OK, we’re already past the halfway mark of 2023, so it’s time for a Best-Of-Year, So Far list, cool? As usual, our mid-year list contains films released right up until, well, yesterday, basically. Our “rules,” insofar as we stick to them, is that films on this should have had a U.S. theatrical release and not just show up at a film festival, but as you might remember from the past, we bend those rules a little here and there.
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That said, everything on this list that premiered earlier this year (or last year) at the Sundance Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, or any other festival has had a proper U.S. theatrical release in 2023; thus, you should be able to catch all of these films right now, either in theaters or more likely at this point, on VOD, rental of any kind or digital.
As is frequently the case, it’s a mix of high art and low art, if we want to delineate it like that, a mix of indies, the occasional franchise film, festival favorites, horror films, micro-indies, aspiring mid-budget films, and humanist tales of all sorts, stripes, and sometimes, spectacle too.
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To make it simple, we’ve put our list in chronological order. Without further ado, our Best Films Of 2023… So Far, list. Hope you enjoy and check out some of these films if you haven’t already. – Rodrigo Perez
Feature written by Nick Allen with contributions by Gregory Ellwood and Rodrigo Perez.
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”
Are you there, Judy Blume? It’s Us, The Playlist. 2023 has included something of a Judy Blume-aissance, given the release of two major Blume features: the Sundance-approved documentary “Judy Blume Forever” about the author’s life, work, and cultural impact, and a long-awaited adaptation of one of her most beloved books: “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” The book was first published in 1970, but adapting screenwriter and director Kelly Fremon Craig had the honor of bringing the story of 11-year-old Margaret (and all of her growing pains) to the big screen, assisted by a lead performance from Abby Ryder Fortson. The film also boasts two of the best-cast parents so far, with Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie playing Margaret’s mother and father. Reviewed during its release this April, our writer Lauren Coates praised Craig’s “charming yet brutally honest” film by saying it “pays due diligence to Blume and her cherished novel.” – Nick Allen [Read our review]
“A Thousand And One”
The winner of this year’s Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival was writer/director A.V. Rockwell’s “A Thousand and One,” which featured an incredible lead performance from Teyana Taylor. In the film, released this spring by Focus Features, Taylor plays a young mother named Inez who takes her six-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley) out of foster care soon after she’s gotten out of prison and tries to give them both a new life. Rockwell’s confident debut as a feature director traverses many years that follow this decisions, with a transforming New York City (shot by Eric K. Yue) as its vivid backdrop. Reviewing the film from Sundance, our critic Robert Daniels praised the movie as “a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of Black womanhood.” – NA [Read our review]
“Beau is Afraid”
“Beau is Afraid” has something for everyone—whether you love, or love to hate, the work of Ari Aster. A three-hour nightmare pitched in mommy issues and anxiety, it gives fans of his previous movies “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” more to be dazzled by, contorting worlds in which study the background and dark-as-hell jokes about suffering. But any dissenters are also given plenty of red meat, with Aster airing out even more family issues and existential intensity with sweet abandon, culminating in a Joaquin Phoenix performance made of pent-up tears and sperm. However one felt about it, there has not been a cinematic experience like “Beau is Afraid” this year, and we can be assured it can’t be topped. Here’s to A24 for putting their biggest budget yet into a precisely crafted fever dream, one that takes Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” from the pop star’s innocence and plants it in one of many harrowing Aster sequences that are haunted by a mother’s love. – NA [Read our review]
“Creed III”
Michael B. Jordan has been fighting since Ryan Coogler’s 2015 film “Creed” to make Adonis, son of Apollo, one of Hollywood’s most beloved fighters. With his directorial debut “Creed III,” Jordan gets his chance to tell the story with his own flavor, which includes anime-influenced roundabouts opposite the champion’s latest opponent, Damian “Dame” Anderson (played by Jonathan Majors). Like Sylvester Stallone before him (who does not appear in the film as Rocky Balboa and doesn’t need to), Jordan uses the double duty of directing and acting within this franchise to show all of his chops behind the camera, establishing a muscular promise of what’s to come. Our critic Charles Bramesco, while noting how the franchise needs some new ideas from here on, championed Jordan’s directing as “a cut above most of the pliable functionaries drafted to carry out management’s will on IP projects.” – NA [Read our review]
“The Eight Mountains”
The power of Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeesch’s 147-minute, vista-packed friendship epic “The Eight Mountains” has been reverberating since last year’s Cannes Film Festival and carried it through a Spotlight presentation at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival before finally seeing an American release via Janus Films this year. Starring Luca Marinelli ad Alessandro Borghi, this adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s novel tells of a long and winding friendship between Pietro (played by Luca Barbiero as a 12-year-old, and then by Marinelli) and Bruno (Cristiano Sassella at 12, and Borghi in adult-age), as it changes over the years. Reviewing the film from its Cannes premiere, our Iana Murray wrote that it was “marvelous to look at it” and that “even for a film as understated as [“The Eight Mountains”] is, the performances are just as remarkable as the view.” – NA [Read our review]
