Top 16 Best Movies of 2023

2023 will likely go down as a pivotal year in film history (or at least American film history). In the growing perception of class divide in the entertainment industry, backlashes against corporatization and industrialization became a more apparent trend. The nosediving of the MCU and the DCEU, the commercial and creative low point of Disney – these are the downfalls that divert more and more attention toward original films.

I have enjoyed compiling a list filled to the brim with original stories and new storytellers – underdogs of a deteriorating industry. Ultimately, the hope is that these stories and storytellers will reverse the trailing trend of cinema in the coming year.

Honorable Mentions

Here are some films that are great but did not make the list:

• Evil Dead Rise makes for an entertaining sequel to an original remake of a great movie.

• Air is an engaging story that is especially commendable for how it deals with Michael Jordan as a character in the film.

• Missing is a great addition to the emerging sub-genre of screenlife thriller, which its 2018 predecessor helped popularize.

• Return to Seoul is a mature look at the issue of personal and cultural identity, led by debut actress Ji-Min Park, whose performance I fear might’ve been overlooked in a year dominated by great actresses.

• Suzume falls just a bit shy of the near-perfect quality of Shinkai’s previous two anime blockbusters but is perhaps the most mature of his unofficial magical realism anime trilogy.

• Finally, Mon Rak Nak Pak (English name: Once Upon a Star) is the final cut I made from this list. The film tells the story of a crew of live film narrators traveling around 1970s Thailand and is a great send-up to classic Thai cinema.

Now – on with the list, which is 16 this year, because I could not bear cutting out the last contender.

16. May December

(Credits: Netflix)

In this story of flower-veneered abuse, Julianne Moore plays a woman who, in 1992, was caught having sex with a 13-year-old friend of her son. The film picks up twenty years later when she is in a seemingly happy marriage with the now adult 13-year-old, played in an Oscar-worthy performance by Charles Melton. Debut writer Samy Burch gave me one of my favorite scripts of the year, boosted by Todd Haynes’ reliable direction. May December subtly and strategically unveils the impact and implications of long-term abuse.

15. Solids by the Seashore

(Credit: Screen Daily)

Waves rush towards seawalls and the man-made structures that line the coast of Southern Thailand. Eventually to be broken up by those very structures. A mirror plucked in the middle of a sandy beach, reflects the image of the sea back to itself. A Muslim woman redesigns her hijab for a night out, during which she will not drink. The sequences of images in Patiparn Boontarig’s Solids by the Seashore left me in awe and plunging into whirlpools of complicated self-debates about ethnic identity, religious identity, environmentalism, and gender. If only the film had been more confident in the power of those images alone without dialog, it would’ve topped this list.

14. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret

(Credit: Blu-Ray)

Much like Solids by the Seashore, Judy Blume’s influential novel tackled the issues of faith and religion through the lens of a character coming of age. The titular Margaret though, is much younger than the main characters of Seashore. The story therefore follows school troubles, friend troubles, and puberty. The screen adaptation found a great helm in Kelly Fremon Craig, who seems particularly adept at portraying adorable awkwardness. Her cameras do not judge or ridicule but unveil life as is. It certainly helps that she has an incredible young lead in Abby Ryder Fort and a seasoned veteran like Rachel McAdam playing “the cool mom”.

13. They Cloned Tyrone

(Credit: NPR)

Disappointed in Jamie Foxx’s performance as Electro? Confused by John Boyega’s character in Disney’s Star Wars Trilogy? Bored by Teyonah Parris’ almost-character in The Marvels? My suggestion is to stop watching them in life-sucking blockbusters and find them now on Netflix as the best ensemble of a pimp, a drug dealer, and a sex worker uncovering a twilight zone-style mystery. Of all the genres, science fiction seems to have found the least success on smaller grounds. But when indie sci-fi shows up. It shows up as one of the best in years.

