Barack Obama Includes LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND in His Assessment of the Year’s Best Movies

Barack Obama Names the Year’s Best Films

Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, has declared that Leave the World Behind was among the year’s best films.

Even though Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, made Leave the World Behind, that didn’t stop the ex-President from naming it as one of his 10 favorites of 2023. I, myself, cited the film as one of the 10 best over here at FilmBook and am glad the film has taken off to become somewhat of a phenomenon for Netflix. It’s currently ranked as the second most “searched for” thriller on streaming.

A bunch of movies joined the three movies that Obama’s production company made and were singled out as several of the former President’s favorites of 2023. The other two Higher Ground produced movies of the year were the widely acclaimed Colman Domingo biopic, Rustin and American Symphony.

Obama certainly cited another favorite of mine, Ben Affleck’s Air, as one of his own favorites of 2023 as well. Obama named the poetic masterpiece, Past Lives, as one of the 10 best which was in correlation with my own opinion as well. In case you missed it, Past Lives was named by me as the year’s best film in a 10 Best Films of 2023 editorial which I recently wrote here for FilmBook.

Most of Obama’s choices were pictures that said something about society today like A Thousand and One, American Fiction and Polite Society. The ex-President didn’t forget about Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer either although curiously missing from his list was the much acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon. It is not certain that Obama has seen that Martin Scorsese-directed three-hour plus picture quite yet although it’s a definite possibility.

Barack Obama had mentioned the strikes that occurred this past year in a Twitter(X) post in which he went on to reveal his favorite films in the world of cinema. Hopefully, the strikes have led to a better series of financial conditions for artists such as writers and actors across the country. Obama seems to believe they should.

Anatomy of a Fall made Obama’s list of the year’s 10 best movies as well despite its tremendous ambiguity which is no surprise being that the inconclusive Aftersun made the ex-President’s list last year. Blackberry and Monster were the dark horse movies that sneaked on to Obama’s diverse list of the year’s best. The Paul Giamatti starrer, The Holdovers, was also featured prominently on Obama’s chart of his favorite films of 2023, and although the former President didn’t say it, Giamatti’s role in that film is quietly becoming a “favorite” performance for many Americans this year who believe that Giamatti will be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. He could even win the coveted prize if things go down this path with more accolades a certain possibility for the very versatile Giamatti.

Leave the World Behind was a film that has quietly been making a climb onto charts of the most popular current films and is truly one of the very best of the year from a cinematic standpoint. It should be seen. The jury is still out on whether or not the Obama-produced film has any shot at potential Oscar nods.

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