For me, 2023 was a wild movie year. It was the year of Barbenheimer, the year of M3GAN, and the year that made superhero movies reevaluate their position in the movie hierarchy. The year featured new movies from some of our greatest living directors, like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, Hayao Miyazaki, Ridley Scott, Yorgos Lanthimos, David Fincher, and more.
And a ton of really great movies came out this year! Of the 78 new movies I saw in 2023, there are so many that I loved; this year’s top 10 list was so difficult to narrow down. So shout out to Poor Things, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, John Wick Chapter 4, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Rye Lane, The Iron Claw, Wonka, No Hard Feelings, Joy Ride and May December for being so great.
And now, here are the 10 movies that (in my opinion) are the best/my favorites of 2023:
- Past Lives
No movie has burrowed into my brain more this year than Past Lives. It’s simultaneously so personal and universal – a story of possibilities, hope, and connection. It’s a very human story that makes you reach back to your past self and understand how you’ve changed and how you’re still the same.
Several movies this year have been led by a trio of stunning performances (shoutout The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, May December), and Past Lives is maybe the best of the bunch. Each of the three main characters feel like they’ve lived full lives, full of wants and needs, hopes and fears. The dynamics between them are funny, sweet, heartbreaking, and real. They’ll break your heart and put it back together. Movies like this make you feel alive.
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
While superhero movies had a rough time in 2023, Across the Spider-Verse – as Gwen Stacey says in its opening moments – does things differently. And the result is a stunning combination of art and storytelling. It’s already been compared to The Empire Strikes Back, which makes sense to me because of the time it takes to deepen our connection to the main characters, the emotional stakes in the action sequences and a shocking ending that leaves a lot of questions to be answered in the final installment.
And on top of all that, it’s a coming-of-age story, it’s a multiverse story, it asks questions about fate and destiny, and has Spider-Cat.
- The Boy and the Heron
Hayao Miyazaki is truly one of the great master filmmakers living today. For more than four decades, he has blessed us with some of the most gorgeously animated visuals ever put on screen. Every frame is a work of art and he injects more heart and soul into his films than seems possible. His latest (and potentially last) movie, The Boy and the Heron, falls right in line with his previous work.
The story follows a young boy grieving the loss of his mother and adapting to a new home. What follows is a journey through grief, loss, growing up, moving on and letting go. There’s a feeling you can only get from watching a Miyazaki movie, one that’s difficult to describe, but it’s somehow joyful and melancholic, heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
And finally, this has my absolute favorite score of the year. I have not stopped listening to it since I saw the movie; it’s truly sensational.
- Barbie
Perhaps no movie since Avengers: Endgame has reached the pinnacle of cultural phenomenon as Barbie has this year. People planned their day around going to see the movie, they dressed up, they turned it into a meme (shoutout Barbenheimer), they made it an event. Luckily, Barbie is more than just a big studio blockbuster trying to cash in on a recognizable brand (although it definitely is that too). Director and co-writer Greta Gerwig gives a doll a soul in Barbie, infusing her journey with warmth, innocence, and joy, while also tackling the Patriarchy and what it means to exist as a woman in the world.
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are like two supernovas at the center of this movie, both somehow turning iconic toys into iconic characters. Robbie takes Barbie on a journey of self-discovery, seeing how messed up our world can be and still finding the beauty in it. And Gosling gets the showier role, complete with a full-on musical number that’s been stuck in my head for six months.
Barbie is something special, and I’m grateful we can all find ways to access our Kenergy.
- Oppenheimer
The other side of the Barbenheimer coin, Oppenheimer is another incredible feat of filmmaking and easily one of Christopher Nolan’s best. The technical aspects of the movie are astonishing – from the editing to the cinematography to the production design to the score to the effects – but the entire movie sits on Cillian Murphy’s shoulders, and you can’t take your eyes off him. He’s surrounded by a vast and talented supporting cast, including Robert Downey Jr., who seems to relish in showing us what he’s truly capable of outside of Tony Stark’s armor.
The creation of the atomic bomb is one of the biggest turning points of the 20th century and seeing that moment from Oppenheimer’s eyes and the way his excitement and interest in the project turns to horror and guilt is fascinating. The entire Trinity Test sequence is breathtaking, both from a technical perspective and from the weight that settles on top of you knowing what this creation will do.
- Asteroid City
It’s easy to take Wes Anderson for granted. Every time a new movie of his comes out, you know you’re going to get incredible production design, delightful colors, a very specific style of humor, layers of storytelling, and an underlying sadness to many of the characters. The thing is, he’s so freaking good at what he does.
Asteroid City is a lot of things – part sci-fi, part western, part coming-of-age, and part grief drama. And it’s certainly one of Anderson’s best, reminding us all how we search for connection, especially in our grief and loneliness, be it from the stars or from right next door.
- Bottoms
The funniest movie of the year by far, Bottoms brings back the raunchy teen comedy in full force. Packed wall-to-wall with a smart and pointed sense of humor, it feels fresh but also fits into a lineage of teen comedies that have come before. The talented young cast is led by Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri and they’re all fantastic (Edebiri in particular truly steals the show).
The plot revolves a high school fight club, secret crushes, explosions, homoerotic football players, and Marshawn Lynch. It’s quite a time and one of the wildest rides of the year.
- The Holdovers
Set at a New England boarding school in the 1970s over the Christmas holiday, The Holdovers brings together three disparate people – a curmudgeonly professor, a lonely student, and the school’s grieving head cook – and allows them to learn from each other, grown and heal from their brokenness. It’s a simple story but packed with heart and humor.
Paul Giamatti expertly leads the movie and is flanked by two sensational performances. Da’Vine Joy Randolph is so understated in her performance but draws you in immediately to her grief and her soul. And Dominic Sessa delivers truly one of the greatest debut performances I’ve ever seen. He’s so electric and animated, going toe-to-toe with Giamatti in every scene. You’ll come away grateful for the time you spend with these characters and still wishing you had more.
- Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon is a movie that tells you who the villains are right at the start, and you spend the entire three and a half hours watching them in horror as they carry out their evil deeds so easily. The movie tells the true story of the Osage murders, atrocities against an indigenous people by white men who schemed to take their land and their wealth.
Much has been said about the movie’s runtime, and while you do feel it at some points, it allows you to immerse yourself in this world and feel the emotional impact of each horrific act. The movie also hangs itself on three powerhouse performances – Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio playing roles unlike anything I’ve seen them in before, and Lily Gladstone commanding every scene she’s in, drawing you in with a stoicism and quiet rage in her eyes.
It’s a heavy story for sure, but an important chapter of history beautifully told by the legendary Martin Scorsese.
- Godzilla Minus One
Produced and released by Toho, the Japanese studio that originally created Godzilla back in the 1950s, Godzilla Minus One gives us a totally different perspective on the monster than what we’ve seen from the recent US productions.
The movie does two things that set it apart and make it something special. First, this Godzilla is truly terrifying. There’s very little characterization or backstory to the monster at all, he’s just an unyielding force of nature that must be stopped. There’s a sequence where Godzilla attacks part of a city that is jaw dropping in its devastation. And Godzilla has never looked better, either. The visual effects to create the kaiju are some of the best I’ve seen in years.
Secondly, the movie does an incredible job of developing its human characters and investing the audience in their story. Setting the movie in the aftermath of World War II provides a fascinating metaphor to examine the cost of war, the impact on the Japanese people, the morality of kamikaze pilots, and rebuilding. It’s a spectacle that has a soul.
Movies with Mitchell 