Films of the year 2023
Releases that won the critics' approval this year
2023 was the year that was dominated by the twin releases of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer". Here we look at some of the other films that impressed the critics this year.
Drama
In Todd Field's psychological drama "Tár", Cate Blanchett plays a world-renowned conductor who becomes embroiled in a #MeToo-type scandal. The film runs to 158 minutes, yet it "doesn't drag for a single minute", said Deborah Ross in The Spectator – and Blanchett is sensational as the narcissistic maestro brought low.
"The Fabelmans" is Steven Spielberg's love letter to his parents and to the movie-making craft. It is "suffused with warmth", and has a "great deal of gentle humour", said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail.
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"Scrapper" explores the relationship between an isolated 12-yearold (Lola Campbell) and her father (Harris Dickinson). Without ever teetering into twee, this "spunky British indie" shows that "a grief story set on an east London council estate" needn't be "grey and miserabilist", said Larushka Ivan-Zadeh in the Daily Mail.
Molly Manning Walker's "How to Have Sex" follows a group of girls on a wild, post-GCSE holiday in Crete, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent. A "gut punch" of a film, it's about how "what isn't openly felt" is often "the stuff that really hurts".
Love stories
In "You Hurt My Feelings", Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a writer who hears her husband (Tobias Menzies) confessing that he doesn't like her new novel. "The film is super-spare in execution, yet everything is meticulously tuned," said Jonathan Romney in the FT.
"The Great Escaper" tells the true story of war veteran Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine), who left his care home, aided by his wife (Glenda Jackson), to attend a D-Day commemoration. Jackson and Caine are a sheer "joy", said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail.
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The Peckham-set romcom "Rye Lane" – about an accountant and an aspiring costume designer – is a delight. It is full of "laugh-out-loud" lines, said Claire Shaffer in The New York Times, and comes together at the end "as only the best romcoms can".
Foreign Language
The Belgian drama "Close" – a prizewinner at Cannes – follows two 13-yearold boys whose friendship comes under strain when they start secondary school. A "miraculously subtle" film, it packs "a formidable emotional wallop", said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. "Every beat rings utterly true."
"The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan" is the first French adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's 1844 novel in 60 years – and it's a "swashbuckling" delight, said Lillian Crawford in Empire. The first of two parts, this film depicts D'Artagnan's attempts to become a musketeer. The cast is "dangerously sexy"; and you'll finish it with your appetite "whetted" for part two (in cinemas now).
In "One Fine Morning", Léa Seydoux plays a widowed translator from Paris who is trying to raise her unbiddable eight-year-old while caring for her sick father. When she bumps into an old friend, they begin a complicated affair. So French "you can almost taste the croissants", this is a "thought-provoking film about love, the sheer messiness of grown-up life" and the indignities of old age, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday.
Directed by Celine Song, a Korean-born, New York-based playwright, "Past Lives" is about a Korean-born, New York-based playwright (Greta Lee) whose life is disrupted when she reconnects with her childhood friend (Teo Yoo). "More attuned to the ache between souls than the combat between bodies", it is a "wonderfully assured" film that keeps you "guessing to the end", said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times.
In the courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Fall", Sandra Hüller plays a celebrated author who stands accused of murdering her husband in the French Alps, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. A "solid, unshowy film", it's "compulsively watchable" and hardly ever loosens its "throttling" grip.
Comedy
"Theater Camp" is a mockumentary that depicts life in a kids' theatre camp in upstate New York, where the children are quick to jazz-hand and the teachers bubble over with enthusiasm. It's the kind of film "we haven't seen much of recently", said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph: "a very, very funny one"; in fact, it made me laugh so much "I slid out of my seat".
"Dream Scenario" stars Nicolas Cage as an ageing professor whose humdrum life is turned on its head when he starts appearing in people's dreams. "Silly, strange" and hilarious, the film is powered by a "peak Cage Renaissance performance", said John Nugent in Empire.
