The best movies of 2023 (and 4 worst)

The movie theater became a party again, and not just because the patron saint of cinemas Nicole Kidman declared it so. Barbenheimer, Tom Cruise, the Eras and Renaissance concert film extravaganzas, and the TikTok trend-spawning onscreen antics of Barry Keoghan put people in seats in a big way, even as the Hollywood industry at large had been dealing with months-long writer and actor strikes. Of the titles that stood out for the right reasons, here are the best movies of 2023, as selected by EW’s critics — plus a few that stood out for the wrong reasons.

The 10 Best Movies of 2023

10. ‘Barbie’

Barbie breezed into the summer to paint the world pink. The movie takes what could have been an extended Mattel commercial and channels the complicated legacy of the beloved doll into a story about the toxic impact of the patriarchy and the pressures of performative femininity. With a touch of studio system whimsy, director Greta Gerwig trusses up her feminist fantasia in a Technicolor musical package replete with some of the best jokes of the year. Margot Robbie perfectly treads the line between blissful ignorance and tongue-in-cheek awakening as Barbie, while Ryan Gosling is divinely goofy (and surprisingly vulnerable) as “just Ken.” But perhaps the movie’s greatest sleight of hand is its ability to puncture the fantasy of Barbie’s Dream House and pack an emotional wallop while never losing its sense of humor. Life in plastic is decidedly not fantastic, but Barbie is SUBLIME! — Maureen Lenker

9. ‘The Boy and the Heron’

Legendary director Hayao Miyazaki has been threatening to retire for more than 20 years now, vowing with each new film that this one really will be his last. Thank goodness, then, that he reneged on that oath and returned for his first film in a decade, the moving and magical adventure The Boy and the Heron. Inspired by the 1937 Japanese novel How Do You Live?, Miyazaki’s latest is a lavish and heartrending saga, following 12-year-old Mahito (voiced in Japanese by Soma Santok and in English by Luca Padovan) as he grapples with the death of his mother and finds himself sucked into a mystic world of talking birds and twisty dream logic. In many ways, The Boy and the Heron feels like a culmination of Miyazaki’s many interests: the destruction of war, the magic and mystery of flight, the inherent unknowability of death. The original Japanese voice cast is extraordinary, but the English dub also deserves praise, with a stacked cast that includes Dave Bautista, Florence Pugh, Mark Hamill, Christian Bale (who returns to Studio Ghibli to voice Mahito’s father, almost 20 years after starring in Howl’s Moving Castle), and Robert Pattinson (who is delightfully unrecognizable as the heron, shapeshifting between graceful bird and crotchety old man). Mahito’s dream world swings between inviting and horrifying, populated by adorable, blobby creatures and cannibalistic parakeets. But how lucky are we that it’s a world we get to visit? — Devan Coggan

8. ‘The Holdovers’

Of all the presents the year in cinema brought us, the fact that oft-cynical director Alexander Payne delivers the most earnest, feel-good movie of the year is the most surprising. The Holdovers, shot with the grit and lived-in warmth of a 1970s picture, follows a group of misfits thrown together over the 1970 holiday break. There’s curmudgeonly history professor Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti at his most humane), grieving school cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph defining the power of smiling through tears), and troubled student Angus Tully (revelatory discovery Dominic Sessa), left behind by his own family. The film embodies the Christmas carol lyrics of “muddling through somehow,” blending the inherent melancholy of the season with timeless themes of generosity of spirit and goodwill. The Holdovers is a new holiday classic in its blissfully unsentimental tale of found family, a bittersweet reminder that sometimes the greatest gift of all is connection. — M.L.

7. ‘Poor Things’

Poor Things offers up a female Frankenstein mixed with 19th-century bildungsroman as it follows Bella Baxter (a piquant Emma Stone), a reanimated corpse who embarks on a journey of self-discovery under the lascivious guidance of Duncan Wedderburn (a deliciously unhinged Mark Ruffalo). Bursting with visual exuberance, Yorgos Lanthimos’ film is a feminist parable of desire and a life lived unapologetically. Through the unique eyes of Bella, Lanthimos crafts a tale that is both a feast for the eyes and the soul in its reminder that the mere act of being alive is fascinating. That’s certainly true when a film this provocative, romantic, poignant, and daringly funny is there for our viewing pleasure. — M.L.

6. ‘May December’

Like the petals of a flower or the wings of a butterfly, there are many rich layers of meaning to Todd Haynes’ latest masterpiece. On the surface, the story of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) and her much younger husband Joe (Charles Melton, in a heartbreaking performance) bears a strong resemblance to the real-life tabloid story of Mary Kay Letourneau and her student-turned-lover Vili Fualaau. But May December smartly sidesteps the lurid details of true-crime stories in favor of even more unsettling ideas. Instead of seeing how Gracie took advantage of Joe back then, we get contradictory memories explained to Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), an actress seeking to play Gracie in a movie. As the lines blur between fact and fiction, reality and entertainment, May December raises big questions (What is the difference between love and seduction? Is adaptation inherently exploitative?) and teaches us not to expect easy answers. — Christian Holub

5. ‘Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret’

Since its publication in 1970, Judy Blume’s novel has been an enduring favorite with young readers, a heartfelt ode to growing up (and all its accompanying horrors). It’s also a book that Blume herself has fiercely protected, and the author refused to sell the film rights for more than 50 years, until she met with writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen). The resulting film adaptation was well worth the wait, as Craig delivers a sharp, funny, and devastatingly relatable tale, following preteen Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) as she navigates a move from New York City to the Jersey suburbs. The film retains the book’s 1970s setting, but Margaret’s struggles feel enduringly timeless, as she grapples with religion, awkward first kisses, and the general gruesomeness of puberty, guided by geeky dad Herb (Benny Safdie) and frazzled mother Barb (Rachel McAdams, in a warm performance that deserves awards attention). Like the book, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is an instant coming-of-age classic, the kind that will remain relatable for years to come. — D.C.

