Best Films of 2023 [Poll][Deadline: May 19th] - Movies & TV

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell,
No One Will Save You—
Rotting In The Sun.
Reality. Air. Limbo.
Fallen Leaves, Robot Dreams
& Past Lives Passages—
Perfect Days… On The Edge
(of) A Brighter Tomorrow—

Evil Does Not Exist.
Close Your Eyes.
Do No Expect Too Much From The End of The World.
The Cage Is Looking For A Bird.

Aaaah!

Welcome!

Here's a thread where we can discuss/rec our favourite films and performances of the year, hopefully dishing out a couple recs to anyone who wants them. Was that film overrated? Underappreciated? Disappointing? Where did our 2023 film thread go? My guess is that factory in Chicken Run: Dawn of The Nugget. Or perhaps it got stuck in limbo between Barbieland and the real world? Munched by Cocaine Bear? Munched by Godzilla? Buried 6ft deep at Saltburn? Somewhere midst the Spiderverse and Super Mario World? Perhaps it got Taylor Swift tickets. Perhaps it never existed at all.

SUBCATAGORIES:

5 Best Male Performances
&
5 Best Female Performances
+
5 Best Original Scores

Which you may submit up to 10 each, but the final lists will be the top 5.

The gist/ rules:

BEA composes a list of our 50 favourite films of 2023.

All lists will be PMed to me or posted in this thread, maxing out at 50. The final list will be 50 films. I'll be accepting lists of any denotation up to 50. The size of your list determines its weight. Films must be longer than 40 minutes. Any film labelled 2023 on (1 or more of) IMDb, Letterboxd, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, or Wikipedia will be eligible. Documentaries are allowed. Miniseries (i.e. Beef) are not.

Lists will also be accepted in IMDb and Letterboxd format. Deadline will be May 19th

Eligible releases—
Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Ineligible releases— (an oddly lengthy selection this year...)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Beef
Blue Eye Samurai
Planet Earth III
All The Light We Cannot See
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
The Curse
The Makanai
Blossoms Shanghai
Telemarketers
Daisy Jones & The Six
Strange Way of Life
The Rat Catcher
Swarm
Poison
The Last Repair Shop
Barbenheimer (the film)

Last edited by Hayden on 04/13/2024 17:50; edited 2 times in total

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

I whipped up this collage/poster for fun a couple days ago:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Hayden

Location: CDMX

CA Dreamin wrote:

I whipped up this collage/poster for fun a couple days ago:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

I almost went with using the Barbie font atop of a still from Oppenheimer Laughing

Not going to lie— struggled with an interesting blurb though. I still have so much of the year left to see that I didn't have anything as witty as usual. Also shocked how many titles I kept having to add to the ineligible list. Made me realize how much of my 2023 watching was miniseries/TV (and how good they were!). My favourite things from the year at the moment are bound to be Beef, Blue Eye Samurai & The Bear. I still haven't a clue what my favourite film of the year is, which is bizarre (for me)— not to mention I don't have too many under-the-radar recs at the moment... (maybe... 2?), which is a bit boring, but hopefully I can contribute more as things are released in March/April.

Anatomy of The Fall was also considered for the banner, but I didn't want anything gory.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Hayden wrote:

I almost went with using the Barbie font atop of a still from Oppenheimer Laughing

You should have, and it's never too late, haha. When I was brainstorming ideas for a 2023 in cinema poster, I felt both halves of Barbenheimer had to be represented. They were by far the two biggest movies of the year. Barbie came in 1st at the box office, 4th in Oscar noms; Oppenheimer came in 3rd at the box office, 1st in Oscar noms. No other movie even came close to that level of admiration on both fronts. From there, I decided to turn it into a collage representing the Top 3 at the box office (Barbenheimer + SMB), the Top 3 in nominations (KoTFLM and Poor Things), and the highest-rated movie on LB (SV2, which I didn't care much for, and won't be putting on my list, though another movie with 'spider' in the title will make my top 10). Then I tossed in American Fiction and Anatomy of a Fall for good measure. And Asteroid City, just for you Mr. Green

Hayden

Location: CDMX

CA Dreamin wrote:

Hayden wrote:

I almost went with using the Barbie font atop of a still from Oppenheimer Laughing

