Staff Inquiry: Top Ten Best Films Of 2023

It’s been quite the year for cinema in 2023. We saw hard-hitting, emotional indie darlings like Talk to Me and Past Lives, as well as moving blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Mainstream horror also delivered the goods, with flicks like M3gan, Scream VI, and more recently Thanksgiving. There was so much variety, originality and creativity in what the art form had to offer. It will be a fun challenge for 2024 to top all of this.

What did the writers over here at Film Inquiry enjoy the most? Here are their picks for the best movies of 2023!

Coby Kiefert – A Good Person (Zach Braff)

A Good Person (2023)- source: Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Character-driven dramas are my bread and butter. Once I heard about this gripping addiction story, I knew I’d love it, and I was not disappointed. Inspired loosely by his own real-life loss, writer/director Zach Braff told the tale of Allison (Florence Pugh, once again outstanding), a young woman who became dependent on drugs as a result of her trauma from a car accident she was involved in, which caused two fatalities. Over a year after the incident, Allison runs into her ex-father-in-law-to-be, Daniel ( Morgan Freeman), whose daughter was killed in the crash, at an AA meeting. Thus, an unlikely friendship is sparked.

Skillfully balancing harsh, unflinching reality with a well-grounded optimism, Braff smartly didn’t craft Alison’s arc as a completely upward trajectory. Sometimes she took a step forward, then two steps back. It felt a lot more true to how we experience grief and trauma. Florence Pugh’s nuanced performance also made Allison an authentic and flawed person, who struggled to reconcile her guilt whilst also wanting to heal. Morgan Freeman was perfectly believable in how he portrayed Daniel’s bid for connection with Allison. His delivery and body language constantly conveyed the essence genuine empathy for the person who wronged him, combined with understandable hurt over the pain she caused.

When I think of why I go to the cinema, it’s because of films like this. Everything coheres beautifully into a heartfelt experience that I can’t wait to see again and again, preferably on Blu-Ray. It lead me into the darkness without compromise, before showing me the light at the end of the tunnel. Braff and his cast and crew’s skilled commitment to such an intimate vision made for  hands-down the best film I saw all year.

A Good Person
Barbie
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Beau is Afraid
M3gan
Dream Scenario
Oppenheimer
Thanksgiving
Bottoms
Scream VI

Lee Hutton – Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)- source: Toho Co. Ltd

As a self-proclaimed kaiju aficionado, it’s been a long time since I’ve been as excited for a movie as I was for Godzilla Minus One (2023). Written & Directed by visual effects wizard Takashi Yamazaki, this is the first Godzilla movie released by Toho since Shin Godzilla (2016) changed the game. Yet Godzilla Minus One is a much more earnest movie than its forebears, telling its story through historical melodrama, rather than bureaucratic satire. Still, the sincerity is one of the reasons why I loved it so much, and why I even teared up towards the end.

Unlike most of the Hollywood kaiju movies that have come along in recent memory, Godzilla Minus One has an incredible story with well-developed human characters you actually care about. In particular, haunted kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), and wartime orphan Noriko Oishi (Minami Hamabe). Together with an orphaned baby that Noriko rescued during the fire-bombing of Tokyo, this makeshift family struggles to piece together something like a normal life in the aftermath of World War II. But before Tokyo can be fully rebuilt and its citizens come to terms with their massive national trauma, along comes the biggest, nastiest iteration of Godzilla since Ishiro Honda’s 1954 original, wreaking untold havoc in his wake.

Despite having a budget only a tiny fraction of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters, the special effects in Godzilla Minus One are absolutely phenomenal. In addition, the performances, cinematography and music are all top-notch; when Akira Ifukube’s iconic original theme kicks in during the film’s epic climax, I dare you not to get as emotional as I did. In my opinion, Godzilla Minus One is the best movie of the year, and one that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible, with the loudest speakers.

Godzilla Minus One
Anatomy of a Fall
The Boy and the Heron
Priscilla
Oppenheimer
John Wick: Chapter 4
Trengue Lauguen
Fallen Leaves
La Chimera
Afire

Will Bjarnar – Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)

Oppenheimer (2023)- source: Universal Pictures

When I narrow the films I’ve seen throughout the year down for my best-of list, I find myself more stunned to see one slip off the list than to see what lands on it. This year, the first to inspire that shock was one you may not have heard of: Charlotte Le Bon’s Falcon Lake, which I adored when I saw it early in the year, and even more upon rewatch. I originally dubbed it one of the year’s best films — a statement I still believe to be true. But you won’t see it on this list, alongside many other magnificent films.

Year after year, my list of honorable mentions lengthens because of how much great cinema is available. This year saw great works from many great filmmakers — Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Todd Haynes, Sofia Coppola, Jonathan Glazer, Hayao Miyazaki, Wes Anderson, Kelly Reichardt, Wim Wenders, Andrew Haigh, Christian Petzold, and more — as well as introductions to voices we’ll hear from for hopefully decades to come, like Celine Song, AV Rockwell, Daniel Goldhaber, Charlotte Regan, Matt Johnson, and many others.

