The best films of 2023 so far

by Mitchel Green - July 5, 2023

| mitchelgreen34@gmail.com source: The Movie Database

It has not been a great year for movies so far. One of the big problems with this year so far has been the lack of anything worthwhile coming out of Hollywood studios — with most of this year’s best films being independent features from up-and-coming or established auteurs. There have been a few gems, however, and these six films are the highlights so far of a year that has been light on greatness:

Asteroid City

Leave it to Wes Anderson to create a film that intentionally pushes the viewer away and still manages to bury itself deep inside your mind until it forces you to come to terms with its apparent meaninglessness. Of course, it isn’t meaningless. It contains touching reflections on grief, being lost in a world when you have no guideposts and no clear answers, and what it means to make art, especially when you aren’t even sure what it is you’re making. “Asteroid City” doesn’t go for manipulation. If the viewer doesn’t open themselves up to its rich emotion, Anderson is happy leaving them behind. But the artist wants the viewer to trust him, and if they do, they will experience an overwhelming mixture of beauty and sadness in a confusing and meaningless world. In the end, Anderson’s pictures always come out.

BlackBerry

In a year with an annoying amount of corporate origin story films, only one tackles its narrative with the nastiness and cynicism required to make a film like this work. It helps when the product at its center no longer exists. That makes “BlackBerry” feel less like an advertisement and more like a warning. On the back of a sharp script and a powerful, terrifying Glenn Howerton performance as Jim Balsillie, warns of the perils of infinite growth, of the exploitation of those who make your industry run, and of having your company run by someone who fundamentally misunderstands what you are producing. It’s a message that should be heard across any industry but rings incredibly true against the backdrop of what’s going on in the film industry right now, with tech giants and business tycoons coming into major studios, disrespecting the artists responsible for making them money, and trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the business before tossing it aside and moving to the next. “BlackBerry” may be as hilarious as any movie released this year, but it’s also as terrifying. It’s a window into what may happen soon to the film industry if something doesn’t change.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Its blunt title primes the viewer not to expect some nuanced political message from “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” and that’s a good thing. Creating some sort of debate around both sides of an issue is pointless and almost always gets nowhere. What people need is action, and this movie gives them that. Rather than bog itself down in rhetoric, writer-director Daniel Goldhaber (along with co-writers Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol) focuses the film on process. As a result, they create a palpably intense, propulsive thriller that is entertaining and isn’t afraid to say something provocative. These characters aren’t constantly questioning whether or not they are doing the right thing, they’re already convinced of it. Disagree with the message all you want, but generating a strong reaction from anyone across the political spectrum is what the film is trying to do. It’s refreshing — art as an act of resistance. We need more movies like it.

Past Lives

“Past Lives” will resonate deeply with anyone who has left relationships unresolved. “What could have been?” is well-traversed thematic ground, but that doesn’t make it any less moving when handled as delicately as it is in Celine Song’s debut feature. Song holds back on formal invention and emotional melodrama to create an intimate portrait of two people whose timing was never right. It’s quiet, regretful, and unsatisfying because life always is. There’s never a specific moment “Past Lives” builds towards, letting the characters’ lives aimlessly drag the story to its downbeat, understated final goodbye. Much like Nora (the phenomenal Greta Lee), when Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) leaves, we feel like everything will be okay. And then it all comes rushing back. Nora breaks down, collapsing under the weight of the grand emotional experience she has just had through this small-stakes reunion with her childhood friend. We feel her pain because we have experienced it too.

Skinamarink

Though it may seem strange that a film where it's difficult to see anything would create a handful of arresting images, nothing this year has stuck with me more than “Skinamarink”’s long take of the toy phone followed by the burst of adrenaline that comes when it rings. The micro-budget, experimental horror hit is an exercise in slow cinema that can be easy to resist, but it envelops you, filling you with such deep dread despite not much happening on screen. It is the most anxiety-inducing film released this year, capturing the nightmarish feelings many had as a child when waking up in the middle of the night. What the film is about is still a mystery to me, but that doesn’t matter. Movies are about how they make us feel, and no film this year has made me feel as wide a range of unique emotions as “Skinamarink.”

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

The only great (and, I would contend, only good) blockbuster to come out of Hollywood so far this year is everything big-budget spectacles should be and so often aren’t. It’s visually dazzling and innovative, pushing the medium of animation’s boundaries to their breaking point, creating a tapestry of what feels like every art style under the sun and combining it with a lush, pulsating sonic soundscape. Its wonky, overstuffed narrative somehow goes on too long and stops before it reaches any conclusions. But the film is such a glorious fusion of visual and auditory art that it hardly makes a difference. There’s so much personality and life in every frame of this film, a rare feat in a genre that increasingly has the flat aesthetic of a sitcom set against brown sludge. Any superhero film that comes after that doesn’t reach these heights should feel embarrassed.