(From left) 'Oppenheimer', 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse', 'Barbie'. — Photos: Handout
This year has seen quite a hotch-potch of international films hitting the cinemas in Malaysia, from the usual superhero blockbusters to the ever-popular animated features. But still, 2023 will forever be remembered as the year of “Barbenheimer”, when two major releases on completely different spectrums clashed on the same weekend, with both emerging victorious in both the box office and in terms of critical acclaim.
The other big story of the year was the relative disappointments of Disney’s Marvel movies Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, as well as its major animated feature, Wish; though Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3 and Pixar’s Elemental still managed to impress.
Nonetheless, it was a reasonably good year for movie fans, and these five are the ones that we thought outshone the rest, in no particular order.
The Barbie movie is everything you thought a Barbie movie would be. It is also everything you never thought a Barbie movie could be.
For a movie about a line of toy dolls, Barbie is surprisingly complex, with a thought-provoking story that is irreverent yet extremely relevant.
Instead of turning it into a two-hour long toy commercial, director Greta Gerwig chose to make a movie that is just as much about what the idea of Barbie means, as much as it is about the doll itself.
It is funny, emotional, weird, silly, serious, meta, kiddy, adult and nostalgic at the same time.
It’s based on a kid’s toy line, but the ideas are very adult. But that’s the beauty of Barbie (the toy) – it can be all this and more, and Barbie (the movie) embraces all of it.
'Barbie' review: Pretty pink plastic fantasy is one of the year's best films
Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece could not be more different from its “Barbenheimer” counterpart. Nolan’s biopic about the father of the atomic bomb is a haunting, harrowing, and sometimes hellish character study of the divisive historic figure.
It is anchored by a career-topping turn by Cillian Murphy, whose performance is so powerful, so nuanced and so tragic that you simply can’t take your eyes off him; and the equally brilliant Emily Blunt alongside him.
Throw some stunning cinematography, explosive sound mixing, and Nolan’s distinct time-skipping plot structure, and you’ve got a movie that is surely one of the front-runners to sweep the Oscars next year.
'Oppenheimer' review: A masterpiece with power, texture and grace
Amazing. Spectacular. Sensational. Superior. Whatever superlative that has been used to describe your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, it could probably be used to describe Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.
There is just so much to absorb and love about this, no matter whether you’re a Spidey geek, a superhero fan, an animation lover, an action buff or just a casual moviegoer.
In a year when superhero movies have been everyone’s favourite punching bags, from movie critics to acclaimed film directors, Across The Spider-Verse stands out as the brightest light to cast away the cobwebs of “superhero fatigue”.
'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' review: Amazing, spectacular, sensational
Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie for Studio Ghibli is proof that there is still life in the old director yet, no matter how many times he decides to “retire”.
Fantastical, spiritual and elegantly beautiful, The Boy And The Heron is up there with some of the best Ghibli movies. There is just something magical about watching its lead character, Mahito, navigate the real and spiritual worlds, both gloriously realised in Ghibli’s hand-drawn animation.
It also feels like a very personal and contemplative story for Miyazaki, as he ponders the beauty of the world and his hope for the future.
Well, here’s hoping it’s a future where Miyazaki continues to make movies.
'The Boy And The Heron' review: Another Ghibli masterpiece
This true story from the 1920s about how a group of white men married the women of the oil-rich Osage Native American people so they could kill their families and inherit their wealth, is a riveting enough tale.
But in the hands of Martin Scorsese and his regular accomplices Leonardo DiCaprio (who surely is a shoo-in for another Oscar nomination) and Robert De Niro, it becomes a masterful depiction of true evil and greed.
Yes, it’s very, very long, but not a single second of it feels wasted. It is cinema at its finest, and further underlines the fact that Scorsese truly is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
'Killers Of The Flower Moon' review: Scorsese's latest epic is a twisted romance