In the live-action comedy "Strays", featuring real but CGI-enhanced dogs, Will Ferrell voices a terrier called Reggie who falls in with a bunch of strays when he is rejected by his owner. The film "demands a high tolerance for swearing, knob gags and bodily fluids", said Ed Potton in The Times; but it's often funny.
Period drama
Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" examines the murders of members of the Native American Osage tribe, who, by the 1920s, had become the richest people in the world, owing to the discovery of oil beneath their reservation. "A movie of guilt and conscience", it shows that "for now, upper-case Cinema lives", said Danny Leigh in the FT.
"Till" retells the shocking, real-life story of Emmett Till, the boy from Chicago who allegedly wolf-whistled at a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, an infraction for which he was tortured and killed. The film follows his mother Mamie Till's search for justice. It's a "tough watch", but a powerful one, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday.
Set in northeast England in the late 1980s, Georgia Oakley's debut feature "Blue Jean" revolves around a partially closeted PE teacher (Rosy McEwen) who spots one of her pupils at their local gay bar. McEwen is "a revelation", said Leslie Felperin in the FT: "vulnerable and moon-child pale", she projects the "wariness of a skittish cat"; and she is amply supported by a cast who imbue the story with "spontaneity and warmth".
Documentary
"The Deepest Breath" explores the lethal world of freediving, through the prism of Italian world champion Alessia Zecchini and her safety instructor. The story is "the stuff of epic melodrama", said Kevin Maher in The Times, and it is "beautifully filmed". Director Laura McGann uses competition footage to reveal a ravishing subaquatic world "where sun-kissed athletes, in their prime of youth, go to die".
John le Carré gives his final interview in Errol Morris's documentary "The Pigeon Tunnel". An "absorbing, colourful" portrait, it is particularly illuminating on the author's relationship with his conman father, said Richard Brody in The New Yorker.
"Nothing Lasts Forever" takes a hard look at the diamond industry, the way the gems have been marketed to the world, and the seismic impact of lab-grown stones on the market. Now and again, there comes a documentary that turns your view on a subject upside down, said Wendy Ide in The Observer; this "witty, highly entertaining" film is one of them.
Action / thriller
The seventh instalment in the "Mission: Impossible" series was one of the biggest casualties when Covid struck, and film units were forced to close down. When it finally arrived in cinemas, it fell short of box-office expectations. Yet it provides a proper dose of "adrenaline-rush entertainment", and builds to a "frankly jaw-dropping finale", said Mark Kermode in The Observer.
Adapted from a graphic novel, David Fincher's "The Killer" is a hitman revenge thriller starring Michael Fassbender. It's a "bullet-fast piece of filmmaking" that "hijacks your nervous system for two hours before releasing you, pleasantly exhausted, into the cool night air", said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times.
An adaptation of Rumaan Alam's hit apocalyptic novel, "Leave the World Behind" stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as an affluent couple from Brooklyn who are grappling with what seems to be the end of the world. It's a film that "knows how to make you care", said Peter Travers on ABC News – even as it fries your nerves "to a frazzle".
Children's films
Judy Blume's 1970 coming-of-age novel, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret", has been beloved by generations of young readers, who have empathised with its 11-year-old heroine's worries about friends, boys and puberty. This adaptation is "Classic Coke ad meets 'The Wonder Years'", said Ed Power in The Daily Telegraph – "a sugary concoction that goes down perfectly".
Part live action, part stop-motion animation, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is the story of a friendship between a heartbroken man and a one-inch talking shell (voiced by Jenny Slate). "Profound and poetic", the film is also very witty, said Phil de Semlyen in Time Out; 90 minutes in Marcel's company will leave you "little short of transformed".
In "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", four turtles battle to rid New York of an evil mutant housefly, said Charlotte O'Sullivan in the Evening Standard. "Peppy" and "anarchic", this animation "looks scrumdiddlyumptious" and "doesn't talk down to teens".