My Top 10 Movies of 2023
The most anticipated article of the (past) year is here.
2023 was an amazing year for Cinema and for me, in particular. It was the year I went to the cinema the most, and one of the highlights of my “cine-season” was February 14th, the first time I saw my favorite film of all time in a movie hall. Yes, I saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the theatre, and it was glorious. Apart from that, this year also featured several Cinema masters returning to the big screen. This year alone, we could go to the cinema and find names such as Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Michael Mann, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Ari Aster, Rysuke Hamaguchi, Wes Anderson, and many more. Last but not least, we have also experienced the first real sign of crisis in superhero films, a genre whose popularity is declining year after year, and which no longer seems to have the energy to continue the extraordinary run it had in the 2010s. This year’s substitute for superhero movies was “Barbenheimer”, a really awkward but greatly successful social-media-provoked phenomenon. What a year it was.
DISCLAIMER
Unfortunately, cinemas in my area don’t screen many foreign films, so the list will be mostly U.S. and Italy-based. The likes of “Evil Does Not Exist” by Ryuske Hamaguchi or “Godzilla: Minus One” and other great foreign films didn’t make it on the list, not because I’m a snob, but because I didn’t have the chance to go see them. I hope you’ll enjoy the list anyway. Enjoy!
10. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
A British production, the film is an adaptation of the same name book by Rachel Joyce and it tells the story of Harold Fry, an old retired gentleman who decides to do an almost 1000km pilgrimage, from Kingsbridge to Berwick, to give his friend Queenie a cheer-up letter. Queenie is an old lady who is affected by cancer. The film is very emotionally heavy and it deals with heavy subjects such as alcoholism, drug abuse, bad parenthood, and so on.
Harold’s journey becomes a 627-mile-long meditation in which Mr. Fry reflects on himself, his dead Son, and Life. Harold’s insecurities are being unburied and at the end of the film. He doesn’t have an answer on how to address those problems, but he now knows that what is done is done and that he can’t undo all the bad decisions he’s taken. Still, he has to take his responsibilities. The film also reflects on humanity and its capacity to do both the good and the bad, on the duality of men, and on the importance of accepting one’s failures without letting those distract us from life, because life goes on and we must follow. An extraordinary film with extraordinary interpretations. Chapeau.
09. Coup de Chance
Woody Allen’s 50th feature film might not be his best film, but it’s a damn good movie. Once again, Woody takes us to his beloved Paris where two ex-college acquaintances meet after a long time. One (Alain) is a relatively successful writer who doesn’t have a permanent place to stay, and the other (Fanny) is a beautiful girl married to a millionaire with suspicious income sources. After a couple of weeks of seeing each other for lunch, Fanny realizes that she’s in love with Alain and the two of them start having an affair. The story then unfolds once Fanny’s husband discovers her relationship with the handsome writer.
The film is basically a remix of Allen’s “Match Point”, and the way the theme of love is being treated is almost the same. In this one, fortune and chance play a substantial role, and Woody reflects on the irony of life and the causality factor that rules us. The film might not be a masterpiece, but it’s one of Allen’s best films since a while, and Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography is a delight to see.
08. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Even though I’ve never been a huge MCU fan, I must admit that I really like some of those films, and I consider James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy to be one of the best sagas of the past decade. With this one, I feel like I don’t have to write much about the plot, but here’s a YouTube summary video in case you need it. It’d be impossible to write anything without it being a spoiler. Vol. 3’s main themes are environmentalism and animal rights. James Gunn delivers a masterful thesis on the importance of doing the right thing and the human tendency to do the good. Every character is alive and emotions are the absolute protagonists of the movie. Obviously, laughter and Gunn’s typical satire are not left away, and they both mix very well with the tone of the movie. This is the end of one of the best Science-Fiction stories of the past two decades and, in my opinion, this film is “top 10 CB movies of all time” material.
07. Asteroid City
I’m not a huge Wes Anderson fan. Not that I dislike his works, I absolutely loved films such as“Fantastic Mr.Fox” and “Isle of Dogs”, but I find his obsession with stylistic perfection to be a handicap for the actual content and message of his pictures. His latest work, “The French Dispatch”, is the greatest example of this. That’s why I initially didn’t want to go see his latest movie, but in the end, I did go and I’m glad about this decision. Unlike his previous works, with this one Wes actually has something to say. “Asteroid City” is an unlikely essay on the state of contemporary Cinema, a reflection on today’s society and the absurdity of our world, and a ferocious and satirical critique of today’s law system and the inconsistency of those in power, which is reflected on the citizens who decide to enslave themselves to those people. Not a masterpiece, but still one of his best works to date.
06. Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
Like every kid to ever exist, I love Spider-Man. I’m not a huge comics fan, I’ve only read a couple of Peter Parker’s “paper adventures”, but I’ve always loved Sam Raimi’s take on the character, the second one being my favorite film, and until “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse”, I thought that nothing better could’ve been made about the world’s most beloved superhero. Like always I was wrong. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse” was an extraordinary animated extravaganza, but still, I preferred “Spider-Man 2".
When they announced the sequel, I wasn’t quite sure what to think about it, but now I can say that “Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse” is the best Spider-Man movie ever made. Pure art in movement, the dream of every kid becoming reality. I won’t say much else about the film, just watch it, please. It would’ve been better if you saw it in a theatre because it’s one of the most visually stunning films I’ve ever seen.
05. Oppenheimer
This probably was the most anticipated movie of the past year. Christopher Nolan is a very popular filmmaker and his work is beloved by many. But not by me. Don’t get me wrong, I do like some of his works, but I’ve always found his screenplays to be very cold and calculated, “Inception” and “Tenet” are the best examples of this, and only a few of his movies have really reached my heart. I’m talking about “The Prestige” and “Dunkirk”. Yes, I’ve excluded “Interstellar”, that one just isn’t my type of film.
Anyway, I sat in the theatre without any expectations, but this film completely blew me away. The storytelling, the pacing, the cinematography, every aspect of the movie was so well curated that I had to see it two times at the cinema, something that had never occurred to me. Nolan’s screenplay is probably the strongest element of the film, and the way he managed all the characters, their emotions, and their importance for the plot was mesmerizing. I think that this is Nolan’s best work to date and one of the best films of the 2020s. I really hope Chris’ next works will come with this quality. And that final scene…
04. Rapito
Marco Bellocchio probably is the greatest living Italian director. His films have always been political and religion-themed, “Buongiorno, notte” and “L’ora di religione” being the most known examples of both themes. “Rapito” follows the real story of Edgardo Mortara, the Jewish boy who was kidnapped by the Church and later became a priest himself. The movie is a directing masterclass, and Bellocchio once again proves that he’s not done yet and that he still has something to say.
The film is a clear attack on all ancient traditions of the Catholic Church, considered by Bellocchio as an institution that brings people to their knees with fear rather than granting them the grace of God. At this time, it‘s been released in Italy and France only. If it ever comes to your country, please go see it, and please find a way to see all of Bellocchio’s other films because he is one of the greatest Italian directors of all time, and has never had success abroad due to the strong political and religious content of his films.
03. Io Capitano
Another Italian film for the 3rd position. “Io Capitano” is the story of two Senegalese cousins, Seydou and Moussa, whose dream is to reach Europe and make a better life for themselves and their families. This might sound like a political film, but politics have nothing to do with it if we’re talking about immigration laws and all that stuff. The only political attack is towards African nations themselves which are governed by greedy people who only think about themselves and let the population live in disastrous situations. Apart from that, Matteo Garrone’s latest film is a rhetoric-free, intimate odyssey that dives into the minds of two human beings, not Senegalese, not Africans, not immigrants, just two human beings guided by their dreams. In Italy, the film was not very well received by the general audience, which targeted the film as a political statement in favor of illegal immigrants without even going to the theatre. Cinemas had a hard time screening this film and it was practically impossible to go see it unless you lived in a big city. Italy’s biggest cinema chain, UCI Cinemas, projected the film for a very limited period of time and in very few of their halls. If this film gets released in your country, please go see it without prejudice.
02. The Boy and the Heron
I actually saw this film a couple of days ago, on the 3rd, to be precise, because it was released in Italy on January 1st. I won’t say much about it because I’m writing a dedicated article, but yeah, this second position says it all. Miyazaki did it again.
01. Killers of the Flower Moon
Fuck it, I’m a Scorsese dickrider and I’m not even trying to hide it, you can read my full review here.
A huge Thank You to everyone who’s read this article. It took me a while to write this but it came out pretty well, I’d say. Please check out my ongoing project “1994 In Film”, you can find all the info you’ll need at this link. I wish all of you a happy and successful 2024!
