The Best Films of 2023

2023 has come to a close. As with the end of every year, I take a trip back through the last twelve months of cinema to make a somewhat organized, imperfectly ranked list of favourites. These lists are consistently my favourite articles to write in a given year, giving me an opportunity to take a step back and survey the year as a whole. This year’s edition is the first time I am publishing a clean “top ten,” something that was not intention, but rather a happy accident thanks to the films I wanted to write about. This is also my third “best of 2023” list, after having tried my hand at a list for TV series and one for albums.

The past year in film has been a year of upheaval and an undoing of the status quo. It was marked significantly by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, causing many major tentpole films to be delayed and others to appear in theatres with limited fanfare, while the majority of its blockbuster offerings failed to turn a profit.

The filmic highlights of this year, however, remain incredibly strong. The year may be best remembered for the “Barbenheimer” craze this past July, which saw both Barbie and Oppenheimer leap into the highest-grossing films of the year. The arthouse scene had some very compelling entries with Ira Sachs’ Passages, Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, and Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool. The year also saw the return of many of cinema’s most formidable filmmakers, with the likes of Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and Michael Mann each releasing new work.

As I mention in each of my year-end lists, I was not able to see every film released in the past twelve months. There are plenty of movies that I’m sure would have been strong contenders for the list and many others that were simply not on my radar and I have tragically overlooked. A few that come to mind are Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One, as well as, most tragically, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (the latter of which has yet to receive a wide release so I’m not at fault for that one!).

You can read my Best Albums of 2023 list here and my Best TV Series of 2023 list here.

With that out of the way, here are my favourite films of 2023 . . . 

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10. Godzilla Minus One

“Is your war finally over?”

Released ahead of Godzilla’s 70th anniversary, Godzilla Minus One, the thirty-eight film produced starring the iconic monster, takes the story back to its postwar, nuclear-panic roots with a devastating tale about healing wounds and repairing a nation. The human cast at the forefront of the narrative brings a plethora of perspectives on the devastation of World War II on Japan and how its people try to rebuild. Its heavy emotional content is offset by its tremendous monster action, which the film mingles together to great effect. Despite its fairly minimal budget, the film rivals the quality of many of Hollywood’s blockbusters this year with some tremendous visual effects and exciting action sequences. This new take on the Godzilla legend is a welcome return to the world of the 1954 original film, giving the monster a visual and emotional gravity long absent from his more recent incarnations.

Godzilla Minus One is now playing in theatres. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki.

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9. Showing Up

“You have to listen to what isn’t being said.”

Creating art is a struggle. And when an artist does not feel particularly creative, there is often a profound feeling of insecurity and anxiety. No film seems to get at that sense of artistic insecurity more than Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up. Starring Michelle Williams as Lizzy, a sculptor living in Portland, Oregon, the film is all about the mundanity of the artistic process in an everyday, practical sense. Reichardt handles these heavy ponderings with a tender, comedic antidrama that sees Lizzy bump up against her friends, family, and landlord as she prepares for the opening of her latest show. A master of minimalism, Reichardt captures so much beauty and authentic human experiences in the smallest nuances of the character’s behaviour. Showing Up manages to say a lot while always staying small and comforting

Showing Up is now available on digital.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt.

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8. The Holdovers

“I find the world a bitter and complicated place. And it seems to feel the same way about me. You and I have that in common, I think.”

There aren’t many movies as warm and inviting as Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. Set in a sleepy New England town in the early 1970s, the film is dedicated to presenting a retro, analogue version of the world that not only connects to the time it’s set in, but to the heart of New England’s culture and to the feelings of nostalgia it provokes. The film follows a teacher (played by Paul Giamatti), a student (played by newcomer Dominic Sessa), and a cook (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who find themselves unwilling roommates at an all-boys boarding school over the Christmas holidays. While the film starts as friendly as the snow and ice that have covered the school, eventually, the hardline Mr. Paul Hunham and the rebellious Angus Tully begin to whittle each other’s tough exteriors away. It’s a common enough narrative structure that is given remarkable new life here. Giamatti and Sessa bounce off each other with ease and Randolph gives one of the finest supporting performances of the year. The pain and suffering of the characters are palpable in The Holdovers, but that makes its eventual emotional climax all the more sweet.

The Holdovers is playing in select theatres and available on digital.

Directed by Alexander Payne.

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7. May December

“Insecure people are very dangerous, aren’t they? I’m secure. Make sure you put that in there.”