12. Talk to Me

(Credit: GQ India)

At this point, it must be hard to make elevated horror a draw for anyone. But Talk To Me is not only a great and sensitive allegory for teenage substance abuse. This film is particularly deft at handling tonal shifts, from absurd fun to hard-hitting tragedy, and then back again. It is aided by energetic and intense camera angles, as well as unique music choices that will agitate some people and entertain others. Talk To Me is the brainchild of Danny and Michael Philippou who are YouTubers under the channel-name RackaRacka. This is their feature film debut. 2023 was truly the year for underdogs.

11. Tár

(Credit: IMDB)

Tár is a biographical image of ego, focusing on a fictional character that feels so lived-in they might have been a real person. The centerpiece of the film, without a doubt, is Cate Blanchett’s captivating performance. She sells Lydia Tár’s commitment to her craft, her egocentricity, and most of all, her hidden abusive tendency. Director Todd Field even stated that the script was written for her specifically. All that said, the rest of the film’s craft should not be understated. Tár is one of those films that feels impeccably built and technically perfect. Like a super-efficient machine that conveys without fail everything it wishes to convey.

10. John Wick Chapter 4

(Credit: IMDb)

I don’t know how, but this series keeps getting bigger and counterintuitively better. Chapter four sees the John Wick series at its absolute best. It is and has been hard to pin down exactly what makes Wick a great series. Its titular character has so little dialog to the point of self-parody. Its action becomes so video game-like, its set pieces so absurd, its lore and worldbuilding so contriving-ly convoluted at times. But it is this original, unapologetic, b-movie style, video game-inspired fun, that makes John Wick still a breath of fresh air after four movies. Plus, you don’t say no to Donnie Yen playing a blind assassin.

9. Scream 6

(Credit: Business Insider)

Ever since the franchise was rebooted by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett in 2022, I’ve been hooked on Scream like never before. 2022’s Scream was a tight return to form, but Scream 6 is where the duo that brought us the sure-to-be cult classic Ready or Not showed off their skills. Scream 6 had more intense and entertaining set pieces than any other horror film I’ve seen this year. And it is undeniable that aside from Jenna Ortega and the rest of the “core four” of the new franchise, Melissa Barrera is the heart of this new saga. In the showing I went to, the audience literally clapped and cheered for her in a scene. The executives who unjustly fired her from Scream 7 should know that they may be making some financial losses.

8. Oppenheimer

(Credit: IMDb)

There was a moment -- not even a scene – but a mere moment, smacked right in the middle of Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic on the life of the inventor of the atomic bomb. A moment that feels inexplicably, transcendentally, cinematic. In this one singular moment, you realize that for all his story-telling limitations, Christopher Nolan is a connoisseur, a lover, a creator, of cinematic experiences. Oppenheimer is an amazing film, not merely because it achieves a fine balance of historical facts and entertaining fiction, not merely because it will likely be a vehicle for Cillian Murphy to get his long overdue Oscar, not merely because of Nolan’s commitment to practical effect even for a movie about a bomb, but also because of how Nolan expresses through this film his unadulterated love for the medium.

7. Fallen Leaves

(Credit: Institut Finlandais)

In Aki Kaurismäki’s dream-like version of contemporary Helsinki where people don’t use mobile phones but listen to news of the war in Ukraine through the radio, two people meet in a chance encounter and slowly, almost inevitably, grow fond of each other. While the two lead performances – but especially Alma Pöysti – carry much of the film, the direction is not to be underestimated. Kaurismäki presents a world of duality – sullen yet vibrant with life. Fallen Leaves has, seeping through its mise-en-scène, a certain fairy tale sensibility cloaked by deadpan humor and undecipherable poetry. It may be the most romantic film of the year.

6. Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse

(Credit: Billboard)

Film is a medium of visual emotions. Rarely are movies nowadays able to excel at that. But to do so and in addition, to pave new paths, invent new ways to make the audience experience what the characters on screen are experiencing? That’s impressive. That the sequel to the groundbreaking feature film debut of Miles Morales is one of the best animated films in years and that it currently carries the entire superhero genre are understatements by this point. What I may add is that the work of the many animators behind the scene made the emotional arcs of Miles, and particularly Gwen, painstakingly potent and universally unforgettable.

5. Dream Scenario

(Credit: Dazed)

Dream Scenario is an indie flick that you would do well not to overanalyze. Yes, it’s saying something about our current culture, the impact of social media, the side effects of fame, etc. But what makes it one of the best movies of the year is how much creativity and fun it manages to get out of one question: what if someone keeps appearing in other people’s dream? Not only does it take the idea to its conceptual limit, but it ensures that there is still a good story at the center of it. Behind all the wackiness and the social commentary is a simple tale of someone learning what it means to regain and lose agency over a short period of time. And it really helps when that someone is played by Nicolas Cage.

4. Anatomy of a Fall

(Credit: NewYorker)

There are many differences between facts and truth. While facts are objective, indivisible, and independent, truth often bears a connotation of morality, universality, and is ironically dependent on falsifying other beliefs. Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall is not just a courtroom drama, but an interrogation of the relationship between society and how it determines what is true or false. Despite this ambition, Triet’s lens lends their eyes to few characters and even fewer settings. But the precise script and direction, as well as captivating performances all across the board make us slowly question everything. It is a murder mystery running in reverse. And by the end, we are left satisfied with the ambiguity.

3. Monster

(Credit: Monster)

This wasn’t intentional, but somehow this film shares a statement similar to Anatomy of a Fall – one which declares: what really happened doesn’t matter. Only Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster takes the complete opposite route to its French companion. This is basically another Rashomon-style film, where we see a single event unfold from a number of perspectives – observing facts from multiple angles, rather than Triet’s approach of showing characters (in eventual futility) seeking truths through dialectic. But what makes Monster really hit me in my core is where the film was taking us all along. Kore-eda is one of the best contemporary directors and he has constantly made it on my best-of-the-year lists. But here, it is necessary to give even more credits to writer Yuji Sakamoto and the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, both of whom endow the film with its most endearing and lovely elements.

2. Aftersun

(Credit: Rotten Tomatoes)

The term cinematic came up quite often throughout this list. What people often think I mean by that is immersive. To be cinematic is to immerse yourself in a world separate from current reality – it could be history; it could be fantasy. And then there’s breaking the fourth wall; destroying the artifice. That would be anti-cinematic? I don’t think so. After watching Aftersun, I concluded that a film could feel anti-cinematic, while being completely immersive. Charlotte Wells’ unbelievable debut feels more like life unfolding than anything else. It is the culmination of what visual mediums can do, while transcending the false dichotomy of the cinematic and the real. It is one of those films that burrows in you a sinkhole of sadness that grows and grows long after you’ve left the theatre.

1. Past Lives

(Credit: Past Lives)

When a film leaves me speechless, I am incline to dub it “visual poetry”. Yet the poetry of Past Lives isn’t just visual. It is in the nonchalant, unremarkable lines of dialogs, thrown around with characters still confused about where they are and who they are. The notion of “In Yun”, which the film’s main character translates as “providence”, is the theme of the film. And its visuals and dialogs seem to have been marinated in that theme. You realize – as the film flows by and the story does not so much unfold but simply sits in front of you with an awkward smile of a long-lost love interest – that you have no control over what happens in life. Fate is nothing more than a way to tell ourselves that things make sense and will make sense. But in reality, we have no way of telling destiny apart from chaos.

To watch debut director Celine Song performs poetry about the reality that life cannot be controlled – that you must accept what had come to pass and will come to pass – is the very thing I needed in 2023. In a year when so, so many things in the world seem to go wrong, it is good to have a reminder that we are all helpless humans at the mercy of fate or chaos – not that we can tell them apart.