Top 10 Movies of 2023

We are so back!

5 min readJan 12, 2024

We are so back! No wait, movies are over. Nope, we are so back!

This year was a weird one. People seem over the cinematic experience. They’ve recreated the movie theater at home where they can also use their phone during the boring parts.

Then culturally shifting moments like Barbenheimer come along to shatter what I think movies are capable of. My precious cinema, front and center where it belongs in the monoculture!!

Going to the movie theater is a gift to yourself of focus. In our hyper-distracted world it’s an opportunity to force yourself to focus for two, sometimes three, and good lord almost four hours.

Honorable Mentions: Wonka, Beau is Afraid, Air

10 — Asteroid City

Nobody does it like Wes. The designs of his movies have layer and layer of thought and meticulous intention. This film follows a cast of characters in forced quarantine who are caught in the middle of knowing where they are and what to do next.

9 — The Iron Claw

It’s a tough pill to swallow. The Iron Claw follows the rise and tragic fall of the Von Erich family of wrestlers. It’s a battle of knowing what not to cut because the story is so dense. The first half had me pumping my fist. It captured a time and a place with great attention and care. While it didn’t land the plane for me I loved the ride.

8 — Poor Things

Emma Stone is incredible. But the true stars of Poor Things are the production design and cinematography. It’s a stunning image to behold. It’s like a Salvator Dali painting that keeps you surprised with each new location.

7 — The Killer

Bucket hats have never looked better. Mopeds have never gone faster. The Smiths have never sounded better. That’s all I need to say.

6 — Suzume

Suzume is a slap in the face to the Disney corporation. Its animation is rapturous and goes both small scale and oh so large and lavish. Suzume is a magical realism parable that marries japanese myth with a heartwarming love story at its center.

5 — Past Lives

You can’t watch this movie and not think of the many ways your life could have been different. Past Lives is a deeply personal film that examines what we leave behind when we remake ourselves into adults.

4 — Oppenheimer

The scene transitions and time jumps are masterful. It moves fast despite being mostly men talking to each other about science shit. Once it ratchets up the tension, it delivers before a third act that adds layers upon the morality and fallout of what was achieved.

3 — The Holdovers

Three characters fully realized rendered with all their warts and so much love. Our media landscape feels so devoid of time and place that it’s so refreshing to get a period piece that transports you with its music and location.

2 — Killers of the Flower Moon

My favorite performances of the year telling a story on a grand scale. It’s the story of America zoomed in on flawed characters who have greed, hatred, and yes love in their heart. The coda of the film is a meta-commentary on who tells our stories and master stroke from Scorsese.

1 — Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

I did not expect the sequel to be a Spider-Gwen movie, but what a brilliant choice. “As a father to a daughter, and son to a mother,” it hit me harder than anything else. This captures what makes superhero stories great: puts a magnifying glass to the emotions of its players and ratcheting their stakes up to an insane degree. But the central nuggets of love, honesty, and being accepted is all anyone wants.

Each panel of this film can be freeze-framed and hung in an art museum. Its creativity at folding the story of the first film onto itself is absolutely brilliant. And it somehow introduces a whole new cast of characters that quickly become fan-favs with a voice cast that sells it all.

Masterful.

For more movie reviews, check out my Letterboxd page to see what I am watching now.

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Thanks for reading :)