1) Killers of the Flower Moon Essential examination of the evil, banal nature of white supremacy. Lily Gladstone deserves the world!
2) Poor Things Weird, wonderful journey toward self-actualization that relishes bodily pleasures and the complications of being human.
3) Past Lives How do we say goodbye to the people we once called home? Devastating and disarming!
4) May December Whip-smart, skin-crawling look at the realities of tabloid fodder and what happens when it unravels.
5) Skinamarink Slow, dreadful reignition of childhood fears. Best watched in complete darkness!
6) A Thousand and One A family saga set in NYC over multiple decades understands the political is always personal.
7) Huesera Unsettling treatise on how destructive societal expectations and motherhood can be to someone’s identity.
8) Bottoms The gleefully anarchic, queer, absurdist high school comedy I didn’t know I needed!
9) Oppenheimer A biopic that matches the existential, apocalyptic energy at the heart of its story.
10) Barbie Maximalist eye candy that isn’t afraid to get existential – a fun time, thorns and all!
Near Misses: Knock at the Cabin, Evil Dead Rise, Priscilla
Most Overrated: Napoleon, Anatomy of a Fall
Most Underrated: Dicks: The Musical, Cassandro, No Hard Feelings
Wild Card: Ayo Edebiri, who has been a consistent, welcome presence at the movies this year (Bottoms, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Theater Camp)
Acting Kudos (Male): Charles Melton (May December), Marshawn Lynch (Bottoms), Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
Acting Kudos (Female): Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Emma Stone (Poor Things), Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One)
Best Director: Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), Celine Song (Past Lives)
Best Original Screenplay: Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik (May December), Celine Song, (Past Lives)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach (Barbie), Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)
TV Series/Event: Farewell to Succession, Sundays won’t be the same without my favorite fail sons and daughter.
Worst Film: Next Goal Wins, a film that manages to be egregiously offensive and deeply unfunny
The Little Film That Could: Polite Society: Sibling bonds, martial arts, and fun action sequences abound in this underrated debut!
This article appears in December 15 • 2023.