This is my fourth year as a member of the Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA). Since I joined the group in 2020, at the close of award season (usually mid-December), I have written a yearly review on the landscape of cinema while also listing my top ten picks—as well as the group’s vote for ten best. Follow the links to see my posts for 2020, 2021, and 2022. 
2023 was lackluster from my perspective. I had to think long and hard about which film to rank first last year, moving back and forth between Close and The Stranger. They remain vivid to me, and I’ve watched each several times since. The overall top ten from 2022 were very strong, while this year I struggled to even complete the list.
As usual, I was sent more than 100 titles. Beginning in early November, I tried to watch one per day and got to about 30 by the time my awards ballot was due.
What continues to be of interest about the process is the acceleration toward streaming links versus physical DVDs or Blu Rays. Netflix, after 25 years, ceased its DVD-mail service this September. Post-Covid movie audiences have failed to return to the theaters en masse. We are becoming, increasingly, at-home, streaming consumers. This makes it easier for anyone to contend for an award. Just email critics with a bunch of streaming links and maybe you’ll get some votes.
This stampede of material makes it more difficult for the critic to select individual stand outs. When so many titles are charging at you, it appears as a mass, and you have to guess what might be worth your time. Frequently, you choose incorrectly and miss something which may have deserved a vote.
This was not the case before 2020 when critics and audiences alike might generally agree that around 30 films only should seriously be considered for ‘best of’ viewing. Now, everyone is in their own corner. Some people are Netflix viewers. Others Amazon Prime or HBO Max. Some people got to the theater to see Barbie and Oppenheimer, but almost no foreign and independent films will ever be seen by the public outside of ‘on demand.’
Despite the changes in how and what we see, the movies I did screen failed to impress. There are some solid films in my top ten, with Past Lives being the easy number one, but, in total, this year did not stack up against 2020-2022. I’m not ascribing that to any trend in cinema. Simply put: it was an off year.
What continues to be consistent is the primacy of foreign and independent films to anything put out by Hollywood at the mainstream level. The big films Tinseltown gave us this year to be considered for awards were Barbie, Oppenheimer, Air, and Killers of the Flower Moon. These were heavily promoted by the studios and all had A-list talent attached.
Barbie would probably be considered the biggest success. It was fun and imaginative, but I failed to see the point it was making. Like the doll itself, the look was the thing while the message a bit of a muddle. Oppenheimer was a three hour snooze with the flash of the atomic bomb detonation being the visual highlight; the actual content was not as brilliant. Air, which I reviewed in April, had some moments, but there was little suspense since most who saw the movie already knew how successful the Air Jordan sneaker has been. Killers of the Flower Moon reunited Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, but outside of reunions the film struggled to be convincing or compelling.
There were a few films such as The Holdovers, which might be thought of as Hollywood movies, that worked well, but these won’t be shown at the cineplex and thus might not be considered ‘mainstream.’
The streamers are almost as large now as the traditional studios in vying for awards. The best Netflix film I saw was Rustin. Amazon’s American Fiction was the most worthy of its offerings. I didn’t get to many of the other streamers, because, again, there just isn’t time and it’s hard to know what to pluck out of the cauldron.
My list, as seen below, is dominated by foreign and independent fare. It took until number seven to get to a mainstream, domestic title. BOFCA’s top ten are listed below mine, featuring more of the big Hollywood films I mentioned but also leaning toward foreign and independent pictures.
MY TOP TEN FILMS
- PAST LIVES
- THE PROMISED LAND
- THE ZONE OF INTEREST
- ANATOMY OF A FALL
- ROBOT DREAMS
- FALLEN LEAVES
- THE HOLDOVERS
- BARBIE
- RUSTIN
- THE KILLER
- PERFECT DAYS (this would be in my top five but I saw it after the voting deadline)
BOFCA TOP TEN
- KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
- OPPENHEIMER
- THE HOLDOVERS
- PAST LIVES
- MAY DECEMBER
- BARBIE
- THE ZONE OF INTEREST
- AMERICAN FICTION
- POOR THINGS
- ANATOMY OF A FALL
Follow this link to see all of BOFCA’s 2023 category winners.
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