It was a thrilling year for moviegoers, whether they chose to make a trip to the theater or stay home and take advantage of the countless streaming services at their fingertips. This year’s film releases also ran the gamut from grizzly bears snorting cocaine to overstimulated Swifties.
Whatever your genre of choice, there was more content available than any human could consume in 12 months. Below is the list of the Current’s 10 favorite films of 2023.
1. Poor Things
An absurdist exploration of bodily autonomy and toxic masculinity, director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) created a weirdly dark and remarkable romantic comedy that also plays like a Frankensteinian monster movie — with orgasms. The film follows the bizarre journey of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a corpse given new life who ventures out to discover what makes her happy. Bella’s biting sarcasm and wit is a perfect fit in Lanthimos’ eerily beautiful world.
2. Oppenheimer
Epic in scale and substance, writer-director Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) has arguably produced the best film of his impressive career. At the center of the historical drama is J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), a theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Nolan delivers a nuanced script that avoids labeling its title character as a hero or villain and turns a complex and defining moment in history into a pulse-pounding thriller.
3. Barbie
While plenty of eyes probably rolled at the initial thought of a Barbie movie, in the hands of co-writer and director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) and co-writer Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha), it became not only the biggest blockbuster of 2023 but one of the most thought-provoking social commentaries and empowering mainstream comedies in recent years. The “I’m Just Ken” scene should be playing on a loop in the Louvre.
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
Director and co-writer Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) has packaged together a harrowing look at the mass murders that took place in the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. At the center of the devastating narrative is Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an Osage whose family’s oil wealth makes her a target of her white husband (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his uncle (Robert De Niro). Scorsese’s vision is masterful as he confronts the sensitive subject matter in a respectful manner.
5. Origin
Based on the 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, this film by writer-director Ava DuVernay (Selma) is an intimate, moving and powerful look at the impact of the caste system across the world. The film follows Isabel (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as she researches the complexities of caste and how it ties different societies together in unsettling ways. DuVernay dramatizes Wilkerson’s written words on screen with compassion and courage.
6. All of Us Strangers
Writer-director Andrew Haigh (45 Years) reflects on grief in his dramatic ghost-story romance adapted from a 1987 novel. The film tells the story of Adam (Andrew Scott) and Harry (Paul Mescal), two strangers in London who begin a relationship at the same time one of them is having an ongoing metaphysical experience with his late parents, who died when he was a child. It’s a fascinating and touching narrative that will stir the soul.
7. The Zone of Interest
Set in Auschwitz in 1943, writer-director Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) introduces audiences to Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) as they work to turn their house, which sits just outside the walls of a concentration camp, into their dream home. Glazer takes a minimalist approach to the storytelling, but the film is still beyond disturbing. Removing the violence doesn’t cloud the mind’s eye.
8. The Holdovers
Stuck at a boarding school in New England for the holiday break, a cranky teacher (Paul Giamatti), spurned student (Dominic Sessa) and bereaved cafeteria worker (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) try to make their time together as joyful as possible in director Alexander Payne’s Christmas dramedy. Payne (Nebraska) finds the humor in his most emotionally damaged characters, so his reunion with Giamatti for the first time since Sideways is a delight.
9. Society of Snow
The survival film co-written and directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible) follows the true story of a 1972 plane crash in the Uruguayan Andes that stranded the survivors of a rugby team for more than two months before they were rescued. The tragedy was adapted into the 1993 film Alive, but Bayona’s interpretation goes beyond sensationalism. Instead, he crafts a thriller that’s both uplifting and awe-inspiring.
10. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
As much ground as the original 2018 Spider-Verse animated film broke, the web-slinging sequel takes the Marvel superhero to new heights. The artistry is jaw-dropping, and the script is absorbing throughout. Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) will likely end up with his own live-action movie in the future, but the visual language of this franchise will be difficult to beat.
Honorable mentions: 20 Days in Mariupol, Anatomy of a Fall, The Iron Claw, Maestro, May December, Past Lives, Priscilla, Radical, Saltburn, Wonka
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From a Frankensteinian rom-com to a web-slinging sequel, these rank as 2023’s best movies
Poor Things, Barbie and more are among Current’s 10 favorite films of 2023.
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