10 Movies Released Last Year That I Really Liked, 2023 Edition
I’ve been doing these quasi-top 10 lists for a decade and a half, across platforms like tumblr, Medium and Facebook Notes (RIP). I love going back to them to see who I once was, and which films those younger versions of me loved so deeply. Which is to say: if you’re reading this, thanks. I do them mostly for me, but I’m always gratified when someone checks out and enjoys a work they were unaware of that I spotlighted.
I should also mention that the very best film of 2023 for me is, and forever will be, THE SACRIFICE GAME, the 70s-set Christmas boarding school horror movie I co-wrote with my amazing wife, director Jenn Wexler. If you ever get the chance to write a fun, twisty, gory genre movie and then take it to festivals around the world, do it. 10/10 recommend. And let me also shout-out a few of the many excellent 2023 films made by our friends that we shared the circuit with, including Joe Lynch’s SUITABLE FLESH, the Adams Family’s WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS and Ted Geoghegan’s BROOKLYN 45.
Apart from those, I saw more than 100 films that came out in 2023. I’m not claiming the 10 I list below are objectively the “best” movies, but they’re the ones that made the most significant impression on me.
In alphabetical order:
ANATOMY OF A FALL: A tight, tense courtroom thriller that gets every detail right. Director Justine Triet and star Sandra Hüller are working at the same exceptionally high level as Nolan and Murphy in OPPENHEIMER, but with way fewer resources and, in my opinion, far deeper humanity. Pair with REALITY for another tense portrait of a woman in the crosshairs of justice.
ASTEROID CITY: To me, this movie is like a magic trick. I don’t know how it works, but I’m in love with its weird fascination with the mannered dialogue and behind-the-scenes vibes of mid-century American Theatre, combined with a wild color scheme and more amazing actors than any three non-Oppenheimer movies put together. (Blink and you’ll miss Jeff Goldblum!) It also has more ideas, funny bits and genuine heartbreak than anything else I saw this year, and probably more than anything Wes Anderson has ever attempted. It’s a masterpiece, and I’m bummed that so few critics seemed to be on its wonderfully odd wavelength. Me, I’m still vibrating. Maybe pair it with GODZILLA MINUS ONE for a delightful Japan in the 40s/America in the 50s double bill.
BARBIE: The production design and the deceptively effortless worldbuilding here is truly next level, and Margot Robbie somehow both is Barbie and transcends Barbie. But to be honest, this one barely snuck in as my #10, and nearly lost out to great indie horrors TALK TO ME and BIRTH/REBIRTH. I’ll be forever in awe of what Greta Gerwig, Robbie and co-writer Noah Baumbach achieved with 65-year-old toy IP within the studio system, not to mention sneaking in feminist and capitalist critiques in a four-quadrant billion dollar blockbuster. That said, for me the Will Ferrell bits were hit-and-miss and, apart from her big speech, America Ferrera’s storyline felt contrived and unengaging. But the extremely high highs outweighed the few lows, so I’m putting it on the list as an imperfect masterpiece. Plus, the memes were outstanding. (You’ve already paired it with OPPENHEIMER, right?)
EVIL DEAD RISE: Everything I want in my studio horror movies, and nothing I don’t. Fun characters, great setting (more apartment building horror, please!), and really good kills. Has EVIL DEAD become horror’s best franchise? Keep ’em coming. Can’t wait to see what’s next from director Lee Cronin. If you want to swing from polished studio to extreme indy, pair with Kyle Edward Ball’s similarly claustrophobic but virtually non-narrative nightmare, SKINAMARINK, one the most unlikely horror hits of this or any decade.
FALCON LAKE: This horror-adjacent summer coming-of-age film left me breathless on first viewing, and I can’t wait to dive back in to see how well it holds up. Filmmaker Charlotte Le Bon perfectly captures the sense of long, hot, aimless summer days and the feeling of being a pre-teen boy crushing on a slightly older girl he is in no way ready for yet can’t help but desire. The constant buzzing flies and legends of a local ghost add weight and fate, so when the ending hits, it hits hard. Pair it with Léa Mysius’ THE FIVE DEVILS for a French-language, horror adjacent, feel-bad great time.