I really wanted to write a full review for Todd Haynes’ May December when it first arrived on Netflix in early December, but I quickly realized that I had no idea what I wanted to say. I’m still not sure if I know how to summarize my many, many thoughts about this complicated maze of a movie. May December is about an actress studying for a new part who visits a couple who was the centre of a media blitz two decades prior. The stir? An adult woman having a sexual relationship with a thirteen-year-old boy. Heavy. Haynes presents the material in a weirdly campy way with some brilliantly funny dialogue and strange score choices, until a moment about halfway through the film where the emotional reality of the entire situation crashes in on the characters and the viewer. Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore stun as the film’s two leads, but it’s Charles Melton (yeah, the guy from Riverdale) who steals the show here. The characterization is marvellous, exploring the denial of abusers and victims as they cope with a horrific past. I wanted to tear the skin off my bones.

May December is now streaming on Netflix

Directed by Todd Haynes.

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6. Anatomy of a Fall

“My job is to cover the tracks so that fiction can destroy reality.”

Anatomy of a Fall, this year’s Palme d’Or winner, is a tense, twisted courtroom drama. The film plays with the familiar narrative conventions of crime procedurals and murder mysteries, but instead of directly subverting the expectations of the viewer, it exploits these conventions to talk about much more profound things rather than just the literal result of the trial. Sandra Hüller (who also starred in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest this year) leads the film as Sandra Voyter (a part tailor-made for the actress), a German writer living in France who finds herself accused of the murder of her French husband. Director Justine Triet keeps her cards close to her chest by being very specific about what the audience is allowed to see, using the forced limitations of the camera’s perspective to ask more questions. The film sizzles with profound internal tension as the intimacies of Sandra’s life are picked apart for the amusement of the French public and us, the viewers. Anatomy of a Fall is razor-sharp in its execution, full of brilliant performances, fully lived-in characters, some ingenious plotting, and always ready to surprise.

Anatomy of a Fall is now available on digital. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Justine Triet.

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5. Past Lives

“You make my world so much bigger and I’m wondering if I do the same for you?”

Past Lives is the finest debut film of the year and reigns among the best in recent years, right up there with Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. On the surface, Past Lives is a movie about simple things. Its beautiful romantic core isn’t anything particularly unique, with a story about a love lost to the mishappenings of life. But the beauty of the film isn’t in what it says, but in how it says it. Song’s direction and writing focus on the intimate and the ordinary, with scenes that burrow deep into the hearts of her characters through honest representations of their everyday lives. The film is hardly very theatrical. Its scenes are mellow, the character beats are subtle, and the performances are relaxed. But it’s this sense of the ordinary that makes Past Lives such a rewarding emotional experience. By the time the film comes to its thoughtful, beautiful conclusion, the viewer is taken up in a swirl of immense emotion.

Past Lives is now available on digital. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Celine Song.

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4. Asteroid City

“I mean, I think I know now what I realize we are. Two catastrophically wounded people who don’t express the depths of their pain because we don’t want to. That’s our connection.”

Asteroid City is one of the year’s least accessible movies. It brings out all of the most confounding parts of Wes Anderson’s filmography: it’s weirdly constructed, thematically messy, and endlessly confusing. If you’re a fan of Anderson like me, this means that the movie is going to be right up your alley. Now, reactions to this film have been decidedly mixed, but I can’t help but be utterly compelled. Asteroid City is a movie about “Infinity, and I don’t know what else,” or so admits the in-film writer of the fictional stageplay of the same name. The film explores the extremes of Anderson’s love of artifice, emotionally stunted characters, and frame narratives. It’s a marvellous film if you give it the time and energy it requires. Just like the film’s characters, the viewer won’t receive any answers by the end, but maybe they can find a little bit of peace.

Asteroid City is now available on digital. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Wes Anderson.

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3. Oppenheimer

“They won’t fear it until they understand it. And they won’t understand it until they’ve used it. Theory will take you only so far.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the most important people to have ever lived. The “father of the atomic bomb” was a revolutionary figure in the world of physics, with his work leading to the creation of the greatest weapon humanity has ever known. Christopher Nolan’s sprawling biopic takes the entirety of Oppenheimer’s career and boils it down into a three-hour epic about the cosmos, the hubris of man, the burden of death, and the end of the world. Cillian Murphy delivers one of the finest performances of the year with his portrayal of the haunted scientist, with excellent supporting performances from the rest of the ensemble. The film is cleverly split between the perspectives of two rival characters — Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss — as the story begins from multiple temporal points at once building into a frantic, explosive picture. Oppenheimer is a challenging, striking, and truly colossal film. It’s the modern Prometheus, bringing nuclear fire from heaven.

