The best movies of 2023

New work from Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, & Hayao Miyazaki marks an incredible year for film

Welcome to the first annual Normal Newsletter ‘Best of the year’ list 🤠

I don’t know about you, but this was a hell of a year at the cinema for me. I rarely see one new film that’s destined to be an all-timer, that surprises and shakes me in the totality of its creators’ vision.

This year, there were two. Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson released masterpieces that are of a piece with their previous films, but also reworked those artistic trademarks in ways that I found extremely moving.

They do this primarily by interrogating their own directorial presence and artistic processes directly, and their films are not alone on this list in that regard. Films from Hayao Miyazaki, Kelly Reichardt, and Frederick Wiseman also deal with legacy and/or process on very personal terms. The new work from Christopher Nolan and David Fincher, on the other hand, are sleekly obsessive movies about the unintended consequences of your chosen field.

And then there are filmmakers like Todd Haynes, Alice Rohrwacher, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose films are so singular and breathtaking that I dare not try to force a comparison between them.

Now that I’ve spoiled which directors are featured on this list, let’s talk about the actual movies. These are my 10 favorite films of 2023, with a few runner-ups listed at the bottom.

Killers of the Flower Moon- I’ve known this movie would sit atop my list for a while. Martin Scorsese’s epic dissection of greed, racism, and murder set on Osage land in the early 20th century is an immense and overwhelming achievement. In Killers of the Flower Moon he has an epic canvas to create images of both profound spirituality and empty horror. The violence is casual, drained of mystery and excitement; the character interiority his camera captures contains the wisdom, suspicion, and cruelty of the world. Review

Asteroid City- Wes Anderson builds elaborate dollhouses in order to live. That is the underlying point of his latest film, which is about not only its own making but its director’s aesthetic philosophy. Asteroid City is about a group of people in the desert who encounter the supernatural, as well as the making of a play about that same group. Beneath this artifice, vast emotional truths are lurking. Every neatly composed frame, every structural gambit is meant to reveal them, not conceal them.

May December- A spell-binding, slippery, and winkingly hilarious deconstruction of the classic melodrama. The seemingly normal Southern suburbia of Todd Haynes’ May December hides destructive secrets and emotions that erupt like a volcano. Centered on an actress shadowing the subject of her next film, which revisits a 20-year-old sex abuse scandal, the movie is built on the contradictions and falsehoods at the core of its premise. Review

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros- The art and labor of fine cuisine is front and center in the new documentary from the legendary Frederick Wiseman. In its accumulation of detail, Wiseman finds immaculately honed processes that still leave room for improvisation. He also finds subtle generational anxieties between the father and sons who oversee this 3 Michelin-star restaurant.

La Chimera- Alice Rohrwacher’s stunning Italian folktale follows a man with the mystical ability to detect ancient artifacts in long-forgotten crypts underground. Conjuring a wondrous connection to the land, Rohrwacher’s film is about a search for beauty that doubles as a mournful reflection on lost love. The recurring image of a single red string going into the ground like a flower stem, waiting to be pulled, haunts me.

The Boy and the Heron- Hayao Miyazaki’s first film in 10 years is a dream-like world prone to nightmares, a funhouse mirror of its director’s aesthetic and thematic obsessions. At times an elegiac, mournful, and patient dissection of grief and boyhood set during World War II; other times, a rambunctious fantasy swarming with all kinds of feathered friends. Review

Showing Up- A sculptor prepares for a show. That’s the simple setup for the latest Kelly Reichardt film, though Showing Up is more about the rigors of craft, the dedication to the artistic process, and the everyday annoyances (landlords, family) that disrupt them than it is about any single event.

Oppenheimer- A physicist builds a bomb. That’s the simple setup for the latest Christopher Nolan film, though Oppenheimer is more about the rigors of craft, the dedication to the scientific process, and the everyday annoyances (apocalyptic visions, government retaliation) that disrupt them than it is about any single event.

About Dry Grasses- An epic of clashing seasonal landscapes and inscrutable faces, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film follows a bored teacher in a rural Turkish village whose wish to be transferred to Istanbul is upended by accusations from two students. This absorbing, slow-burn drama is thrown off-kilter by Ceylan’s use of still photography and a shocking fourth-wall break.

The Killer- David Fincher’s latest is a relaxed and confident mixtape that allows him to play around with forms and tones he’s made entire features about. Focused on a killer who misses a shot and has to deal with the fallout, almost every chapter of the movie sheds a different light on a man who much prefers being invisible. Review

Honorable Mention:

Passages (Dir. Ira Sachs)

R.M.N. (Dir. Cristian Mungiu)

The Eight Mountains (Dir. Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch)

Walk Up (Dir. Hong Sang-soo)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Dir. Christopher McQuarrie)

Afire (Dir. Christian Petzold)

Pacifiction (Dir. Albert Serra)

Saint Omer (Dir. Alice Diop)

Ferrari (Dir. Michael Mann)

Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Dir. Steven Soderbergh)

I’m sure I left off one of your favorite movies of the year. Let me know which one if you feel so inclined ✌️