This has been a pretty weird year for films on the whole. In between the WGA and SAG strikes, delays of films, the rise of AI, some of the most hyped and biggest budget films of the year underperforming, this has been a pretty precarious year for film. At the same time though, there have been clear success stories and moments which validate why so many people enjoy this medium, best exemplified to me through the Barbenheimer trend. Even with the quality of films, there haven’t been as many I’ve been wanting to properly talk about, with this being the year when I’ve done the lowest number of reviews for a while (outside of COVID). That said, when the films this year were good, they were really good and here are my top 10.
10. Godzilla Minus One
I’m fairly mixed on the Godzilla films as a whole. I’ve not seen enough of the Japanese films to really be an expert in the series, I didn’t like the anime trilogy at all and the Monsterverse has been a real mixed bag, with the only film in that series with Godzilla I’d happily rewatch being Godzilla vs Kong. That said, the live action Japanese Godzilla films I have seen, there have been some standouts. I really enjoyed what Hideaki Ano brought to the series with Shin Godzilla, but I think Takashi Yamazaki brings a great amount of emotional weight to the series with Godzilla Minus One. This film takes care to build up the characters, making you care about them in a way that other Godzilla films have not been able to do. It brings in themes of the ongoing damage of war, showing how, even several years after the end of World War 2, the Japanese psyche was struggling to recover and that it’s only by embracing the future and learning from the negative attitudes of the past that recovery can truly take place. It also demonstrates the need for some form of catharsis in society, with the battle against Godzilla giving the Japanese a sense of purpose that has been missing in people since the war. That’s not even getting into how good the action scenes are, with them doing a great job at making Godzilla terrifying and a powerful, destructive force of nature. This is the kind of serious storytelling that can and should be done with Godzilla, demonstrating how good kaiju films can be when they’re taken seriously.
9. BlackBerry
One of the weirdest trends in films this year has been what Wendy Ide has referred to as the ‘buy-opic,’ films about products with films like Air, Flamin’ Hot and Tetris. BlackBerry though is easily the top of the pack. Turning what could have been a really dry and boring film about mobile phone technology into one of the tightest, funniest films of the year, director Matt Johnson and co-writer Matthew Miller create a fun look at greed and hubris, showing the difficulties faced by the technology industry and how volatile the industry is, aided by excellent performances from Jay Baruchel and especially Glenn Howerton, who gives one of the best performances of the year. This is probably the closest we’ve gotten to a successor to The Social Network since that film was released.
8. Nimona
At one point, I thought this film would never see the light of day. After getting cancelled when Disney shut down Blue Sky, this could very easily have been buried by Disney. Instead, Netflix and Annapurna picked it up, and the result is one of the best animated films of the year. The futuristic/medieval aesthetic does wonders in showing both the advancements of this society, but also how it is being held back by its beliefs, creating a system where the true end goal of the film is that the system should be destroyed. The LGBTQ+ themes of the films will clearly resonate with an audience who would appreciate a film like this, with the love story in the film being tenderly done and Nimona’s identity speaking to those who are questioning their own identity. What really makes the film work though are the two lead characters, who have an amazing dynamic together, creating some of the funniest and most heartwarming scenes of the year, all of it being aided by excellent central performances from Chloe Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed, who have a brilliant rhythm with each other, their interplay being the beating heart of this film, making it such an entertaining watch.
7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
This has probably been the weakest year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a long time. In between disappointments in the films and shows, particularly Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion, this is the year where the focus on quantity has started to bite Marvel. However, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shows that, when a director is allowed to make their vision, there is still some amazing work that can come from the MCU. Being easily the darkest of the Guardians films, James Gunn makes a really powerful film about the nature of family and loss, showing how people can help each other move on from trauma, with Gunn’s understanding of the characters making this a really bittersweet experience in the end, with a lot of the power coming from Bradley Cooper’s work as Rocket. Every aspect of this film plays darker, from the more grimy visuals in the flashback sequences, the more moody songs in the soundtrack and a truly hateful villain performance from Chukwudi Iwuji. However, Gunn also knows when to make it lighter and more comedic, keeping the charm of the Guardians films present throughout, further helping us get invested in the characters. It is a shame that this is likely to be the last time for a while Gunn will be working with these characters, but I’m really excited to see what he’ll do with the DC films going forwards.
You can clearly see the original film that Scorsese was planning to make here, a more generic police procedural focusing on the investigations into the Osage murders. Whilst that may have been a good film, I doubt it would have been as interesting or engaging as the film we ended up getting. By listening more to the Osage and shifting the focus to the murders themselves, not the investigation, Scorsese has ended up making one of the most chilling films in his career, one that sickened me whilst I was watching, but in the way that Scorsese clearly intended. This is a harsh, brutal reminder of the greed and dehumanisation that can take place when people want to make as much money as possible, but that is not all there is here. By giving some of the focus to the Osage, especially with Lily Gladstone’s performance, it highlights the importance of traditions and culture, even at a time when these traditions are at risk of being lost, and the necessity of keeping these stories in the public consciousness.
