Films of the year / best films you saw for the first time this year

[sevendaughters]

That's right - a twofer.

What were the best new (2022/23) films you saw this year, and what were the best older (pre-2022) films you saw for the first time this year?

I'm going to post my picks in here a bit later. On ye go!

[SteveDave]

Thank you for asking, mine have been

My Old School
The Menu
Fast Five
Aftersun
Fall
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
Funeral In Berlin
Wham!
Hell Drivers
Nimona
To Live And Die In LA
Little Richard: I Am Everything
When Evil Lurks
The Man Who Haunted Himself

[Jerzy Bondov]

Of new stuff that came out this year I'd say Rye Lane and The Passenger were my favourites. I came out of the Spider-Verse one buzzing but it started to crumble and fade the more I thought about it. Infinity Pool would be up there too. But no big 5 star Bondov Classics yet.

Really good older stuff I saw for the first time:

• Akira - Obviously spectacular
• Riders of Justice - Mads Mikkelsen doing a revenge. Very dark sense of humour with a heart of gold, like me
• The Devils - Fucking amazing, he throws a crocodile out of a window, five stars
• The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover - RIP Gambon, this was a good one of yours
• Cure - The Kiyoshi Kurosawa from 1997, people going nuts or something. Really chilly and hypnotic, deeply troubling. Fav film I saw this year I think
• The Sorcerers - Could almost watch this as a double bill with Cure, have a hypnosis murder night.
• The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) - Cried loads and loads

[Johnboy]

Killers of the Flower Moon
Wham!
Black Berry

3 Women
Sorcerer

[Bad Ambassador]

Five best new films: The Killer, Pearl, Reality, Skinamarink and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Five best new old films: Kes, Last Passenger, Long Weekend, Mona Lisa and The Offence.

[sevendaughters]

These are the new (2022 onwards) films I saw this year (well, Dec 2022 onward), ranked and briefly summarised:

Aftersun - heartmelting grief drama better than anything else by factor of many
Tar - asshole conductor pisses people off thriller
May December - actor researches wrong-un, has existential breakdown
Missing - novel kidnap thriller told through computer screen
Rye Lane - Peckham Eric Rohmer for the terminally lovelorn
A Bunch of Amateurs - Bradford cinephiles muddle on documentary
Asteroid City - formally precise grief exploration taking place in the far-middle-distance
Rotting in the Sun - influencer wants to bang director, twist in the middle, say no more
Blackberry - corporate rise and fall drama with some laughs and some languers
Godard Cinema - cloying but thoughtful documentary about the dead genius
Brian and Charles - occasionally funny sadcom about introvert and his ersatz robot
The Visitors - documentary about Svalbard and how even there it is racist and stupid
Blue Jean - section 28 drama about lesbian PE teacher occasionally good
The Eternal Daughter - MR James in a hotel lacks a real haunted feeling or anything other than suffused feelings
My Imaginary Country - documentary about recent Chilean political happenings was redundant by its release
The Equalizer 3 - old man Denzel batters the mafia for reactionary dads
Broker - Little Miss Sunshine but for child kidnappers
Barbie - not getting into it again
EO - pointless remake of great film
Women Talking - moral theatre with the subtlety of a bank letter
Sound of Freedom - phenomenally fascist drama about saving kids
My Name is Hitchcock - almost ruined my favourite director

Fav old films coming soon!

[Minami Minegishi]

Red Rooms by Pascal Plante is comfortably my film of the year so far. In 2022 it was You Won't Be Alone.

I've seen a shit-ton of older films this year but these are my top picks:

The Woman in the Dunes
Funeral Parade of Roses
Seconds
Three Women
A Touch of Zen
An Autumn Afternoon
Flowers of Shanghai
Gertrude
Le Bonheur
Vagabond
Where is my Friend's House
Taste of Cherry
Cries and Whispers
Night and Fog
(Too many to list it turns out....)

