Words by Harry Moore
When it comes to film, 2023 will likely be remembered as a year marred with strikes and big-budget bombs. Hollywood has begun to reckon with an existential crisis that has been brewing since Silicon Valley came to town with streaming hobbling theaters and proving to not be a financially viable alternative to good old-fashioned ticket sales. Add in a depressed box office that has struggled to return to former heights following the pandemic, a rapidly grown cultural fatigue of superhero films — once one of the few guaranteed successes on the multiplex calendar — and you have the makings of a bleak outlook for the industry’s immediate future. That’s without mentioning the simultaneous strikes of both the actors’ and writers’ guilds that halted production for months on end. With that being said, there were many films released over the past year. Some of which were very good.
We saw releases from several of our great auteurs from the likes of Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott to David Fincher and Michael Mann. With several superhero movies, like “The Flash,” “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” and the recently released “The Marvels,” all drastically underperforming — though James Gunn wonderfully closed out his “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy with what can be considered an ideal epilogue for the MCU. Video game adaptations became a hot commodity thanks to the sweeping successes of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (not to mention HBO’s “The Last of Us” bringing prestige to that particular trend). Movies about the origins behind some of our favorite products became all the rage, ranging from the forgettable “Tetris” and “Flamin’ Hot” (yes, it’s about Cheetos) to the better-than-they-had-any-right-to-be “Blackberry” and “Air.” Animated films turned to a new page with strong box office returns and critical praise for the visually inventive “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” R-rated comedies made a minor comeback with releases such as “No Hard Feelings,” “Joy Ride,” “Cocaine Bear” and “Strays” all finding their way to theaters. Legacy sequels like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “The Exorcist: Believer” arrived to little fanfare and effectively left those classic series dead and buried. And then there was the movie event of the year, “Barbenheimer, a pair of blockbusting juggernauts (“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”) that amplified each other to become cultural phenomenons of a sort that films rarely experience in the current landscape.
While the story of cinema in 2023 is still being processed, this wouldn’t be an end-of-year summary without doing a top 10 list, so let’s get into it.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
Tom Cruise’s latest adventure as the international man of mystery Ethan Hunt sees the action hero take on his greatest foe yet: artificial intelligence. The “Mission: Impossible” series has managed to up the stakes and death-defying action with each installment, and “Dead Reckoning” is no exception. The globetrotting adventure marks another creative success for director Christopher McQuarrie who has taken this franchise to greater heights under his stewardship.
Asteroid City
Wes Anderson’s latest work is a touching ensemble comedy that deals with symptoms of the human condition while evoking more classical American art forms told through his inimitable trademark style. This time there was an alien in it. “Asteroid City “is cuttingly funny with a melancholic current running through it and a deep bench of terrific performers who’re each given a moment to shine, particularly Jason Schwartzman, who holds the film together at its center, and Tom Hanks, who subverts his usual persona but still finds a way to tug on heartstrings.
Talk to Me
The horror film of the year announced the arrival of an exciting filmmaking duo who clearly know how to create upsetting images and a tense atmosphere. Australian siblings Danny and Michael Philippou have made quite the impression with their feature debut, an inspired and unsettling take on demonic possession films that feels destined to be in the canon of modern horror.
John Wick: Chapter 4
Keanu Reeves’ saga of mobsters, bullets and dogs reaches a crescendo in its fourth chapter that finds John, once again, fighting against the world. The first two-thirds of the film plays like a standard functioning, if uninspired installment to the series, but once the action reaches Paris for the final act it becomes something transcendent. Each escalating challenge John is put through in his journey through the City of Lights elevates the ante of this action extravaganza. Each set piece is inventively conceived and expertly pulled off with stunt work that feels as indebted to Buster Keaton as they do John Woo, creating moments unlike anything else out there.
Blackberry
The story of the rise and fall of the company behind the original smartphone is told in this squeamishly funny corporate drama. “Blackberry” follows Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) the co-CEOs of the Canadian tech start-up Research in Motion, which skyrockets in growth after developing the first smartphone, the Blackberry. Both the leads give eye-catching performances, particularly Howerton who gives a stirring rendition of almost untethered rage. Unlike the characters the film is following, the audience is saddled with the knowledge that an Apple-shaped meteorite is heading straight for the growing business, and yet director Matthew Johnson and his cast make the proceedings captivating. Oftentimes it is like the film is presenting a car crash in slow motion, and that is hard to look away from.
Air
On the other end of the spectrum of films about the story behind a popular product sits “Air,” which isn’t about the rise and fall of a fledgling company, but rather follows how Nike went from a moderately successful sportswear manufacturer to an industry titan thanks to the endorsement of the biggest athlete of all time. Director Ben Affleck spins the tale of how Nike courted Michael Jordan to their team into a feel-good crowd-pleaser that is anchored by a terrific ensemble cast, led by a winning Matt Damon performance.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese’s epic drama tells the tragic story of the killings of members of the Osage tribe in the early 20th century. This challenging film is made by a team of experts in their craft and a beautiful rendering of an unspeakable horror. Led by stellar performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a captivating exploration of darkness and greed that lies in the heart of men.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The second part of the planned Spider-Verse trilogy that follows the young new Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he faces off against a council of Spider-Men from across the multiverse. Across the Spider-Verse delivers on all levels, telling a relatable, human story on a cosmic canvas that allows for diverse, boundary-pushing animation styles to come together creating inventive images on screen that are unlike anything else in feature films.
The Killer
This darkly comedic thriller follows a calculating hitman (Michael Fassbender) dealing with the fallout after a job goes sideways. Director David Fincher has once again elegantly executed a perversely thrilling work that’s as funny as it is discomforting. Fassbender gives a coldly charismatic performance in a demanding role that has him on screen through almost every frame. As Fincher’s been one to do in past projects such as “Fight Club” and “Gone Girl,” he threads the needle of balancing a propulsive plot with a satirical bent taking a swing at the perks of the modern world that facilitates our nameless killer to hide in plain sight as he violently and methodically ties up his loose ends. A gripping and provocative work of genre fiction from one of the masters of the form.
Oppenheimer
With this explosive biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, Christopher Nolan reaches a new plateau as a filmmaker, creating what might be the masterpiece of his career. Nolan is arguably the only filmmaker working today who can demand a wide audience just off of his name alone, and with “Oppenheimer,” he showed that the crowds are willing to follow him wherever he goes. Usually known for creating extravagant spectacles, Nolan turns this three-hour drama that is mostly about people talking in cramped rooms into the edge-of-your-seat cinematic event of the year. Cillian Murphy, a longtime collaborator of Nolan, is given his overdue flowers as he shines in the lead as the destroyer of worlds, while the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Matt Damon give stellar supporting turns — as do many others in this stacked collective of performers. Expect this one to clean up at the Oscars in a few months.
Follow FOLIO!