During the pandemic, content was scarce. Films were few and far between and streaming became the preferred method.
But I have to say — getting back into movie theatres in full-force during 2023 and enjoying so much cinema the way it was meant to be seen was exhilarating.
Whether I saw them at home or went to the cinema, here are my favourites from the year.
Dream Scenario
Love him or hate him, Nicolas Cage has created a portfolio of classics that is unmatched in his storied four-decade career.
He won his only Oscar for 1995's Leaving Las Vegas, and I'd be hard-pressed to find another Cage performance as layered and memorable as his in Dream Scenario since.
It follows Paul, an awkward college professor who has his life upended when – in an unexplained phenomenon – he begins to appear in the dreams of people all around the world.
He becomes an overnight celebrity, but when the dreams turn into nightmares, the fear he strikes into people threatens to ruin his life
Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli makes a film reminiscent of cerebral classics like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and he succeeds mightily.
Cage gives career-best work, and he quite literally carries this genre-blending delight. It's not for everyone, but those who enjoy it will be absolutely enthralled.
The Color Purple
I'm a sucker for a big, bombastic musical, and The Color Purple is the kind of movie that will stick with you for a decade.
A bold re-imagining of Stephen Spielberg's 1980s classic, it follows Celie, a woman who struggles her entire life, and the love, friendships, and bravery that get her through it.
Sold to an older, predatory, and cruel man named Mister when she's just a teen, Celie spends her days taking his abuse and raising his children, longing to be reconnected to the sister her husband cast off decades prior.
She finds companionship in her husband Mister's object of affection Shug and in Sofia, the on-again, off-again partner to her step-son. All the while she longs for a better life, and tries to find the strength to fight back against her oppressors.
The cast includes American Idol star Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson. Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, Halle Bailey, and Ciara. They are fabulous together and make an excellent ensemble, with Henson and Brooks assured to duke it out for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar this year.
It's powerful, a huge tear-jerker, and director Blitz Bazawule makes a crowd-pleaser with this gorgeous effort.
Saltburn
This is undoubtedly that most disturbing, grotesque film of the year, and I'd be full-out lying if I didn't say I unequivocally loved it.
Writer-director Emerald Fennell made it big during the pandemic with Promising Young Woman, a film that marks one of my top-five of the 2000s. While her follow-up doesn't hit those heights, you won't see anything like it this year.
It follows Oliver Quick, an Oxford student with a difficult upbringing and significantly less fortune than his classmates. He makes friends with the influential, handsome Felix, and the tides turn.
However, friendship soon turns to obsession when Oliver spends a summer at Felix's family homestead Saltburn, and disaster looms.
Both Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike earned Golden Globe nods for this engrossing satire, and they're joined by rising star Jacob Elordi. Richard E. Grant also turns in a stunning performance as the patriarch of the family, and Carey Mulligan has a small-but-memorable role.
It's a movie that many may find too over-the-top, but it's making huge waves right now, and I see exactly why.
Oppenheimer
There is no comparison – Oppenheimer is the most visually-stunning film of the year by a long-shot. It is director Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, and rightfully so.
What Oppenheimer also boasts is one of the strongest ensembles of the year, and a beating heart that makes it a difficult meditation on grief and destruction.
It's the story of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was one of the driving forces behind the atomic bomb. One of the reasons I love this film is it portrays Oppenheimer fully – Both the good and the bad of the man's character.
Cillian Murphy is Oscar-worthy in the title role, and Emily Blunt is sure to be nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as his wife. I also wouldn't be surprised if Robert Downey Jr. Snagged the gold for his role here.
They're joined by Matt Damon, Alden Ehrenreich, Scott Grimes, Jason Clarke, Tony Goldwyn, Kenneth Branagh, Florence Pugh, and Josh Hartnett.
It's a long one – at just over three hours – but I found myself stunned by everything Nolan put on-screen. This is a film that will be considered a masterpiece for years to come.
