I’ve been dreaming about going away for Christmas for 30 years. I’ve always wanted to be gone from December 22nd or 23rd to January 2nd.  I should have insisted on at least 7 nights, but my sister only wanted to do 5 nights. Which we did for the first time – no presents, no grocery shopping, cleaning or cooking.  Instead, I was in a 4 star resort in the Bahamas on the beach, on Christmas day… with COVID! 😭 🤒 😷  Did the rest of my family jinx us!? Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone to the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom screening 2 nights before our departure?  I wore a mask in the airport and plane, not certain how long you have COVID before you show signs. Needless to say, the rest of our trip was ruined. But home now and strong enough in my recuperation to post my Top Movies of 2023 List.

#1 – ORIGIN | Neon | Writer/Director Ava DuVernay | Based on Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Yes, Ava DuVernay is one of my heroes.  She’s accomplished so much in this industry against the odds of the system. She has real vision, awareness, curiosity, spiritualism, and sheer talent. Every time I think about the fact that I met her on 3 separate occasions before she became a household name, and I didn’t somehow ingratiate myself in some way, shape or form, I could kick myself.  I admire her tenacity. Even with this film, I love how she gave Netflix back their backing and found her own so she could tell this story the way she wanted without studio interference.  But these aren’t the only reasons why Origin made it to the top of the 160 Films I saw during the year. I was blown away by the fact that a film so closely mirroring a documentary with a confrontational, difficult theme at its core, could also be so engaging, moving and framed in a way that it never loses its unconventional beats.

Ava describes lead Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as someone with natural regality. I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Not haughtiness, but rather a quiet knowing of her own power. I imagine the woman she portrays, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson, possesses those same traits which is why this casting choice was divine.  In her TIFF interview (see link below) Ava says she met with Wilkerson to talk about turning her 2020 bestseller book – Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents into a movie and explained that the audience was going to need someone to hold onto – the logical choice for the protagonist being Wilkerson herself.  To that end, she’d need to know more about her personal life.  The results becomes three stories of love interwoven into the central theme, which breaks down the book and how she came to author it.  These stories involve her, not of color, husband, Brett (Jon Bernthal) who is the husband I’ve always wanted and didn’t know it. Her gentle, yet spirited mother (Emily Yancy), and her insightful and supportive cousin, Marion (Niecy Nash) it’s because of these relationships that the movie doesn’t lose itself in becoming a history lesson. 

Although, for me, the history is fascinating. The subject of Castes systems is something we’ve all heard about, mainly associated with India, and in stories like Downton Abbey, where there’s a noble class and a working class. But I’ve never thought to dig deeper into its existence.  I certainly never saw it as the root of slavery and continued racism in our country.  Or the impetus behind the Nazi extermination of the Jewish race. Of course, we all know these atrocities are based in hate, but what is the psychology that makes it so that one people need to have a superiority over another? And not always based on melanin.  The whole film makes for great discussions intellectually. Emotionally, it delivers a story of grief and loss and finding your way to peace.

#2 – POOR THINGS| Searchlight Pictures |Director Yorgos Lanthimos | Screenplay Tony McNamara | Based on book “Poor Things” by Alasdair Gray | Production Design Shona Heath & James Price | Costume Designs Holly Waddington

The kinky plot: A suicidal pregnant woman throws herself off a bridge and gets dragged out of the river by a mad Dr. Frankenstein (Willem Dafoe), ravaged and gnarled with scars across his face, in a white smock smeared with the blood of patients he’s dissected – who slices off half of her skull and replaces her brain with the brain of her unborn fetus, turning her into an offensively obnoxious Bella Baxter… Brainless Bella is mad as an outhouse rat, rejuvenated by electrical currents that leave her with a passion for eating with her hands and constantly vomiting the contents all over the furniture, punching out a baby, smashing the china, and inserting all manner of bizarre objects into her vagina. Instead of toys, she plays with the penises of corpses and two pets created by the demented surgeon she calls God—a freak with the face of a pig and the body of a turkey, and the head of a bulldog grafted onto the body of a duck… READ MORE by Rex Reed The Observer.com

What did I (LeAnne) think? – Until I saw ORIGIN, POOR THINGS was my #1 film for 2023. And obviously I wasn’t alone, as at the end of our voting process, this film was also named The Philadelphia Film Critics Circle Best Film Winner!

