In 2022, I only saw around 50 new film releases, and at the time, that felt like a lot. I mean, let’s be real, that is a lot. But in 2023, I elevated my game. Much like LeBron joining the Heat or Randy Moss in 2007, I hit a new level. This year I’ve seen 125 new releases from shorts and comedy specials to documentaries and feature films. While it would have been easier to rank my top ten or even top 25, I opted to just rank every 2023 movie that I saw. So, I’d like to apologize in advance to our editor Luke Owens, but here is my full ranking of every 2023 release I’ve seen this year.
125. Dog Gone (Stephen Herek)
I hope that Rob Lowe’s family has been returned to him safely because there’s no way he would have starred in a movie this bad if his families lives weren’t at stake. It’s a bad script, unfunny college tropes, and some of the worst acting performances I’ve ever seen. Package all of that with a storyline that felt like it had no stakes and you have the worst movie of 2023.
124. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (Rhys Frake-Waterfield)
It was announced when Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey came out that there would be a sequel to it, and it feels like that could be will be worse than the original, which is hard to believe. No ones asked for this. And while film history is filmed with movies that no one’s asked for, some of them work. But this didn’t work. It’s not scary, coherent, or even palatable by any stretch of the imagination.
123. Bama Rush (Rachel Fleit)
No documentary has been as self serving as Rachel Fleit’s Bama Rush. First off, it’s nowhere near as gossipy as I anticipated it being which was disappointing. But on top of that, it’s boring. Had this documentary been shrunk down to a three minute Tik Tok where a girl holds a mic to her mouth and spews the information, it would have been better. I didn’t need an hour and a half of vapid dreck.
122. Your Place or Mine (Aline Brosh McKenna)
The chemistry between Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon in Your Place or Mine was nonexistent. In fact, there was more chemistry between myself and the White Claw that I was drinking while watching this than Kutcher and Witherspoon. It is difficult to make a good romantic comedy, but I find it harder to make a romantic comedy that’s as bad as Your Place or Mine.
121.True Spirit (Sarah Spillane)
There’s certain movies that you watch and probably shouldn’t feel visceral hate towards. True Spirit is one of those movies. I hate everything about. The feel good elements were cheap, and it feels awful to say, but I hated every character. Each and everyone of them were annoying. Maybe I saw this on a bad day, but I feel angry when I think about every aspect of True Spirit.
120. Murder Mystery 2 (Jeremy Garelick)
The first Murder Mystery film wasn’t Seven Samurai, but it was fine. Decently funny, but forgettable. Then, we got Murder Mystery 2 which feels almost as unneeded as the upcoming sequel to Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. It tries to be a quirkier version of Rian Johnsons Knives Out films, but it’s not funnier and is far from being better.
119. Hypnotic (Robert Rodriguez)
I’d like you to imagine if Inside Man and Memento had a child, but during the time that that child was being carried, the mother drank and smoked copiously. Then, when the baby was born, it was dropped on its head a few times. That is what Hypnotic would be. Overly confusing drivel with a weak lead performance from Ben Affleck made for a film that was mockable beyond belief.
118. We Have a Ghost (Christopher Landon)
For the love of God, can David Harbour be in a project that’s not an utter piece of garbage? Since 2014, he hasn’t been in a good movie. We Have a Ghost just becomes another tally on the board of bad movies that Harbour has starred in since then. There were a few more laughs than Murder Mystery 2, which translates to there was only one laugh.
117. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (David F. Sandberg)
In a similar sense to Murder Mystery 2, I tolerated the first Shazam! film. It was nothing spectacular. In fact, it was forgettable, but it was fine. Then, we got another dreaded sequel that again, no one asked for. Tacky dialogue and the characters being unlikable led to me shunning this film from the start and turned my first and only watch of it into a hate watch.
116. In His Shadow (Marc Fouchard)
Marc Fouchard’s French crime drama was alright. To be honest, I had forgotten that I watched it because I did so early in 2023. That, and it left a next to nothing impression on me. There’s decent action sequences and an okay plot, but besides that, In His Shadow takes no risks and doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen in a film like this.
115. Matt Rife: Natural Selection (Erik Griffin)
I fucking hate Tik Tok for the creation of Matt Rife. He’s an unfunny comedian that looks like he could chew through an entire hubcap on a car. But because he’s moderately handsome and gained acclaim on Tik Tok, Netflix gave him an hour long special where he told jokes that lacked two important things — originality and a good punch line.
114. The Mother (Niki Caro)
It does amaze me that year after year, we see action thrillers with established stars who have never been in a true action thriller film and it flops. This year’s installment of that was the Jennifer Lopez starring film, The Mother. I don’t have much to say about the movie other than the fact that it’s bad. Really, really bad on so many levels from the tawdry action scenes to Lopez giving a half-hearted performance.
113. Marlowe (Neil Jordan)
Marlowe is another film from 2023 that makes me ponder the motives of Hollywood executives. There’s no way an executive producer saw Marlowe and said that this was good to go for a full-scale theatrical run because for an hour and forty minutes, we see Liam Neeson ask other characters if they know who a different person is. That’s it. Oh, I almost forgot about the two fight sequences where Neeson shows his age BIG TIME.
112. Chevalier (Stephen Williams)
Had 2023 not been filled with such Oscar baiting schlock, Chevalier would have taken the cake as the biggest piece of Oscar baiting junk in 2023. It’s an alright movie that tries to bill itself as a more racially provocative film than it is and once you pierce that thin layer of plastic plot, you’re left with a whole lot of nothing.
111. Run Rabbit Run (Daina Reid)
Daina Reid did the near impossible. She casted an actress who had tons of momentum, Sarah Snook, and made a bland thriller that made me fall asleep not once, but twice while watching it. After rewinding a few times, I came to the consensus that I’d rather be playing GTA 5 than watching Sarah Snook tell her daughter “no don’t do that” for an extra 30 minutes.
110. A Haunting in Venice (Kenneth Branagh)
I’m not sure what I expected going into A Haunting in Venice. I didn’t like Murder on the Orient Express or Death on the Nile, so that should’ve been a precursor to knowing I’d not like A Haunting in Venice, yet I still felt let down. It’s upsetting because I’m a fan of Kenneth Branagh and like Michelle Yeoh very much, but at no point did I feel engaged with Hercule Poirot coming out of retirement.
109. Fool’s Paradise (Charlie Day)
Easily, one of the biggest let downs of 2023 had to be Charlie Days directorial debut, Fool’s Paradise. To see how funny Day is on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and then watching a film that he wrote and directed being void of any humor was difficult. I don’t want to sit here and lambaste Charlie Day, but the characters are vapid and I didn’t laugh once when I saw it in theaters.
