2023 IN FILM

Of the 700+ titles I saw this year, these were my most favourite. A Top 30 & many many honorables. Also, my 2023 film ballot at the Wandering Image, highlighting the year's best in film by category.

30.             POOR THINGS

29.          THE HOLDOVERS

28.  JIGARTHANDA DOUBLEX

27.        STREETWISE  街娃儿

26.

QUEENS OF THE QING DYNASTY

           THE DISAPPEARANCE 

25.           OF SHERE HITE

                  

24.        ANATOMY OF A FALL

23. 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

                      

                 INFINITY POOL

22.    ["Uncut" version]

21.            UNICORN WARS

20.             SHOWING UP

19.               WALK UP

.

18.

ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT

17.        MINIMATA MANDALA

16.             SKINAMARINK

.

15.            REWIND & PLAY

.

14.               ENYS MEN

.

13.                   AFIRE

12.            THE SEVERING

                 

11.         SHIN KAMEN RIDER

.

10.           FALLEN LEAVES

9.                      COMA

.

            THE TASTE OF THINGS

8.       [LA PASSION DE DODIN BOUFFANT]

.

7.       THE ZONE OF INTEREST

.

      

6.              MAY DECEMBER

              

5.               PAST LIVES

4.                 OUR BODY

                    MY LOVE

3.       AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE

2.     THE BOY AND THE HERON

1.

DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA

*****

ALSO ESSENTIAL. NOT RANKED.

(the other titles of 2023 I loved that could've placed)

WHEN EVIL LURKS

MONSTER  怪物

RAID ON THE LETHAL ZONE

TO KILL A TIGER

THE PLAINS

MOON GARDEN

DIVINITY

SISU

TALK TO ME

PERFECT DAYS

NYC RGB

SHIN ULTRAMAN

FERRARI

ASTEROID CITY

MENUS PLAISIRS – LES TROISGROS

TORI AND LOKITA

THE FIVE DEVILS

PERLIMPS

THE KILLER

GODZILLA MINUS ONE

MAD FATE

SPIDER-MAN: 

ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

ERNEST & CELESTINE: 

A TRIP TO GIBBERITIA

POISON

R.M.N.

DRY GROUND BURNING

EARTH MAMA

THE INNOCENT

MISS SHAMPOO

THE NIGHT OF THE 12TH

IN OUR DAY

CHUTES

MAMI WATA

¡QUE VIVA MÉXICO!

HIDDEN BLADE

ANSELM 3D

Nienke Deutz's THE MIRACLE

THE INVENTOR

ONCE WITHIN A TIME

THE VENTURE BROS: RADIANT 

IS THE BLOOD OF THE BABOON HEART

HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE

ROBOT DREAMS

DREAMKILL

[V/H/S/85 segment]

LOVE LIFE

THE LAST 

VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER

MIISUFY

KOKOMO CITY

THE SWEET EAST

SCARLET [L'ENVOL]

JOYLAND

GODS OF MEXICO

THE LEAGUE

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

YOU HURT MY FEELINGS

SILENT NIGHT

ALL OF US STRANGERS

WHEN FOREVER DIES

HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE

STORY OF SYD BARRETT & PINK FLOYD

L’IMMENSITÀ

 

LITTLE RICHARD: 

I AM EVERYTHING

SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING

CHICKEN RUN: 

DAWN OF THE NUGGET

OUR UNIFORM

מכתב לחזיר

LETTER TO A PIG

PRISCILLA

ABATTOIR, U.S.A!

MASTER GARDENER

YOGI BERRA: IT AIN’T OVER

THE PIGEON TUNNEL

****

recap

2023

1. FABRIC OF THE HUMAN BODY                                                                  (Castaing-Taylor/Paravel)
2. BOY AND THE HERON (Miyazaki)
3. MY LOVE AFFAIR W/MARRIAGE (Baumane)
4. NOTRE CORPS (Claire Simon)
5. PAST LIVES (Celine Song)
6. MAY DECEMBER (Haynes)
7. ZONE OF INTEREST (Glazer)
8. LA PASSION DE DODIN BOUFFANT                                                              (Anh Hung Tran)
9. COMA (Bonello)
10. FALLEN LEAVES (Kaurismäki)
11. SHIN KAMEN RIDER (Hideaki Anno)
12. THE SEVERING (Pellington)
13. AFIRE (Petzold)
14. ENYS MEN (Jenkin)
15. REWIND & PLAY (Gomis)
16. SKINAMARINK (K.Edward Ball)
17. MINAMATA MANDALA (Kazuo Hara)
18. ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT                                                              (Raven Jackson) 
19. WALK UP (Hong sangsoo)
20. SHOWING UP (Reichardt)
21. UNICORN WARS (Vázquez)
22. INFINITY POOL (B.Cronenberg)
23. KILLERS OF FLOWER MOON (Scorsese)
24. ANATOMY OF A FALL (Triet)
25. DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE (Newnham)
26. QUEENS OF QING DYNASTY (McKenzie)
27. STREETWISE (Jiazuo Na)
28. JIGARTHANDA DOUBLE X (K.Subbaraj)
29. THE HOLDOVERS (Payne)
30. POOR THINGS (Lanthimos)