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

New films:

Nimona - Winner of the "Best Surprise of the Year" award. I knew nothing about this until about 15 minutes before I went to see it and finished the film absolutely loving it. A distinctly non-Disney animated fantasy adventure that deserves wider recognition than its Netflix exclusive status will probably afford it. Here's the thread about it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse - To the delight of dozens of curmudgeons everywhere, this seems to have been the year in which the wheels finally fell off the superhero bandwagon. This showed that there may still life in the genre, though. A rollicking good time, that's even more visually sumptuous than its predecessor. It loses a point for the reported crappy crunch conditions the animators laboured under to make it look that way and another point for a cliffhanger ending whose resolution has been delayed indefinitely by the Hollywood strikes.
Renfield - Was this also the year that Nicolas Cage made a comeback? No - this flopped and I don't expect Dream Scenario drew the crowds in either. This was an absolute blast though, with Nicolases Cage and Hoult putting in excellent performances as Dracula and his titular lackey. Good, gory fun. This was a better Evil Dead film than the actual Evil Dead film released this year.

Hur hur huurrrr!!! OMG "Barbenheimer"!!!!11! Hur hur huuuruurr!!!! Like all internet memes, this one was fucking obnoxious, but the films were good anyway.
Barbie - Yes, it's a load of having its cake and eating it corporate propaganda. It's also an utter delight, with hilarious performances, catchy songs and lovely production design.
Oppenheimer - I've thought Christopher Nolan has been dreadfully overrated for years, with Tenet being his nadir. I would have to say, almost grudgingly, that I liked this though. We could debate the morality of it all until the cows come home (personally, I found the lack of a Japanese POV somehow less troubling than Killers of the Flower Moon sidelining the Osage people in its latter half) but what it chooses to do, it does pretty darn well. Basically, it's three hour long and it never once felt boring or overindulgent.

Dumb Money - The fact that I found thins riveting, despite having no clue as to what was really happening, is enough for me to say it was very good.
Fremont - A series of barely connected vignettes, often quirky, shot in 4:3 black and white. As I said in the thread, this is almost like a parody of an indie film, but no less charming for it. Gets a bonus point for introducing me to the song "Diamond Day".
Leave the World Behind - I only saw this last week, but it really grabbed me. Like a cross between something by David Fincher and Jordan Peele, it's a drama with a vein of dark humour running through it and the freakiest use of wildlife since The VuVitch. The cast, including Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la Herrold and Kevin Bacon, are reliably excellent, but Julia Roberts (whom I'm not always a fan of) takes the whole thing. If I have to level a criticism at it, it's a bit weird that it sets up a few Chekov's guns that never go off.
Anselm - I only saw this last night and it also grabbed me. Wim Wenders directed documentary about German artist Anselm Kiefer. I may not know about art, but I know what I like and the 3D cinematography of Kiefer's collosal installations was quite breathtaking.

Old films:

Lawrence of Arabia - What can you say? It's a classic, anchored by a performance of extraordinary charisma from Peter O'Toole - in his first lead role, no less. The extensive use of brownface rightly wouldn't fly today, but it seems remarkably progressive in it's criticism of Britain's role in carving up the Middle East.
Little Women (2019) - Another one from Greta Gerwig, by whom I shall be checking out anything from now on. I've not read the book, nor seen any other film version, so I don't know how it fares as an adaptation, but I thought it was lovely.
The House of Mirth - Another literary costume drama. Features a lead performance from Gillian Anderson that makes me wish she'd become a bigger film star.

[Famous Mortimer]

2023 - probably They Cloned Tyrone or the Dungeons and Dragons one. I don't watch tons of new films.

Watched for the first time this year -
Possession - can't believe it took me that long
Tombstone - same
All the shorts from Takashi Ito, Toshio Matsumoto and John Smith

[Papa Wheelie]

Best films I've seen for the first time this year:

Floating Weeds - Ozu in colour, wonderfully poignant, breezy but bitter, made me ache. The strain of loss and the cheerful masks we wear to hide our pain. Fucking amazing film in every way, ticks my personal boxes like little else I've seen.

