Congrats on making it through another Hell Year, babies! As usual, no matter what happens in a given year, we always have The Movies. And there truly were some great ones in 2023, maybe even a few that aren’t about Barbie. Instead of burdening one writer with the task of naming the 10 best movies of the year, we’ve decided to share the labor and bring you the 25 best movies of 2023.
Below, you’ll find a mix of genres, styles, and sensibilities that transcend the Barbenheimer binary. (Don’t worry, the biggest pop culture moment of the year gets her due, too.) These titles are arranged chronologically by release date, not ranked—because that would require all of us to agree on the ranking, which is foolish. Our time is valuable, and so is yours, so here are The Mary Sue‘s picks for the 25 best movies of 2023.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The last time I saw a Dungeons and Dragons movie, it was the train wreck that came out way back in 2000, so I was wary of Hollywood’s second attempt to turn the classic roleplaying game into a halfway decent film. But Paramount did it! Honor Among Thieves not only has a stellar cast—Chris Pine as a rakish thief! Michelle Rodriguez as a barbarian! Hugh Grant as Hugh Grant!—it’s also brimming with wry humor, lovable characters, and has an emotional core that made me cry. This movie is a keeper. –Julia Glassman
Rye Lane
For the last few years, the internet has bemoaned that “the rom-com is dead.” While there’s some truth to its disappearance from wide box office releases, there’s at least one film that proves the genre is very much still alive each year. (Well, if you’re willing to look beyond the same handful of actors.) Rye Lane was the proof in 2023. This meet-cute starts in a gender neutral bathroom at a mutual friend’s art exhibition. Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) immediately hit it off as they bond over recounting their recent breakups. While getting back at their exes, they start to fall for each other. It’s adorable, messy and also has little easter eggs for fans of the romantic comedy genre—including a special guest appearance. –Alyssa Shotwell
Showing Up
Ladies, has this ever happened to you: You’re trying to finish the sculptures for your art show at the end of the week, but your cat needs food and your landlord (who is also an artist, as she constantly reminds you) leaves an injured rescue pigeon in your care and you don’t have working hot water and all you want is to take a goddamn shower! Showing Up feels so effortlessly, deeply relatable in its depiction of the day-to-day inconveniences and little frustrations that prevent Michelle Williams’ artist from getting things done. It’s another lovely, keenly observed work from Kelly Reichardt, one of our greatest filmmakers. –Britt Hayes
Beau Is Afraid
Confession time: in my initial review, I only gave Beau Is Afraid three stars, so it might seem weird to see this movie pop up on our Best of 2023 list. Here’s the thing, though. Although this movie has some significant flaws, the good parts are really good. Beau’s (Joaquin Phoenix) quest to get home in time for his mother’s funeral is a dreamlike odyssey, filled with thought-provoking moments and some fantastic comic horror. You can space this film out over a few nights if you need to, but it’s definitely worth a watch. –J.G.
Polite Society
We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor makes a splash with her feature film debut Polite Society. British-Pakistani teenager Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) dreams of becoming a stunt woman, but her family is less than enthusiastic. The one person who does support her is her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya), who helps her film stunt videos in their backyard. When Lena falls under the spell of the handsome Salim and his conniving mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha), Ria must save her sister from a dream-crushing marriage. Filled with stylish martial arts sequences and quick-witted humor, Polite Society is a non-stop blast. This genre-bending action comedy is a breath of fresh air and an absolute delight. –Chelsea Steiner
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Who could predict that a sci-fi romp starring a talking raccoon would be one of the best films of 2023? Marvel fans, that’s who. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the final installment in James Gunn’s trilogy about a band of misfits saving the denizens of space, and it sends the team out on a cathartic tearjerker of an adventure. Who is Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper)? What is this tragic backstory of his that we’ve been hearing about for two movies? Spoiler alert: it’ll make you want to hug your loved ones extra tight. – J.G.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Somehow, the second film is just as good—if not better—than the first. The Spider-Verse franchise brings us Miles Morales coming into his own as Spider-Man, and in Across the Spider-Verse, he has to navigate an entire multiverse of Spider-Man characters. And not all of them are friendly. Leaving us on quite the cliffhanger, Across the Spider-Verse is just a great entry in the Spider-Man canon and one that is perfect for fans of the character. –Rachel Leishman
Past Lives
Celine Song’s directorial debut is about reconsidering a lost love while still being happy with where your life ended up. Watching as Nora (Greta Lee) is reunited with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), while her husband Arthur (John Magaro) has to just watch it happen is one of the most stressful and upsetting things to witness. Still, Song manages to bring Past Lives to life in a way that is fascinating and intriguing up until its final moments, which will leave you a wreck. – R.L.
