By Dan Skip Allen

20023 has been a great year for film. It is coming off of a few leaner years during the Covid 19 epidemic. Even though there were a couple strikes this year, writers and acators. That didn’t hurt most of the films coming out on time and in a timely manner in which I was able to see them. I loved quite a few films from big name directors like Alexander Payne and Christopher Nolan, to foreign films and documentaries. My Top Ten and HMs are a diverse group of films that represent all of my favorite genres and various styles. This year made me proud to be the Film Critic I am and keep striving to be going forward.

Honorable Mentions:

28:Migration, 27:Wonka, 26:Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 25:Barbie, 24:Killers of the Flower Moon, 23: Still: A Michael J Fox Story, 22:Memory, 21:Taste of Things, 20:Origin, 19:May December, 18:Lakota vs the United States, 17:John Wick 4, 16:Guy Richie’s The Covenant,  15:The Pigeon Tunnel,  14:20 Days In Mariupol,  13:The Color Purple, 12:The Zone of Interest, 11:Air

10:Monster

Release date: November 22, 2023 (USA)

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Box office: 1.4 million USD

Distributed by: Toho Co., Ltd., Gaga Corporation

Cinematography: Ryuto Kondo

Music by: Ryuichi Sakamoto

A mother demands answers from a teacher when her son begins acting strangely.

This film moved me in a way I wasn’t sure I could be moved. It showed different sides of a story that gave pause. Every story has multiple sides and this movie showed that. T was very powerful in my mind. The direction was exceptional by Hirokazu Koreada. This is a film everybody should see. It’ll give a whole new outlook on he said/she said scenarios. 

8.1/10 IMDB 97% Rotten Tomatoes

9:Past Lives

Release date: June 2, 2023 (USA)

Director: Celine Song

Distributed by: A24

Budget: $12 million

Cinematography: Shabier Kirchner

Languages: English; Korean

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Decades later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront destiny, love and the choices that make a life.

This film is one of the best I’ve seen that deals with friendship, and losing touch with someone but then catching up with them again. The friendship between the two main characters played by Grea Lee and Teo Yoo are so genuine and authentic. Celine Song the writer/director gave this story a realistic approach. I still can’t stop thinking about it today. It has a great script and acting across the board.

8/10 IMDB 97% Rotten Tomatoes

8:Anatomy Of a Fall

Release date: August 23, 2023 (France)

Director: Justine Triet

Languages: French, English, German

Distributed by: Le Pacte

Box office: US$18.5 million

Cinematography: Simon Beaufils

A woman is suspected of her husband’s murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.

This movie has a story to it that might be familiar but the execution of it is what makes it so good. There is an incident of a man falling to his death and a subsequent court trial to determine whose fault it was. The courtroom scenes were incredible. They were filled with great dialogue and plenty of dramatic scenes. Sandra Huller and Milo Machado Geaner were both excellent in their respective roles. This is one of the best films of the year.

7.9/10 IMDB 96% Rotten Tomatoes

7:Beyond Utopia

Release date: October 23, 2023 (USA)

Director: Madeleine Gavin

Producers: Jana Edelbaum, Sue Mi Terry, Rachel Cohen

Cast: Douglas MacArthur, So-yeon Lee, Jong-Nam Kim, Pastor Seungeun Kim, Sung-eun Kim, More

Box office: 28,194 USD

Distributed by: Fathom Events, Roadside Attractions

Music by: Adam Taylor; Taylor Page

Combining interviews with secretly shot footage, the filmmaker focuses on the difficulties facing North Korean defectors, revealing a way of life unknown to most of the world.

This film is a documentary that depicts men and women trying to escape North Korea into South Korea. The journey is arduous and is filled with dramatic moments. Some people make it and others don’t. The talking heads describe their involvement in the various escape attempts and what it’s like in North Korea a communist country. Archival footage and first-person accounts of the journey are depicted in the documentary.  It’s the best documentary of the year from my perspective. 

7.8/10 IMDB 100% Rotten Tomatoes

6:Perfect Days

Release date: November 10, 2023 (USA)

Director: Wim Wenders

Cinematography: Franz Lustig

Language: Japanese

Production companies: Master Mind Limited; Spoon Inc. Wenders Images

A janitor in Japan drives between jobs listening to rock music.

