MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Best 2023 Awards Contenders
2023 has been a brilliant year for movies and an astonishing number of outstanding films representing all genres are now vying for awards consideration. There are so many top titles that if you were to watch movies from dawn to dusk for this quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s Day — without taking a break — you probably couldn’t manage to view all of the serious awards contenders. So, with this week’s Movie of the Week feature, we are recommending titles picked by Team #MOTW members — titles that they say must be seen before the awards shows so you will be prepared to enjoy all of the awards season’s buzz and shine in social media opining and chatter around the watercooler. These are our must see films. Put them at the top of your watch list, We
We’ll wager that once you see them you will want to see them again. Happy holiday week viewing from Team #MOTW!!! And here’s the list:
2023 will be remembered as the year of the movies that are consumer product origin stories. We’re used to seeing heroic stories of military figures, musicians, political leaders and activists, and, because movies are written by writers — writers. But in 2023 we had a remarkable number of movies with heroes or anti-heroes who were, well, capitalists. We saw the origin stories of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Blackberrys, Beanie Babies, and the proto-computer game, Tetris. By far the best of the group, though, was the story of a sneaker, a shoe that would become so popular it would have, well, a massive cultural footprint.Nell Minow Read full review.
One of the year’s best films, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction is is a sly and sophisticated put down of America’s propensity for racial stereotyping == in particular in the realm of literature, publishing and academia. It is the subtly told tale of a brilliant Black author and college professor whose manuscripts aren’t selling because they aren’t ‘Black’ enough. So, as an anger-based joke, he composes a supposedly semi-autobiographical novel by a fictitious author who is hiding his identity because he’s ostensibly a criminal on the run. It’s pure in-your-face jive, but — against his will — his agent submits it to a publishing house where it sells for big bucks, becomes a bestseller and is up for a literary prize. This brings an anthology of unexpected snafus that will make you laugh and cring simultaneously. What a stunningly effective reveal of the prevalent biases that permeate our collective culture. Jefferson’s script is perfect. Jeffrey Wright heads a superb ensemble that fully realizes what American Fiction about and acts accordingly. This is a must see — more than once. Jennifer Merin “>Jennifer Merin Read full review.
The title Anatomy of a Fall, not to mention the striking US poster graphic of a prone body, brings to mind Otto Preminger’s 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder and Saul Bass’s iconic poster art. Although Anatomy of a Fall is just as riveting a courtroom drama, it’s an unconventional one. Director and co-writer Justine Triet keeps the viewer engaged but off-kilter and she adroitly layers surprises and ambiguity. That’s just right for a film about what’s heard but not seen; the fine line between reality and fiction; how memory might not be trusted; and how two people can recall the same events with shaded perceptions. Loren King Read full review
Whenever someone asks whether Greta Gerwig’s defiantly pink feminist manifesto is appropriate for children, the best answer is “as long as they understand what it means to smash the patriarchy.” No matter your age, Gerwig’s take on Mattel’s iconic doll is an entertaining, surprisingly emotional look at what it means to be a woman (short version? it’s hard!) and the importance of women supporting one another. Sure, it’s all a bit “Feminism 101,” but plenty of people still need a remedial course in that subject, and between the great performances, the sly jokes in the script Gerwig wrote with Noah Baumbach, and the epic beach-offs, you’ll be so entertained that you won’t mind getting back to basics. — Betsy Bozdech
The Holdovers is one of the few 2023 awards contenders that ends in a hopeful, crowd-pleasing way. Director Alexander Payne’s period dramedy features brilliant performances and a moving screenplay by David Hemingson. Paul Giamatti and debut actor Dominic Sessa share a palpable chemistry as a strict boarding school professor and a restless student unhappy to have to spend the holidays on campus. Rounding out the small ensemble is the amazing Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the school’s cafeteria manager. Set in 1970 Massachusetts, the film is a tribute to the teacher-student bond, found family, and overcoming grief, loss, and disappointment. A master-class in acting, The Holdovers is particularly remarkable because it marks Sessa’s first feature film role. Sandie Angulo Chen
Ava DuVernay is a sculptor of non-fiction, shaping her films into something real and yet interpretive. Her best work is art and reality all at once. Tell me you didn’t hold your breath during When They See Us—that you didn’t feel sick for those five young men. Or tell me your bones didn’t ache on that bridge in Selma. Try to convince me that 13th didn’t rattle your cage because you suddenly realized you might be part of one. Ava is brilliant at realness that doesn’t clone reality but stylizes it to show us angles we didn’t realize are there. Origin is only different in that it is her finest work to date. A film that fills in the missing pieces of our societal woes and makes us want to shatter the mirror it holds up with equal potency. Sherin Nicole Read full review.