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018, it ended up being a serious game changer in the animation industry. With other films we’ve seen in recent years, such as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, we have been seeing the long term impact of that film, with studios being more willing to play around with stylisation and frame rates to create unique visual styles. The first film would always have been a hard act to follow, but this film easily surpasses the first one. Whilst this does do more universe hopping, creating a much grander scope, at no point does it stop being the story of Miles Morales, being a fascinating character study into the mindset of being a hero and taking control of your own story, whilst being a direct refutation to the people who are saying that Miles Morales is not Spider-Man. The visuals here are still incredible, the style and movement for each universe and character, even when they’re only on screen for a few seconds, is incredible to see (although I wish the animators were treated better). It also helps that the performances bring a great deal of life and weight to the film, with performers like Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman, Shea Whigham and Brian Tyree Henry making the world of the film feel so real and lived in. I am eagerly awaiting the end of this trilogy and will happily wait to make sure the animators are given all the time they need to make the third film as strong as it can be.
The films of Hayao Miyazaki have always been a high watermark for anime, but I hadn’t really seen any of them in the cinema before. I had seen special revival screenings of some of his films, but never any of them when they were first released. When it was announced that The Boy and the Heron would be premiering at the London Film Festival last year, I made sure that I saw it and I am so glad I did. The wonder and imagination that Miyazaki and all of the animators at Studio Ghibli bring to this film is astonishing to see. You can feel how personal a film this is to Miyazaki through every frame, with the mix of the darker subject matter with surrealist ideals and imagery creating some unforgettable imagery. What really makes this film special though is its maturity, being a bittersweet look at loss and moving on from grief, showing the damage that can be done, both to the individual and to others, when grief and pain is bottled up. These themes help make the film a rich, rewarding experience to watch. I have seen both the subbed and dubbed versions of the film and, whilst I do prefer the subbed version, the dubbed version is excellent as well, with it being worth watching just for Robert Pattinson as the Heron.
3. Past Lives
This is a film that just snuck up on me. I wasn’t really familiar with it before watching it, I hadn’t seen many reviews or seen clips of it, but I went to an advanced screening and was just blown away by it. This is a bittersweet, emotionally mature film looking at the idea of what could have been, creating some really beautiful and tender moments, all aided by an incredible script from writer/director Celine Song and excellent central performances from Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro. You can easily see what the less intelligent version of this film could have been, but here, Song makes the more difficult choices, highlighting what is not being said to create some emotional gut punches, especially in the ending with the silence saying so much more than any dialogue could have. This is the kind of romance film that I wish we were seeing more of, and an amazing showcase for the talents of Celine Song.
As the rules for my lists are than any film that got its general release in the UK in 2023 is eligible, Women Talking managed to make its way onto the list here, even though I first saw it in 2022. Even though it has been well over a year since that first watch, it is a film that hasn’t really left my head in all the time since it was released. This is a powerful look at the nature of forgiveness, the need for women to assert their own identity and how men need to be willing to break the cycles of abuse that have been perpetuated for generations. All of the performances are excellent, with Jessie Buckley and Ben Whishaw being standouts to me, everyone knowing just how to play their characters to give the film as much power as it does. All of it is tied together through a really tight and intelligent script and direction from Sarah Polley and, whilst there are a few points where it felt a bit stagey, there was never an instance where I wasn’t completely riveted and engaged whilst watching this film.
1. Oppenheimer
Going back over my favourite films of each year since 2000, the director whose works have topped my lists the most is Christopher Nolan. Before this, there were four previous years where my favourite film of the year has been from Nolan, and another three years where his films have been in my top 10. It is a cliche for me to put a Nolan film on top of my list but I cannot deny that he is one of my favourite filmmakers and Oppenheimer is another demonstration of just how brilliant a director he is. Nolan is one of the few people I can think of who can get a studio to spend $100 million on a three hour long, 15-rated, partially black and white film about nuclear physics, let alone make it one of the biggest blockbuster hits of the year (buoyed by the Barbenheimer trend). This is an incredible showcase for Nolan’s technical skill, and that of his DP Hoyte van Hoytema, editor Jennifer Lame and composer Ludwig Goransson. The skills of everyone involved makes this an absolute triumph of tension and storytelling, with watching this for the first time in 70mm IMAX at the BFI IMAX in London being one of the best cinema experiences I had all year. It is also helped by the excellent performances, in particular Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr doing career best work, raising questions on the ethics and horror of nuclear weapons, the belief that someone wants to be punished for unleashing the horrors of nuclear war and whether there is such a thing as true objectivity. Sure there are problems, the third act can drag a bit and Nolan still has trouble writing women, but these do not take away from how incredible an experience Oppenheimer is. Even when I’ve watched it on blu-ray on my TV, none of the power in the film has been lost. I knew when I first walked out of it that it would be my favourite film of 2023 and this reaffirms my admiration for Christopher Nolan.
As per tradition, below is the ranking of all of the films I saw in 2023. Where I have not done a full review, my brief thoughts on the film are below.
- Rye Lane
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- The Fabelmans – In every frame of this film, you can feel just how personal this is to Steven Spielberg. You can feel the nostalgia that Spielberg has for this time in his life clearly, but he also doesn’t shy away from the personal issues he experienced, difficulties in the relationship he had with his family and the anti-Semitism he experience. Although this is not a direct biographical film for him, you get a sense of how difficult it would have been for Spielberg to get these emotions out on screen, with this being one of the best directed and written films of Spielberg’s in a long time, with the performances, particularly from Paul Dano and Michelle Williams, being outstanding and you can see just how important filmmaking is to Spielberg and how much he just lives and breaths cinema.
- Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
- Anatomy of a Fall – Even though there was an error the first time I saw where the subtitles didn’t work, and I didn’t find out until after the film as the cinema staff said they didn’t have subtitles, meaning I didn’t get the true experience until the second time around, this is still a really engaging legal drama about perceptions of life and truth, brought together by an excellent central performance from Sandra Hüller.