Yorgos Lanthimos’ THE LOBSTER is one truly odd flick, but it stuck with me for a long time because it is so weird, not because I enjoyed it or thought the execution worked.  I do remember liking THE FAVOURITE, also featuring Emma Stone, which did well 2019 Awards Season, but it didn’t crack my Top 20.  Where POOR THINGS grabbed my attention immediately, I didn’t know what I was in for or where it would go, but the magical realism and Frankenstein references were enough to draw me in. From there I became fascinated with this household. I wanted to learn more about Dr. Godwin, why he was so grotesque and yet revered in his field, and how he came to love this demonic woman/child in his care. I felt dismay for his student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) being drawn into this circus, and then delighted in his becoming a part of the experiment.  But by the time Duncan (Ruffalo) enters the picture, you see you’re in for a very fun-filled, nutty ride.  Yet not so ridiculous that you don’t see the through-line. As Bella matures, you become more infatuated with her, as do her male companions.  Much of this maturing deals with her discovering her sexuality with a kind of unadulterated abandon, I envy. Her vocabulary increases and her sense of intellect, little by little becoming ever more self-aware; being able to read people’s characters and motives and discovering our planet of haves verses have-nots.  There’s really nothing about this creative feature I would change, and I look forward to seeing it pick up accolades during Awards Season 2024.

#3 – OPPENHEIMER | Universal Pictures | Writer/Director Christopher Nolan |Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema

After seeing it this summer, I announced I believe we’ve just seen the Best Actor and Picture Winner for Oscars 2024. And I still stand by it.  The framing of the film is complex, but not indecipherable like “Tenet”. The part of the movie that depicts The Manhattan Project, the actual coming together of great minds to build the atomic bomb, not in New York, but in the Wild West looking Los Alamos in the New Mexico desert, is the center of the movie. It allows you not only to better understand the whys and hows this destructive physics came to be, but also to hone in on Oppenheimer, the porkpie hat wearing
man. Then it has two offshoots – the 1954 hearing of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, grilling J. Robert Oppenheimer on his outspokenness after the war. Going back into his past associations with those of the Communist Party, all part of a political game to strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance. Jason Clarke is especially despicable leading this charade.  The other part closely tied is the confirmation hearing for a Presidential cabinet position, for Lewis Strauss, an egocentric, mastermind played remarkably by Robert Downey Jr., these scenes are in black and white to differentiate the time periods. Kudos on the team handling the aging makeup across the board. We also get glimpses of a nearly psychotic Oppenheimer at University; a sexy Oppenheimer sitting naked in a chair smoking and conversing after sex with his volatile girlfriend/mistress Jean (Florence Pugh); and Oppenheimer the family man. No matter where we are in this story, this history, there’s some sort of tension in every frame; and yet it’s not exhausting or overly bloated. It may be Nolan’s masterpiece, but only God knows what this innovational writer/director has percolating next! MORE on OPPENHEIMER in my original post.

#4 – AMERICAN FICTION | Amazon/MGM Studios | Director Cord Jefferson (Directorial Debut)

Synopsis: hilariously biting satire, a terrific Jeffrey Wright stars as a disillusioned black author forced to reckon with the nature of the publishing industry after he compromises his own integrity in his search for success.

I was never one to pay much attention to the prolific actor Jeffrey Wright, didn’t have anything against him, just never dialed in, but then again, I’d never seen him in a leading role. He’s fantastic as frustrated author, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a man who has written critically acclaimed novels in the past, having somehow been able to write about things not of the perceived “black experience”, but his editor (John Ortiz) can’t get any interest generated for Monk’s latest book. The publishers are eager for material that is “raw” & “honest”, something with a “black voice”. His descent into jokingly giving them what they want follows a very humorous rabbit hole.

But what really makes the film sing is his new romantic relationship with a neighbor (Erika Alexander) and Monk’s distant relationships with his family, sister (Tracee Ellis Ross) brother (Sterling K. Brown) and mother (Leslie Uggams). This is the part I really related too – drifting apart from your siblings during your adulthood can happen, but then needing to work together to make decisions for an aging parent creates brand new relationships with these people you’ve known all your life; but it’s far from easy, makes you really see your family, and hopefully, eventually, for the better.

I don’t want it to seem like the movie is all drama, it’s far from that. Based on the book “Erasure” by Percival Everett, first time director Cord Jefferson finds every nuanced moment of humor, which had me laughing out loud throughout.  Click HERE for Q&A with the Director

#5 – RADICAL | Writer/Director Christopher Zalla | Screenwriter Joshua Davis & Laura Guadalupe A

Those underdog movies involving sports teams are okay. There were two this year Woody Harrelson in CHAMPIONS & Michael Fassbender in NEXT GOAL WINS, but these types of winning tales only affect me so much.  But you give me a teacher making a difference in the lives of their students and I’m a blubbering idiot. 