108. Red, White & Royal Blue (Matthew López)
The reality TV loving crowd found Red, White & Royal Blue on Amazon Prime and treated it like a neater and more cute version of Brokeback Mountain for a week, when in reality, it’s a dull romantic comedy that uses a homosexual relationship as the vehicle to make a “unique” romantic comedy. There’s one or two laughs that are more like chuckles, but besides that, I found there to be little to no chemistry between Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine.
107. You People (Kenya Barris)
In the same camp that Fool’s Paradise is in, I was let down immensely by You People. Naturally, when you see a cast comprised of Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, you’re expecting for the movie to make you laugh. That wasn’t the case really ever. It’s a pathetic attempt to spin the classic film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? and made me feel ill watching the cast spit out racially-charged, PG punchlines.
106. Sweetwater (Martin Guigui)
With a lot of films I’ve already gone over on this list, I’ve bashed them for a number of reasons. In the case of Sweetwater, my biggest gripe is that this is a slog to get through. It’s an interesting and important story, but I couldn’t be bothered by it as I was just so disengaged by Martin Guigui’s direction.
105. Luther: The Fallen Sun (Jamie Payne)
Luther: The Fallen Sun is a fine thriller with decent performances by Idris Elba and Andy Serkis, but it’s too long. With a run time north of two hours, I found myself in a constant state of checking my watch and pulling up the time bar on Netflix to see when this would conclude. Spoiler alert: it was never soon enough.
104. Paint (Brit McAdams)
If you’re going into Paint with the expectation to see a Bob Ross biopic, I have to break some news to you. This isn’t a Bob Ross biopic. It’s more like a Bob Ross reimagining if he wasn’t successful on a grand scale, but only in Vermont which is disappointing. I do think Owen Wilson was alright in this role, but my immediate expectations of this being about Bob Ross and finding out it wasn’t really let me down.
103. Inside (Vasilis Katsoupis)
As I compiled this list, I toiled over where to put Inside. It’s not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. The plot is ridiculous and would have worked far better as a short film, but I do have to give Willem Dafoe a lot of credit for his performance. To be able to act on the big screen for over an hour and a half all by yourself is impressive. He’s manic in a controlled manner, even when he’s put in ridiculously written situations.
102. Extraction 2 (Sam Hargrave)
Maybe I should have Extraction 2 higher on this list, but I didn’t love it in my initial viewing. Yes, the one take fight sequence was jaw dropping, but outside of that, this felt like a run of the mill action flick with a handsome brute in the lead. The first Extraction film was good. This left a lot to be desired. Let’s hope there won’t be an Extraction 3.
101. Rustin (George C. Wolfe)
I mentioned earlier how Chevalier was an Oscar bait movie. Well, if you’d like a film that has an even more Oscar-baiting feel to it, watch Rustin. Colman Domingo is fantastic in the lead, but this is a ridiculous biopic that wants to let you know more about Bayard Rustin being gay and African American than his actual advocacy. It’s History Channel drivel for people who haven’t seen Malcolm X.
100. Flamin’ Hot (Eva Longoria)
Is it bad to say I didn’t hate this as much as I probably should have? Don’t get me wrong, I thought the majority of it was bad, but there was an inkling of charm that made me smirk and chuckle from time-to-time when watching Jesse Garcia portraying Richard Montañez. I do think Flamin’ Hot was doomed from the start for two reasons. First, it’s a bad script about a premise that not many people care about. Second, 2023 has been a loaded year of biopics, so Flamin’ Hot will ultimately be forgotten about in the grand scheme of biopic films.
99. Strange Way of Life (Pedro Almodóvar)
It physically pains me to put Strange Way of Life this low because I have so much respect for Pedro Almodóvar as a filmmaker. The Skin I Live In and All About My Mother are brilliant works of Spanish cinema, but when Almodóvar attempts to cross over to the world of American westerns, he flops. I don’t mean to reference Brokeback Mountain twice in one blog, but it’s as if Almodóvar got his script from Chat GPT after asking the AI generated machine to write Brokeback Mountain from a 13 year-olds perspective. “Look, they’re gay and they’re drinking wine and having sex on the ranch.“
98. Leave the World Behind (Sam Esmail)
I appreciate Sam Esmail letting me, once again, know that AI is bad, but could he have at least done it in a way that didn’t make me want to claw my eyes out? The first hour of this was dreadful, but it’s not all Esmail’s fault. He assembled a crew of veteran actors and one of them, Mahershala Ali, acted circles around Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon. It was embarrassing to see Roberts, Hawke and Bacon look like amateurs at this stage of their careers.
97. Blue Beetle (Ángel Manuel Soto)
When you consider how bad the DC universe has been, Blue Beetle is serviceable. There’s good fight scenes that were made more enjoyable when I saw it in theaters, but the dialogue, like most superhero movies, was abysmal. On top of it being abysmal, it was predictable. You could telegraph when George Lopez would be “whacky” or when Adriana Barraza would make a tacky joke about their heritage. That got old quick.
96. 80 for Brady (Kyle Marvin)
On the same day I watched You People, I went to an early screening of 80 for Brady. Compared to You People, 80 for Brady felt like I watched Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. It’s moons better than it should be. The quartet of veteran actresses were cute together and while watching, I could only think about the fact that I would’ve gone to see this with my late grandmother and how she would have loved it.
95. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
Quite possibly the film that disappointed me the most in 2023 was Showing Up directed by Kelly Reichardt. I think Reichardt is a terrific director. Just look at films like First Cow or Wendy and Lucy. They’re brilliant. And because of that, I built up large expectations for Showing Up, and when the final credits rolled, I was let down. I loved Michelle Williams and Hong Chau and even André 3000, but the plot felt stagnant. At no point did I think the needle moved in a positive manner. Maybe I need to rewatch it.
94. The Marvels (Nia DaCosta)
Look, it’s not as terrible as critics want you to believe, but by no stretch of the imagination is The Marvels good. There’s a clear disconnect of chemistry between the trio of Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, but I guess the chemistry doesn’t need to be top-notch in a superhero movie the way it needs to be in a romantic comedy. I did laugh a few times at the cats with tentacle tongues, but that was the crux of my enjoyment.
93. Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason)
The lowest ranked documentary on my 2023 list is Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, but there were really no great documentaries this year. Many were toothless and lacked conviction. This falls in that category. And to be completely honest, this felt like more of a reality television show to parade around these rich hicks from the south rather than tell a legit story of the case at hand.
92. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Peyton Reed)
A lot like The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isn’t as bad as people want to make you think it is, but it’s not good. It’s another installment of this woeful era of MCU dreck. I thought there were decent action sequences, but the imagine that’s been engrained in my brain like cattle prod used for branding is the M.O.D.O.K. head. That was one of the true low moments of 2023 film.
91. Plane (Jean-François Richet)
When you see an action film starring Gerard Butler, you can’t have super high expectations. It’s just common sense that you don’t get overly hyped about it. Seeing that that was my thought process here, I mildly enjoyed Plane. It’s implausible and over-the-top in almost every scene, but there is a part of every man who yearns for a cheesy action flick that they could envision themselves as the lead actor.
90. The Boogeyman (Rob Savage)
I saw The Boogeyman hungover on a Sunday afternoon, and if you gave me the option to sit in a room with screaming kids while hungover or I had to rewatch The Boogeyman, I’d pick the second option. It’s not all bad, but it’s predictable. Not even predictable, but more safe. It’s as if Rob Savage read Directing Horror for Dummies and used every trope from jump scares to the power going out to craft a mediocre Stephen King adaptation.
89. No One Will Save You (Brian Duffield)
No One Will Save You split the horror crowd right now the middle. A lot of people liked its stoic style of negating dialogue while others, like myself, didn’t connect with it. The lack of dialogue and human interaction does create tension, but I do need someone to talk at some point. When you couple that with a script that makes you ponder more than you’re told, then you feel somewhat confused and frustrated.
88. In the Valley of the Moon (Luca Pizzoleo)
Similar to Matt Rife getting a Netflix special due to his Tik Tok success, I watched In the Valley of the Moon due to Luca Pizzoleo’s presence on the app. Seeing that he’s just starting out as a director and has a few projects, this was okay. It looks really good, but the plot is stale. I think he prioritized the cinematography of In the Valley of the Moon and didn’t think twice about his script that felt like any generic crime or mafia drama we’ve seen.
87. Scream VI (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett)
Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Scream franchise, but I thought this was a fine horror film. It’s definitely far-fetched in moments, especially when you see who’s occupying the Scream mask in this rendition, but there’s solid suspense and believable chemistry amongst the cast. At the end of the day, that’s all you can really ask for.
86. Bullies of Baltimore (Ken Rodgers, Jason Weber)
I’m a massive fan of 30 for 30 documentaries, so when I saw that one about the Ravens defense from the early 2000s was coming out, I was pumped. Then, I saw it and felt sort of misled. Bullies of Baltimore was more of a clip show about the Ravens defense with limited interviews. Not what I expected, and while it was awesome to watch the greatest defense of all-time play, I wanted more from it.
85. House Party (Calmatic)
A classic plot of doing something you’re not supposed to be doing and getting caught was spun in a funny way by Calmatic. We’ve seen the storyline of people throwing a party when they shouldn’t, whether it’s Risky Business or Project X, but I thought that using a celebrities house was a refreshing twist to that trope. It’s not overly funny, but there’s decent one liners from Jacob Latimore and Tosin Cole that make for a few laughs.
84. Renfield (Chris McKay)
As the years have gone on and I’ve delved further into film Twitter, which can be an insufferable haven of geeks talking about Akira Kurosawa, I saw that a recurring complaint was when people said they liked a movie because it was “fun“. Personally, I think there’s no issue with that. That’s how I feel about Renfield. It’s a ridiculous premise with over-the-top action sequences, but I had fun watching it. How could you not — it is Nicolas Cage playing a vampire.
83. Untold: Swamp Kings (Katharine English)
When my friends and I saw that a documentary about the Florida Gators was coming out, we were amped. We wanted to learn about Aaron Hernandez and the Pouncey’s illegal activities in Gainesville, or Urban Meyer being a sleeze-ball all while Tim Tebow was steering the ship. Katharine English gave us none of that. Oh great, we learned that they did midnight lifts and that the team was really good. Thanks.
82. Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song (Oliver Murray)
The only reason I have this as high as I do is because it was cool to see Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney performing together. Other than that, the song absolutely blows. I’ve never fancied myself as a big fan of The Beatles, but this was just an insufferable excuse for a cash grab. I would have much rather listened to Yoko Ono scream. That’s music.
81. Sound of Freedom (Alejandro Gómez Monteverde)
When I originally wrote about Sound of Freedom, I mentioned that a movie can be bad but also convey an important message. That’s what we get with Sound of Freedom. It’s important to shine a light on the trafficking of sexual abuse victims, especially children, but Sound of Freedom became more like a Taken film than an exploitation of those abusing children.
80. Missing (Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick)
If 2023 taught me anything, it’s that the start of the year is never packed with good movies. There are serviceable movies that would be killer on streaming or cable, but never ones that’ll win Academy Awards. That’s how I feel about Missing. It’s a fine thriller that does have plausible twists to it which make you feel engaged. I’ll probably never rewatch it, but Storm Reid was good in her role as June Allen utilizing technology to find her mom.
79. Sanctuary (Zachary Wigon)
Sanctuary was an ambitious and original take on a power-struggle thriller from Zachary Wigon that just didn’t fully click for me. With their being a sexual tension looming in the air, I wanted the spark between Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott to be better, and because I felt them not being on the same page, I couldn’t really get into it. Again, it was refreshing to see a new idea get made. It simply wasn’t my cup of tea.
78. M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone)
I like to think that M3GAN was an experiment from Universal Pictures to see how much Tik Tok slop they could pack into a movie for the younger generation to still find palatable. Apparently they found the sweet spot because the latter half of Gen Z loved it. Overall, it was fine. Not really a horror movie, but more of a doomsday AI project on a micro level. The sequel is in production and I said it with Murder Mystery 2 and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, but not everything needs a sequel.
77. Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Steven Soderbergh)
I went on a bit of a Soderbergh kick this year and realized that, while he maybe the hardest working man in Hollywood, he doesn’t always create quality projects. He boldly approaches film making with the quantity over quality mindset. Magic Mike’s Last Dance is yet another example of that. He veers off the path of what the original Magic Mike films were and goes from a film about a male stripper that has emotion to a Step It Up spinoff that left you wanting more, even though Selma Hayek is a rocket in it.
76. The Creator (Gareth Edwards)
Even with a goosebump inducing Radiohead needle drop, Gareth Edwards’The Creator was a repetitious flop. It became a mundane thriller that preached the negatives of artificial intelligence in an unoriginal way, which is unfortunate because I wanted to like this a lot. Coming from a director who directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie I quite enjoy, I thought we’d see better battle scenes and a more coherent narrative. We did not get either of those things. But we did get a Radiohead needle drop, did I mention that?