No matter how many films I viewed in 2023, nothing surpassed Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which looms as colossally in my mind as when I first saw it. This released as half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but felt completely singular. Nolan unravels Oppenheimer’s story as intricately as anything he’s directed, yet it moves at a breakneck pace that’s exhilarating. From its opening thrums to its devastating conclusion, with Hoyte van Hoytema’s camera almost always trained on Cillian Murphy’s best-ever performance as the titular physicist, nothing this year felt as purely cinematic as this. Theory’d only take Oppenheimer so far, but whatever theories Christopher Nolan drew on in crafting his biopic should be studied just as closely.

Oppenheimer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Past Lives
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
All of Us Strangers
May December
The Zone of Interest
Asteroid City
The Boy and the Heron
Perfect Days

Jules Caldeira – Bottoms (Emma Seligman)

Bottoms (2023)- source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

I know my list reads a bit different than the other writers, because I’m a fraud of a film buff who never got around to participating in the Barbenheimer craze, and I’m certain at least one or both films would skew this list significantly (Mission:Impossible would drop off for sure, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a fun ride). However, I know I stand with a lot of people when I say that Bottoms is my top film that I have seen this year.

In 2020, Emma Seligman blew me away with Shiva Baby and I’ve sworn a blood oath to follow her career ever since. Bottoms is insane, delightful, and is a wonderful parody of the teen comedies it lovingly lampoons. I haven’t laughed out loud so hard in a theater since Booksmart. The cast (same oath from above applies to Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, and Ruby Cruz) is incredible, the script is bulletproof, and the action has no business being as good as it is for a teen comedy.

These are also all compliments I could heap on to Polite Society, which flew under everyone’s radar and deserves more love. If you haven’t seen Bottoms, do so today, and bonus points if you double-feature it with Theater Camp, which is perhaps the best decision I’ve made all year.

Bottoms
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Theater Camp
Polite Society
Renfield
Saw X
Joy Ride
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
Asteroid City
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

Clement Obropta – Boston Strangler (Matt Ruskin)

Boston Strangler (2023)- source: 20th Century Studios

Matt Ruskin’s period crime thriller Boston Strangler has not stopped kicking around in my head since I saw it at the start of the year. The story follows female journalists Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon), as they attempt to crack the case of the Boston Strangler when all their institutions — the city government, the police — fail them. There are shades of David Fincher in there, but also the practical feminist ethos and overwhelming darkness of The Silence of the Lambs and the spiderweb horror of Memories of Murder.

The film is not only the definitive telling of the Boston Strangler story, but it’s also one of the best modern detective stories since Se7en, right up there with the likes of Gemini and Zodiac. Knightley has rarely been better, and cinema this year hasn’t been that righteously angry, carefully composed, and tightly wound.

Boston Strangler
Godzilla Minus One
Past Lives
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One
Alice, Darling
Barbie
Reality
No Hard Feelings
Dark Harvest
Blue Jean

Amanda Mazzillo – Blackberry (Matt Johnson)

Blackberry (2023)- source: IFC Films

I never expected a biopic about the rise and fall of the Blackberry to be my absolute favorite film of the year, but Matt Johnson created a wonderfully engaging and often hilarious film that I went back to see two more times. With each time, I fell deeper in love with this compelling and character-driven film. Blackberry is a time capsule exploring how our world is so intrinsically linked with technology, media, and the desire for more.

Blackberry thrives with the ever-changing dynamics between its three key players: Research In Motion co-founders Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson) and their new business-oriented partner Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). Baruchel’s performance captures the slow moral decline of a man replacing passion with a search for more power and relevance. Glenn Howerton’s stellar performance as Jim Balsillie has finally made the world notice his immense talent. He captures the depth of his character, especially highlighting his insecurities hidden far beneath his projected confidence. Howerton balances moments of quiet intensity and boisterous rage to bring his character to life.

Blackberry is a unique biopic that can explore both the upward success and the rapid downfall–and Matt Johnson’s directing and writing with co-writer Matthew Miller captures the dread of losing yourself to capitalist greed and our reliance on technology in a way that keeps you engaged and laughing at its darkly comedic moments.

Blackberry
The Holdovers
Poor Things
Dream Scenario
Sanctuary
When Evil Lurks
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Priscilla
The Starling Girl
Theater Camp

Faisal Al-Jadir – Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi)

Holy Spider (2023)- source: Utopia

There’s so much going on in this film. It gets under your skin. Makes your flesh crawl. Worst of all, it could get you questioning whatever you know about the nature of evil. 

The serial killer in Ali Abbasi’s prismatic Holy Spider is most certainly a demonic presence. Their “stalk & kill” approach is done so methodically…so casually…that it makes you wonder if you can actually trust even those closest to you. 

Their attitude is even more frightening than their bite. They are fully immersed in their crusade and skewed philosophy, hence enabling their diminishing cosmic view.

Yet this destructive entity unravels itself to be not only a somewhat tragic figure, but a fault of the infrastructure they serve. To me, the film poses two very important questions: What defines a monster? And what exactly does it take to create one? This is not the origin of a supervillain as in the case of Todd Phillips’s Joker. Nor is the narrative exceedingly stylised in the vein of David Fincher’s masterwork Se7en. Hell, this almost makes the masterpiece that is Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver look like a children’s pantomime. 

