The best films of 2023: Oppenheimer and Barbie are among the year’s best… But if you want to see my favorite, just take a trip to Rye Lane, writes BRIAN VINER

This has been a momentous year in the film industry for many of the wrong reasons; the five-month strike of Hollywood writers, and subsequently actors, threw production schedules into chaos. As far as actual movies go, I think 2023 will be best remembered for a new word: Barbenheimer. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came out on the same day, going head-to-head at the box office and reminding millions how fun going to the movies can still be. As for my own five favorite releases of the year, here they are, listed in reverse order in time-honored fashion…

5. Past lives

Celine Song’s feature debut is a very sweet, charming, thought-provoking (and chaste) romance about a Korean-born writer, Nora (Greta Lee), who lives with her husband in New York City. She is happily assimilated there, but becomes involved in a relationship with Hae-Sung (Teo Yoo), a man she knew during her childhood in Seoul.

Stream on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

4. Tar

I thought Cate Blanchett got mugged at the Academy Awards this year. In Todd Field’s intense drama, she is enchanting as Lydia Tar, a world-famous conductor, beautiful and brilliant, who lives comfortably with her wife and their child in Berlin. . . until she is accused of being a bully and a sexual predator.

In Todd Field’s intense drama, Cate Blanchett is spellbinding as Lydia Tar, a world-renowned conductor

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and others.

3. Oppenheimer

The central scene of Christopher Nolan’s epic film, when the atomic bomb is first tested in the New Mexico desert, is, for my money, one of the most thunderously powerful spectacles in the long history of cinema.

Cillian Murphy gives a compelling performance as the title character, nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, in this mature story of the highest quality

With Cillian Murphy delivering a riveting performance as the title character, nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, this is mature storytelling of the highest quality.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and others.

2. Anatomy of a fall

The Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a truly gripping courtroom drama about a novelist (played brilliantly by German actress Sandra Huller) whose husband died in a fall from a balcony.

The Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a truly gripping courtroom drama about a novelist (brilliantly played by German actress Sandra Huller)

Their young, visually impaired son is a key witness to what could have been an accident, suicide or murder, while Justine Triet’s film is primarily a portrait of a problematic marriage. Fascinating from start to finish.

In selected cinemas

1. Roggelaan

Festive hats off to Raine Allen-Miller, whose directorial debut, a cheeky, sharp romantic comedy set in South London, is my film of the year. It was made on a fraction of the budget of most other 2023 rom-coms, but has far more charm and humor, and was all the more worthwhile for being such an unexpected pleasure.

Ryle Lane was made on a fraction of the budget of most other 2023 rom-coms, but has a lot more charm and humor

I must confess that I’d never heard of Allen-Miller, or screenwriters Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia, or even the film’s effervescent leads, David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, but I’m glad I did now.

Either way, a simple story (boy meets girl, both arising from a romantic breakup) buzzes along, drawing much of its irresistible humor and energy from the strong Afro-Caribbean heritage in Peckham and Brixton. I loved it.

Happy new year!

Disney+