Like I have said previously, there were many good-to-great films in 2023. Some were hilarious (Theater Camp, possibly the best comedy I have seen in years), some puzzling (May December, a strangely hypnotic exercise in style from Todd Haynes) and some downight bizarre (Poor Things, a fascinating feast for the eyes and the senses). Too many to name. These three, however, were my absolute favourites. That is, until I get to see The Zone of Interest in a week or so.
Past Lives (2023)
Having watched this film two times now and read a couple of interviews with director Celine Song, I know I will always be on the lookout for whatever she does in the future. This is smart, emotionally devastating filmmaking that starts haunting you long before the final credits. Astounding that this is only her debut.
It is a semi-autobiagrophical film that started, according to a Celine Song interview, exactly the way Past Lives begins: sitting in a late-night bar in New York City, watching three people having a conversation and wondering about their story. The actual story turns out to be as simple as it is complicated. Love, immigration, dreams, the weight of the unspoken. It is also a universal story, one that absolutely anyone can relate to. I know I did.
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
The subject of unconditional love has always fascinated me, and this French film by Justine Triet might be the most astute and incisive work on the matter.
Visually, it is all quite simple. Anatomy of a Fall is a story-driven film that nevertheless throws a few great tricks along the way, especially when it deals with the way a blind boy perceives the world in which his mother may or may not have killed his dad. It is primarily a courtroom drama that kept me on the edge of my seat and never offered a single easy answer. Also, Sandra Hüller's performance is out of this world. The scene during the trial when she asks the judge to switch from French to English was, for me, one of the tensest, thrilling, and most unbearable scenes of last year.
The Holdovers (2023)
So much has already been said about how this film is a new Christmas classic, and how it looks exactly as if it was made in 1973, and how every performance is just superb. All I can say is that it is all true. All of it. I can't wait to see it during next Christmas, it did provide a great escape (isn't that what cinema is for, anyway?), and Paul Giamatti and the rest of the gang all deserve their accolades.
An American boarding school for the rich and the privileged is closed for winter holidays, and a grumpy old professor is forced to spend it with a few holdover kids (those who had nowhere else to go). Also, there is a cafeteria manager whose son has recently been killed in the Vietnam War. This is such a brilliant setup that there is no chance it could fail. Not when you have such phenomenal acting and Alexander Payne's knack for tasteful, brilliantly realised and nuanced restraint.
