PHOTOGRAPH BY HAMARA COURTESY OF ADOBE STOCK
This past year was huge for the film industry. An unlikely summer double feature produced record-breaking box office returns. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes created a long delay in promotion and new releases. Traditional superhero blockbuster movies seem to be on their last legs.
Overall, 2023 movies felt more meditative than years past. Several films on my “Best Of” list ruminate on the meanings of love, art, and personhood. I’ll share my 15 personal favorite movies from 2023, but first I’d like to say that these are my personal selections and nobody else’s. I’m not telling anyone what to enjoy or what to not enjoy. My taste is not going to be the same as others and that’s OK. Also, these are only movies I saw within 2023. Any Oscar contenders that were not available to me in 2023 will not be on this list. Potential spoilers ahead!
Before I go into my overall favorites, I’d like to share some more niche categories:
Best Documentary: BS High
2023 was an unfortunately weak year for documentaries. I’m a big fan of this genre, so the apparent documentary drought right now makes me kind of sad. I fear the best filmmakers of this category have moved to television and podcasts. That said, there was a specific doc this year that captivated me.
BS High is about the infamous Bishop Sycamore scandal. For those who don’t remember, Bishop Sycamore was a fake school in Ohio that somehow was competing in high school football against some of the best teams in the nation, sometimes on ESPN. While the story seemed like a laughable open-and-shut fraud case, the documentary uncovers the web of lies and corruption that allowed this to happen in the first place.
Bishop Sycamore’s coach Roy Johnson agreed to be interviewed for this movie, and just can’t stop talking (to the audience’s benefit). I’ve never seen a real-life narcissist/sociopath willingly expose themselves in this way. He stares down the camera with the most chilling eyes and says the most horrible things about the kids he tricked and the systems he took advantage of. It’s worth watching for him alone.
Best Traditional Blockbuster: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
James Gunn’s latest—and last—return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe was arguably Disney’s greatest success in 2023. After Gunn sharpened his edgy superhero tools with DC Comics on The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, he returned to the Guardians with more heart and soul than any MCU fan expected.
Vol. 3 is the darkest Guardians film and Marvel film, not because half of the universe turns to dust, but because it explores the trauma and grief these characters have experienced. Spider-Man dissolving in Iron Man’s arms doesn’t hold a candle to baby Rocket Raccoon watching his animal friends get shot to death right in front of him. The realistic animal cruelty is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to watch in any blockbuster, let alone a Marvel film.
Visually, this is one of the best looking MCU films. Gunn has always had a great sense of color, filling a frame that would otherwise be bland CGI backgrounds with vibrant pops of purple, red, and yellow. These colors are best used in this movie on a planet made of organic living parts—it’s genuinely gross in a way that I appreciated as a horror fan.
While it’s the darkest of the Guardians trilogy, Vol. 3 still has the great comedy that you expect from Gunn film. The soundtrack is fantastic as always with my favorite selections being “In the Meantime,” by Spacehog and “Koinu no Carnival,” by Japanese VOCALOID artist EHAMIC. Expect to finish this movie with your heart surprisingly full and a potential tear in your eye.
Best Trash: Saw X
I took it upon myself to watch every single Saw movie this year. Why? I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment. Speaking of punishment, this year’s long-awaited 10th entry into the franchise provided some of the most gruesome traps and kills yet. From being forced to take some of your brain out to using someone else’s intestines as a rope, Saw X has everything a fan of these movies could want. It’s easily the best entry in this franchise since the original Saw.
I truly mean that. The reason so many Saw sequels failed is because they forget what truly makes the franchise great: John Kramer. Kramer is one of the most interesting villains in horror history because he’s just a terminally ill man who’s making his impending death everyone else’s problem. He may not even kill you; he lets you go if you win his games. Kramer’s twisted sense of karmic justice keeps the gears of the franchise turning (like the rack in Saw III.)
Is this one of the best movies of the year? No. Is this even a great movie? No. Was this some of the most fun I’ve had watching a movie all year? Absolutely. There’s nothing like watching Tobin Bell make John Kramer look like a frail old man in a cancer drama only for the next scene to be him sucking out some dude’s eyes with a vacuum cleaner. The Jigsaw Killer forms a heartwarming relationship with a little boy in Mexico and then leaves to implant pipe bombs into a taxi driver’s arms. It’s like riding a roller-coaster. Don’t eat directly before getting on the ride and bring some friends for maximum fun.