Past Lives got so much attention earlier in the year at its release, which is as it should be, but has been to some degree eclipsed by the studio juggernauts. I’m here to remind everyone writer/director Celine Song’s feature directorial debut is Oscar-worthy, not only for Greta Lee’s glorious commitment, moment-by-moment, to each emotional beat, but for Song’s heartbreaking, bittersweet, and altogether authentic screenplay, and cinematographer Shabier Kirchner’s nuanced use of light. Song’s first feature is stunning in its confidence, and her use of memory and how it continues to reverberate in our daily lives is something everyone can relate (and maybe cry) to. Everyone should see this film. Leslie Combemale
Smart, clever and inventive, Poor Things is director Yorgos Lanthimos’ fantastical adventure/dark comedy tale following the adventures of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a beautiful young woman brought back to life by the brilliant, eccentric Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Set in a fantasy Victorian world that is part steam punk and part Merchant-Ivory film, Bella has the body of a beautiful young woman but the brain of a baby, the result of Dr. Baxter’s experiment to save two lives by reviving a recently-dead body with a new born’s brain. Yet Bella is intelligent and insatiably curious, as she quickly develops from a precocious child to a young woman eager to learn all about the wider world. Emma Stone gives an knock-out performance in this rollicking tale from the creative team that brought us “The Favourite,” which draws on both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein“and a female Tom Jones“to create a smart, entertaining tale with a strong feminist bent that ends with an uplifting bang.
A cutting commentary on caste and privilege, Saltburn has unmistakable echoes of The Talented Mr. Ripley. It is a celebration of excess and a long con you never saw coming. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, a remarkably intelligent outsider yearning to belong. Keoghan delivers a masterful and fearless performance. The further the plot progresses, the slicker the manipulation. Saltburn waves the allure of wealth and fantasy in your face and then pulls the rug out from underneath you. A perfect sister film to Emerald Fennell’s debut PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, Saltburn is an entirely unexpected story of power and one of the year’s most biting films. Liz Whittemore
Originally premiering at Cannes, Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel are incredible in director Tràn Anh Hùng’s international awards contender, The Pot au Feu, or The Taste of Things, a passionate and exquisite love story between man, woman and the culinary arts. The cinematography will leave you breathless as you soar in and out of merengue, lamb and poached pears with a deeper appreciation for the art of gathering, preparing, serving and the tantalization involved in watching a lover consume. Benoit as Dodin makes love to Eugenie (Binoche) through luxurious slow simmered delicacies as we are invited to explore deeper meanings of love, friendship, family and a love of craft. The film has robust and rich coloring with picturesque French countryside landscapes and is a must watch. Nikki Fowler:
The phrase “banality of evil” gets thrown around a lot. Jonathan Glazer’s searing Holocaust drama depicts exactly what the phrase means in his very loose adaptation of Martin Amis’ novel. Auschwitz commandant Rodolph Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) live an idyllic life just over the barbed wire fence from the camp where Rodolph oversees mass murder every day while brainstorming more efficient methods to kill the Jews and others Hitler’s Third Reich has identified for elimination. Their large family enjoys recreating in their spacious backyard or traipsing around the nearby countryside. Frau Höss takes pride in her beautiful garden that she tends with the help of concentration camp inmates. She also enjoys the mink coats and jewelry that come her way as a perk of Rodolph’s job. Hüller and Friedel deliver superlative performances as a couple whose domestic bliss and placid, plodding surfaces mask the true natures of their soulless predatory personalities. Shot on location at Auschwitz with Lukasz Zal’s exquisite cinematography, Mica Levi’s evocative score, and astonishing sound design, Glazer’s first film since 2013’s Under the Skin is an extraordinary achievement.
EDITOR’S NOTE: These films are also nominated for AWFJ’s 2023 EDA Awards. Check the 2023 EDA Awards Nominations List to see the categories in which they are included.
