This 2023 is even better than you thought.
HBO, Disney, Netflix or Paramount fight to finance and support powerful, different, interesting and eye-catching creations. It’s not all superheroes or Zack Snyder with his ill-fated Rebel Moon.
For all those who want to review 2023 with unknown but good movies, this is your article, the ideal one to read saying goodbye to the year. Thank you for everything, 2023, hopefully 2024 will be just as good.
The best movies of this 2023 that you haven’t seen
Emily
Surely you know who Frances O’Connor is, a familiar face to fans of British period dramas, having played Fanny Price in Mansfield Park (1999) and the main character in Madame Bovary (2000).
So it seems appropriate that she makes her debut as a screenwriter and director with this biopic of Emily Brontë, which takes many creative and amusing liberties to portray the famous author as a rebellious outcast who defies the conventions and restrictions imposed on women of the time to pursue her passion and write the international success that was Wuthering Heights.
Oído por ojo
In 2018, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, British playwright Debbie Tucker Green premiered Ear for Eye at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
This film, Green’s second work, is essentially a filmed version of that staged production, but with an experimental style that effectively conveys what it feels like to live the black experience in the current world, both in England and in the United States, across all generations.
It also serves as an important reminder that “anger” -a feeling that so often, and mistakenly, becomes a weapon- can be just what is needed to drive change.
Godland
Something mysterious happens beyond the frame in Godland, by Hlynur Pálmason, but the less you know before entering the film, the better. A Danish priest travels to a remote area of Iceland to help build a new church and get to know – and photograph – the people who inhabit this vast and brutal landscape.
But the more he learns about the place, the further he gets from his mission and his customs. It is a dark movie, no doubt, but it also has moments of humor, which makes it a surprising cinematic experience.
Memory
The premise of Memory, by Michel Franco, seems a bit absurd: Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is a social worker and single mother whose past traumas have led her to carefully construct a world in order to move forward, take care of her son, and keep her struggles with alcohol in the rearview mirror.
On one of her rare night outings, she attends a meeting at her institute and is followed home by a former classmate, Saul (Peter Sarsgaard). When she finds Saul at her doorstep the next morning, it is evident that he is not mentally well and does not remember where he is or how he got there.
In the hands of lesser actors, the staging could be sentimental, but Chastain and Sarsgaard, who are generating Oscar rumors for their performances, elevate the film to unexpected emotional heights.
Past Lives
The first feature film by writer and director Celine Song is a moving romantic drama about Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), two childhood friends in South Korea who lose touch when Nora’s family moves to the United States.
Over the next two decades, they meet again on a couple of occasions, first through social media and video calls, and finally in person in New York, where Nora now lives (and is married). Despite the years that have passed, their connection seems to strengthen as they speak honestly about their lives, the decisions they made, and how things could have been different for both of them.
Past Lives is beautiful in its simplicity, with a range of emotions exchanged with every glance and every small gesture. The film received five Golden Globe nominations, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress for Lee.
Mil y Una
This movie made headlines when it premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. It had a limited release in theaters at the end of March, but it has definitely returned to the spotlight now that the film industry is talking about potential award contenders.
The drama, which spans a decade, follows the life of Inez de la Paz (Teyana Taylor), a convicted thief who, upon her release from prison in 1994, sees her son Terry, who now lives in a foster home. When Terry ends up in the hospital, Inez can visit him calmly and talk to him, where she shares her vivid memory of having been abandoned by her at the age of 2.
Impulsively, Inez asks him if he would like to go back home with her and, when he says yes, the two must reinvent themselves a little to stay together. A Thousand and One is a story about the resilience of family and the unconditional love that exists between parents and children, but it is also a critique of a rapidly transforming and gentrifying New York City.
I liked it as much as you did. Even though the picture and writing are good, you’re looking forward to what comes next. If you defend this walk, it will be pretty much the same every time.