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The post Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2023 appeared first on Battleship Pretension.
I know I have some big gaps this year in what I was able to see, but I am feeling the impact of moving away from a major city. In particular, my access to foreign cinema has diminished. But I still saw lots of good movies this year. I have a short list of honorable mentions: You Hurt My Feelings, Foe, May December, The Killer, and Reality.
10. Leave the World Behind
This was the hardest slot on my list to fill because it could have been any of my honorable mentions. But we all have certain things that just really work for us in movies. For me it is group dynamics. Leave the World Behind asks some interesting questions about how and who we trust once the thin veneer of society is lost. It also examines our dependence on technology to keep us connected to our sense of self. I could have used a little less reliance on CG animals, but overall the film really creeped me out and made me ask myself some tough questions.
9. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
The thing How to Blow Up a Pipeline does most effectively is show the individual motivation each character has for blowing up the pipeline. It also, very smartly, shows us the moral quandary they each face. Some struggle more than others. Admitting that they are domestic terrorists, they each justify their actions and execute the plan. How to Blow Up a Pipeline has some of the most tense and thrilling sequences of the year. It also makes you ask yourself a lot of questions about what you can accept or where your line in the sand is. It was a powerful film.
8. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
I don’t know if I can separate my enjoyment of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. from my experience growing up in the early 80s and reading a lot of Judy Blume books (including this film’s source). Questions like when you will get your period and when you should get a bra are so important when you are that age, and the film takes them equally seriously. The entire cast delivers incredible performances, especially the young talents of Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret and Elle Graham as Nancy Wheeler.
7. Anatomy of a Fall
Anatomy of a Fall masterfully examines the difficult subject of truth. It is fascinating to get a glimpse into the French judicial system. As an American watching the film, I felt like an outsider trying to understand the language and the proceedings. The lead character, Sandra, is a German and also experiences the trial as an outsider who is not fluent in French. As a viewer you have to figure out how you determine the truth when you only have one person’s account of what happened. Also how do you judge a family from the outside in? I was engaged and in suspense right until the end of the film.
6. The Holdovers
A small group of boarding school students are left for the holiday break with their least favorite teacher and school cook who just lost her son to the Vietnam war. The Holdovers illustrates the value of found family and the power of letting people in, even when you seem to have nothing in common. The film captures a uniquely New England, specifically a Massachusetts, feeling that is hard to describe to people who haven’t lived there. The elitism mixed with the rough-and-tumble attitude of its characters is on full display in The Holdovers and it really worked for me.
5. The Lost King
The Lost King is about the recent discovery of King Richard III’s remains under a car park in England. It answers a five-hundred-year-old question about where he was buried. While the amateur history is interesting, what moves me so much about the film is Sally Hawkins portrayal of Philippa Langley. Langley is the woman who figures out where he is buried and convinces the right people to get him exhumed. Hawkins creates a fragile, but unfailingly passionate mother, historian, and partner. Hawkins is one of my favorite working actors today and the depth of feeling and humanity she brings to Philippa made the movie for me.
4. Saltburn
Saltburn manages to be gross but also beautiful, sexy but also distasteful, luxurious but also common. All these clashing themes make for an undeniably compelling film. I have only seen Barry Keoghan in smaller roles, but he proves himself a capable leading actor in Saltburn. The rest of the cast fills out this weird and opulent world, but Rosamund Pike stands out in probably her best performance since Gone Girl.
3. The Lesson
“Great writers steal.” This is the refrain we hear from author J.M. Sinclair, played by the great Richard E. Grant, throughout the film. The Lesson is a film that looks at the cost that great writing can demand of its creator as well as those around them. A dynamite cast, including Julie Delpy, Daryl McCormack, and the aforementioned Grant, show exactly how much new and original writing can cost a family. The film examines how different generations of writers at different stages of their careers deal with inspiration, success, and failure.
2. Barbie
Barbie was undeniably the most fun I had at the movies this year. I was laughing from almost the first frame. I’ve never really been a Greta Gerwig or Noah Baumbach fan, but Barbie just works for me. I appreciate its message of female empowerment and acknowledgement that a Hollywood beauty standard is unrealistic. But I also like how fun and silly it is while never really making a mockery of Barbie and people who love(d) the dolls.
1. Past Lives
The theme of ‘lost love’ almost always works for me. Writer and director Celine Song tells the simple story of a Korean family emigrating to Canada. Once social media is invented one of the daughters, Nora (Greta Lee), reconnects with her grade school crush Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). Life gets in the way, and they only connect when they are both adults and Nora is married. The simplicity of the story, the incredible acting, and the beautiful cinematography come together to make an incredibly powerful film.
The post Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2023 first appeared on Battleship Pretension.
The post Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2023 appeared first on Battleship Pretension.
