10 Best Movies Of 2023 (So Far)
4. Rye Lane
Proving there's still plenty of life in the rom-com yet, Rye Lane takes the confined scope of the Before movies and melds it with the eye-wateringly dynamic visual palette of a Wes Anderson film to deliver the genre's best effort in forever.
Rye Lane takes place over the course of a single day in South London as two newly single strangers (David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah) get to know one another.
It's a familiar enough setup, yet per the wonderfully witty script, charming performances from Jonsson and Oparah, and evocative sense of time and place, this is an 82-minute gem of a film that's quite tough to resist.
As a testament to both the rom-com and British indie cinema, Rye Lane finds profundity in human connection while proving that rom-coms need not settle for flat, utilitarian lighting and dull, washed-out colours.
Take a bow, cinematographer Olan Collardy - this is one of the year's most surprising visual feasts.