Asteroid City
Wes Anderson knows grief, and in Asteroid City, he depicts it in a picturesque world split between the production of a play and the play itself. What makes Asteroid City such an instant classic in my Anderson ranking is the use of its characters. Anderson lets them make mistakes. They’re not perfect, and they often don’t even know why they are doing things—because often we don’t know why we are doing things. It’s beautiful, sad, and wonderful, all wrapped into one. –R.L.
Joy Ride
In a just world, Joy Ride would have been as big of a hit as Bridesmaids and Girls Trip. This hilariously raunchy adventure follows childhood besties Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) as they travel to China in search of Audrey’s birth parents. Joined by college friend-turned-snobby actress Kat (Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu) and Lolo’s awkward Kpop-loving cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), the women encounter drug dealers, basketball stars, and rabid Kpop fans in their quest to find answers.
Not only is Joy Ride hysterically funny, but it hits all the right emotional beats. Destined to be a cult classic, Joy Ride is an absolute romp from start to finish. –C.S.
Barbie
Greta Gerwig’s modern masterpiece could have easily been a forgettable, by-the-numbers franchise film. Instead, Barbie became an unexpectedly iconic feminist anthem that resonated with audiences across the globe. From its lavish and original production design to its deeply funny and moving thesis on the endless contradictions of womanhood, Barbie took a global brand and turned out the most surprising thing of all: a wholly original work of art.
With phenomenal performances by producer/star Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie subverted expectations and delivered the most talked-about film of the year. Sure, Barbenheimer was the meme of the summer. But 2023 was decidedly the year of Barbie. Everything else was just Ken. –C.S.
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece is not only a showcase of Nolan’s work over the years, but it also demonstrates how historical dramas can still be interesting to audiences. A masterclass in filmmaking and artistry, Oppenheimer is easily the best film of the year, in my opinion. Just brilliant all around, with a third act that sticks the landing and continues to shine the more you watch it. –R.L.
Talk to Me
Nobody does horror like A24, and Talk to Me, directed by the Philippou brothers, is the latest addition to its formidable catalog. Mia (Sophie Wilde), grieving over the death of her mother, discovers that her friends are getting high by conjuring spirits, and she wants in. However, things go wrong when the barrier between the spirit world and the real world starts to break down. This horror flick has it all: a creative premise, fantastic performances, some skin-crawling scares, and just the right amount of gore. –J.G.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
While the film’s messages on assimilation are suspect at best, I otherwise loved this movie. Seriously, I’m not a TMNT-head, but this was one of the most fun films I’ve watched in theaters in years. I left the theater feeling hyped and considered buying a cool purple staff like my boy Donatello for a second. Serving as another origin story, Mutant Mayhem follows the turtles, who just want to live like normal teenagers. In addition to struggling with this tension, their father, Splinter, has his own very real reasons for distrusting humankind. The animation is gritty and grimy in the way only a story about sewer-raised mutant turtles could be. Rivaling the exquisite soundtrack are the turtles themselves. Jeff Rowe, Seth Rogen, and whoever else decided to cast actual teenagers—Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon—deserve their flowers. Did I mention Ayo Edebiri plays a camera shy April O’Neil?! –A.S.
Passages
Out: Prestige drama (The King’s Speech, Kate Winslet doing accent work in a beige frock, a monologue delivered by a pile of powdered wigs in a waistcoat). In: Prestige melodrama. This year, Ira Sachs and Todd Haynes reclaimed melodrama from the gutters of reality TV and gave us two of the best films of 2023.