You should have, and it's never too late, haha. When I was brainstorming ideas for a 2023 in cinema poster, I felt both halves of Barbenheimer had to be represented. They were by far the two biggest movies of the year. Barbie came in 1st at the box office, 4th in Oscar noms; Oppenheimer came in 3rd at the box office, 1st in Oscar noms. No other movie even came close to that level of admiration on both fronts. From there, I decided to turn it into a collage representing the Top 3 at the box office (Barbenheimer + SMB), the Top 3 in nominations (KoTFLM and Poor Things), and the highest-rated movie on LB (SV2, which I didn't care much for, and won't be putting on my list, though another movie with 'spider' in the title will make my top 10). Then I tossed in American Fiction and Anatomy of a Fall for good measure. And Asteroid City, just for you Mr. Green

It's interesting— I actually think Asteroid City and Oppenheimer make a solid double feature— (and albeit I would've cut Robbie from Asteroid City had it been up to me, she's 2/2 on that front)— I mean, they both have a bomb... and a bucketload of a stacked cast— (... I'm not even sure which one has more pound-for-pound acting Oscars onboard... Think

)— not to mention the southwest dessert vibes.

Speaking of Wes Anderson— I watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou for the first time in probably (my god... 8-9 years?) this morning, and I found it way stronger than I remember. It's a really great script, and Seu Jorge's role is priceless. Wild to realize he looks like this now—

Either way, I agree. What those two films did this summer was spectacular for cinema.

Re: Barbie, Asteroid City, etc, I genuinely think 2023 was a very good year for fun films, even despite the heavier dramatic works in the fold— Theater Camp, Blackberry, No Hard Feelings, Wonka, Joy Ride, Bottoms, and Rye Lane will all most likely be on my list, and I even think Next Goal Wins and Shortcomings were unfairly underappreciated due to their 'light/goofy' nature.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

I really sat out a lot of this year (I really put my filmmaking focus to a new level, alongside the complexities of living on my own again), but let's see if I could try a very rough top 50. I'm just basing this on vibes, not even my LB ratings.

1. Framing Agnes
2. Shortcomings
3.Turn Every Page
4. Joyride
5. A Moment in Time 3
6. Red, White, & Royal Blue
7. Oppenheimer
8. Showing Up
9. Barbie
10. Subject
11. Killers of the Flower moon
12. No Hard Feelings
13. Mister Organ
14. The Boy & The Heron
15. Blackberry
16. Shin Godzilla
17. Goodlongpee The Movie
18. Lynch/Oz
19. Saint Omer
20. The Stroll
21. Anyone But You
22. Fair Play
23. Eighty For Brady
24. Other People's Children
25. ECHOVIDEOPRAXIS: the hope & ghost of an interior history circulating
26. May December
27. See You Friday Robinson
28. Talk To Me
29. Scream VI
30. The Iron Claw
31. Beyond the Spiderverse
32. The Zone of Interest
33. Geographies of Solitude
34. Please Baby Please
35. Scrapper
36. Idly
37. How To Blow Up a Pipeline
38. Priscilla
39. Still: A Michael J Fox Movie
40. Return To Seoul
41. World War III
42 Kokomo City
43. Passages
44. You Hurt My Feelings
45. You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah
46. Asteroid City
47. Cat Person
48. Past Lives
49. Rye Lane
50. Skinemarink

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Applerill wrote:

I really sat out a lot of this year (I really put my filmmaking focus to a new level, alongside the complexities of living on my own again), but let's see if I could try a very rough top 50. I'm just basing this on vibes, not even my LB ratings.

Not to be a buzzkill, but I think 2023 was an excellent year to do this. I found the year unusually surface-level, and digging into the depths wasn't as fruitful or exciting as usual (even compared to other years from the 2020s). Exciting to hear you honing your skills, and I think it was a great decision. (Being said, there were still a decent handful of very good films this year).

I found we agreed on a lot of films this year. I'll post my personal list soon-ish (maybe in two or so weeks)— but I'm noticing we agreed to disagree with the crowd on a few of the year's more popular works. I, like you, found Shortcomings, Joy Ride, No Hard Feelings, Blackberry & Fair Play underappreciated, and found fault in American Fiction, Bottoms, 20 Days In Mariupol, Saltburn and Poor Things. (Past Lives grew on me). We also share a slightly "unconventional" 7/10 with Killers of The Flower Moon (even though it's quite high on your list).

Also glad to spot Passages, Kokomo City, World War III and Return To Seoul on your list. Solid choices.

(Going to assume Shin Godzilla is Godzilla Minus One).

I think the one film we disagree on the most from the year is bound to be Theatre Camp Laughing

(I enjoyed it quite a bit). — same with The Holdovers.