- Barbie
- The Killer
- How to Have Sex – This is one of the most uncomfortable films I’ve seen this year, demonstrating the casual misogyny and disrespect that the club scenes of places like Magaluf and Malia create, acting as an inverse to The Inbetweeners Movie, in showing just how disturbing and uncomfortable these places can be. This is a haunting look at consent, with Molly Manning-Walker creating a really disturbing film, highlighting the ugliness and uncomfortable, overly sexualised nature of this scene. There are some light points showing the kindness that some people can demonstrate and the friendships that can form, but these only act as a brief respite from the darkness that these environments create, with Mia McKenna-Bruce giving an outstanding central performance which gives the film a lot of its power.
- Wonka
- Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
- Still: A Michael J Fox Movie – I found this to be a really emotional and moving documentary, showing the brilliance of Michael J Fox as an actor and how horrible a disease Parkinson’s is, creating a great celebration of Fox’s career and life, but not sugarcoating the worst of it, giving a more rounded look at his life, which was the right path to take in creating a profound, touching film.
- Tetris – This is not the best of the product films this year, with there being some fairly generic plot elements, but there is a good sense of style that Jon S Baird brings to the film, the 8 bit aesthetic of certain scenes giving it a unique identity compared to other films of its ilk, with the story of the rights battle for Tetris being really engaging, with a fun, hammy performance from Roger Allam creating a character you love to hate, and a good underdog narrative from Taron Egerton, along with a strong look at the creative process and the idea of gaining compensation and recognition for personal creativity, the friendship between Henk Rogers and Alexei Pajitnov creating a strong heart for the film.
- Infinity Pool – This is the first film I’ve seen from Brandon Cronenberg, but it makes me want to go out and watch his other films. This is a brutal, nasty film that gives an disturbing look at the way people can live their lives when they know that they are not going to face consequences for their actions, showing the horrific effects of class on people and how it leads to a complete disregard for morality and compassion, with Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth giving really strong performances and a great, uncomfortable visual style being created by Cronenberg, helping to demonstrate that body horror is a genre that’s alive and well.
- The Whale
- The Old Oak
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret – This is a really strong coming of age film, showing the difficulties that can be faced by young people as they are discovering their identity and their place in the world, but also how these identity issues can still impact people later in life, with Abbey Ryder Fortson and Rachel McAdams giving excellent performances, creating a believable family dynamic that helps give the film a lot of its charm.
- Till – I found this to be a really tough watch, but in the best way for what the film is going for. Keeping most of the focus on Mamie Till-Mobley gives it the best way in to seeing the horrors experienced by the black population in the American south and shows how difficult it is to gain even the smallest semblance of justice for such a horrific crime, with there being clear resonance to modern times, with Danielle Deadwyler giving a tour de force performance that gives the film a lot of its power.
- Tár
- Blue Beetle – Easily the best film from the DCEU since the first Wonder Woman, whilst the villain is pretty weak, the lead performance from Xolo Maridueña is really charming, the focus on hispanic culture and familial identity gives it a unique feel compared to other superhero films, the look at gentrification adds some bite to the film and it is just a fun experience that demonstrates what the DCEU should have been focused on from the start.
- Peter Pan and Wendy – Whilst I think this would have been better if it was solely David Lowerey’s Peter Pan, this is still a solid update of the Peter Pan story, bringing in interesting ideas on growing up with Peter and Captain Hook being dark mirrors of each other, with the film aided by strong performances from Ever Anderson and Jude Law.
- Sisu – Whilst I still think Rare Exports is the best film this director has made, this is a slick, nasty action film, which would feel right at home in the grindhouse scene, with fun set pieces and a good tongue in cheek feel throughout.
- Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles – I didn’t expect a documentary on The Wiggles to be as strong as this, but, aside from rushed elements over people leaving the group, this is an entertaining look at how The Wiggles became such a cultural phenomenon and the demonstration of how child psychology helped influence the music and writing for The Wiggles helped give me a new appreciation for the skills of everyone involved.
- The Pigeon Tunnel – This is a really fascinating look at John Le Carre, with Errol Morris being the perfect person to handle it, creating a strong look at the dynamic between the spy and the author, with the difficulty in getting to grips on who Le Carre is being a key point for why the film works so well and making it a more compelling piece of cinema than a standard documentary would be.
- One Fine Morning – This is a really interesting look at the nature of philosophy, memory and aging and the complexities of modern relationships, with it being a really mature and intelligent look at these themes, with it all being supported by a career best performance from Lea Seydoux.
- Suzume
- Saint Omer – This is a really intelligent, morally complex film looking at immigration, the way French politics, courts and media treat people outside of the norm and the ways in which external events can cause a profound impact upon how people view their lives and their aims for the future.
- Rustin – As someone who likes seeing admin work in films, I found this having a focus on the logistics of organising the March on Washington to be really well handled, with Colman Domingo being perfectly cast as Rustin, with it showing the internal political divisions in the Civil Rights Movement and how there were still elements of discrimination at play and the focus on optics that helps create a more nuanced and compelling look at the organisations of the time.
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1
- Missing – This doesn’t have the same fresh quality that Searching had, but it is still a demonstration of the strong work that can be done with films framed through computer screens, creating a compelling mystery which works well presented in this style, with the performance from Storm Reid helping to anchor the film well. It does feel that little bit more gimmicky, but it is still a solid film.
