-end gastronomy.
You can buy or rent She Chef on Amazon Prime, Apple TV or YouTube Movies, albeit, as far as I can tell, in Germany and Austria only.
3. Band
Dir. Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir
2022
Band is a fascinating mix between documentary, mockumentary and biographical fiction, wherein Örnólfsdóttir tells the story of her all-female band The Post Performance Blues Band (ThePPBB), looking for a way out of obscurity without compromising their artistic integrity and vision.
Álfrún, Saga and Hrefna put everything they have into their music career. As ThePPBB, an all-female avantgarde electronic music trio, they take on any venue that’ll take them, performing phantasmagorical, theatrical and harshly lit techno punk (I’m listening to it right now, it’s amazing!), in front of miniscule audiences. They make their costumes, they write their songs, they’re incredibly creative and talented, and they maintain their vision despite their middling success.
After another concert, which results in even less appreciation than usual, the trio makes an executive decision: we’ll do everything to break out of obscurity, but if we don’t make it until the end of the year, we’re quitting.
With the deadline looming, the women spring into action. They hire a business consultant, they find a producer, record an album, which gets coverage in the local news and, with money they don’t have, rent a huge venue in the Harpa concert hall. While their partners take care of hearth and home, Álfrún, Saga and Hrefna work tirelessly on their success.
As you might’ve guessed, this is a movie about the definition of success; about womanhood and art; about both ThePPBB and being an artist in general. The leads are great at playing themselves, and Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir is a great first-time director with an equally strong understanding of visual and musical language. In addition to her recreating real-life events with her band and other participants in a stranger-than-fiction remix of reality and hindsight, the film is also intercut with ThePPBB’s self-produced music videos and performative dream-sequences that’ll make you fall in love with the titular band.
Unfortunately, I don’t have good news on the distribution front. Although the international rights for Band were acquired by French film production and sales agency Alief, I couldn’t find any evidence, as to whether they’ve actually sold the movie to any international distributors. Should you not have the chance to watch this amazing movie, you can at least watch ThePPBB’s music videos on their YouTube channel or subscribe to them on Spotify.
4. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Dir. Anna Hints
2023
A cavernous Estonian sauna deep in the woods, the sound of constantly dripping water, lilting chants and women talking. Talking about themselves, their lives, exuberant joys, minor annoyances and deep-seated pain.
And you in the midst of it all. The steam rises and falls like breath as the sauna becomes the world, a womb, the safest of places. This movie is life itself distilled into one cramped space, into one song; and just like the sauna is a place of transformation, so is watching this movie a truly life-changing experience.
I will not list all the very well-deserved and many (many many) accolades Smoke Sauna Sisterhood and Anna Hints got since the movie premiered at Sundance. In addition, it’s the Estonian entry for the Best International Feature Film for the 2024 Academy Awards. It is out now in cinemas in limited release.
As of publishing this post, the movie is still playing in some cinemas in Germany. Look for it, go see it!
5. The Cemetery of Cinema (Au Cemetiére de la Pelicule)
Dir. Thierno Souleymane Diallo
2023
Read my full review of the movie in my Top 3 of the Berlinale.
We follow the director Thierno Souleymane Diallo, as he travels through Guinea in search of Mouramani (1953), the first ever Guinean movie ever released. While visiting destroyed cinemas and barely financed film archives, he unravels the complicated history of Guinean cinema and why it was ultimately lost.
It’s both a heart-warming send-up to the power of cinema and its transformative power, as well as a melancholic look at a society that lost it.
As of February 2023, French sales agency Reservoir Docs has included The Cemetery of Cinema in its line-up, however I couldn’t find any information on any movement on the international distribution front.
My Top 5 Animated Movies
1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Dir. Joachim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
2023
Across the Spider-Verse is a direct sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), which I also highly recommend, if you haven’t seen it.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), already quite comfortable in his role as the new Spider-Man, faces new challenges in form of college applications and family expectations. In a very relatable dilemma, his parents both want him to outgrow his humble roots but are also not amenable to the idea of him going far from home. Already strained with juggling superhero and domestic responsibilities, Miles runs into The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a goofy villain who seemingly can teleport between worlds and who swears to take revenge on Spider-Man for “creating” him at end of the previous movie.
