The Best Movies Of 2023

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times. Yes, 2023 was not a particularly good year all around, but it was one of the better years for movies in recent memory.

Not only did I have difficulty narrowing down a top 10 - and you'll notice that I cheated slightly on that account - but it was challenging to even whittle my list down to a top 20. 

The year's two best films were long, ambitious works about significant moments in American history - one well documented, the other mostly swept under the rug. Many of the year's best films were ponderous - at least three in my second 10 fit this description while four in my top 10 were of a cerebral nature.

There was a pervasive sense of loneliness and melancholy in many of the year's best films, and even some of the cheerier pictures had a darker undertone. The movies fit the times, perhaps.

I like to give credit where it's due and help to get good movies seen, so since this year had so much to offer cinematically, these are some of the very good movies that didn't even crack my top 20 (in parenthesis, I'll rank them by number where they fall outside the list): The Boy and the Heron (21, reviewed here), Master Gardener (22, reviewed here), BlackBerry (23), Priscilla (24, reviewed here), Lynch/Oz (25, reviewed here), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (26), Tori and Lokita (27), Menus Plaisir Les Troisgros (28), The Eight Mountains (29), and Earth Mama (30).

Here are the 10 runners up:

20. RMN (Christian Mungiu) - The Romanian director's latest is unsettling and timely as a small town is overcome by anti-immigrant sentiment.
19. Falcon Lake (Charlotte Le Bon) - This French Canadian film is a coming-of-age story and a ghost story as well as a triumph of mood and tone.
18. Maestro (Bradley Cooper) - Visually gorgeous and ambitious, Cooper's second directorial effort further proves the actor's abilities behind the camera. Reviewed here.
17. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (Kelly Fremon Craig) - This warm and funny adaptation of Judy Blume's book does its source material justice. Reviewed here. 
16. Origin (Ava DuVernay) - DuVernay's latest is an inquisitive, ambitious, and moving blend of docudrama and investigation into systems of oppression. Reviewed here.
15. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki) - The typically deadpan and downbeat Finnish director's latest is his best in a while and one of his gentlest. Reviewed here.
14. American Fiction (Cord Jefferson) - A biting satire on the publishing industry's interest in hearing Black stories, that is, as long as they help to ease white guilt. One of the year's funniest. Reviewed here.
13. The Killer (David Fincher) - Not the minor work that some might think, Fincher's latest enables the director to investigate some of his own obsessions, all the while delivering a darkly funny satire on late capitalism. Reviewed here.
12. May December (Todd Haynes) - Haynes' latest Sirkean melodrama asks us to uncomfortably consider how we love to hear about others' tragedies and grim circumstances, as long as we're bystanders and not participants. Reviewed here.
11. Barbie (Greta Gerwig) - The fact that Gerwig took one of the most iconic - and revenue producing - cultural objects of the past 60 years and used that as an opportunity to satirize the company that produced it, consumerism, and our patriarchal society alone makes it a triumph. The year's biggest blockbuster is also among the stranger ones to capture the public imagination. Reviewed here.

And now for the top 10:
10a. A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell) - Reviewed here.
10b. Air (Ben Affleck) - Reviewed here.
Yes, I cheated a little here. I didn't want to boot either of these films from my top 10. My rationale is that these were my two favorite films from the spring. The first is a devastating saga that utilizes the concept of the family you choose, set against the backdrop of Giuliani's New York, while the second is a superbly written and acted picture about the creation of a shoe, which ultimately becomes a captivating story about equity.
9. All Of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh) - The year's loneliest - and possibly saddest - film is a spectral love story and therapy session with an ending that is sure to spark debate. Haunting and luminous. Reviewed here.
8. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos) - Another outrageous concoction from Greek director Lanthimos, this Frankensteinian saga of self discovery features a bold Emma Stone performance, some incredible camera work, and equal portions of the grotesque and the absurdly hilarious. Reviewed here.
7. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) - Glazer's studied take on Nazi Germany is, perhaps, the most horrifying PG-13 movie you'll ever see. Mostly utilizing the power of suggestion and observing characters discussing the unspeakable through banal workplace conversation, this is the year's most unsettling film. Reviewed here.
6. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) - This year's Palm d'Or winner at Cannes is a stunning slow burn about the nature of truth. The picture is a courtroom drama and somewhat a thriller, but it's most fascinating when it chronicles the dissolving of a relationship and its effect on a family. Reviewed here.
5. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson) - It took me two tries before I really got Anderson's latest, which does nothing less than question our place in the universe, but in the fussily arranged manner that we've come to expect from this singular director. The picture also includes this year's most intriguing cinematic mantra: You can't wake up if you don't go to sleep. Reviewed here.
4. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne) - For a movie that covers a lot of heavy ground - death, failed career ambitions, melancholy, and familial alienation - Payne's latest is also one of the year's funniest and warmest. This is a perfect example of how to take well-trod material and make it feel fresh with great performances and writing and a fresh perspective. Reviewed here.
3. Past Lives (Celine Song) - The best debut of this year or any in recent memory, Song's film is a wistfully romantic and crushingly sad story about the roads not taken. It's a twofer love story set over a period of decades that is wise and poignant. Reviewed here.
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) - Over a period of three-and-a-half hours, Scorsese's historical epic painstakingly details the murder and greed by white interlopers that plagued the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. Leonardo DiCaprio (who was robbed by the Oscars) gives one of his finest performances and Robert De Niro is at his scariest here, but it's Lily Gladstone who is the heart and soul of the picture. The film's devastating coda will likely leave you speechless. Reviewed here. 
1. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) - It was a great challenge choosing between the year's top two films, both of which are epic American films that are destined to be classics. I went with Nolan's by a hair for the top spot. The picture is a fascinating dive into the past and a chilling warning for the future. This is an example of a major artist being given the creative freedom to create an ambitious work of art. On all fronts, it succeeds. Reviewed here.