Top Ten Films of 2023 | Flashback

Looking back years from now, I think 2023 will be remembered similarly to how people remember 2007 and 2019. It was an incredible year for cinema, and it was therefore incredibly hard to cut this list down to only ten (with one honorable mention). Some of the films that almost made it onto the list, but came up just short, include All of Us Strangers, Fallen Leaves, The Promised Land, Infinity Pool, and La Chimera. It’s wild to think that even though I really loved Barbie, it wouldn’t even have found its way into a top twenty for the year — that’s how good of a year for film 2023 was.

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Black Bag (2025) | REVIEW

Michael Fassbender in BLACK BAG — PHOTO: Focus Features / Universal Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Steven Soderbergh — Screenplay by David Koepp.

When it comes to filmmaking, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who is a more prolific filmmaker than Steven Soderbergh. Since the 2020s began, he has had six feature films released — some in theaters, some on streaming services. Incredibly, it’s not like his films suffer from the speed with which he gets them out for the public to see. In the case of No Sudden Move (2021) and Kimi (2022), those were some of the best surprises of their respective years. Soderbergh is also quite experimental, as he has tried his hand at using iPhones to shoot major motion pictures, like Unsane and High Flying Bird. His latest film, Black Bag, never feels like an experiment, rather it feels like Steven Soderbergh at his very best. It’s a sleek relationship spy drama with a terrific ensemble cast led by Michael Fassbender in top form.

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Control Freak (2025) | REVIEW

Kelly Marie Tran in CONTROL FREAK — PHOTO: DISNEY PLUS (Still image from trailers)

Directed by Shal Ngo — Screenplay by Shal Ngo.

Shal Ngo’s generically titled body horror flick Control Freak follows Valerie (played by Kelly Marie Tran), a motivational speaker, who, in her first scene, talks to her audience about rejecting and resisting the voice inside of your head that keeps you down. Valerie, who is struggling with a constant itch in her scalp, is quite popular, it seems, as she is getting ready to go on a tour of Asia. This world tour requires her to go find her birth certificate, which forces her to face her troubled family history. When she meets with her father, who fought in the Vietnam War and is now a Buddhist monk, she is told that the itch, as well as the frequent visions of both ants and a dark figure, is a direct result of a demonic parasite that will attach itself to a host and will continue to gnaw away at them until they’re all gone. Valerie initially refuses to believe her father, but when things start to escalate, she realizes she has to do something drastic. 

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Mickey 17 (2025) | REVIEW

Robert Pattinson and Robert Pattinson in Bong Joon-ho’s MICKEY 17 — PHOTO: Watner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Bong Joon-ho — Screenplay by Bong Joon-ho.

It boggles the mind that it’s been more than half a decade since the release of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, the first non-English language feature to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Director Bong’s Oscar-winning magnum opus is a widely recognized 21st Century masterpiece, and, thusly, the director’s follow-up to such an achievement would always be hotly anticipated, especially given the fact that his next release was a blockbuster-budgeted American studio release. In fascinating fashion, Bong Joon-ho has spent his Hollywood blank cheque, or carte blanche, on a scathing but funny political satire sci-fi flick about the way capitalist governments, whose leaders may use religion to gain and exercise power, view and treat the common person, women, and foreign territories, as well as its inhabitants. Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7, is ambitious, messy, strangely predictive about the time we’re in, and very much a Bong Joon-ho film, even though it is very different from Parasite.

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The Monkey (2025) | REVIEW

The titular toy monkey in Osgood Perkins’ THE MONKEY — PHOTO: NEON / Black Bear.

Directed by Osgood Perkins — Screenplay by Osgood Perkins.

Filmmaker Osgood Perkins is fast becoming one of the most interesting horror filmmakers on the rise. Following three relatively unknown features, including the quite good The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Perkins finally had his breakthrough as a filmmaker in 2024 with the excellent horror-thriller flick Longlegs. Now in 2025, he’s hoping to fully etch his name into stone, as a prominent horror filmmaker with Keeper, releasing later this year, and The Monkey, an adaptation of a Stephen King short story, which was released in theaters at the end of February. Here Perkins is trying to prove himself in another horror subgenre, namely that of the horror-comedy, but, while there is a lot to like here, it isn’t quite as effective as his 2024 hit.

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Hollywood’s Biggest Night Celebrated Indie Film’s Greatest Champion | 97th Oscars – Recap and Review

On Sunday, Conan O’Brien hosted the 97th Academy Awards. It was the first time that the tall red-haired beloved comedian had hosted Hollywood’s biggest night for AMPAS, and it was in a year where it felt like one film ran away with the major awards. Indeed, multi-hyphenate filmmaker Sean Baker — someone who is known for his decidedly non-mainstream indie oeuvre, which has made him a true critical darling — became a 4x Academy Award winner with his very first nominations. Baker’s Anora took home Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Lead Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture. Baker’s film dominated the night, but how should we feel about it as a winner and how did Conan do as an Oscar host? Well, let’s run through The Great, The Good, The Mixed Feelings, The Bad, and The Ugly of the 97th Academy Awards.

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Who Will Win? – Final Predictions | 97th Oscars

The wait is almost over. In mere hours, stars will be walking the red carpet, Conan O’Brien will take on hosting duties, and, not long thereafter, awards will start to be handed out. But, hey, before we get to that, I still have to tell you which films I think will be victorious on Hollywood’s greatest night. In the race for Best Picture, for instance, it’s been a rollercoaster ride where I, initially, thought Anora would go all the way, only for the Golden Globes (and the Oscar nominations) to indicate that the real fight was between Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist. However, when controversies surrounding toxic social media posts, ill-advised statements, and AI started happening, the Globes’ darlings started to fall into the background. Now, after the guilds and BAFTA, it certainly looks like the big winner of the night will be either Conclave or, the early favorite, Anora. What do I think? Well, let’s get to it.

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IFSCA Awards 2024-2025 | Winners

Adrien Brody in Brady Corbet’s THE BRUTALIST — PHOTO: Universal Pictures / A24.

Yesterday, on March 1st, 2025, the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA / @IFSCritics on Twitter), of which I am a voting member, announced their full list of winners for the ongoing 2024-2025 awards season. Like any other film critics association, their awards celebrate the best films of the past year. Below you can read the full list of winners and runners up.

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Nickel Boys (2024) | REVIEW

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in NICKEL BOYS — PHOTO: Amazon MGM (Still image from trailers).

Directed by RaMell Ross — Screenplay by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes.

Based on Colson Whitehead’s 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys follows a smart and politically engaged young African-American man named Elwood Curtis (played primarily by Ethan Herisse) who, in 1960s America, is wrongfully convicted of grand theft auto while hitchhiking on his way to college. Elwood, due to being underage, is then sent to Nickel Academy, a so-called ‘reform school,’ where he befriends a boy named Turner (played by Brandon Wilson) and experiences racial segregation and abuse.

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The Order (2024) | REVIEW

Jude Law in THE ORDER — PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios / Vertical (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Justin Kurzel — Screenplay by Zach Baylin.

Based on Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s The Silent Brotherhood, Justin Kurzel’s The Order follows a veteran FBI agent, Terry Husk (played by Jude Law), who, alongside a local Idaho Deputy named Jamie Bowen (played by Tye Sheridan), takes on a case to investigate a series of disappearances and instances of domestic terrorism carried out by a white supremacist militant group led by a man named Bob Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult).

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