75. Saltburn (Emerald Fennell)
There’s two movies I’ve soured on immensely since seeing them this year. One of them is Beau Is Afraid, which we’ll get to. The other is Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Her writing borders on erotic fan fiction of having Barry Keoghan play a bi-sexual deviant that does “outrageous” acts like drinking bath water and smearing period blood like he’s fucking Rambo. It’s shallow and derivative of great films like The Talented Mr. Ripley and Get Out, but takes the worst parts of them to create Saltburn. The only reason it’s not lower is I can’t penalize Barry Keoghan, Rosamund Pike, and Jacob Elordi for Fennell being a horny and empty person.
74. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Francis Lawrence)
Had The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ended after Coriolanus Snow gets sent to the army, this’d be a four or four and a half star movie. But it didn’t end there. Unfortunately, Francis Lawrence directed an additional hour that’s filled with fake endings and useless dialogue. I loved every scene in the arena along with Coriolanus bonding with Lucy, but the more we got, the less I enjoyed it.
73. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg)
Most of the time, nepotism babies in the same industry as their parent suck (CC: Maya Hawke). The jury is still out on Brandon Cronenberg, but Infinity Pool showed sparks of greatness, especially the sex scene that’s laminated by vibrant water colors. That was pretty brilliant. It took a while for the story to get rolling, but once it did, we saw an intense battle of reality that was led by Mia Goth giving a typical stellar performance.
72. White Men Can’t Jump (Calmatic)
I liked the White Men Can’t Jump remake more than the average person. Sue me! I know Jack Harlow isn’t a good actor and the same can be said about Sinqua Walls, but they had really great accord with one another which made this funnier than I anticipated. In all sincerity, I think I have it higher than movies like Showing Up and Infinity Pool because I had no expectations for it. When the bar is on the ground, just getting over it is a pleasant surprise.
71. Nimona (Troy Quane, Nick Bruno)
The yin and yang of my list is that I have films not many people liked higher than they probably should be along with films a lot of people liked lower than they probably should be. White Men Can’t Jump is probably too high and people will tell me that Nimona is too low. Again, sue me! I thought that Nimona was cute. It features heartwarming relationships, but also the ideas of taking heartbreak head on which is mature for an animated film to do.
70. Reptile (Grant Singer)
An obvious ripoff of Se7en or Gone Girl, but still viable. My biggest issue with Reptile is that it’s supposed to take place in Maine. I’ve been all over the state and it looks nothing like the landscape that Grant Singer used. I later found out that this was filmed in Georgia. Makes sense. There’s decent suspense and a plausible plot with good twists. If this were on cable, I’d definitely sit down and rewatch it from whatever point it started playing at.
69. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Steven Caple Jr.)
The Transformers franchise will always hold a special spot in my heart the same way Pirates of the Caribbean does, because it’s a monumental part of my childhood. Steven Caple Jr. not only tapped into my nostalgia with Optimus Prime, but he did it with a soundtrack consisting of Rebirth of Slick, C.R.E.A.M. and Check the Rhime. When you do all of that, you’re essentially tailoring a blockbuster for me.
68. Boston Strangler (Matt Ruskin)
An unexpected hidden gem of 2023 was the straight-to-Hulu crime thriller, Boston Strangler. It’s a lot tenser than I had anticipated, but the cherry on top was the reveal that there wasn’t just one murder, but it was a cavalcade of murders that were gaining notoriety off one another. A lot like Reptile, it’s a solid thriller that makes for a good watch.
67. Sisu (Jalmari Helander)
What if John Wick was actually a Nazi fighting lunatic with gold on the brain? Well, I have the answer. You’d get Sisu. About ten minutes in, you realize that you’ll have to suspend some reality while watching it, but you’re content doing it because Jalmari Helander directs an entertaining action flick that pulls at the heart strings because of the relationship between man and dog.
66. Donks (Felix Colgrave)
I read an article about the best shorts of 2023 and one that caught my eye was Donks. It’s strange, but extremely niche. The vibrancy of the adaptive bottom feeders and ocean plastic along with musical elements made for an easy, seven minute watch that’s lent itself for a few, quick rewatches as the year progressed.
65. Nick Mullen: The Year of the Dragon (Alex Huggins)
I’ve begun listening to the Adam Frieldand Show this year and from that, I watched Nick Mullen’s special, Nick Mullen: The Year of the Dragon. While there are funny punch lines and good joke premises, I struggled to find the full scope of the humor due to his mundane delivery that rarely changes. That was my largest gripe.
64. Pianoforte (Jakub Piątek)
Had I never gone to the Montclair Film Festival, I would have never seen Pianoforte. It’s an interesting documentary that shows the cut-throat nature of the International Chopin Piano Competition and the pressure that it puts on its young competitors. For myself, I’ve always been a fan of sports so watching this documentary opened my eyes to the fact that these musicians are being pushed the same way athletes are and how their mental psyche can be strained from that.
63. Somewhere In Queens (Ray Romano)
If you saw Somewhere In Queens on TNT on a Saturday afternoon, you’d think it was an alright cable movie. And even though I saw it in theaters, I thought it was an alright cable movie. Sort of like I teleported to my couch to watch this. Ray Romano is charming in the lead as a father trying to navigate his sons relationships and his marriage all at once. It’s cute and humorous in parts and makes for a mind- numbing watch.
62. Matt McCusker: The Speed of Light (John McKeever)
The dog Matt McCusker dropped a special this year, Matt McCusker: The Speed of Light, and it was funny. It’s nothing extremely new for him if you listen to Matt and Shanes Secret Podcast, but it’s still funny observations about his families dynamic and politics all wrapped in a one hour special. He gets bonus points for rollerblading at the start.
61. A Man Called Otto (Marc Forster)
If Gran Torino weren’t about an old guy who loved slinging slurs, then you’d have A Man Called Otto. Let’s call it the PG version of Gran Torino. It’s very schlocky, but Tom Hanks delivers a solid performance that, no matter how over the top schlocky it gets, will get to your heart. It’s just a fact. At times it is very on the nose, but it’s in the same camp as Somewhere In Queens — a solid cable watch.
60. Knock At The Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
When I first saw Knock At The Cabin at the start of 2023, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Then, I watched more movies and realized it’s a fine horror film that doesn’t do anything new. What didn’t change in the months that followed was how I felt about Dave Bautista’s performance. His soft-spoken role should propel him to starring in non-action films and more dramas.
59. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
As a whole, I don’t hate the plot of How to Blow Up a Pipeline. In fact, I think it’s entertaining. The reason it’s not higher is that the characters are so unlikeable. They’re billed as the martyrs for climate change that have nothing, but the majority of them trying to blow up the pipeline came from affluent families and are just brainwashed college kids. Maybe that was the point and I missed it, but it made me not love the film as much as others.
58. Cocaine Bear (Elizabeth Banks)
SUE ME! I didn’t hate Cocaine Bear. I’m aware of how ridiculous the plot is and that the dialogue isn’t great, but there should be some room for a little brain rot cinema from time-to-time. Seeing Ray Liotta get his intestines shredded out of his body by a grizzly bear that was high on blow was funny. Cocaine Bear played to the feelings of eighth grade Andrew Diaz and did so in an effective manner.
57. Untold: Johnny Football (Ryan Duffy)
When my friends and I watched Untold: Johnny Football, I thought it was a great documentary. Who doesn’t love watching Johnny Manziel hold money to his ear and destroy SEC defenses? Then I watched it alone and realized that Ryan Duffy doesn’t tell us anything new. There’s only a sliver about his time in the NFL, so outside of that we see a highlight reel of Manziel playing at Texas A&M, which I didn’t hate. We just don’t learn anything new.
56. Gran Turismo (Neil Blomkamp)
Gran Turismo is probably Neil Blomkamp’s best movie since his directorial District 9. It’s not on the level of District 9, but it’s congenial. The dialogue-heavy aspects are a big miss in my opinion, but every racing sequence is on par with some of the best action movies of the year. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many racing scenes as I’d like.
55. The Swan (Wes Anderson)
My least favorite of Wes Anderson’s five projects this year is his short film, The Swan. It’s not a matter of me not liking it, but it’s more the fact that the three other shorts and Asteroid City are extremely strong works of cinema from Anderson. I do find that the storytelling of The Swan is the most clear of the four Roald Dahl shorts, but it’s overall the most bland.
54. Elemental (Peter Sohn)
I’m a sucker for Pixar movies. I can acknowledge that this is a thin premise, but it’s a cute one. The idea of not being able to be with the person you love because it could kill you is a strong message. Using elements as the vehicle to portray that hit me in a soft spot and got me to like this more than the average viewer.
53. Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller)
An underrated good romantic comedy of 2023 is Raine Allen-Millers Rye Lane. It oozes a vibrant style that feels easy. At no point does it feel like Allen-Miller is trying to direct a cool film, she just does. It comes naturally to her and I also attribute that to David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah being strong leads.
52. The Pale Blue Eye (Scott Cooper)
If Christian Bale’s in a movie, I’ll watch it. He’s my favorite actor and turns The Pale Blue Eye from a tacky thriller to an average crime drama with a great lead performance. There’s only so much he could do, but I liked The Pale Blue Eye more than most. I’m a fan of history so this intrigued me and I think it’s a solid, non-Christmas film to watch in the winter.
51. May December (Todd Haynes)
I know for a fact I’m in the minority here because I don’t love May December. While I found Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and the breakout star Charles Melton to be outstanding in their roles, it felt like script lacked cohesion and left the audience, or just myself, with more questions than answers. It’s a film that aims to be provocative, but abandons a good script along the way.
50. Fair Play (Chloe Domont)
Chloe Domont’s Fair Play is a suffocatingly tense thriller disguised as a work place drama. The way she weaves together a relationship and career of two people to where they eventually meet head on in a fiery collision was wild. She had two leads, Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, who both morphed into this role and played a believable couple whose relationship frayed because they shit where they ate.
49. Tetris (Jon S. Baird)
What helped Tetris was the fact that there were multiple I Need a Hero needle drops. Each and everyone of them, whether they were in Russian or English, hit every time. Taron Egerton graced Tetris with a cunning wit that fit this films quirky nature so well. It’s a biopic that should’ve never had legs, but Noah Pink’s script was funny and played like a thriller at times.
48. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)
I’ve never been a huge fan of Sofia Coppola as a director. She’s a good director, but her themes don’t resinate with me because she’s directing about the female experience. Whether it’s The Virgin Suicides or Marie Antoinette, she tells compelling stories about female characters. That’s the case here with Priscilla. Cailee Spaeny straddled the line of maturity and youthful innocence so well that at times, you forget how odious the relationship is between Elvis and Priscilla Presley.
47. Napoleon (Ridley Scott)
If you approach Napoleon as a comedy, then you won’t be disappointed leaving the theater. Going into it, I was expecting a sweeping historical epic, but once I realized that that wasn’t what it was, I lowered my guard and enjoyed it. Dropping your expectations is never good, but in this case, I thought it played really well as a comedy. Joaquin Phoenix in the lead was fine, but it’s clear that father time is catching up with Sir Ridley.
46. Ferrari (Michael Mann)
A lot like Gran Turismo, if Ferrari had more racing sequences, this’d be rated higher. I know it’s a film about Enzo Ferrari building the brand of Ferrari and how his life was an utter mess with a mistress and a dead son, but I wanted more racing. Nevertheless, Adam Driver gives a good performance that’s probably in his top five. Closer to five than one, but still very good. Another reason I can’t put it higher is because of how bad Shailene Woodley’s Italian accent was.
45. Tom Segura: Sledgehammer (Ryan Polito)
When it comes to 2 Bears, 1 Cave, I much prefer the comedic stylings of Tom Segura. I think that’s why I enjoyed his special, Tom Segura: Sledgehammer so much. His storytelling ability about his kids is second to none. That and his observant behavior always makes me laugh. He’s always churning out new material and Tom Segura: Sledgehammer was another example of that.
44. Calls From Home (Sylvia Ryerson)
Sylvia Ryerson crafts a gutting documentary that preaches about prison reform and sentence commuting in the area of Appalachia with Calls From Home. Hearing real people talk about their loved ones gives you a different perspective. Those behind bars aren’t always career criminals and thugs. They’re reformed individuals who messed up as a kid and are now paying for that for life. Ryerson using the WMMT-FM radio station to tell this story was distinctive in a way that roped you in more.
43. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)
I mentioned earlier about how I had soured immensely on Beau Is Afraid and it’s true. At the midpoint of 2023, I would’ve had Beau Is Afraid in the top ten. Closer to ten than one, but still top ten. Now, it’s hanging outside of the top 40 for a few reasons. The pacing and length aren’t great. It’s a slog to get through and doesn’t make itself re-watchable. Also, the weird factors of it were blown out of the water. Yeah, its a strange movie, but the message is clear. This guy has a fucked up relationship with his mother and he’s trying to battle it. Big whoop.