High and Low - Saw the new Toho 4K which looks unbelievable, this completely gripped me, masterpiece of procedural Hitchcockian tension, easy top 3 Kurosawa for me. When I'd finished, I genuinely felt bad it took me to the age of 42 to watch it, what a cunt.

Carlito's Way - Richer and more romantic than Scarface, de Palma at his most emotionally engaging, I've watched it three times this year and loved it more and more. I know I'll love it forever.

Lips of Blood - After a glorious binge on the new Indicator 4K Rollin releases, this sits at the top for me. It's got the Gothic daydreamy malaise but with a romantic, giallo-inspired narrative drive. It's tender and melancholic and builds to a genuinely beautiful finale.

Taipei Story - Slowly crushing Edward Yang melodrama, full of longing and hopeless dreams. Beautiful cinematography and understated, naturalistic performances. This is right up my street. It slightly underwhelmed me at first but the atmosphere has stayed with me and it grows stronger over time.

Burial Ground - Absolutely ridiculous Italian zombie exploitation fodder with an hilarious incestuous streak. An often unfathomable picture that builds to a demented conclusion. Make up, acting, soundtrack all quite terrible but perfectly fitting. I've watched it a couple of times already and I feel I will watch it a lot more.

Branded To Kill - Brilliant, attention-grabbing Seijun Suzuki yakuza flick with spectacularly ostentatious black and white cinematography. Rubato editing and narrative are continually unsettling and thrilling. Criterion 4K is a total belter. Easily my favourite Suzuki to date and I don't think it will be surpassed.

[dissolute ocelot]

Pretty much the only decent new films I've seen this year are Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse and Dungeons and Dragons: Fuck You Hugh Grant. The best older ones I've seen for the first time:

Aftersun (2022)
Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Nope (2022)
Belle (2021)
Gypsy 83 (2001)
Comrades (1987)
Separation (1967)
The Small Back Room (1943)
Street Angel (1928)
Cops (1922)

[holyzombiejesus]

Sight & Sound have just released their top 50 and, annoyingly, about half of them haven't had a UK release yet.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/50-best-films-2023

[phantom_power]

Sight & Sound have just released their top 50 and, annoyingly, about half of them haven't had a UK release yet.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/50-best-films-2023

Any list that has Talk To Me as the token horror film and not When Evil Lurks is suspect, as is the fact that Barbenheimer share 5th place

[sevendaughters]

Cahiers du Cinema's top 10, for a publication long lacking in relevancy, is more interesting at the top end


    "Trenque Lauquen" dir. Laura Citarella
    "Close Your Eyes" dir. Victor Erice
    "Anatomy of a Fall" dir. Justine Triet
    "The Fabelmans" dir. Steven Spielberg
    "Fallen Leaves" dir. Aki Kaurismaki
    "Désordres" dir. Cyril Schaublin
    "Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World" dir. Radu Jude
    "The Temple Woods Gang" dir. Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche
    "Last Summer" dir. Catherine Breillat
    "A Prince' dir. Pierre Creton, "Showing Up" dir. Kelly Reichardt

[DrumsAndWires]

Pre 2022:

This is England
Dead Man's Shoes
Remains of the Day

[sevendaughters]

Pre 2022:

This is England
Dead Man's Shoes
Remains of the Day

for a very whiplash inducing triple bill

[Herbert Ashe]

Not seen much new stuff this year, partly life stuff, partly lack of enthusiasm for lots of what was on offer. So -

Easy best 2023 release I've seen: Trenque Lacquen (2022). Dir. Laura Citarella, whose a member of the Argentinian collective El Pampero Cine whose films are almost always precisely calibrated for me to love. Characters and the different ways they construct and live their narratives, a love of small-town community and sense of place, those particular flat labyrinths (cliche, sorry) of the Argentinian interior, mish-mashing genres.

Walk Up (2022) was the choice of new Hong Sang-Soo at the London Korean Film Festival (he's released 2 more in 2023, not that they seem to have got any screenings in London that I've noticed). Think it's 2nd tier Hong but after all as he's textbook case of sort of auteur where his films are richer because of their relationship with his career as a whole, so I got plenty out of it.