RUNNER-UP:

WHEN EVIL LURKS (Rugna), MONSTER (Hirokazu koreeda), RAID ON LETHAL ZONE (Herman Yau), TO KILL A TIGER (Pahuja), THE PLAINS (Easteal), MOON GARDEN (R.Stevens Harris), DIVINITY (Alcazar), SISU (Helander), 

TALK TO ME (Philippou bros), PERFECT DAYS (Wenders), NYC RGB (Schmid), SHIN ULTRAMAN (Shinji Higuchi), FERRARI (Mann), ASTEROID CITY (Wes Anderson), MENUS PLAISIRS LES TROISGROS (Wiseman), TORI & LOKITA (Dardenne bros), FIVE DEVILS (Mysius), PERLIMPS (Abreu), THE KILLER (Fincher), GODZILLA MINUS ONE (Takashi Yamazaki), MAD FATE (Soi Cheang), ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (Dos Santos/Powers/JK Thompson), ERNEST & CELESTINE TRIP TO GIBBERITIA (Chheng/JC Roger), POISON (Wes Anderson), R.M.N. (Mungiu), MATO SECO EM CHAMAS (Pimenta/Queirós), EARTH MAMA (Leaf), L'INNOCENT (L.Garrell), MISS SHAMPOO (Giddens Ko), LA NUIT DU 12 (Moll), IN OUR DAY (hong sangsoo), CHUTES (K.Sutton), MAMI WATA (Obasi), ¡QUE VIVA MÉXICO! (L.Estrada), HIDDEN BLADE (Er Cheng), ANSELM (Wenders), THE MIRACLE (Nienke Deutz), THE INVENTOR (Capobianco), ONCE WITHIN A TIME (Reggio), VENTURE BROS.: RADIANT IS THE BLOOD (McCulloch), HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE  (Goldhaber), ROBOT DREAMS (P.Berger), DREAMKILL [V/H/S/85 segment] (Derrickson), LOVE LIFE (Kôji Fukada), LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (Øvredal), MIISUFY (Grünberg), KOKOMO CITY (D.Smith), SWEET EAST (S.Price Williams), L'ENVOL (Marcello), JOYLAND (Sadiq), GODS OF MEXICO (Dosantos), THE LEAGUE (Pollard), JOHN WICK 4 (Stahelski), YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (Holofcener), SILENT NIGHT (Woo), ALL OF US STRANGERS (Haigh), WHEN FOREVER DIES (Gelderblom), HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? SYD BARRETT + PINK FLOYD (Bogawa/Thorgerson), L’IMMENSITÀ (Crialese), LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING (Cortes), SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING (Dupieux), CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF NUGGET (Fell), OUR UNIFORM (Moghaddam), LETTER TO A PIG (Kantor), PRISCILLA  (S.Coppola), ABATTOIR U.S.A! (Aria Dean), MASTER GARDENER (Schrader), IT AIN’T OVER (Mullin), PIGEON TUNNEL (Morris)

STOPMOTION (R.Morgan) 2024 release

MOUNTAIN QUEEN: 

SUMMITS OF LHAKPA SHERPA (Walker) 2024

EUREKA (Lisandro Alonso) TBA release

THE COFFEE TABLE (Casas) 2024 release

(festival films I loved that got no 2023 theatrical release & no distribution)

