I’ve finalized my grades and rankings for my personal 2023 movie season over at Letterboxd, so I decided to write down a list of my top 25 favorite films from the year accompanied by plot descriptions provided by the social cataloging site.
25. The Venture Brothers: Radiant Is The Blood Of The Baboon Heart
A nationwide manhunt for Hank Venture leads to untold dangers and unexpected revelations, while The Monarch is literally out for Doctor Venture’s blood. An imposing evil from the past reemerges to wreak havoc on the Ventures, The Guild, and even the Monarch marriage. It will take friends and foes alike to restore the Ventures’ world to order - or end it once and for all.
24. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.
23. The Little Mermaid
The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. With mermaids forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life, and her father’s crown, in jeopardy.
22. Wonka
Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time, is proof that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.
21. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
20. Creed III
After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed has been thriving in both his career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damien Anderson, resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damien, a fighter who has nothing to lose.
19. John Wick: Chapter 4
With the price on his head ever increasing, John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
18. The Killer
After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt that he insists isn’t personal.
17. Saltburn
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.
16. The Promised Land
In eighteenth century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen, a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero, sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. He seeks to start farming crops, build a colony in the name of the King, and gain a noble title for himself. This beautiful but forbidding area also happens to be under the rule of the merciless Frederik De Schinkel, a preening nobleman who realizes the threat Kahlen represents to his power. Struggling against the elements and local brigands, Kahlen is joined by a couple who have fled the clutches of the rapacious De Schinkel. As this group of misfits begin to build a small community in this inhospitable place, De Schinkel swears vengeance, and the confrontation between him and Kahlen promises to be as violent and intense as these two men.
15. Origin
While grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, writer Isabel Wilkerson sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery.
14. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
A naval officer stands trial for mutiny after taking command from a ship’s captain he felt was acting in an unstable fashion, endangering both the ship and its crew.
13. The Burial
When a handshake deal goes sour, funeral home owner Jeremiah O’Keefe enlists charismatic, smooth-talking attorney Willie E. Gary to save his family business. Tempers flare and laughter ensues as the unlikely pair bond while exposing corporate corruption and racial injustice.
12. Air
Discover the game-changing partnership between a then undiscovered Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and culture with the Air Jordan brand.
11. The Holdovers
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them, a damaged, brainy troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
10. American Fiction
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world’s hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.
09. Poor Things
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
08. The Iron Claw
The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early eighties. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports.
07. Killers Of The Flower Moon
When oil is discovered in twenties Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one - until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
06. Elemental
In a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy will discover something elemental - how much they have in common.
05. The Taste Of Things
Set in France in 1889, the film follows the life of Dodin Bouffant as a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie. They share a long history of gastronomy and love, but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before - cook for her.
04. Maestro
A towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
03. The Color Purple
A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience, and of one woman’s journey to independence. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
02. Oppenheimer
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
01. Godzilla Minus One
In postwar Japan, a new terror rises. Will the devastated people be able to survive - let alone fight back?