As The Spot manages to wreak havoc across different worlds, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) returns into Miles’ life and, unwillingly, sucks him into the chaotic and dangerous world of the Spider-Verse. Soon Miles faces the most difficult choice of all when he discovers that Gwen now works for the Spider-Society led by Miguel O’Hara or Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), a mysterious agency comprised entirely of different iterations of Spider-Men/Women/Beasts whose mission it is to save different worlds from paradoxes and therefore from collapsing.
The animation3 of Across the Spider-Verse is as good, if not better as in its predecessor. The animators obviously had more opportunities to flex both skills and creativity. While gallivanting though the multiverse, Miles and the other Spider-People visit vastly different worlds, which, through their animation style, manage to convey absolutely different vibes. While Miles’ Earth-1610 evokes a homey New York feel, as Miles swings through the dynamic, colorful and urban landscapes, Gwen’s Earth-65 looks and behaves like a living impressionist painting, replete with shifting colors to match Gwen’s moods.
I have to admit that I didn’t like the story too much, as Across the Spider-Verse suffers from the typical ailments of all second films of a planned trilogy. It serves mostly as a setup for the third movie and therefore has less of a character of its own. However, what Across the Spider-Verse lacks in story it absolutely makes up in excellent character moments and development, as well as of course the extraordinary animation and voice acting.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Dir. Jeff Rowe
2023
Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicholas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon) and Donatello (Micah Abbey) are isolated teenagers living in New York’s vast maze-like sewers, only allowed to go outside for groceries and other necessities by their stern adoptive father Splinter (Jackie Chan). They, being teenagers and all, yearn for the common comforts of the outside world – high-school, having a girlfriend, going to the movies – just being normal. Oh, if you haven’t already guessed from the title, the boys are man-sized mutant turtles, and Splinter is a giant rat, which might make integration into society … difficult.
As the turtles witness a scooter being stolen, they decide on a whim to help the owner, who turns out to be intrepid high-school journalist April O’Neill (Ayo Edebiri4). They chase the thief to a garage and decimate the gangsters inside with their superior ninja skills, which they learned from Bruce Lee movies (which is incredible and awesome). Hyped by their success and by April kind-of accepting them, the boys concoct a brilliant plan: They just have to become awesome superheroes, then people will accept them, and they’ll be able to live a normal life among humans.
Mutant Mayhem is a heaping spoon of nostalgia for elder Millennials, who loved the original show or the comics (that’s me!), although I think it’ll also be fun for people who don’t know anything about the franchise.
The animation, is constantly in flux, which is well suited to the many and varied action scenes. The fact that the turtles are voiced by actual teenagers and one very young adult gave the film the chance to explore the teenage side of the Turtles more than previous installations. It tackles both a coming-of-age story as well as the concept of found family, while exploring the theme of (self-)acceptance and finding one’s voice, both within a community and the outside world. The voice acting is very good, too. Ayo Edebiri excelled as April, and I’m just always happy to see that Jackie Chan is alive and well. Ice Cube as villain Superfly was, of course, cool as ice, and the soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross just slapped!
3. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Dir. Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
2023
Genuine New Yorkers, plumbing entrepreneurs and brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) hit a snag in their career, as their newly opened business refuses to take off and they face stiff opposition from their ex-employer Spike (Sebastian Maniscalco) as well as their own family. Downtrodden, late at night, they see a TV report of a major water main leak and decide to play hero and save the city by delving deep into the New York underground and stopping the leak. While exploring the sewers, the brothers happen on a warp pipe and get sucked into a magical world filled with everything you know and love about the Mario games.
Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first game I ever played sometime in the nineties somewhere in Russia, and I don’t know for sure, but I’d like to believe that I was a genius at it (unreliable narrator detected). Since then, like so many Millennials, regardless of how much or little I played, I still had a soft spot for this particular franchise (even for the 1993 live action movie starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper).
So, how do you adapt such an extensive and beloved franchise? Well, apparently quite easily, if you follow a simple (and very characteristic of our time) rule: No thoughts, just vibes!
