2023 was an exciting year for film fans with a mixture of immense blockbusters and intimate character-driven dramas, and there was plenty of enjoyment to be had at the cinema.
Check out our favourite films of 2022 below:
Honourable Mention: Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter
The horror genre had another great year in 2023, and one film that was uniquely frightening was the gothic horror of André Øvredal’s Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter. Øvredal explored the fresh territory of the vampire genre with this picture, and it delivered on the sheer shock and terror of its horror moments. This Dracula was a beast of the abyss, and the blood and dread that followed made for a terrifying experience. Audiences were sure to feel a ghoulish shiver run up their spines with this horrorfest, and Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter delivered on its promise to leave you with plenty of sleepless nights.
Sir Ridley Scott brought his immense talent for world creation to life on the big screen once again with his colossal epic Napoleon, and it was an awe-inspiring watch. With two fearless performances from Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix as ambitious general Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as Josephine, the woman he would conquer the world for, Napoleon was a rousing and ambitious project that chronicled the age of the Napoleonic Wars and the man who re-shape the destiny of Europe. With its gigantic battle scenes, beautiful costumes and set pieces and intense emotional drama at the heart of its story, Napoleon made for an incredible sight on the big screen.
Martin Scorsese is a living legend of cinema, and he brought an incredibly profound and deeply heart-wrenching tale of love and betrayal to life in Killers of the Flower Moon. With its scale and majesty, Killers of the Flower Moon could be considered to be the great director’s magnum opus, and in every frame, you felt the director’s pull to his characters and this American story that was so deeply personal to him to tell. Leonardo DiCaprio shocked audiences with a completely left-facing turn as the slow-witted and malignant Ernest Burkhart, while Lily Gladstone brought a dynamic bravery to the role of Burkhart’s wife Mollie, who served as the voice of the Osage people and the terrible troubles that this picture documented. Everything of Scorsese as a filmmaker was present in Killers of the Flower Moon, and it’s an utterly triumphant work.
A true underdog story awaited audiences in Air, and this true-life story of ‘hustle and grind’ and the decisions that would help turn a floundering Oregon-based shoe company called Nike in the late 1980s into a gigantic powerhouse brand was on show for everyone to see in all its glory. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, and Triple Crown-winning actress Viola Davis only added to the star power of this picture, and Air was a fun, enjoyable and ultimately uplifting story of why sometimes you’ve got to ‘just do it’.
Barbie went blockbuster in 2023, and this prancing, dancing and neon-pink whirlwind of cinema was an utter pop culture phenomenon that saw audiences lining up in their ‘think pink’ wardrobe, and this was fun for everyone to enjoy. Margot Robbie shines in this ‘fish out of water’ story, as Barbie finds her way into the real world, and things get real. Then there was Ken. Oh, Ken, and Ryan Gosling was completely addicting to watch in his performance, and man-o-man, could he hold a tune. Barbie was a pure party of delight, filled with every shade of pink imaginable, and it was the perfect film to groove out to with your girlfriends…and maybe a Ken or two.
6. What’s Love Got to Do with It?
My feeling is that 2023 is bringing back the rom-com, and one of the year’s best was the fabulous, fun and poignant watch of What’s Love Got to Do with It? Directed by celebrated British filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and written by socialite turned screenwriter Jemima Khan, this was a poignant and layered film that explored the very construct of love and how it grows between two people, and the result made for a film that was both sassy and serious. Lily James again shows that she’s a serious talent to keep an eye on, and the end result was a charming picture packed full of joy that audiences were sure to fall in love with.
Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski have forever changed the landscape of action cinema with their work on the John Wick franchise, and it got gnarly in the fourth chapter as the legendary assassin John Wick (Reeves), the ‘Baba Yaga’ himself, declared war on the High Table itself, and the result was utterly explosive. Big action met big drama in John Wick: Chapter 4, and the result was an utter rush that had your adrenal gland working overtime in one of the year’s best action pictures.
As the culminating chapter to one of the decade’s greatest action franchises, much expectation was levelled on Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer 3 and the return of Denzel Washington as Robert McCall. And the two-time Academy Award winner didn’t disappoint in this dramatic, edgy and visceral action film. Operatic in its construction and delivery, Fuqua and Washington delivered this final chapter for this modern-day ronin who had to deliver justice at all costs. Violent and instinctive, The Equalizer 3 made for an intense and bold watch, and it was undoubtedly one of this year’s best cinematic events.
Emerald Fennel shocked audiences with her debut feature, Promising Young Women, and its follow-up, the fantastical gothic thriller Saltburn, which was a film of shocking INSANITY! Fennell invited audiences into a lavish experience of debauchery and excess with this psychodrama, and its twisting, edgy and shocking narrative made for one of the most intense cinematic experiences of the year. Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi cemented their position as two stars worthy of the A-list, and the Saltburn made for an experience of pure, unadulterated hedonism with the volume turned all the way up. Saltburn was a cinematic experience that set your senses on fire, with its narrative left to spin around your mind for days.
Bill Nighy is an absolute treasure of an actor, and he gave the performance of a lifetime as Mr Rodney Williams in the tranquil and deeply moving Living. An emotional rollercoaster exploring the very necessity of life and what makes it meaningful, Living was an emotionally rousing, beautifully filmed piece of cinema, and by its end frame, you were sure to be wiping away the tears. Powerful in its construction and delivery, Living was an incredibly special watch, and its story was sure to find its way into the hearts of all audiences who basked in its beauty.
Christopher Nolan is a giant of the cinematic craft, and he turned his attention to one of the most significant moments of the 20th century in the discovery of the Atomic Age and its long-lasting consequences in Oppenheimer. Large and operatic in its spectacle, Oppenheimer was a film of cause and effect, action and consequence, and how innovation can lead to both discovery and destruction in the same moment. Nolan’s narrative was a masterwork of story, and his assembled cast, including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr and Kenneth Branagh, led an incredible group of players and built an atmosphere of total immersion. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was an utter cinematic masterpiece and is likely to be one of the most important narrative events of the 21st century.