Evil Does Not Exist (Hamaguchi) Like with Drive My Car, I was extremely onboard with this until the end, have reservations about how they both seems to retreat into some sort of familiar art-house territory which I think acts as a narrowing of the film's concern; makes less open and more amenable to psychologising or whatever. Nevertheless Hamaguchi still someone who I will always want to watch for the way he constructs these slightly mysterious film spaces full of room for his characters.

Jawan (dir. Atlee). Nutty and very fun new Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) film. Think this did the 'Indian' film circuit in the UK but I missed it then, caught up via backchannels but it's on netflix as well I think. Kinda of doing the Tamil leftish action thing, I guess; when he's not busy with his day job, SRK stages elaborate stunt 'terrorist' acts with his gang in order to expose corruption and blackmail government and big business into funding universal healthcare and debt relief for poor farmers. Some decent songs, outrageous plot development, a double role, all the stuff you'd expect. SRK also does a voting PSA whilst the film starts with a disclaimer cum spoiler that the Mumbai metro line is actually "is one of the most efficient metro lines, having outstanding customer support and we appreciate that they deploy highest standard of safety measures". Also features some Muslim and (extraordinary savage) Maoist (I think?) terrorists in flashbacks, so it doesn't scare the ideological horses too much.


Best New To Me Old Stuff; lots of my big new things this year have been experimental/non-narrative but already done a couple of posts on that this year. So features only:

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Lubitsch, 1927) Lubitsch does Lubitsch stuff, winner.
The Bitter Stems (Fernando Ayala, 1956) Argentinian noir about a couple of guys setting up a mail-order con; twisty structure, laced with anxieties about immigration and Argentina's place in the post-WW2 world order.
Terror in a Texas Town (Joseph H Lewis, 1958) Dalton Trumbo scripted b&w leftist b-western, 80 mins, lead character is a Swedish whaler, great stuff.
Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976) what I said in this post.
Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion (Somai Shinji, 1985) Pretty much everything this guy did is must-see, I'm finding, fucking rotten he died in his early 50s. Beautiful and strange film that I wasn't able to fully get to grips with on a first watch but I'm sure is major.
Patlabor 2 (Oshii, 1993) I'm not much of an anime guy although certain stuff does align with my tastes a lot, especially the Oshii of this & Ghost in the Shell.

[Sebastian Cobb]

New:
A Wounded Fawn - Nice indie horror
Earth Mama - Indie film about an expectant mother and former addict trying to get her existing kids out of care.
Enys Men
Great Yarmouth - Story about exploitative Portugese abbatoir workers for the Christmas season
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
I Like Movies - Fun Canadian coming of age indie film about a 17 year old cinephile who gets a job in a video store
Infinity Pool
La Syndicaliste - Based on the true story of Maureen Kearney a trade unionist for Areva turned whistleblower who revealed corruption in a deal between EDF and a Chinese power company resulting in an attack in her home and then attempted prosecution for fabricating the attack
New York Ninja - Vinegar Syndrome restoration of a lost passion project
Pearl
Pretty Red Dress - Black British family drama about a woman who wants to play Tina Turner in a musical, her partner is just out of prison and buys her an expensive dress, but secretly starts wearing it as he likes dressing up as a woman (I don't think it's fully clear if he's trans or a cross-dresser, not sure it matters for the film)
Rye Lane
Scrapper - Nice drama about a small kid living by herself as her mum passed away, then her estranged father turns up
Strange Way Of Life - 30 minute Pedro Almodovar western
The Beasts
They Cloned Tyrone
Tish - Documentary about the photographer Tish Murtha