The genius of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was to kind of leave everything as it is and not to (over-)explain anything. Talking mushrooms? – Yeah. The main villain Bowser (Jack Black) is a dinosaur turtle? – Yeah. The princess of the talking mushrooms is a (very competent) human named Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy)? – You betcha!
Granted, that doesn’t leave a lot of space for character exploration or development, but I think that in this case it’s a good thing. Neither Mario, nor any of the other characters in the game ever had character arcs, they were the constant in an ever-changing game and industry landscape. They grounded us as children and still do, while we desperately try to survive the world as it is right now. The filmmakers understood why Mario is still popular to this day and made a movie equivalent to a perfectly warm cozy blanket on a winter day with a cup of cocoa and your cat by your side (Warning! Your perfect cozy fantasy may differ.)
I also love that there was no unnecessary romance tacked on and that the relationship between Luigi, who was kidnapped by Bowser at the beginning of the movie, and Mario, who is trying to save him with his new friends, remains the focus of the movie. The animation is an eye-popping colorful messy joy to behold, the voice acting is fantastic, and the soundtrack by Brian Tyler, including the Peaches song graciously provided by Jack Black, is dynamic, funny, nostalgic and just awesome!
I had a lot of fun watching this movie and I hope you will, too!
4. Robot Dreams
Dir. Pablo Berger
2023
In a New York, which is populated by animals of all shapes and sizes, lives Dog. A lonely Dog. Lonely, until he sees a late-night ad for a new kind of companion – a robot that promises to be your best friend – which Dog purchases immediately. And so begins the story of a beautiful friendship – until it ends, that is.
Robot Dreams has no dialogue, but that doesn’t deter it from delivering a powerful message: Friendship is a precious good that can be lost, grief is an emotion that must be felt to the fullest,
and – most importantly – everything will be alright in the end, promise. This beautiful melancholic, but joyful story is helped along by endearingly simple animation, a very cute character design (the film was adapted from the comic by Sara Varon) and a nostalgia-inducing soundtrack.
The movie is subtle, sad, happy and everything in-between, and while Dog and Robot might be decidedly non-human, their struggles are very much human, indeed.
Robot Dreams has been acquired worldwide for distribution all over Europe as well as the US, so look out for a theatrical or streaming release near you.
5. The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka - lit.: How Do You Live?)
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
2023
Inspired by socialist Genzaburō Yoshino’s children’s book How Do You Live?, The Boy and the Heron follows earnest and subdued Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) as he adjusts to a new life after his mother tragically dies in a fire. Although the movie is set during WWII, the war is barely mentioned and seems far away from the idyllic village and estate where his father Shoichi (Takuya Kimura) brings Mahito some time after his mother’s death. The estate belongs to her family and is now owned by her little sister Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura), whom Shoichi has since married and impregnated (I have mixed feelings about that). While trying to settle in as best he can, Mahito wanders the grounds of the mansion, which include a lake, a forest and an abandoned mysterious tower – and of course a grey heron, who tempts him to go in.
I hate to be “that person”, but the movie has to be seen to be believed and, most importantly, appreciated for what it is. It has so many facets that I’d probably need as long to review every one of its intricacies as it took Miyazaki to make his (presumably) last masterpiece (6 years). It’s simultaneously a coming-of-age story, an unsympathetic look at Japan’s history and its subsequent romanticization by modern-day Japan, a movie about odious birds and their poop, a morality tale as to how to be human (with a socialist tilt), birth, rebirth, acceptance, saying goodbye and so much more.
The Boy and the Heron is a new level of animation for Miyazaki, a maze-like ant hill of metaphor, allegory and different art styles. The animation and character designs are marvelous, a mixed-medium almost avant-garde world, populated with living, breathing, sometimes gross creatures, who never stop moving. Characters are juxtaposed with dreamy and still watercolor backgrounds, from which they stand out in lively, almost painful clarity.
Regardless of what exactly you’ll see in this movie, regardless of potential confusion or even anger at the oblique symbolism, this movie is definitely worth your while.
My Top 5 Mainstream Movies/ Wide Release
1. Killers of the Flower Moon
Dir. Martin Scorsese
2023
Killers of the Flower Moon is an adaptation of the book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by journalist David Grann, which tells the story of the eponymous murders, which took place in Osage County, Oklahoma over the span of about 20 years.
