James Cameron-Wilson Looks Back at the Year of 2023
In spite of the presence of five sequels and two remakes in the global box-office top-ten, there was a shift in the predictable. The number one movie was not only an original work, but it was directed by a woman. Shock horror! Of course, the excitement stopped there, although some of the best films of the year were directed by the stronger sex, albeit largely ignored by the multiplex hordes. As this is a personal piece, I shall bypass the end-of-year handwringing concerning what makes money and what doesn’t, a state of affairs that has become ever more obfuscated by the presence of the streaming giants. Nonetheless, I cannot help but point out that in the previous year’s top ten, every film was either a sequel or remake. So, we’re getting somewhere. And with duds like The Marvels and Wish, Disney was really beginning to feel the strain.
Personally, I find it challenging to select ten favourite titles, as on reflection my initial opinion has invariably changed over the last twelve months. I do, though, remember well the rush of excitement I felt watching Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, an exhilarating, terrifying slice of escapism with authentic stunts (you can tell) and a quartet of commanding female performances (take a bow Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Pom Klementieff). With so many action-thrillers flooding the marketplace, M:I VII stood out alone as one accomplished, smart cookie. I would also like to point out that half of my favourite films this year are directed by women, filmmakers who (besides Greta Gerwig, of Barbie fame) presented highly personal, intelligent and nuanced films that made us think as well as care. At awards’ time the old guard will be recognised, almost by default (think Scorsese, Nolan, Payne), although the South Korean-born Celine Song is likely to be rewarded for her elegiac, achingly poetic Past Lives. So, we’re getting somewhere.
Of those films that didn’t make my decisive chart, I doff my hat to Justine Triet (another woman!) for Anatomy of a Fall (a flawed piece that still haunts me), and, in no particular order, I was a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky’s blistering The Whale, Sam Mendes’ evocative Empire of Light, David Fincher’s compulsively watchable The Killer, Marc Forster’s gorgeous A Man Called Otto, Zach Braff’s profoundly personal and criminally overlooked A Good Person (has Florence Pugh ever been this good?), Will Merrick and Nick Johnson’s transfixing and alarming Missing, James Gunn’s endlessly entertaining Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Kristoffer Borgli’s fabulously inventive Dream Scenario (has Nicolas Cage ever been this good?).
James Cameron-Wilson’s Favourites:
