Episode 67: Some of the Best of 2023

We begin our deep dive into the abundance of excellent films of 2023, a year that still saw fewer new releases than is typical of pre-pandemic cinema but gave us far more exciting, risky, and unusual movies of quality than we've gotten used to. It was a year of big swings by filmmakers, actors, and studios—most of which paid off, and familiar "comfort fair" from old favorites that still delivered excellence, as well as a fairly resounding rejection of the same-old-same-old corporate franchise product. It was a year that gave us Barbenheimer, the best Godzilla movie since the original, some terrific biographical documentaries, a slew of memorable dance sequences, two Hirokazu Kore-eda features, and six Nicholas Cage pictures! In this show, we focus on the smaller films that might have flown under people's radar, and we'll return next month to talk about the big awards movies.