15 Best Movies of 2023

What a great year for film it’s been. So our writers huddled together to compile the best movies of 2023: 3 writers, 15 films, 1 list.

There are still quite a few films that are being released later this month that could be contenders, like The Color Purple or The Iron Claw. But as with any list, this one is far from definitive – ask me in a month’s time and my top films might no longer be the same. I even changed my mind a bunch of times just this week alone.

We hope you enjoy the films we selected for this list, but if you didn’t, that’s alright. That’s the great thing about art and cinema, we might not always agree, but we can still appreciate a well-made film. Without further ado, and in alphabetical order, here are our best movies of 2023.

 

1. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig

Director Kelly Fremon Craig knows just what to give us with a coming of age flick. We got The Edge of Seventeen from her 7 years ago – an underrated coming of age movie starring Hailee Steinfield – and this year, she gave us the gift of Judy Blume’s seminal Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The book was published in the 70s, and Craig manages to adapt it in such a resonant way. A young girl can watch it now in the 21st century and still relate to Margaret, her growing pains and desire to belong.

The movie follows Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) and her family’s move to New Jersey, how she adapts to a new environment and a new set of friends. Fortson does an amazing job of taking us into Margaret’s interior, through her narrations in the film and her poignant acting when she shares her vulnerabilities. It’s a star-studded cast, with Rachel McAdams, Benny Safdie (who plays a completely different character from his Oppenheimer role), and Kathy Bates. McAdams reminds us of what an acting force she is. As Margaret’s mother Barbara, she’s warm, personable, and constantly wants to do what’s best for Margaret, but often has to make difficult decisions.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is a wholesome, frank film about understanding your place in the world, and it’s one of the best movies this year.

– Natasha Alvar

 

2. Asteroid City

Director: Wes Anderson

Opting for some of his most visually experimental imagery to date, while staying firmly in the style we expect from director/writer Wes Anderson, Asteroid City is a masterpiece. A Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is held yearly in a small American desert town. The gathering in 1955, told as an elaborate live production of a documentary about a fictional play within the setting of the TV show, is expected to be no different. The appearance of aliens creates a panic within the convention, leading to a quarantine that impacts several individuals and families.

Asteroid City spends most of its running time dealing with the fallout of first contact. You can expect the usual Wes Anderson dry humor, as well as familiar subjects like family and particularly fatherhood. Yet Asteroid City finds new things to say about these subjects, while simultaneously featuring Anderson as a filmmaker at quite possibly his creative peak. It’s a breathless, moving viewing experience.

– Gabriel Ricard

 

3. Barbie

Director: Greta Gerwig

Considering the cultural event that this film was in 2023, it wouldn’t be a proper best movies list without Barbie. Director Greta Gerwig, with her witty, satirical script (co-written with Noah Baumbach) and smart direction, is able to use the entire concept of Barbie to flesh out the idea of gender roles, and the dissatisfaction these roles have heaped upon us. The central performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are fantastic, as is set and costume design. With so many remakes/reboots coming to us these past few years, it’s gratifying to get something new and fresh.

Kudos to Gerwig for giving us a movie that makes us laugh, think and reconsider our place in the world, a movie that wants us to see that being who we are is simply good enough.

– Natasha Alvar

 

4. Godzilla Minus One

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

While Godzilla films have shouldered deep pathos and drama in the past, nothing quite matches the scale and ambition of these elements in one of these movies like Godzilla Minus One. Drawing from Godzilla’s World War II origins in a fashion not fully seen since the 1954 original Gojira, the movie is already being hailed as the best Godzilla movie of all time.

Time will obviously and ultimately tell, but there’s no question that Toho’s 33rd Godzilla film, this one from writer/director/VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki, is a frightening and ambitious reimagining of the iconic kaiju. This is a towering, sadistic being in the form of a true force of nature, harkening back to the monster’s earliest horror movie elements. Yet this Godzilla seems to be defined by wanton cruelty and pleasure in his destruction. Godzilla Minus One covers a lot of ground in its extraordinary story, leaving you with more to haunt and compel your thoughts than perhaps any Godzilla movie to date.

– Gabriel Ricard

 

5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Director: James Mangold

As we continue to deal with movies spending far more than they could hope to earn back under even the best of circumstances, something gets lost in the shuffle about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny being a box office bomb: It’s a fantastic action movie, as well as a wonderful, emotional farewell to Harrison Ford’s peerless portrayal of the famed archaeologist, teacher, explorer, and puncher of Nazis.

Supported by excellent performances by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen as the best Indy villain since Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a throwback in every sense of the word. At the same time, with absorbing chase scenes and one of Ford’s best performances of all time, the energy of this stirring franchise conclusion feels as fresh and exciting as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Standing on its own, you can’t ask for a better farewell than Dial of Destiny.

