As 2023 ends, this year’s best films are vying for awards that will crescendo with the Oscar race. Film fans don’t have to watch from the sidelines. They can join the fun and view them in theaters, video-on-demand or on streaming services. Below are the best and the brightest of the year.
The Color Purple (***1/2)
Steven Spielberg adapted a version of Alice’s Walker’s classic novel in 1985 and caused a rift. Women found their voice in the lead character. Black men were portrayed as devils. This modern version, based on the Broadway musical, is a new and much welcomed interpretation by screenwriters Marsha Norman and Marcus Gardley. Director Blitz Bazawule aces the song and dance routines, pulls stellar performances from the cast, and gives this new spin on a tale about two separated sisters verve. Fantasia Barrino’s captivating performance is superb. A surprising triumph.
Eileen (****)
She didn’t see it coming. Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie), a small town, young Boston-area woman, works as a secretary in a boys’ prison. The day a blonde bombshell psychologist (Anne Hathaway) walks into the building, she’s smitten and led astray down a path of self-destruction. Credit novelist/screenwriter Ottessa Moshfegh and co-screenwriter Luke Goebel for spinning this twisted, flabbergasting tale. Director William Oldroyd (Lady MacBeth) delivers shocking ensuing drama so hot that it heats up the placid winter snow scenes.
Flamin’ Hot (***1/2)
Sometimes a film’s greatest accomplishment is that warm-hearted feeling you take away from a story you couldn’t fathom. Richard Montañez (Jessie Garcia), a janitor at Frito Lay, turns the munchy food industry on its ears by climbing the corporate ladder and creating a snack that appeals to his Latino community, and the world. Controversy followed this bio/film due to an embellished resume. But put this story in the narrative nonfiction category and the sting of exaggeration fades while pure joy prevails.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (****)
The best action film of the year features Hollywood’s most laconic actor in an iconic role surrounded by friends who are foes and foes who could be friends. John Wick (Keanu Reeves), a bad*ss hired killer, works under the mandates of a clandestine council, The High Table. He’s done them wrong, and they send assassins to hunt him and snuff him out. Mindboggling stunts are brilliantly shot by cinematographer Dan Lausten.
Killers of the Flower Moon (***)
To appreciate this western classic, first you must address the elephant in the room. Why in the 21st century is anyone making films about the Native American experience that is not told from their point of view or with them as the lead protagonists? If you want to learn something about America’s Indigenous people, check out the enlightening documentary “Lakota Nation vs United States.”
Still, this masterwork by veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese is an engaging crime/thriller. It’s based on a bestselling, narrative nonfiction book that’s centered around the murders of wealthy members of the Osage Nation back in 1920s Oklahoma. Can’t deny the film’s artistry or fine acting.
Maestro (***1/2)
Who knew that the guy who clowned his way through the “Hangover” franchise was an artiste? Now everyone does. Bradley Cooper, as director, writer, producer and actor, brings the story of famed New York symphony conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein to life in shades and tones not seen in a film before. Brilliantly acted by Cooper and Carey Mulligan as his long-suffering but always loving wife. 2023’s definitive art film.
Oppenheimer (***1/2)
Quantum physics and a race against the Nazis motivated J. Robert Oppenheimer to be the big man on campus. This retelling of the development of the ultimate, war-ending weapon—the atom bomb—is spellbinding. Its cryptic subject matter is made discernible by genius writer/director Christopher Nolan. He pulls out all the visual stops as he catalogs government intrigue, rivalries among scientists, and the hangers-on who were part of that fateful day in Nevada when a flash of light and power changed everything.
Past Lives (****)
Creating three-character movies is a tough assignment. But somehow Korean-born writer/director Celine Song manages to do that in the most simple, graceful and romantic way. As kids back in Seoul, South Korea, Na Young and Hae Sung were kindred spirits. Life separated them. She (Greta Lee), as an adult, lives in New York, is a writer, and goes by the name Nora. He (Teo Yoo), smitten and forlorn, tracks her down. He’s so enraptured he pursues the now-married old friend endlessly. Luckily her husband (John Magaro) is patient as the two sort out their feelings. Song’s script is never less than poetic.
Rye Lane (****)
“If Love Actually” and “Love Jones” had a child, this would be it. Dom (David Jonsson), a 20something, is ugly crying in a toilet stall in the unisex bathroom of a bar in South London. Yas (Vivian Oparah) overhears the wailing. Fate pulls them together as they discuss their exes while on an afternoon jaunt. First-time director Raine Allen-Miller creates the wittiest, coolest, and most contemporary rom/com in ages. Her breezy, moment-to-moment directing never loses its energy. Lovely.
A Thousand and One (****)
Black urban dramas have long been stained by dehumanizing tropes and stereotypes. Somehow, first-time filmmaker A.V. Rockwell steers clear of that quicksand, which is a credit to her creativity and social consciousness. When her central character (Teyana Taylor) kidnaps her son from NYC’s social welfare system and tries to raise him on her own, her plight and journey become a riveting experience that shatters the way films tell tales about those living under constant stress. Rockwell tells stories like a shaman imparting wisdom. Brilliant on every level.
Honorable mention films: Air, All of Us Strangers, Barbie, The Blackening, Blue Beetle, The Burial, Chevalier, Creed III, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, Equalizer 3, Fair Play, Flora and Son, The Holdovers, Joy Ride, Missing, Mutt, Passages, Saltburn, Somewhere in Queens, and Talk to Me