Remember Edward James Olmos in STAND AND DELIVER? Well, I feel Eugenio Derbez as a 6th grade teacher in Matamoros, Mexcico, rivals him.  This is a place where dreams are strangled at an early age, so this teacher realizes the most important lesson he can teach these children is how to tap into their inner resilience and hope, despite all the lack and obstacles they face in their young lives.  In doing so he also unlocks their academic potential. But what makes it moving and inspirational is his unconventional methods and his own struggles.

#6 – INVISIBLE BEAUTY | Magnolia Pictures | Directors Bethann Hardison & Frédéric Tcheng | Producer Lisa Cortés

“A moving portrait of former model, agent, and activist Bethann Hardison. Directors Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng construct an original and uniquely intimate exploration of a life well lived and shine a light on an untold chapter in the fight for diversity and representation”. 

I absolutely fell in love with Bethann. I wasn’t really familiar with her, never knew Kadeem Hardison from “A Different World” had an illustriously famous Mom! I enjoy and appreciate what the fashion industry represents and I’m always up for being clued in; but I don’t really follow it. Never been much of a magazine person, never been to a runway show. Every Gen X-er knows the Supermodels of the 80’s, but I don’t know who’s hot now. And I certainly never realized that for a whole decade in the early 00’s that black models were not being used for anything, anywhere 🤯. How did I miss this!?!

After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a trend started with using Eastern European waif like girls in the Fashion Industry. Models like Iman, Naomi and Tyra who were hot, were no longer being featured and no new black models were being hired. It wasn’t an oversight or underground knowledge. Agencies and Design Houses just flat out said, we don’t want black models – Period.

Bethann came about in the 70’s. She didn’t actually set out to be a model, but she traveled in the right circle of creatives and found herself being a trend setter, working with the best design houses around the globe. Opening the doors for many black models. Later, she unprecedentedly created her own unbelievably successful modeling agency, where she employed all races and nationalities and got them paid! She was already retired, when her colleagues called for her to come back to the scene and right this racial discrimination.

The film also explore her relationship with Kadeem and just her overwhelming energy and ability to mother/mentor everyone around her, yet no one really knows her deeply.

I saw this in August during BlackStar Film Festival and then thought this will make my Top 10 and so it has. For Q&A with the Director Click HERE.

#7 – ANATOMY OF A FALL | Neon/Le Pacte | Writer/Director Justine Triet | Winner of the Palme d’Or, Cannes 2023

The movie begins at a chalet in the French Alps, where Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and her French husband, Samuel (Samuel Thesis), live with their 11-year-old son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). Things are tense between Sandra and Samuel, as we can sense from the way he blasts his music while she’s being interviewed by a journalist. The interview gets cut short and the journalist leaves; sometime later, Samuel is found dead outside in the snow, bleeding heavily from a head wound.

Did he fall or jump from one of the chalet’s upper stories? Or was he pushed? The director Justine Triet, who wrote the script with Arthur Harari, never reveals the answer. The story is full of intriguing forensic details; Samuel’s fatal fall is diagrammed from every possible angle, and every spatter of blood is analyzed obsessively. But ultimately, Triet is less interested in explaining whodunit — or if anyone dun it — than in conducting an autopsy on Sandra and Samuel’s marriage… READ MORE by Justin Chang, NPR

What did I (LeAnne) think? The climax of this courtroom drama is not the innocent or guilty verdict but the raw, ugly, bare it all fight we see in flashbacks of this husband and wife whose marriage is both held together and in jeopardy over their son.  There’s a similar marriage ending fight in MAESTRO where Leonard and Felicia really let it fly! Makes you wonder how many marriages are just volcanoes of pent up resentments?

Ultimately, this is a very well-crafted, riveting tale of family drama, French trials, and a murder mystery that will keep you guessing.

#8 – THE MARVELS | Marvel Studio | Writer/Director Nia DaCosta | Co-Writers Megan McDonnell & Elissa Karasik

It irked me so much that the media and the trolls decided to turn on Marvel with The Marvels, just because it stars 3 female protagonists, 2 of which are of color, and is helmed by a black female writer/director.  For that reason alone it would be in my top 10, even if I didn’t like it.  But I do! 

The movie gets going quickly with this high octane game of unintentional tag when all 3 She-roe’s powers get intertwined and they wind up in and out of multiple sets of battles happening on different planets. It’s wildly energetic and the perfect way to connect Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) a.k.a Captain Marvel; Monica Rambeau, (Tenoyah Parris ) who was the first female Captain Marvel before Carol in the comics, but it’s not that way in the MCU; and Kamala Khan, (Iman Vellani) a.k.a Ms Marvel, who we met in her series along with her endearing family, mother, father and brother (Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh).

