{"id":21391,"date":"2023-12-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=21391"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:15:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:15:40","slug":"crooked-marquees-favorite-movies-performances-and-more-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/crooked-marquees-favorite-movies-performances-and-more-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Crooked Marquee\u2019s Favorite Movies, Performances, and More of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve spent a fair amount of time over the last couple of weeks trying to understand why I haven\u2019t been able to concur with the widespread opinion, shared in quite a few listicles just like this, that 2023 was a particularly exceptional year for movies. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s been a bad<\/em> one, certainly, as much of the text below will bear out. But throughout the fall, I frequently found myself in a state of disappointment, attending film after film that was proclaimed, before or after, as yet another masterpiece, only to find myself merely appeased (The Holdovers<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Poor Things<\/em><\/a>, The Zone of Interest, <\/em>May December<\/em><\/a>) or even dissatisfied (The Killer<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Saltburn<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>The Iron Claw<\/em><\/a>). Why couldn\u2019t I join my critical colleagues in what seemed a perpetual state of cinematic euphoria?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I finally figured it out: my favorite film of the year is so<\/em> good, so far above the fray, that once I saw it for the first time in late September, everything thereafter paled in comparison. It was simply a superior achievement to every other film in every other way, and that was that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not usually this kind of a reductionist, to be clear, and I\u2019m not pleased about it \u2014 but hopefully it will go away soon (I did love Wonka<\/em><\/a>, so there\u2019s that<\/em>). In the meantime, here\u2019s my list of my top ten favorite movies of 2023, along with some also-rans and some discoveries, followed by a similar variety of lists and commentary from some of our wonderful contributors here at Crooked Marquee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JASON BAILEY\u2019S FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. <\/strong>Priscilla<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few recent matches of filmmaker and material are more inspired than Sofia Coppola and Graceland; she\u2019s always been a master of conveying texture, tones, and vibes, and from the opening images (of carefully manicured toes in shag carpeting), she\u2019s squarely in her wheelhouse. She can convey multitudes in a single image or a cut; her montages and compositions convey so much about the loneliness and melancholy of Elvis Presley\u2019s child bride, and the severity of his emotional game-playing. We only see \u201cthe King\u201d as Priscilla does (not making music, not making movies), and she wouldn\u2019t say much, so she doesn\u2019t; in the title role, Cailee Spaeny crafts a spectacularly non-verbal performance, vividly putting across the character\u2019s longing, excitement, discontent, and (in the best drive-away closing shot since Jackie Brown<\/em>) determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. <\/strong>Anatomy of a Fall<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening line of Justine Triet\u2019s thorny Palme d\u2019Or winner is \u201cWhat do you want to know?\u201d It\u2019s a casual question, at the beginning of a semi-formal interview, but it becomes the key inquiry of this riveting drama; it is asked by Sandra Voyter (Sandra H\u00fcller, staggering), a novelist whose husband dies a few minutes into that grabber of an opening. He fell from a high window, so maybe he killed himself, or maybe he was pushed by his wife; Triet pointedly does not tell us, and H\u00fcller\u2019s performance is similarly enigmatic, creating quiet yet searing suspense throughout the investigation and trial that follows. Acting is tip-top across the board, not just from H\u00fcller but from young Milo Machado Graner as her son, who has secrets and reserves of his own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. <\/strong>All of Us Strangers<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Haigh writes and directs this evocative, melancholy mash-up of romantic drama and semi-surreal memory play. Andrew Scott (who is so good, you\u2019ll follow him any wild place Haigh takes him) stars as a writer who is attempting, in his new screenplay, to grapple with his childhood and the loss of his parents at age 17; on a trip to his hometown, he finds himself inexplicably spending time with them, via vivid visions and candid conversations in which he works through his complicated feelings about them. The years melt away as the interactions and support he so badly needed are grafted onto his past, a fiction less painful than fact. Simultaneously, he\u2019s embarking on a relationship with a neighbor (Paul Mescal) who\u2019s young and wild and probably not good for him in the long run, but exactly what he needs at the moment, and this is a movie that understands that value of both. As it winds up to the home stretch, All of Us Strangers<\/em> becomes a film about itself \u2014 about making art to fix your life, your past, and your pain.