I don’t think we need much in the way of preamble for this, right? It’s a list, you know how these work. Here are GAMbIT’s picks for the best films of 2023.
Unseen at time of writing: The Zone of Interest, Society of the Snow, The Iron Claw, The Boy and the Heron, American Fiction, Showing Up, You Hurt My Feelings
Honorable Mention: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Air, Master Gardener, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Skinamarink, No One Will Save You, A Haunting in Venice, Infinity Pool
20. Reality
Of all the ways to tell the story of NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, Reality chose perhaps the least intuitive. Directed by Tina Satter, based on her play Is This a Room, Reality skips the usual cloak-and-dagger shenanigans that typify most films focusing on someone looking to expose an uncomfortable truth. We see Reality, played with effortless confidence and minimalism by Sydney Sweeney, on the day that her life comes tumbling down. Based on actual transcripts of Winner’s arrest and interrogation, Reality looks at the person behind the scandal instead of the actions she took to end up where we find her. Sweeney’s career will likely always be defined by her performance as Cassie Howard on Euphoria, and while she’s excellent on that show, Reality is a much better example of her considerable talent.
19. Bottoms
Emma Seligman’s film manages to be both weirder and darker than its premise suggests, which is saying a lot considering its premise is “unpopular lesbians start a fight club in high school so they can hook up with cheerleaders.” This is John Waters-style camp at its finest and most subversively heartfelt. Rachel Sennott (who co-wrote the script) and Ayo Edebiri deliver star-making performances, buoyed by a superb supporting cast, the MVP of which just happens to be NFL star Marshawn Lynch (whose standout performance is one of the least absurd elements of this crazy movie). Bottoms is a generation-defining comedy, not because it embraces the tropes of its genre, but because of how expertly it subverts them.
18. Talk to Me
It’s a pretty hackneyed sentiment to call a horror movie “fun,” but man, Talk to Me is a blast. The sterling debut (!) of Danny and Michael Philippou, Talk to Me is Gen Z horror at its finest. Unabashedly online, balancing genuine scares with a flippant, hard-partying atmosphere, the whole thing is stuffed with great performances, none better than Sophie Wilde in the lead role. Talk to Me isn’t just scary – although it is that – it also has a lot to say about how communication changes with each generation. And it all leads up to one of the biggest gut-punch endings of 2023.
17. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part One
Mission: Impossible is one of the rare franchises that gets better and more ambitious with each installment. In what world does the seventh entry in a series wind up on a best-of list? Luckily for us, it’s this world. Since Christopher McQuarrie began co-running the franchise with Tom Cruise (starting with 2015’s Rogue Nation), M:I has proven itself to be the pinnacle of big-budget action, made by and for people in love with the theatergoing experience. Tom Cruise might be a nutjob, but he’s crazy enough to push himself further and further, even as he enters his 60s. Crazy or not, it’s entirely possible that Cruise is our last true movie star: someone willing to risk his own body just to entertain us. Mission accomplished.
16. BlackBerry
What could have been a half-baked attempt to capitalize on The Social Network turns into something radically different and more interesting under director Matt Johnson: a quiet, unassuming portrait of the dawning of the digital age. Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton make for a surprisingly terrific pairing, with the latter giving one of the best performances not only of his career but of the entire year. BlackBerry takes itself seriously, but not ponderously so. Johnson handles the balance of tone marvelously – without exaggeration, a scene near the end of the film where Baruchel’s character first gets his hands on an iPhone feels as consequential as the Bob Dylan cameo at the end of Inside Llewyn Davis.
15. Saltburn
One of the meanest films of the year is in danger of turning into a meme, which is too bad, because it might distract from Barry Keoghan’s gonzo performance, surely the bravest of the year. Emerald Fennell’s eat-the-rich riff on The Talented Mr. Ripley (with a sprinkling of The Odd Couple) is nihilistic, profane, morally indefensible, and in constant danger of choking on its own rage and villainy – which is all to its benefit. And it’s all framed with Linus Sandgren’s gorgeous, painterly cinematography: agony and ecstasy, sacred and profane. This is a movie decidedly not for everybody, and even its target audience will be repulsed. But generational wealth is pretty repulsive too, is it not?