Now for the Top 15:
15. Talk to Me
I consider myself a pretty big horror fan, so overall, I was let down by the year’s selection. 2022 was such a strong year for horror, especially independent horror, with movies like X, Pearl, The Menu, and Barbarian. I enjoyed aspects of this year’s Infinity Pool and Cobweb but in the end, there was only one true winner in this category.
Talk to Me is the feature film debut of Australian directing team the Philippou brothers. The teen possession story is as old as horror cinema itself, but this movie does something unique with the concept. The cursed object is not treated by the characters as something to be objectively feared and destroyed, but as something fun.
Possession in Talk to Me serves as an allegory for drugs and addiction, which the Philippou brothers cleverly make look exhilarating in the first half and life-ruining in the second half. While the teens pass around the cursed hand at the party like a bong, over time they witness its gradual destruction. The demons take advantage of the main character Mia’s grief and twist it to get her to release more of them. I don’t want to spoil too much of this, so give it a watch.
14. Beau Is Afraid
You either really like Beau Is Afraid or you hate Beau Is Afraid. I have yet to find someone with a neutral opinion about this movie. That makes perfect sense to me. I personally enjoyed it, but I completely understand why someone wouldn’t. Ari Aster’s latest work is three surrealist hours of anxiety, chaos, and confusion. As someone with clinical anxiety who is also a student of surrealist art film, this was right up my alley.
It doesn’t make sense for someone who experiences anxiety in their daily life to so thoroughly enjoy what amounts to a three-hour panic attack, but here I am. Basically every nightmare scenario for Beau (played by Joaquin Phoenix) comes true in what amounts to the worst week of his life. Yet every horrific trauma is incredibly funny. He’s on a beautiful and horrible odyssey to get to his mother’s house.
My biggest piece of advice for seeing this movie is to not go in expecting a normal Ari Aster horror. I wouldn’t even classify Beau Is Afraid as horror. At best I can classify it as a surrealist tragicomedy. It’s closer to Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon than Midsommar.
13. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
As someone who goes into a spiral every time they think about the climate crisis, this movie was surprisingly comforting. I rarely, if ever, see radical tactical action framed as the correct and most morally defensible option in a wide-release film. Perhaps, this film posits, to keep the world from burning, something else must burn in its place.
The act of destruction by this ragtag team of climate activists is shot as if it were a heist movie. Fast-paced editing keeps even the slower and more contemplative moments feeling tense and exciting. I can best compare both the cinematography and atmosphere of this film to Breaking Bad. Like in the show, the vast desert feels isolating yet exposed and the visuals almost seem washed out by the sand.
This movie shows the real-world impact climate change is currently having on people. To those with power, the concept is nebulous to the point of being nearly imaginary. Climate disaster is all too real for characters like Theo, someone who was raised next to a refinery and is now dying of leukemia, or Dwayne, who was evicted from his home so oil companies could drill on his land. The drastic action they take seems like the only logical step to actual progress. Will it inspire real world progress as well? I can only hope.
12. Theater Camp
Embarrassing confession time: I was a theater kid. For years I auditioned and trained, hoping for stardom. What I ended up with was a bunch of chorus roles and a complex about my overall talent level. Did I fare much better at summer camp? Ask the Nile River (the part I was given at my camp’s not-so-legal production of The Prince of Egypt.) This fate is what lies in store for the characters of the hilarious Theater Camp.
I haven’t always been charitable towards Ben Platt’s film roles, but he changed my mind in this movie. His character’s sense of delusional importance is something any theater kid is extremely familiar with. Also familiar to me is his very well played fear that being a great teacher invalidates his performance aspirations. The mixed feelings of pride and deep jealousy for his best friend/assistant director’s success in show business is something that I loved to see as well. Creatives are usually portrayed as constantly succeeding, but I find it really encouraging and refreshing that this movie shows that it’s not always a bad thing if you don’t “make it.”
The other performances in this movie are all stellar. The standouts to me were Noah Galvin, who played the overworked and underappreciated head of tech theater, and all of the kids. Child actors typically get on my nerves, especially musical theater child actors, but the casting department for Theater Camp somehow managed to find the best ones. This will speak to you if you love comedies, summer movies, and preparing audition monologues.
11. Past Lives
I cannot believe that this is director Celine Song’s first feature film. Everything about Past Lives is so coherent and beautiful that you’d think she was a Hollywood veteran. This movie is a gorgeous exploration of love, lost connections, and missed opportunities. It’s two people looking back on what their lives could have been while still treasuring the ones they currently have.