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. <\/strong>Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judy Blume waited over 50 years to sell the film rights to her beloved pre-teen novel, and there\u2019s some danger in adapting it now; the book was so wildly influential that though there hasn\u2019t been an official film adaptation, plenty of movies have stolen from it. Yet screenwriter\/director Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen<\/em>) finds exactly the right approach to the text, retaining the 1970 setting and the vivid (sometimes cringe-inducingly so) portraiture of middle-school life. The characters are keenly defined, and everybody gets an arc\u2014not just Margaret (a wonderful young actress named Abby Ryder Fortson) but her mother (the always-excellent Rachel McAdams), father (Benny Safdie) and grandmother (Kathy Bates). What sets this one apart are all the little character touches and narrative details most teen\/tween movies don\u2019t even bother with; it\u2019s smart, it\u2019s sensitive, and sometimes it just breaks your heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. <\/strong>Oppenheimer<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If The Dark Knight<\/em> was Christopher Nolan doing a Michael Mann movie, this is his riff on \u201890s Oliver Stone\u2014 like JFK<\/em> or Nixon<\/em>, it\u2019s a big, bombastic historical epic, with the director orchestrating an all-star cast and a striking bag of cinematic tricks. Cillian Murphy turns in an admirably knotty performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, and Nolan thankfully eschews the cradle-to-grave biopic structure; instead, he zeroes in on a handful of key moments throughout his life, and moves between them freely and often ingeniously to create a complex portrait of a complicated man. It feels less like a biopic than an exploration of big ideas and unfathomable processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. <\/strong>Perfect Days<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a minute or two since Wim Wenders had a narrative feature worth talking about, but you cannot count that guy out, and his latest is sweet and seemingly simple, and then not that, at all. Koji Yakusho stars as Hirayama, who spends his days doing the honest and earnest work of cleaning toilets in Tokyo\u2019s public parks \u2014 and it tells you all you need to know about him that he not only takes pride in this work, but enjoys it. When work is done, he\u2019ll take some photos, or read, or ride his bike, or go out to dinner; he lives a life of familiarity and routine, and much of Perfect Days<\/em> lives that life over his shoulder. But disruptions eventually present themselves, of course, though not in any kind of pat or predictable way, and it speaks highly of both Wenders\u2019s filmmaking and Yakusho\u2019s acting that they are able to hint at the pieces of his life that he chooses not to dwell on without prying them out of the character. They simply seem to care about him too much to impose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. <\/strong>Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you describe Frederick Wiseman\u2019s work to those who don\u2019t know it, it sounds insufferable; he makes loooooong films about institutions and processes, with extended scenes of meetings and planning and execution, but rarely with the kind of clean, identifiable conflicts that are the lifeblood of contemporary non-fiction filmmaking (to say nothing of its redheaded stepchild bastard offspring, reality TV). There\u2019s none of that here; much of Troisgros\u2019 expansive running time is spent on scenes of watching people prepare food. And it\u2019s riveting, intricate processes of exacting, meticulous detail, without even the crutch of music \u2014 they\u2019re scored only by the pleasant hum of minimal movement and very occasional, hushed chatter. Wiseman\u2019s films are about the pleasures of watching pros work, and his latest is proof positive that at 93, he is still a singular artist, each film a rare and spectacular gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. <\/strong>Eileen<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Oldroyd\u2019s adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh\u2019s novel is two great movies in one. The first half or so is a gin-soaked slice of sinful pulp, in which a dissatisfied 24-year-old prison clerk (Thomasin McKenzie, revelatory) finds her senses awakened by the splendidly named \u201cDr. Ms. Rebecca St. John,\u201d played by Anne Hathaway in straight-up blonde bombshell mode, sporting Marilyn hair, and smoking cigarettes the way bad women used to smoke them in movies. You see that hesitation and confusion in the panic that overcomes Eileen when Rebecca invites her out for a drink after work, and we can be certain of one thing: in some sense or another, Eileen is in trouble. That trouble arrives in the form of a spectacular third act 180, a first-rate bait-and-switch, and in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, and a less accomplished cast, it could\u2019ve absolutely gone to shambles. But that\u2019s not what happens here at all; Eileen pulls off the transition from teasing fatalism to something much doomier, and does it with panache. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. <\/strong>Past Lives<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celine Song\u2019s feature debut tells a simple story, of two people who knew each other when they were children, reconnected in college and fell into something like love, and have now met again, when one of them is married. The particular majesty of this very modest film is how it tells a story that\u2019s strikingly specific in its particulars, but it tells that story so insightfully and personally that it becomes universal. Not all of us have been that girl (the marvelous Greta Lee), or that guy (a marvelously nuanced Teo Yoo), or the other one (John Magaro, embodying an impossibile role with ease). But we\u2019ve all loved someone when it was too late, or questioned the choices we\u2019ve made, or wondered what our lives would be like if we\u2019d done this one little thing differently. And it\u2019s that universality \u2014 along with the sensitivity of the performances and offhand ease of the dialogue \u2014 that makes it such an overwhelmingly, devastatingly emotional experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. <\/strong>Killers of the Flower Moon<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like his previous picture, the similarly sprawling and magnificent The Irishman<\/em>, Marin Scorsese\u2019s latest is great in a fashion that seems particularly tied to his age and experience. He could not have made these films at 30, or 50, or 60. This is the work of a man who has now spent six decades making great movies, for whom that act has become something like second nature; if the 10,000 hours theory is correct, then few filmmakers have spent as much time making, and urgently thinking about, movies. That ease, that expertise, that skill is on display in every one of Killers<\/em>\u2019 206 minutes.\u00a0The scope, the scale, the ambition \u2014 no other filmmaker is doing it like this, and that\u2019s all there is to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HONORABLE MENTIONS: <\/strong>Stamped from the Beginning, Godland, Rye Lane, <\/em><\/strong>El Conde<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, The Innocent, Fallen Leaves, A Still Small Voice, <\/em><\/strong>A Thousand and One<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Ferrari, <\/em><\/strong>Barbie<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, <\/em><\/strong>Asteroid City<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, <\/em><\/strong>Blackberry<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, The Starling Girl<\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BILL BRIA\u2019S TEN BEST FILMS OF 2023: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. <\/strong>The Killer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was looking for a job, and then he found a job. Heaven knows he\u2019s miserable now. David Fincher\u2019s satiric aim, unlike his titular assassin, never misses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. <\/strong>Napoleon<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Ridley Scott plows Bonaparte-like ahead where so many prior filmmakers have bailed, his penchant for bitter, misanthropic satire and easy hand at staging massive war sequences in tow. Not the Napoleon movie everyone wanted, but the one we (and he) deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. <\/strong>Theater Camp<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 was a fantastic year for studio comedies, so while No Hard Feelings<\/em><\/a> and Bottoms<\/em><\/a> will continue to be discovered and cherished, I\u2019m compelled to throw a spotlight on this consistently hilarious, inventive, utterly charming underdog of a movie. For all theatre kids past, present, and future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. <\/strong>John Wick Chapter 4<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The John Wick<\/em> series made a point out of topping itself with each installment, so this final (?) entry is appropriately phenomenal: a summation of action cinema as well as a fitting, mythologically weighted ending for the titular character and his tragic \u201cIf You Give a Mouse a Cookie\u201d quest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. <\/strong>Asteroid City<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A masterclass in proving that the artificial \u2014 the Brechtian theatrical, the sci-fi genre, the distancing effect of a movie camera \u2014 can be a remarkably precise tool to delve deep into the rawest human emotions. Would that we could all express them this perfectly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. <\/strong>Killers of the Flower Moon<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between this epic and The Zone of Interest<\/em>, the banality of evil has rarely been more expertly depicted. A movie that both operates like and is about snakes in the grass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. <\/strong>Godzilla Minus One<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While 2023 proved Hollywood could still make blockbusters out of historical dramas, Japan proved with this film that they could make a remarkably moving and thrilling genre melodrama. Talk about firing on all cylinders!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. <\/strong>May December<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In acting as in life, we\u2019re all looking for the skeleton key to understand others as well as ourselves. What if that key turns out to be broken, or even falsified? What if there is no answer to our collective pathology, no matter how many takes we\u2019re given to get it right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. <\/strong>Oppenheimer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man who sold the world. A movie that contains such enticing elements as courtroom drama, backroom political conspiracies and scientific theory turning into horrifying reality, yet Christopher Nolan blending all of that into a riveting three-hour epic may be its most impressive aspect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. <\/strong>Beau is Afraid<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to think of too many other films where the lines get blurred this thoroughly: between the subjective and the objective, the hilarious and the horrifying, the self-indulgent and the universal. Easily the most unforgettable and daring wide release of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CRAIG J. CLARK\u2019S 10 BEST FILMS OF 