2023 was a horrible year for this writer, but at the very least, it was a great year at the cinema. Outside of the constant concerns over the future of movies in the wake of two separate but very daunting strikes for the industry’s writers and actors. Sure, there were times when it felt like 2020 again, with possibilities of movie shuffling (and breaking my heart over the pushing of Dune: Part Two), but we’ve arrived on the other side of the year. As always, this is the time to celebrate the wins and the movie moments that lifted us, changed us, and stayed with us. 2022 was more front-loaded, with a number of my favorite films coming from the early part of the year, while 2023 seems to have surprised me in the latter months with some real winners.

Before we begin, a few caveats that I must always bring up:

-I did not see every single movie in 2023. While this is the year I’ve recorded the most new releases of my entire life, there are still some things that escaped me. If you see note a movie I didn’t mention, it’s entirely possible I may have missed it. Go down into the comments and let me know why it made your list!

-On the flipside, this is my personal list of the Best Movies of 2023. It’s not a list of your favorites, and there’s no such thing as an objective list of the Best Movies of the Year. It’s merely the films that connected with me the most. There may be other films not in my list that were “better made” or perhaps your favorite film has a highest Rotten Tomatoes score, and that’s okay. This is just my list, and I’m excited to hear yours, so share them in the comments section and we’ll discuss.

-Lastly, I crave discussion, dissection, and (respectful) disagreements, so keep your “hate” out of this place.

Now, let’s get on with it…

10. The Holdovers

• Alexander Payne won me over with his film Nebraska a few years back, so it’s safe to say I was excited for The Holdovers, a film with a similar tone and flavor, and I’m always interested in the chance to find a new Holiday classic. His latest follows a struggling student staying over at school for the holiday with his least favorite teacher and a cook, forced to spend time with people that aggravate him the most, and the gradual understanding that these characters find within others. It’s an excellent looking film with three defining performances that work their best in league with one another, and Payne’s writing finds moments that could fall into cliche and he instead elevates them into a heartwarming…new Holiday classic. There, I said it.

9. American Fiction

• Knowing very little about the plot of American Fiction, the driving force of my interest was Jeffrey Wright, a criminally-underrated actor who deserves to lead more films. As expected, Wright’s performance is incredible as a burnt semi-successful writer frustrated with what is considered Great Black Writing in the zeitgeist. Where American Fiction rises above is writer/director Cord Jefferson’s scathing screenplay and his deft touch as a director. Half the film is a satire on society and the other half is a more simplified family drama. That back half shockingly works as well as the satire even though these two halves of the film seem to be in contradiction. Jefferson’s able to control both narrative pieces equally and American Fiction’s strong editing allows them to breathe on their own and complement each other wholly.

8. Past Lives

• Word of mouth drove me to Past Lives, and the strength of the writing and performances has kept it in my head all year, becoming the film I’ve recommended more than any other from 2023. When Nora and her childhood friend Hae Sung meet up again decades after last seeing each other, there’s a shaky uncertainty from both, as well as Nora’s husband Arthur, who supports his wife while maintaining a level of concern over the events. Much like The Holdovers, this is a character collision piece resting on three performances that stand out, especially Greta Lee as Nora. John Magaro hasn’t received as much praise as Arthur, but I think his is the most difficult role, one that he pulls off expertly. It’s also the kind of movie where navigating the ending is rather tricky to pull off, and director Celine Song is able to make it work in all its uneasiness.

7. Beau is Afraid

• While Hereditary was a film that I loved back when it came out, I was more of less “meh” when it came to Ari Aster’s follow-up Midsommar. I’m been meaning to revisit it because it worked for a lot of people and should’ve worked for me, but I just didn’t connect with the material, so mark me back on Aster’s good side with his newest film, a Jewish nightmare called Beau is Afraid. The story of the neurotic and unstable Beau as he makes him way home to see Mom and ends up on a nightmarish panic-attack odyssey, this film came and went rather quickly early on in 2023, and I waited a great amount of time before subjecting myself to it. It’s the kind of film that requires a bit of understanding to fully enjoy. Had I not know that Aster was aiming for the visual representation of a Panic Attack, I perhaps would’ve felt differently because this is a film where I feel you need to be in the right headspace. I have enough anxiety already, thank you very much. That being said, understand Aster’s aim allowed me to be in on the joke, and I was enthralled with Beau’s insane journey. It doesn’t all work but the sheer swing that Aster and Joaquin Phoenix take in this story absolutely works.

