Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

It’s almost the end of 2023 — good riddance! —  so it’s time for my annual best movies of the year. Since I see so many movies every year, in order to keep my “best of” list to a manageable size, I don’t include animated films — such as the amazing The Boy and His Heron, and the very good Spiderman Across the Spiderverse. Nor do I include short films, or documentaries or TV movies, many of which are great. And I’m only including films that played either theatrically or as part of a film festival, and, of course, only films I’ve actually seen. 

I am trying to include both indie and big-budget films, as well as genre films — comedy, romance, sci-fi, horror and fantasy —  which are often given short shrift in lists like these. 

The films I choose have to have be a good movie, but also have something special about them — shock value, surprise, novelty, great acting, important stories, or beautiful production values.  Also keep in mind I always forget to include some films I love, and only remember after I record this — so my apologies in advance for leaving out some great movies. (I realized, immediately after taping, that I accidentally left out Monster from the first list, and Rotting in the Sun and May December from the second list; see below).

Some of these are already available on streaming sites, others are still playing in theatres, and a few have not yet opened.

Ok, with no further ado, here is my list of the best movies of 2023, in no particular order:

1 Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, 

Dir: Kelly Fremon Craig

is a nostalgic, coming-of- age story about a pre-teen girl who moves from New York to a small town in New Jersey. Based on the YA novel by Judy Blume.

 

 

2 Beau is Afraid 

Dir Ari Aster

…is a complex, psychological fantasy about a man named Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) trying to leave the hell-hole he lives in to attend his rich but controlling mother’s funeral (Patti Lupone). Some people find this movie overwhelming, but that’s part of its attraction.

Talk to Me 

Dir: Danny and Michael Philippou

Is a Australian horror movie about a teenager party game involving a mummified hand that takes users into a world between the living and the dead. This is one of the scariest movies I’ve seen in years.

 

4 The Holdovers

Dir: Alexander Payne

is a drama set in a New England prep school in 1969, where some students, a teacher and the cook are staying there over the Christmas holidays.It’s a compelling story with superb acting by Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph — primarily a stage actress — and Dominic Sessa in his first role.

5 The Movie Teller (La Contadora de Películas)

Dir: Lone Scherfig

…is a wonderful romantic melodrama set in a company town in a Chilean desert in the 1960s. It’s about a family who need to find a new source of income when their father is injured in a mining accident.

6 The Promised Land

Dir: Nikolaj Arcel

…is an epic, historical drama about a former soldier (Mads Mikkeksen) who is trying to tame the soil of unsettled Jutland, Denmark, but has to deal with a cruel aristocrat who wants total control.

7 Poor Things

Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos

… is a brilliant picaresque fable about  an adult woman (Emma Stone) with an infant’s brain transplanted in her head, as she discovers sex, morality and economics in Victorian Europe.

8 The Anatomy of a Fall

Dir: Justine Triet 

…is a gripping courtroom drama set in the French Alps about a middle aged writer (Sandra Hüller) who is accused of killing her husband who fell out of a window. It’s also an intensely moving story about a mother and her young, blind son.

9 The Nature of Love  (Simple comme Sylvain)

Dir: Monia Chokri 

…is a delightful comedy/drama about a married, bourgeois intellectual from Montreal who falls in love with a redneck building contractor who is renovating her cottage.

 

10 Green Border

Dir: Agnieszka Holland

… is a harrowing drama about a group of asylum seekers caught in a hellish cycle of deportation and abuse in the area between Poland and Belarus. A moving and intricate story told through the eyes of very different characters.

 

11 Showing Up 

Dir Kelly Reichardt 

…is a deceptively simple comedy about an irritable sculptor at an art college in Portland Oregon (Michelle Williams) who is trying to put on a one-woman show at a local gallery. 

 

 

12 Killers of the Flower Moon

Dir: Martin Scorsese

…is an historical drama set in Oklahoma in the 1920s where the Osage nation discovers oil, but have to fight off the swindlers, criminals and murderers looking for their piece of the pie. This one stars Robert De Niro, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Lily Gladstone.

13 Fallen Leaves 

Dir: Aki Kaurismaki

…is a dark romantic comedy about a working class man and woman in Helsinki whose paths keep crossing but — because a series of accidents — can’t seem to realize their destiny as lovers and soulmates.

14 Monster

Dir: Kore-eda Hirokazu

 

 

 

And here are the runners-up, which are more or less as good as the list I just finished: 

1 Godland — a moving historical drama about Danish settlers in a remote part of Iceland

2 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

A fantasy action/adventure based on the game 

3 The Eight Mountains

A story of friendship in Piedmont Italy

4 Blackberry

The rise and fall of the  Canadian cel phone company 

5 Afire

A tragicomedy about a struggling writer in a summer home in Germany

6 Oppenheimer

Historical drama about the Manhattan Project and its aftermath 

7 After the Fire

A Parisian-Arab family reacting to the police after the death of their brother.

8 Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World

A biting social satire about workplace injuries in Bucharest

 9 Kidnapped

A melodramatic retelling of Pope Pius IX’s kidnapping of a 5-year-old boy in 19th century Bologna

10 Perfect Days

A simple story about a kind and loving man who works as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo

11 Evil Does Not Exist

A remote town fighting back against a developer who wants to build a glamping spa — by the director of Drive my Car.

12 The Iron Claw 

A biopic about the Von Erichs —a family of pro-wrestling brothers — plagued with misfortune.

13. May December

14 Rotting in the Sun

Once again, my top movies off the year:

Monster

Fallen Leaves

Killers of the Flower Moon

Showing Up

Green Border

The Nature of Love

The Anatomy of a Fall

Poor Things

The Promised Land

The Movie Teller

The Holdovers

Talk to Me

Beau is Afraid

Are you there, God? It’s Me, Margaret

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.