Words: James Mottram
As July creeps onto the calendar, it’s time to round-up 2023’s big-screen highlights so far. Already, the cinemas have given us killer dolls and kick-ass Keanu, swinging Spideys and Spielberg sentiment, and that’s just scratching the surface. So let’s take a look at the best films from the past six months…
‘Asteroid City’
Director: Wes Anderson
Anderson’s 11th feature is another immaculately crafted, idiosyncratic adventure, this time set around a Junior Stargazer contest in a fictional desert town. Expanding his troupe to include Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Hope Davis, Anderson also gave his old pal Jason Schwartzman his best role in years, as a grief-stricken father-of-four. With aliens, atom bombs and singing cowboys (including Jarvis Cocker), it’s got bags of charm.
For fans of: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom
‘Blue Jean’
Director: Georgia Oakley
There’s been a rash of brilliant British female-directed indies of late, including Aftersun and the forthcoming Scrapper and How To Have Sex. You can add Blue Jean into this mix, a first-time feature from Georgia Oakley starring Rosy McEwen as a teacher struggling with her sexuality at time when Thatcher’s government was ushering in the stigmatising Clause 28. Like a companion to Channel 4 drama It’s A Sin, this blended the politician and personal with real aplomb.
For fans of: My Beautiful Laundrette, Weekend
‘Evil Dead Rise’
Director: Lee Cronin
Creating the biggest hit of the Evil Dead franchise to date, Irish director Lee Cronin knocked it out of the park with this continuation of the horror series begun by Sam Raimi. Relocating the story to a crumbling LA apartment block and making the target of demonic possession a single mother (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three kids, Cronin conjured a breathless, blood-soaked barnstormer. The most intense movie of the year so far.
For fans of: Color Out Of Space, Drag Me To Hell
‘How To Blow Up A Pipeline’
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Inspired by Andreas Malm’s radical 2020 manifesto of the same name, this pulsating eco-thriller follows a group of climate activists as they plot the destruction of a new segment of oil pipeline running through West Texas. The shadow of Quentin Tarantino’s celebrated heist debut Reservoir Dogs looms large, as clever flashbacks and bad injuries play a part. Among the cast, American Honey’s Sasha Lane is the most recognisable face, but it’s the collective that shines.
For fans of: The Hummingbird Project, Reservoir Dogs
‘Infinity Pool’
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Arriving shortly after season two of The White Lotus, Cronenberg’s trippy tale was another story set in a luxury holiday resort. But that’s about where comparisons end, with this hallucinogenic horror putting Alexander Skarsgård’s blocked author through the ringer. Mia Goth brings her unique brand of other-worldliness as a dangerous seductress who loves nothing more than violating society’s norms. You’ll never book an all-inclusive resort again after this.
For fans of: Possessor, Triangle of Sadness
‘John Wick: Chapter 4’
Director: Chad Stahelski
How to turn anarchy into art, this fourth instalment in the ultra-violent Keanu Reeves-starring series took carnage to a new level. Fights at an Osaka hotel, a Berlin club and Paris’ Arc De Triomphe and the Sacre Coeur steps were to die-for, so to speak, while Donnie Yen’s blind assassin was a tremendous addition to the ensemble. Style over substance, maybe, but this was cooler than an Arctic winter.
For fans of: Extraction, The Matrix
‘Little Richard: I Am Everything’
Director: Lisa Cortés
Eye-opening documentary about the legend that is Little Richard, with director Cortés exploring queer theories around the flambouyant singer-pianist. Featuring stellar archive footage and some great commentators, including the always-quotable John Waters, the film cements Little Richard’s long overdue place in the music pantheon. At its very best, it reminds us of what a complex, charismatic character he really was.
For fans of: Moonage Daydream, Summer of Soul
‘M3GAN’
Director: Gerard Johnstone
In the year that AI became daily headline news, this slick update on the classic creepy doll horror movie saw Allison Williams’ robot designer road-test her latest creation (the Model 3 Generative Android) on her orphaned niece. Needless to say, M3GAN, who gets rather attached to her new friend, does not behave herself. The shape of things to come? We better hope not.
For fans of: Child’s Play, CHAPPIE
‘Meet Me In The Bathroom’
Directors: Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
New York, in the early 2000s, is the cultural, political backdrop for this mesmerising music documentary that looks into bands including The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Set at a time of 9/11 and the internet shifting parameters in the music industry, it’s a perfect time capsule of the age of uncertainty. The rough, raw feel is exhilarating.
For fans of: Shut Up & Play The Hits, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
‘Pearl’
Director: Ti West
Mia Goth returned for her second film with director Ti West following the 1970s-set X, in which (under heavy prosthetics) she played Pearl, the aged/bloodthirsty owner of a Texas farmhouse. Here, sans makeup, Goth ripped up the rulebook as the younger Pearl, showing us where that killer instinct came from. Typical of West’s black humour, The Wizard of Oz allusions are made, not least involving Pearl, a scarecrow and a masturbation fantasy. Twisted.
For fans of: X, The Innkeepers
‘Rye Lane’
Director: Raine Allen Miller
It’s not often that Peckham is put up in lights. This time, Miller’s effervescent romantic comedy embraces its south London backdrop. It’s a real walking-and-talking movie, as twentysomethings Dom (Industry’s David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) meets at an art show, both reeling from bad break-ups, and find a growing attraction. Vivacious, fresh filmmaking.
For fans of: Before Sunrise, I Give It A Year
‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’
Directors: Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos
The best superhero movie of the year so far? Check. The best blockbuster of the year so far? Double-check. Mild-mannered high-schooler Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) returned for more alternate Spidey adventures, as he dived into the multiverse maelstrom to hang out with all manner of web-slingers, including Daniel Kaluuya’s cor-blimey Spider-Punk. Driven by virtuoso animation, the level of invention here is off the chain.
For fans of: The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
‘TÁR’
Director: Todd Field
Easily the year’s most sophisticated, daring drama, Field’s character study brought us one of Cate Blanchett’s greatest ever performances as mercurial conductor Lydia Tár. Dipping into a post-MeToo universe, as Tár’s inappropriate behaviour with students is called into question, Field’s film seemed forensically researched – you’ll feel like you studied at a conservatoire by the end. But, like the out-there finale, it’s filled with utterly brilliant weirdness.
For fans of: In The Bedroom, Little Children
‘The Fabelmans’
Director: Steven Spielberg
Well, it had to happen eventually, as the world’s most famed filmmaker turns the camera on his own story. Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical tale sees a young boy navigate his tricky family life as his sheer wonder for cinema grows. Beginning with a homage to The Greatest Show On Earth, the result is one of Spielberg’s most touching movies. The cameo by David Lynch as an eyepatch-wearing John Ford is sheer genius, by the way.
For fans of: The Hand of God, Belfast
‘The Flash’
Director: Andy Muschietti
That The Flash has just disappointed at the box office could (and should) be put down to superhero fatigue alone. Muschietti’s film is easily one of the best DC Comics efforts, with Ezra Miller a joy to watch as the titular speedster making a muddle of the multiverse while trying to reverse his mum’s death. Call it the ultimate fan service if you will, but the return of Michael Keaton as Tim Burton-era Batman is inspired.
For fans of: Justice League, The Batman
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