by Larry Lee
As I write this, in early August, my memory of the first half of 2023 is hazy. The memory of any film released during that period seems obscured in my mind by the phenomenal success of
Barbie and
Oppenheimer and the craze that surrounds these movies, especially Barbie. It’s not as if Hollywood waved a white flag during the first half of 2023: it released several big budget superhero movies (
Ant-Man: Quantumania,
Shazam: Fury of the Gods,
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,
The Flash), as well as other expected crowd-pleasers (
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,
John Wick, Chapter 4,
Fast X). No, the problem was that, with the possible exception of
Guardians 3, these CGI-bloated tugboats just weren’t that good. (OK,
The Flash was a bit better than I had expected.)
There were, moreover, several smaller, well-done movies released this year. Air (Prime) is about the development and marketing of the first Air Jordan sneaker, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (rent on Prime or AppleTV), is a well-executed filmic rendition of the beloved 1970 book by Judy Blume about young girls coming of age. Both take us back a few decades to revisit an America that seems so long ago, but really wasn’t. Both were very enjoyable flicks. There were also some admirable but flawed efforts: Master Gardener (rent on Prime or AppleTV), written and directed by Paul Schrader (The Card Counter, First Reformed), was about a gardener (Joel Edgerton) working for a wealthy Southern woman (Sigourney Weaver). The gardener has a deep, dark secret, but you know those never stay hidden in the movies for long, especially movies made by Schrader. I found the movie intriguing but ultimately a bit contrived. Also interesting was Plan 75 (not available to stream), an account of a fictional new law in Japan allowing those over 75 years old to elect euthanasia to end their life. Again, an intriguing idea, perhaps even a timely one, but although the film is worth seeing, it somehow failed to hit the emotional target. In Japanese. Godland (rent on Prime), about a Danish priest who travels to a remote area of Iceland in the 19th Century, was an interesting excursion to a time and place on Earth we do not often see. The movie is marked by a terrific performance by Elliott Crosset Hove as Lucas, the priest. In Danish and Icelandic. I have nothing negative to say about A Good Person (rent on Prime or AppleTV), written and directed by Zach Braff (Garden State) and starring Florence Pugh (Oppenheimer, Little Women) and Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby, The Shawshank Redemption): a touching story, well executed. All are worth your time.
Before getting to my ten choices for the Half-Oscars™, two special mentions. First,
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was possibly the best movie from the first half of 2023. Technically a superhero movie, this animated feature is the sequel to 2018’s
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The animation and camera work is truly spectacular, and the narrative is dense, fascinating, touching even. But those viewers not familiar with the backstory and history of the Spider-Man character may have trouble following all the comings and goings; even those dedicated viewers who like and appreciate superhero movies may not like this animated tour-de-force. And right-wingers opposed to DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion)—and if you are, why are you even reading this?—may object to the new Spider-Man being an Afro-Latino teen named Miles Morales. But if you even think this movie could be for you, go see it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, with a worldwide gross of almost $700 million, was the first big hit of 2023, if you don’t count
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (an astounding $1.4 billion worldwide) which, I admit, I do not.
Second special mention:
Juniper. Made in 2021 but released here in the first part of 2023. Charlotte Rampling (
The Night Porter, The Verdict, Stardust Memories, Swimming Pool) was lured out of retirement (allegedly) for the role of an alcoholic grandmother in this story of her ne’er-do-well grandson ordered to look after her as punishment for getting kicked out of his high school. Rampling, who first appeared in an uncredited role in 1964’s