AMERICAN FICTION (Cord Jefferson), ORIGIN (DuVernay), RUSTIN (George C. Wolfe), BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT (Bway/C.Sharp), FOUR DAUGHTERS (Kaouther Ben Hania), 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (Chernov), OCCUPIED CITY (McQueen), IO CAPITANO (Garrone), ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET (K.Fremon Craig), BALLERINA (Chung-Hyun Lee), FULL TIME (Gravel), BOYS IN THE BOAT (Clooney), FATHER'S DAY (Ruhorahoza), HUESERA: BONE WOMAN (Garza Cervera), RAGING GRACE (Zarcilla), BOUDICA: QUEEN OF WAR (JV Johnson), DOWN LOW (Doyle), ROTTING IN THE SUN (Silva), EL CONDE (Larraín), RUN RABBIT RUN (Daina Reid), THE BURIAL (Betts), FAIR PLAY (Domont), BAD THINGS (Thorndike), YOUTH [SPRING] (Wang Bing), UNSEEN (Okumura), OUTLAW JOHNNY BLACK (M.Jai White), DELIVER US (Ennis/Roy Kunz), SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (Hints), THE PEASANTS (Welchman bros), BLUE GIANT (Yuzuru Tachikawa), LOST IN THE NIGHT (Escalante), IN MY MOTHER'S SKIN (Dagatan), PACIFICTION (Serra), BLUE JEAN (Oakley), KING COAL (McMillion Sheldon), DICKS: THE MUSICAL (Charles), IN THE COURT OF CRIMSON KING: KING CRIMSON AT 50 (Amies), ALCARRÀS (Carla Simón), NYAD (Chin/Vasarhelyi), MILLION MILES AWAY (Márquez Abella), MARS ONE (Martins), MONICA (Pallaoro), PLAN 75 (Chie Hayakawa), SCRAPPER (Regan), WORLD WAR III ( Seyyedi), OUR FATHER THE DEVIL (Foumbi), AFTER LOVE (Aleem Khan), RYE LANE (Allen-Miller), THE DELINQUENTS (Rodrigo Moreno), ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (Yûsuke Ishida), THE SHEPHERD (Softley), SOCIETY OF THE SNOW (Bayona), THE BEASTS (Sorogoyen), DEEPEST BREATH (McGann), STONEWALLING (Ji Huang/Ryûji Otsuka), REALITY (Satter), CREATURE WAS STIRRING (LeVeck), THE OLD OAK (Loach), WAR PONY (Gammell/Keough), REVOIR PARIS (Winocour), THERAPY DOGS (Eng), WAITING FOR THE LIGHT TO CHANGE (Linh Tran), HANNAH HA HA (Pikovsky/Tetewsky), MUTT (Lungulov-Klotz), CASH COW (Barats), SAM NOW (Harkness), THE YEAR BETWEEN (Heller), EAR FOR EYE (D.Tucker Green), AMANDA (Cavalli), BEFORE NOW & THEN (Andini), MISTER ORGAN (Farrier), LAST KINGDOM: 7 KINGS MUST DIE (Bazalgette), CLOCK (Jacknow), FEMME (SH Freeman/Choon Ping), SEAGRASS (Hama-Brown), THE BLUE CAFTAN (Touzani), QUASI (Heffernan), CIRCUS MAXIMUS (lots of people), UNREST (Schäublin), TRENQUE LAUQUEN PT.1 (Citarella), ORLANDO MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY (Preciado), WILL-O’-THE-WISP (JP Rodrigues), USERS (Almada), WHITE BUILDING (Neang), HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS (Wilmont), TOPOLOGY OF SIRENS (J.Davies), WHITE BALLS ON WALLS (Vos), HAPPER’S COMET (Taormina), INFLUENCER (Harder), FOLLOW HER (Caminer), SUITABLE FLESH (J.Lynch), A STILL SMALL VOICE (Lorentzen), VIDUTHALAI: PART I (Vetrimaaran), BAYI AJAIB (Prijanto), MOSCOW MISSION (Herman Yau), EVERYTHING WENT FINE (Ozon), NEELAVELICHAM (Abu), NANPAKAL NERATHU MAYAKKAM ( Pellissery), DEEP ASTRONOMY & THE ROMANTIC SCIENCES (McAbee), LA CIVIL (Mihai), SUBJECT (Tiexiera), TEEN WOLF: THE MOVIE (Mulcahy), ONYX THE FORTUITOUS & TALISMAN OF SOULS (Bowser), HUMAN SURGE 3 (Eduardo Williams), ALLENSWORTH (Benning), GUSH (Maxy), NOWHERE NEAR (Revereza), THE PLOUGH (P.Garrel), THE PRACTICE (Rejtman), ABOUT THIRTY (Shanly), SAMSARA (Patiño)