Year Ender: Top Ten Films of 2023

In a cinema culture marked by decadence and decaying individuality, the best films of the year creatively resist the studio destruction of art and suppression of vision with bold statements of visual-sonic distinction. According to some critics, 2023 was a legendary run; for others, it was filled with asinine “content.” In truth, it’s the same as it always is—viewers just need greater discernment to find what’s worth watching. (Hint: it’s not Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.) That’s the exercise and responsibility of Year Enders.

The number of new releases I endured, including many through my multi-outlet coverage of several festivals, would sicken most normal filmgoers. 2023’s Barbenheimer glimpsed the turning tides of the box office, further evidenced by the financial success of Godzilla Minus One and The Boy and the Heron; it’s difficult to tell what direction the studios will learn from the capsulated pop-sensation. Any direction they go—for better or worse—should at least signal a new populist hegemony. Neither of those films made this list, though I appreciate their out-of-the-box thinking. (I enjoyed Barbie; it’s doubtful the technical incoherence and pseudo-intellectualism of Christopher Nolan’s films will ever pop up on one of my Best Of lists.)

The year’s best films come from all over the world, and that’s by no coincidence. With each passing year, American cinema curdles into a less and less interesting form of itself as it becomes more and more predictable and hyper-commercialized. Hopefully, the nails are being put in the coffin of the superhero genre as I write this and films like Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire can point us to a better Hollywood. In the meantime, it’s prudent to look elsewhere.

Baltic cinema shines bright with a few films on this list, as well as the fascinating experimental documentary Burial on the decommissioning of a nuclear plant in Lithuania. Twittering Soul, a film doubtful to ever show in the US and one that will not receive a 2D release, reconsiders the stereoscopic canvas entirely and uses the possibilities of extended depth to realize images designed exclusively for three dimensions. As is often the case, it was also a good year for both France and Japan, the latter of which is one of the only countries of production that makes multiple appearances on my final list. In a French movie just outside my top 15, Alban Lenoir extends his status as one of the best-acting stuntmen and onscreen fighters with the Netflix-distributed AKA, one of the very few good action movies this year. Between AKA, May December (which I haven’t seen yet), and Rebel Moon, Netflix also had an impressive year balancing auteurist and public discourse generative films.

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