2023:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. <\/strong>Smoking Causes Coughing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A left-field choice for anyone\u2019s top ten, but this was my first opportunity to see one of French auteur Quentin Dupieux\u2019s surreal mini-epics on the big screen and its tale of a superhero team sent on a retreat to work on their group cohesion was the perfect antidote to a decade\u2019s worth of cape fatigue. Plus, it\u2019s funny (and occasionally gross) as hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. <\/strong>The Boy and the Heron<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayao Miyazaki\u2019s latest comes a decade after his last feature, when he announced his retirement. Based on the vitality and sheer inventiveness of this film, I\u2019m glad that didn\u2019t stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. <\/strong>Showing Up<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite scenes of the year comes partway through Kelly Reichardt\u2019s ode to working artists, chief among them Michelle Williams\u2019s prickly Lizzy. In spite of her frustration with her landlord Jo\u2019s failure to fix her hot water, when Lizzy checks out Jo\u2019s latest exhibition, she can\u2019t help but be transported by the work. It\u2019s a small moment that says everything about the power of art to make all other concerns seem insignificant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. <\/strong>Asteroid City<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art and artifice are likewise at the forefront of Wes Anderson\u2019s current feature, as well as the quartet of Roald Dahl shorts he made for Netflix. With his ever-growing repertory company, it\u2019s easy to wonder how all of his actors could possibly make an impression, but the characters he comes up for them to play (in tandem with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola) are distinctive enough that he pulls it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. <\/strong>Poor Things<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. <\/strong>Beau Is Afraid<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two films that wore their ambition on their sleeves, sending their stunted protagonists on hyperstylized journeys of self-discovery. Whereas Emma Stone\u2019s Bella eventually finds her place in the world, though, Joaquin Phoenix\u2019s Beau was pretty much fucked from the moment of conception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. <\/strong>Anatomy of a Fall<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to France\u2019s\u2026 let\u2019s call it unique<\/em> judicial system, this is one courtroom drama that doesn\u2019t get bogged down when it gets to the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. <\/strong>The Zone of Interest<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set in the literal shadow of Auschwitz, this film slowly reveals who its characters are, how they live, and who works for them. Jonathan Glazer\u2019s follow-up to Under the Skin<\/em> doesn\u2019t humanize its monsters so much as put them under a microscope, revealing how the normalization of war atrocities in one\u2019s daily life rots from within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. <\/strong>All of Us Strangers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another contender for scene of the year is the one where Claire Foy as the protagonist\u2019s long-dead Mum sings along with Pet Shop Boys\u2019 rendition of \u201cAlways on My Mind.\u201d Just devastating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.<\/strong> Killers of the Flower Moon<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Hale is quite possibly the most despicable character Robert De Niro has ever played, which is truly saying something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonus Scene of the Year:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Alexander Payne\u2019s The Holdovers<\/em> is necessarily focused on the respect that grows between Paul Giamatti\u2019s gruff private school teacher and Dominic Sessa\u2019s entitled student, Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph\u2019s Mary is its true heart. Still, when the three of them leave campus midway through and drop Mary off at her sister\u2019s, it would have been so easy to wave goodbye to her on the doorstep and let the others move on without another thought. Instead, Payne and screenwriter David Hemingson stay with Mary long enough to let her get settled, giving the character (whose personal loss eclipses the inconvenience experienced by the others) a private moment to reconnect with the only family she has left. More than the period trappings, it\u2019s moments like these that place The Holdovers<\/em> in the rarified company of the \u201970s classics it emulates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JULIA SIRMONS\u2019S 10 BEST FILMS OF 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this list, I\u2019m assuming that you\u2019ve all already seen Barbie<\/em>, Oppenheimer, <\/em>and Killers of the Flower Moon<\/em>. I\u2019m hoping to boost some smaller films, and make some suggestions from festivals that will get distribution in the year to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. <\/strong>All of Us Strangers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A strange charm veils the world in this magical realism\u2013esque ghost story. A gay man stumbles upon the spirits of his parents (who died in a car crash when he was young), living in his childhood home.  