42. The Burial (Margaret Betts)
A feel-good comedy from 2023 that flew under the radar is The Burial. We see two great actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx, pair up as a lawyer-client team in a charming manner that makes you laugh and feel invested in the entirety of the plot. I like to think that with both the star power of this film and the plot that it would have killed at the box office in the 1990s. Unfortunately, it was dumped straight to streaming.
41. BS High (Martin Desmond Roe, Travon Free)
The story of Bishop Sycamore hit the national spotlight hard, but drifted away quietly until the BS High documentary dropped. While the content of the documentary wasn’t the most interesting, it was fun, yet also uncomfortable to watch Roy Johnson, the head coach of Bishop Sycamore and a first ballot piece of shit, talk about how he was right in this scenario. There was no remorse for the kids he fucked over or businesses he duped. This is a great look at the psyche of a sociopath.
40. A Good Person (Zach Braff)
Due to my immense fandom of both Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, I liked A Good Person. It’s a good performance from Pugh as she battles guilt and addiction in a depressing manner, while also finding an unlikely friend. It’s an emotional film that is probably too long for its on good, but I liked it when I saw it in theaters.
39. JessZilla (Emily Sheskin)
I should have brought the tissues for when I saw JessZilla. What starts as an inspiring story about a little girl wanting to box, quickly turns your stomach inside out and makes you hold back tears as you follow the story Jesselyn “JessZilla” Silva battling cancer, but never being able to do what she loves again which is boxing.
38. Stavros Halkias: Fat Rascal (Ben O’Brien)
While I find Stavros Halkias very funny, this special should be a content turning point for him. I’ll always love to hear him joke about being fat or his sex symbol facade, but this should be the last special that he keeps going back to that well. For his next special to be great, we need less of his old hat jokes and more of his storytelling like his airport joke because that was hilarious.
37. The Covenant (Guy Ritchie)
If you suspend most of your logic going into The Covenant, then you will enjoy it. A lot like Christian Bale, I will watch anything that Jake Gyllenhaal is in. While I didn’t love The Covenant initially, in a rewatch, I changed my attitude realizing it’s a gripping war thriller that has great undertones of friendship. It’s nice to see Guy Ritchie do this rather than another film about British gangsters.
36. The Ratcatcher (Wes Anderson)
Ralph Fiennes alone makes The Ratcatcher an eerily entertaining short film adaptation of a Roald Dahl story. His makeup that turns him into a wizard-looking hermit made my skin crawl. But he plays the role so well that he really loses himself in the character. It’s amazing to witness.
35. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold)
With how big Indiana Jones was in my childhood, I knew I’d like this more than the average person, and while I adored callbacks to old Indiana Jones films, it’s too long. Way too long. That and Phoebe Waller-Bridge was a terrible sidekick. She was written to be too witty for her own good and it never worked. I will say that a common complaint was the CGI, but I found Harrison Ford’s de-aging to be serviceable.
34. Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
There was a culture phenomenon for Barbie that continues to rage on, and while it was fun to see Ryan Gosling belt out the lyrics to I’m Just Ken or seeing Margot Robbie morph into the Barbie doll, it was a touch overrated. When people saw this, they were blown away because I think they thought that’s how they should feel. Now, we’re at a point where people realized that it was a fine film. Decent redeeming qualities, but it’s nothing historic — other than the fact it made a billion dollars at the box office.
33. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
My initial reaction to Asteroid City is that it’s middle of the road Wes Anderson. I still feel that way. I get that Anderson nerds will tell me about the deeply covered messaging here, but it’s middle of the road, which for Anderson, is an above average film. He’s a great director that swung and missed on a satirical film here. That’s fine because I still kind of liked it. The small town atmosphere was charming and Jason Schwartzman’s performance was great.
32. No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky)
The duo of director Gene Stupnitsky and Jennifer Lawrence in the lead revived the raunchy summer comedy with No Hard Feelings. We’re gifted jarring scenes that lead to big laughs along with witty jokes from the very awkward Andrew Barth Feldman. Where it does lose me a tad is it gets too sentimental. I know comedies like this usually have a feel good silver lining, but the one in No Hard Feelings was too much.
31. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein)
The sneakiest project of 2023 is undoubtedly Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The entire time I was in theaters watching it, I thought to myself ,”There’s no way this is good, right?” Well, it is good. It’s got a quirky charm that you won’t find in most movies this year because of the hilarious chemistry shared between Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez. We also get a hysterically unexpected Bradley Cooper cameo.
30. Creed III (Michael B. Jordan)
To make a Creed or Rocky film good, you need two things — a badass villain and a sick training montage. We got both of those in Creed III. While there are aspects of the film that feel rushed for incomplete, Jonathan Majors steps in as an intimidating villain and Michael B. Jordan works wonders in the directors chair with the unique addition of metaphors to the final fight scene. Overall, a good installment of the Creed franchise.
29. Dumb Money (Craig Gillespie)
When a Ben Mezrich book gets adapted, I will watch it. Dumb Money is an exhilarating look at the GameStop stock crisis that occurred recently and director Craig Gillespie does a really nice job weaving together multiple characters who are approaching the event in different ways, from people struggling to get by to the executives at hedge funds. It’s a true underdog tale that will make you laugh and smile throughout.
28. Theater Camp (Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman)
Theater Camp was an interesting film because of my mixed emotions on it. On one hand I hated the characters played by Ben Platt and Molly Gordon because of how vapid and self-centered they were. But on the other hand, I loved Jimmy Tatro in this. It’s one of the funniest performances of the last two or three years. They seemingly counterbalance one another and make for a film that, when I reflected on it, enjoyed. As of right now, it’s in my top 30 of 2023, but on another day it could be lower or maybe even higher.
27. Air (Ben Affleck)
While the performances in Air aren’t very good because it’s essentially Ben Affleck being Ben Affleck and Matt Damon being Matt Damon, it’s an entertaining film with interesting insights on the early years of Nike expanding. Certain scenes stuck with me, like the night before the Jordan meeting when they’re all sitting around a small table and discussing their strategy, I loved that. Something about five business men bullshitting with each other is fun.
26. Anyone But You (Will Gluck)
In a generation where a good romantic comedy is tough to come by, Will Gluck found two stars with great chemistry, Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney, and wrote a good film that’s a well-rounded with the proper amount of humor and romance you want. An issue with some romantic comedies is that there’s usually a fair amount of cringe-worthy dialogue, but that wasn’t the case with Anyone But You. It’s tight and concise and is one of the best romantic comedies of the past ten years.
