There is a difference between “favourite” and “best” movie. For me, the former indicates some form of emotional or psychological attachment to something, while “best” attempts to separate those emotions from objectivity. When discussing movies, objectivity is virtually impossible, but it’s at least an attempt to get away from what is familiar to enjoy something that is not.
If I could put it in sports terms, as a hockey fan, it’s like this: the Montreal Canadiens are my favourite team because I followed them as a kid, have continued to follow them into adulthood, and root for them regardless if they’re good or bad. However, they’re not the best team, nor even the team I enjoy watching most right now, given how bad they are. Does that make sense? I hope so.
To start with, we have a couple repeats with Killers of the Flower Moon and May December. Not only did I personally love those movies, but the critical reception was raucous, and they are likely going to have multiple Oscar nominations whether for Best Picture, Best Director, Leading/Supporting Actor and Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, or whatever else. They were discussed in the first post of favourite movies from 2023, so we’ll leave it at that. Let’s talk about some of the best movies of the year.
*Note: There are some movies I still haven’t had a chance to see – American Fiction, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest – that may make it on here eventually. I injured my back and can’t get to a theatre but these are all highly-acclaimed recent releases.
Across The Spider-Verse
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry
In a year with many bad superhero movies and television offerings, one bright light was the second Spider-Verse entry. Focusing mostly on Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, it expands the array of Spider-Verse characters to include some memorable alternate Spider-People, including the true star of the movie in Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk. Earning nearly $700M worldwide, along with critical acclaim, it was truly one of the standouts of the year in most ways, superhero movie or not.
One of the strong points of the movie is the animation. There are several styles of animation used seamlessly in the movie and while I am the furthest thing from an animation expert, they made each character and location feel special. Whether combining Mumbai with Manhattan, varying the colours in Gwen Stacy’s world based on mood, the chaotic style of Spider-Punk, or simple Lego animation, it all blended together for a fantastic movie-going experience.
There is great character progression from Miles who goes from a young kid in the first Spider-Verse movie to a more mature (though still a kid) teenager in this one. That maturation is reflected in his tone, his actions, and his motivations. Those are the things missing from a lot of live-action superhero cinema/television of late.
Though not one of my personal favourites of the year, it was undoubtedly a massive achievement, animated or not. It will be interesting to see if it garners anything at the Oscars outside of its animation accomplishments.
Asteroid City
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson
The one thing that can be a drawback from some Wes Anderson movies is just trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. Subsequently, that is also what often makes them great; once the formula is derived, what ensues is among the best cinematic experiences anyone can ask for.
Asteroid City is much in this vein. It is a movie about a documentary about a play about a fictional city. Got that? Great. To quickly summarize: a group of people are invited to a desert town called Asteroid City for a youth astronomy convention. And then aliens arrive. And then quarantines start. But this movie is not about astronomy, or aliens, or a fictional town, or anything like that. It is about how lonely people navigate the world and try to find order in moments of absurdity, like when aliens arrive, or sadness, like when family members die. (It is about more than that but it’s how I read the movie.)
On a screen, the movie is beautiful to look at. The pastel colours that were prominent in the 1950s are what bring the movie sets to life, and it truly feels as if we’re watching a colour movie from 70 years ago, but with the technology of today.
Johansson and Schwartzman both give phenomenal performances, Anderson is in his bag with the way the movie is shot and looks, but the dialogue (along with what is left unsaid) carry this incredible piece of art from the beginning.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Starring: Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage
Had it not been for the recent release of May December, this probably would have ended up on my Five Favourites of 2023 list. Either way, this was one of the best movies of 2023.
In comparison to Asteroid City, this movie has an easy premise to figure out – it’s right in the title. Though not a true guide like The Anarchists Cookbook, it follows a group of young adults trying to figure out how to blow up a pipeline.
Sometimes, simplicity is what is most effective. There is a scene where the group, intent on blowing up an oil pipeline in Texas, runs into problems. They are trying to fix a barrel of explosives to the pipeline itself and it ends up one of the most harrowing scenes of the year. It truly is nothing more than a group of college-aged people trying to tie a barrel to a pipe that is 4-5 feet off the ground, and it is excruciating to watch.
Of course, this movie isn’t really about blowing up a pipeline, even if its most iconic scene is doing exactly that. It is about the anxiety the youth (and many older people) feel about the impacts of man-made climate change. It is about what people are willing (or not willing) to do about it. It is also about the legacy that is left behind when acts of violence/terrorism are committed in the name of the greater good, especially for a problem that isn’t necessarily immediate, like death squads roaming Warsaw in 1941.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline isn’t a fun movie, but it is a great movie, and it’s one of the best of the year.
Barbie
Director: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling
At the risk of sounding far too normal, sometimes you just have to give it up for the smash hit. While not all of Barbie works well – the stuff with Will Ferrell and Mattel could have been left out – what does work well is extremely good. There is a tremendous amount of both humour (I see Matchbox Twenty in a completely different light now) and heart as America Ferrera (as Gloria) gives a performance worth of an Oscar nomination.
Sometimes, subtext works best, but sometimes you want to flash that shit on Main Street, and Gerwig did exactly that with Barbie. The themes of masculine dominance, the unique problems women face, and of men defining themselves by the women they attract are all right on the surface. Even Gloria’s speech of the fine lines women have to walk in the modern world (and any world, really) is loud and obvious in a good way. It reminded me of what Lana Wachowski did with the most recent Matrix instalment.
All of this doesn’t work unless the dialogue is razor-sharp, which it is, and the performances are outstanding, which they are. The sets look incredible, Robbie and Gosling are beyond magnetic, and the script is outstanding. If they aren’t forced to include the stuff about the Mattel corporation – which was almost assuredly part of the deal of getting to make this movie – it’s probably on my favourites list, too.
Oppenheimer
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh
The other half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon is going to have a long list of nominations come Oscar season. From the very opening where Oppenheimer thinks about poisoning his professor right through the end of the Trinity test, it’s expert filmmaking. It looks beautiful on screen, Murphy is outstanding as the titular character, and the first two acts of the movie are near-unimpeachable. I know there were detractors about the sex scenes, but my view is that was very intentional because this was not a man whose focus was on the beautiful woman in front of him.
The movie falls apart a bit for me in the third act when the courtroom/meeting room scenes are abundant. Perhaps on rewatch it will improve, but that’s where the biopic-ness of this biopic was glaring. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s story can’t be told without it, but it just seemed to be part of a different movie. Even still, the performances within those scenes were still so good that it made them engrossing, and Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy are a big reason why.
Even with a third act that didn’t work as well for me, personally, this movie was acclaimed for everything from its sets/locations, to its performances, to its cinematography. And, let’s not forget they denotated a simulated atomic bomb for this thing. They built a real bomb! That alone makes up for any shortcomings. It may not be the absolute best movie of the year, but it’s absolutely one that will be discussed for decades to come.
Cliffy's hell-hole 