IT has been a turbulent year for the film industry which will be remembered for two very contrasting events. 

Firstly, the US writers’ and actors’ strikes which lasted for 148 and 118 days respectively, and which saw many film productions shut down for the duration and major film releases put back.  
 
Secondly the phenomenon that was Barbenheimer as the makers of Barbie (which broke numerous box office records) and Oppenheimer teamed up to jointly promote the two features which could not have been more different. 
 
Despite all that here are some of the best and worst films 2023 had to offer. 

TREATS

 Starting with Past Lives, which is a beautiful yet gorgeously aching romantic drama about first love, cultural identity and the loss of who we could have been. Nominated for five Golden Globe awards it is a remarkable debut feature from writer-director Celine Song that follows Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), former childhood sweethearts, who were wrenched apart when Nora’s family moved her from South Korea to Canada and then the US. Over 20 years later they reunite in New York as he attempts to rekindle their love even though she appears happily married. 

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a quietly enchanting and haunting debut feature by Pawo Choyning Dorji which explores the search for happiness and a sense of belonging. It centres on a young teacher and wannabe singer (impressive newcomer Sherab Dorji) who is posted as a replacement teacher to the furthest and most remote place in the world, Lunana, where there are no mod cons. Slowly he falls in love with the village and its residents who all appear in the film. Stunningly shot and exquisitely acted by its mainly non-professional cast, this is a sheer delight.
 

Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon in both length and theme is slow and deliberate as it examines America’s relationship with its indigenous peoples and the Osage community in particular. Set in the 1920s in Oklahoma, it is exquisitely shot and acted as it depicts the serial murders of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation. It is seen through the love story of Mollie and Ernest Burkhart played by a mesmerising Lily Gladstone and a duplicitous Leonardo DiCaprio.
 

Meanwhile, 20 Days in Mariupol is a gut-wrenching, brutal and hard-to-watch depiction of the first 20 days of the Russian siege of this Ukrainian city. It provides a gruelling but vital look at the devastating impact of war captured on camera by Associated Press video journalist turned filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov who, along with photographer Evgeniy Maloletka were the last journalists left in Mariupol. You can’t fail to be angered and moved by their images. 

 
Next is the Oscar winning Women Talking, an electrifying and thought-provoking drama, inspired by a true story, featuring a stellar ensemble cast written and directed by Sarah Polley. Set in the US in 2010 a group of women in a remote patriarchal Mennonite community discuss their options after they discover they are being systematically drugged and abused while they sleep, by men who claim it is all in their minds. Although stripped down, you can’t help but be gripped by this powerful feature driven by powerhouse performances from Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley. 

 
Lukas Dhont’s Close is a heartbreaking and terribly moving coming-of-age story about childhood innocence lost. Newcomers Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele are extraordinary as two 13-year-old boys whose tender and beautiful friendship is slowly ruined when their classmates try to sully it by sexualising their innocent relationship. 

This year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, Anatomy of a Fall, is a complex thriller anchored in a compelling family and courtroom drama. Smart and solidly crafted by co-writer-director Justine Triet it features a virtuoso performance by Sandra Huller as a successful German writer who is accused of her French stay-at-home husband’s death. His body was found by their 11-year-old blind son Daniel (an impressive Milo Machado Graner) in the snow below their remote chalet in the French Alps. Did he jump or was he pushed from the third floor balcony? Triet keeps you guessing. 

 
Co-written, directed, produced and starring Bradley Cooper, Maestro cements his standing as a world class filmmaker with this his second feature, six years in the making, a passionate and refreshing biopic of Leonard Bernstein. Using only the music, it depicts the love story and lifelong marriage between the conductor-composer and the Chilean American actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) and their complex relationship. Cooper, who is unrecognisable as the maestro, and Mulligan deliver career-defining performances in this stylish and stunningly shot drama. 

 
 Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is a charming and adorable live action/stop motion mockumentary about the life of Marcel (Jenny Slate), a one inch mollusc which explores loss, identity and family. Heartwarming and captivating. 

Now for this year’s TURKEYS and there have been some howlers, starting with the abomination that was Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror film on so many levels. AA Milne will be turning in his grave to see his beloved creations Pooh and Piglet go feral and start killing and eating anyone on sight. With a horrendous script and even more appalling acting, plus no sense of geography (is it set in the UK or the US?), this is a total travesty. Thankfully Tigger dodged a bullet as he isn’t out of copyright until next year. 

 
 Assassin Club’s star-studded cast weren’t enough to save this ludicrous globetrotting thriller about a crack killer who turns from the hunter into the hunted in a film which is all style and no substance. With its risible dialogue and ridiculous plot it does beg the question what hold can they have had on the likes of Henry Golding, Sam Neill and Noomi Rapace for them to star in this piece of Eurotrash. 

 
Though slickly shot, Sumotherhood is a total mess in its comic delivery and its tone. This British crime comedy isn’t very funny as it follows two hapless friends, one with mental health issues, who run into trouble when their attempted bank robbery goes wrong. It is packed with strange cameos including one by Jeremy Corbyn.

 
And last, Expend4bles demonstrated that it is time for the veteran A list cast to call it a day as this, the fourth film in the franchise, lacks both star power and creative spark. Tired and lacklustre, stuffed with painful one-liners, the cast dial in their performances.