Space Invader: Top 10 Movies of 2023

Straightforward, right?

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10. Beau Is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster)

Milage may very, but it’s hard to think of a more provocative movie in 2023. It begins with horror and an up-to-the-minute social commentary that feels so possible it’s more frightening than anything seen in any scary movie this year. It then moves on into comedy and camp, and what may be some of Nathan Lane’s best movie work since the 90s. Then the movie wraps up like a bizarre chamber drama and a sorta trial along with a Lovecraftian metaphor for lust and one of the most memorable sex scenes you will ever see. In a year when is seemed like almost every director was given the latitude to swing as hard as they could, no one swung harder that Aster, and he didn’t care how you felt about it.

Beau is Afraid is streaming on Paramount+ and is available to rent on VOD.  

9. The Killer (dir. David Fincher)

After taking a detour through golden age Hollywood in Mank, Fincher got back to what he does best in 2023, movies about people who kill people. Although it’s based on a French graphic novel, The Killer is an expression of Fincher’s own quest for personal excellence and cinematic perfection, while revisiting themes of resiliency, insolation, and self-aggrandizement, not to mention the anti-consumerist bent of Fight Club. “Look at how easy it is to be a killer with Amazon, WeWork, and contactless delivery,” Fincher is almost literally saying. Fincher movies are all about the details, which is why the whole premise of the movie is so brilliantly undermined with one simple question: Is this guy really that good, or is he really that full of himself?

The Killer is streaming on Netflix.

8. I Like Movies (dir. Chandler Levack)

For a generation of movie buffs, there was nothing like heading down to the corner Blockbuster or Rogers Video and browsing the aisles. Maybe you stopped that one person looking to rent Shrek and recommended Punch Drunk Love instead, even though they’re two entirely different movies, but because you’re a burgeoning cinephile, you’ve got to establish your bonafides. That’s one part of I Like Movies; the other part is watching young Lawrence struggle with all the things that come with the senior year of high school like changing friendships, increased personal responsibility and the realization that your dreams might not come true even if you really want them to. Levack not only captures a point in time, but she also captures a state of mind and in the process crafts the greatest University of Guelph crack you will ever hear in a movie.

I Love Movies is streaming on Netflix and is available to rent on VOD.

7. The Holdovers (dir. Alexander Payne)

Can you believe that Paul Giamatti has only been nominated for an Oscar once? Once! Although the acting competition is tight this year, it would be a shame if Giamatti was not recognized for playing Paul Hunham, a classics teacher at a New England prep school forced to look after the students unable to go home for the holidays. As Hunham, Giamatti plays lonely and embittered, almost Grinch-like, but his heart starts to grow after spending Christmas with Da'Vine Joy Randolph’s Mary, the school’s head chef who’s mourning the loss of her son, and Dominic Sessa’s Angus, a student with a great many personal issues and a surprising kindred spirit for Hunham. The Holdovers becomes a wonderful three-hander about lost souls thrown together at Christmas time learning to live and love and laugh together. A marvelous work of optimism and affirmation from a director most well-known for his cynicism, and a new Christmas classic to boot.  

You can rent The Holdovers on premium VOD.

6. Oppenheimer (dir. Christopher Nolan)

It’s hard to separate the “Barb” from the “enheimer” given the cultural phenomenon of the two movies together this past summer, but while Barbie may have had a little more cache, you can’t deny the literal and figurative power of Nolan’s take on the life story of the man who made the atomic bomb possible. Nolan deconstructs the myth of the great man starting with what’s practically the first scene of Oppenheimer where he tries to poison a teacher before thinking better of it. Throughout the film, Oppy struggles to balance his ego and desire with his important and world changing work with the War Department, and he doesn’t always succeed, which is what leads him into political trouble long after the war is over. It’s a movie about the limitations of heroism, and how a human life can’t often occupy the same space as a hero’s life. It offers no judgements, just a reminder that no one can ever be defined by one thing.

You can rent Oppenheimer on VOD.

5. Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig)

Barbie is a miracle. On its surface, this was a cynical play by a major Hollywood movie studio who wanted to piggyback on the name recognition and popularity of the most famous doll in the world and laugh all the way to the bank. Well, they did make bank, but in complete spite of the creative decision made to give Barbie to mumblecore godmother Greta Gerwig and let her turn it into a hot-button satire on feminism, patriarchy, gender politics, consumerism, wokeism, nostalgia and self-determination. Barbie is a movie that makes you laugh, and it makes you think, it surprises while it delights, and it dares to ask the question, Who is Barbie, and what does she mean to young women today? And the whole thing is led with absolute charm by Margot Robbie (who also produced) and Ryan Gosling, as they not only rose to the challenge of playing absolute icons, but they also made those parts their own. A miracle.

Barbie is streaming on Crave and is available to rent on VOD.

4. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (dir. Daniel Goldhaber)

Industry should be glad that this movie wasn’t more popular because watching it feels incendiary. A group of young people set out on a quest to do as the title says – blow up an oil pipeline in the middle of nowhere West Texas – after each member has been somehow negatively impacted by the company. The film is tagged like a heist movie and follows the same beats as the crew comes together, sets about their plan, encounter unexpected hiccups with the plan, and then see the plan though to its eventual fate (won’t spoil that but read the title again). The crew of saboteurs are all so good, so magnetic, you’re pulling for them to complete their mission no matter how you feel about eco-terrorism, and the whole movie takes off with the crack precision of some of the greatest heist movies, many of which have 10 times the budget.

You can rent How to Blow Up a Pipeline on VOD.

3. Past Lives (dir. Celine Song)

What if? Two words that make one of the most provocative questions, and it’s so lovingly and beautifully explored in this film, the feature debut of playwright Song. Taking place in three eras, each separated by a dozen years, the film follows Nora and Hae Sung from their childhood romance in South Korea before Nora’s family moves to Canada, and then when they catch up over Skype 12 years later, and then they finally come face-to-face again in New York 12 years after that. Actors Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are pitch perfect together with all the tenderness and awkwardness that comes with spending time with your first love as an adult and wondering about that missed lifetime you could have spent together. The final scene, as Nora slowly walks home, is just about the most heartbreaking thing you’ve ever seen, and proof that in the right hands, the most quiet moments can pack the biggest wallop.

You can rent Past Lives on VOD.

2. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese)

Marty shouldn’t have to work this hard. Given the career he’s had, the accomplishments he’s achieved, he shouldn’t have to go this hard at the age of 81, but he does. Scorsese tells the most difficult version of this true-life tragedy, and in the process creates the perfect bookend for his filmography as we watch a bunch of greedy and cynical white people terrorize and murder the Osage to get their oil wealth. The man who made Mean Streets, Goodfellas, and Casino shows that crime is even more cold blooded in the Plains, and he incidentally tells the story of America in one the most shocking and violent entries in the director’s oeuvre, which is really saying something. Watching Killers, it feels like there’s a turning; for really the first time the script was flipped about “Manifest Destiny” and the American West by a major Hollywood production and filmmaker, a system built on the trope of cowboys versus Indigenous peoples. And yet, Scorsese leaves things open ended, asking, “Have we learned our lesson?” Stay tuned.

You can rent Killers of the Flower Moon on premium VOD and will be available soon to stream on AppleTV+.

1. BlackBerry (dir. Matt Johnson)

In a year that featured movies about the origins of Flaming Hot Doritos, Air Jordans, Tetris, and the Beanie Babies, only one movie about a product really stood out because it was an underdog story and a story about the pratfalls that come with hubris. Also, it’s a Canadian story. Director Johnson captures both the avarice and arrogance that came from Research in Motion’s success, but he also captures how all that came about because of a titanic clash of personalities; the feckless middle manager with a chip on his shoulder, the rabid perfectionist who can’t sit with good enough, and the guy who’s just happy with a workbench and the will to innovate. Rarely does the idea of money as the root of all evil come through quite so relatably, or humorously, but the added charm is that this movie doesn’t shy away from the warts, or the fact that this is true Canadian story about people acting in a very unCanadian way.

You can rent BlackBerry on VOD.

And finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!