4. ‘Saltburn’

Perhaps no film is more polarizing this year than Saltburn, a perversely Gothic take on obsession, wealth, and desire that pulls precisely zero punches. Barry Keoghan leads a stellar ensemble as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Oliver Quick. It’s a magic trick of a performance, riveting in the sheer audacity and abandon with which he attacks his most outrageous scenes. When rich, pretty boy Felix (Jacob Elordi) invites Oliver home to the titular manse for the summer, it sets in motion a tragic spiral that draws Oliver into the orbit of the Catton family (brought to life by one of the year’s best acting ensembles). With Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell established her wholly unique voice, but Saltburn refines it, soaking her provocateur’s lens in the excesses of old money and the mesmerizing power of want. There’s no wilder ride at the movies this year, nor one more visually arresting. Saltburn made us lose our minds — in the best possible way. — M.L.

3. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

It’s easy to imagine what Killers of the Flower Moon might have looked like in a lesser filmmaker’s hands. David Grann’s 2017 book centers on the Osage Reign of Terror, when white settlers in 1920s Oklahoma systematically targeted and murdered wealthy Osage people. Another director might have tackled the topic as a dusty period piece, one that keeps its victims (and murderers) at arm’s length. Instead, Martin Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth literally climb into bed with their subjects, zeroing in on the marriage between Osage woman Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone) and her white husband Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio). The result is a film that’s part crime epic, part gut-wrenching marital drama. Over the course of its three-and-a-half-hour runtime, Killers of the Flower Moon spotlights the inherent sickness of the American Dream, revealing an unflinching look at greed, murder, race, and power. Scorsese recruits several of his frequent collaborators for the effort, including DiCaprio and Robert De Niro as Ernest’s powerful uncle. But it’s Gladstone who serves as the film’s beating heart, elevating every frame with a silent glance or a carefully chosen line. More than anything, she makes Mollie feel alive, a reminder that this hundred-year-old story is closer in time than you might think. — D.C.

2. ‘Past Lives’

Much has been made in recent years over the disappearance of heartwarming Hollywood romantic comedies, as superheroes and other blockbuster franchises sucked up all the big-screen oxygen. Maybe that’s why Past Lives, whose writer protagonist Nora Moon (Greta Lee) wonders if she truly belongs with her husband Arthur (John Magaro) or her long-lost childhood sweetheart (Teo Yoo), made such an impact this year. But though there are laughs to be had in Past Lives (Arthur’s novel, which we see him signing in bookshops, is literally called Boner), Celine Song’s directorial debut is definitely more of a romantic tragedy, thanks to the most emotionally devastating gut punch of the year. Still, it feels like a necessary corrective to Hollywood’s recent obsession with the multiverse (represented by some of the worst movies of 2023, as you can see below). Outlandish villains from beyond time and space are tired at this point, but anyone can relate to wondering what other directions your life might have taken. — C.H.

1. ‘Oppenheimer’

Theory and practice. Those are the two poles that define atomic physics, international communism, and Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus. When viewers first meet Cillian Murphy’s incarnation of J. Robert Oppenheimer, he is a theoretical physicist so in tune with new scientific ideas that he can literally see the beauty of the quantum world all around him. He is also a young idealist who can’t help but be sympathetic to the socialist movements that sprouted up across the world between the two great wars. Over the course of the movie, Oppenheimer works hard to bring his ideas into practical reality, only to realize afterward that he may have destroyed the very things he loved so much. Full of big ideas, breathtaking spectacle, and incredible performances, Oppenheimer (along with its eternally entwined opposite, Barbie) points the way to a bright new future for Hollywood movies, while also reminding us not to take the stability of our own world for granted. — C.H.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: All of Us Strangers, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Asteroid City, M3GAN, Priscilla, Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest, Suzume, John Wick: Chapter 4.

The Worst Movies of 2023

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’

The herald of superhero fatigue, the harbinger of CGI overload, Quantumania is superhero movies at their worst. And considering how much was riding on the film setting up Jonathan Majors as the new Thanos for the next “phases” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s shocking how complacent this movie feels as just a thoughtless product of the MCU algorithm. Who knew Marvel’s smallest hero could make such a big mess? — Nick Romano

‘Ghosted’

This dreckish action rom-com made Chris Evans “America’s Ass” in a new sense, with its flaccid pairing of his fish-out-of-water farmer and Ana de Armas’ CIA agent, who has more chemistry with her gun than her costar. Swipe left, trust us. — M.L.

‘The Flash’

This bloated DC dud is utterly devoid of charm or wonder, trading actual storytelling for an endless parade of fan-servicey callbacks and desperate cameos. Also, between this, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Loki, and Everything Every All at Once, we’re officially calling for a moratorium on multiverse stories. The upcoming Spider-Verse sequel gets a pass, but everyone else? You’re on thin ice. — D.C.

‘Expend4bles’

More energy went into where to place the “4” than this franchise that should’ve retired long ago. — N.R.

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