As we say goodbye to another year, we’re looking back at the best cinema had to offer in 2023. We polled Curzon staff – both from our cinemas and head office – and asked them all to name their favourite film from the past 12 months. The results were varied, from Marcel the Shell with Shoes On to May December, The Eight Mountains to Elemental. Here, we present our overall Top 10.
10 Godland
‘A cinematic miracle. A prime example of what we’re all about as a film distributor: offering the very finest in world cinema.’ – Jamie Mendonça, Theatrical Sales Manager at Curzon Film
Hlynur Pálmason’s beautifully photographed drama charts a Danish priest’s frost-bitten pilgrimage across 19th-century Iceland. His journey across the inhospitable terrain is in service of one goal: to establish a new parish in the Icelandic wilderness. Once he arrives, though, the locals are resistant to his plans, rejecting this newcomer who’s inserting himself into their way of life. Ably tackling themes of colonisation, culture and truth, Godland is a transcendent voyage into the unknown.
9 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
‘I cheered. I applauded. I whooped. I audibly cursed when Tom Cruise threw himself off that cliff.’ – Yasmin Omar, Editorial Executive
Many pandemic delays later, we finally got to see the latest Mission: Impossible movie in July. And it didn’t disappoint. Although the response was somewhat muted by the Barbenheimer phenomenon – leading actor/producer Tom Cruise to book a three-week IMAX-exclusive run for Part Two – it is another excellent entry into the franchise, with Cruise’s maverick spy Ethan Hunt protecting the world from the threat of AI (timely, eh?). All the action scenes are brilliant (the handcuffed car chase through Rome! The Venice fistfight!), but Dead Reckoning Part One will of course be remembered for the insane moment when Tom Cruise motorbikes off the edge of a cliff, then base-jumps to safety. That’s what going to the movies is all about.
8 How to Have Sex
‘Bursting with energy, wonderfully written and outstandingly performed by a superb cast. I got out of the theatre dizzy, drained and in awe. That’s what films should be.’ – Ersi Kalentzi, Curzon Riverside General Manager
Molly Manning Walker’s BIFA-winning debut is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Initially a presentation of a trio of teenage girls’ booze-fuelled, post-GCSE package holiday – with all the requisite glitter face paint and neon bodycon – it slowly morphs into a profound exploration of consent. When Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) is pressured into losing her virginity by a British lad on a Malia beach, she suddenly sours on the predatory behaviour encouraged by the hotel, and those around her, through demeaning drinking games and sexually explicit party activities.
7 Babylon
‘One of the biggest oversights of the year and most unfairly discarded releases.’ – Paula Wilke, Curzon Soho General Assistant
The Babylon Hive has indeed risen up. Damien Chazelle’s, as he calls it, ‘hate letter to Hollywood, but love letter to cinema’ is a swirling, three-hour epic that offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of American moviemaking’s difficult transition from silent films to talkies. Margot Robbie stars as Nellie LaRoy, an aspiring actress and avid partygoer who fights her way to the top, until her squawking, New York accent prevents her from moving into sound cinema; while Brad Pitt is fading matinee idol Jack Conrad, also struggling to remain relevant as the industry changes around him. Soundtracked by Justin Hurwitz’s thumping jazz score and featuring a series of incredible filmmaking set pieces (there are more than a few shades of Whiplash [2014] in the ‘Hello college!’ sequence), Babylon is a masterful, acidic tribute to Tinseltown history.
6 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
‘A visual onslaught of the best kind. MVP Daniel Pemberton with that killer score.’ – Jemma Williams-Fyne, Marketing Assistant
The critically acclaimed sequel to 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse was undeniably the most beloved superhero movie of the year (quite the result!). Viewers were suitably wowed by the distinct animation styles enlivening the different multiverses, from Gwen Stacy’s watercolour wash to Spider-Punk’s experimental, collage look. This time, Miles Morales is once again New York’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, fighting low-level crimes locally. That is until he follows his (girl)friend Gwen into the multiverse and encounters a team of Spider-People, whose view on how to save the world clashes with Miles’ own.
5 Barbie
‘Being at a screening with mostly women was almost like a religious gathering – we were strangers to each other, but we laughed and cried together because we all got it. I have never had a collective experience at a cinema quite like it.’ – Vee Contaoe, Marketing Manager
Greta Gerwig’s joyous comedy was the cinematic success story – nay, cultural event! – of the year, a film that won the 2023 box office with its more than billion-dollar takings and had viewers flocking to screenings in assorted shades of pink. Margot Robbie (in her second appearance on the list) is Stereotypical Barbie, who’s living her best day every day in the paradise that is Barbie Land until creeping thoughts of death precipitate a full-blown existential crisis. Along with her horse-loving not-quite-boyfriend Ken (Ryan Gosling), she must venture to the real world to get fixed, but he, newly galvanised by the unknown notion of patriarchy, has other ideas.
4 Tár
‘Cate BAE-lanchett absolutely delivered, but when hasn’t she?’ – Sophie Yapp, Curzon Camden Assistant Manager
Berlin Philharmonic conductor Lydia Tár was such a convincing character that many assumed she was a real person. Not so, but what a credit to Cate Blanchett’s spiky, BAFTA-winning performance. When we meet Lydia she’s resting on her laurels, toasting her success as a highly celebrated musician with a stellar reputation, and legions of admiring fans. Todd Field’s drama wades into the culture-wars discourse through its nuanced presentation of her, gradually showing how Lydia’s unsavoury behaviour (to students, assistants, peers) catches up with her after a disparaging social-media video goes viral. The final shot of Tár really is an all-timer.
3 Oppenheimer
‘One of my most anticipated films since its announcement, and it didn't disappoint. Who knew Nolan would be at his best in a biopic?’ – Adam Hennessey, Business Affairs Executive
Christopher Nolan’s years-spanning, time-hopping epic, which charts the life of theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), exceeded expectations. And then some. It was the subject of endless memes, and rode the Barbenheimer wave to $945 million – unprecedented for a discursive, three-hour biopic. The film largely centres on Oppenheimer’s efforts to design and develop the atom bomb, and the moral quandary he faces when his creation is used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
2 Past Lives
‘Left me in tears and made me reflect on my own love and loss. Such a distinct look at how we change and grow, and how fragments of us remain in others.’ – Phil Herd, Curzon Camden General Assistant
Celine Song’s swoon-worthy romantic drama Past Lives melted the hearts of Sundance audiences back in January, and continued to do so throughout its theatrical run. This moving tale of missed connections and cultural displacement concerns Nora (Greta Lee), whose family moved her from Korea to America as a child, thereby putting an end to her budding friendship with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). Years later, the pair – still living on opposite sides of the world – rekindle their relationship over Skype. Now, however, Nora is married to Arthur (John Magaro), who warily watches his wife draw closer to Hae Sung.
1 Saltburn
‘Chilling and gripping.’ – Aimee Chapman, Curzon Kingston General Assistant
For her follow-up to the provocative, Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman (2020), Emerald Fennell once again divided audiences. The twists and turns of her cheeky class satire Saltburn proved polarising, but undeniably got people talking (this candle says it all, really). Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is a working-class Liverpudlian Fresher who feels out of place at Oxford due to his humble background. He meets, and immediately latches onto, posh boy Felix (Jacob Elordi) as a way of gaining social capital. Soon, the pair are firm friends and Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer holidays at his country pile with his parents (Rosamund Pike and Richard E Grant), where temperatures, and tensions, run high.