– Gabriel Ricard

 

6. Killers of the Flower Moon

Director: Martin Scorsese

Killers of the Flower Moon is a brutal, horrifying, and astonishing reminder of the cinematic powers director and co-writer Martin Scorsese still possesses as he enters his 8th decade on the planet. Working alongside familiar faces like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, while also collaborating for the first time with such monumental talents as Lily Gladstone and Cara Jade Myers, Killers of the Flower Moon in broad terms concerns the 1920s Osage Nation murders.

Carried out by ruthless, greedy white businessmen and ranchers, Killers of the Flower Moon is unflinching in its depiction of this true story. The film benefits from Scorsese’s experience with crime narratives. Where it differs from anything else he’s ever done to date is in how those crimes are depicted, against a backdrop of a very, very dark love story, with deep, soulful portrayals of the men and women who shaped these times. Killers of the Flower Moon is true epic filmmaking.

– Gabriel Ricard

 

7. May December

Director: Todd Haynes

May December is a fascinating movie about the entertainment we consume and the ethics involved in that. To Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton), this is their real life, but to everyone around them and visiting actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), their story is tabloid fodder that they can’t stop talking about.

It is a film filled with tremendous performances. Moore is fantastic as Gracie – on the surface all Southern charm and sweetness, but underneath that lies a viperish sting of passive aggression. In a movie with powerhouse actresses like Moore and Portman, Melton more than holds his own. His portrayal of Joe is heartbreaking – his meek physicality renders him almost invisible in his own house, as if he’s afraid to take up too much space.

Portman’s performance in this is definitely one of her best. It’s fascinating to see Portman slowly transform into Moore’s Gracie over the course of the film. A particular standout is Portman’s delivery of a monologue as Gracie, which might make your hair stand given how uncanny the portrayal is.

– Natasha Alvar

 

8. M3GAN

Director: Gerard Johnstone

In many ways, 2023 has been the year of A.I. After all, over the past 12 months, pretty much everyone working in creative fields (and non-creative fields, for that matter) have been worried at one point or another about whether some fancy new programme is going to come out and end their careers.

And right at the beginning of the year, M3GAN asked the question of what would happen if A.I ended our very existence, as a lifelike child’s toy gains a mind of its own, and uses that mind to torment animals, take down her creators and kill a whole bunch of people.

Sure, the concept of robots going bad is nothing new, but the wacky script from Akela Cooper and James Wan certainly feels fresh, and the work of director Gerard Johnstone and his team to create a new horror icon undoubtedly pays off, as M3GAN herself is so utterly enjoyable to watch that you can’t wait to see more of her demented antics. An instant classic in the genre.

– George White

 

9. Oppenheimer

Director: Christopher Nolan

“I am become Oscar winner, taker-home of Academy Awards.” If there’s any justice in the world, Cillian Murphy will be uttering this exact sentence on a stage in Hollywood come 10th March 2024; as the lead of Christopher Nolan’s blistering biopic of ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ ‎J. Robert Oppenheimer, Murphy is astounding from start to finish.

So often, Nolan relies on nothing but the Irishman’s gaunt, haunted face to tell his story – abandoning his usual tricks and trademarks – and he steps up to the plate with aplomb. That lecture scene, in which the usually self-assured scientist – who so rarely second-guesses his own brilliance – reckons with the enormity of what he’s done is chilling, and Murphy conveys every bit of complexity without a word of dialogue.

There are countless other fantastic performances in this beast of a biopic, and Nolan himself deserves praise for crafting a layered story that is powerful without being sensationalistic, but it’s the main man Murphy who catapults Oppenheimer to the highest of heights.

– George White

 

10. Past Lives

Director: Celine Song

Nora’s family decide to migrate to America, and so she has to leave the only home she’s ever known behind. She also has to say goodbye to close childhood Hae Sung, a friend she’s always fancied would be her husband. Years later, the pair reconnect when they find each other on Facebook, but separated by continent and a massive time difference, can Nora’s past life truly reconcile with her present?

If you enjoyed Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise trilogy, Past Lives is definitely the film for you. It’s about the people we leave behind, and the what-ifs that surround our lives. A beautiful, poignant movie about first love and choices, Song’s film is a must-watch.

– Natasha Alvar

 

11. Rye Lane

Director: Raine Allen Miller

The rom-com has felt like something of a dying breed in recent years. Yet through Rye Lane, it feels like the genre is back with a vengeance. Taking what has admittedly become a slightly tired genre and injecting it with a modern twist, Raine Allen-Miller’s feature debut fizzes with the charming confidence of a filmmaker in their prime.