A Hard Day’s Night, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for
45 Years, is a treasure portraying the feisty, uncompromising old lady with a backbone of steel.
But with all that said, here are my top ten movies from the first half (or so) of 2023. Contrary to some top ten or “best of” lists you might see, which often include esoteric or unknown films no one else has seen (or could see), I saw all of the following movies in the theater. Most are, or should soon be, streamable on some platform:
The 2023 Half-Oscars™ List
10. Emily (Showtime, Prime rental) Nineteenth Century English literature has long been a go-to source of movie ideas for Hollywood, often to good effect, like 1939’s
Wuthering Heights starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, and 1943’s
Jane Eyre, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. But around the turn of the last century, it seems as if a switch was flipped, and someone decided it was time to let female directors take a crack at these classic stories about the lives of women from the late-Georgian and Victorian Eras. (See, e.g.,
Mansfield Park (1999), dir. Patricia Rozema;
Vanity Fair (2004), dir. Mira Nair;
Wuthering Heights (2011), dir. Andrea Arnold;
Madame Bovary (2014), dir. Sophie Barthes;
Emma (2020), dir. Autumn de Wilde; and
Persuasion (2022), dir. Carrie Cracknell.) The latest of these is
Emily, directed by Frances O’Connor, about the life of Emily Brontë, the author of
Wuthering Heights. The movie persuasively shows us the frustration that smart, creative women in that period must have experienced, urged as they were to conform to preset (and limited) gender roles. More specifically, the film speculates about the inner thoughts and inner life of the author: we can see it in the amazingly expressive eyes of Emma Mackey, who plays the title role. O’Connor, the director, has worked largely as an actress (
A.I. Artificial Intelligence); indeed, she played Fanny in the 1999 version of Jane Austen’s
Mansfield Park. In what I can only assume was a labor of love, director O’Connor does an admirable job showing not only that long-ago society (Brontë died in 1848), but the inner feelings of this famous author.
9. Past Lives (not yet available to stream) The terrific debut feature by director Celine Song was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and won the award given by the Hollywood Film Critics for the best independent film for the first half of 2023 (their version of the Half-Oscars™, I guess). It also shows up on many lists for the best films from the first half of 2023. Meditative yet emotional, it tells the story of two best friends, perhaps even soulmates, who were separated in South Korea when they were children. He stayed in Korea, she emigrated to the United States with her family. Now, 20 years later, he comes to visit her in New York. It sounds like the set up for a rom-com, but that is not this movie. Wistful but melancholy, it leads us to think of own life, the choices we made (or were made for us), and imagine what could have been.
8. The Eight Mountains (not yet available to stream) Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and the David di Donatello Award for Best Picture in Italy, this movie is the rare bird that tells the story of a close friendship between boys, Pietro and Bruno, and follows them as they become best friends as men. Also interesting, it takes place in a part of Italy not typically seen in the movies: the Italian Alps. Focusing on the unshakeable emotional bond between Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) at various stages of their life, all against the magnificent backdrop of the Alps, the movie is like an epic movie in miniature, experiencing their emotional closeness all the while looking at the majestic mountain peaks. A well made, interesting story, and one we have not seen before.
7. You Hurt My Feelings (for purchase on Prime and AppleTV) The latest from director Nicole Holofcener, who seems to have specialized in mining the available comedy and pathos of people who live in lovely houses or apartments, but experience what we now call First World Problems. That said, if you have enjoyed Holofcener’s previous movies about the problems of the White upper middle class, such as 2013’s
Enough Said or 2006’s
Friends With Money, you will likely enjoy this funny, truthful movie, all about the lies we tell our friends and loved ones to just get through the day. Starring the formidable Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has escaped the gravity of her
Seinfeld days and her winning turn (5 straight Emmys!) in
Veep to become a kind of movie star. She’s even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever).
6. Rise (En Corps) (not yet available) What are the options when the one thing you have always done, the thing at which you are better than almost anyone else in the world, is taken away from you? Here, a prima ballerina named Elise suffers a serious injury on stage that, given her age and anticipated recovery time, will likely prevent her from ever attaining the professional heights she had reached. So what now? Elise is played by Marion Barbeau, an actual member of the Paris Opera Ballet, and her journey is touching and beautiful to watch, especially if you love dance. Rise (En Corps) is the latest from French director Cédric Klapisch, who helmed 2002’s breakout hit L’Auberge Espagnole, as well as its two sequels (2005’s Russian Dolls and 2013’s Chinese Puzzle), and the film was nominated for multiple César awards.
5. Hilma (Prime rental) An admirable film biography of Hilma af Klint, a Swedish painter and mystic, considered one of the first Western artists to paint in a wholly abstract style. Largely overlooked during her lifetime (she died in 1944 at the age of 82), Klint is only now gaining mainstream champions and respect in the art world. Directed by Lasse Hallström (
My Life as a Dog,
The Cider House Rules),
Hilma is a family affair, with daughter Tora Hallström playing the younger Hilma and wife Lena Olin (The
Unbearable Lightness of Being,
Enemies, A Love Story) portraying the elder Hilma. The film transports the viewer to late 19th Century Sweden, showing how the artist struggled to find appreciation for her art despite her wholly abstract, geometrical creations and unusual spiritual beliefs. For those stuck in a French Impressionist rut, this movie will show a more well-rounded, expansive and complex world of European art, one that did not revolve around the salons of Paris.
