The 10 Best Films of TIFF 2023

With all the marquee Venice and Telluride titles missing at TIFF this year, it wasn’t that hard to come up with a Top 10 list — it’s turning out to be a strong year at the movies.

And so, despite the lack of Lanthimos, Haigh, Coppola, Mann, Fincher and Cooper, I had a pleasant enough time discovering good films, a few of which are one of the very best of 2023.

Not included on this list are excellent films I’d already seen at Cannes such as Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer, Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, Felipe Galvez’ The Settlers, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest.

I’m not including “Aggro Dr1ft” on this list because I’m still wrestling with it. Is it a movie? It’s definitely an experience, and one which I will likely not forget. I also caught up with Cannes title “The Delinquents”, set to be released in late September, which is a masterful character study masquerading as a bank heist movie.

As for the bad stuff, there were many subpar titles. This year’s program was stuffed with films from actors-turned-directors, with only Anna Kendrick (“Woman of the Hour”) left unscathed. The rest? Michael Keaton’s “Knox Goes Away”, Chris Pine’s “Poolman,” Patricia Arquette’s “Gonzo Girl,” Ethan Hawke’s “Wildcat” and Kristin Scott Thomas’ “North Star” all bombed critically.

I somehow managed to miss Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” which just couldn’t seem to fit into my schedule. Ditto Greg Kewdar’s “Sing Sing” — picked up by A24 on Friday and barely seen by critics.

Otherwise, I find that I saw most of everything I needed to see. TIFF’s program is packed with over 200 films, a lot of filler included, and there’s the overall sense that its lineup should a little tighter for future editions. Here were the best films from this year’s Toronto festival (in alphabetical order) —

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction

Winner of the People’s Choice Award, Cord Jefferson's “American Fiction” is a confident debut — a remarkable feat of comedy, satire and racial politics featuring a career-best performance from Jeffrey Wright. Adapted from Percival Everett's novel, “Erasure,” it’s a pertinently relevant look at how well-meaning white people want black people portrayed in art.

Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast

Still seeking distribution, this was the ballsiest film to screen at TIFF. It takes its time to cast its spell on you, but once it does, the result is hypnotic. Bonello’s story unfolds over three distinct periods: 1910, 2014 and 2044 — it can’t all be comprehended in a single viewing. However, the film hits its peak at the one hour mark, as it starts veering into Lynchian territory — stalkers, Los Angeles and super models collide in a film unlike any seen before.

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron

This film’s imagination is astonishing. It’s truly surreal and the best Miyazaki since “Spirited Away. My jaw dropped at certain moments of this film. The artistry is nothing short of stunning. Miyazaki conjures up these elaborate, nightmaresque, set-pieces that toss plot aside in favor of sheer cinematic nirvana. Some of the images that defy words.

Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario

This is a scathing satire on cancel culture. The artful extremes that Nicolas Cage goes for in this film are both hilarious and boldly original. His Paul is a loser, but a harmless one, an underachiever who somehow gains fame, and then infamy, as he starts appearing in everyone’s dreams. With this comic energy, the actor’s range veers between the deadpan and the outrageous. It’s his best performance in decades.

Azazel Jacobs’ His Three Daughters

Three grown sisters, in a small Manhattan apartment, drive each other crazy, while their unseen father lies dying of cancer, hooked up to a morphine drip in a nearby bedroom. Jacobs’ intensely personal writing is aided by three wonderful actresses: Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne. They’re all great, and the way the film ends turns out to be unexpectedly touching.

Richard Linklater’s Hit Man

“Hit Man” has a star-in-the-making performance from Glenn Powell as Gary Johnson, a police staff investigator who plays the role of a hit man to catch individuals ordering a hit. He ends up falling hard for Madison (Adria Arjona). This is a surprisingly sexy noir by Linklater. It keeps messing with your head as characters switch identities, and lies upon lies start piling up. It’s also darkly funny and its characters morally questionable.

Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers

Let’s celebrate the return of Paul Giamatti in a lovely performance as a curmudgeon professor at a New England prep school. His Paul Hunham is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit a brainy student. “The Holdovers” is a back-to-the-basics approach for Payne, albeit done in a very mainstream, comfort-food type of fashion. It’s far from Payne’s best film, but it's an immensely likeable one.

Michel Franco’s Memory

She’s a social worker, he has dementia. Their lives are suddenly blown open and impacted by an unlikely romance. Another stunner from Franco. Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard — both incredible— star in an a film filled with Franco’s usual gloom, but this time around, there’s real heart to the drama. It’ll be one of the best films of the year, if only it can find distribution.

Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel

Inspired by true events, “The Royal Hotel” follows best friends Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick), backpackers in Australia who run out of money and decide to take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called “The Royal Hotel” in a remote Outback mining town. Tense doesn’t even begin to describe this film, which is filled with menace at every turn.

Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour

Kitschy ’70s pop culture and the serial killer genre collide in a film that was bought by Netflix for the whopping sum of $11 million. Kendrick’s directorial debut is such a gutsy balancing act of black comedy and hardcore thriller elements that it threatens to derail at every minute; the fact that it doesn’t is some kind of minor miracle. The serial killer is played with chilling effect by Daniel Zovatto. The story being told is outrageous, if it weren’t also based in fact.