Best Movies of 2023

⑩ Justine Triet’s fascinating Anatomy of a Fall balances introspection and sensation, as the patriarch of a family is found dead after a dramatic tumble with no witnesses. The ensuing investigation captures the nation’s imagination, but for Sandra and her son Daniel, uncovering the truth means laying bare marriage and family. The film plays masterfully with perception and recollection, to craft a spellbindingly suspenseful drama which continues to linger long after the credits.

⑨ Piecing together the enactment of the Manhatten Project alongside post-war inquiries, in which J. Robert Oppenheimer’s motives and the safety of his security clearance are brought into question, proves a masterstroke in Christopher Nolan’s latest feature Oppenheimer, with the non-linear script revealing itself with all the ornate satisfaction of a jigsaw. Cillian Murphy blends seamlessly into his role, revealing a gripping portrait of a charismatic if enigmatic man.

⑧ When the titular beast begins terrorising Tokyo Bay, it falls on the community to come together for the betterment of family and future in Takashi Yamazaki’s take on Japan’s best-known kaiju. Godzilla Minus One provides some of the year’s most haunting spectacle on what is a relatively small budget, but crucially it is the human cast who anchor the film with lasting depth, tapping into topics such as survivor’s guilt, redemption, human connections, and Japan’s wartime neglect.

⑦ Suzume is everything I’d hoped from a Haruki Murakami-inspired road movie by Makoto Shinkai. It is bulging with ambition and adventure, but come the end, it is the film’s singularly tender reflections on tragedy, and the theme of courage in the face of trauma, which resonate with superb affect. With a transfixing aptitude for blending realistic settings and fantasy scenarios, writer-director Makoto Shinkai and crew continue an ever-impressive run of gorgeously crafted animated dramas.

⑥ Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, a devastating tale of exploitation and duplicity adapted from David Grann’s book, is utterly captivating in both its mastery and dread. Leonardo DiCaprio melds into his role as Ernest Burkhart — both credulous and wicked, his demeanour swings like a pendulum from deceit to unwieldy condolence, where he falls for his own faux empathy. Opposite him is an outstanding Lily Gladstone, whose heart-wrenching performance is indelible.

⑤ Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is my favourite Ghibli film from the last two decades. The tale of loss, death and rebirth surrounding young Mahito is impressively detailed. It is so delightfully rich in attentive dialogue and symbolism, that it had me eager to revisit the moment it ended. Miyazaki cleverly realises his characters’ internal conflicts through a wondrous journey into other worlds, reflecting their introspections in ways that are both playful and profound.

④ Paul Giamatti does wonders in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, playing stern history teacher Paul Hunham, who is forced to look after a handful of students who have nowhere to go during the Christmas holidays. Paul is utterly riveting, and how he interacts, grows and nurtures the supporting cast in his own unique way is the most fabulous journey. The dialogue throughout is witty, cunning, tender and moving all in one — it’s the only film this year to have made me weep.

③ Adapting his own manga, Takehiko Inoue takes the ending of his basketball opus and remodels it to forge The First Slam Dunk. The re-fitted plot works exceedingly well, relating a tale of dreams and overcoming grief. The drama is engrossing and grounded, and the action is stunning. The animation — seamlessly blending 2D drawings with 3DCG — is some of the best I’ve ever seen in anime. The film’s exquisite and sublime detail captures all the adrenaline of the real thing.

② Damien Chazelle’s epic Babylon charts the depravity, the excess, and the rise and fall of several star performers in 1920s Hollywood, during the transition from silent to sound films. It is brimming with a cast of colourful characters, whose spiritedness grips from the onset. Slowly, each character reveals an individual wisdom as they fade from the spotlight, with their footprint adding to the collective wonder that is cinema, which is celebrated in an outright majestic and enduring finale.

① Across the Spider-Verse, a masterclass in creativity and spectacle, tops my list for 2023. While it is undoubtedly the inventive art style, crafted seamless from the mien of the comics, which leads from the front, it is the film’s strong emotional core, with a nexus cast of captivating and multifarious characters which really drive it home. The bombastic action, thorny character drama, and roguish villain make for an impressively engaging middle act which nails its footing as both follow-up and set-up.