Oppenheimer is now available on digital. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Christopher Nolan.

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2. Poor Things

“I must set forth into waters.”

If you have ever seen a film by Yorgos Lanthimos — whether The Lobster (2015), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), The Favourite (2018), or any of his Greek-language movies — you will be immediately familiar with the sense of strangeness inherent to his work. It’s present in the way his characters behave, the way the camera moves, and the absurdity present in all of the stories he tells. Nowhere is that more extreme than in his latest film Poor Things, a science fiction black comedy about a woman artificially made with the power of 19th-century pseudo-science. Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter, a Frankenstein’s monster-esque creation of Dr. Godwin Baxter, who sets off on a trans-continental journey to find her identity and her purpose in life. Stone is complimented with brilliant supporting performances by Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and Ramy Youssef. The script from The Favourite writer Tony McNamara is totally hilarious, making for one of the year’s strongest and strangest comedies. Poor Things is also one of the finest-looking films of the year, with astounding technical work from every department. The visual effects are dream-like, the costumes are garish and gaudy, and the cinematography pushes the viewers outside of their comfort zone. If you thought Asteroid City was strange, wait until you watch Poor Things.

Poor Things is now playing in select theatres. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

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1. Killers of the Flower Moon

“Can you find the wolves in this picture?”

Could it have been anything else? Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the legendary director’s twenty-sixth feature film, is a staggering, overwhelming achievement. Now at 81 years of age and just shy of six decades into his career, Scorsese’s work feels as energetic and necessary as ever. Set in Osage County, Oklahoma, this film tells the true story of the “Osage Indian murders,” or the “Reign of Terror,” during the early 1920s in which members of the Osage Nation were systematically killed in order to take their rights to the oil on the land. It’s a brutal, gut-punch of a movie. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro stun in two of the leading roles, but it’s actress Lily Gladstone here who gives one of the finest performances of the year. The film is absolutely stunning in craft, with beautiful cinematography, a hypnotic score, and some fantastic editing. Killers of the Flower Moon will shock, surprise, and infuriate as it tells its tale of injustice, cruelty, and revenge. The film will be remembered as one of the great cinematic master’s finest outings.

Killers of the Flower Moon is now available on digital. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Martin Scorsese.

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Honourable Mentions

As always, I see many new releases within the calendar year. There are plenty of films that came out in 2023 that I wasn’t able to include in the main list in the interest of keeping it somewhat readable. Here are a few others from the past year that are well worth checking out if you haven’t seen them already:

• Barbie (directed by Greta Gerwig) — “Do you guys ever think about dying?” Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was some of the most fun I had at the movies all year. The gorgeous production design, wicked clever script, and two brilliant performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling make this film a true winner.

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (directed by James Gunn) — Just when I thought I was out, the Marvel Cinematic Universe manages to sucker me back in. The final film in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy sees our beloved heroes engage in one final, deeply emotional, and decidedly entertaining ride.

• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (directed by Daniel Goldhaber) — this ecological thriller from the early part of 2023 is a stunning, low-fi drama. It takes the existential weight of the climate crisis and puts it in the hands of a few climate activists about to take extreme measures against the corporations destroying the planet.

• The Killer (directed by David Fincher) — Don’t let The Killer’s cold exterior fool you: Fincher is putting as much care as ever into crafting this tale of revenge. While it’s a little light on the characterization, the direction and scripting are extremely detailed and the film is utterly stunning in execution.

• Passages (directed by Ira Sachs) — Passages feels like the antithesis to Past Lives. Where Song’s movie is about a trio navigating their competing feelings in a healthy, respectful way, Sachs’ is about another trio indulging in their most self-destructive. If you liked Past Lives but wished it was meaner, Passages is for you.

• Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (directed by Anna Hints) — My favourite documentary of the year! Following a group of women who participate in a traditional Estonian smoke sauna, the film unpacks shame, regret, and liberation as the women wash the dirt of life from their bodies. 

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson) — Miles Morales and his amazing friends swing back to the big screen in glorious fashion. Exploding with beautiful animation, vibrant colours, excellent character design, and a heartful, multiverse-jumping story, Across the Spider-Verse is a total delight.