When oil is discovered on Osage land, the tribe gets headrights to the proceeds and makes Osage County into the richest county in the US almost overnight. To ensure the wealth ultimately lands in white hands, a complex system of conservatorships is put in place, resulting in the Osage wealth being governed by white curators, to which the family members with oil rights have to report any and all spending.
We follow Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a cowardly, dull little man, who returns to Osage from the war to live with his uncle William “King” Hale (Robert De Niro) and his family on a reservation ranch. He and his brother Byron (Scott Shepherd) soon begin to rob rich Osage and gamble their spoils away, while Hale nudges Ernest to marry into one of the families with oil rights. When Ernest meets Molly Kyle (Lily Gladstone), their courtship is swift and a wedding is held soon after. In an intimate character study, we then see Ernest capitulate to his greed and descend into corruption, cowardice and murder, as he either helps to plan or commits dozens of murders, including all of his wife’s relatives. Eventually the plot is uncovered by the newly minted FBI, and Hale and Burkhart are convicted on several charges.
Instead of going for a murder mystery or a typical western, Scorsese opts for a character piece and social critique about people who are absolutely convinced that they’re entitled to everything. They murder and steal, all based on this eternal conviction, and there is an entire system built to protect them from any consequences. Doctors, judges, lawmen – all of them are helping in their own way, either by looking the other way or actively opposing any real investigation into the deaths. The murders themselves are shown throughout the movie, strewn about like b-footage, further illuminating, how little is done to solve them.
Nothing makes this clearer than the way Scorsese portrays the incompetency of the conspirators, how haphazardly they execute their plans and how inept they are at covering up their tracks. Hale, Ernest and their entire crew are shown to be greedy, mediocre white men, who only succeed because there is a system in place to uphold and award them for their mediocrity. In short, they succeed, because no one gives a damn about dozens of dead Native Americans. Even when they’re caught, their sentences are laughably short and the murders are pretty much swept under the rug.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a movie about pure hatred, greed and disregard for human life, propped up by inhumane systems which persist to this day. It shows how easy it is to shed one’s humanity, if you’re already standing on a jingoistic foundation powered by the exploitation of minorities and Natives alike.
The movie is expertly paced and directed, incredibly acted (especially by Lily Gladstone) and boasts an extraordinary score by the late and very great Robbie Robertson. Truly a highlight of 2023 and probably the years to come.
2. Priscilla
Dir. Sofia Coppola
2023
Adapted from the memoir titled Elvis and Me (1985) by Priscilla Presley, who also served as executive producer on the film, and Sandra Harmon, Priscilla depicts Priscilla’s (Cailee Spaeny) and Elvis’ (Jacob Elordi) relationship in its entirety from their meeting at a party in Germany in 1959, when she was a 14-year-old high-schooler and he was 24 and already Elvis, to the day she left him in 1973.
In pastel close-ups, with Priscilla looking like a doll in her best 60-ies attire wandering the vast gilded halls of Graceland, Coppola tells the story of a young woman trapped in a relationship filled with love, but governed by an extraordinary power imbalance, Elvis’ wild mood swings and abuse. And was it not for this director, these actors, this soundtrack and cinematography, this movie would’ve been impossible to watch.
What fascinated me the most was the myopic focus on how Priscilla saw herself in the relationship. The movie is very faithful to the book, and by extension to real-life Priscilla’s version of events, so although the grooming and abuse, the drugs and the affairs are shown plainly and without any pathos, you can practically feel her bearing down on the movie, repeating (like an obsessive mantra) – “we loved each other, it was love, real love”. Despite the movie being set in the past, every scene, every moment is imbued with Priscilla’s present, with her undying commitment to Elvis and his estate, of which she is the conservator. Not only do we see the entrapment and grooming of a child in the movie itself – we see how Priscilla is still trapped in Elvis’ world, still trapped by their love (or whatever you want to call it).
I’ll take an unreliable biopic every day over drab “historically accurate” movies. If history is subjective, then a human life is doubly so, and Coppola understood that perfectly while making this layered gem of a film.
