20 Best Movies Of 2023

17. Fallen Leaves

Aki Kaurismäki has always been a filmmaker who revels in the everyday, tackling the way we form relationships and survive with equally deadpan and tragic minimalism, but rarely has he felt so assured behind the camera than he does in Fallen Leaves, a tragicomic romance that revels in heartbreak, irony and precise cinematography.

Fallen Leaves follows two lonely souls (the sincere Alma Pöysti and haunted Jussi Vatanen) whose seemingly obvious happily ever after falls out of reach, despite their best efforts. It's a love story that feels doomed from the start, but it never becomes too bleak; rather, the "so close, so far" of it all is beautifully endearing.

An acute and particular comedy-drama in which every shot tells a story of its own, Kaurismäki's latest is a life-affirming tale that tackles love, addition, politics and working class living with great care, never wasting a moment as its characters come face to face with their own uncertainties and futures.