I’ve already highlighted my 10 favourite films of 2023 elsewhere. But some of the 192 other new movies I watched this year deserve attention, too. Here is an alternative Top 10 list: a collection of the most overlooked, underrated, underseen and unfairly dismissed films of the year – and how you can watch them right now.
10. Plane & Mission Kandahar
It’s been a great year for cinéma du Gerard Butler, with not one but two A-level B-movies in which the actor plays a grizzled hero fighting his way out of an impossibly dangerous situation in order to reunite with his loving family. In Plane, that involves playing a take-no-guff pilot who has to ride out a storm and then fight off gangsters on a near-deserted Philippine island. In Mission Kandahar, Butler is a MI6 operative who must fight off the combined efforts of ISIS, the Taliban, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Pakistan’s legion of spies. Butler’s movies might not surprise, exactly, but they are tremendously reliable. You know what they say: If he ain’t bloke, don’t fix him. (Plane is streaming on Crave; Kandahar is streaming on Prime Video)
9. Foe
Dismissed as a Black Mirror rip-off by critics who didn’t bother to open a Wikipedia page detailing production timelines, and given a shamefully muted marketing campaign by Amazon Studios, the sci-fi head-spinner Foe is an erotically charged, impressively knotty study of a relationship that threatens to dissolve into dust. Adapting his own novel alongside director Garth Davis, Canadian author/screenwriter Iain Reid delivers a high-concept story with an unshakable and electric hum. And then there are the searing lead performances from Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, drenched in sweat and sex. (Streaming on Prime Video starting Jan. 5)
8. Extraction 2
John Wick might have gotten much of the year’s action accolades for his fourth and final (yeah right) go-round, but for my bloodstained money, the most impressively explosive chaos goes down in this sequel to Chris Hemsworth’s mercenary madness. Director Sam Hargrave goes huge in topping his first film’s 11-minute “one-take” sequence, here staging a seamless 20-minute rampage that starts with our hero escaping a prison riot and ending with a train vs. helicopter battle that is so preposterous it must be seen to be disbelieved. (Streaming on Netflix)
7. Flora and Son
Once and Sing Street director John Carney takes several pages from his tried and tested songbook to tell another story of lost souls finding their way out of the darkness through the warm and fuzzy power of music. But Carney knows exactly what he’s doing here, and has the experience and confidence to pull off his familiar tricks remarkably well. If you fell in easy love with the two songbirds at the heart of 2007′s Once, then it will take only the slightest of nudges to become enamoured by the raised-eyebrow chemistry between Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Streaming on Apple TV+)
6. Dicks: The Musical
A perfect case of a title delivering exactly what it promises, the new comedy Dicks: The Musical is an adults-only riot that wastes no time flying big fat red flags to any moviegoer with, let’s say, delicate sensibilities. If you might be repulsed by the sights (and sounds) of talking genitalia, to say nothing of diaper-clad sewer mutants who have a taste for deli meats, then flip the page/shut your laptop/throw your phone into the river. Because Dicks masterminds Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp are here to take you on a wild, wet ride into the toilet bowl of bad taste. (On-demand, including Apple TV, Amazon, Cineplex Store)
5. The Creator
Curiously dismissed by critics (and mostly ignored by audiences) upon release, Gareth Edwards’s sci-fi thriller left a deep impression when it was released in theatres this fall. The director, who brought a surprisingly dark and human edge to 2014′s Godzilla, is a passionate scholar of sci-fi filmmaking, with an eye for eye-popping visuals and a mind for propulsive storytelling. The Creator’s set-pieces are gripping, the pace relentlessly slick and the world-building so detailed as to benefit from (but not require) footnotes. (On-demand, including Apple TV, Amazon, Cineplex Store)
4. Rye Lane
The feature debut of Raine Allen-Miller, this highly stylized, zippy and bright Sundance hit follows one momentous day in the lives of a sad-sack mamma’s boy named Dom (David Jonsson) and the free-spirited Yas (Vivian Oparah) as they seek to mend their broken hearts. The easy comparison would be Before Sunset meets Lovers Rock, but Rye Lane is a cut above a mere cinematic mixtape. With charming performances, sparkling dialogue and the vibrant vision of a filmmaker with epic ambitions, Rye Lane is a sun-splashed delight. And take note, aspiring rom-com directors: You can do the entirety of a boy-meets/loses/wins back-girl arc in less than 83 minutes. (Streaming on Disney+ with Star)
3. Return to Seoul
Of this year’s three films about women from South Korea exploring their roots (the other two being Past Lives and Joy Ride), it is Davy Chou’s third feature that has lingered longest. Following Freddie (Ji-Min Park), a twentysomething woman of remarkable confidence, and arrogance, who travels to South Korea in search of her birth parents, Return to Seoul is intense, electric and confrontational. And just when you think you have a handle on Chou’s heroine, the film hits you over the head with a thwack. (On-demand, including Apple TV, Amazon, Cineplex Store)
2. Beau Is Afraid
Every time I write about Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, my mailbox gets a few missives from readers who definitely did not appreciate the recommendation. I hear you: This is not a movie for everyone – actually, it is a movie for very, very, very few. But if you just happen to be part of that teeny-tiny target audience, then take a bold leap and explore Aster’s horror-comedy, which has stubbornly lodged itself into my brain for the past half-dozen months. If you so dare, plunge yourself into this waking nightmare about an emotionally stunted man (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who makes an epic trek across a surreal U.S. to attend the funeral of his domineering mother (Patti LuPone). Imagine the ambition of Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, with the sour grit of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and you’re nearly there. (Streaming on Paramount+)
1. Godzilla Minus One
Arriving in Canadian theatres with almost no promotion – and certainly no press representatives to give a friendly head’s up to local media, ahem – Toho Studios’ 33rd Godzilla film is a certified riot. Rewinding the kaiju mythos back to the very beginning, director Takashi Yamazaki’s epic is set in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Tokyo in ruins and the national psyche shattered. Enter Godzilla, a being of pure radioactive carnage whose destruction spurs Japan’s walking wounded into action. Deftly political while still being a thrilling piece of entertainment, Godzilla Minus One is a true cinematic experience of the highest, largest order. I don’t think I’ll ever come down from the rush of seeing the nearly sold-out audience at my screening bopping their heads along in unison to the theme music as Yamazaki cued up the film’s final at-sea battle. (Now playing in theatres)
Barry Hertz