The following article complements Chaz Ebert’s list of Top 10(-ish) Films of 2023 (which you can read in its entirety here) by featuring the trailers for each film…
1. ESSENTIAL HISTORY
Cord Jefferson’s subversive satire is about a Black author whose attempt at skewering racial stereotypes inadvertently earns him a massive following—who aren’t in on the joke.
“Killers of The Flower Moon”
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, a greedy man who falls for an indigenous Osage woman (Lily Gladstone), all the while assisting his uncle (Robert De Niro) in a devious plot to rob her of her oil rights.
“Origin“
Ava DuVernay’s astonishing adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s essential novel, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, stars the amazing Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the author who links the injustices made throughout human history by illuminating the unspoken system of caste that fuels them
2. REAL LIFE HEROES
“Rustin“
No list of this year’s Oscar contenders is complete without Colman Domingo, whose portrayal of the titular Black organizer in George C. Wolfe’s rousing biopic gives the man who made the 1963 March on Washington a reality his rightful place in history.
Maggie Betts unearths another crowd-pleasing true-life story with this look at the unlikely bond forged between an elderly white funeral director (Tommy Lee Jones) and his successful Black lawyer (Jamie Foxx).
3. BLACK ICONS
“Little Richard: I Am Everything“
Lisa Cortes’ powerful documentary about the King of Rock ‘n Roll examines both his unequaled impact on American music as well as the shame he harbored regarding his sexuality.
“Air“
In this film wonderfully directed by Ben Affleck, we get the eye-opening details of the pivotal role basketball legend Michael Jordan’s mother, Mrs. Deloris Jordan, played in allowing shoe salesman Sonny Vaccarro (Matt Damon) to court her son on Nike’s behalf.
4. JOURNEYS TOWARD INDEPENDENCE
Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos delivers another delightfully strange and provocative parable, this time with Emma Stone starring as a woman brought back to life by an eccentric scientist (Willem Dafoe).
Alice Walker’s landmark novel about a young woman’s journey toward independence has been turned by director Blitz Bazawule into a rousing hybrid drama/musical, adapted from the Broadway musical.
5. SLICE-OF-LIFE
Celine Song’s wrenching debut feature centers on a woman (Greta Lee) who finds herself perched between the man (John Magaro) she married and the man (Teo Yoo) whose path she meaningfully crossed more than once in the past.
Filmmaker Alexander Payne re-teams with “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti for a warm-hearted comedy about a curmudgeonly professor at a boys’ prep school who bonds with the school’s Chef, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, over a holiday period.
6. FOREIGN GEMS AT CANNES
Based on the novel by Martin Amis, the film stars Christian Friedel as the commandant of Auschwitz who lives with his wife (Sandra Hüller) and children in a picturesque house just outside of the camp’s walls.
This engrossing mystery stars Hüller as a famous author accused of killing her husband, much to the bewilderment of her blind son (Milo Machado Graner).
Aki Kaurismäki’s delightful romance centers on a pair of loners (Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen) whose attraction toward one another is complicated by all sort of factors, yet the gravitational pull between them, and their shared love of cinema, remains unmistakable.
7. BARBENHEIMER
“Barbie“
Greta Gerwig’s enormously entertaining and startlingly substantive big screen vehicle for Mattel’s classic doll stars Margot Robbie in the role of “stereotypical Barbie”, who undergoes an existential crisis that takes her from Barbieland to the real world.
Completing the “Barbenheimer” double bill was Christopher Nolan’s three-hour, dialogue-filled epic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who developed the atomic bomb, played by Cillian Murphy.
8. FACING REALITY
“STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie“
One of the beautiful things the film does is show Michael as a family man with his children, who clearly love him and whom he clearly loves. There is no pity or sentimentality. Just a family facing reality and making the best of each day.
9. FACING THE BEYOND
When I was a young girl, I pondered what happened after we died. I also gave some thought to things such as the meaning of life and why we are here. Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke’s new documentary purports to answer some of those questions, and in a surprisingly convincing way, says that death is not the end of life.
10. COMING OF AGE
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
Judy Blume’s 1970 novel about a young girl’s transition into womanhood has finally been adapted into a wonderful film from writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig that explores not only the coming of age journey experienced by its titular heroine (Abby Ryder Fortson) but by her mother (Rachel McAdams) and grandmother (Kathy Bates) as well. Sweet and perceptive.
