Top 10 movies of 2023 a mixed bag of genres

To no one’s surprise, 2023 will go down as the year of “Barbenheimer,” the cleverly cute portmanteau that mashes together “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” the titles of two polar opposite genre films released on July 21 to enthusiastic popular and critical acclaim.

The year didn’t turn out that well for “Napoleon,” Ridley Scott’s eagerly anticipated, but critically skewered and praised, historical epic that, as of Christmas Day, has earned a paltry $198 million (box office only) against a $200 million budget.

My top 10 movies of 2023 are a mixed bag of genres. Here we go!

1. “Origin”

Years from now, film historians, scholars and critics will likely not include this title on their short-list of 2023 movies that pushed the envelope of the cinematic arts as “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and even “Barbie” do.

“Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” foster understanding of our collective pasts. The prescient “Origin” fosters awareness of things happening right now, bad practices and faulty assumptions that have been going on since the dawn of civilization.

This biographical movie, adapted by director Ava DuVernay from Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Wilkerson, a writer who looks at our world, and sees what no one else has noticed.

She explores the connections between racism against American blacks, the “untouchables” caste system victims in India, and how Nazi Germany treated the Jews.

Readers of the book know about her astonishing conclusions on how humanity embraces and exploits divisive concepts such as social hierarchy, purity and inclusion vs. exclusion.

The key scene in “Origin” – admittedly not a grabber title – takes place early in the film when a racist plumber (Nick Offerman) arrives at Wilkerson’s house to fix a leak in the basement. You can read the hatred on his face the instant he sees a black woman.

How Wilkerson responds to him, what she says to him, subtly suggests an answer to the issue she has been investigating.

“Oppenheimer” and “Killers” give us powerful historical perspectives.

“Origin” gives us something of even greater value: hope.

Note: “Origin” opens in Chicago Jan. 19 after an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run this year.

2. “Oppenheimer”

By now, Christopher Nolan has demonstrated he possesses the cinematic chops to be the closest filmmaker to the late, iconic Stanley Kubrick. The visionary “Oppenheimer” features a tour-de-force performance from Cillian Murphy as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose work on the top-secret Manhattan Project leads to the development of the atomic bomb. Stunning visuals, superbly nuanced special effects, razor editing and a gripping score elevate this biopic into what should become a timeless classic.

Even so, I still regard “Inception” as Nolan’s best work.

3. “Barbie”

Just as visionary as Nolan’s film, Greta Gerwig’s fantasy meta-comedy comes on like a rapturous, imaginative work of feminism, inspired set design and perfect tonal control. With Margot Robbie in the title role and Ryan Gosling as a mud-puddle-deep Ken, “Barbie” captures the zeitgeist of today the way “Easy Rider” rode the streets of relevance for the baby boomers.

4. “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Yes, it’s another Martin Scorsese masterwork of editing (again by longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker), cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto) and score (Robbie Robertson) and acting (Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone). The drama is based on David Grann’s nonfiction book about the murders of dozens of Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s.

Let’s be honest here. Out of the nine elements I long ago identified as common components in most White Savior movies, “Killers” checks five of the boxes. It qualifies as a White Savior movie because it does not allow minority characters to be the framers of their own stories, the tellers of their own experiences.

As well-crafted as this movie is, the story is not told from the point of view of the oppressed, but of the oppressors.

5. “Poor Things”

Yorgos Lanthimos’ trippy, visionary, coming-of-age surrealistic fantasy “Poor Things” features a high-wire performance by Emma Stone as a free and independent female Frankenstein’s monster with a voracious appetite for life, sex, discovery and purpose. One slip, one miscalculation or misjudgment in tone or content could turn this movie – and her full-tilt go-for-broke performance – into an embarrassment and career disaster. Instead, it’s a monstrous, mind-blowing feminist delight.

6. “The Holdovers”

Alexander Payne’s comic drama boils down to three key components: empathy, compassion and sacrifice. Set in 1970, the movie follows a cantankerous, middle-aged history teacher (the great Paul Giamatti) at a New England boarding school where he must chaperone several students with nowhere to go over the Christmas break. Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph supply stunningly strong performances as a respective troubled student with secrets and a cook/janitor whose son has just been killed in the Vietnam war.

7. “Past Lives”

A sublime, heart-breaking twist on true love and bad timing. Two South Korean childhood sweethearts become separated for decades, then accidentally meet again in New York City where they ponder the great what-if? Greta Lee and Teo Yoo play the pair as adults in this romantically moving, painfully realistic and boldly sad experience from Korean-Canadian dramatist and filmmaker Celine Song, making her impressive directorial debut.

8. “American Fiction”

When asked for advice about successful screenwriting, “The Omen” writer David Seltzer said, “Sell out much faster than I did!” A frustrated black novelist named Monk (Jeffrey Wright on an acting career high) reluctantly takes that advice by serving up racial stereotypes to white-oriented audiences in a series of hilarious, satirical books written under a tough-sounding street pseudonym. He becomes a success doing what he hates about the publishing industry in Cord Jefferson’s fresh and auspicious directorial debut reminiscent of Robert Townsend’s 1987 comedy “Hollywood Shuffle.”

9. “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.”

For five decades, celebrated author Judy Blume refused to sell the movie rights to her controversial 1970 novel “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.” until filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig came along as the right person to translate the book into this frank and unvarnished account of a young girl struggling to understand an unfair world, her lack of religious upbringing, and her combined fear/excitement at the prospect of becoming a woman, including how to kiss a boy, the proper way to increase her bust, and how to cope with the intimidating arrival of menstruation.

Abby Ryder Fortson plays the lead, 11-year-old Margaret, with sincere aplomb, but Rachel McAdams commands this movie as her mom, Barbara Simon, providing a subtle, captivating performance through her eyes and gestures.

10. “Talk to Me”

Traditionally, I like to save the 10th spot for some off-beat works such as a horror tale or quirky comedy that has little chance of making regular critics’ top 10 lists. “Talk to Me” breathes new, fetid life into the horror genre with an unpredictable plot and the scarifying premise that dark forces can’t wait to weaponize grief, fear or trauma against unsuspecting partygoers focused on having a communal good time at the expense of common sense.

Here, young people gather to use the severed hand of an alleged medium to contact the dead by uttering “Talk to me!” Then, they say “I let you in,” giving dead souls permission to enter their bodies, something like inviting vampires into your house.

This creative shocker comes from Australian twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who whip up gut-wrencher thrills and chills with a mostly unknown cast so committed to portraying thoughtlessly dangerous hedonism, we almost feel sorry for them.

Almost.