14. Beau is Afraid
After Hereditary and Midsommar, two of the most defining horror films of the past decade, Ari Aster made the bold, inexplicable decision to release Beau is Afraid, a three-hour bildungsroman about anxiety, Oedipal angst, and societal collapse. A lot of people hated it. Aster doesn’t care. The movie doesn’t care. Beau is Afraid is fearless in its execution, aided by a vanity-free performance from Joaquin Phoenix, playing an unsympathetic, simpering man-child. Add in brilliant supporting work from Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, Richard Kind, and Patti Lupone, you end up with one of this year’s funniest, most chilling, most surprisingly moving films.
13. Asteroid City
People either love or hate Wes Anderson, and no matter what camp you’re in, Asteroid City will give you all the ammunition you need to get your point across. Anderson’s best film since the superb Grand Budapest Hotel, Asteroid City heightens the director’s Lynchian fixation on guile and artifice, all in the service of what might be his most personal work yet. Despite its otherworldly trappings, Asteroid City concerns itself with the human condition: the need to communicate, to reinvent, to be heard. Anderson’s murderer’s row of regulars continues to grow with the welcome additions of actors like Tom Hanks and Maya Hawke, but the real revelation here is Jason Schwartzmann, delivering what’s easily his best performance. He’d steal the movie if it didn’t already belong to him.
12. John Wick Chapter 4
I’ve long considered the third installment of the John Wick series to be an unassailable piece of action filmmaking; the first 20 minutes are pitched at an intensity that most action films can only dream of achieving in their climaxes. How, then, does a filmmaking team move on from that (and make no mistake, these movies are a team effort by Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski)? The answer is, you move the action to Paris, stretch it out over nearly three hours, and add Donnie freakin’ Yen to the cast. The film not only breezes along, it’s impossible to ignore. The bar continues to be raised; Chapter 4 boasts two of the best action scenes of the entire series, which is seriously impressive.
11. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
This movie made me the angriest I’ve ever been leaving a movie theater, which means it worked exactly as intended. Daniel Goldhaber’s film is as incendiary as the bomb its characters make, and just as full of righteous fury as their actions. Loosely based on Andreas Malm’s book of the same name, How to Blow Up a Pipeline follows disparate people from seemingly random walks of life as they band together to exact a small measure of justice on behalf of the earth, and after leaving the theater I wanted to do the same. This film isn’t just important, it’s vital. Watch it and become radicalized.
10. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
It’s easy to predict that we’ll be seeing these Spider-Verse movies pop up in lists like these as long as they continue to hit theaters, but that’s for good reason. Directors Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, and Joaquim Dos Santos have made something undeniably special with Across the Spider-Verse, which is all the more refreshing considering how movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Flash, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are really testing everyone’s patience for multiversal shenanigans. These movies are heartfelt and hilarious, but beyond that they are absolutely gorgeous to look at, every scene not just a comic panel but a painting rendered in loving, exquisite detail. The Spider-Verse movies are packed with so many details, references, and jokes that they don’t just encourage rewatching, they reward it. Stop what you’re doing and go watch this. Twice.
9. May December
No one balances camp and melodrama like Todd Haynes (his 2002 Douglas Sirk riff Far From Heaven is one of this century’s best films) and May December is no exception. At times blackly funny, and at others deadly serious, Haynes’ latest showcases him and his cast at their full potential. Natalie Portman is a real-deal movie star, and gets one of the best, most devastating lines this year, which I won’t spoil here. But she’d be adrift without solid turns from Julianne Moore and Riverdale alum Charles Melton, making a smoldering, sensuous case for himself as a young Brando. May December isn’t afraid to get dark, which makes the punchline of its final scene land even harder.
8. Barbie
A Barbie movie was inevitable; an incredibly well-made Barbie movie was all but impossible. Leave it Greta Gerwig (and her co-writer, Noah Baumbach) to take Mattel’s iconic property and turn it into not only the year’s biggest hit, but something like an instant classic. Barbie is a refreshingly bold take on an established piece of IP; a biting and hilarious satire of toxic masculinity; features career-best performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling; and has hands-down the funniest ending line of any movie of 2023. Life in plastic? It’s fantastic.
7. Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner is many things: an incisive character study, dryly humorous, one of the best courtroom dramas, well, ever. Sandra Hüller astounds as a secretive novelist who may or may not have murdered her husband (personally I’m still not sure if she did or not). What follows is a gripping courtroom power play, in service of Triet’s commentary on how successful women are built up and then torn down. Anatomy of a Fall – the title can, and should, be taken literally and metaphorically – breezes through its two and a half-hour runtime and leaves us breathless, wanting more. This was my first exposure to Justine Triet’s work, but I’ll be first in line for whatever she does next.
6. Past Lives
There’s a reason that Celine Song’s achingly tender romance has been touted as one of the year’s best films since it came out. Past Lives is an entrancing portrait of what-if uncertainty, of Millennial longing, of the ways we try, fail, and sometimes succeed to communicate. The film rests on the shoulders of Greta Lee (Russian Doll), who delivers a star-making performance. A multilingual drama about connection, Past Lives is this year’s answer to Drive My Car, the best film of 2021.
5. The Holdovers
A feature-length definition of the word “bittersweet,” Alexander Payne’s latest film – and his best since 2004’s Sideways – is not only an impressive pastiche of 1970s character studies, but an often hilarious and poignant portrait of a found family. Paul Giamatti delivers the best performance of his career, aided by Da’Vine Joy Randolph (in a role that’s all but sure to win her an Oscar) and the incredibly talented newcomer Dominic Sessa. Payne is a humanist by way of a director, and The Holdovers is his most sincere, loving work yet. The Cat Stevens needle drop made me cry, sure, but so did much of the rest of the film.
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
Enough has been said about the remarkable performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, and Lily Gladstone; enough has been said about the fact that Martin Scorsese can enrapture his audience for 206 provocative minutes. I don’t want to focus on that. Let’s talk about the final scene instead. Scorsese himself looks his audience – and his career – straight in the eye and shows the blood on all of our hands, including (maybe especially) his. There are no innocents here. There is no world in which Scorsese isn’t the best American filmmaker who ever lived, and Killers of the Flower Moon is proof – as if we needed any more.
3. Poor Things
A shotgun blast of spectacle and originality from one of the most original voices in modern film, Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos. Every one of his films has improved in quality, and Poor Things is no exception. The supporting cast – Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, and eventual Oscar winner Mark Ruffalo – are all terrific, but unsurprisingly the film lives and dies with its lead, a fearless Emma Stone, delivering not only one of the best performances of the year but one of the most fearless in history. She’s quickly making a case for herself as a generation-defining talent, and it will be such a nice change of pace to see her win a well-deserved second Oscar for a movie that’s actually good (suck it, La La Land).
2. Oppenheimer
The eventual Best Picture winner (calling it now) is another triumph from Christopher Nolan, one of the few household names in today’s film landscape. Three hours of talking and planning are shot and staged like a heist thriller, and it all rests on Cillian Murphy’s commanding performance. Nolan’s films largely focus on control and process, and while Oppenheimer is no different in that regard, it stands alone in Nolan’s oeuvre for the bleeding heart at its core. Often derided as a cold, distant director, Nolan is nakedly emotional here. While not a spectacle in the same way as Tenet or Inception, Oppenheimer concerns itself with nothing less than the fate of the world, and never loses sight of its enormity. Nolan isn’t trying to be the next Spielberg or Kubrick – he doesn’t have to. He’s the first Christopher Nolan.
1. Godzilla Minus One
I’m as surprised as anyone that a Godzilla movie beat out Oppenheimer, which was my top pick of the year until the second I walked out of Godzilla Minus One. The two films share some DNA, though, concerned as they both are with the terror of nuclear power. Takashi Yamazaki’s nearly perfect film is an enthralling piece of spectacle, a modern kaiju classic, and a soul-searing portrait of a man, and a country, trying to put himself back together. For the first time in a long time, the titular monster is actually terrifying and awe-inspiring. Godzilla Minus One is the best blockbuster since Top Gun: Maverick, and proof that epic films can be made with ambition and heart.
About Author