There’s no real sense of urgency—in the best way. Everything takes place at whatever pace it needs to organically. The best scene of the movie is an unbroken six and a half minute shot of the two main characters walking down the street and waiting for an Uber. What should feel like a boring take of two people doing nothing is filled with silent tension and words that need not be spoken. (Though the words in this film are great, both in English and Korean.)
Song made this movie feel like a sweet but contemplative dream of someone who may be looking back from an even further point in the future. Love abounds everywhere in this version of New York City from the ferry to the restaurants to the park. Every day is Valentine’s Day in a romantic comedy—except the would-be lovers in our movie are destined not to be together. They’ll just have their shared regrets of what might have been and what they could be in their future lives.
10. Killers of the Flower Moon
It’s extremely sad that I’ve learned about the most damning American historical events from Hollywood and not from school. I never knew until 2023 that at one point the Osage nation were some of the wealthiest people on earth. I also never knew that a genocidal murder spree against the Osage was perpetrated by the white citizens of Oklahoma to steal their money. I thank Martin Scorsese for telling me, but I’m upset that I never knew before.
This movie itself is gorgeously made. The landscapes and costumes are all lush and lived in. The Osage display their wealth in a way that feels authentic to their people and time period. Scorsese is still a master of his craft and knows how to perfectly capture everything from a quiet conversation at a kitchen table to people desperately digging for their loved ones in the wreckage of an explosion.
Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart is the standout here. Playing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio this whole movie, you’d think she was the Oscar winner in their scenes. Every time she speaks, she commands attention and takes up so much space. Her smile lights up the room and her condemnation chills you to the bone. One single sentence she delivers near the end of the movie stuck with me for weeks. Her performance alone is worth the cost of admission.
9. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
This is one of the best American animated movies of the last few years, matched in quality by its predecessor Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. These movies are so good that I’m almost embarrassed for any other movie about Spider-Man or Spider-Man–adjacent characters. These films seem to understand the ethos and powers of this hero in a way that the live-action adaptations have failed to do thus far.
Every frame of this movie is gorgeous to look at. Each Spider-person comes from their own universe with its own unique art style. While Miles Morales comes from a more traditional comic-book world, Gwen Stacy’s home is made of dripping abstract watercolors and purple tones. The villain, The Spot, is trapped in negative space and voids.
The writing is equally stellar with a blend of great comedy and tragic conflict. Over the years, audiences have seen time and again what makes superheroes the way they are. This movie asks if all that trauma makes someone a hero, or if they become a hero in spite of it. I can’t wait for the next entry, Beyond the Spider-Verse.
8. Anatomy of a Fall
Is this a murder mystery? A courtroom drama? A character study of a woman trapped in a relationship she no longer values? Yes. Anatomy of a Fall is so fascinating because it is so many things at once. The question at the core of the film’s beginning is “Did Sandra kill her husband?” By the end, when the main perspective is shifted to the son, the main question is a haunting “Would you rather know that your mother killed your dad or that your dad killed himself?”
Sandra is a woman who is both created and trapped by her own story and circumstance. As an author, narratives and stories are at the core of her world. She has been in control of both her and her husband’s stories for so long that she starts to lose her grip when it slips out of her hands. In a court of law with no concrete witnesses, the procedure is just narrative against narrative. Whose will end up prevailing, the successful author, or the dead husband whose ideas she stole?
The fact that this movie contains three different languages (French, English, and German) also emphasizes the importance of words and the power that comes with knowing a language. Sandra, a native German-speaker, feels as if she meets her husband, a native French-speaker, in the middle by speaking English with him. Her husband felt as if that put her above him because their son spoke French and they lived in France. Sandra feels powerless in court because they force her to speak French.
The alpine setting feels cozy and alien at the same time, you feeling trapped like Sandra and her son. (So does reading subtitles for about two and a half hours.) Snoop, the family pet, is very cute and an excellent dog actor. Despite being primarily dialogue-based, you can feel the tension and danger in the situation. I’m ecstatic that this film won the Palme D’Or at Cannes and I can’t wait to see what director Justine Triet has in store next.
7. The Holdovers
I went into this movie expecting to hate it. I’ve never been a huge fan of the ’70s/’80s prep school comedies this film draws its inspiration from, and I’ve never loved Christmas movies. Even so, I adored every minute of this. The set and cinematography make you feel warm and cozy despite the characters being stuck in a school with the heat turned off. The characters throw barbs at each other, but their chemistry crackles with wit and fun.
Paul Giamatti has never been better than as the curmudgeonly history teacher Mr. Hunham. While he seems like a classic harsh teacher on the outside, you quickly begin to root for him as the only authority figure in this school who is trying to teach these spoiled privileged boys that they can’t skate by in life on money and status alone. He gives one of the funniest performances of the year as he begins opening up to Angus Tully, the student stuck at school over Christmas, and Mary, the school cook who has nowhere else to go.
Speaking of Tully and Mary, their performances are also stand-outs this year. Da’Vine Joy Randolph plays Mary, the chef spending her first Christmas without her son who died in Vietnam. If she isn’t nominated for a supporting actress Oscar, I’ll be shocked and dismayed. Additionally, I could not believe it when I found out that Dominic Sessa, the actor who plays Angus Tully, has never acted on screen in his life. He was a local kid who lived by the school where they shot the film. A nomination for him as well, please. I can’t wait to watch this movie again every Christmas season.
6. Barbie
Call me a little girl but I thought Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came out victorious in this summer’s great Barbenheimer face-off. The sheer joy that radiated from every frame of this movie was infectious and stuck with me the whole year. It sounds stupid, but as a queer woman who always felt like I was kicked to the outskirts of femininity, this movie made me feel like an actual girl again. I chose to wear pink for the first time in years and didn’t feel out of place for it.
I don’t care if some people think it’s a cynical cash grab by Mattel. I genuinely think this movie is a delightful celebration of a demographic that is often shamed for expressing passion and interest in things. Even now, we see young girls who hate being young girls so much that they’re clamoring for form-fitting adult clothes in neutral tones and adopting elaborate skincare routines. Entering a beautiful pink world full of sparkles and happiness was like sinking into a warm bath. It was soothing to my identity in a way I never knew it needed to be soothed.
Plus, this movie was expertly made. The production and costume design are both next-level and truly make Barbieland feel like a children’s play set. There’s an attention to detail in this movie that’s rarely apparent in our green-screen and CGI-dominated world. Things as simple as the car being a little too small for Barbie (like the toy) or all the cups being empty (because dolls can’t drink liquids) bring me much more joy than any cool explosion could.
Additionally, I am and have always been, a comedy fan, and this was one of the funniest movies of the year thanks to Ryan Gosling’s stellar performance as Ken. If he beat Robert Downey Jr.’s performance in Oppenheimer for Best Supporting Actor, it would be even funnier. I know that the Oscars rarely recognize comedies, but they surely must recognize the greatness of Gosling here.
5. May December
Todd Haynes explores the aftermath of tabloid romance in the best drama of 2023. We’re all familiar with the flashy yet disgusting relationships between young boys and much older women that get paraded by the media as freak shows for us to gawk at. What happens after we’re done gawking, and that young boy has had his entire childhood stolen from him?
Charles Melton, best known for starring in the insane teen drama series Riverdale, may have given the best performance of the year as that boy all grown up. May December is based on the infamous case of Mary Kay Letourneau. Having watched interviews with her and husband/victim Vili Falaau, Melton captures the tragic arrested development observed in Falaau perfectly. He’s technically an adult, but he moves and talks like a child pretending to be an adult. He’s a parent to college-aged kids but seems less mature than them. After all these years, he’s still trapped in a relationship he was manipulated into entering at age 13.
Julianne Moore as Elizabeth, the Letourneau stand-in, is also fantastic. Elizabeth sees herself as the victim of every situation even though she causes problems in nearly everyone else’s life. She’s gone her entire life not taking blame because people don’t want to rock the boat. It’s a portrayal of weaponized white female fragility that I’ve witnessed in person but never in film this way.
The tone of this movie may be strange to some. I’ve seen viewers argue over dramatic music cues, the lisp of Moore’s character, and the occasional comedic moments. While it could be considered camp, I consider it melodrama. The way Haynes heightens every emotion makes this deeply personal story feel higher stakes. It’s a smaller production, but it leaves a giant impact.
4. Asteroid City
I am an unashamed and unabashed Wes Anderson fanatic. I will eat up and enjoy nearly any film he makes. Some people are getting sick of his style and to those people I say, watch literally anything else. Are you going to walk into an ice cream shop and be annoyed that they only have sweets? Asteroid City is also telling these people to get over it.
This is one of the director’s most impenetrable films and it took me a couple of viewings to truly understand it. It’s structured in one of Anderson’s usual story-within-a-story framing devices but once you’re in the meat of the film, the ideas come hard and fast. While on the surface this movie is about a mysterious visit from an alien, it’s truly about embracing that nothing in life truly matters. That sounds dark, but it’s a nice twist on the concept. If the world is a meaningless void where nothing makes sense, stop worrying about everything and enjoy the ride.