- Accused – This is one of the most tense film experiences I’ve had all year, with Phillip Barrantini knowing how to create tension from all aspects of a film, with there being a strong look at online racism and how hate mobs can be swelled up quickly online, with the central performance from Chaneil Kular helping to make this a really intense experience.
- Maestro – I do think the first half in black and white is the better part of the film, but this is still a fascinating look at the relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre, looking at the creative process and elements of sexuality well, with Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan giving excellent performances and Cooper in the directors chair, along with DP Matthew Libatique and editor Michelle Tesoro creating some incredibly handled set pieces, such as the tribute to Bernstein’s stage work and his concert at Ely Cathedral.
- The Marvels – There are issues with the editing and it has one of the weakest villains in the MCU, it feeling like there should have been another film in-between Captain Marvel and this, but there are a lot of great comedic beats, the Memory scene being a highlight, the action scenes play with the shifting characters well and the interplay between Brie Larson, Teyonnah Paris and Iman Vellani (with Vellani being a scene stealer) make the film a lot of fun to watch.
- Pearl – Whilst I think this is a little bit over-rated, which may stem from it coming out significantly later in the UK compared to everywhere else so the hype was built up really high, with some plot beats not quite landing, mainly in how it connects to X, this is still a fascinating look at gender roles and the escapism that movies and entertainment can provide with a powerhouse central performance from Mia Goth holding the film together, and helps justify the use of old age make-up for Goth in X.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – Whilst I think some of the plot beats could have been fleshed out a bit more, particularly with Splinter, and the celebrity voice cast for the villains felt showy, rather than basing the performances on the characters, the central performances for the Turtles are all strong, aided by getting actual teenagers, this being the first time I felt the Turtles were teenagers, with the Spider-Verse inspired animation helping to bring a new life to this franchise and giving it a unique feel compared to other adaptations of the characters.
- Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
- Scrapper – Whilst I think the ending felt a bit rushed and it didn’t quite handle the tone as well as it could have, this is a solid look at a dysfunctional family dynamic, and how returning after a prolonged absence can cause a lot of trust issues, with excellent performances from Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson helping to buoy up the film.
- May December
- Theatre Camp – Whilst I think the mockumentary element isn’t utilised as well as it could have been and some of the characters felt underdeveloped, this is a really charming look at the importance of theatre and community for this group of people, with there being a lot of heart and honesty brought from the cast and crew, with Noah Galvin being the stand out, with the ending song being one of the best scenes of the year.
- The Burial – This is an interesting look at the racial dynamics that can be seen in trials and the way the funeral industry can be a more predatory sector to certain communities, with Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones working off each other really well to create dynamic characters and fun interplay that helps give the film a lot of its charm.
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Whilst this doesn’t reach anywhere close to the heights of Raiders and Crusade, I still found this to be a fun experience. There’s a different energy to the film brought by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, with her more cynical character making for a good foil to Indy, Harrison Ford is still strong as Indy, playing a more broken version of the character well and Mads Mikkelsen was kind of made to be an Indiana Jones villain. The script can be pretty weak at points and it felt a bit samey after a while, but I had a good bit of fun with it.
- Bottoms – There is a lot of good comedy here, aided by strong performances from Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edibiri, with there being decent ideas at play over self defence and mocking traditional masculinity, a lot of the best jokes being focused on the football team, but I don’t think the actual romance elements of the film work all that well and it does take the film down for me.
- Dream Scenario – Nicolas Cage gives one of his best performances and there is a decent look here at the way any aspect of life can be commodified if possible and the nature of sincerity in apologies, but I don’t think it handles the tone as well as it could have and the commentary on cancel culture felt half hearted.
- You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah – Whilst there are some character beats in the third act that didn’t really work for me, in terms of how the relationships develop, this is a pretty funny and charming film, with the two lead performances from Sunny Sandler and Samantha Lorraine helping to make it work.
- Flora and Son – Whilst I think this is the weakest film of John Carney’s that I’ve seen, this is still an engaging look at the role that music can play in helping improve peoples lives. There are tonal issues with the darker elements not quite landing as well as they could have, but the good songs and strong performances from Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt help to make it work.
- A Haunting in Venice – I think this may be the best of the Kenneth Branagh Poirot films, with the focus on a more gothic horror tone giving it a unique feel compared to the previous Poirot films, where most of the plot beats are really familiar. Sure there are plot beats that don’t quite make sense when you stop to think about them and the characters can feel a bit underdeveloped, but there is a clear sense of fun that Branagh brings that makes it an entertaining watch.
- Godland
- Saw X – Whilst I think the Saw films have been going downhill for a while, this is a showcase of how good Saw can be. Putting the focus on Tobin Bell and giving him a full movie to shine was absolutely the right choice, giving new life into the series and resulting in his best performance as Jigsaw. There is a decent look at medical conspiracies and how they can prey on vulnerable people to scam them and you do like to hate the villains. It does go down a bit when the traps start and it is a bit too long, but this is a pretty fun experience on the whole.
- Thanksgiving – Whilst I think some of the characters could have been developed more, this is a solid, nasty slasher film, showing the best of Eli Roth as a director. Sure there are plot beats that don’t really make sense, but there is a sense of fun with the horror that Roth brings, making this an entertaining experience.
- Air – There are really strong performances from Matt Damon and Viola Davis, with Ben Affleck bringing some life to the film as a director, but it didn’t fully work in selling the importance of the Air Jordans to me, as compared to something like One Man and His Shoes, and compared to films like Tetris and BlackBerry it is lacking.
