The must see movies left in 2023
The movie business needs a strong finish to an uneven year.
If you ask me, the 2023 movie season hit a high point with Oppenheimer and Barbie. Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig set Hollywood on fire with their one-two summer punch, Universal pulled off a heist at the box office due to an excellent marketing campaign. It culminated with a pair of top notch movies.
Throw them together with John Wick: Chapter Four, and you have my favorite films of the year. A list that begs for more competition. I haven’t been floored by a movie completely since 2021’s Pig. With that being said, let’s briefly get into seven movies that could join the group.
FERRARI
Michael Mann. That’s all this slot needs, but I’ll go further. Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz look phenomenal, and the racing sequences pack an exhilarating punch in the trailer. The screenplay’s decision to focus on a specific time in the life of Enzo Ferrari’s life is a sage choice.
December 25 via NEON
THE IRON CLAW
Sean Durkin could have directed and written a new film about a lonely post office worker who spends his weekends fishing, and I would have watched. Following 2020’s brilliant The Nest, Durkin instead wandered into the world of professional wrestling.
A deep, dirty, and dive into the Von Erich family. Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Holt McCallany are only a few members of the cast—one that combines the allure of a “go for it” indie and one carrying a big name cast. Their success is only half as riveting as the tragedy that bestowed their lives and fates. Expect an emotional wallop.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Martin Scorsese got together with his longtime muses, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, and made a movie about the Osage Native Americans who discovered gold and went up against greedy American pioneers for ownership of their land. Scorsese reportedly changed the film’s course before shooting began, steering it away from a story about “all the white guys” to a true tale of indigenous families ripped apart by a desire to own everything.
Right at the height of oil fixation in the 1920s, DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart marries Molly (Lily Gladstone), whose Osage family holds the rights to the burgeoning money bank lying right under the service. Ernest’s Uncle, William Hale (De Niro), has big plans for that oil, and they are murderous.
Eventually, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover (Jesse Plemons) comes knocking about the murders—which creates a push/pull conflict between Ernest’s commitment to Mollie and William. Expect fireworks from the 3 hour, 26 minute drama this month.
DREAM SCENARIO
Nicolas Cage has been on a nice run since 2021’s Pig, poking fun at himself in mainstream hits such as The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and having a good time with small kick indies like Willy’s Wonderland. The best kind of Cage is wacky yet understated Cage, a speed being showcased in Dream Scenario, being released by NEON in December.
Picking the brain of Adaptation and Matchstick Men, Kristoffer Borgli’s Scenario revolves around Cage’s accomplished yet listless professor suddenly showing up in people’s dreams-including many of his students. I’m talking millions, which brings an uncomfortable stardom to the man’s formerly solemn life.
Via one of my favorite film critics, Courtney Howard of Variety and Fresh Fiction: “#DreamScenario is an ADAPTATION-adjacent hoot & holler. There are scenes I was laughing so hard, I cried through. If you’ve ever vividly dreamt about someone, it affected your behavior towards that person, this is for you. Nicolas Cage in top Kaufman-esque form.”
And you can take that to the bank! Dream Scenario should be hard to kill come awards time.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT
George Clooney may be universally liked on the acting front, blending easy going charm with a knack for deeper drama, but it’s his directing that draws a more polarizing reaction.
For every Goodnight, Good Luck adoration nod, there’s a wave of tuna-esque appeal to his filmmaking. I use tuna because you either like it or dislike it; the mere mention immediately defines the amount of allure. Confessions of A Dangerous Mind and The Ides of March hit the right notes, while Monuments Men and Leatherheads draw puzzled looks.
For the rowing biopic, The Boys in the Boat, Clooney reteamed with his The Midnight Sky screenwriter, Mark L. Smith. The Netflix feature drew mixed reviews, but I loved its soulful, apocalyptic take on an end of times scenario. The timing simply wasn’t right for a virus-fueled doomsday thriller with the winter 2020 release.
The December release (it goes head to head with Mann’s race car biopic) sports history feature from Amazon Studios speaks to a more understated approach that could lure skeptics and fans alike into a room for a flick. Clooney goes for different strokes in his movies, and I like that.
What else?
-Joel Kinnaman teamed up with returning action maestro, John Woo, for December’s Silent Night. Simple recipe: Good family man torn by tragedy, setting off on a revenge path.
-Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers reunites the writer/director with masterclass actor, Paul Giamatti. You didn’t need to be a wine aficionado to adore their first film together, Sideways. This feature finds Giamatti tapping into his sharpest room in his repertoire: a grouchy, ignorant, and quietly hurting college professor who has to stay over winter break with all the family-less students. One of them begins to crack the thick layer of ice around Giamatti’s curmudgeonly soul.
There’s probably more to list here, but I’m tired and need more coffee. Find these films, catch a trailer, and see if the hook is worth biting on. I’ll leave you with one: