For the initial three months of the year, there are rarely high hopes for the movies. You kind of know what you’re going to get: best case scenario, some decent franchise fare; worst case scenario (and more often), heaps of garbage. This year has been no exception, which explains why formulaic movies like Dungeons and Dragons and Creed III have received a largely favorable response. You won’t find many incorporate-million dollar blockbusters on this list because it seems unfair to assign a grade to them. This month, a few new no-budget independent films that fall under the category of the wave I recently wrote about will be included.
Best Movies of 2023
1. Godland
Because practically everything I say about the movie will probably make you less inclined to want to see it, I’m concerned if you haven’t seen Godland—and chances are, you haven’t. It lacks stars, is set in the late 1800s, and offers a complex examination of colonialism, religion, and mortality. View my meaning here.
But I beg you, do not be discouraged. In contrast to the brilliantly captured Icelandic aspects in his third film, Hlynur Pálmason’s third film is significantly less ominous. One of the few films that truly justifies the use of words like “sublime” and “epic,” this tale of a young Danish priest’s perilous trek to a remote area of Iceland is gorgeously shot, amusing at times, and ultimately heartbreaking. Happy Herzog supporters.
2. Missing
It’s challenging to tell a tale on a screen. The so-called “screenlife movies” have been produced for more than 20 years. The caliber of screenlife movies improves as technology does. The visual storytelling approach was mastered in 2018’s Searching, a screenlife thriller about a father’s search for his missing daughter that earned $75 million on a budget of less than $1 million.
Missing, the standalone sequel to Searching, was published in 2023. As June Allen, a girl who is trying to find her mother once she disappears in Colombia while on holiday with the man she just met, Storm Reid (The Last of Us) plays the lead role. At first, June thinks her lover, Ken Leung of Industry, kidnapped her mother. As the narrative progresses, June learns that her mother has been hiding information from her. Fast-paced thriller Missing keeps viewers guessing right up to the very last frame.
3. Infinity Pool
Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgaard deserve respect for their unwavering determination to venture there. In Brandon Cronenberg’s third film, the drama in a White Lotus hotel suddenly feels insignificant in comparison to what transpires during a holiday at a posh resort. The movie nearly missed receiving an NC-17 certification due to the amount of violent and hallucinogenic drug use and graphic sexual content. My own mind felt just like it had undergone a chemical change as I left the theater. Though arguably perhaps less so than the fantastic insanity of Mia Goth sitting on the hood of a moving car, taunting Skarsgaard’s James, and flinging fried chicken at him, the concepts Cronenberg raises about identity, self-destruction, and tourism resonated with me after the film’s comedown.
4. Plane
By himself, Gerard Butler (300) is preserving the essence of action movies from the 1990s. All of the recent films that could have been released in the 1990s include Greenland, Den of Thieves, Hunter Killer, Last Seen Alive, and the Has Fallen trilogy. Plane is the most recent action movie on his résumé.
Butler plays commercial pilot Brodie Torrance, who must perform an emergency landing in the Philippines when a typhoon badly damages the aircraft. However, hostiles control the location where Brodie landed, and they hold the majority of the travelers hostage. Brodie’s only chance is to work with Louis Gaspare, a murder suspect who is being escorted on the trip by the FBI, played by Mike Colter of Luke Cage.
5. Jethica
The majority of the press around Pete Ohs’ Jethica focuses on the film’s overall brilliance. Ohs invented a way of making movies in which he serves as his entire team, which enables him to produce visually stunning features for less money than average shorts. (Jessica incurred a $10,000 tab.) You don’t have to evaluate Jethica on a curve, though, to enjoy it, just like you didn’t need to do so for Ohs’s earlier picture in a similar genre, 2021’s Youngstown. A woman is plagued by the spirit of her stalker in this chic comedic noir movie set in New Mexico. Ohs infuses the movie with both the carefree attitude of a house picture and the precision and vision of an artist. Together with his small cast, he worked on the story, and the results take the movie in a number of unexpected places, with Will Madden’s portrayal of Kevin in particular standing out.
6. Knock at the Cabin
Regardless of your opinion of M. Night Shyamalan (Old), he is one of the few directors who has the ability to eventize a film. Every time Shyamalan publishes a movie, it seems significant. Knock at the Cabin, his most recent movie, adheres to the Shyamalan success formula of otherworldly themes and surprising conclusions. Knock at the Cabin, a 2018 novel by Paul G. Tremblay adaptation, shows a house invasion with potentially cataclysmic consequences. To avoid the end of the world, the intruders in the home demand that the family sacrifice one of its members. While it isn’t the best Shyamalan, it is nonetheless deserving of a place on the early “best of” list for 2023. While it isn’t the best Shyamalan, it is nonetheless deserving of a place on the early “best of” list for 2023.
How to Watch
This year at Ready Steady Cut, we want to experiment with something new. We considered keeping a running list of the top movies from 2023 throughout the year rather than waiting until the end to announce the winners. But what if you belong to restricted areas where these movies are not allowed to launch? Simply, you can watch abroad using VPN like ExpressVPN and grab the fun. Because by doing so, you can continue to advance movies throughout the whole year, not just during the busy award season.
Conclusion
2023 has produced a number of critical and commercial successes across various genres in barely over two months. So far, viewers have embraced a spooky doll with a murderous side (M3GAN), an homage to action flicks from the 1990s (Plane), and many more. So, these are the top films of 2023.
