I did a year-end data project again! But this time, I made a video countdown.
So why these films and in this order, you may be wondering? I’m so glad you asked.
This year, I started with a list of ~400 films that came out in 2023… all the major and minor films I could find, including both theatrical and streaming-only releases. The top 100 ranking was determined using data from multiple sources organized into three categories:
- Popularity: highest rank achieved on the IMDB moviemeter (i.e. IMDB’s ranking of movie page views each day), number of IMDB rankings, number of Letterboxd views
- Quality: Metascore, percentage of Letterboxd rankings that were 4 or higher, average if critics’ and audiences’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes
- Influence: Award wins and nominations, Film Festival selections, Buzz (did it maintain or increase its Moviemeter ranking over its first two weeks of release?), film critics end of year top 10 lists, plus a little boost for underrepresented voices and stories (films that are by/about or about women, by or about people of color, center people who are LGBTQ, center people with disabilities, or are in a language other than English)
Films must have been released to the general public in the U.S. (as in, at least most major cities – NY and LA only don’t count) during the 2023 calendar in order to be eligible for consideration – so some favorites from critics’ top 10s that weren’t yet available to regular people to see (ex: All of us Strangers and Zone of Interest) were excluded from consideration.
Each rating in each category was determined on a custom curve created by this year’s range of data and, using some nerd tricks, combined in a thoughtful and consistent way to determine a unique score for each film, which is used to create the ranking. The full spreadsheet is here for the curious. I do this every year, and even though I never get it done until the Academy Awards broadcast, I just enjoy it! Thanks for being here to share it with me.
The full list is available on my Letterboxd page with some additional notes about the categories and rankings in which each film spiked.
Midnight Awards
Top Honors
I was moved and impressed by many films this year, but for me, these two are a cut above the rest. Christopher Nolan’s biopic is an epic poem about forces of the universe beyond our imagining and the seeds of doom planted deep in the modern world – wrapped in the package of a biopic. Cillian Murphy is a force, to be sure, but this film is an explosion of fire far beyond one person’s story – even one so brilliant, contradictory, and world-shaping as Dr. Oppenheimer.
As much as Nolan’s film elucidates the architecture of our doom, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things fizzes, bubbles, and sparks with undiluted, soul-stirring possibility. Curious, colorful, shocking, goofy, assertive, intelligent and dazzling, Poor Things overflows with ideas and potential. Lively and uncontainable, I left the film buzzing with energy, excited to talk, my own imagination lit and expansive.
Most Deranged
It was hard to figure out to call the Midnight Award these won, exactly. They were both thrilling and colorful and unpredictable and satisfying. Both deeply troubling and quite funny. So I landed on “Most Deranged, and if you’re us, that’s high praise!
I know people are very divided on Beau Is Afraid, but it is the most interesting, fantastical, tense, mundane, surreal, unpredictable, anxiety-riddled panic attack of a film I’ve ever seen. Don’t let the squares hold you back from this gloriously weird and beautiful ride. And Saltburn is sparkly, gorgeous, pervy fun; populated with innocents and weirdos, creeps and tragedies, idiots and assholes, its nastiness is well-earned and deeply satisfying. There are so many parties, and Jacob Elordi is so pretty, and you get to see Barry Keoghan do all sorts of unusual, occasionally naked things. Both highly recommended!
Most Fun
It is absolutely shocking that BOTH 2023 blockbuster films based on existing cultural iconography not only totally nailed the spirit of their IP but were also so surprising! Insane kudos due to Queen Greta Gerwig – Barbie had no business being so hilarious, so tender, or so insightful, but somehow it is! And although you don’t need to be familiar with D&D at all to enjoy Honor Among Thieves, if you are, the inside jokes just sprinkle extra delight into this hilarious, fast-paced, heartwarming fantasy adventure. (Charisma King Chris Pine strikes again!)
Highlights from the Data
Top 5 Horror Films
The best of these are Talk to Me and When Evil Lurks. The former is an A24 release with a standard “teenagers set a demon on the loose” plotline, a bleak outlook, and a sinking sense of dread. It also appears to be heavily influenced by Hereditary, so some of the sequences are startlingly great.
