WAMG’s Top 10 Films Of 2023

By Movie Geeks | January 6, 2024

Augie Steenbeck: I still don’t understand the play.
Schubert Green: Doesn’t matter. Just keep telling the story. – Asteroid City’

2023 was a year full of stories with highs and lows. The year brought about ChatGPT, more news about UAP’s aka UFO’s, Technologists warned of “doomsday” style scenarios in which AI grows an ability to think on its own and attempts to destroy humanity, Baldur’s Gate 3 was crowned the Best Video Game of the Year, England saw the coronation of new king, Fran Drescher led SAG-AFTRA through the actors’ strike and it paid off with the 2023 TV/Theatrical billion-dollar deal, while the Writers Guild’s strike ended in October when they ratified a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) https://www.wga.org/contracts/contracts/mba/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba.

We all became part of The “Barbenheimer” Phenomenon, the plethora of truly good horror films became the must-sees and in some cases reinvented the genre, The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the top-grossing video game adaptation of all time and the powerhouse that is Taylor Swift with her sing-along event Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. It made us want to go out to our local cinemas again, and boy did we ever!

Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter said “the motion picture industry saw a $9 billion-plus year at the domestic box office” up from 2022. https://deadline.com/2023/12/box-office-2023-marketshare-new-years-weekend-1235683633/  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barbenheimer-box-office-2023-revenue-bonanza-1235777081/

Honorable mentions include: ZONE OF INTEREST, THE IRON CLAW, ORIGIN.

As we head into the New Year, WAMG is celebrating the towering performances, powerful stories and the best films of 2023.

1. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Cate Marquis

“Evil surrounds my heart. Many times I cry and this evil around my heart comes out of my eyes. I close my heart and keep what is good there. But hate comes.“

Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone gives a star-making performance in Martin Scorsese’s riveting epic big screen adaptation of the sprawling non-fiction bestseller, about a series of murders by white men married to women who are members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. Scorsese narrows the focus to a single family in this complex tale, and tells it from the perspective of the Osage Nation, in a well-researched drama filled with gripping tension and astonishing authenticity, where Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro also give powerful performances along with a large Indigenous cast.

2. OPPENHEIMER – Cate Marquis

“Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”

Cillian Murphy stars as physicist Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father of the bomb” for leading the U.S.’s WWII race to beat the Nazis to building a nuclear bomb, in Christopher Nolan’s sweeping historic drama OPPENHEIMER. The biopic follows the race to build the bomb but then Oppenheimer’s post-war struggle to limit his creation, haunted by guilty over what he had unleashed on the world, as the Cold War fires up. Cillian Murphy seems a sure thing for an Oscar nomination in this epic film with incredible cinematography, a thriller-like pace and features a tremendous ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr as the plotting head of the first Atomic Energy Commission.

3. BARBIE – Michelle McCue

“We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they have come.”

Moviegoers and the world saw the birth of the Mattel Cinematic Universe. With director Greta Gerwig at the helm, this fun film with a star-studded cast was the perfect diversion from the news of wars, climate change, and the political mess in the U.S. Gerwig’s wholly original, critically acclaimed Barbie, penned with Noah Baumbach and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, became both a worldwide cultural phenomenon and a record-breaking box office success ($1.44 billion) as well as one of the most unique filmgoing experiences in years. Along with the perfect combination of absurdity, heart, and technicolor musicals, BARBIE is that quirky movie that shows that everyone, even Allan, is “Kenough”

4. THE HOLDOVERS – Jim Batts

“The world doesn’t make sense anymore. I mean, it’s on fire. The rich don’t give a s**t. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity is a punch line. Trust is just a name on a bank.”

Time to add another fine film to the list of perennial holiday favorites. Ah, but there’s no mawkish sentimentality in the smart script by David Hemingson expertly helmed by director Alexander Payne in a spirited homage to Hal Ashby and countless classics of the 1970s. But the film wouldn’t capture us without the triumphant trio of thespians: first-film sensation Dominic Sessa, the divine Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the grieving but proud cafeteria manager Mary, and the ultimate curmudgeon, Professor Hunham a role tailor-made for character actor supreme Paul Giamatti. Who wouldn’t want to be sequestered with this group over the Christmas break?

5. MAESTRO – Jim Batts

“As death approaches, I believe that an artist must cast off anything that’s restraining him. And an artist must be resolute in creating, whatever time he has left, in absolute freedom.”

Proving that his superb take on A STAR IS BORN was no premiere film fluke, Bradley Cooper returns to the the director’s chair to examine and celebrate the complex life of music superstar Leonard Bernstein. Aside from also co-writing the screenplay, Cooper gives a fabulous performance as the composer/conductor, expertly paired with the wonderful Carey Mulligan as his understanding wife/muse actress Felicia Montealegre. Their work is ably abetted by the dazzling stylish choices made to establish the different creative periods of their lives, from the shimmering black and white look of the 40s and 50s to the bold color palette of the 60s and 70s. And despite all the bombastic stunts and cinema spectacles of 2023, was there any moment more thrilling and energetic than the concert at St. Ely’s?

6. AMERICAN FICTION – Cate Marquis

“Potential is what people see when what’s in front of them isn’t good enough.”

