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Between theatres and streaming services, there’s a lot to sift through if you want to find the best movies of 2023.

To spare us the effort, and save some time, Vanity Fair’s chief critic Richard Lawson released his list of the best movies of 2023 to date, and there are quite a few surprises.

There are plenty of good flicks to choose from, and you can check out the full list here, but a few top picks are worth mentioning here. “Existential unease, thrills, and devastation await”.

You Hurt My Feelings

“You Hurt My Feelings is a sharp and often poignant study of the mechanics of love, and how its eagerness to support and encourage can sometimes have the exact opposite effect. It’s a clever and thoughtful movie about white lies and well-meaning indulgence, wise in its detailed observation of human behaviour. And what a human Holofcener has cast in the lead: Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who is also excellent in Holofcener’s Enough Said) gives a radiant star turn, as naturally dexterous with the film’s peppery comedy and she is with its bleary drama.

“It’s an immensely charismatic performance, one that would, in a just world, be recognized by awards-giving bodies at year’s end.”

Past Lives

“It’s a sad, swooning, graceful look at the journeys of immigration and ageing, telling a story about two old friends and maybe lovers. The film follows Nora (played as an adult by Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (played as an adult by Teo Yoo), early adolescent pals in Seoul who are separated, seemingly forever, when Nora’s family moves to Canada.”

“Past Lives traces their initially tentative and then wholehearted reunion years later, as they reconcile the realities of their adult selves with their dreamily remembered youth.”

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

“A nervy eco-thriller that doubles as a persuasive piece of activist messaging, Daniel Goldhaber’s film vibrates with urgency. A band of 20-somethings from various backgrounds and all across the country come together to make good on the title of the film. Their thinking is that because all manner of peaceful climate change activism has failed, radical action must be taken.”

“The film makes a worthy philosophical, political, and moral argument, while also serving as a compelling riff on the heist film.”

Scream VI

“After they made a ruinous mess of the fifth Scream movie, there was no reason to trust that the people behind that film—directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick—could right the franchise. And yet their follow-up sequel, a continuation of a long saga now geographically shifted to New York City, is a surprising delight.”

“The new characters introduced in V are better honed in VI, shrewder and more likable and thus actually worth rooting for. (Veteran player Courteney Cox gets her fair due, too.)”

“Jumpy-fun scares abound, the filmmaking is both crisp and happily freewheeling, and the killer reveal is amiably goofy. While still a far cry from the elegance of Wes Craven’s original, Scream VI is the best installment in the series since the second film.”

Sharper

“A movie of the sort they don’t make often enough these days, Benjamin Caron’s twisty con game is a literate pleasure. The cast—Justice Smith,Briana Middleton, Sebastian Stan, and a fabulously shifty Julianne Moore—perfectly balance the sexy and the sinister, tearing into a clever script with panache. Caron, mostly known as a TV director in the UK, has a keen sense of rhythm and an eye for composition.”

“Sharper is polished and sophisticated but never forgets that it is, at root, a seamy little B-movie. Which is great!”

The list also includes better-known titles like Oppenheimer, Asteroid City and Showing Up, but as Hollywood deals with their writer’s strike, it’s good to know there is still a whole archive of worth-while films that have been, or will be, released this year.

So while we still have some winter weather to get through before the summer arrives, get some popcorn and a blankie and check these films out.

[source:vanityfair]