Killers Of The Flower Moon
It's saying something that this is neither the best work of director Martin Scorsese or stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, but it still makes my top five this year.
It may not go down as a classic like Taxi Driver or Goodfellas, but Killers Of The Flower Moon is a great departure from the classic Scorsese gangster pictures.
When oil is discovered on Native American land in 1920s Oklahoma, the Osage Nation become wealthy, while still being stewards for their homesteads. White oil men begin marrying Osage women, hoping to become the beneficiaries of their wealth when they pass.
But Ernest and his uncle William Hale take it one more step, as the former falls in love with Mollie Burkhart, who comes from a wealthy Osage family. They begin systematically killing off her family for land rights, but Ernest soon has a crisis of conscience.
DiCaprio and De Niro are characteristically fantastic, but it's Lily Gladstone who deserves the most praise here. She is unbelievable in every way. Joined by Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, and Cara Jade Myers, everyone is fantastic.
The only major issue with this one is that at nearly three-and-a-half hours, it could've used about a half hour of cuts. Otherwise, it's a pretty monumental achievement.
Past Lives
This one is – far and above – the best romantic drama of the year. I was lost in the story within ten minutes, and it held onto me the entire runtime.
It follows childhood best friends Nora and Hae Sung, who are pulled apart when Nora's parents emigrate from South Korea. Two decades later, they meet again when Hae Sung visits her city for the week. But their feelings are stronger then they both imagined.
Writer-director Celine Song makes the best debut film of the year, and infuses it with so much emotional resonance that you'll end up fully invested in these characters.
Greta Lee is amazing as Nora, who is already married when Hae Sung re-enters her life. She's faced with a difficult decision that could upend her entire life.
Teo Yoo is the vulnerable heart as Hae Sung, and unlike most love-triangle dramas, John Magaro is quiet and sensitive as a husband to Nora who just wants her to get closure, one way or another.
I adore this movie, and it's one I could watch again immediately. It's going to be a timeless classic, and one people will unearth for generations.
May December
This movie was incredible, and I had no idea just how enveloped I'd become in this one. It's inspired by true events, though the characters here are fictional.
Gracie and Joe have been a couple 20 years, but there's just one problem. Gracie was Joe's employer, and was caught sleeping with him when he was a young boy. She went to prison, and had their child behind bars.
Despite this, Joe has maintained he loves Gracie, and they've built a life, family and home together. But when actress Elizabeth lands a role as Gracie in a new film, she comes around to get to know the family and research for the role. But not all is as good as it seems, and cracks soon start to show in the veneer.
Natalie Portman is unbelievable, and Julianne Moore is characteristically fabulous. But it's young Charles Melton, best-known for Riverdale, who gives a performance as Joe that buoys this film to greatness.
Director Todd Haynes has had hits before with Far From Heaven and Carol, but this one hit differently, in the best possible way.
The Iron Claw
This is going to go down as the most underrated film of 2023, and that's an absolute shame. The Iron Claw deserves Oscar love, and I'm incensed it's not gotten much from the pre-cursor awards lists.
That said, the National Board Of Review named it Best Ensemble and one of the Top Films of the year, and they're right. This flick about the Von Erich family and their wrestling dynasty is dynamite.
Based on the true story, the Von Erich brothers and their father were competitive wrestlers in the 1980s who believed there was a curse on their family, responsible for the tragedies that befell them.
Writer-director Sean Durkin impressed with The Nest a few years ago, but he strikes gold with The Iron Claw.
Zac Efron, Jeremy Alen White, Harris Dickinson, and Stanley Simons are uniformly great as the brothers, but the emotional heft comes from Maura Tierney and Holt McCallany as the parents who pray God and wrestling can save their family.
McCallanny himself would net an Oscar nomination in any other year, but it's a strong field in 2023. Regardless, seek this one out. You won't be disappointed.
The Holdovers
Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne made magic together with Sideways in 2004, and I've been waiting for a reunion ever since.
With The Holdovers I got exactly what I was looking for, and this is one of the funniest, most endearing films of the year.
It follows Paul, a history teacher at a private school who feels like he never quite achieved everything he could have. As a result, he takes out his insecurities on his students, rarely providing them a break or any occasion for joy.
He's voluntold to remain on campus over Christmas break and take care of the students who have nowhere to go for the holidays, but in doing so becomes closer with his own brilliant-but-troubled student Angus.
Payne makes his best film since Sideways, and Giamatti looks to be in line for his second Oscar nomination. Add a grounding performance from Da'Vine Joy Randolph and a wonderful debut credit from Dominic Sessa, and this trio carry a delightful comedy-drama.
This is a Christmas-season film you'd do well to seek out as soon as possible.
Maestro
Bradley Cooper has a tour-de-force trio here as writer, director, and star of Maestro, a film chronicling the complicated pairing of actress Felicia Montealagre Cohn Bernstein and Leonard Bernstein.
Conductor Bernstein is famed and adored the world over, but what I loved about Maestro is that is shows just how difficult a man he could be.
For all his on-stage prowess, charm, and swagger, he was also deeply selfish, and his bisexuality and infidelities are persistent.
This is a story of love against all odds, but also, the sacrifices we have to sometimes make for those we cherish.
A testament to the difficulties that come with sharing one's sexuality – and the expectation of how your life should be when you're top of your field – it also looks at how the two supported each other.
Bradley Cooper is fantastic, but I'm certain Carey Mulligan gives the female performance of the year. With Matt Bomer, Michael Urie, and more, it's also a lovely ensemble.
This is a fantastic, complicated movie with a beautiful score and a style all its own, and Cooper and Mulligan shine.
Barbie
This is one of the most polarizing films of the year, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say that people need to truly get over themselves.
Both an iconic feminist film and a raucous comedy, Barbie is one of the smartest movies of 2023, and truly has something to say.
Barbie begins to question her world, her existence, and everything that's been laid out for her. There's a set plan as to what a woman should do and can do with her life, but Barbie feels differently.
She and Ken live in Barbieland, a place dominated by the women – a group of different Barbies with different skillsets – and the Kens are only truly content when they're with Barbie.
But when her carefree world is threatened by thoughts of death, Barbie begins to worry about all the things women in the real world think about. She goes to earth with Ken to cure her troubles, but soon finds that so many of the things women deal with on earth – including a patriarchal society – are much to her chagrin.
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are wonderful, and joined by Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Alexandra Shipp, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, and more.
This is a wonderful, bright film with a wonderful score, great visuals, and plenty to say. I absolutely adored it.
Honourable Mentions I Loved:
- A Thousand & One
- Air
- Anatomy Of A Fall
- Bottoms
- Butcher’s Crossing
- Fair Play
- Infinity Pool
- John Wick 4
- Leave The World Behind
- No One Will Save You
- Of An Age
- Passages
- Red, White & Royal Blue
- Rustin
- Scream VI
- Sharper
- Sisu
- Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
- Thanksgiving
- The Boy and the Heron
- The Creator
- The Royal Hotel
- You Hurt My Feelings
Prominent Movies I Missed This Year:
- All Of Us Strangers
- American Fiction
- Cobweb
- The Covenant
- Ferrari
- Godzilla Minus One
- Memory
- Napoleon
- Nimona
- Origin
- Poor Things
- When Evil Lurks
- Wonka
- Zone Of Interest
About The Author:
Jordan Parker is a freelance journalist and runs entertainment firm Parker PR. A huge lover and supporter of the local arts scene, he’s an avid filmgoer and lover of all genres.
A 2SLGBTQIA+ professional, he also works doing Events & Fundraising for the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia and has a passion for giving a platform to queer events and artists.
His writing often skews toward local businesses, productions, events, and covering arts & entertainment. He’s also an avid sports fan and spends every May getting let down by the Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs.
Jordan believes in an open-door policy and welcomes story pitches and questions from readers.
Email: [email protected]