25. Carl’s Date (Bob Peterson)
I, at times, can be a sucker for schlock. I’ll especially be a sucker for schlock when the centerpiece of it is the film Up. The nostalgia factor with Up is still strong to me and getting more content from a film that I truly adore made me so happy, even if it was a short about Carl Fredricksen getting ready to go on a date. I don’t care what anyone says, I loved this short.
24. Reality (Tina Satter)
Tina Satter took a unique approach to creating Reality, a biopic about Reality Winner, yes that’s her name, a woman who leaked a classified document about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections from her workplace in Augusta, Georgia. Satter utilizes a scoped camera of focusing on Sydney Sweeney’s idiosyncratic expressions that go from confident to nervous in the span of this eighty-three minute film. I loved that. I also loved how the entirety of the script was the real transcripts from when Winner’s home was raided. Satter and James Paul Dallas took no liberties changing that and it made it feel authentic.
23. Poison (Wes Anderson)
My second favorite short in Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl escapade this year is Poison. Anderson creates a jovial suspense by welding together a real threat of a poisonous snake and characters who are funny in a way where they’re not trying to be funny. It’s just their demeanor. It’s quite stunning the way that Anderson balances the comedic timing of Dev Patel and Ben Kinglsey, but also the concerned sentiment when dealing with this snake.
22. Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs (John McKeever)
The best comedy special of 2023 has to be Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs. Probably the hardest working comedian, Gillis has perfected the craft of telling jokes about things he cares about. He cares about history so he’s going to tell jokes about slave re-enactors at George Washington’s home. Due to his fondness of politicians, he’s going to make hilarious observations about Trump while also doing his famous Trump impression. He expounded nicely off his first special, flaunting new material that I loved seeing.
21. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Kelly Fremon Craig)
One thing is clear and it’s that Kelly Fremon Craig is good at directing coming-of-age films. Like, really good at it. She’s remnant of Richard Linklater, but directs from the female perspective. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is a moving film that’s equal parts about Abby Ryder Fortson’s character navigating her faith and friendships while growing up and about Rachel McAdams’ character balancing her duties as a mother, being a loving wife, and trying to be a helpful daughter. Truly beautiful work from Craig. I hope she churns out films on the level of this and Edge of Seventeen every two or three years.
20. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One being labeled as a “box office flop” is upsetting to me because it’s maybe the second or third best Mission: Impossible we’ve received. The stakes felt as high as ever and the action sequences that followed stressed that the stakes were high. You don’t have Tom Cruise Ethan Hunt driving a dirt bike off a cliff if the stakes aren’t high. I also found that, in a year where a lot of films circled AI as the enemy, Christopher McQuarrie executed the message of it far better than anyone else. I was scared of what AI could do just because of the power that The Entity held.
19. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers)
Getting to see the insane visuals of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in theaters was a biblical experience because it’s one the best looking films I’ve ever seen. Pairing those visuals with the introduction of Spider-Man 2099 as, not a villain, but more as an anti-hero was insane. The reason I don’t have it higher however is that the ending pissed me off in the moment. Ending on a cliffhanger the way Dos Santos, Powers, and Thompson gave us was frustrating, but only makes me more excited for the third installment of the trilogy.
18. Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
Emma Seligmans satirical swing on the matriarchy of high school was hilarious. It was like she blended Booksmart and Fight Club to make for a movie that highlights the insipid nature of hot chicks and popular guys in high school while the “ugly” girls ogle them. Seligman’s sharp writing paired with Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri having great chemistry with one another made for an entertaining watch in the theater. I really enjoy the recurring collaboration between Sennott and Seligman and hope they continue to work together on multiple projects in the future.
17. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin)
William Friedkins final film before he passed away, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, was dumped straight to streaming and I’m so glad I found it. The courtroom drama that grows tenser and nastier with every line delivery from Jason Clarke and Kiefer Sutherland made you feel like you were observing this trial unfold in real time. Due to that, you’re forced to take sides and it’s not easy to decide where you stand. I will say that it is interesting that Jason Clarke has been in two of my favorite films of 2023, and in both, he’s played a no-nonsense lawyer.
16. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
The three-headed monster of Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe all give career-defining performances in Yorgos Lanthimos’ sexual voyage about the female condition in a dystopian society. Known for his weird filmmaking predilection, Lanthimos makes his strangest piece of cinema yet, but also his best. Explaining what makes it great isn’t an easy task as it’s such an abnormal film, but my biggest reason to liking it is that it’s shockingly funny. Witty vulgarity from the mouthes of all the characters made myself and the entire theater laugh.
15. Lousy Carter (Bob Byington)
A hidden gem that I saw at the Montclair Film Festival this year was the David Krumholtz-starring comedy, Lousy Carter. Byington brings a macabre tone to the film where we see someone with great potential go through a point in their life where the lights gone out. They’re not suicidal, but they’re content with dying. That’s until they’re faced with the reality of dying. Once Krumholtz’s character receives the news that he’s dying, he sort of changes, just not for the better. The dry delivery from all of these bland, yet uniquely crafted characters had me laughing throughout the whole screening. Lousy Carter will hit streaming in early 2024 and it incorporates a hysterical twist that I don’t desire spoiling for you.
14. BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
One thing I’m looking forward to doing soon is having a double feature night of watching David Fincher’s The Social Network and following it up with Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry. Maybe I’ll make it a triple feature and watch Steve Jobs? Nevertheless, one of the great surprise films of 2023 has to be BlackBerry. It’s a hilariously tense biopic about the rapid rise and prompt fall of the BlackBerry phone, and while that’s not an initially interesting premise, the performances will rope you in. Matt Johnson and Jay Baruchel will rope you in, but when Glenn Howerton graces the screen, you won’t take your eyes off him. He gives one of the best supporting performances of 2023 and should 100% earn an Oscar nomination.
13. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
This year revived the allure of the courtroom drama. I mentioned it with The Burial and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, but no film revived the sub-genre more than Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. Doubling as both an elegant crime mystery and cut-throat courtroom drama, Triet shows the effects of infidelity in a marriage, the weight and guilt parents hold, and the battle against the justice system when you know you’re innocent. This is a film that we could look back on in ten years and think that it’s a modern masterpiece. While I love the plot and cinematography, Anatomy of a Fall incorporates two of my favorite performances of 2023 coming from Sandra Hüller and Milo Machado-Graner, who gives the greatest performance from a child actor ever.
12. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson)
Of the four Wes Anderson shorts and five total projects he released in 2023, my favorite is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. It’s quirky and concise storytelling with unique narration that’s not really narration because the characters are looking at you through the screen and speaking to you. Visually, it’s as Wes Anderson as it gets. Symmetry with bright colors and eccentric set designs that take you into, not just the mind of Wes Anderson, but into the mind of the author Roald Dahl.
11. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
The presumed final installment of the John Wick franchise, John Wick: Chapter 4, joins the conversation with films like Oldboy, Mad Max: Fury Road and District 9 as one of the best action films of the 21st century. The extensive runtime felt necessary as Chad Stahelski kept giving more and more riveting action sequences, some that included a Paint It Black needle drop that gave me goosebumps. It felt like the perfect way to end Wick’s legacy. Having him go out in a dual after defeating vigilantes in his path was proper. As much as it’d be great to see another John Wick film, I hope we don’t get one because it’d bastardize a great final hoorah.
10. Jackals & Fireflies (Charlie Kaufman)
My favorite short film of 2023 is without a doubt Jackals & Fireflies directed by the brilliant writer and director Charlie Kaufman. Much like the entirety of Kaufman’s career, Jackals & Fireflies is unique and groundbreaking. This twenty minute short that’s packed with awe-inspiring visuals and deep narration like, “How salt water chokes upon tampered sky” was filmed entirely on a Galaxy S22 Ultra phone. You will watch this short and not believe me, but it’s true. The in-depth introspective on the intricacies of New York City from the bustling bars to its quaint parks were captured solely on a phone camera. It’s amazing.
9. Talk To Me (Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou)
2023 solidified itself as an underrated year of horror. My personal favorite from the genre and my ninth favorite film of 2023 was Talk To Me. The Philippou brothers execute at such a high level in many facets with Talk To Me. First off, the runtime is slightly over an hour and a half, making Talk To Me tight. They didn’t bore us, they got right to the chorus. Along with that, they didn’t over utilize gore as a catalyst to scare the audience. It’s used, but not in an excessive way that makes you feel ill. Finally, you could feel the emotion put into Talk To Me. Many horror films can lack heart and emotion making it a hollow piece of jump scare cinema, but not Talk To Me. This is my favorite horror film since we got Hereditary in 2018.
8. Past Lives (Celine Song)
I personally love myself a good romantic comedy. I also love a good romantic film that makes you feel sad. Celine Song’s Past Lives is the latter of the two. Past Lives didn’t make me feel sad though — it made me ugly cry in a packed theater of other people who were ugly crying. The whole premise of using the relationship between Hae Sung and Nora as a microcosm to explain the past lives term in Korean lore was brilliant on so many levels because it’s as simple as “right person, wrong time“, but goes much deeper to explain that while now might not be the best time, in another life, it was the right time. That premise along with Greta Lee’s performance, one of my favorites of 2023, made this one of the best films of 2023.
7. Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger)
One of the best films I saw at the Montclair Film Festival this year was Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams. I don’t usually love movies that have no dialogue, but somehow, Berger crafts an animated film that’s sat in my heart for the past two and a half months. He shows the power of friendship by using a lonely dog and a robot that’s programmed to be your pal and it works on so many levels. Due to it not hitting streaming yet, I won’t spoil the entirety of Robot Dreams, but the ending will both absolutely wreck you and leave you crying like a baby and will make you appreciate the friends you have.
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
In almost a Terrence Malick sense, Killers of the Flower Moon serves as a methodical western thriller that builds tension in the time that you’re left waiting, which I adored. We saw the emergence of Lily Gladstone as a true star, and yet another great collaboration between Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro. The visuals are fantastic and Thelma Schoonmakers editing is, once again, top-notch, but my biggest takeaway is that Killers of the Flower Moon gave use the most evil character Robert De Niro has ever played. Travis Bickle nor Max Cady can hold a candle to the evil acts of William Hale.
5. The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin)
Not many films from this year, or even this century, will gut you the way that The Iron Claw will. Right from the start, Sean Durkin delivers a tragic narrative that doesn’t get brighter. The second you think that the Von Erich family is turning a corner, you get slapped with another calamity that compounds the one that happened prior. Zac Efron does a beautiful job as the rock of the Von Erich family in a role that I never thought Efron would play, or could play. He’s dynamite and should earn a Best Actor nomination.
4. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
The reunion of Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti is one that we absolutely needed in 2023, and the collaboration delivered on every expectation that I had. The Holdovers has a crass charm to it that you’d only entertain in the fall and winter seasons, but due to its release, it’s found an audience that’s far from being niche. Stepping past Giamatti and Payne, we see two knockout performances from relatively unknown actors. Dominic Sessa portrays a snobby prep school brat with ease and Da’Vine Joy Randolph gives a career best performance that could earn her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This is a movie that’ll be in my rotation every December.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (James Gunn)
As a whole, this phase of the MCU has been less than stellar. The one shining light is James Gunn’s last hoorah with Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It’s extremely emotional and has some of the best battle scenes in the MCU — ones that are comparable to Avengers: Endgame or Captain America: Winter Soldier. My one small gripe with it that I’ve reflected on is that they did do two fake deaths. One works. Two is overkill. But that small misstep is made up for by showing Rocket’s backstory that was truly gutting.
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Oppenheimer joins the conversation with films like Amadeus, JFK and The Insider as one of the most influential films of all time. At three hours long, there’s no fat on this film whatsoever. You can try to cut scenes, but what are you going to cut? The relationship with Jean Tatlock, or David Hill’s testimony? Absolutely not. Everything is pivotal to telling this story and while it is a biopic, at times this plays like a horror film. Oppenheimer’s speech in the gymnasium was one of the scariest scenes I’ve seen, and that’s from any film, horror or not. Oppenheimer is going to clean up at the Academy Awards this year and rightfully so as it’s one of the five best films of the 21st century.
1. The Killer (David Fincher)
My bias of loving David Fincher may have co-opted my rankings for the year, but when I left the theater after seeing The Killer, I found myself bounding down the sidewalk because I was so happy with what I just saw. Then, I watched it on Netflix over and over and over and continued to feel that elated sensation. The sleek nature and callus tones of this Michael Fassbender-led project hits perfect on so many levels. From the subtle comedic nature to the Smith’s soundtrack that glazes over Fassbenders stoicism, this film is a masterpiece. It’s a masterpiece that might not crack Fincher’s top five. That’s just a testament to Fincher being a generational talent of a director.