Five of my current top 10 don't appear on your list, including my top three... have you seen Fallen Leaves yet? (Just curious).

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Letterboxd

My submission—

1) Perfect Days
2) Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell
3) Riceboy Sleeps
4) Asteroid City
5) Blackberry
6) No Hard Feelings
7) Barbie
8) Past Lives
9) Fallen Leaves
10) All of Us Strangers

11) Anatomy of A Fall
12) Oppenheimer
13) Monster
14) Robot Dreams
15) The Old Oak
16) The Zone of Interest
17) Theatre Camp
18) The Holdovers
19) Wonka
20) Across The Spiderverse

21) Joy Ride
22) Master Gardener
23) Green Border
24) May December
25) The Breaking Ice
26) A Thousand And One
27) Bottoms
28) Passages
29) The Teachers' Lounge
30) Rye Lane

31) Tiger Stripes
32) Killers of The Flower Moon
33) About Dry Grasses
34) The Peasants
35) All Ears
36) Cassandro
37) Sanctuary
38) Manticore
39) The Shadowless Tower
40) All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

41) Afire
42) How To Have Sex
43) The Monk And The Gun
44) Shortcomings
45) Reality
46) El Conde
47) Elemental
48) 20000 Species of Bees
49) In Our Day
50) Fair Play

Yet to see (in order of priority): The Boy And The Heron, La Chimera, Evil Does Not Exist, Pot eu Feu/Taste of Things, Youth (Spring), Four Daughters, Beau Is Afraid, Totem, The Iron Claw & Samsara.

There's these odd patches that I had a difficult time ranking— the top 2 are practically tied, and the 7-16 range is incredibly close (and interchangeable suppose)— I also wasn't sure where to place films like Wonka, Bottoms or Elemental, but knew they should land somewhere. The most noticeable distinction for me is the unusually high amount of comedic films represented, but I suppose it was a strong year for comedy— I expected Asteroid City to be high, but Blackberry, No Hard Feelings, Theatre Camp, Joy Ride, Rye Lane and Shortcomings were all excellent surprises from 2023. Didn't think my list would look like this at all.

I still can't find myself including Poor Things, which hurts— the plot continues to rub me the wrong way—

Expecting some changes before the deadline (especially if I get around to The Boy And The Heron in time). Not sure what else to say though. Most of this list is out in the wide open— not a whole lot of gems/underappreciated picks from the year, but I hope people give lesser-watched films like The Breaking Ice, Tiger Stripes, Green Border and Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell a shot (particularly the latter, despite its slow nature and 3h runtime— one of the decade's best so far).

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Oh! And my acting submissions—

1) Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days)
2) Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
3) Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
4) Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers)
5) Glen Howerton (Blackberry)
6) Le Phong Vu (Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell)
7) Andrew Barth Feldman (No Hard Feelings)
8) Timothee Chalamet (Wonka)
9) Jay Baruchel (Blackberry)
10) Franz Rogowski (Passages)

Runner-ups: Gael Garcia Bernal (Cassandro) / Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City)

1) Choi Seung-yoon (Riceboy Sleeps)
2) Greta Lee (Past Lives)
3) Emma Stone (Poor Things)
4) Jennifer Lawrence (No Hard Feelings)
5) Lily Gladstone (Killers of The Flower Moon)
6) Huller (Anatomy of A Fall)
7) Margot Robbie (Barbie)
8) Sakura Ando (Monster)
9) Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)
10) Alma Poysti (Fallen Leaves)

Runner-ups: Margaret Qualley (Sanctuary) / Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City)

EyeKanFly
Head Bear Master/Galactic Emperor

Age: 33
Location: Gotham

Hayden wrote:

The most noticeable distinction for me is the unusually high amount of comedic films represented, but I suppose it was a strong year for comedy— I expected Asteroid City to be high, but Blackberry, No Hard Feelings, Theatre Camp, Joy Ride, Rye Lane and Shortcomings were all excellent surprises from 2023. Didn't think my list would look like this at all.

I still can't find myself including Poor Things, which hurts— the plot continues to rub me the wrong way—

Completely agree about comedy films this year. There were many that really offered great acting performances, and movies like Bottoms and No Hard Feelings had me laughing harder than I have at a movie in a long time.

Agreed on Poor Things, it'll probably go into my list somewhere but not nearly as high as some folks (including Letterboxd's general audience) have it.

I have a few movies to catch up on (including some low-hanging fruit like Nimona or other easily streamable movies) before I post my list, but I feel pretty happy with the number of films I've seen this year.
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