- Elemental – Whilst this does have a more generic feel than other Pixar films, this is still a beautifully animated experience that does take time to consider the imolications of all the elemtns living toggether, brings in good thems about the immigrant experience and has a touching love story at its centre.
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – There are some plot beats at the end that I felt were a bit rushed and it doesn’t ave the emotional weight it probably should, but Jim Broadbent gives an excellent performance and it oworks pretty well as an exploration of the lingering efects of guilt and the efforts people go to to atone for past actions.
- Joy Ride – There are some decent comedic set pieces and emotional beats, aided by strong performances from Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu and Sherry Cola, with there being an interesting look at identity, but I didn’t laugh as often as I could have and I found some of the characters to be pretty annoying at points.
- Haunted Mansion – The production design of the mansion is excellent and I found there to be some fun in the plot, with the ghosts wanting people to stay in the mansion leading to some decent horror moments for younger audiences, but I felt like the focus should have been on Rosario Dawson, rather than LaKeith Stanfield, I found Tiffany Haddish to be pretty annoying and Jared Leto was the wrong choice for the Hatbox Ghost, when people like Reece Shearsmith or Julian Bleech are around.
- The Peasants – The animation in the film is stunning, the oil painting aesthetic giving it a unique feel that helps make it stand out, with it working brilliant to create the world and the emotional heft of the film, but I think the plot is trying to do too much in its runtime and it does prevent some of the characters from being as developed as they could be.
- Renfield – There is a decent look at the damage of an abusive, toxic relationship on someone’s psyche and it’s great to see Nicolas Cage hamming it up as Dracula, it being worth watching just for him, but the mafia plotline doesn’t work as a whole, feeling like a distraction from the more interesting central relationship between Renfield and Dracula.
- Knock at the Cabin – This is probably M Night Shymalan’s best film in years, with there being an interesting moral dilemma at its centre, aided by an excellent performance from Dave Bautista, coming across as equal parts sympathetic and threatening, but I don’t think the ending fully works, and it probably would have benefitted from a bit more ambiguity.
- Love at First Sight – Whilst I wasn’t a big fan of the narration and the constant appearances from Jameela Jamil felt out of place, there is a solid love story at the centre of the film, although this gets overshadowed by much better work from Dexter Fletcher and Sally Phillips, looking at how people respond to impending loss, and I would have much rather seen a film focused on these two.
- You Hurt My Feelings – Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Tobias Menzies give decent performances and there is a decent look at the issues that can be seen through hiding truths for fear of offending, but I don’t think the film goes quite far enough in showing how impactful this can be to really work as well as it could.
- Asteroid City – The production design is exceptional, leaning into the deliberate artificiality that Wes Anderson specialises in, and the cast are entertaining, but the whole experience didn’t quite work for me. I understand what Wes Anderson was going for in depicting the interplay between art and reality and how art can help create a greater understanding of the human experience, but the execution felt a bit muddled and unfocused and it felt a bit too self indulgent from Anderson, lacking the emotional heft of films like Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel.
- Napoleon – As to be expected from a Ridley Scott film the battle scenes, production design and cinematography are excellent, with Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby giving excellent performances. The problem here is tone, with it not being clear whether this should be a serious look at the psychology of Napoleon or a more satirical take on him, showing the weirder side of Napoleon. It tries to do both, but in the runtime it has it doesn’t get the tonal balance right.
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- The Great Escaper – Of the two films about someone leaving a care home to go to France for the D-Day memorial, this is the better film, buoyed by strong performances from Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson, acting as a fitting swan song for their careers. There are some good moments looking at the lingering psychological impacts of war, but I did find this a bit of a mixed bag on the whole, the script not having the gravitas needed, with the power more coming from Caine and Jackson rather than the writing and directing.
- Bank of Dave – This is a pretty solid film about class politics and how the banks want to retain their power, with Rory Kinnear giving a really good performance, showing the power of decency and trying to help ordinary people fight the banks, but the overall plot felt pretty weak and the elements focusing on Def Leppard really didn’t work on the whole.
- Devotion – The flight scenes are really well done and the performances from Glen Powell and Jonathan Majors are strong, but the overall plot felt pretty generic and I was left wanting a bit more from the film.
- The Little Mermaid
- Saltburn – This is a case where I understand what Emerald Fennell was going for, but it didn’t quite work for me. The performances are really good, with Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike being standouts, there is a decent look at the corrupting influence of greed and class division and it has a great ending scene with probably the best needle drop of the year, but the twist for Keoghan’s character does end up harming the film and doesn’t really work in retrospect.
- Dead Shot – Colin Morgan and Aml Ameen give good performances and there are good moments of tension, with this more personal take on the violence in The Troubles helping make a compelling central relationship, but it doesn’t have the bite that could make this a more compelling film.
- The Super Mario Bros Movie
- Flamin’ Hot – This just felt really generic and an overly long advert for Cheetos, not having the emotional weight it thinks it has, with the fact that this is pretty much all invented making it feel pretty cynical to me.
- Scream 6 – The horror set pieces in the film are pretty good and the performances are strong, with Jenna Ortega being a highlight, but there is something missing with Neve Campbell not being brought back, it could have done more of a look into toxic fan culture, like Scream (2022) did and the killer reveal at the end didn’t really work as I didn’t have enough of a connection with the characters to buy it.
- Quiz Lady – There is a decent message here about familial bonds and some good comedic bits, aided by a solid central performance from Awkwafina, but I found Sandra Oh’s character to be pretty annoying and horrible for most of the film, with there not being enough at the end of the film to make the relationship really work.