THE HOLDOVERS: Look, even if we didn’t make a 70s-set, stuck-in-boarding-school-over-Christmas movie, Alexander Payne’s similarly premised film would have earned a spot on my top ten. It’s the kind of tragicomic, character-driven gem that Hollywood somehow forgot how to make, post-STAR WARS. I loved spending Christmas with beautifully broken characters brought to life by actors working at the top of their craft. This is my idea of a perfect holiday film. Pair it with THE SACRIFICE GAME, obviously.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: I’m still wrapping my head around this one; at 3+ hours, it’s a lot to take in on first viewing. But already, I’m in awe of its scope, its moments of beauty, and its brave, pained reckoning with the violence and white supremacy that undergirds pretty much all of American history. The book it’s based on could easily have been turned into a very easy-to-swallow origin tale for the FBI. But we should be forever grateful that Martin Scorsese and his collaborators decided to grapple with the material in such an honest, fearless manner, even concluding in a way that implicates itself, too. Simply breathtaking. Too long for a double feature, so pair with a good glass of American whiskey and a few moments of solemn introspection.
POOR THINGS: Yorgos Lanthimos has been a mainstay of my top ten lists nearly every time he puts out a film. THE FAVOURITE, his first film with national treasure Emma Stone, topped 2018’s list, and I love earlier works THE LOBSTER and DOGTOOTH just as much. POOR THINGS has not yet surpassed that trio on my personal Lanthimos rankings, but it’s still one of the most wildly fun movie watching experiences I had this year. This darkly comic riff on a female Frankenstein tale is the director’s most accessible film yet, and that’s not a bad thing. With ASTEROID CITY, it shares a joy in stylized performances and fantastical, dreamlike production design (mid century modern for AC, steampunk Victorian for PT). The entire cast is a blast, but it’s Stone’s spontaneous-seeming but precise, technical performance that powers its engine. Perhaps pair with BEAU IS AFRAID, if you dare, for another visually stunning travelogue built off a fully-committed central performance, for the ultimate “she grows/he shrinks” 2023 double feature.
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE: On the 2018 version of this list, I wrote that the first Spider-Verse film was “the best damn Marvel movie of this year or any year.” Well, the 2023 sequel tops its predecessor in every way — an even more epic story, with richer character development, lovingly crafted with even bolder, more inventive animation styles — sometimes several of them at once! This franchise is a delight for anyone who knows the history of Spider-Man in all his/her/their many forms, but even if you’re comic book-averse, give this one a watch just for the pure spectacle of it all. It effortlessly does with its visuals what few films dare to try. Pair with TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM, which is ably following in the Spider-Verse footsteps and just as beautifully imagined, if a bit more familiar in its story beats.
THE ZONE OF INTEREST: I am the grandson of two concentration camp survivors. I grew up with stories of atrocities and barbarity so, as a result, I have an innate resistance to most Holocaust movies. The camera pans across the misery, the sentimental score kicks in, and I check out. I can almost see the snacks at craft services just beyond the frame. THE ZONE OF INTEREST is one of the very rare exceptions. Jonathan Glazer is a master at using restraint and an almost clinical precision to conceal deep, powerful emotions. I was mesmerized. Easily the most important, timely film of the year, as facism and authoritarianism are on the rise and genocides are allowed and enabled, so long as they’re kept just out of sight. Pair with a long night of deep thoughts or, if you prefer, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES if you need a dose of pure escapist fun to face another day in this worsening hellscape.
So that’s my 10 — plus a few bonus recommendations I snuck in.
“What about OPPENHEIMER,” I hear you asking? I liked it fine, but it didn’t make my top 10. It is a technically incredible film, operating at top of its craft. Yet it left me cold*, which is also true, to varying degrees, of everything Christopher Nolan has ever directed, so take that with a huge grain of salt.
*And, look, I’m a huge fan of Glazer, Stanley Kubrick and Peter Greenaway, three of the coldest, most perfectionist artists ever to set foot on a movie set. So maybe you can explain why Nolan doesn’t hit the same notes for me that those guys do?
SALTBURN is another instance where I love the acting and production, but not the film as a whole. It’s got a good half dozen scenes that are astounding, which is more than most movies can claim. But I never connected with Emerald Fennell’s derivative story and muddled message, and the plot kept reminding me of other stuff I’ve seen that, for my money, worked way better.
Note to Future Sean reading this years from now: sorry I left off Todd Haynes’ MAY DECEMBER, a subversively funny, extremely self-aware film that plays on multiple levels, but Present Sean is still wrapping his brain around it.
