Kevin Lally on Film

I said it back in March, and I’ll say it again: The best film of 2023 was made in 1961. It’s baffling that Dino Risi’s masterly Una Vita Difficile was never released in America until this year, but there you go. (More details below.) That’s not to say there weren’t many exceptional new films this year. My ten best list includes two Cannes prize winners, one of 2023’s big event movies, and a couple of films I feel are being sadly overlooked in the winter awards conversation. Here are my choices, in order of preference.

Una Vita Difficile: Spanning World War II through the early ’60s, this virtuosic Italian import centers around Silvio Magnozzi, a pigheaded onetime partisan fighter whose political beliefs clash with his marriage to the young woman he met during the war. Dino Risi’s film deftly intermingles comedy and high drama, propelled by a bravura lead performance by the great Alberto Sordi. My only question now is: Where’s the DVD? (See my full review here.)

Anatomy of a Fall: The deserving winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet’s courtroom drama is accurately titled. The husband of a celebrated novelist falls to his death from an attic window, and his wife is arrested for his murder. Did she do it? Was it an accident or suicide? The audience is left to reach their own conclusions, but every step of the way you’re riveted by Sandra Hüller’s sensational performance as the defiant author on trial.

Oppenheimer: Writer-director Christopher Nolan surpassed himself with this incredibly ambitious biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Seemingly every aspect of his complex journey of triumph and deep remorse is covered in a dense three hours; you dare not miss a moment of Nolan’s intricate narrative. Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and a nearly unrecognizable Robert Downey, Jr. lead a remarkable ensemble cast.

The Holdovers: Writer-director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, The Descendants) is back in superb form with this irresistible comedy-drama showcasing Paul Giamatti as one of the movies’ great curmudgeons. The opposite of a Hallmark holiday tale, David Hemingson’s screenplay is set at a New England prep school during Christmas break. For various reasons, three people are forced to stay on campus: Giamatti’s ornery Professor Hunham, cafeteria cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and a troubled student named Angus (newcomer Dominic Sessa). Each has a story, and you’ll be so glad you made their acquaintance.

Origin: I’ll be annoyed if the new drama from director Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th) is left out of the Best Picture race, which seems likely if the prognosticators are to be believed. DuVernay has created an ingenious adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, focusing on the story of its author, acclaimed scholar Isabel Wilkerson. The historian theorized that oppressed peoples worldwide are all victims of an insidious caste system; the film blends her travels in support of her thesis with her own tragedy-filled personal story. Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is compelling as Wilkerson, and the film’s closing montage has a powerful impact.

The Zone of Interest: With this Cannes Grand Prix-winning adaptation of a novel by Martin Amis, British director Jonathan Glazer delivers a singular Holocaust film, seen entirely from the point of view of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, who lived just outside the notorious concentration camp. The horrors of the camp are mainly conveyed by screams, shouts, and gunshots on the soundtrack, blissfully ignored by the bourgeois Germans we watch in their banal daily routines. Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Hüller again excels as Hoss’s shallow wife, proud to be known as “the queen of Auschwitz.”

Fallen Leaves: I love the droll, understated humor and spare visual style of veteran Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, and Fallen Leaves is one of his best. It’s a very unconventional romantic comedy about two working-class people: a construction worker who gets fired for his alcoholism and short temper, and a grocery store clerk who is let go for taking pity on her customers. Many a comic obstacle intrudes on their budding romance. Lending a somber and sadly timely undertone are the soundtrack’s constant radio broadcasts about the Ukraine invasion.

Air: Another film being overlooked in the awards conversation is this very entertaining account of Nike’s pursuit of rookie Michael Jordan and the creation of the Air Jordan sneaker. It was Jordan’s savvy mother, Deloris, who insisted that her son get a cut of every sneaker sold, a groundbreaking deal for a product that earns $5 billion each year. Matt Damon leads a terrific cast including Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, and director Ben Affleck in a fun performance as Nike’s New Age-y CEO, Phil Knight. But it’s the great Viola Davis as Deloris who dominates the film. See my full review here.

The Taste of Things: Foodies will experience pure bliss watching director Trân Anh Hùng’s tale of the bond between a celebrated chef (Benoît Magimel) and his chief cook (Juliette Binoche) in 19th-century rural France. There’s very little plot, but the film is quietly captivating and romantic, and dominated by lengthy scenes of the actors preparing delectable dishes. If Juliette Binoche ever invites you to dinner, run, don’t walk.

Anselm: Wim Wenders’s 3D documentary makes a strong case for Anselm Kiefer as one of our greatest living artists. A painter, sculptor, and installation artist who’s unafraid of confronting Germany’s past, Kiefer established a vast, mind-boggling studio complex in southern France which Wenders’s 3D cameras explore to hypnotic effect. As he demonstrated with his 3D film about choreographer Pina Bausch, no one uses 3D’s depth of field better than Wenders. (Full disclosure: I’ve yet to see Wenders’s other acclaimed 2023 release, Perfect Days.)

I should mention one other film which won’t be released until 2024 and will likely be at the top of next year’s list: Agnieszka Holland’s extraordinary Green Border, a devastating, immersive drama depicting the nightmare faced by Middle East and African refugees seeking asylum in Poland. See my full review here.

My runners-up in another bountiful year include: La Syndicaliste, Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, American Fiction, The Beasts, Past Lives, Revoir Paris, Asteroid City, American Symphony, Maestro, All of Us Strangers, Close, and Lynch/Oz.

Pictured at top: Alberto Sordi in Una Vita Difficile. Photo courtesy Rialto Pictures/StudioCanal. Other photos courtesy Universal Pictures (Oppenheimer), Film at Lincoln Center (Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest, Fallen Leaves, The Taste of Things), Focus Features (The Holdovers), Array/Neon (Origin), Amazon Studios (Air), and Sideshow and Janus Films (Anselm).