Old:
A Polish Vampire in Burbank - Sub troma schlock about a vampire, has the accolade of being the most successful film shot on 8mm. I unironically love it
A Simple Plan - See above
Bad Taste
Claudine - Decent early 70's black drama about family life (one of the first successful non-blaxploitation films)
Decoder - Great Vinegar Syndrome restoration of a gritty German techo-thriller starring Christiane F and Genesis P'Orridge
Frankenhooker - Daft tromaesque take on Frankenstein
Girlfriends - Great 70's comedy drama, Melanie Mayron smashes it
Honkey - 70's romance film about an interracial high school couple
Inspector Ike - Film length 70's tv detective parody, kind of like a Blaxploitation twist on Columbo
Irma Vep - Good "making a film in a film" type thing
Lingua Franca - Trans Filipina actress/director plays an undocumented Filipina trans caregiver in the US who worries about deportation and the dangers that might cause, and goes in persuit of potentially getting a green card via marriage
Lost Highway
Once Were Warriors - Nice bit of NZ brutalism
Parallel Mothers - standard Almodovar melodrama
Passion Fish - Great bit of John Sayles business
Possum - Matthew Holness' psych horror staring the evil guy from '71
Rabid Dogs - Italian thriller noir about a bungled robbery and kidnapping of a woman and her father to get away from the cops
Red Rocket - Great bit of a Sean Baker fun
Red Wolf - HK action thriller that's basically Die Hard, but on a boat
Remember my Name - Geraldine Chaplain becomes a stalker
Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins - Fun Fred Ward action flick
Righting Wrongs - One of my favourite HK action films with Cynthia Rothrock
Sling Blade - Went on a bit of a Billy Bob Thornton sesh
Star Slammer - Women in prison in space
Starlet - Another great bit of Sean Baker fun
Straight to Hell - Alex Cox's Western
Take a Hard Ride - Black Spaghetti Western with Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef
Tenebrae - Bit good this innit?
The Baby - Absolutely mad 70's psych thriller
The Liberation of L.B. Jones - 70's noir about southern racism
The Tenant
The Virgin Suicides
Variety - Excellent 80's indie film about a jobless woman who gets a job in the ticket stall of a porn theatre. Great little slice of a new york that was dramatised in things like The Deuce and has cool people like Nan Goldin cropping up. The main actress, Sandy Mcleod is great but didn't star in many other films (but what she was in included Something Wild and the Jamacian film Rockers!) however has had a really interesting career behind the camera including being one of the visual consultants on Stop Making Sense and a second-unit director on John Sayles films.
White Men Can't Jump - Why did it take me this long?
Whore - A day in the life of a brass played by Theresa Russell, was apparently a tongue-in-cheek counterargument to Pretty Woman
Witchfinder General - Great late 60's period drama, quite nasty
[rec] - Spanish found footage horror
beau travail

[dissolute ocelot]

Sight & Sound have just released their top 50 and, annoyingly, about half of them haven't had a UK release yet.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/50-best-films-2023

I'd only seen 4 of the list, 1 of which I passionately hated (Asteroid City), two I kinda hated (The Fabelmans and Tar) despite them having good parts, and one I found infuriating in a good way (May December). But looking forward to Poor Things and Zone of Interest NEXT YEAR.

Most dubious aspect was that Barbie and Oppenheimer were equal. Fix, surely.

[twosclues]

Still too much from this year to catch up on, but my top 5 non-2023 first watches are:

1. The Night Of The Hunter
2. Sátántangó
3. A Matter Of Life And Death
4. Beau Travail
5. Possession

[Timothy]

1. Beau is Afraid
2. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
3. Barbie
4. Rye Lane

[Mister Six]

Bugger, I wanted to start this thread at the end of the month. It's still awards season! Zone of Interest isn't even out yet!

So I'll probably do some thread necromancy in half a month or so. I'm sure you're all on tenterhooks.

It's been a pretty shit year, though. I watched 65 films that came out in 2023, and I'd say only my top 25 were really impressive.

[sevendaughters]

Here's my top 20 older films I saw for the first time list with a small description, then a few other good to very good ones I saw just as a list.

1.    Talk to Her
Two men are in love with women in comas, but maybe each other, and also being deluded?

2.    All About Eve
Waspish classical Hollywood piece about an actor weeviling in her way to the life of a star; v funny.

3.    Diary of a Country Priest
Bresson misery-fest as sick curate goes to bleak village to be scorned by all.

4.    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane
Two former stars, also sisters, live together and enact various petty tortures on the other. Grimly brilliant.

