It was an interesting, unpredictable year for movies. The ominous specter of AI sparked lengthy writers’ and actors’ strikes that debilitated the industry for more than a third of the year. A seemingly organic meme (#Barbieheimer) led to box-office gold for two movies that likely wouldn’t have been as big without the bizarre dynamics of social media pseudoevents. Faith audiences propelled a movie about child sex trafficking to become one of the biggest box-office hits of the year.
Meanwhile, in the face of several costly flops and mounting accusations of promoting woke propaganda, Disney CEO Bob Iger promised to return the storied studio to its “roots” and prioritize quality storytelling over “messaging.”
Things are shifting in Hollywood. Audiences are showing signs of superhero movie fatigue (thank goodness), while “brand movies” (movies based on toys, video games, or Taylor Swift) are poised to further blur the lines between advertising and entertainment. The faith-based film genre, meanwhile, continues to improve, and I’m optimistic that in future years, Christian-made films will regularly show up on “best of” lists like this.
I’m optimistic that in future years, Christian-made films will regularly show up on ‘best of’ lists like this.
But movies made by or about Christians aren’t the only ones believers can celebrate. By common grace, we can find a few diamonds of goodness, truth, and beauty in the rough of contemporary moviemaking. Some celebrate themes Christians can get behind: the goodness of marriage and parenting, the sanctity of life, the beauty of friendship, the valor of sacrificial virtue, and sober realism about sin and temptation. I highlight these sorts of movies below.
Don’t take my commendations as wholesale endorsements of the content. Just because I loved a film doesn’t mean I loved everything in it. A movie that contains valuable truth isn’t necessarily free of all falsehoods, and a “best” movie doesn’t mean an appropriate movie for all audiences. Though the films highlighted are all in some way edifying—depicting goodness, truth, or beauty in ways Christian viewers can celebrate—a few are rated R and should especially be viewed with caution and discernment.
Here are my 10 favorites, 5 honorable mentions, and 10 excellent documentaries released in 2023.
I didn’t have it on my 2023 bingo card that the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise would top my “best movies of the year” list. But some of the best moviegoing experiences are left-field surprises, like this subtitled Japanese production.
When the vast majority of action movies are some degree of disappointing—mindless explosions, disposable characters, and low-stakes multiverse gobbledygook—it’s a rare pleasure to watch a film that far exceeds expectations and totally captures you in the thrilling magic of cinema (and on a minuscule budget).
Directed by Takashi Yamazaki and set in postwar Tokyo, the film is a throwback to the 1954 original and captures the iconic monster movie’s importance as an artifact of a nation traumatized by losing World War II and experiencing nuclear devastation. But it’s more than just homage. Godzilla Minus One is masterfully character-driven, decidedly pro-family, and arguably the most pro-life movie of the year. “This country has treated life far too cheaply,” one character remarks, calling on the postwar generation to fight Godzilla not as “a battle waged to the death” (think kamikaze pilots) but as “a battle to live for the future.”
Amid the navel-gazing deathworks of our secular age, this film celebrates selfless love, duty, family, and the gracious gift of life. In theaters. Rated PG-13.
This Italian-language film, adapted from a popular novel, was probably my most transcendent big-screen experience of the year. The film is visually and musically stunning: set in the awe-inspiring Italian Alps, with a soundtrack by Swedish singer-songwriter Daniel Norgren. But the story captivated me most.
Directed by Flemish duo Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, the film tells a contemplative tale of boyhood friendship, fathers and sons, and the search for purpose amid the unpredictable flow of life and time. It’s also about the landscapes and places precious to us, and how profoundly our identities are shaped by—but never completely determined by—external environments. The mountains that figure prominently in the film are quite literally a source of both death and life: on one hand cold, ominous, and deadly, but also “thin places” of refuge from the travails below. It’s the hard and good of life all at once.
And as the central characters of The Eight Mountains show, how we navigate this paradox—life’s suffering and joy, often from the same source—plays no small part in whether we thrive or falter, grow or regress. Available to rent. Not rated.