Anderson is still the king of quirky production design and dry witty dialogue. His typical cast is also present with an excellent turn by Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman. I also appreciate that this movie has stop-motion elements, providing a more fun hand-made feeling. This funny and beautiful film might be hard to comprehend on first watch, but it will only get better with each repeat viewing. Also, if anyone has merchandise with the cute alien guy holding the asteroid, please send it my way.
3. Bottoms
I mentioned before that I’m a comedy fan. This is easily the best comedy of 2023 and possibly of the last five years. The absurd and extreme nature of the established world is exactly up my alley in a way that reminds me of my favorite comedy movie of all time, Wet Hot American Summer.
The “ugly, untalented gays” that serve as this film’s protagonists aren’t just starting a self-defense class to attract girls. They’re essentially creating a fight club where they regularly draw blood from each other. The football team wears full pads and uniforms at literally all times. The rival school murdered a football player via drawing-and-quartering. There’s a kid in a cage in history class. Nothing quite makes sense in the best possible way.
Also, who would’ve thought that Marshawn Lynch, former running back for the Seattle Seahawks, would’ve turned in one of the funniest performances of the year? You would never know that he doesn’t have any acting experience. He and Ryan Gosling are fighting for top comedic performance of the year for me.
Like with Beau Is Afraid, I can totally understand why someone would not like this movie. It’s a strange and specific taste but this violent, surreal, queer comedy feels like it was tailor-made to appeal to me personally.
2. The Boy and the Heron
It’s alway a treat when the new Studio Ghibli movie comes out, and this year’s is one of their best. It’s also legendary director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest and potentially last film. The English title, The Boy and the Heron, would make you think that this is a heartwarming animated adventure about a boy and a bird. The much superior Japanese title, How Do You Live, conveys the true story of this film.
How do you live when your mother is killed in a war you know nothing about? How do you live when your father makes his money profiteering on said war? How do you live when your dead sister’s child who looks just like her becomes your own son? How do you live when it’s so much easier to live in a fantasy world than the tragic reality you’re forced to endure? How do you live when the world you took so long meticulously building has no worthy successor to keep it afloat?
As fantastical as the film is, it’s semi-autobiographical for Miyazaki. He was also a child during World War II and retreated into his own imagination to escape. Like the architect of the magical world, he doesn’t believe there is a worthy successor to everything he’s created as Studio Ghibli (which must make the relationship with his son extremely complicated). As Miyazaki reaches the end of his life, he’s reflecting on the meaning and worth of everything he’s done and experienced.
Studio Ghibli films are always gorgeously animated, and this is no exception. Every frame is drawn with such care and attention. None of the visual comedy is spelled out, the food all looks so warm and delicious, and the little creatures are so cute that you want to give them all big hugs.
1. Poor Things
This movie has been described (by me) as “Barbie for degenerates.” The themes of exploring personhood and what being a woman means in modern society are present in both films, but this one takes those ideas to the extreme. Bella, like Barbie, is a woman created whole cloth who learns about humanity, but Bella learns about sexual liberation, bodily autonomy, and class consciousness.
Poor Things shows that part of being a woman is being owned. Bella never chose to be created, she was a corpse fished out of the river and brought to life by a mad scientist. Soon after being born, she’s given to another man who sees her as a sexual and romantic partner even though she sees him as nothing more than a tool to bring herself occasional sexual pleasure. The second Bella starts forming thoughts and opinions of her own, the men in her life grow fearful of her.
Yorgos Lanthimos has made a name for himself in modern Hollywood by making bizarre comedies about humanity, with characters that act like freak aliens who are visiting earth for the first time. The details of the worlds he builds are off in such a way that your discomfort shifts your perspective. It’s ugly in a beautiful way. This beautiful ugliness is taken to the extreme in Poor Things where everything from costumes to the cities to the ocean feels off-putting; like a dollhouse made by a demented child.
Emma Stone lets loose in a way modern actresses are rarely allowed to. She’s a woman who’s allowed to be ugly, upset, curious, and angry the way real women are. There’s a scene where she dances at a ball, but all her movements are stiff and uncomfortable like a child learning to walk. She has long flowing hair but it’s kind of gross and unkempt, not glamorous. She’s sexual, but not in a way to please whatever partner she’s with; it’s all about getting pleasure for herself.
Barbie fans (over the age of 17 because this is rated R) could consider this movie a spiritual sequel. Seeing a further exploration of the concepts of womanhood and humanity is helpful in appreciating both films.
Facebook Comments