In Sachs’ Passages, Franz Rogowski plays a narcissistic filmmaker who casts himself as the main character in a love triangle with his longtime partner (Ben Whishaw) and the sexy woman he dances up on at the club (Adele Exarchopoulos). It is endlessly entertaining to watch this little chaos demon bounce around in a series of crop-tops and chic ratty sweaters, making an absolute mess of his intimate relationships. While often amusing, Passages is also incredibly sexy, and features Rogowski and Whishaw in one of the hottest sex scenes of the year. –B.H.
Bottoms
This was probably one of my most anticipated movies of the year. Even before I knew the premise of Bottoms—two girls start a fight club to hook up with the hot girls at their high school—I knew I would be seated. That’s because I love the three main creative voices involved. I became familiar with co-writers Rachel Sennott (also the co-star) and Emma Seligman (also the director) through the dark funeral comedy Shiva Baby. Then, there’s one of my new fave actresses, Ayo Edebiri of The Bear fame. While I’ve yet to see either, Bottoms has been described as a cross between Heathers and But I’m a Cheerleader. The story and writing both poke fun at the high school rom-coms of the ‘90s and ‘00s, while also showing reverence for the subgenre. –A.S.
Fair Play
The opening scene in Fair Play seems somewhat frivolous until the conflict arises, at which point it becomes a brilliant, incredibly economical character introduction. Chloe Domont’s directorial debut opens with Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) performing oral sex on his soon-to-be fiancée Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) in a bathroom at a wedding. When he surfaces for air, they realize that Emily is menstruating. As they cutely laugh it off, covered in blood, Luke takes the opportunity to propose.
In the light of day, Emily and Luke are financial analysts at a competitive hedge fund. When Emily gets a coveted promotion and Luke doesn’t, his ego is put to the test. As Luke grapples with his identity and what he perceives as a dynamic shift in their relationship, Emily similarly navigates her position in a male-dominated industry. The opening scene of Fair Play effectively introduces Luke as one of the good guys, making it easy to see from his perspective and root for him to destroy his ego before it curdles into violent misogyny. The male ego is so fragile and easily broken, after all. –B.H.
Dicks: The Musical
God* willing, Dicks: The Musical will soon become a cult classic. Written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, Dicks is a MacGruber-level comedy masterpiece filled with absurd humor heightened to the stratosphere. Jackson and Sharp also star in Dicks as two strangers who discover they’re actually “fucking identical twins” separated at birth by their parents, played to unhinged perfection by Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally—two actors whose ability to commit to a bit is legendary. Featuring a showstopping number from Megan Thee Stallion and the most ridiculous sex scene committed to film since Team America, Dicks is a modern cinematic miracle.
And I haven’t even mentioned the scene-stealing Sewer Boys! (Don’t Google, just see it.) –B.H.
*who is gay and played by Bowen Yang.
Killers of the Flower Moon
I know people see that three-hour runtime and roll their eyes. There were two major historical films that came out this fall and this was not the one that felt like three hours. Still, based on my experience (and others), it might be better to watch at home. Killers of the Flower Moon is an engrossing character study of key figures in the 1920s Osage murders. Namely Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), and William Hale (Robert De Niro). The Burkharts helped orchestrate a slow-drip massacre to get the headrights (i.e., deed) of the Osage, after the land they were forced onto was discovered to be oil-rich.
Based on David Grann’s research for his 2017 book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon takes the history and makes the white violence and complicity unavoidable—all while making connections to other regions’ histories of racial violence (such as Tulsa) and highlighting many contemporary issues facing Native Americans today. Speaking of, Indigenous people had a mixed response to the film, including valid criticisms that should be heard. –A.S.
The Killer
What’s better than David Fincher dunking on insecure men? David Fincher dunking on himself. The Killer casts Michael Fassbender as an assassin who, through a lengthy opening monologue, asserts himself as a perfectionist of the highest order. He is deliberate and precise, agile (in both mind and body), and—despite what his bucket hat suggests—impeccable in every way. He spends hours carefully setting up the perfect shot … and then he fucks up.