We’ve seen the horrors of the Holocaust many times before on screen, but in Jonathan Glazer’s chilling The Zone of Interest, we mostly don’t see them; we hear them. And the sounds we hear—screams, gunshots, trains chugging into Auschwitz, crematory furnaces and other machinery of death—are all the more disturbing for being juxtaposed with mundane scenes of housekeeping, gardening, and domestic leisure.
The titular “zone of interest” is the posh domicile of Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss, a compound (complete with a vibrant greenhouse and swimming pool) just over the barbed wire wall from the infamous death camp. Loosely based on a novel by Martin Amis, Glazer’s film challenges audiences to consider unsettling dissonances and paradoxes. How does this “civilized” family’s pursuit of the good life seem so untroubled by mass slaughter within earshot? How does garden-party frivolity coexist with the hellish atrocities signaled by constant plumes of black smoke and ominous train whistles? And similar to Hannah Arendt’s reflection on the “banality of evil,” how does this story debunk the consoling myth that only monsters are capable of monstrous acts?
The film couldn’t come at a better time, given the uptick in anti-Semitism, Holocaust ignorance, and cultural cognitive dissonance. But beyond the particular evils of the Holocaust, the film prompts us to ponder our own “zones of interest”: the sins we excuse in the name of ambition, the suffering we ignore to preserve our comfort, and the horrors that don’t register because we’re too desensitized to notice. In theaters. Rated PG-13.
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s popular book—which chronicles the true-crime saga of the 1920s Osage murders—isn’t an easy watch. The film is arduously long and diligently reconstructs an episode of history we might wish to ignore. But Scorsese knows one of the great privileges and powers of moviemaking is the ability to keep alive hard history we might otherwise conveniently forget. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just minutes away from where the events of the film took place. But I never knew about this story. I’m glad I do now, thanks to Grann and Scorsese.
We learn from history—both the inspiring and the shameful. As I wrote in my review of the film for The Gospel Coalition, sometimes artists and storytellers opt for the safer career route of only telling stories that will be widely liked, hugely profitable, and “feel good” in one way or another. “But the best artists aren’t as interested in preserving the self as they are in preserving the truth—ensuring an accurate telling of the good, bad, and ugly in history so we can all learn and grow, even if uncomfortably.” In theaters and soon to be on Apple TV+. Rated R.
Celine Song’s debut movie might at first glance seem like a familiar “love triangle” drama. But the refreshing film—set largely in New York, over three eras of a Korean American woman’s life—is an un-Hollywood love story.
We learn from history—both the inspiring and the shameful.
In a wise and countercultural way, the movie upends the predictable script (“follow your heart”) that has long held sway in pop culture’s romantic narratives. It’s not that the film dismisses the real emotions and desires of its characters or somehow doesn’t grasp the complexity of the human heart. It does. But what if there’s a higher wisdom than the authenticity of feelings? What if love is richer, and more transformative, when it involves limitation as much as freedom?
In a media landscape dominated by what has become predictable moral “transgression,” where true fulfillment is pitched as the unloosening of all that suppresses our desires, a film like Past Lives (read my full review) shows what’s truly transgressive: keeping moral commitments and exercising sacrificial restraint. Available to rent. Rated PG-13.
Though technically released in the last week of 2022 (and Oscar-nominated for that year), Living became available for most viewers in early 2023. With a screenplay written by Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day) and a stunning central performance by English thespian Bill Nighy, this 1950s-set film is an elegant, gentlemanly gem.
An English-language adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952), which itself was partly inspired by Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the movie is about a curmudgeonly, lonely London bureaucrat who discovers a more meaningful way of living in his final days—the joy that comes in living selflessly and in meaningful relationship with others. His unexpected transformation inspires his office colleagues and others, just as it inspires the film’s viewers. The sublime final five minutes feature the best cinematic use of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” since 2003’s Master and Commander. Watch on Netflix. Rated PG-13.
What if love is richer, and more transformative, when it involves limitation as much as freedom?