5.    Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Japan's most interesting fascist undertakes his fascinating last day.

6.    Possession
Spy's wife acting weird. Affair? Yes, but no. Insane psychodrama of unmatched intensity.

7.    Festen
Bourgeois family gathering quickly goes sour when home truths are revealed and shit kicks right off.

8.    UTU
Maori in British army sees village of slaughtered indigenous and flips out. On one rampage he kills a farmer's wife, so the farmer flips out. Multi-revenge period piece.

9.    The Apartment
Jack Lemmon oozes pathos in funny and incredibly melancholic double-barrelled assault on work.

10.    Cure
Part-plod procedural, part psychological thriller - bodies turn up with giant X slashed into them. Why?

11.    The Death of Empedocles / Fortini / Cani
Two from Straub-Huillet, one halting Brechtian piece of time dilating madness, the other a tract read by its writer, a Marxist Communist Jew, on the subject of Israel and Palestine. Sometimes a film is about the day you see it.

12.    Paper Moon
Hunky hustler Ryan O'Neal (RIP) comes across an abandoned child and incorporates her into his Depression-era con jobs.

13.    Gremlins 2
Makes the original look like total shit by adding furious energy and layers of Verhoeven-esque media satire.

14.    Red Dragon
Silence of the Lambs prequel has no right to be this good, outstripping Manhunter for my money.

15.    Camila
Steamy junta-era Argentine romantic drama about a woman who runs away with a priest.

16.    The Mother and the Whore
Long but rewarding film as Jean-Pierre Leaud plays France's worst boyfriend.

17.    That Obscure Object of Desire
Man lobs glass of water in a woman's face as he boards a train. He turns to his compartmentmates and says "I bet you're wondering why I'd do that" to them, and proceeds to tell them his version of events.

18.    The Last Picture Show
Children become adults overnight when school lets out in Texas' most French New Wave town.

19.    The Brick and the Mirror
Taxi driver sees abandoned child in his cab and tries to get it back in a 60s Tehran that looks like hell on earth.

20. Three Colours: White
Cuckolded Pole made fugitive by evil wife plans intricate revenge, if only he can get deported home in a suitcase.

Shop Around the Corner
Notre musique
Fateful Findings
The Devil is a Woman
To Live and Die in LA
Mississippi Masala
Shadows in Paradise / Ariel / Match Factory Girl
On the Silver Globe
The Naked Kiss
Her
The Lunchbox
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Party Girl
Earth II
Magic
Pressure
Mad Max
The Old Man Movie: Lactocalypse!

[El Unicornio, mang]

Five best new films: The Killer, Pearl, Reality, Skinamarink and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

These were my faves as well, along with

Infinity Pool
Return to Seoul
The Eternal Daughter (technically 2022 but just came out in the UK)
Asteroid City
Anatomy of a Fall

and the big ones which I probably don't need to mention

[Minami Minegishi]

Red Rooms by Pascal Plante is comfortably my film of the year so far. In 2022 it was You Won't Be Alone.

Do you people just not care for this film, or haven't seen it? I don't see it on anyone's lists and I don't think I will see a better film this year.

[sevendaughters]

Do you people just not care for this film, or haven't seen it? I don't see it on anyone's lists and I don't think I will see a better film this year.

never heard of it mate!

[El Unicornio, mang]

Yeah it's pretty obscure (I hadn't heard of it outside this thread either), don't think it's had any kind of release outside of Canada aside from some film festivals although it is "available" so I'll check it out.

[madhair60]

i saw Female Trouble for the first time a few days ago. absolutely hilarious movie, just up to 11 start to finish.

[Mister Six]

Do you people just not care for this film, or haven't seen it? I don't see it on anyone's lists and I don't think I will see a better film this year.

Not out in the US yet, although it's picked up a distributor. It's on my "to watch" list for next year.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Do you people just not care for this film, or haven't seen it? I don't see it on anyone's lists and I don't think I will see a better film this year.