Alex’s Top 10 Films of 2023
2023 has felt like things are starting to get back on track for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic. The year has seen some fantastic films and box office numbers hitting some great heights, in particular that phenomena that was the Barbie and Oppenheimer weekend. It’s clear for the first time, in a long time that cinema is starting to look in good shape once again. While there are many films that are yet to be released in the UK that have made many other best of the year lists, here are my 10 favourite films realised in the UK in 2023.
10. Wonka (Paul King)
For many perhaps the biggest surprise of the year, but for fans of Paul King it comes as no surprise that this version of Wonka is the most fun he’s ever been. Invoking some of what makes Frank Capra so brilliant, the film feels like a community coming together, about good people bringing joy to others. The charming tale shows a new side to the story and to the character, opening up a new world for a new generation. It has soon become my favourite version of the character, delivering on the wonders of imagination.
9. Godzilla: Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)
After years of Godzilla on the big screen it was so refreshing to see (for my generation at least) a Godzilla film finally tie everything together. It ties together the best character story we’ve ever had, and mixes it with some of the best big monster destruction in years, to make a brilliant movie. Taking the film back to its post war roots gives extra character drama and higher stakes for a nation already recovering. In the end, more than the monster, it’s about finding family, finding your place in the world, and knowing what to fight and die for. Not only one the years best, but the best Godzilla film we’ve ever had.
8. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie)
The fact these films continue to entertain time and time again is a testament to everyone involved. The set pieces are what the franchise is now becoming famous for, but throughout the series the films have always had great characters that we care about, and this newest instalment keeps those characters coming, and pushes them to their limits. Perhaps featuring the tensest sequence of the year that demands you to be on the edge of your seat, there hasn’t been much better action this year.
7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (James Gunn)
Superhero fatigue seems to be the talk of the town at the minute, but earlier this year we got one of Marvels best ever movies. It was such a relief to see a superhero film again where the stakes were driven by character and not just your typical “the world will end”. The conflict is all character and all built on our empathy towards those characters, and everyone has their one arcs, goals, and motivations. It has quickly become one of my favourite comic book movies. In a time where Marvel has been pretty bad, it’s pretty great.
6. Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein)
One of the most surprising and fun times I’ve had in a long time. If this was 2002 and I was 8 this would end up as one of my favourites of all time. The film feels like such a throw back to swashbuckling adventure films with flashes of The Mummy, A Knight’s Tale, and The Mask of Zorro, the film captures that sense of adventure brilliantly. It shows Hollywood can make big fun adventure movies that can be funny while also being wrapped in a lot of love and heart.
5. Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
Barbie has infected the whole world. There doesn’t seem to be a person that didn’t see it or doesn’t know about it, and for good reasons. The film has been packed with so much creative talent and ambition that surely a new generation will fall in love with the art of filmmaking. It goes beyond Hollywood filmmaking and has pure artistic creativity throughout. The film showcase Gerwig’s talent, and contuses to show, for me, she is the most exciting director in Hollywood.
4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Since the very moment Christopher Nolan decided to start shooting on an IMAX camera, you can immediately see the difference in his approach to filmmaking. Everything suddenly got better with The Dark Knight (2008). Since then he has been growing in talent and ambition, until now his best showcase of those talents was his 2017 film Dunkirk. But now he has once again used those talents to tell the story of a single person. That focus gives his latest film the complexity of character that many of his films have lacked. For the first time, we take a deep look into a mans soul and Nolan allows the audience to ask real, important questions and take a look into the life of a brilliant flawed genius.
3. Babylon (Damien Chazelle)
Released in the UK in January, there haven’t been many films this year that have stayed with me as long. At first it was hard to understand what I had just watched, but like Hollywood itself, I couldn’t take my eyes away, and I was forever hooked. The film felt more alive than anything else this year, like Hollywood itself was living and breathing right in-front of me. It was enchanting, seductive and unattainable. The film felt like getting a glimpse behind the curtain, and I loved every minute if it. With strokes of La La Land and Whiplash, splashes of Boogie Nights and Goodfellas, it is a wild ride that I will revisit again and again.
2. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
From the moment the credits rolled, I wasn’t entirely sure what I had just seen. And for a few minutes, hours and days I was left with a feeling that not many pieces of art had given. I found myself asking questions on the meanings of loneliness in an ever growing world, and questions of life, art, and what it all means. For a long time now Wes Anderson has any been spoken about for his style, but there is always so much substance, and so much about life that you can take from his films, and Asteroid City is no different. Th film is so much more than its style and has more to say than any Anderson film has, and in the end it is more touching, moving and beautiful than anything he’s ever done.
1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
One of the rarest pieces of filmmaking in a long tome, by a filmmaker that only gets better in the way he uses his art form. It’s a film that not only looks into the history of greed and violence of men, but also a heartbreaking tale of evil finding its way into a community, and the horrors that they had to endure. It also asks us all to take a look in the role we play, and more than anyone, Scorsese himself asks what role he has played, and questions storytelling, truth and the nature of us all. Killers of the Flower Moon shows why film is so important and though it may not have made its money back, filmmaking is not about the numbers it made but the importance it has to culture, and no film so far this decade has been as important.
