By Lance St. Laurent, Cinematheque and Wisconsin Film Festival Project Assistant and Programmer
My favorite movies released in 2023, in ascending order:
15. BARBIE (Greta Gerwig)
14. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. (Kelly Fremon Craig)
13. THE IRON CLAW (Sean Durkin)
12. THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL (William Friedkin)
11. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (Chad Stahelski)
10. MAY DECEMBER (Todd Haynes)
9. FERRARI (Michael Mann)
8. THE BOY AND THE HERON (Hayao Miyazaki)
7. THE KILLER (David Fincher)
6. POOR THINGS (Yorgos Lanthimos)
5. ASTEROID CITY + THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR/THE SWAN/THE RAT CATCHER/POISON (2023, Wes Anderson)
4. THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Jonathan Glazer)
3. ALL OF US STRANGERS (Andrew Haigh)
2. OPPENHEIMER (Christopher Nolan)
1. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (Martin Scorsese)
Honorable mentions, in alphabetical order:
AFIRE (Christian Petzold)
ANATOMY OF A FALL (Justine Triet)
DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel)
THE HOLDOVERS (Alexander Payne0
MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE (Steven Soderbergh)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE (Christopher McQuarrie)
YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (Nicole Holofcener)
The movies on the following list of favorites were all originally released before 2023, but I saw them all for the first time last year. In alphabetical order, they are:
LA DOLCE VITA (Federico Fellini, 1960)
THE DRIVER (Walter Hill, 1978)
THE FEARLESS HYENA (Jackie Chan, 1979)
JOURNEY TO ITALY/VIAGGIO IN ITALIA (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
ORLANDO (Sally Potter, 1992)
RUGGLES OF RED GAP (Leo McCarey, 1935)
THE SCARLET EMPRESS (Joseph von Sternberg, 1934)
THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (Bela Tarr, 2000)
THE WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME (Mike Jittlov, 1979)