- The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan/The Three Musketeers: Milady – I’ve paired these two together as it is clearly a case where this is a single film split into two. If I was ranking the films individually, D’Artagnan would be higher, as this is a better film, but both films suffer from an overly complicated plot which doesn’t mesh the politics well into it and irritating shaky cam action scenes, which try to go for the one take approach, but the actual filming takes it down. Milady though is clearly the weaker film with some really stupid character choices, plot beats which are repeated from the first one and a pretty lazy cliffhanger ending.
- The Lesson – There are decent performances from Daryl McCormick and Richard E Grant, with there being a solid hook in terms of depicting an emotionally abusive relationship and the interplay between art and life, but the character beats at the end felt pretty rushed and predictable and I didn’t get the catharsis I think was intended. –
- Next Goal Wins – There is some good comedy here and a heartwarming feel to it, with a decent central performance from Michael Fassbender and an interesting look at American Samoan culture, but the majority of the characters in the football team felt underdeveloped, I really didn’t like how it used deadnaming as a point for character growth and it felt like it was using some of the real tragedy that affected Thomas Rongen in a pretty distasteful manner.
- Cocaine Bear – This is a film that probably would have been better if it was worse. The direction from Elizabeth Banks is solid and the performances are decent, but the writing feels underdeveloped and it never quite manages the tone, trying to do a bit too much, focusing on an anti-drug message, the differences between motherhood and toxic masculinity
- Sharper – The cast is solid throughout, with Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan being highlights (although the film wastes John Lithgow) and there are some interesting character beats, but it feels like a lot of the more interesting plot elements happen off screen and it does feel like it’s trying to be clever with the non linear narrative, but it’s not as smart as it thinks it is.
- Babylon
- Dumb Money – This is a case of a film wanting to be another The Big Short but not getting the balance right. The performances are solid and I appreciated it showing a variety of people that were involved in this event, but it makes the Reddit posters come across as an overall net positive, ignoring the unsavoury aspects of Reddit, and it didn’t do a good enough job at explaining the GameStop shorting to make it understandable to a general audience.
- Nyad – Annette Benning and Jodie Foster give strong performances, I liked that it didn’t sugar coat the more negative aspects of Nyad and the actual swimming scenes are really well directed, but knowing some of the controversy over the real Diana Nyad did take me out of the film, the script didn’t do a good enough job to me of explaining why Nyad wanted to do the swim and why everyone was around her. This is a subject that the directors should have done as a documentary rather than a narrative film.
- The Last Rifleman – It didn’t help that this came out so soon after The Great Escaper, but on its own, this is a fairly forgettable film. There’s a strong central performance from Pierce Brosnan, but he is drowned by pretty bad old age makeup and a script that doesn’t quite get the tone right on the whole. When it works, there are some really moving scenes, but these felt a bit too few and far between.
- Pain Hustlers – This is a case where I’m not sure what possessed David Yates to make this film. After directing pretty much only Harry Potter films for the past 16 years (with his only film outside this being a Tarzan film), I can see him wanting to make something smaller scale, but he doesn’t get the style right for a film like this. There are strong performances from Emily Blunt and Chris Evans and an interesting look at the painkiller industry and how it preys on people to make money, but this doesn’t have the tonal balance of something like The Big Short, which it is clearly trying to be.
- To Catch a Killer – The performances are pretty strong throughout and there are interesting ideas at play about government figures covering up their own incompetence but the film as a whole feels pretty generic and it doesn’t go into enough depth on the characters.
- Boston Strangler – This is a decently enough film with strong work from Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon, but the general trappings feel far too much like an attempt to ape Zodiac and the ending gets pretty convoluted.
- Eileen – The performances from Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie are strong and I liked the look the film has over obsession and abuse, with these elements being aided by strong direction from William Oldroyd, but I wasn’t a fan of the way the third act developed. I can see what was being aimed for, with how the characters develop, but it didn’t quite work for me, and I feel like there was something missing at the end to tie this all together, in a way that would make it more solid as a whole.
- A Man Called Otto – It’s fun seeing Tom Hanks play against type here, being a more curmudgeonly presence and this leads to some solid character development for him as the film goes on, and there are some interesting ideas here about the nature of community and acceptance of trans identity, but having a more comedic tone doesn’t mesh with some of the darker elements of the script.
- Plane – There are some good action set pieces and this is the kind of film where someone like Gerard Butler thrives, but the film as a whole is a tonal mess, being way too dark and serious for its own good, the characters are underdeveloped and I didn’t like how the film presented private mercenaries as a unilateral force for good.
- Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom – There are some good comedic bits in here and Vincent Cassel is clearly having fun as Caesar, but most of the performances feel wooden, the writing for the characters is pretty poor with weak motivations throughout and the direction and CG work doesn’t capture the charm of Asterix. It goes to show that Asterix works so much better in animation than live action.
- Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- Meg 2: The Trench – I am a fan of Ben Wheatley and the third act shows the fun that Wheatley can bring to a blockbuster when he’s given the chance to let loose, but the majority of the film is pretty boring and murky to watch, going backwards from the first film.
- Gran Turismo – The driving scenes are well done and the performances from Archie Madekwe and David Harbour are fun, but the script is incredibly generic, going into every single trope of sports films and doing nothing special with it.
- The Beanie Bubble – The performances are pretty good on the whole but the script is pretty poor, not giving enough of an insight into the characters or why Beanie Babies took of the way they did.