6. John Wick: Chapter 4

• The latest, and potentially last, John Wick film is the first movie of 2023 that I remember loving, and for a good amount of time, it was my favorite film of the year. Like Mad Max: Fury Road, the actioner is light on plot but heavy on story. Keanu Reeves does so much with so little dialogue in his fourth outing as the titular assassin, and director Chad Stahelski takes on a near 3-hour run time and never takes his foot off the gas, leading to a movie that should feel bloated but never does, one I’ve seen a few times since release and still believe it might be the best one yet, not an easy feat for this franchise. This time around, John is taking on the High Table once and for all in order to clear his mark, and it contains the two best action set pieces of the entire franchise…so far.

5. Oppenheimer

• Christopher Nolan’s latest is a film that I was excited for, but less excited than his science fiction works. While I enjoyed Dunkirk, I love Nolan’s big narrative swings in the sci-fi realm, but a new Nolan is a new Nolan, and this is perhaps his best work as a writer and a director in terms of visual language. Nolan made strides in some of his more clunking writing flaws here and also seemed to fix his sound issues, at least for me, which is a good thing in a 3-hour narrative of mostly talking. This is not a traditional blockbuster, but Cilliam Murphy’s lead performance and a stunning array of supporting players littered throughout add up to a thought-provoking and horrific film about the potential architects of our own demise.

4. All of Us Strangers

• All of Us Strangers snuck up on me while I sat in the theater. Following a near-future man revisiting his childhood home to find his parents are still there, looking exactly as they did decades earlier before they died, Andrew Haigh’s kinda-ghost story started off rather simplistically, and it was until about halfway through that I realized how emotionally invested I was in the film. From that point on, I knew the ending of the film and I knew that it would shatter but still I had to keep watching, keep spending time, keep holding moments until the inevitable finale. As someone who has experienced loss and depression in 2023, I completely understood Adam, played by Andrew Scott, and his motivations for moving backward into past events instead of forward into the future. It’s a beautiful and destructive film that brought me joy and sadness in near-equal measure.

3. Talk to Me

• My horror movie of the year is Talk to Me, made by the Philippou brothers. Talk to Me is an injection of life into this year’s so-so horror landscape, a pretty standard story told really well. When a group of teens get ahold of a strange ceramic hand that has the power to connect the living with the dead, Mia finds herself mystified by what the hand can do and begins a journey that leads her and friends to a realm of traumatic horror. The way these filmmakers use a standard tale of ghosts to make a statement on addiction and grief is a powerful way to begin as feature-film directors, and I can’t wait to see what they do next, including the upcoming sequel.

2. Barbie

• I had a feeling Barbie would be a lot of fun, and I have a lot of faith in both Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, but Barbie seemed to understand what I wanted as a viewer better than I did. This movie was loads of fun, and it also managed to have a lot more to say about Men and Women as it did. I also did not expect to see it both praise and skewer the very toy its based on, but here we are. Bravo to Robbie, Ferrera, Gosling, Gerwig, and Mattel for such a bold risk that paid off with the highest-grossing film of the film and an terrific experience that I adore and have watched multiple times. I’m so thankful this movie exists. It’s the kind of blockbuster that I hope to see more of, even though studios will now likely just make a bunch of subpar toy movies instead, but here’s hoping it inspires viewers everywhere for many more years to come.

1. Dream Scenario

• You probably didn’t see Dream Scenario in 2023. Not many people did, but I’ve been praising it for over a month now, because its the best movie of the year, obviously. Nicolas Cage plays one of the most boring people in existence, a professor who suddenly starts appearing in dreams of people all across the world. I won’t say anything more than because Dream Scenario deserves to be seen to watch as director Kristoffer Borgli squeezes everything out of this concept that is possibly and still managed to surprise me frequently throughout. It’s a movie that kept me laughing and wincing all the way through, and it somehow find a way to my heart by the end. It’s a special movie, one that deserves way more eyes on it. Dream Scenario is worth your time, it was worth mine, and its the best movie of 2023.

So there you have it. My Top Ten of 2023. Now you know mine, what are your favorite films of the year? Share them with me, and let’s have a discussion. Thanks for joining me, and we’ll look forward to 2024 together.

-Kyle A. Goethe