3. Past Lives
Dir. Celine Song
2023
I’ve written extensively about Past Lives before, so here’s just a reminder that it’s still one of the greatest movies of 2023. Heartfelt, melancholic, hopeful and driven by a very relatable immigrant story (which I love), the movie shows in great detail how difficult it is to be yourself if there are two selves contending within one soul.
4. Godzilla Minus One
Dir. Takashi Yamazaki
2023
Godzilla has been a symbol for a lot of things over its seventy-year run as the OG kaiju. From the human hubris of making the atom bomb, global warming, natural disasters and the role of science to “a lot of fish”, the bipedal lizard represented pretty much every problem that ailed Japanese (and to an extent Western) society. It roared and stomped its way into a lot of hearts and was even afforded to be the good guy in some of its appearances.
Matthew Broderick in Godzilla (1998) … IYKYK
However, Godzilla never was scary, at least not for me. Its roar was iconic, sure, but it never was as terrifying as the panicking actors, running from its destruction, made us believe. The destruction itself was also akin to a toddler destroying a Lego town, sad for the Lego builder, but kind of funny from an outsider’s perspective.
This changed when I saw Godzilla Minus One. This time we find Godzilla attacking post-war Japan, as the county is still recovering from the loss and destruction of cities and lives alike. Main character Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) a former kamikaze pilot who couldn’t bring himself to fulfill his duty (a suicide mission), returns home a broken, guilt-ridden man, only to find his parents’ neighborhood bombed out and utterly destroyed with very few survivors. While living in poverty in what’s left of his parents’ house, he scrounges any food he can find. On one of his excursions, he meets Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe), who managed to survive alone with a baby she rescued from its dying mother. They form a bond and start living together, even raising the child, but never going beyond being roommates and accidental parents.
For Shikishima and a lot of the people we meet during the movie the war is not over. The grief, the guilt and nightmares don’t just go away because a government surrenders to another. Into this time, ruled by destruction and grief, bursts Godzilla – a monstrous shape under the waters tearing through disarmed war ships and fishing boats alike, until it arrives in Tokyo’s newly rebuilt Ginza district. What was a symbol of hope and normalcy turns into a heart-rendering war site, as Godzilla tears through the newly renovated streets and is captured on camera by intrepid journalists as he destroys the Nippon Theater, a “beloved icon of the people”.
The destruction of a cultural heritage site, rather than a government building, sets the tone for the entire movie – it’s terrifying and painful to watch. Godzilla isn’t fetishized, is not cool and awesome to behold. When the monster, provoked by tank fire, finally unleashes its radioactive breath, it destroys Ginza completely and kills thousands of people, including Noriko, and you mourn every one of them.
Godzilla the monster is war incarnate. He is the misguided bravado of the Japanese military, he is the lackadaisical inaction of the Japanese government after the war, he’s destruction for destruction’s sake. He reemerges as a reminder that a war is never truly over unless we civilians take a firm stand against it. And so, in the movie, it is veterans and civilians that come together to defeat Godzilla, and only as Shikishima, set on revenge and beset by guilt, still chooses life over suicide, does Godzilla truly die.
The most beautiful, emotionally impactful and life-affirming anti-war movie I’ve ever seen.
5. May December
Dir. Todd Haynes
2023
We follow the TV-actress Elisabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), as she travels to Savannah to study the lives of Gracie Atherton Yoo (Julianne Moore) and her husband Joe (Charles Melton) for an upcoming movie. Berry is set to play Gracie in the true story, and an empathetic exploration (as Elisabeth is always quick to point out) of the illicit affair between 36-year-old Gracie and 13-year-old Joe, which caused a huge media frenzy at the time it was discovered. Over time the media coverage of the couple died down, and 26 years after the initial affair, Gracie and Joe seem to be happily married and about to send their twins off to college, while their oldest daughter has already flown the coop.
Right at the beginning of the movie, after it has been established that she is a controlling and tense character, Gracie opens the fridge and a loud piano sting underscored by ominous strings bursts onto the scene. What was a fairly normal establishing scene before turns into a tense, uncomfortable, moment out of the blue – what’s happening? She opens the fridge, the camera draws close, the piano and the strings are doing their best, and she says with a sigh: “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” (sad trumpet sound)
That’s May December in nutshell.