No, this is a descent into the mouth of madness. It’s a voyeuristic tour through the gates of Hell. It’s staring into a cracked mirror, only to see yourself in the belly of the beast. The movie goes out of its way to look ugly, from the gritty cinematography to the questionable actions and behaviours of various characters. The sound design creates a constant state of threat creeping into our most vulnerable senses.

This is a film that is simultaneously innovative and subversive. It makes you wonder how far we’d go to protect our image, while also questioning the very nature of ethics and honour.

Holy Spider
Robot Dreams
Unicorn Wars
Dream Scenario
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Godzilla Minus One
John Wick: Chapter 4
El Rapto
Les Indesirables
Mandoob: Night Courier

Stephanie Archer – Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)

Oppenheimer (2023) – source: Universal Pictures

Each year, I find myself struggling to pick my favorite film of the year, festival darlings final releases consistently changing my top pick. And with the cinematic quality of 2023, I had expected to be met with the same difficulty. Yet, with each new release, I found my number one film of the year becoming clearer and clearer – Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer is a beauty to behold, Nolan‘s magnum opus of cinematic brilliance. It is firing on all cylinders, refusing to lean into the traditional tropes of a biopic while harnessing the power of artistic expression. Three hour films have a tendency to feel their run time, yet as Oppenheimer rolled its closing credits, I found myself wanting more – disappointed that the experience had ended.

An exercise in artistic expression, Oppenheimer gives feeling and emotion to the development of the bomb, a surrealist display of the devastation and truth that lies in its creation. From its opening visuals of ripples in a puddle, to deafening cheers of success, Oppenheimer reaches into the heart of both human ambition and devastation, capturing an end that was justified by the means.

From its very beginning, Oppenheimer defied convention, Nolan‘s screenplay written in first person. It is this defiance of conventional standards that not only led to the screenplay’s release being sold out, but more deeply infused the performance and visuals on screen. This is further elevated both visually and audibly as Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey JR deliver a career best performance, all while each element on screen is caressed and accelerated by Ludwig Göransson‘s both fantastical yet ominous score.

Oppenheimer is one for the cinematic history books, both in box office success and artistic expression. And while Oppenheimer remains my favorite film of 2023, it is sure to be a favorite for years to come.

Oppenheimer
Barbie
Poor Things
Anatomy of a Fall
Zone of Interest
Deepest Breath
Totally Killer
Scream VI
When Evil Lurks
Common Ground

Jake Tropila – The Killer (David Fincher)

The Killer (2023)- source: Netflix

“Lackluster!” would have been my response to 2023 six months ago, when only a small handful of films stood out amongst an ever-growing sea of mediocrity. “Too many movies!” is the mantra I chant now, having since experienced a deluge of suddenly available cinematic delights that, frankly, I’m still working on catching up on. That’s the nature of the beast of life, and while the titles below are by no means definitive, I am perhaps relieved that my main dilemma was figuring out what to exclude rather than include on my list. There is no shortage of fantastic choices this year, but if there’s a clear winner, for me, it’s David Fincher’s The Killer, standing head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. Released on Netflix after a brief theatrical run, The Killer is the kind of slick, impeccably-crafted, and thoroughly entertaining feature that Fincher oft excels at. Starring a never-better Michael Fassbender as the titular Angel of Death, The Killer examines the lone man’s struggle of maintaining an efficient operation under the cruel demands of the modern-day gig economy, which Fincher twists with darkly hilarious results. Gorgeously shot, thrillingly scored (with great aid supplied by the sounds of The Smiths), and executed with deadly accuracy, it’s not one to miss.

The Killer
Fallen Leaves
Killers of the Flower Moon
Asteroid City (plus Anderson’s quartet of shorts: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison)
in water
Trenque Lauquen
Ferrari
Pacifiction
Shin Kamen Rider
Skinamarink

Kristy Strouse – Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

Monster (2023)- source: Toho Co., Ltd.

2023 was an interesting year for film and for the entertainment industry as a whole. There were ups and downs, but the quality of movies – whether it be blockbusters or independent treasures – was consistent. It featured films from first-time directors to auteurs showing they still have it.

Compiling a top-ten list proved challenging, yet one film immediately stood out: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster. Its profound beauty was nothing short of mesmerizing, captivating both intellect and emotion. While numerous films left indelible marks on me this year, none resonated with such depth and emotional intensity as Monster. Sometimes you watch a film and you just know.

The film delves deeply into the nuances of perspective, underscoring its pivotal role in shaping events and influencing our interpretation of the world. Seamlessly blending elements of mystery and drama, Monster boasts exemplary performances across its ensemble cast. As a masterwork, it poignantly captures the intricacies of fragility and human connection with genuine sincerity.

While Monster was my favorite, I felt like many films this year carved out their own cinematic identity. In what I believe to be a wonderful variety, here’s my top ten:

Monster

The Holdovers

Oppenheimer

Asteroid City

American Fiction

Blackberry

Anatomy of a Fall

The Color Purple

Fallen Leaves

When Evil Lurks