15. “Killers Of The Flower Moon”
Martin Scorsese is certainly using the winter years of his career to grapple with guilt, remorse, and the consequences of our actions (see the last 30 minutes of “The Irishman”). With “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” a sprawling, monumental, and yet intimate historical drama about the murders of the Oklahoman Osage Nation at the hands of greedy white people with designs on their oil, Scorsese forces us to contemplate many ugly truths about America’s original sins, and does so slowly and deliberately so we cannot look away. Lily Gladstone is luminous as the lead Osage woman, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro appear as two forms of white American immorality and cruelty. But it’s DiCaprio’s character that is the far more insidious center of the movie’s aims. He’s a cowardly, feeble dope who loves his indigenous wife and yet simultaneously manipulates her while holding strong to the self-deceiving notion that he’s lovingly devoted to her. The enraging complexity of the film, the sobering intricacy of its incomprehensible contradictions, is that he does adore her while lying to himself, complicit in the serpentine scheming of his malevolent uncle masquerading as a true friend of the Osage (one of the film’s many self-deceptions). Scorsese’s fixations with spirituality, violence, and the violent nature of self-serving gangsters all culminate in this epic Western. Yes, it’s about corrupt, awful, wicked men and their unholy avarice and ugly devotion to capitalism. But the darkest hearts of ‘Flower Moon’ are the shamefully self-deluding cowards and the tragic exploitations done in the name of their weak-willed spines. [our review]– RP
14. “The Delinquents”
Argentinean filmmaker Rodrigo Moreno surely made a memorable career-defining mark with “The Delinquents,” a terrific discovery in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section earlier this year. Something of an existential heist film with a delightfully droll sense of humor, the film centers on the idea of labor, capitalism, and exploitation. A bank employee, Morán (Daniel Elías), fed up with toiling away in his going-nowhere middle-management job, decides to steal from his bank so he’ll never have to work again. The catch? He confesses and does prison time but stashes the money away with an unwitting bank accomplice and coworker, Román (Esteban Bigliardi), the plot being he’ll hold onto the money for Morán when he gets out of prison. But as they often do, things don’t go as planned, and the story shifts when Román begins to find himself under investigation and great pressure. Epic in runtime and defying convention and genre, “The Delinquents” keeps evolving and gets philosophical in its ideas about stealing to get your life back, only to be incarcerated by the elusive idea that money will buy your freedom. [our review] – RP
13. “The Holdovers”
No modern film (no film ever?) has recreated the bittersweet look, feel, and tone of a classic 1970s Hal Ashby film as exactly as Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” which may not surprise given how Ashby has always been a key touchstone to the “Election” filmmaker’s career and point of view. But “The Holdovers,” about a cantankerous history teacher (Paul Giamatti) and a troubled prep school student (Dominic Sessa) with no place to go, trapped together at their university over the holidays, is arguably Payne’s best. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a terrific ensemble cast here, including Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the college’s head cook and a broken and bereaved mother, that imbue the film with such wit, soulfulness, melancholy and biting humor when the multi-layered script calls for it. It’s maybe just a classic tale of mismatched souls. It arguably resembles the more wistful elements of Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore” a little bit (which is also influenced by Hal Ashby’s “Harold And Maude”). Still, ultimately, Payne’s carefully considered comedy is a moving look at the grand flaws and failures at the core of people and what we can do to carry on and rise above despite them. [our review] – RP
12. “A Thousand and One”
There have been several impressive directorial debuts in 2023. Celine Song’s “Past Lives.” Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet.” Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction.” But one that has stuck with many since its Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Drama prize-winning debut is A.V. Rockwell’s “A Thousand And One.” Taking place intentionally between 1994-2005 in New York City, the movie features a ferocious performance by Teyana Taylor, who plays a former felon who struggles to raise her son, whom she abducted from a foster care facility. While the inherent drama between the characters is compelling enough, Rockwell uses their relationship to depict the horrific changes to their neighborhood thanks to Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration and the growing surge of gentrification. The movie also features an incredible and somehow underrated original score by Gary Gunn that deserves much more year-end praise. [our review] – GE
11. “Perfect Days”
Somehow, German cinematic maestro Wim Wenders made one of his greatest narrative films at the spry young age of 78, and, of course, it is set in one of his favorite places, Japan, features one of his favorite actors, Kōji Yakusho, and was shot, incredibly, over just 17 days. Yakusho portrays Hirayama, a man formerly of privilege who, for reasons never revealed, has decided to transition to a simpler existence. He makes just enough to survive as a toilet cleaner but enjoys his lunches in the park, reading books, and listening to his favorite music on cassette tapes (he has no idea how trendy he is). Wenders weaves beautiful moments of shared humanity as Hirayama makes his way through a bustling Tokyo cityscape. The result is often immensely profound and life-affirming. [our review] – GE
