Tag Archives: 2023toptenmovies

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Song of the Day #5,725: ‘Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying’ – Labi Siffre

Concluding my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#1. The Holdovers

This year’s top ten was one of the hardest I’ve had to compile. Not only did I have a dozen or so films vying for the final list, but I had a hell of a time figuring out what should go where. I considered at least five different titles for the top spot, never feeling quite right about any of them.

Then I rewatched Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and realized I had my answer. I loved it already, but the second time through it was funnier, sadder, warmer, and wiser. I realized that not only is it my favorite movie of last year, but it’s a movie I’ll be seeking out repeatedly for years to come.

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Song of the Day #5,724: ‘Birds of a Feather’ – Paul Revere & The Raiders

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#2. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.

As a father of two young women, I have long found that coming-of-age films about girls are my cinematic kryptonite. Whether it’s Lady Bird or CODA, The Florida Project or Moana, my year-end best-of lists are littered with movies about daughters.

Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig is already responsible for one such movie. Her 2016 The Edge of Seventeen is one of the sharpest teen comedies I’ve seen, and a showcase for the great Hailee Steinfeld (who also starred in another of my favorite movies in this genre, True Grit).

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Song of the Day #5,723: ‘Annihilate’ – Metro Boomin x Swae Lee x Lil Wayne x Offset

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

I enjoyed 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse but didn’t fall head over heels for it the way so many others did. It took this sequel, five years in the making, to fully indoctrinate me into this incarnation of Miles Morales. But I’m all in now, baby.

To an even larger extent than its ground-breaking predecessor, this movie expands the landscape of animated filmmaking, exuding artistry and unbridled imagination in every frame. The film feels like a comic book come to life in four dimensions — I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

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Song of the Day #5,722: ‘You Can’t Wake Up if You Don’t Fall Asleep’ – Jarvis Cocker

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#4. Asteroid City

Last year saw an interesting trend of films serving as a metaphor for their directors’ careers. Michael Mann’s Ferrari depicted a man relying on corporate funding to execute his vision with the help of a dedicated team that he drives a bit too hard. David Fincher’s The Killer portrayed a ruthless perfectionist tireless in his pursuit of each objective — a fitting topic for a director known for shooting hundreds of takes of even the simplest scenes.

Even Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been read as a metaphor for regrets over the superhero era ushered in by the director’s Dark Knight trilogy — not exactly the atomic bomb, but a pretty seismic and destructive cultural event.

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Song of the Day #5,721: ‘PIMP’ – Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#5. Anatomy of a Fall

Writer/director Justine Triet’s legal drama is the only movie on this list I’ve seen just once. It’s quite possible a second viewing will move it even higher.

This is a gripping courtroom thriller in which the guilt or innocence of the lead character is entirely beside the point. Did Sandra Huller’s Sandra, a successful novelist, push her husband off of their second floor balcony, or did he jump? Or was his falling death simply an accident?

Lawyers on both sides spend much of the runtime trying to make an argument one way or the other, but Triet is more interested in dissecting the dissection itself.

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