The Very Best Films of 2023, According to W Editors

2023 may forever go down as the year of the great Barbenheimer debate (or double feature, depending on your tastes), but that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of other films to satiate our thirst for great movies. From a courtroom drama to an adaptation of a beloved children’s book, there was something for everyone this year—even in the drought of the on-going strikes. Below, in no particular order, W editor’s favorite films of the year:

Anatomy Of A Fall

Anatomy Of A Fall is definitely not your average trial drama. While much of the film does take place inside of a chaotic French courtroom, and a final verdict is agreed upon, the audience is left wondering whether Sandra (played by Sandra Hüller) is culpable for the death of her husband. And it seems that was an intentional choice from director Justine Triet, who was awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for her effort. Anatomy Of A Fall is intense, confusing at times, and blurs the lines between fact and fiction. And that’s what makes it so great. —Matthew Velasco, News Writer

Past Lives

Celine Song’s feature directorial debut Past Lives had me experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions—heartbreak, happiness, and nearly everything in between. A scene towards the end of the film, which literally took my breath away, had me shedding a few tears. Lead actors Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are phenomenal throughout the film, able to convey so much without saying anything at all. Special shout out to the soundtrack and stellar cinematography, both of which added so much to the narrative. —MV

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

I watched this with my mom and we both agreed that Benny Safdie is daddy. —Ysenia Valdez, Senior Social Media Editor

Passages

Passages’s basic plot (a man in a long-term same-sex relationship has an affair with a woman) might make you think it’s going to be a very modern meditation on the fluidity of sexuality. It’s not that at all. Instead, it’s a movie about a fuckboy in a crop top. Or, to put it more nicely, a classic tale of heartbreak flipped by focusing on the toxic artist who commits it (in this case multiple times). You’ll fall in love with lead Franz Rogowski as an actor, but come to hope something very bad happens to his self-absorbed film director character by the time the film’s tensely meditative final scene rolls. The film gets bonus points for its distinct wardrobe choices (again: crop top, but the knitwear is great) and for being this year’s biggest retort to the idea that sex scenes add nothing to a movie’s plot. There are lots of them to be found, and they basically are the plot. —Kyle Munzenrieder, Senior Editor, News and Strategy

May December

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore have an absolute actress-off for the ages in a sort of Persona meets To Die For set-up in Todd Hayne’s loosely Mary Kay Letourneau-inspired May December, but it’s Riverdale alum Charles Melton whose heartbreaking performance sneaks up on you. By the end of the film, I was tearing up any time he appeared on screen. I tear up reading every interview he gives about the film. I tear up each time he wins an award for the film. The slow reveal of Melton’s character as the film’s true heart is all a part of Samy Burch’s genius script that reminds us our collective scandal and true crime obsession often only serves to background the actual victims, exploiting them again in the process. Oh, it’s also really funny. Be sure to put a few extra hot dogs on the grill before sitting down to watch it on Netflix. —Kyle M

Poor Things

Poor Things made me feel a lot of things, which is more than I can say for many films this year—so that reason alone is enough to put the Yorgos Lanthimos dark comedy at the top of my list. I’ll always love an Alice in Wonderland style trip down girlhood lane, and Emma Stone’s embodiment of a woman coming alive to the world around her, and outgrowing the men in her life in the meantime, made this one a truly memorable watch. —Claire Valentine, Culture Editor

Barbie

I’ll say it! Barbie may not be the prestige film that makes everyone’s best-of-2023 lists but it’s the one film that I walked away from the theater and said, out loud, “Well, that was fun!” Admittedly my expectations were low after such a long run-up to its release. And sure, some of the Feminism 101 dialogue is a bit cringe-y. But the jokes are quick, sharp, and plentiful in that 30 Rock sort of way. And the fact that Greta Gerwig managed to get away with as much subversion as she did under the watch of Big Mattel is truly a cinematic feat worth celebrating. Ultimately, I laughed, I cried, and I wondered what exactly I was laughing and crying about—in other words, it really brought me back to the mental state of being a child and not having a full grasp of what was going on (and I liked it.) —Katie Connor, Executive Editor

A Thousand and One

Teyana Taylor is deserving of all the accolades she has received for her performance in A Thousand and One, and then some more. The film illustrates multiple social, economic, political, and personal dilemmas faced by people in the United States without dehumanizing anybody. The characters are charming, flawed, and nuanced (like real people often are). And the ending is one of the best plot twists I’ve seen in a film. —Ivana Cruz, Art Director

Radical

I saw Radical during this year’s Sundance because Eugenio Derbez is in it and I’m a longtime fan of his. I loved it because it does an incredible job of depicting an extraordinary true story. Derbez brilliantly plays the part of Sergio Juárez Correa, a Mexican educator who dedicated his career to teaching and guiding his students in ways that would help them improve their lives—even when it meant going against the state-determined curriculum. He is a reminder that some teachers are real-life superheroes. We don’t often get to see optimistic portrayals of life in Mexico near the border, and although this film is heartbreaking, it should be on everyone’s watchlist. —IC