In David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, Allen-Miller has discovered two future stars, and they forge the sort of intoxicating chemistry that feels like it’s been absent from the big screen for a long time – and it’s a good job they do, too, as almost every frame of this short, sharp flick centres on their delightful back-and-forth banter.

It would be reductive to compare this to Before Sunrise – they’re both unique in their own right – but it’s impossible not to feel the same consuming sense of joy when watching the pair go toe-to-toe as one does when first walking the streets of Vienna with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Throw in moments of bold humour, a distinct dash of Londonness and one Colin Firth, and you have a proper one-of-a-kind experience.

– George White

 

12. Scream VI

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

If this ends up being the final Scream flick to entertain an audience, it’s one hell of a way to go. Not many franchises continue to improve six movies in, but thanks to the genius of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, two of the most distinctive voices in horror right now, Scream VI does exactly that.

For all its strengths, this series can hardly claim to have been the scariest over the years – yet VI offers so many moments of spine-tingling sadism that it genuinely does get under the skin. Hunting down our protagonists on subways packed with spectators or butchering innocent members of the public in dimly-lit alleyways, there is a real sense of menace to the villain this time round – and the director duo nail every spooky set piece with a delicious sense of style. Also, the aforementioned subway sequence is one of the best-executed horror scenes in recent years.

And in the self-titled Core Four, this franchise has crafted characters that viewers truly care about, with complicated relationships and fully fleshed-out stories. If we never see them again, it’ll be a major shame – but they’ll undoubtedly have bowed out on a high.

– George White

 

13. Somewhere in Queens

Director: Ray Romano

Everybody Loves Raymond star and consistently reliable character actor Ray Romano has delivered a genuinely moving, funny, and surprisingly complex directing debut with Somewhere in Queens. Co-written with Mark Stegemann, with particularly effective, appropriately intimate cinematography by Maceo Bishop, Somewhere in Queens is a family dramedy that trusts the movement of the story and its various threads to an exceptional ensemble, headed by Romano as husband and father of a large Italian American family in Queens, New York. His performance is low-key and consistently amiable, even as Leo makes some very questionable choices in trying to get his high school basketball star son Matthew (Jacob Ward) to a good out-of-state college.

This is what drives much of Somewhere in Queens, which is funny, but unexpectedly moving when it touches on more difficult subjects. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s told with such warmth and depth that it reminds us that mid-budget movies still have a lot to offer audiences.

– Gabriel Ricard

 

14. The Eight Mountains

Director: Charlotte Vandermeersch & Felix van Groeningen

What makes the art of filmmaking so special is that it has the ability to speak to people. It can transport you into other characters’ shoes, sure, but it can also project your own trials and tribulations onto a big screen, in a different language, in a dark room full of other people. And that’s exactly what The Eight Mountains, a touching tale of two friends’ struggles through life, manages to achieve.

From navigating relationships as awkward youths to overcoming professional adversities and personal setbacks in adulthood, this quest for self-discovery from Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch feels so impressively real. It takes everyday challenges, day-to-day situations, and injects them with an artistic flair.

The journey the audience takes with these two flawed, frightened men is exhausting in the most gratifying way, and by the time Daniel Norgren’s ‘Everything You Know Melts Away Like Snow’ plays over the feature’s dramatic climax, you feel like you’ve been through the emotional wringer as much as the characters on the screen. The word “masterpiece” shouldn’t be used lightly, but it’s fully justified here.

– George White

 

15. The Holdovers

Director: Alexander Payne

Director Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers might be the perfect Christmas movie. which is weird because it had a November release. What makes the film one of the year’s best is really the richness of the screenplay. It gives us real characters who have real conversations, and builds a setting that feels distinctly like the 1970s. I always feel that modern films and TV shows have such trouble with authenticity when it comes to different time periods, but Payne’s film manages this effortlessly.

The Holdovers follows three characters who are holding over during the holidays, and they’re all left behind for various reasons. Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is the teacher chosen to remain behind to take care of the students who have to stay, and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) the cafeteria manager has just lost her son in the war, so has no one to go home to for the holidays. Angus (Dominic Sessa) is supposed to spend his holidays with his mom. However, his mom has moved on to a new marriage and family, a family that doesn’t seem to have space for him as she prioritises her honeymoon over her son.

There are no cliche set-ups in Payne’s film. He builds the relationships between these three individuals through their flaws, and allows space for genuine connection. These connections allow them to let go a little of their grief and pain, and move forward to where they need to go. While it’s great to have films that possess towering technical prowess and perfections, Payne’s gem of a film feeds the our movie souls in a deeper, more resonant way. It’s the one film I will certainly revisit every year during Christmas.

– Natasha Alvar

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