The movie approaches the very serious subject matter of grooming and child abuse from the point of view of sensationalistic press coverage and trite made-for-TV movies, which are known for making light of such matters to sate our desire for salacious scandals and forbidden romance. The soapy soft pastels, the awkward establishing shots, the clumsy metaphors and the music of typical Lifetime movies are gloriously riffed on. The score by Marcelo Zavros, who composed the incidental soundtrack as well as adapted pieces from Michel Legrand’s soundtrack for The Go-Between (1971), sets a very cheeky tone. It pipes up whenever it sees fit, without any regard of what’s actually happening on screen, making the movie feel off at all times. Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman play their parts to perfection, as unapologetic and controlling groomer Gracie and ambitious and tryhard Elisabeth respectively.
The beating heart of the movie, however, is Charles Melton as Joe. Regardless of how absurd the movie gets, it never makes fun of him. From the beginning Haynes is very empathetic towards him and his plight. There is no ambiguity in his situation or trauma. While the other characters are ostensibly fully formed adults, Joe is cosplaying adulthood, due to his stunted development, and it’s tragic. He mimics old-school, as seen on TV, masculinity as he grills, watches Bob Vila and other home improvement shows, while being interrupted by his nagging wife (sitcom style), and tries to give life advice to his son, who is not much younger than him. Everything he does feels out of place, like something is missing. We never really know where Joe ends, and the cosplay begins, and he doesn’t either.
May December is a masterclass in audience manipulation and a meticulously constructed movie. Haynes alienates the modern viewer by making the film look and feel like a nineties Lifetime movie, something we think we’ve outgrown. Enraged by a seeming disregard for a serious matter, by the movie and some audience members treating the trauma plot (with which we are very familiar) with the utmost disrespect, we flock to Twitter (ugh … X) and engage in discourse.
Is it melodrama or is it camp? Should a movie like that be considered funny? Big movie words are thrown around, genre discussions erupt and we do the same as the audience of those very Lifetime movies we so despise – we forget about the trauma part of the plot we’re defending. I can only hope that, when we’re all tapped out from discourse, we can return to the movie and appreciate its multilayered approach to everything the human condition has to offer.
May December is available to stream on Netflix in the US and Canada (everyone else, you know what to do).
Honorable Mentions – Speed Round
1. Barbie
Dir. Greta Gerwig
2023
I’ve written about Barbie and its wonky messaging at length. However, as I’ve already mentioned in my review, its also a fun, creative and beautiful movie. It’s well acted and, most importantly, shows great aesthetic taste. Be it costuming, make-up or production design - the visual of Barbie is flawless.
2. Saltburn
Emerald Fennell
2023
Its grand, kind of dumb and quite gross. Truly, The Talented Mr. Ripley our generation deserves. An absolute recommend!
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
James Gunn
2023
James Gunn ends his epic Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy with a bang (and with a whimper), before leaving Marvel for good. I cried and you will, too.
4. The Holdovers
Alexander Payne
2023
Cute, cozy, thoughtful and bittersweet with great performances throughout.
5. Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan
2023
Once more we’re reminded that Nolan is almost unparalleled in using every aspect of the language of cinema. As a result of his undying dedication to the craft, we get both a movie with a subpar story, black-and-white morals and bad character writing on the one hand and an extraordinary use of sound, special effects, editing and cinematography as well as acting work, on the other.
In other words, a truly well crafted cinematic experience.
So you got to the end of this here behemoth. You don’t have time for 25 movies! Hell, you don’t even know, where to fit in lunch! Fret not – here are:
✨My Top 5 Movies of 2023 (out of the categories presented)✨
1. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
2. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
3. The Boy and the Heron
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Barbie
↩ 1 I've included all the information, I could find on distribution rights and international distribution, so you have an easier time finding out, whether you can watch the movie in question in your region.
↩ 2. Freshly baked Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (Killers of the Flower Moon)
↩ 3. I would be remiss to say that the working conditions under which the over 1000 animators had to work were grueling, marred by unsustainable working hours and chaotic last-minute changes.
↩ 4. Who’s had a great 2023. Appearing, among other things, in the above-mentioned Spider-Man and the incredible show The Bear (watch it on Disney+), for which she got a Golden Globe as best supporting actress.