Top ten movies of 2023

Hey folks! The time has come again for me to write my absolute favourite article of the year; the count down of my personal top ten films of the year, regardless of genre.

Small side note for this list, some of these movies were technically released in 2022 at film festivals, but I am basing my selections off the public release dates.

With that out of the way, here is the incredibly tough-to-make 2023 list!

10: The Iron Claw Not for the faint of heart, this film based on the true story of the Von Erich wrestling family and their alleged curse was one of the hardest movies I’ve ever had to put myself through watching. The film just follows traumatic incident after traumatic incident for this family, and even putting it on this list just makes me feel like I’m reviewing a family’s trauma. Carried by a tragic true story and heart wrenching performances from the actors playing the Von Erich brothers (especially Zac Efron & Jeremy Allen White), this film is a must-watch for wrestling fans and cinema fans alike.

9: Asteroid City You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep. If you aren’t a fan of Wes Anderson films, Asteroid City may not be for you. I mean, one of the people I saw it with couldn’t finish the movie. Another addition to Anderson’s arsenal of abstract films, Asteroid City follows the actors on the set of a play. In a stroke of directorial genius, the viewer gets to slowly see the story of the play mirror real life, with the characters being played AND the actors both coming to the realization that their lives have grown stagnant and directionless. A strongly existentialist movie, Asteroid City gets its spot here for impeccable writing, one of the most visually appealing sets I’ve ever seen, and award-worthy performances from Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson.

8: Missing Arguably the best film in the broad genre of horror to come out in 2023, Missing is the second film in the modern anthology series ‘Searching’. Though I probably benefited from seeing this before the first film, I couldn’t help but be enamoured with the artistic medium of the whole movie being filmed from the perspective of in-universe webcams. With strong performances from Storm Reid as the lead and Nia Long as her missing mother, few films have put me on edge as much as Missing did.

7: The Hunger Games: TBOSAS The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes just felt like a love letter to fans of the Hunger Games franchise. Showing us more of the world we’ve grown so attached to in such a new way was one of my favourite experiences of 2023. As I said in my review of the film when it was released, every single actor had such a strong performance, and I was glued to the screen for the full two and a half hours. Must-watch for fans of dystopian universes.

6: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 I guess the MCU still has it? I’m kidding, but in all actuality this is just another hit from talented director James Gunn. With scenes that made me feel viscerally emotional off brilliant performances by Bradley Cooper as Rocket and Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, GotG 3 served as a more-than-satisfying sendoff to this saga of the Guardians.

5: Oppenheimer For a film that I’ve already talked about and one that has since grossed almost a billion dollars at the box office, there isn’t much else I can say about Oppenheimer. Strong philosophical messaging, excellent directing by the legendary Christopher Nolan, and award-worthy performances from Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss. All I can say is just watch the film if you haven’t already, obviously.

4: Talk To Me I have NEVER felt as awestruck exiting a horror flick as I did leaving the theatre for Talk To Me. Gut-punching scene after gut-punching scene, this film directed by YouTube brothers RackaRacka is seriously one of the best thrillers I’ve ever seen. The visual effects were amazing, the actors performed their asses off, the score constantly extended how I was feeling emotionally, and Sophie Wilde more than deserves the mainstream success she’s gotten for her role as Mia. My mouth was wide open in awe and horror the whole time. Just a phenomenal movie.

3: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse This movie was my pick for film of the year all the way up until December. And it still may be. It’s incredibly close. This could be 1st, 1st could be 2nd, and 2nd could be 3rd, they’re all excellent; I’m pulling teeth here. Probably the most visually appealing American animated movie I’ve ever seen, Across the Spider-Verse had an emotional storyline that kept up. Consistently hilarious, gut punching, and candy for the eye, this film is the strongest I’ve ever felt that an animated movie NEEDS a best picture nomination. Its sequel is my most hyped film of next year.

2: Godzilla Minus One If we’re being real, the Japanese have always been better at depicting Godzilla. And Godzilla Minus One is why Oppenheimer is only the second-best film to dive into philosophy following the invention of the atom bomb. Ryunosuke Kamiki as protagonist Shikishima gives arguably the best performance of the year, and this film ultimately succeeds in having something meaningful to say. I don’t know what I was expecting when I went to see this movie about a giant lizard, but it certainly wasn’t a deep dive on the psychology of Japan and the Kamikaze mentality post-WWII.

1: The Holdovers This year saw one film instantly go down as one of my favourite movies ever. This film revitalized the boring Christmas movie genre for me and really launched me into the Christmas spirit, boasting strong found-family messaging. This film is truly the greatest Christmas film I’ve ever seen. This movie, of course, is The Holdovers.

When three people who, due to three very different but all relatable reasons, are left behind at boarding school for the Christmas season, The Holdovers depicts the three becoming close and ultimately finding that even in the hardest times, you can find a family that cares for you. Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa give such realistic grounded performances as teacher and student ‘Hunham’ and ‘Tully’ as they grow to see each other as similar, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph is amazing as a grieving mother.

This whole film is pure art, and I commend everybody who had some involvement in it. I’ve genuinely only felt as connected to the characters of a film on one other occasion, one occasion I may write about soon. But The Holdovers is truly an artistic masterpiece. It feels so strongly like it came out of a place of love and passion and should be the blueprint for Christmas films.

Thanks for reading! For my full list, including possible changes in the top ten, go to my Letterboxd list: https://letterboxd.com/omgmateo/list/every-2023-film-
ive-watched-ranked/ Happy New Year to all

Check out the new podcast at