4. Chevalier (Hulu, Prime rental) As with Hilma af Klint, it has taken the Western world some time to come to appreciate Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a violinist, composer, conductor, and champion fencer who lived in France during the latter part of the 18th Century. (This obscurity was largely due to Napoleon III’s order to destroy all evidence of Bologne’s music after the composer’s death.) Considered the first classical composer of African descent, Bologne (played by Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) was a biracial free man from the French colony of Guadeloupe, the product of a rich plantation owner and one of his enslaved women. The movie is a highly entertaining look at the life of this musical prodigy, his life of success and excess, and the predictable racial discrimination he faced, although the movie necessarily compresses his long, complicated life to focus on his music career and largely elides his later military career. That the film is based on a true story is all the more impressive and, along with Hilma, makes us wonder how many more stories are out there, waiting to be discovered.
(rent on Prime or AppleTV) This is the kind of movie the French keep making and that Hollywood has largely abandoned. No robots or aliens here, no zombies or vampires, no superheroes, no trains falling off bridges, no CGI. Just an emotionally moving story of real people experiencing real problems. Rachel (played by a luminous Virginie Efira), a childless, single woman, has a full life. She has lots of friends, a job she loves, an aging father who needs looking after. When she meets Ali and they become a couple, she thinks that, maybe, just maybe, he’s The One. Along the way, Rachel develops a deep love of Ali’s daughter, Leila. But what will happen when Leila’s mother reenters the picture? These are real life problems that could happen to anyone we know, and the movie handles the situation with a sensitivity that feels honest and true.
2. The Lost King (AcornTV, AMC+, Prime rental) If there were a Sally Hawkins Fan Club, I might well be a member. Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Blue Jasmine, Made in Dagenham, Happy-Go-Lucky) absolutely carries this film, portraying Philippa Langley, a middle-aged woman for whom life is just wearing her down. After her latest setback, she is at a complete loss where to turn but, somehow, gets the idea that she can find the final resting place of King Richard III, the location of whose mortal remains has been a mystery for hundreds of years. Richard has been tarred as a child-killing, hump-backed usurper to the English throne by none other than William Shakespeare. But was he? Langley is, of course, dismissed as a crank if not a crazy lady. But is she? Even a broken clock is right twice a day (to repeat an aphorism from pre-digital, analog days). Hawkins portrays Langley with intelligence, pathos, and vulnerability, and her focus and nervous energy undergird an impressive performance. Directed by Stephen Frears (Florence Foster Jenkins, Philomena, High Fidelity), and costarring Steve Coogan as her admirably supportive ex-husband.
(rent on Prime or AppleTV) Sometimes we have to just set aside the biopics, the slice-of-life movies, the period costume dramas, the relationship portraits, and just get down with an honest-to-God thriller. But this original movie does not follow a tried and true formula. There are, for example, no globe-trotting super spies, no car chases, no gunplay. No movie stars anchor this show. There is no shadowy international conspiracy here; indeed, we know who the bad guys are and we have for a long time as they hide in plain sight. Instead, we have in this movie just a disparate group of young people who come together to try to force society to alter course on the subject of climate change, believing that the present incremental legislative strategy is much, much too slow to save the Earth from climate catastrophe. Can we really say they are wrong? Starring a group of up-and-coming young actors, including Ariela Barer (
Atypical), Forrest Goodluck (
The Revenant), Sasha Lane (
Hearts Beat Loud), Lukas Gage (
Euphoria), and Jayme Lawson (
The Woman King). Very entertaining.
also:
Best Actor nominees:
Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (Chevalier)
Luca Marinelli (The Eight Mountains)
Alessandro Borghi (The Eight Mountains)
Elliott Crosset Hove (Godland)
Roschdy Zem (Other People’s Children)
Best Actress nominees:
Sally Hawkins (The Lost King)
Virginie Efira (Other People’s Children)
Emma Mackey (Emily)
Florence Pugh (A Good Person)
Charlotte Rampling (Juniper)
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