- Paradise – There are interesting ideas at play here about control over aging and resources being controlled by the wealthy, but the characters are pretty much all unlikeable and a third act twist ends up destroying any sympathy you could have for any of them, which ends up killing the film. This felt like something that could have been explored much better in an episode of Black Mirror.
- The Independent – This could have been an engaging film about a third party candidate who could have a real shot at the US presidency, with solid performances from John Cena, Jodie Turner-Smith and Brian Cox, something that could have been a modern version of The Candidate. Instead it’s a pretty generic film about journalism that doesn’t have any real bite to it and doesn’t really have any courage in its convictions and botches its denouement by forgetting that there’s already a newspaper called The Independent.
- A Good Person – The performances from Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman are strong but the film as a whole feels really heavy handed, with a plot development in the third act that pretty much destroyed the credibility of the film, with some elements that really could have been expanded on, such as the relationship between Alison and Nathan prior to the crash that starts the film.
- Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre – Normally, Guy Ritchie can make something fun out of a premise like this and it felt like a good vehicle for Jason Statham, but it doesn’t have the sense of fun that it needs, with character actions feeling pretty forced and Statham being pretty unlikeable. There is some fun from the dynamic between Josh Hartnett and Hugh Grant, but this isn’t enough to save the film.
- Love Again – Whilst Priyanka Chopra Jonas gives a decent performance looking at the lingering effects of grief, I found Sam Heughan to be lacking the charisma needed for the part, which made the romance scenes flounder. There are some good laughs at points and decent supporting work from Russell Tovey, Omid Djalili, Lydia West and Steve Oram, but the central romance doesn’t quite work and the Celine Dion scenes, whilst having some heart at points, felt pretty manufactured as a promo for her tour.
- Wingwomen – Melanie Laurent and Adele Exarchopolous have good chemistry together which helps hold a lot of the film together, but there are quite a lot of character beats that don’t have the weight needed for it to work, especially at the ending, with it not being sure whether it wants to be a more serious or comedic take on this subject.
- Magic Mike’s Last Dance – The final dance sequence is brilliantly staged, I really liked how it has a keen focus on consent and the sexual desires of women and the performances from Channing Tatum and Selma Hayek Pinault are good, but the narration is terribly delivered and falls flat, the plot and character beats don’t hold together and there isn’t a real ending, it just stops with no resolution to the plot. It feels like it was made to be an advert for Magic Mike Live, rather than to be a film in its own right. The most entertainment value I got, as a fan of Cheapshow, was imagining Ethan Lawrence filming this then going to the Cheapshow 300th episode, going from Tatum and Hayek Pinault to Grumpy Sessions and Jimmy Biscuits.
- Wish
- The Son
- What’s Love Got to Do With It – This could have been an interesting rom com looking at the nature of modern arranged marriages. Instead it’s a generic and predictable rom com that just feels like it’s covering material that was handled so much better in films like The Big Sick.
- The Pale Blue Eye – This could have been a good murder mystery, bringing in elements of gothic horror to the genre, and, whilst the performances and production design are decent, it’s let down by a script with dull characters, a poorly defined mystery and a third act that goes pretty much off the rails into stupidity, with a twist that comes right out of nowhere and destroys the credibility of the film.
- Bird Box: Barcelona – I wasn’t a fan of the first Bird Box but there was potential for the series to continue, and having a focus on one of the cultists did bring some life to the series, but the characters are not really well written so you don’t really care about them and I didn’t buy the way the main character evolved as the film went on.
- Cat Person – The performances from Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun are strong and this could have been a strong dissection of the ways that men can more subtly threaten and devalue women and the way women keep themselves on edge due to this, but it’s bogged down by weird creative choices such as internalised therapy sessions that should have been present throughout but only crop up in one or two scenes, and any power the film could have is destroyed by a terrible ending. At its best, it does make for a good character study (there’s a great scene where we see multiple versions of Emilia Jones’ character interact internally as she navigates a horrible scenario), but it doesn’t know whether it wants to be a realistic horror or a dark comedy, this tonal dissonance hurting the film in ways it cannot recover from.
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods – This takes all of the charm that was seen in the first film and throws it away by having more focus on Billy as Shazam than Billy as himself, it doesn’t have the same fun dynamic of the family as the first one and it ends up being a bit of a slog on the whole, with boring villains, a finale that just felt like empty noise with too much product placement and an ending that felt pretty lazy in how plot threads are resolved.
- Empire of Light
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – I wasn’t a fan of the first Aquaman and none of the things that were issues to me in that one are resolved here. The characters feel really flat and whilst the actors do try to give it life, I’m just not a fan of Jason Momoa’s take on Aquaman, although there are some good scenes with Patrick Wilson. The plot feels half hearted, wanting to make a point about climate change but not really willing to back it up, the ending is just the same as Black Panther and I was just bored watching it.
- The Mother – There could have been some interesting bits here about motherhood and playing up the action in this way, kind of like a more grounded version of the dynamic in Aliens, but a weak script and a pretty miscast Jennfier Lopez take the film down.
