It's December, so by the laws of the internet, we are required to put together a list of our Top 10 movies of 2023. OK, we actually really love getting to look back at everything we watched this year and, often painstakingly, narrowing down our favorites (be sure to check out our best TV shows of 2023 list is coming in the near future).
There was a lot to love at the movies in 2023, from the movies that came out of the Sundance Film Festival (the first in-person fest since 2020) and became hits to the cultural event that was Barbenheimer to new movies from legends like Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Nicole Holofcener and more.
The What to Watch team of movie experts (Michael Balderston, Jason Best, Freda Cooper and Martin Shore) put our brains together to come up with the list that you'll find below. But of course there were plenty of movies that we loved this year that didn't make the final cut. Still, they deserve a nod, so please enjoy our honorable mentions from this year's slate (in alphabetical order):
All of Us Strangers; America Fiction; Anselm; A Thousand and One; Dream Scenario; Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves; Fallen Leaves; The Killer; Maestro; Passages; Perfect Days; Rye Lane; Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie; Theater Camp; Wonka.
Now, without further ado, let's count down What to Watch's Top 10 movies of 2023, ranked from 10 to our number one movie of the year:
10. Barbie
It's a Barbie world in 2023, as Margot Robbie's movie delivered the top slot at the box office. But there is more to Barbie than the money it pulled in — director Greta Gerwig turned the plastic doll with numerous jobs into a hysterical, colorful romp that also spoke directly to prescient issues like the everyday struggles that women have to go through, including toxic masculinity, giving that topic a great dressing down. The ensemble of all the different Barbies and Kens (and don't forget Alan!) is great, but Robbie and Ryan Gosling are incredible in bringing these iconic figures to life. Honestly, there was no reason to believe that a Barbie movie was going to be this good, so a round of applause for Gerwig, Robbie and company for exceeding all expectations for a movie that became a cultural phenomenon.
9. Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese's 1920s crime epic Killers of the Flower Moon is as entertaining as you'd expect from the director who gave us Goodfellas, The Departed and Mean Streets. It was also a lot of fun seeing him work with his two most recognized leading men in Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro (who are both great in the movie). However, what truly makes Killers of the Flower Moon stand out is how Scorsese, amidst keeping us entertained, also reminds us of a black spot in US history — the indiscriminate killings of Native Americans by white people for their own gain — that is too often overlooked. This is embodied by a breakthrough performance by Lily Gladstone. Scorsese continues to show why he is arguably our greatest working director with another impeccable outing.
8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Apologies to Tom Holland and the MCU, but the best iteration of Spider-Man has come in the animated masterpieces that are the Spider-Verse movies. After blowing us away with its style and story of Miles Morales taking up the Spider-Man mantle in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the sequel strove to raise the bar. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse weaves in more animation styles, bigger set pieces and even more Spider-people, all while still managing to tell a deeply affecting story. Across the Spider-Verse also does something incredibly difficult: it pulls off being part one of a story, which will be concluded in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, while still being a satisfying story in its own right. There's no superhero fatigue with this franchise.
7. John Wick: Chapter 4
Speaking of superheroes, is Keanu Reeves' John Wick one at this point? Based on the amount of punishment he took in John Wick: Chapter 4 and kept getting back up, the argument is definitely there. But we enjoyed just about every second of the latest entry from the world's greatest assassin. After the disappointment that was John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, Chapter 4 came back with a vengeance and wowed us with incredible actions sequences (the Osaka hotel, the overhead shotgun shootout, the Paris steps) and great new characters played by Bill Skarsgård and Donnie Yen. There may not have been a better time at the movies this year for action fans than with John Wick.
6. Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos is a weird filmmaker, and thank goodness for that. After critically-acclaimed movies like Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Favourite, Lanthimos and his The Favourite star Emma Stone reunited and turned things up to 11 with Poor Things. Based on Alasdair Gray's novel of the same name, Poor Things tells the Frankenstein-like story of Bella Baxter, however without the angry villagers. Instead, Bella gets to explore the world anew, which allowed Lanthimos to really go for it with things like production design and a bold script by Tony McNamara. But Stone is the spark of life for Bella and the movie as a whole, brilliantly portraying Bella's development. Poor Things is a funny, wild and an enlightening view of the world.
5. The Zone of Interest
It had been 10 years since Jonathan Glazer last released a movie (brilliant sci-fi film Under the Skin), but the wait was worth it with The Zone of Interest. Set at Auschwitz during World War Two, The Zone of Interest is different from any other movie on the Holocaust, never fully engaging with the horrors but keeping them on the periphery as we watch the story of a German family that is benefiting from the Nazi mass murder of the Jewish people. Despite that, The Zone of Interest may be one of the most gut-wrenching experiences of the year. We as an audience know what is happening on the other side of the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig's (Sandra Hüller) idyllic garden, with their infuriating indifference hammered home by the buildings of the camp lingering in the background and its harrowing sounds breaking through (the sound design of the movie is truly incredible). The Zone of Interest is truly a masterwork from Glazer.
4. Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet's courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall burst onto the scene when it won the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's top prize. After watching it for ourselves, we can unequivocally say the honor was well deserved. Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting watch. At the center of the story is the question of whether or not a man's death was a suicide or if he was murdered by his wife (Sandra Hüller, again). The legal aspect is fascinating in its own right, as the audience tries to figure out what really happened when all we have to go on is the evidence presented in the court, which leaves much up for interpretation. But what truly makes this movie incredible are the relationship dynamics laid bare: first between the wife and her husband, but then also what happens between Hüller's character and her son (Milo Machado Garner), who begins to question his mother. It is a a gripping and thrilling experience.
3. Past Lives
There was no better debut in 2023 than from writer/director Celine Song, whose Past Lives is one of the most beautifully intimate movies about love and life that we've seen in a long time. Based loosely on her own experiences, Song's movie focuses on a woman, Nora (Greta Lee), who emigrated from South Korea to North America when she was young. Now married, Nora reconnects with her childhood friend from South Korea, with thoughts of the life that could have been ever present. Past Lives is not flashy, but there is also not a false note in the movie from Song's script or direction to the performances of Lee and her co-stars (Teo Yoo, John Magaro). There is a magic quality to the movie that is so rare we couldn't possibly leave it off of our end-of-year list.
2. The Holdovers
Hollywood in the 1970s is one of the most revered eras in movie history, as for a brief time directors took the reins from studios and delivered honest, character-driven movies that also served as crowd pleasers. Alexander Payne's The Holdovers is not only an ode to that era, it would fit right amongst many of that decade's best. From a brilliant script written by David Hemingson, The Holdovers sees a misanthropic professor (Paul Gimatti) at a boarding school stuck babysitting a rebellious student (Dominic Sessa) with the school's grieving head chef (Da'Vine Joy Randolph). The trio are brilliant, perfectly balancing the characters emotional arcs with laugh-out loud humor. Though 50 years have passed since that exquisite moment in time for Hollywood, The Holdovers reminds us the ability to make these kinds of movies is still present and their stories are truly timeless.
1. Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan doesn't do small. While most of his movies have either involved superheroes (The Dark Knight trilogy), high-concept action ideas (Inception, Tenet) or intense battle scenes (Dunkirk), even a biopic about one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century was delivered in epic style. Oppenheimer is Nolan's magnum opus, combining his incredible craftsmanship with a message that truly challenges the world outside the cineplex. From the ensemble (including stellar performances by Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr.) to the ability to make a three hour movie about the creation of the atom bomb race along at a gripping pace, Nolan put together a billion dollar hit like no other. There was no experience like seeing Oppenheimer on the big screen this year (and that's not even factoring in the Barbenheimer component of it), which is why we have it as our number one movie of 2023.
