by Don Hall

Truly, 2023 was an interesting and fertile year for film. Coming off of the year and a half of pandemic shutdown and the intense scrutiny producers of movies endured, it’s remarkable that it wasn’t a year of movies with one character in one location with a lot of green screen work. I saw a lot of fim this year (in no small part because going to the theater is a staple for my mom and I) and there were definitely some dogs. I knew that The Flash was probably going to blow but the promise of Michael Keaton reprising Batman was just too much temptation, so I grabbed a ticket. It was a slog and even Keaton couldn’t save it. That’s gonna happen once in a while. You take your lumps and check out the next, yeah?

With so much being premiered on streaming platforms, it’s now possible to catch something brand new on a small screen. Sometimes this is great and when the film is more intimate, losing the experience of a theater is hardly noticeable. Others (like Top Gun: Maverick) practically require a movie theater to truly provide the intended show.

I wonder if the ease of grabbing the remote or punching an app to watch cinema has robbed us of something essential. As a kid, I remember the joy of going to the drive-in and, even with all of the headaches of that experience—the clunky metal speaker boxes that hung on the window, the sounds of people in cars around us, the bugs—it was an event. I suppose certain films now demand that sort of labor to appropriately enjoy. I can’t imagine seeing a Mission Impossible for the first time on a television or computer.

In assessing my favorites for the year, I look at my initial reaction, how long the film sits with me, and whether or not I want to see it repeatedly after.

Maestro (dir. Bradley Cooper)

Bradley Cooper is a fine actor but with his Netflix take on a picture book snapshot biopic, he is clearly an excellent director. His eye for shot composition and where we sit when things are ongoing in a story about the ascendance and life of Leonard Bernstein is a marvel. Centered on his marriage to Felicia Montealegre and her early acceptance of his bisexual dalliances, I wondered how the story changes if he’s a heterosexual philanderer and I don’t think we’d accept his behavior with such forgiveness.

As a director, Cooper pulls off his greatest feat in casting Carey Mulligan as Montealegre. Her performance is extraordinary, transfixing, and masterful. A lot of her work is done in close up and the many emotions and thoughts she conveys without saying a word is almost otherworldly.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)

It’s rare to enjoy a spy romp so much that you go back and watch the first six movies leading up to it to fully invest, but that’s what I did. Tom Cruise brings back Ethan Hunt and, not only is this a phenomenal example of sequencing mini-stories within a grander tale, practical stunts that are often breathtaking, and the presence of Haley Atwell, it is also an example of seven movies consistently telling a greater arc about a man who lost his family in the first twenty minutes of the first film and rebuilding it over years of filming.

When the final(?) installment hits theaters, I’ll watch all seven in preparation because that’s just how good these movies are.

Reality (dir. Tina Satter)

“A lot of people think I’m just a dumb blonde with big tits. I’m actually a brunette.” Sydney Sweeney joked on a Tik Tok and the simple take is that she is an actor employed for her incredible looks rather than skill. Tina Satter’s Reality puts that trope to rest as Sweeney is superb as Reality Winner (real name) and the script is based on the FBI interrogation transcript when it is discovered Ms. Winner leaked American intelligence to the Russians.

Sweeney is amazing, subtle, focused and the script is intense. Smart and political without being a lecture. Loved it.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (dir. James Gunn)

Another movie I had to see on the big screen. I’m a fan of the first couple of phases in the MCU and the best trilogy in all of it is without question the Guardians triple. Maybe not best of them but Gunn’s culmination of the team and his focus on Rocket Raccoon’s backstory is the obvious and right way to go.

I laughed. I cried. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and will revisit the trilogy often.

The Killer (dir. David Fincher)

Released on Netflix, I was so filled with anticipation, it was comical. I love Fincher’s filmmaking. Fight Club, Se7en, Gone Girl, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mank, The Social Network, and Zodiac are among my favorite movies of all time. Here he gives us Michael Fassbender as a contract killer on a mission of revenge. The scene with Tilda Swinton is a masterclass of filmmaking, acting, and writing. Great, great, great film.

May December (dir. Todd Haynes)

Todd Haynes makes dark, uncomfortable movies about dark, conflicted people. It is thus no surprise that he decided to take the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a married seventh grade teacher who had an affair with one of her students, was sent to prison, married her former student, and had a baby with him in prison. Moreover, Haynes has us join she and her child husband years later as a television actress (Natalie Portman) is researching her (Julianne Moore) to portray her in a movie.

First, aside from Closer (Portman) and Magnolia (Moore) this film is the best either actor has been in performance-wise. Both are so incredibly subtle and focused that there are certain line readings that catch you off guard and startle you into a deeper examination of the inexplicable and the artist’s desire to explain that which we simply cannot understand. Second, the supporting performance by Charles Melton is equally engaging and a little bit heart wrenching.

Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (dir. Austin and Meredith Bragg)

Perhaps not the most accomplished movie on this list, it is the most surprising and the one that left me—a man with every romantic tendency lit on fire, stomped on, and tossed into a pit of despair and disuse—feeling romantic and hopeful.

If anything, Pinball is fucking charming. Both a slice of history you didn’t know about (but should) and an endearing love story. If there is a film on this list that I insist you see, it’s this one.

I’m certain there will be a few I’m missing (including Poor Things and American Fiction) but that’s my list and I’m sticking to it.