- Five Nights at Freddy’s – Despite the incredible animatronic work from the Jim Henson Creature Shop (seriously, these are some of the best animatronics put to film in a long time), this is a film plagued by poor characterisation, a plot that doesn’t make any sense if you think about it, horror that is really watered down making it not scary in the slightest, reliant on cheap jump scares rather than actual tension and attempts to pander to the audience of the games that either took me out of the film (such as the MatPat cameo) or result in plot beats that don’t have any meaning to people who aren’t familiar with the games (such as the reveal of the killer, which doesn’t work as the audience is not familiar with the persons name beforehand and the physical reveal is given no weight, as it assumes the audience would already know who it is, but the actual build up and clues for it are pretty much non existent). I saw this in an audience packed with fans of the games, and after the film most of the comments I was overhearing were saying that they did not like the film. When even the target audience for the film doesn’t like it, you know it’s a failure.
- The Flash – One of the most cynical films I’ve seen this year. There are some decent performances from Sasha Calle and Michael Keaton, even if they are underutilised, but Ezra Miller is incredibly annoying, it has some of the worst CG I’ve ever seen in a film and the plot is a complete mess, with the cameos at the end, including resurrecting Christopher Reeve and George Reeves feeling really distasteful.
- Marlowe – Liam Neeson makes for a decent Marlowe and there’s solid production design, but this is just a dull film, doing nothing interesting with the film noir genre and the central mystery just isn’t interesting, with boring characters and it makes it convoluted rather than intriguing, missing what makes mysteries in noirs work.
- Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire – There are some good visuals at points, as to be expected from Zack Snyder, but on the whole this is one of the most thoroughly unoriginal films I’ve seen in a long time. None of the characters are given any real depth, the story is just a rehash of Seven Samurai and a lot of the visuals are mired in this murky, brown mess that makes it pretty ugly to look at for large chunks, with the stronger visual elements being few and far between. There is no reason for the film as is to be released when we know there’s a directors cut coming, which should have been released in the first instance.
- You People – What could have been a good comedy about prejudices and microaggressions is instead just deeply uncomfortable to watch. Despite a decent cast, pretty much every character is badly written and goes so hard with the cringe comedy, but with no real charm to back it up.
- Ghosted – This is one of the most bland and forgettable films I’ve seen in a long time. Aside from one or two decent jokes this does absolutely nothing unique or interesting and is dealt a fatal blow right from the start with Chris Evans (who is completely miscast) and Ana de Armas having no romantic chemistry with each other, with this firmly establishing to me that Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are not the strong writers the Deadpool films (which I think are overrated) created the perception of them being.
- Allelujah – This should have been a fairly optimistic and light hearted celebration of the NHS, but instead it has one of the most misguided tones I’ve seen in a film, with an ending that beggars belief. I almost recommend watching it with a full audience, particularly an elderly audience, to see just how off the rails it gets, trying to be a tribute to the NHS, an indictment of the government during COVID and a serial killer mystery. This is the kind of bad film you get when everything you can think of goes wrong.
- The Exorcist: Believer – This is a film made by people who have seen The Exorcist, but didn’t understand it. Every aspect of this film, aside from the central performance from Leslie Odom Jr, doesn’t work. Rather than rely on atmosphere, this is focused on cheap jump scares, which don’t have any weight as we don’t fully know the characters so we aren’t invested in the story. The use of the Haiti earthquake feels really disrespectful and you could cut Ellen Burstyn out of the film entirely and nothing would be lost. Between this, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, David Gordon Green should stop making horror films.
- Strays – What could have been a good riff on The Incredible Journey and had some interesting points on pet ownership is instead a really juvenile and dull comedy. There were only two points where I mildly chuckled and the attempts at sincerity do not mesh with the humour of the film.
- Hypnotic – This starts as a fairly innocuous mystery film which devolves into an incomprehensible mess that plays like a worse version of the Black Mirror episode White Bear.
- On a Wing and a Prayer – Whilst it’s better than most modern Christian films this is still a very boring experience, plagued by bad acting, a script which has no believable dialogue, terrible CG, a subplot with two kids that adds absolutely nothing to the film and could have been cut out with no impact on the film and a badly shoehorned in Christian message.
- Robots – This is just an unpleasant film to watch, the characters are deeply unlikeable and it doesn’t do a good job at building them up. It doesn’t help that there are no good jokes.
And for the last tradition, below are my favourite 40 performances of the year. As usual, I have done it as one performance per film and per performer.
- Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
- Greta Lee – Past Lives
- Brendan Fraser – The Whale
- Jessie Buckley – Women Talking
- Cate Blanchett – Tár
- Michael Fassbender – The Killer
- Danielle Deadwyler – Till
- Lea Seydoux – One Fine Morning
- Mia McKenna-Bruce – How to Have Sex
- Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
- Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall
- Colman Domingo – Rustin
- Elliott Crosset Hove – Godland
- Ryan Gosling – Barbie
- Carey Mulligan – Maestro
- Chloë Grace Moretz – Nimona
- Lola Campbell – Scrapper
- Jenny Slate – Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
- Dave Turner – The Old Oak
- Bradley Cooper – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- Mia Goth – Pearl
- Glenn Howerton – BlackBerry
- Nicolas Cage – Dream Scenario
- Abbey Ryder Fortson – Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret
- Vivian Oparah – Rye Lane
- Hailee Steinfeld – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Charles Melton – May December
- Paul Dano – The Fabelmans
- Halle Bailey – The Little Mermaid
- Vanessa Kirby – Napoleon
- Dave Bautista – Knock at the Cabin
- Ayo Edibiri – Bottoms
- Nanoka Hara – Suzume
- Iman Vellani – The Marvels
- Harvey Guillén – Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Jim Broadbent – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
- Jason Schwartzman – Asteroid City
- Chaneil Kular – Accused
- Tobin Bell – Saw X
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus – You Hurt My Feelings
Coogs Reviews 