The scenario \u2013 accompanied with a budding romance with a young neighbor \u2013 could trip into the saccharine at any moment. It doesn\u2019t, due to the incredible performances: Claire Foy and Jamie Bell seem to accept their ethereal nature with a cheerful acceptance with matter-of-fact contentment. The scenes between the three seem remarkably grounded,  even as mother and father struggle with some of their parenting mistakes. Andrew Scott, as the son, is a marvel, meeting the wonder of his situation with a contagious warmth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. <\/strong>The Pigeon Tunnel<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Errol Morris\u2019 latest documentary became the epitaph for its subject, the author David Cornwell, known by his pseudonym John le Carr\u00e9. (Cornwell died in 2020.) The often tacit, thorny questions about a documentarian\u2019s relationship to their subject comes to the fore with a character like Cornwell. Cornwell, himself a skilled interrogator thanks to his time in the secret service, can give just as good as he gets. Morris does hit some of Cornwell\u2019s soft spots: his disillusionment following the defection of double-agent Kim Philby, and most importantly, Cornwell\u2019s tangled relationship with father, a con man of astounding proportions. But the true attraction here is the dance between Morris and Corrnwell as each man goes back and forth on the nature of truth, a nagging question that drives both to riveting dialogues.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. <\/strong>Fallen Leaves<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A flawless little gem. Kaurism\u00e4ki finds a way to make a quotidian plot swell with emotion, as two people living very ordinary lives (a grocery stocker and a construction worker) stumble into an unlikely meet cute. Their charming yet fragile romance illuminates how much love can add sparkle to even the most quotidian existence. Visual economy and a straightforward plot carefully steers clear on any schlock, and if we suspect that we\u2019re ultimately heading toward a happy ending, it\u2019s a well-earned one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. <\/strong>May December<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put aside the debate about whether it\u2019s \u201ccamp\u201dor \u201cmelodrama.\u201d Here we\u2019re watching Todd Haynes, who has a long history of experimentation with forms and genres, and turning them into clinical, almost forensic facades. He gets that dread and distance are the only way you can truly see this creepy, mystifying true story. The approach needs performers whose passions and confusions simmer below breezy exteriors. Julianne Moore and Portman are adept in traversing these layers,  <\/strong>while Charles Melton is captivating as a man first blossoming into introspection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.<\/strong> The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director Joanna Arnow has made something like a Girls<\/em> episode with darker lows and rougher edges.  Arnow plays the protagonist  Ann, who seems halfheartedly accepting of a drab world and a somewhat drab, less than fulfilling personal life. She maintains the same stony expression as Buster Keaton through a variety of humiliating experiences: her boss telling her she\u2019s too talented for her job, her dad serenading her with Union songs, BDSM scenes where one master wants her to dress up as a pig. Ann\u2019s radical acceptance of her everyday reveals our ridiculous, unfulfilling norms of pleasure and labor, and the all-too real ambivalence to even gesture toward seeking change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. <\/strong>La Chimera<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no one like Alice Rohrwacher for capturing the spiritual, almost shimmering atmosphere that captures the Italian landscape, and even its history. Themes of enchantment, the mysteries of ancient cultures, and death swirl around this period piece where gangs rob Etruscan tombs to sell the artifacts to buyers from other countries. A British man, (Josh O\u2019Connor, in a mostly silent, ethereal role) seems to have a divine gift for finding the ruins. Rohrwacher captures many idiosyncrasies and wonders, including Isabella Rossellini in a bit part as a Little Edie\u2013esque owner of a crumbling palazzo that attracts a cast of characters. Earthly life and the spiritual world are both full of possibilities in Rohrwacher\u2019s world of charms and delight.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4<\/strong><\/em>. <\/strong>Anatomy of a Fall<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A taut, exquisitely crafted courtroom drama. Tension (and the audience\u2019s ire) mounts as the evidence seems to merely indict a female defendant because she\u2019s not acting the way women are \u201csupposed\u201d to behave in unimaginable situations. The magnetic Sandra H\u00fceller delivers the many (perhaps too many) facets of the accused: haughty pride, numb dissociation, and a carefully-maintained facade just barely concealing crumpled with exhaustion. But just once you think the plot is zigging, it hits us with a major zag. The smoking gun is not really any physical evidence. What could damn Sandra is more a chilling portrait of a just of a slightly-more-than unhappy marriage. And that\u2019s the true horror: the possibility that these mostly normal complaints could draw a couple to the edge, and tip into crime and destruction. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. <\/strong>Janet Planet <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Rochrwacher, acclaimed playwright Annie Baker captures the air and texture of a place and time. In her first film, Baker summons a humid, leafy New England summer. Just as magically, she captures the pivotal time between fifth grade and middle school. This delicate, poignant moment comes vividly to life through the careful, contemplative eyes of 11-year-old Lacy (played by the astonishing Zoe Ziegler). As the melancholy Lacy (both younger and wiser than her years) tries to put away childish things, she\u2019s still held in thrall by her mother, the captivating Janet. As she meets the many people in Janet\u2019s orbit, Lacy quietly but certainly realizes that the adults aren\u2019t in charge. Soft but pointed when it needs to be, this is a breath of fresh all with many slow, wondrous revelations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. <\/strong>Asteroid City<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much to add here, except to express my delight that Anderston is endearing a more mediated aspect of his world through various kinds of theatre performance: the televised play, a frustrated actress, and a Method-heavy atmosphere on screen and in rehearsals. This terrain is so rich: as one moves within the other, Anderson nails, with elegant precision, the authenticity that can only emerge through aesthetic framing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.  Last Summer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provocateur Catherine Breillat has made her first film in a decade, and boy does she come out with guns blazing. The topic is predictably risqu\u00e9, at a common porn scenario: a seemingly contented haute bourgeois lawyer starts a sexual relationship with her husband’s son from a previous marriage. On one level, this works an arch, ironic version of that porno fantasy, lurid and superficial.. But on another\u2013without spoiling too much\u2013 it\u2019s an all too real look at how attraction, however unlikely or unwise, builds in the smallest moments and spaces. It wouldn’t be Breillat if there wasn\u2019t a stark and cynical look at the cruelties of spent desire, and the ways power will always try to reassert itself.  And, even in a dappled, bucolic summer atmosphere, no one ever gets out unscathed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JOSH BELL\u2019S 10 FAVORITE VODEPTHS FILMS OF 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. <\/strong>Actual People<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spirit of mumblecore lives on in the debut feature from writer\/director\/star Kit Zauhar, a raw, emotionally resonant character study of a woman waiting for her ‘real life’ to begin, while she\u2019s been living that life the entire time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. <\/strong>Daughter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually the presence of Casper Van Dien isn\u2019t a promising sign for a low-budget movie, but he\u2019s impressively menacing in writer-director Corey Deshon\u2019s assured, unsettling debut feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. <\/strong>August at Twenty-Two<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer Ali Edwards gives a funny, charming performance as a recent college graduate flailing about romantically and professionally in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. <\/strong>Acidman<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>
There are no melodramatic revelations or overwrought confrontations in this intimate father-daughter drama starring Thomas Haden Church and Dianna Agron, just two people quietly unpacking their feelings, often in meaningful silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. <\/strong>Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tunisian director and co-writer Youssef Chebbi\u2019s moody crime drama is eerily mesmerizing even without a full understanding of the context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. <\/strong>Are You Lonesome Tonight?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspense and the anguish combine for an evocative, rewarding existential thriller in Chinese filmmaker Wen Shipei\u2019s stylish, noir-influenced debut feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. <\/strong>Erin\u2019s Guide to Kissing Girls<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with its title, writer-director Julianna Notten\u2019s teen dramedy is a cute, upbeat take on queer romance, focusing on personal relationships rather than coming-out angst.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. <\/strong>Surrounded<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This austere Western from music video director Anthony Mandler is a two-hander between stars Letitia Wright and Jamie Bell, whose fierce arguments are every bit as thrilling as the periodic gunfights and chase scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. <\/strong>The Dive<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of The Dive<\/em> is gripping, capitalizing on a basic human fear as an undersea diver becomes trapped under fallen rocks with dwindling air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. <\/strong>Blood, Sweat and Cheer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept here isn\u2019t much different from other Lifetime-esque Tubi originals, but director Traci Hays approaches it with a sly sense of humor that turns a suburban-mom-gone-wrong melodrama into a campy, candy-colored dark comedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARSHALL SHAFFER\u2019S TOP 10 SCENES OF 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a year full of great movies, of course. I\u2019m still in the agonizing process of ordering my top 10 films and figuring out \u201cwhat it all means.\u201d But those preliminary trains of thought have led me to realize how many of the monumental moments within them run on parallel tracks. I\u2019m presenting my favorite scenes of the year as a series of couplets, highlighting where great artistry employed different storytelling tactics to portray similar thematic preoccupations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n