BEST OF CULTURE 2023

The art that entertained, moved, and inspired us this year

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1 NOUVELLE VAGUE

Motivated by pure affection, veteran indie director Richard Linklater tells the story of how Jean-Luc Godard's early masterpiece Breathless came to be: it's 1960 Paris, and Godard (channeled here by magnetic newcomer Guillaume Marbeck) takes to the streets with an American star (the marvelous Zoey Deutch) and a raffish French boxer (a limber, sexy Aubry Dullin) to pull off a sublime act of guerrilla filmmaking. Breathless changed movies forever, and Nouvelle Vague is the ultimate tribute, standing boldly on the side of beauty, of pleasure, of art's power to keep us going.

2 AN OFFICER AND A SPY

Roman Polanski is one of our most controversial, and reviled, living filmmakers. He's also one of our greatest. In his exquisitely crafted account of the Dreyfus Affair—which premiered in Venice in 2019 but didn't receive a U.S. release until this year—Jean Dujardin gives a sterling performance as Officer Marie-Georges Picquart, the counterintelligence official who fought to free Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus (Louis Garrel), wrongly accused of being a spy. At a time when our most cherished civic and moral ideals are threatened, an open mind is more valuable than ever.

3 BLUE MOON