The Best & Worst of 2023

One of the things I noted in last year’s article when reflecting on the year was how choosy audiences were being when going to the theater and how the box office was climbing, but not quite what it was pre-pandemic. I think we saw different problems in 2023’s box office. Where the box office of 2022 was roughly 16% less than that of 2019, the box office of 2023 was still around 13% less than 2019. Every movie in 2019’s top 10 grosses exceeded $200 million. In 2023, only 8 movies in the top 10 exceeded $200 million. In 2019, The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animated Studio, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and LucasFilm made up of 7 of the top 10 highest-grossing movies. In 2023, only Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures made the top 10 with a total of 3 films. The Top 10 featured a much more diverse list of studios in 2023. Universal Studios was right behind with 2 films (The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer). In 2019 and 2022, absolutely no original movies based on spec scripts rather than IP made the top 10 box office. In 2023, two R-rated dramas - Oppenheimer and Sound of Freedom - cracked the top 10.

That all sounds like good news. Yet… the vast majority of films in 2023 either bombed or under performed at the box office, including movies just outside of the top 10 grosses of the year. Movies like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny or Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One with production budgets over $250 million needed to earn over $500 million to break even and failed to make a quarter of that! The same could be said of smaller films with budgets around $25 million. Movies like Joy Ride, Dumb Money, You Hurt My Feelings, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret - all of which earned widely positive reviews - couldn’t make more than $20 million in theaters. Pixar films usually cost around $200 million and earn well over $700 million. Elemental was barely able to break even with less than $500 million. Just about everything hobbled along. There were few success stories in 2023. I think come 2025 we’ll see a tectonic shift in what goes directly to streaming and what goes to theaters - and how big the budgets are of the tentpole movies.

We may also see a lot less comic book movies and franchise revivals and more movies based on toys and video games. Marvel Studios and Warner-DC aren’t necessarily going to stop their train any time soon. But they might slow their roll each year after both experienced poor numbers with several of their projects (especially DC). But The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie were easily the highest-grossing movies of the year. The wrong lessons will probably be taken from both of those, so expect a bunch of Mattel toys and Nintendo games to be green-lighted as films over the next couple of years.

As we go through my assessment of the year it’s important to note I did not get to see every notable film of 2023. The following films have yet to be considered for the lists you’re about to read: All of Us Strangers, Anatomy of a Fall, The Boy and the Heron, Dream Scenario, Eileen, Priscilla, A Thousand and One, Wish, and The Zone of Interest. I only considered movies with a theatrical release schedule, not movies exclusive to streaming services.

With all of that said, let’s get right into…

The Worst

5. Bottoms

You could easily fill a list of terrible movies that came out in 2023, but most of them didn’t have much potential to begin with. There were also a lot of mediocre movies this past year. But what truly makes my list of the worst of the year are those movies that had a certain pedigree or anticipation behind it and just didn’t come together to meet those expectations. Bottoms is my first selection of such a movie. Yes, it’s progressive and a piece of work I’m glad exists more than the alternative. But I expected better execution from Emma Seligman, the director of Shiva Baby. It has moments of brilliance, but it altogether fails to cohere or gel into a satisfying whole.

4. Shazam!: Fury of the Gods

Back in 2019, Shazam! was a surprise success, bringing a lot of much-needed energy and fun to the DC movies. This film is almost an embarrassment for everyone involved. Yes, it involves the “Marvel Family” more and most of that works and is enjoyable. And it is great to see more of the team we got in the third act of the first movie. But the plot is like one of those comic issues you forgot existed and the villains are just as uninteresting as they seemed in the trailers - and that’s particularly awful, considering the likes of Helen Mirren can’t make something out of these roles. There’s too much that fails to make sense throughout. On top of it all, the film immediately undoes a major third act character decision and throws in a couple of odd cameos before the credits finish rolling. For the sake of Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Grace Caroline Curry, Meagan Good, and the film’s leads I really hope these characters get a chance to redeem themselves in James Gunn’s future vision of the DC Universe. Because this would be an embarrassing way for those roles to go out.

3. Renfield

There’s bonkers and over-the-top and then there’s bonkers and over-the-top. Let’s set aside any drastic deviations from Bram Stoker’s classic source material, there is some fun to be had with Renfield’s concept. But it goes right over the line of gratuitous gore and nonsense while also being tonally off-kilter. Nic Cage is relishing the role. But it isn’t enough to make Renfield the wild fun it could’ve been.

2. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

It seemed like 2018’s Bumblebee quietly rebooted the Transformers film franchise with the best Transformers movie ever made thanks to the departure of Michael Bay’s direction. The hope was the next Transformers movie would meet the bar set by Bumblebee. Unfortunately, the choice to adapt the early-’00s CGI animated eye-sore, Beast Wars, got this film off on the wrong foot. Immediately, we’re supposed to accept these robots in disguise as wildlife animals. The film never even addresses the nonsensical nature of that premise once. The ideas get worse and worse, throwing logic out the window much like Michael Bay did in his series. At least there wasn’t much in the way of racism or sexism this time around. That’s a very low bar to step over.

1. M3GAN

At first M3GAN seemed like a nanny-bot version of Child’s Play. But would you believe the original Child’s Play has more going on in its head than this film? The marketing and the phenomenon around the film made M3GAN seem like a film that knew it was bonkers and ridiculous. But, ironically, it wasn’t self-aware enough. It sometimes felt like it wanted to be a straight-forward horror film. But then it barely had any kills and the kills it had weren’t clever or particular to M3GAN in any way. It felt neutered as both a horror film and a wild ride and that makes problems like characters constantly behaving in stupid ways a more glaring issue. Any hint of a sequel in the end caused me to roll my eyes. That’s not what a budding horror franchise wants.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

The Best

10. John Wick Chapter 4

Keanu Reeves is back as John Wick for one last time. Things have escalated even more since Chapter 3 and not only is the High Table after Wick and anyone who helps him, but after Wick kills the one who sits above the High Table the organization hands the Marquis unlimited resources to put an end to the problem. The John Wick films have a stylish mythology all its own and it comes to a thrilling climax here. The action scenes are long, the violence is brutal and the headshots… so many headshots… Donnie Yen is a series highlight. He gives a fascinating performance as a former friend of Wick’s forced to hunt him down. Yen is sympathetic, amusing, and an amazing fighter - quite possibly Wick’s greatest “adversary”. All of the Wick movies are among the best the action genre has to offer the past 20 years. It’s satisfying to see the character go out on a high note.

9. Air

Ben Affleck directs one of his most amusing and crowd-pleasing films, a story about how Nike rolled the dice by putting their entire basketball division budget on one man: Michael Jordan. And they did so not by simply having Jordan endorse their existing shoe line, rather creating a shoe just for him. It’s a business and marketing “how did they do that?!” that most people these days take for granted, but is astonishing to think about - and Affleck helps us reflect on that. But the attention is all on Matt Damon’s Sonny Vaccaro to the point of framing Jordan out of any shots that include his presence. Damon more than capably holds our attention, because his convictions in Jordan inspire and help us understand that sometimes someone comes along with such unmatched potential for greatness that betting everything on them is no risk at all.

8. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Tom Cruise insisted on waiting for theaters to open up post-pandemic to release the latest Mission: Impossible movie. Pandemic-related delays and reshoots upped the budget to over $100 million more than any other entry in the series. As a result, it didn’t quite pay off, falling short of making its money back and landing squarely in the middle of the franchise’s box office history. But I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the best entries of a series that has mostly been incredibly consistent as one of the greatest action franchises ever. Every minute of it is absolutely riveting and newcomers Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Shea Whigham slide into the action perfectly alongside series veterans Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Czerny. It’s easily the best action film of the year.

7. Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the year. Its simultaneous release with a certain Margot Robbie film created a worldwide social media phenomenon, which translated into box office gold, making $326.1 million domestically and $629 million internationally over a $100 million budget. It is Nolan’s highest-grossing movie since The Dark Knight Rises. All of this for an R-rated 3-hour biopic about building nuclear warheads. Dialogue-driven adult dramas simply don’t make that kind of money anymore. Oppenheimer is a financial rarity. As a film, it’s pretty darn good, too - and not simply because the director insisted on creating a real explosion for the Trinity test instead of using any CGI. That may be the film’s major set piece, but not the focus, as this film has something on its mind about the greatness of scientific innovation and the guilt and responsibility one has when their work has horrific ripple effects on history. It’s not Nolan’s best film. But it’s his best film in over a decade - and it’s enough to achieve greatness compared to most.

6. Saltburn

With Saltburn, her sophomore effort after Promising Young Woman, director and writer Emerald Fennell established herself as one of today’s most interesting new filmmakers. Her films have a perspective, they have something to say. Saltburn, a film about an elite English family taking in the schoolmate of one of their adult children, has a lot more going on than its plot. It’s weird. It’s unsettling. But not nearly as much as Promising Young Woman was. Regardless, it’s the kind of film that provokes questions about its messages on class, what ideas characters represent and what is being said through them, and a lot more. It’s one of the year’s richest, most interesting movies, which makes it automatically one of the best.