The storyline involves what Captain Marvel has been up to before, after and in between End Game. It seems she invoked a bit of revenge on the Krees, leaving them with a sun-less planet. And still, after all this time, has only found a tenuous home for the Skrulls. Both things come to a head when a revenge seeking Kree (Zawe Ashton) finds the match to Kamala’s powerful Bangle.

There’s also a lot of levity throughout, less zany than a Taika Waititi helmed Marvel movie, but still good unexpected fun! The Flerkins are hilarious, yet I can’t figure out why Nick Fury still finds them so adorable knowing one cost him his eye !?! The 3 leads have absolutely genuine chemistry and they manage to form an equal team, not Captain Marvel and her two sidekicks.

#9 – POLITE SOCIETY | Focus Features| Writer/Director Nida Manzoor | Costumes P.C. Williams

How far would you go to assure a shared dream did not get derailed? Well, for Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) it’s pretty crazy far! Ever since she and her sister Lena (Ritu Arya) (The Umbrella Academy) were little girls, they respectively planned to be a stunt woman and an artist. Lena being the older of the two, sets out on her dream first, going to art school, this was a big step outside traditional Pakistani culture. The girl’s parents were not happy about the idea, but allowed Lena to go. They however, are much happier with the fact that she has dropped out and is back at home and agreeing to marry. The parents never entertained the idea of their other daughter becoming a movie stunt woman. Ria too is happy to have her sister home as the two are very close, but she absolutely will not allow Lena to give up on her dreams and marry. Particularly not to a playboy/mama’s boy like Salim (Akshay Khanna) even though, most in their social circle consider him to be the most eligible bachelor.

Therefore, Ria with the help of her two off-beat chums Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) start planning and plotting how to stop this wedding from taking place.

The absolute charm of this Sundance 2023 premiered film is the lead actress Priya Kansara, she is delightful in all ways. She should so have her own TV show – she’s a combination of Sally Field in “Gidget”; the comic timing of Fran Drescher in “The Nanny”, the radiance of Lindsay Wagner in “The Bionic Woman” and the physicality of Michelle Yeoh. She’s really a treat!

The writing is also infectious, very genre bending, it’s a small indie relationship film, wrapped inside a kick-ass martial arts flick, with a dollop of unexpected sci-fi plot twist. The film just keeps building and building to a most entertaining wedding climax that is completely original and super fun! “ I Am The FURY!”

#10 – THE SPACE RACE |National Geographic | Co-directors Lisa Cortés & Diego Hurtado de Mendoza

In 2021 the bio doc Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James did make my Top 10; but typically, it’s rare that a documentary makes it to the top of the list and this year, not one but two documentaries! Both with filmmaker Lisa Cortes in the mix.  She really understands how to make a doc feel more like a narrative feature without sacrificing any truth. 

The Space Race is an emotive and educational exploration of the experiences of the first Black astronauts. Featuring candid interviews from Ed Dwight, Guion Bluford, Charles Bolden, and Victor Glover, the documentary spotlights the oft-omitted racial injustice narratives and present-day realities of these pioneers.

This film weaves together archival footage of U.S. space expeditions, Afrofuturist cultural milestones, and stories told by Black astronauts into an enlightening dialogue about the expectations placed on trailblazers. Tackling defining moments of American history, from the Kennedy assassination to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to the George Floyd uprising, these dynamic discussions posit new meditations on the fight for equality. As the documentary transverses space and decades, it encourages a reclamation of the past as a way to create a limitless future.–– Shakira Refos

What did I (LeAnne) think? I watched this doc twice during the festival, mainly because the first screening didn’t have a Q&A, but I could have arrived just for that; instead I really wanted to revisit this enlightening doc. Who was the first Black Astronaut? Asking or knowing the answer to this question never entered my mind all these years! Not even after seeing the movie “Hidden Figures” where we learned about Mathematician, Katherine Johnson’s contribution to NASA. That’s the insidious thing about systemic racism, it’s so good at suppressing black people, it can make society forget to even look for inclusion in some spaces, like Space!

I’m thrilled to learn about these brilliant, trailblazing, American men and women who have devoted their lives to science and space travel. Making documentaries like this widely available is key in inspiring and reinforcing to black and brown children that they belong everywhere.

Tinsel & Tine’s Ranked
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160 MOVIES RANKED BEST TO WORST FOR 2023

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