Very loosely based on a French graphic novel, The Killer is equal parts propulsive thriller and hilarious skewering of Fincher’s near-mythological persona, with a brief runtime that almost reads like a punchline in his filmography (89 minutes!). Featuring sharp performances from Tilda Swinton and Charles Parnell and an impressively economical script from Andrew Kevin Walker, The Killer is all hits, no misses. –B.H.
Priscilla
If you’re a frequent TMS reader, you’re probably tired of seeing this movie across various lists. I first sang Priscilla’s praises in our list of the “underrated” movies of 2023 as it looks like the film barely broke even at the box office. Then I included it in the best needle drops of the year. Sofia Coppola’s film, starring Cailee Spaeny in the title role, really deserves to be on all the great lists because it’s that bitch. Based on Priscilla Beaulieu’s memoir, Priscilla follows her time with Elvis Presley from their first meeting when she was a teen, to his grooming of her and their marriage. Priscilla balances the teenage dreamlike haze of being swept away by a rockstar and his posse with the loneliness of being the stay-at-home girlfriend to said celebrity. Having very complicated feelings about Coppola’s body of work, I had my concerns going in. However, Priscilla ended up being one of my favorite movies of the year. –A.S.
May December
This year’s other great melodrama is May December, starring Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, an actress who embeds herself with the family of the woman she’s signed on to play in an upcoming film. Played by Julianne Moore, Gracie is a tabloid sensation who gained notoriety for marrying and starting a family with the pubescent boy she groomed and raped. Directed by Todd Haynes and written by Samy Burch (whose script was inspired by the real-life story of Mary Kay Letourneau), May December mines its moral complexities for morbid humor that verges on camp. Portman and Moore are unsurprisingly excellent in this exploration of how narratives are distorted and magnified by the media, which often acts as an accomplice in traumatizing the actual victims. Charles Melton gives a revelatory performance as Gracie’s husband, Joe, who is stuck in a precarious state of arrested development. –B.H.
Poor Things
Poor Things is Yorgos Lanthimos’ most visually stunning film, and certainly the most gorgeous film released this year. I can’t stop thinking about the cinematography, the impressive production design and world-building, the color palette, and Willem Dafoe’s beautifully scarred and fleshy face. Like its protagonist, Poor Things is far more than the sum of its lovely parts.
Emma Stone is Bella Baxter, a woman revived from the dead through the Frankensteinian engineering of Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe). Poor Things traces Bella’s coming of age from infancy through sexual awakening and intellectual exploration; from her navigation of senseless social mores in an otherworldly version of Victorian London, through her discovery of agency. Mark Ruffalo is in total clown mode as a pitiful, narcissistic cad, and Ramy Youssef shows film audiences what fans of Ramy, his FX series, have long known: he’s a real-deal actor.
In a certain light, Poor Things is a film for the Free Britney era that interrogates the limits of our control over women’s bodies and their livelihoods. Stone makes an absolute feast of the role, delivering her best physical and emotive work yet in a film that is incredibly hilarious and surprisingly poignant. –B.H.
The Zone of Interest
When most studios play it safe to make sure films turn a profit, it’s nice to know that there’s still some room for innovative filmmakers to take risks. The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s examination of the commander of the Auschwitz death camp, is as fascinating as it is horrifying. The film makes use of creative camera techniques and a chilling sonic landscape to present the story of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), who leads a pastoral life with his family next door to the camp. –J.G.
The Iron Claw
Trying to nail the tragedy of the Von Erichs isn’t easy, but The Iron Claw manages to bring the story of the famous wrestling family to life. Sean Durkin’s film follows the Von Erichs through the deaths of most of the brothers, highlighting the tragic history of their wrestling legacy and how it affected Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) over the years. It’s heartbreaking and upsetting, yet that’s also why so many wrestling fans have been fascinated by this family. The Iron Claw reminds us why the Von Erichs are still one of the most compelling families out there. –R.L.
(featured image: Warner Bros. / Searchlight Pictures / Paramount Pictures / Apple Original Films / MGM / A24 / Sony Pictures Animation / Illustration by The Mary Sue)