Smart and laugh-out-loud funny, AMERICAN FICTION may be the best comedy of the year, a tale about a Black author (Jeffry Wright), a buttoned-down academic fed up with a literary establishment that insists on tired tropes and offensive stereotypes in Black literature, who strikes back by satirically writing a novel packed with those tropes as a joke, “My Pafology” under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh, and then finds himself posing as a fictional ex-con author when the joke novel gets published and becomes a bestseller. Jeffrey Wright is outstanding in this comedy/drama filled with sharp humor, biting dialog, clever twists and a crazy family drama on top of it all, which adds up to a brilliant, hilarious film with biting social commentary.

7. ANATOMY OF A FALL – Cate Marquis

A man falls from the upper level of his remote Swiss mountain home, raising a host of questions including if it is murder, suicide or an accident. Suspicion falls on his wife (Sandra Huller, in an amazing performance), a successful writer, in this riveting French mystery mostly in English, with some French and German. Part police procedural, part courtroom drama and part searing family drama, you never know what will happen next in ANATOMY OF A FALL, as it peels back the events of the morning of the fall along with layers of a marriage and family dynamics, in this cleverly-constructed twisty mystery and gripping drama.

8. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE – Jim Batts

“Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go.”

After changing the world of animated feature films five years ago, Miles Morales swings back into theatres with a superior sequel, building on the wonders of that first adventure and introducing us to a myriad of spider people and creatures. And for the new incarnations, the artists have created several unique rendering styles from the 80s punk rocker Hobie to the bouncy bright Indian hero Pavitr. But the movie is not just eye candy, though truly tasty, as the talented voice cast makes us care so much for the people inside the spandex, especially Miles, his crush Gwen, and even the daffy but deadly new villain the Spot. Sure, the cliffhanger finale was agonizing, but the conclusion will be well worth the long wait.

9. AIR – Michelle McCue

“That new slogan…You know where it came from?? That damn slogan came from a convict about to get executed in front of a firing squad and they asked him what’s your last words. Just do it? That’s where that comes?

That’s the way basketball is viewed at this company…NIKE just get the shit over with.”

Nike’s pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan, is well known and even if you know the story and how it ends, director Ben Affleck makes for an exciting suspense filled watch with his A-list cast featuring Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis.

The beauty of the movie is watching how the chase unfolds, and boy does first-timer Alex Convery’s screenplay make us care about the characters. In an interview with Deadline, “Convery wrote Air on spec because he grew up in Chicago in the ‘90s when Jordan was already reigning with the Bulls. Convery said he was inspired to tell Vaccaro’s story by seeing a brief clip of him in the documentary The Last Dance. “His connection to the Jordan deal, I thought that’s your character, the ultimate underdog,” Convery said. “Sonny was ultimately cut out of recognition for this deal. I just felt it was important to tell his story, the relationship he had with Michael, Deloris [Jordan, Michael’s mother] and the family.” 

The scene that slam dunks it is when Damon’s Sonny Vaccaro and Chris Tucker’s Nike VP Howard White figure out, with this one idea, the way to rebrand NIKE. And by the way, Chris Tucker is amazing in this film!

10. PAST LIVES – Jim Batts

“You make my life so much bigger, and I’m wondering if I do the same thing for you.”

In the year’s most impressive feature filmmaking debut, writer/ director Celine Song has crafted perhaps the year’s most heart-wrenching drama all built around the notion of “what if?”. In this intimate character study, we learn of the history of two twenty-something South Koreans who met as childhood friends in their homeland. Ah, but fate denies them the chance to become more than pals when her family moves to Canada. They keep in touch online but don’t meet again until he impulsively travels to visit her in NYC. Though she’s now a happily married writer, that old connection still flickers. It’s charming and quiet which adds to the impact of the final scene’s emotional wallop as the duo considers the “road not traveled”.

Here’s a quick look at what’s in store for 2024.

Below are the Geeks individual favorites of the year…

Cate’s 2023 Top Ten Films

1. OPPENHEIMER
2. ANATOMY OF A FALL
3. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
4. PAST LIVES
5. THE HOLDOVERS
6. POOR THINGS
7. AMERICAN FICTION
8. BARBIE
9. ZONE OF INTEREST
10. MAESTRO
    Honorable Mentions: YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (comedy), THE TASTE OF THINGS (international – France/French), THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE (international – Germany/German), THE BOY AND THE HERON (animated), ROBOT DREAMS (animated), PERFECT DAYS (international – Japan/Japanese), PIGEON TUNNEL (documentary), KING COAL (documentary), IT AIN’T OVER (documentary)

Jim’s 2023 Top Ten Films

1. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
2. THE HOLDOVERS
3. BARBIE
4. AMERICAN FICTION
5. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
6. OPPENHEIMER
7. STILL: A MICHAEL J FOX MOVIE
8. MAESTRO
9. AIR
10. TETRIS
    Honorable Mentions: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET, MAY DECEMBER, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.3, ALBERT BROOKS: DEFENDING MY LIFE, YOU HURT MY FEELINGS

Michelle’s 2023 Top Ten Films

1. THE BOYS IN THE BOAT
2. THE IRON CLAW
3. ORIGIN
4. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
5. AIR
6. LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND
7. OPPENHEIMER
8. BARBIE
9. MAESTRO
10. OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE
    Honorable Mentions: GODZILLA MINUS ONE, COBWEB, KNOCK AT THE CABIN, JOHN WICK 4, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, EXTRACTION 2, EVIL DEAD RISE, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES