Written by: Nuance Editorial Team
With a memorable year for movies in the books and the Oscars only a few days away, we thought it would be a good time to share our favorite movies from the past year.
Honorable Mention: “The Last Repair Shop”
While it’s not a feature film, “The Last Repair Shop” might be the most inspiring, optimistic piece of cinema released in the last year. Nominated for Best Documentary Short, the short sheds light on four unsung heroes who repair and maintain the 80,000 musical instruments offered to all Los Angeles public school students free of charge. Sharing the moving stories of the selfless craftsman who were called to the trade and the young musicians whose lives they impact, “The Last Repair Shop” can’t help but restore your faith in humanity.
12. Earth Mama
Up-and-coming director Savanah Leaf stuns in her debut feature, Earth Mama, a heartbreaking, atmospheric, and vivid portrayal of black motherhood, trauma, and structural oppression. Featuring an incredible performance by nonactor star Tia Nomore as Gia, a pregnant single mother from Oakland fighting to get her kids back from the state while dealing with her current pregnancy. Using mainly nonactors from her local Oakland community, Earth Mama orchestrates a rare type of realism–able to confront the most challenging issues and experiences while championing the perseverance of real-life people facing these daunting challenges daily with humor, compassion, mistakes, and grace. With such an impressive first showing, Leaf will surely be a name to watch out for in the future.
11. Barbie
Faced with the treacherous task of turning an iconic product into a compelling film, writer/director Greta Gerwig does absolutely the most with the material in her musical blockbuster Barbie, creating a dollhouse matriarchal to play out a hilarious battle of the sexes toward an empowering compromise for both sides. Brought to life through Margot Robbie’s convincing performance and the show-stealing pathos of Ryan Gosling’s cringe-worthy Ken, the film marvels most in its spectacle through awe-inspiring production design and a star-studded musical score. While the summer of 2023 wouldn’t be the same without it, time will tell if Barbie’s appeal or if it was just a bright, burning pink moment in time.
10. Blackberry
Blackberry, the Candian biographical dramedy about the first company to corner mobile messaging, vastly exceeds its expectations and delivers the tightest, most pulsating film about unlikely financial booms since The World of Wall Street or The Social Network. Utilizing an energetic documentary style, director Matt Johnson and the talented cast command your attention from the first moment till the last, embedding each scene with layers of dynamic tension. Glenn Howerton steals the show with his furiously intense portrayal of domineering investor Jim Balsillie, unleashing the dramatic force that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans have witnessed for years. While the film may ironically be overlooked due to Blackberry’s utter contemporary irrelevance, the film’s memorable performances and flawless execution shouldn’t be ignored.
9. Past Lives
Writer/director Celine Song weaves a bittersweet, ethereal romance in her debut feature, Past Lives. Following two childhood sweethearts in Korea as their paths “happen” to cross later in life, the film’s intricately sketched characters and realistic atmosphere make its expressions of passion and spirituality all the more impactful, leaving the viewer with a poignant take on the human condition and how we reconcile all the different versions of ourselves we leave behind with each decision. Hinging on the dynamic, restrained, and touching performances of co-stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoo, Past Lives expresses the bittersweet taste of “could’ve been” as a romantic, worthwhile feeling by itself.
8. Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Released during the summer of “Barbenheimer” and a year of films that repudiated institutional Hollywood franchises, Mission Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One’s cinematic accomplishments have been overshadowed since its release. While most film series completely lose momentum and focus by their seventh installment, the dynamic partnership of Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie has just hit its stride–tightening the screws and upping the stakes to create a 2 ½ hour nonstop thrill ride. Propelled by standout performances from co-star Rebecca Fergurson and newcomer Pom Klementieff, the film sees the IMF face a compelling AI villain (that seems to represent the green-screen, CGI fate of action movies), Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a testament to the power of practical filmmaking.
7. Anatomy of a Fall
In the French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall, director and co-writer Justine Triet suspends the audience within a tense, uncertain murder trial to explore riveting ideas about truth, perspective, and relationships as the events of one fateful day refract through contrasting frames. Sandra Hüller delivers a cerebral yet powerful performance as a successful novelist accused of killing her husband. She embodies the humanity behind the tabloid true crime stories often plastered across popular news streams without ever letting the viewer too far into her head. Taking advantage of the suspense baked into the framing of the genre, Triet forces the audience to wrangle with why they feel the urge to investigate in the first place.
