FEATURE: THE TOP 10 FILMS OF 2023

By Stephen Pytak

For many folks, this was the year of Barbenheimer.

While that was kind of interesting, and I enjoyed both Barbie and Oppenheimer for the most part, neither made my personal Top 10 list of the best films of 2023. 

But a Godzilla film did. 

And at the start of 2023, when I started writing down potential entries for this list, I honestly didn't see that coming. 

Publicity art for Mad Heidi (2022), an independent film which received a brief theatrical release in the United States in 2023. ©2018-2023 by Swissploitation Films LLC.C.

It was a pretty good year for cinema. Aside from the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the box office benefitted from concert films from superstars like Taylor Swift. For the past decade or so, superhero films used to be the thing. But whatever's going on in that industry, quality products aren't being churned out the way they used to be, and it seems audiences are losing interest.

But some sequels that came out in 2023 were really good.

I haven't always been a fan of the Mission: Impossible films. But the last four entries are really solid, better than most of the James Bond adventures. While I wasn't too crazy about the title, I loved Mission: Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023). Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have perfected the formula which made this series work. 

I really liked James Mangold's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). Some fans of the series decided, for whatever reason, to rake this one over the coals. But I rather enjoyed it. A perfect film? No. But certainly not a bad one. It was gritty and less comedic than the previous entry. Actually, I thought it was one of the better entries of the series. 

Below you'll find a list of films which I really liked which didn't make my Top 10. That's where you'll find Indy's latest adventure and gems like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023).

This year we also got a couple of modern over-the-top grindhouse movies! They included Sisu (2022), written and directed by Jalmari Helander, and Mad Heidi (2022), directed by Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein. Both are lots of fun. So is Eli Roth's Thanksgiving (2023).

Actually, there were some other really good horror films too. M3GAN was cool. So was Evil Dead Rise. So was Talk to Me. And I saw a few things this year that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. Believe it or not, we got another sequel to Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). This one was called Never Hike Alone 2 (2023).

I've always been a fan of Part VI.  In October 2023, I caught a screening of it at The Emmaus Theatre in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Fun night! And as I was driving home, I remembered an independent outfit called Womp Stomp Films had made a few direct sequels to it. So when I got home, I logged on to YouTube to watch them.

First up was Never Hike Alone (2017). Then there was Never Hike in the Snow (2020). Then there was the new release, the trilogy capper. It was an interesting project, which brought back actors from Part VI including Thom Mathews as "Tommy Jarvis" and Vincent Guastaferro as "Rick Cologne." If you told me back in 1986 that I'd be watching the sequels to Part VI in 2023 on my home computer, I'd be gobsmacked. 

See, once Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood came out in 1988, I never thought we'd see the characters from Part VI again. I don't think fan films always get it right, but Womp Stomp did something special here. And I applaud them for it.

Also in 2023 we got the best Godzilla film ever made.

The Big G had quite a year. In fact, I don't think Godzilla has ever had a year like 2023. I mean, his Legendary incarnation got a cable show, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023). I don't love it. I don't hate it. But there certainly are some very cool Godzilla moments in it. Then we got the trailer for the titan's next big Legendary cinematic adventure, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). I wasn't crazy about it. Meanwhile, the Legendary Godzilla got a chance to meet Superman.

That happened in a seven-issue comic book series which kicked off in 2023, Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong. I'm reading it. It's kind of interesting.

And on top of all this Toho Studios cooked up something special to celebrate Godzilla's 70th anniversary in 2024. It was a new film which was released in November 2023, Godzilla Minus One (2023), which was written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. Yamazaki also ran the visual effects shop.

I love Godzilla Minus One for numerous reasons. And one of the reasons I didn't write a review of it is because all I could offer it is praise. But I will say this.

For years, decades actually, I've been waiting for a Godzilla film to really deliver, to be more than just another monster movie, to do more than be a special effects showcase. Sure, I wanted shock and awe. But I wanted characters worth caring about. And I wanted a story that made it stick with me long after the credits rolled.

And Godzilla Minus One gave me that and much more. It also contains one of my favorite score selections from a movie this year, "Resolution" by Naoki Sato. It's perfect.

That said, let's get down to it. Here are my Top 10 favorite films of 2023:

1. Godzilla Minus One

2. The Holdovers 

3. Mission: Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part One

4. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 

5. Eli Roth's Thanksgiving

6. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

7. M3GAN

8. Evil Dead Rise

9. Mad Heidi

10. Never Hike Alone 2 

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Tár (2022), John Wick 4 (2023), Talk to Me (2023), 
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023),It Lives Inside (2023), Poor Things (2023),Infinity Pool (2023), The Iron Claw (2023), Scream VI (2023) and A Haunting in Venice (2023).






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