Few films this year are as visually arresting and theologically interesting as this Danish film, which follows a 19th-century Lutheran missionary as he traverses the untamed wilds of Iceland to establish a parish church. Directed by Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason, Godland’s central character (Christian clergyman Lucas) functions as a proxy of sorts for beleaguered faith in a secular age. Everything that transpires around Lucas and his mission seems cruelly scripted to undermine his faith: tragic deaths, unanswered prayers, deep loneliness, contrarian locals, and above all the frightening indifference and harshness of nature.
Similar to in The Eight Mountains, nature in Godland is at once sublimely beautiful and spiritually terrifying. Is this “Godland” graced by a Creator’s imprint or absent of divine presence? How does the gospel message of life after death take hold in such a land, where nature at times (in its most Edenic moments) testifies to resurrection hope but more often suggests a hostile, meaningless universe? By considering Lucas’s specific story, Godland poses a larger question for contemporary Christians in a secular age: How will we cultivate thriving faith in the hard, post-Christian soil that’s only getting harder? Available to rent. Not rated.
Sometimes a movie clicks for a reason you can’t quite pinpoint. With Dreamin’ Wild, it’s the tone that resonated with me: a quiet ambiance of joyful longing and nostalgia akin to Lewisian Sehnsucht. Directed by Bill Pohlad (Love & Mercy) and starring Casey Affleck, the film tells the true story of brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson, whose home-studio-recorded album from the ’70s (Dreamin’ Wild) unexpectedly finds an audience three decades later.
As fun as the story is, the heart of the movie is the loving familial relationships it foregrounds: husband and wife, fathers and sons, brothers. All family relationships are fraught and complex, and Dreamin’ Wild doesn’t shy away from this. But it celebrates the inherent goodness of family as a life-giving, stabilizing foundation for flourishing. Available to rent. Rated PG.
An adaptation of the much-beloved 2014 global bestseller by Daniel James Brown, this George Clooney–directed movie is the type of classically told, unwoke narrative Hollywood rarely makes anymore. But that’s what makes it so refreshing. The inspirational, underdog, Depression-era true story follows the University of Washington rowing team as it works to the top of the sport, ultimately competing in men’s eight for the United States in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The movie is inspiring, wholesome, and straightforward, with no other agenda than to celebrate the virtues of hard-yards practice, brotherly teamwork, and gritty perseverance. This isn’t a sports movie about superstar egos. It’s about the nine “boys in a boat” whose individual glory isn’t as important as the floating vessel—and shared goal—that binds them together. In theaters now. Rated PG-13.
Any movie with “integrity” in the title announces itself as a film with some sense of moral rightness on its mind. In this case, director Robert Machoian depicts a scenario where the “right thing” ends up being straightforward, even if costly. The drama comes as we observe insurance salesman, husband, and father Joseph Chambers (Clayne Crawford) doing the wrong thing (an avoidable accident) and then considering whether or not to do the right thing and fully own the foolish mistake.
In what amounts to a one-man show with large stretches of wordless action, Integrity will not be everyone’s cup of tea. But as a potent moral fable and, more subtly, a reflection on the identity crisis of modern men, Integrity is worth watching and discussing. We need more films that take seriously questions of masculinity, fatherhood, duty, and integrity in an age of moral evasion and excuses. Watch on Prime Video. Not rated.
Of the films I enjoyed this year that didn’t quite make my top 10, these stand out.
Brett Smith’s Civil War film wasn’t released in theaters, which is a shame. Gorgeously shot and impressive in scope, the film narrates a redemptive tale of an unlikely friendship between a Union soldier who flees battle and a free black man evading a ruthless slave catcher. Available to rent. Not rated.
In addition to brilliantly capturing a 1970s look and feel (I love when filmmakers go all in on the details of the era they’re depicting), Alexander Payne’s prep-school-set comedy is a lovely celebration of the life-giving necessity of friendship, mentorship, and found family in a lonely world. Available to rent. Rated R.
Ryan Whitaker’s adaptation of Carolyn Weber’s excellent novel Surprised by Oxford (my full review) prioritizes things often neglected in faith-based entertainment: stylistic beauty, smart story, good acting, and a goal of entertaining the audience more than preaching to them. Available to rent. Rated PG-13.