When Evil Lurks is an Argentinian film that is not afraid to be the most fucked up thing you’ve ever experienced. My favorite Letterboxd review sums it up:
This is the meanest horror movie I’ve ever seen. It makes Speak No Evil look like Paw Patrol. There are images I will never be able to pry from my brain.
This isn’t popcorn horror. And it isn’t violence so over-the-top that you can make it abstract, make it fun. No, no. If you see this surrounded by loved ones you might be merely shocked. My theater was empty, utterly. I was alone.
And I feel like I’ll be alone forever. (Kit Lazer)
Top 5 Romance
This is a strong top 5! Joyland is a Pakistani film about how the patriarchy punishes everyone with a tender trans love story at its center, Fallen Leaves is nicecore Finnish romance for the working class, and Love at First Sight knows the formula and does it well with the capable Haley Lu Richardson steering the emotional ship. But the best romances of the year are chart-topper Past Lives and the surprising little delight, Rye Lane.
The former is probably already on your watchlist, and if it’s not – I encourage you to add it now! Celine Song’s tender, confident debut integrates the complexity of cross-cultural identity with the loves that form us into ourselves. Song centers her film on our inevitable restless wondering about the paths not taken and who we might’ve been, and Nora’s journey through the film’s central encounter is compassionate and mature. I was stunned by how my heart ached through its elegant final scene.
The best rom-com of the year has earned significantly less renown, but the consensus is that Rye Lane is an absolute delight. Following two young strangers – both reeling from recent breakups – through the encounters of an unexpected day in South London, Raine Allen-Miller’s feature-length debut is charming, funny, energetic, and a visual sparkler. One Letterboxd reviewer described it as a film that loves life and many mentioned that it is difficult not to fall in love with its earnest joy. It’s on my list!
Top 5 Mysteries
The best mystery of the year is Anatomy of a Fall, a smart drama that scratches that whodunit and how did it happen itch, while immersing those central questions in the murky complexity of partnership through tragedy, the compounding everyday accusations and betrayals passed between married partners, and the massive web of artmaking and public persona that constantly shape the stories we tell ourselves about one another.
The unhyped but deserving They Cloned Tyrone confidently blends Blaxploitation and scifi with style and humor in a socially conscious conspiracy thriller starring Teyonah Parris, John Boyega and Jamie Foxx. If you enjoyed Sorry to Bother You or Get Out, this movie is for you. And it’s on Netflix. So easy!
Top 5 Heartbreakers
Any of these will do if you need a good cathartic cry (and who doesn’t these days?), but the best crying comes from the Europeans this year. The Belgian film Close centers on a tender friendship between two teenage boys. Interested in the way a world that is hostile to male intimacy shapes their relationship and each of their identities, the film stirs grief and survivorship with the vulnerability of adolescence.
Speaking of vulnerability, the Irish film The Quiet Girl follows a neglected 9-year-old sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with relatives for the summer. Restrained and empathetic, Letterboxd reviewer woolbastard put it well in their review: “they really got the feeling of when you’re a child and things just happen to you and everything dimly feels like your fault.” The young leads of both films are amazing. Bring your own tissues!
Top 5 Heartwarmers
There’s hope for your heart, though! If the winter doldrums have struck you down this year, get help from Paul Giamatti and Judy Blume. The awkward anxiety and ridiculous absurdity of becoming a teenage girl is the focus of Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret, an instant-classic coming of age film directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen). So effortless, funny, and just lovely from start-to-finish, and featuring a slam-dunk perfect Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates.
In Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti is a grumpy history teacher with a chip on his shoulder who is forced to bond with a sassy but sad rich kid and a grieving mother while weathering winter break on the mostly abandoned campus of a New England boarding school. Features what has to be one of film’s all-time best handshakes.
Hidden Gems
Although none of the below films were popular or influential enough to appear in the top 100, each earned a quite high overall quality rating (higher, in fact, than 40 films in the top 100). Expand your watchlist and seek out one of these gems!
And that’s it for this year! What movies from last year did you love? Share in the comments – I’d get a kick out of hearing from you. And get out there and see Dune: Part 2, it’s great – and it’s definitely worth seeing in the theater if you can.
Cheers!
-Betsy Midnight-
Midnight Movie Train 