5. The Holdovers

Director Alexander Payne had a really good run for nearly 20 years. Then he made Downsizing and it seemed maybe he lost his way. With The Holdovers, Payne proves he’s not to be dismissed or underrated as a creative voice. The Holdovers, a tale about boarding school students staying on campus through Christmas break, looked like a fairly middling, heart-warming dramedy. It’s actually one of Payne’s greatest works featuring three of the year’s greatest performances. Paul Giamatti, who was once one of the silver screen’s most reliable talents, hasn’t starred in a great film since 2015. He makes a triumphant return here as the curmudgeonly ancient civilizations teacher who is disappointed daily by his students and tries to berate greatness into them. Da’Vine Joy Randolph has always been a treat in everything from Dolemite is My Name to Only Murders in the Building. She gives her best performance as the school’s head cook and a mother mourning the loss of her son in the Vietnam War. She is the heart of the film. And there’s plenty of heart to go around this film, despite it being about a bristly bunch. Lastly, Dominic Sessa, who makes his debut here, is a real find, holding his own against his seasoned co-stars. The Holdovers is one of the year’s biggest surprises.

4. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese is known for violent crime stories where people walk on egg shells around a mob boss else risk getting “taken care of”. Ostensibly, a 1920s film set in Oklahoma about the First People’s Nation of Osage and their systematic slaughter doesn’t sound like typical Scorsese material. However, the film plays just like Goodfellas in that it’s about one man who controls a town and puts hits on associates who cross him. It just so happens that, in this case, it’s Osage tribal members who own oil-rich land and said man is manipulating his way to legal ownership of the land and the wealth of the Osage. Like Scorsese’s previous crime films, the violence is as casual as it is brutal. It’s all the more brutal given the context. Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio may be the draw, but they aren’t the highlights. What makes the film interesting and unique is the history of the Osage Nation, one that is not widely known, and Lily Gladstone’s performance as Molly, an Osage native who marries Ernest (DiCaprio), the nephew of King (DeNiro), who pretends to be an ally, but actually wants control of all of the Osage wealth. It’s a powerful film and one of Scorsese’s most unforgettable.

3. Barbie

The only way a movie about Barbie was going to be worthwhile is if it was written and directed by the likes of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Those two are the most unlikely of pairs to be attached to a film based on the Mattel doll. But, because they were attached to the project, it was obvious something interesting was brewing. However, Barbie the film ended up being far more than expected: it used the world of Barbie to illustrate a feminist utopia and contrasted it with the patriarchal reality and then the creation of a patriarchal utopia. To think the film advocates a “man-hating” culture is to just not pay attention, because the film ultimately advocates for something between the two utopias it illustrates. More importantly, it attempts to represent the daily struggles women of varying backgrounds face and it accomplishes that with sincerity, wit, and silliness. It’s a significant film. That’s far more than anyone would expect from a movie about Barbie.

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Expectations were high for Across the Spider-Verse. The original 2018 Into the Spider-Verse was one of the most innovative animated movies of the past 25 years. It was also really fun, really clever, and really funny. The sequel met and possibly exceeded expectations. It started off by making the smart decision of focusing on Gwen Stacy for the 20-minute pre-title sequence. Then it shifted to Miles Morales and the introduction of Spot, a character that claims to be Spider-Man’s arch nemesis and out of whom the film gets a lot of mileage. The film snowballed from there introducing Spider-Man 2099 and a gang of multiverse defenders and the stakes climb from there. From a writing perspective it’s an incredible balancing act that feels effortless due to its fast pace, split-screen paneling, and rapid-fire wit. It is one of the year’s most exceptional not just as an animated film, but as a film full stop.

1. Poor Things

Director Yorgos Lanthimos is an unusual director. His films are not for everyone. They’re odd, left-of-center, and sometimes unpleasant. After The Killing of a Sacred Deer I was quite ambivalent about experiencing his work in the future. But his last film, The Favourite, was his most accessible film and it was great. Poor Things is even better. Yorgos and screenwriter Tony McNamara crafted a story about a woman’s self-discovery. Emma Stone gives a career-best performance as Bella, someone who starts with impulsive, toddler-level intellect and articulation and grows into her sexual, physical, and intellectual autonomy. She is constantly being put in prisons by men - social, sexual, or physical. The only person with any authority over Bella who doesn’t try to trap her is a woman. Poor Things is a fascinating film with one of the year’s most interesting characters. It’s a film that invites analysis and discussion. And it’s the funniest film of Yorgos Lanthimos’s career. It is really funny. It’s also got one of the most imaginative production designs of the year. The entire package adds up to the best film of 2023.

Honorable Mentions:

Creed III, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Godzilla Minus One, Past Lives, Joy Ride

That puts the year 2023 to bed! Be sure to check out more content on my Instagram account.

What do you think are the best films of the year? Comment below.