Memorable and enthralling films that stand up to repeated viewing, these are films that caught our attention this year and serve to remind us why buying a $15 movie ticket is still worth it! Love stories, racial dramas, nostalgic movies and familial strife are among our best movies of 2023.
American Fiction
Based on Percival Everett’s 2020 novel “Erasure,” this gem shines a thoughtful light on race and identity. The film follows a frustrated novelist who is fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive stereotypes. He uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own riddled with pimps, drug dealers and deadbeat dads that he’s sick of reading about. When his book becomes an overnight success and studios start clamoring for movie rights, this author is forced to examine his own literary versatility. It’s a subtle message to Hollywood that actors of color are more than capable of multifaceted characters and there is still room for more roles and films that celebrate Black stories — ones that don’t always deal with slavery, gang banging and violence.
Origin
There’s something incredibly beautiful about the way director Ava DuVernay has crafted this haunting drama about love, grief and racism. Adapted from Isabel Wilkerson’s nonfiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” DuVernay offers a fresh perspective on our current social landscape by unraveling the origin of segregation in America, which she then links to India’s caste system and the genocide of European Jews. Compelling, enlightening, engaging, relatable and remorseful, there’s also a tender love story lurking beneath the racial drama and an excellent performance from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. It’s a film which does more than entertain. It informs, educates and provokes.
The Color Purple
With toe-tapping tracks and colorful visuals, this is a musical filled with hues and harmony that’s hard not to love. “The Color Purple” has undergone many iterations over the past four decades. From an Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg-helmed film in 1985, a Tony-winning Broadway musical in 2005, to the Grammy-winning Broadway revival in 2015. This latest version, directed by Blitz Bazawule, is a very energetic adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer-winning novel with singing and choreography led by Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorcese’s telling of the Osage Indian murders isn’t an easy movie to watch due to its subject matter. Adapted from the book of the same name by journalist David Grann, it’s a three-and-a-half-hour film about an Indian tribe manipulated and murdered for their wealth in the early 20th century. With a strong ensemble cast, riveting performances from Leonard DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, Scorsese’s cinematic piece digs into how money and racism corrupted a generation.
Mami Water
Set in a West African village, director CJ Obasi’s film expertly weaves together intergenerational trauma, tradition and modernity with cultural defiance and mysticism as it explores the rich traditions of African culture and the power struggle that ensues.
The Holdovers
A period flick, set in 1970, the film stars Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa as three characters forced to spend Christmas together at an elite boys’ prep school. Directed by Alexander Payne, there are laughs and tears in this thought provoking drama about the power and impact people can have on your life.
Fear
A smartly made horror flick which doesn’t rely on gimmicks usually needed to elicit a state of fear, director Deon Taylor touches on individual phobias that can cause significant distress in his psychological and emotional thriller. It stars Joseph Sikora (“Power”), Andrew Bachelor, Annie Ilonzeh, Ruby Modine, Terrence Jenkins, Tip “T.I.” Harris and Jessica Allain as longtime friends who visit a haunted hotel for the weekend during a Pandemic.
Across the Spider-Verse
The saga of the Black Spidey continues with this first part of a sequel to the 2018 multiverse adventure of Brooklyn teen Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson and Kemp Powers throw in dozens of diverse Spider-Men, multiple Spider-Women and villains and add in agreat score by composer and songwriter Daniel Pemberton. The film has a uniqueness which sets itself apart from anything else in the genre.
They Cloned Tyrone
Certainly one of the funniest films of the year with its sharp sense of humor, Juel Taylor’s debut film brilliantly mixes humor, sci-fi and conspiracy. A film which plays on historic racial crimes and Black conspiracy theories, John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris give the best comic performances of the year.
Rye Lane
A sweet, funny and delightfully made rom-com set in South London, it follows Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) who rediscover their zeal for love and life after connecting over the course of an eventful day. Both are reeling from bad break-ups and in the course of the flick help each other deal with their nightmare exes, and restore their faith in romance.