6. American Fiction
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut, American Fiction, balances potent social commentary with genuine hilarity through the story of an acclaimed African American author, who literally and figuratively says, “fuck it,” and decides to give the white publishing powers that be the type of stereotypical content he knows they want. Anchored by a standout leading performance from Jeffrey Wright, who manifests the finer details of a tortured artist who uses their intelligence as an excuse to be emotionally guarded, and a sharp-witted, intelligent script, the film explores the dynamics of black storytelling within a white-dominated cultural machine while rallying against the crutch of hypercriticism.
5. May December
In May December–a story loosely based on the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal, the type of teacher-student scandal that would make anyone feel nauseated–director Todd Haynesutilizes uncomfortable feelings to wade into deep psychological waters about power dynamics, narcissism, and the complexities of trauma. Centering potent back-and-forth between Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman and a standout performance from newcomer Charles Melton, it’s a masterclass in good acting and the effectiveness of realistic, subtle storytelling. Framed with stunning cinematography by Christopher Blauvelt, May December burrows itself in the consciousness of its viewer long after the credits roll.
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
While nearly all book-to-film adaptations are a matter of narrative compression, Martin Scoresese’s Killers of the Flower Moon expands David Grann’s journalistic bestseller about the horrific conspiracy to rob and massacre the oil-rich Osage Native American tribe to an epic cinematic scale, immersing the audience in the impossibly rich, spiritually conflicted world of oilfields and mansions surrounding Pawhuska before slowly turning the heat up as it all begins to burn with deceitful, insatiable greed. Featuring a talented ensemble cast tethered by a moving performance by Lily Gladstone, the film unflinchingly holds a mirror to the barbarity of America’s past and the societal collaboration that covered them up.
3. The Holdovers
Director Alexander Payne strikes beautiful, bittersweet gold in his ’70s boarding school dramedy The Holdovers, elevating Paul Giamatti the performance of his career as the strict, stubborn, and lonely classic professor Paul Hunham, tasked with supervising five students left on campus during the holiday break as punishment for not giving a rich student a break. With an excellent script (written by David Hemingson) that makes your gut chuckle before ripping your heart out, the film reaches out from his retro haze. It presents moral clarity that is necessary today. Supported by a stellar performance by Da’Vine Joy Randolph as grieving cafeteria manager Mary Lamb and an impressive debut by Dominic Sessa as troubled student Angus Tully, The Holdovers is a vital testament to teaching, compassion, and principles.
2. Oppenheimer
Having created some of the most iconic cinematic events in recent history with mind-blowing genre films like The Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar, it was hard to imagine Christopher Nolan’s defining moment resulting from a historical biopic/legal drama, and yet Oppenheimer feels like the British director’ defining work. Embedding binary contradictions in every aspect, from the black-and-white Fission/Fushion structure to dueling techniques of massive spectacles and intimate close-ups of characters’ faces, the film rises to its atomic climax with academic fervor before unraveling the bomb’s troubling consequences through its creator’s fate. Anchored by an equally career-defining performance by Cillian Murphy, who humanizes the opaque nuclear godfather with complexity and flaws, Oppenheimer brilliantly depicts a pivotal historical moment to reveal an unsettling, salient truth about the current moment.
1. Poor Things
After establishing a knack for creating stunning, distinct worlds with absurd characters in works like The Lobster and The Favourite, director Yorgos Lanthimos creates his most inventive, hilarious, and riveting film to date with the black comedy Poor Things. In her portrayal of Bella Baxter–a full-grown woman implanted with a toddler’s brain–Emma Stone absolutely astonishes with her depiction of a strange, stunted maturation through riotous physical comedy and genius line deliveries. Driven by an outstanding screenplay by Tony McNamara, the film lyrically builds from amusing gibberish to dazzling philosophic seminars as Stone progresses from an indignant child to an empowered woman. Mark Ruffalo is surprisingly hysterical in his portrayal of the charming, pathetic Duncan Wedderburn–one of many male suitors who try and fail to cage Bella into a patriarchal relationship. Bringing to life its inventive, steampunk-tinged sci-fi world through incredible production, costume design, and stunning cinematography, Poor Things impresses and engages the audience with every detail–like Willem Defoe’s ungodly bubbles–and deserves the title of the best movie of the year.