What a great year for movies. There were a plethora of wonderful flicks released in the last 12 months across a mix of genres, making 2023 trips to the theater satisfying.
Like all years with a lot of top shelf movies, it can be hard to narrow a list down to 10. But the more good movies the better, and based on personal enjoyment and what I found most well made, I was able to put together 10 picks. However, like always, I will honor the movies that didn’t make the cut.
One of the most common aspects of the human experience is considering how different things could be if one made a different choice or a life event went an alternate way.
In stirring fashion, “Past Lives” writer/director Celine Song explores this concept, that boils down to the simple words “what if.”
The film, inspired by Song’s own life, centers on Nora (Greta Lee), a woman whose story began in South Korea before her family immigrated to Canada when she was a pre-teen. When she was growing up in South Korea, she was close friends with a boy named Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), but the two lost contact.
The two reconnect a dozen years later via social media and begin speaking regularly via Skype, but again are unable to consistently stay in touch as life takes them on different paths. The movie then follows up with the characters in the present day, when Hae Sung is able to visit Nora. who’s now a married writer in New York City.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Past Lives’ is a romantic drama triumph”
Matthew Liedke on Film 