Top 10 Movies of 2023

9. The Holdovers

The setup for The Holdovers is a familiar one. Three characters who could not seem more different on the surface — ill-tempered professor Paul Hunham, acid-tongued student Angus Tully, and steely cafeteria administrator Mary Lamb — come to understand each other in unexpected ways when they find themselves holed up in Barton Academy prep school over the winter holiday. It’s the performances that are the main attraction. Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are both heavyweights in their own right — if you’re somehow unfamiliar with Randolph, you can rectify that immediately by watching Dolemite Is My Name — but even Dominic Sessa holds his own in his acting debut, with his Angus often going toe to toe with Giamatti’s Hunham. Randolph is undoubtedly the heart and soul of The Holdovers as a widowed mother grieving the loss of her son with quiet dignity and heartbreaking moments of vulnerability.

Writer(s): David Hemingson
Director(s): Alexander Payne

8. Poor Things

Loosely based on the novel by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things is a Frankenstein tale as only Yorgos Lanthimos could tell it. Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter, given life by Willem Dafoe’s surgically-disfigured scientist, is a blank slate from “birth.” As her fetal brain works to catch up to her adult body, we see Bella’s intellectual development shaped by the world around her. Guided by child-like desires that often fly in the face of “polite society” in Victorian era London, she comes to realize the ways in which society seeks to box women in — and rebels against it in favor of charting her own path. Mark Ruffalo gives the best comedic performance of the year as the most pompous of asses. His Duncan Wedderburn, an unscrupulous lawyer who fancies himself a lothario, attempts to sweep Bella off her feet, only to find himself a reduced to a pathetic and emotional wreck when she manages to undermine his every effort to control her.

Writer(s): Tony McNamara
Director(s): Yorgos Lanthimos

7. Anatomy of a Fall

Discussing defense strategies with her lawyer ahead of her trial, Sandra Voyter — a novelist who stands accused of sending her husband plummeting to his death from their isolated chalet in a mountainous region of France — stops to make clear that she did not murder her late husband. Her lawyer’s response: “That’s not the point.” Anatomy of a Fall is not so much about the truth, because the truth can be unknowable. Nevertheless, the courtroom in which much of Anatomy of a Fall takes place serves as the stage for a tug-of-war between the prosecution and the defense, each desperate to prove that their version of the truth is more believable than the other’s. Voyter, in a painfully human performance by Sandra Hüller, must not only maintain her innocence but also finds herself on trial as a wife, a mother, and an author, as the fractures in her marriage are laid bare for all to see.

Writer(s): Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
Director(s): Justine Triet

6. Killers of the Flower Moon

One of the most fascinating behind-the-scenes elements of Killers of the Flower Moon — an adaptation of David Grann’s riveting nonfiction book about the plague of murders that terrorized Osage land owners in 1920s Oklahoma, orchestrated by white men seeking to steal the tribal members’ wealth — is that Leonardo DiCaprio was originally supposed to play lead Bureau of Investigation agent Tom White. But he instead took aim at the role of Ernest Burkhart, the husband of tribal member Mollie Burkhart and a central player in the conspiracy to obtain tribal headrights by any means necessary. That creative decision shifted the narrative from a murder investigation to a morality tale, centering a man who at once seems to genuinely love his wife yet also seems more than willing to aid and abet the murder of her family members if it means he can retain the money, power, and influence he has managed to cultivate.

Writer(s): Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese
Director(s): Martin Scorsese

5. All of Us Strangers

All of Us Strangers is a ghost story of sorts, only screenwriter Adam is haunted long before he returns to his childhood home to find his late parents still living there. They haven’t aged a day since dying in a tragic car accident when he was 12 years old, but seem aware of their fates and of the time that has passed since then, welcoming in their now-adult son as if he were simply paying them a visit after a prolonged absence. All of Us Strangers makes no attempt to address the mechanics of Adam’s experience. Instead, it explores the fantasy of being able to reconnect with the parents who never got to see their boy become a man. In Adam’s case, they never knew that he was gay. Never knowing if they would have loved and accepted him for who he is led him to close himself off to the rest of the world. Andrew Haigh’s film about loss, love, and vulnerability is one that will break your heart but leave you with the hope it can be put back together.

Writer(s): Andrew Haigh
Director(s): Andrew Haigh

4. Godzilla Minus One

The knock against the American-made MonsterVerse movies has been that the human drama fails to measure up to the large-scale destruction wrought by Godzilla, Kong, and the other kaiju. The Japanese-language Godzilla Minus One makes it all look so effortless. Originating as an allegory for the threat of nuclear weapons in the aftermath of the U.S. bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, here Godzilla serves as a stand-in for the post-World War II anxieties of Japanese soldiers left adrift in the rubble of their devastated homeland. The film centers around a kamikaze pilot who failed to fulfill his duty in the final days of the war. He returns home bearing the shame and guilt of his cowardice. Even when a chance encounter with a woman and her adopted child surrounds him with a surrogate family, he can’t fully embrace a new life because of the hold his past has over him. When Godzilla makes his way to the shores of Tokyo, he is presented with an opportunity to make peace with his past.

Writer(s): Takashi Yamazaki
Director(s): Takashi Yamazaki

3. The Iron Claw

Do you believe in curses? The Iron Claw makes mention of the curse said to have afflicted the real-life Von Erich family, but the film itself is less interested in proving the existence of curses than it is in exploring the circumstances that might lead someone to believe in them. And once the film has finished delivering one gut punch after another, mirroring the real-life tragedies that befell the Von Erich wrestling family, you won’t fault Kevin Von Erich for being consumed by the thought that forces beyond his control have set their sights on his brothers. Played by a physically-transformed Zac Efron, Kevin is not only the oldest of his siblings but also serves as their de facto father figure, filling a role left vacant by the actual Von Erich patriarch and his singular obsession. Kevin is the lens through which we endure unimaginable tragedy and come to understand how you can emerge on the other side with your heart and soul intact.

Writer(s): Sean Durkin
Director(s): Sean Durkin