Legendary filmmakers the Dardenne brothers apply a social-realist aesthetic to the struggles of contemporary Europeans on the margins. They look unflinchingly at injustice and suffering but with a deep, dignifying compassion for their subjects. Their latest follows a pair of young African immigrants trying to survive in Belgium. It’s a characteristically powerful, if tragic, look at some of our world’s most vulnerable people. Available to rent. Not rated.
At a time when wholesome, nonpropagandistic family fare is hard to find at the multiplex, this Willy Wonka origin story (from Paddington director Paul King) is a pleasant surprise: funny, whimsical, musically sweet, visually clever, and charmingly British in the best ways. In theaters. Rated PG.
Here are 10 of the best documentaries released in 2023 (listed in alphabetical order), along with where you can watch them.
“This is painful to watch,” says a Ukrainian AP journalist at one point in the harrowing film he narrates. “But it must be painful to watch.” Indeed, this Frontline/AP chronicle of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is utterly gut-wrenching. But at a time when the news of distant wars can make us numb, such documentaries viscerally remind us of their terrible human cost. Watch for free on YouTube.
This moving documentary is an intimate portrait of a married couple—musician Jon Batiste and writer Suleika Jaouad—experiencing the highs and lows of life together. Joy, sorrow, hope, despair, major and minor chords: as in the best musical symphonies, these disparate dynamics are all of a beautiful piece. Watch on Netflix. Rated PG-13.
Madeleine Gavin’s film centers on a South Korean Christian pastor, Sung-eun Kim, who plays a key role in the “Underground Railroad” that helps North Korean defectors escape the oppressive regime. It’s both a harrowing look at the plight of North Koreans today and an inspiring example of how some Christians are stepping up to help. Available to rent. Rated PG-13.
I love documentaries that introduce me to strange things in the world I didn’t know existed. The Deepest Breath is about the extreme sport of free diving, in which swimmers see how deep they can swim while holding their breath. The danger—some might say foolishness—of the sport is obvious, and the film leaves audiences pondering the peculiar human attraction to risking one’s life for competitive glory. Watch on Netflix. Rated PG.
Compiled from 123 hours of Lady Bird Johnson’s audio diaries, this film takes an intimate look at one of the most influential First Ladies in American history. This front-row seat to the tumultuous 1960s (assassinations, Civil Rights and anti-war protests, the bloody quagmire of Vietnam) will be compelling to anyone with an interest in history and politics. Watch on Hulu. Unrated.
For history buffs and baseball fans especially, Sam Pollard’s documentary on Negro Leagues baseball is essential viewing. The film explores this fascinating, instructive episode in American history in a way that evokes the best of Ken Burns documentaries. Available to rent. Rated PG.
The latest from documentarians Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State), The Mission examines the controversial life and death of John Allen Chau. In my review for TGC, I said the film “might be frustrating to watch at times. But it can spur helpful discussions for Christian churches, students, and missionaries alike.” Watch on Hulu. Rated TV-14.
If you grew up on Back to the Future movies like I did, this documentary on Michael J. Fox will hold nostalgic appeal. Even more, this chronicle of Fox’s life with Parkinson’s disease is profound and inspiring—especially the faithful love and support of his wife of 25 years, Tracy Pollan. Watch on Apple TV+. Rated R for language.
Maybe I mostly loved this movie because I’m both an author and an editor, and the documentary is about an author (Caro) and an editor (Gottlieb). But anyone can appreciate the excellence with which both men approach their craft, the respect they show to each other, and the fading analog world their 50-year literary partnership represents. Available to rent. Rated PG.
From the filmmakers behind Free Solo, National Geographic’s Wild Life shows how a documentary can be compelling without demanding you fully agree with all points of view expressed. The film profiles the megarich power couple who helped build outdoor brands Patagonia and North Face and then used their wealth to create national parks in Argentina and Chile in the largest private land donation in history. Watch on Hulu. Rated PG-13.
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