I watched some movies this year that were so good that they deserved to be on a list, and even though the movies I’ve listed are surely on some lists already, I thought I’d at least reiterate how good they are, and hopefully my list will be the final push to get you to watch them.
#11. Priscilla
Ok, let’s start this list with a movie that I didn’t even like that much when I saw it and yet when I was making this list, I felt like it could be on here, at least as number 11 on a list that was meant to be 10. If you look at this movie on its own, less everything you wish it could’ve said and done, it is nice to see her side of things. I just wish it could’ve been more about her before and after him, and without him. It felt like there were times where he wasn’t there but that it was still ultimately a movie about who she was in the context of him, when she knew him and when she was in Graceland. And that’s fine but then it’s really more Mrs. Presley than it is Priscilla. It’s surely worth watching if only for the hair and dresses, and the subtly but aptly made point that he was an asshole.
#10. Ferrari
As someone who dislikes Adam Driver, cars, and men in general, this movie really had me and it could’ve been since it was the first Michael Mann movie I had actually seen. It also could’ve been that I’ve watched less than a handful of car races in my life making each racing scene an absolutely exhilarating experience for me. It also could’ve been the presence of a somewhat relatable and exciting woman character. It also could’ve been that it actually moved me so much that I ran home to watch Mann’s Collateral right away to catch up on what I’d been missing out on.
It was probably mostly because he was able to make such sweeping points using such little lines and moments.
So if you hate cars and men and Adam Driver, this can most certainly still impact you, possibly even in a good way.
#9. Showing Up
Oh, if you’re an artist, this is a great movie for you. If you appreciate settling into your seat and watching someone thinking and making things for a little while, you’ll like this. If your landlord sucks, this has something for you. If you don’t know what you’re doing, put this on, it can help. I liked this a lot because it made me want to make things with my hands and move around, which is such an important thing to feel in the world of “omg how did my daily screen time get to 7 hours!?”
#8. Killers of the Flower Moon
This obviously rules. The American dream is actually just about oil, money and the undying desire for more. Great movie if you’re wondering how the US makes ca$$$h.
#7. Bottoms
For me, Emma Seligman’s Bottoms was one of those movies I knew instantly I would want to watch again and again on many occasions. Your bisexual friend breaks up with her longterm boyfriend? Cheetos and Bottoms. Your other bisexual friend breaks up with her long term boyfriend? Ice cream and Bottoms. Your “straight” friend breaks up with her long term boyfriend and then starts questioning her sexuality? Lady fingers and Bottoms. You want to imagine what high school could’ve been like if you were actually able to come to terms with your sexuality? Flip through your yearbook and watch Bottoms. To every man who has ever told me to watch Fight Club, I hate you and Bottoms is better. I take your weird soap salesman movie and raise you a perfectly cheesy high school melodrama about a bunch of women who just want to be gay and violent.
I seriously believe that if I’d gone back in time to when I watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower and replaced it with this, it would’ve done unspeakable wonders for my overall development. This movie is a treat for the world.
#6. Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams is a deeply moving film about what it feels like to have a really great friend. This was not only lighthearted, and funny, and uplifting, but tragic and very realistic about the horrors of trying to keep an important connection in the face of timing, the world and other people. This made me cry, during and afterwards, because of how closely aligned it was with the way of the world. If you’re looking to get lost in a silent animation for an hour and a half, and come out mourning some deep longing you had for something or someone a long time ago, then this will be a perfect movie for you.
#5. American Fiction
I saw Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction on its opening night at TIFF and from what I could hear, I wasn’t the only one for whom every joke landed incredibly hard. Outside of being an absolutely wonderful viewing experience, this film makes a super important point about creators of colour, especially in the film industry. In the Q and A following the premiere, Jefferson talked about how he thought that if he got into making movies, he’d have full creative liberty but when he started trying to do so, he realized that he would need to stay within a specific set of characteristics that reflected who he was. For creators of colour, it seems that much of their work is expected to be about the fact that they are of colour, and almost never in the way that they want it to be. Great fun and very powerful, a perfect pairing.
#4. May December
Todd Haynes’ May December is that movie you may or may not have heard about, inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who raped, got pregnant by and eventually married, her former sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau. In this loose retelling, an actress who will be portraying the teacher, goes to the teacher’s home to try and understand how to properly play the part. May December really takes its time exploring how much of a self victimizing leech this teacher was both when her victim was younger, and now when he’s still young but older. It shows how meaningless life is to her and how much of who she is rests on having control over other people. This was different than I thought it would be and truly the perfect style to do this in. It’s mesmerizing and unendingly impactful.
#3. Fallen Leaves
Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves was supremely beautiful from its incredible visuals (colours, shots, set design, everything) to its perfect depiction of life in the era of “work until you die, and get yelled at for everything”. The film follows Ansa, a grocery store clerk who leads a life of monotony and Holappa, an alcohol-dependent construction worker who leads a life equally as purposeless, as they cross paths in a very tender, and easy, working class romcom. It is incredibly relaxing.
#2. Anselm
Childhood is an empty space like the beginning of the world.
Wim Wender’s Anselm is a beautiful experimental documentary about how much of you is the way it is because of who you were as a child. It reminded me in feeling of when Jenny Hval shrieks in her iconic song, Battle is Over, “but I keep growing older, eight years since 25 now, and all that ages now is the body”. Somehow everything is the way it is because of things that we did when we were too young to know what to do. Maybe we never get old enough to really know what to do, and so it feels more difficult to do something new than to take comfort in what we used to do. I don’t know.
I really loved looking in on the technical parts of creating art, how much space it takes, how impressive some of the tools must be, how many people and resources you need to make the kind of impact that great artists do. It’s strange thinking about his studio in comparison to the makeshift ways I know that some of my friends currently make art. I wonder the level of impact my friends could have if given the same tools.
This is a great movie to see if you’re looking to sit back, watch an artist in a studio and maybe be moved by how much of one’s self goes into and comes out of their art.
# 1. Mademoiselle Kenopsia
Denis Côté’s Mademoiselle Kenopsia was the type of movie I would’ve gone back to see again and again if it hadn’t been the last screening of it at the festival. Watching this is like doing a full spa cycle (cool pool, sauna, cold plunge, hot tub) but for your mind. It doesn’t all make sense together, the technohouse, the monologues, all the staticky rooms, and yet it works so perfectly that since I saw it 4 months ago, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it would firmly top any list I could make about the films I watched in 2023.
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