January 1, 2024
Here are the best foreign films I had seen and written about in the year 2023. Not included in this countdown were the 2022 films only shown locally in 2023, like "The Whale" or "The Fabelmans." Also not included here were outstanding Oscar-primed 2023 films, but have not yet been released in the country, either in cinemas or streaming sites (no VPN), like "The Holdovers," "May December" and "Anatomy of a Fall."
Unlike last year, I only divided my yearend best-of-films list into two: foreign films (both in English and not) in this post, and Filipino films in a separate post (LINK). I was very busy at work during the QCinema this year, so I was sadly not able to watch as many of the Oscar International Film submissions this year, like "The Taste of Things" (France), "Fallen Leaves" (Finland) or "Perfect Days" (Japan), as I was able to last year.
Honorable Mentions
25. THE FLASH by Andy Muschietti and Seth Grahame-Smith (MY REVIEW)
(This was supposedly one of the worst films of 2023 according to critics, but hey, I enjoyed it!)
24. JOY RIDE by Adele Lim (MY REVIEW)
23. RUSTIN by George C. Wolfe (MY REVIEW)
22. NIMONA by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (MY REVIEW)
21. TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR by Sam Wrench (MY REVIEW)
20. KNOCK AT THE CABIN by M. Night Shyamalan (MY REVIEW)
19. LEO by Robert Marianetti, David Wachtenheim, Robert Smigel (MY REVIEW)
18. INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY by James Mangold (MY REVIEW)
17. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET. by Kelly Fremon Craig
16. THE CREATOR by Gareth Edwards (MY REVIEW)
15. TETRIS by Jon S. Baird (MY REVIEW)
14. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 by Chad Stahelski (MY REVIEW)
13. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 by James Gunn (MY REVIEW)
12. AIR by Ben Affleck (MY REVIEW)
11. WONKA by Paul King (MY REVIEW)
Shinkai continued to follow his prior themes connecting natural phenomena to human lives (a comet in "Your Name", rain in "Weathering", now earthquakes here in "Suzume"). The graceful pastel artwork and the voice acting were all on point like in the "Name" and "Weathering". Shinkai also managed to work in a budding romance, interesting details of Japanese life and myths, viral exposure on social media, and the stress and sacrifice of an adoptive parent.
Bradley Cooper was not only lead star, but also director, producer (together with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg), and co-writer (with Josh Singer, Oscar-winning writer of "Spotlight"). In only his second feature film after "A Star is Born" (2019), Cooper displayed remarkable artistic growth in his directorial style. Working together with cinematographer Matthew Libatique and editor Michelle Tesoro (Fil-Ams both!), his scene transitions were seamlessly poetic.
It was fun to watch the relationship of writer-director Kim with his producers, his staff, and his temperamental actors, especially Ho-se and Yu-rim who were keeping secrets from him. Veteran director Kim was not averse to going hyperbolic with the dark comedy which made this film-within-a-film very entertaining to watch, with all its purposefully absurd exaggerations that the cast all pulled off with gusto.
Emma Stone went against type to play Bella, a young woman with an infant's brain, so she was filled with the spirit of childlike wonder and a frank tongue not yet controlled by societal conventions. Energetic Mark Ruffalo stole all his scenes as the bad influence in Bella's innocent second life. That ballroom dance duet of Wedderburn and Bella was classic grand old Hollywood, elegantly and delightfully hilarious.
In the first act told was the mother's version of things, we felt much anger for Mr. Hori. In the second act, the events were retold from Mr. Hori's view, as well as the principal's view, shaking our initial opinions. In the third act, Minato tells his own complete story himself, which finally got to fill in all the blanks left out earlier. Weaved within was the friendship between Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) and his classmate Hoshikawa Yori (Hinata Hiiragi).
Scorsese can really tell a complex multilayered story about true-to-life racial abuse. He led a formidable artistic team to achieve his epic vision --cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, musician Robbie Robertson -- all of whom are sure shots for Oscar nominations. However, I do have to take a little exception to the avant-garde way Scorsese wrapped things up at the end, which took us out of the courtroom drama.
Stunts aside, it was the mind games -- hatching the plans, analyzing the situation, reading other people's thoughts -- that captivates discerning audiences. These had been the signature of "Mission Impossible" since its TV series days in the mid-1960s up to the present. Things were made more complicated this time around because their enemy was not human and can distort data to throw even the best set plans into disarray.
From the eclectic ever-shifting fonts and designs within the opening credits, we can immediately foresee the smorgasbord of artistic styles that made this sequel to the critically-acclaimed "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018) an animator's pipe dream realized. The film opened with canvass painting-style scenes from Gwen's dimension, then shifted to a modern computer-animation style in Miles' dimension, and so on.
The way Song approached her story was very slow burn, and that is not only because it took more than two decades to unfold. The events in each of three segments of their relationship were told in a most restrained and controlled manner. Despite a clear conflict, there were absolutely no moments of heightened emotions, no anger, no melodrama. Even when not much words are said, we feel what they want to say in subtle visual clues Song provides.
In 1942, Oppenheimer (Cilian Murphy) was chosen by Col. Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to head the Manhattan Project, develop atomic bombs in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and finish them in time to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to effectively end the war and secure American victory. Oppenheimer was celebrated as a hero, and was then offered directorship of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton by Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.).
Being by Nolan, this was by no means a typical biopic. So like other Nolan films, the audience needs to pay close attention because every little detail -- words, images, color, sounds -- mattered. It had multiple characters (scientists, communists, military men, lawyers, and politicians) in events which were not told in chronological order. For those who do not know the history, there was even a twist that Nolan springs on the 11th hour.
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