This film depicts the everyday life of a man whose daily routine includes going around Tokyo, Japan to clean all the public bathrooms. He listens to various music on the road while he’s driving and has a similar routine every day of his life. Which includes places he goes to do his laundry, eat and drink. This is a masterpiece by Wim Wanders anchored by a phenomenal performance from Koji Fukasha.  I loved this film so much.

5:Maestro

Initial release: September 2, 2023

Director: Bradley Cooper

Producers: Bradley Cooper, Martin Scorsese, Todd Phillips, Steven Spielberg, Amy Durning, More

Distributed by: Netflix

Box office: $3,291

Cinematography: Matthew Libatique

American conductor Leonard Bernstein falls in love with Costa Rican actress Felicia Montealegre.

Maestro is directed by and stars Bradley Cooper in the performance of his career. He embodies this man who was a musical genius. Bernard Herman’s music has endured for years. Carey Mulligan as the wife of Cooper’s character was terrific as well. The cinematography was some of the best I’ve seen all year. This is a fantastic biopic that gets to the meat and potatoes of who these people were. The music all the way around was fantastic as well.

7.2/10 IMDB 82% Rotten Tomatoes

4:American Fiction

Initial release: September 8, 2023

Director: Cord Jefferson

Story by: Percival Everett

Distributed by: Amazon MGM Studios

Based on: Erasure; by Percival Everett

Edited by: Hilda Rasula

Monk is a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

This movie was one of the funniest I’ve seen this year. It’s self-referential in terms of how Black people are perceived by other Black people. Jeffrey Wright has never been better as an author who has trouble reaching an audience. Sterling K Brown is hilarious as the gay brother of Wright’s character. Cord Jefferson has made a film that is similar to a Tyler Perry film if Tyler Perry’s film were this good. The ending was perfect and this is one of the best films of the year.

7.8/10 IMDB 92% Rotten Tomatoes

3:Poor Things

Release date: December 8, 2023 (USA)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Distributed by: Searchlight Pictures

Based on: Poor Things; by Alasdair Gray

Budget: $35 million

Cinematography: Robbie Ryan

Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

Yorgos Lanthimos is an auteur director who does some strange things with his films but they seem to resonate with audiences because they are so funny. This one has a vibe of The Bride of Frankenstein with a sexual twist to it. Emma Stone plays the main character who is going through said enlightening. She gives a strangely weird performance but a great one. She goes to a level I have never seen her go to before. Besides her Mark Ruffalo,  Willem Dafoe and Rami Youssef are all very good in their roles. The technical aspects of the movie are incredible, such as the production design,  costumes makeup, and hairstyling.  This isn’t going to be for everybody but I loved every minute of it.

8.5/10 IMDB 97% Rotten Tomatoes

2:The Holdovers

Initial release: August 31, 2023

Director: Alexander Payne

Box office: 15.1 million USD

Screenplay: David Hemingson

Distributed by: Focus Features

Cinematography: Eigil Bryld

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.

This movie is a period piece set in 1970 New England at a boarding school. A curmudgeon of a teacher played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti is left at Christmas break with a few students who can’t go home. One student in particular is played by Dominik Sessa and he has a love-hate relationship. Throw in a lonely cafeteria worker played by Da’vine Joy Randolph and you have a motley crew. These three bond with each other during this time. I loved the aesthetic and the vibe of the film. Alexander Payne works again with Giamatti and they have made another great grounded film. 

8.1/10 IMDB 96 % Rotten Tomatoes

1:Oppenheimer

Release date: July 21, 2023 (USA)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Budget: 100 million USD

Box office: 952.6 million USD

Music composed by: Ludwig Göransson

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.

Christopher Nolan has made some of my favorite films in the last twenty years or so. That being said, this is the best film of his career. This story was ripe for the picking. The performances by Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey JrMatt Damon, Alden Ehrenreich,  Emily Blunt, and many more were fantastic. The cinematography by Hoyt Van Hoytama is brilliant. The opposing storylines that intersect are written phenomenally.  This story is just as prevalent today as it was when it was going on. How the world perceives these kinds of weapons is intrinsic in the film and tells how this weapon was meticulously made. That gave the film more weight as it were. Nolan has created his magnum opus and he deserves all the praise he can get. This is by far the best movie of the year and my personal favorite. I’ve watched it many times and It never gets old. That’s a key to how great a film truly is. This film is great!

8.4/10 IMDB 93% Rotten Tomatoes

Dan Skip Allen