Peter’s Top 6 Films of 2023

Incredible news: by writing starting this post in December 2024, I am now only one year behind. And they said it would never happen!

At the end of each year, I watch through as many dang movies from the year as I can, and make a top 6 list. I filter only for “Do I think I’d like it?” and “Who recommended it to me?” and I am not afraid to DNF (Did Not Finish) a movie if I’m not loving it.

I record my thoughts and lock in my picks at the end of the year (only 10 days left for my 2024 list!) and then always write up my post immediately and never let it be years late.

Let’s do this:

Into the Spider-Verse was my #1 film in 2018, and my #2 for the decade (list forthcoming!) and so this movie had a LOT to live up to.

I often describe Into the Spider-Verse as not just being incredible in and of itself, but being this much (this works better in person where you can see me gesturing) above the rest of what the animation world was doing.

The second film completely blew me away because animation-wise? It’s this much above the first film again.

Just incredible. The only two faults are that it’s a little long (which isn’t a turn-off for me; see my 2022 honorable mentions) and that it ends on a cliffhanger (which no one warned my housemate about, and so she had a much worse experience than I did).

Aside from that? Perfect. Flawless. No notes. Would see again and again and again, and hope to make a video about right before the third film comes out.

For the past few years, I’ve been obsessed with… I guess “identity politics” is the term, but specifically how it relates to art. I’m poly, and so I’m told that I should be making art about what it’s like to be poly, and that just… holds zero interest to me. My identity contains the label ‘polyamorous’, sure, but that’s not what I like to create or consume art about, and I hate the pressure suggesting that I should.

This is a very mild example, just to demonstrate the issue. This film takes one of the least mild examples (being Black In America) and dives into it headfirst. When I saw the trailer, I was excited

a. To see a movie about my obsession, and

b. To see what looked like a hilarious, Producers-style plot where he was trying to make fun of an industry and ended up with a hit

This was one of the last films I saw of the year, and by that point my Top 6 is pretty cemented, so the fact that this is so high (and only beaten by Spider-Verse) is a testament to how much I loved it.

Because you see, the film not only told the hilarious Producers-style plot, and dealt with the “if you’re Black, you gotta write Black” subject matter perfectly (seriously, chef’s kiss, absolutely loved it) but on top of that, told a grounded story about the main character and his life and his family that had nothing to do with his race.

That is, the B-plot of this film demonstrates what the A-plot is talking about. It very directly practices what it preaches, instead of just taking the cheap shots and calling it a day.

Ugh, it’s so layered and so incredible (and just generally great acting and writing and filmmaking) AND hilarious AND about a political issue that I’m obsessed with. As you can imagine, I thought about this one for a long while after leaving the cinema. Loved it.

Until I saw American Fiction, the top 4 films on my list were all animated. It was a helluva year for animation, especially without a single Disney or Pixar film on the list!

Nimona was based on a comic that I haven’t read – I’m not even sure how it got on my radar, but (as its position on this list will attest) I really loved it.

It’s the story of a misfit monster, and a golden boy who’s framed and exiled; one of my favourite things in fiction is “okay but what if things were more complicated than just ‘good’ and ‘evil’?” and Nimona leans into that hard.

My favourite part of the film was a silent montage halfway through the movie, an Up-style backstory of the character, but told when we already have a bunch of context for her. Loved it.

If you like animated films, or hate black-and-white morality, check it out.

Obviously I liked this one a lot (this was a strong year for movies!) but I didn’t remember ranking it so high, and (aside from how much I loved the animation) I remember so little about this film.

I loved the animation, I assume it was funny and charming, I really liked the way they leaned into “these guys are teenagers“, and now that I’m writing this I vaguely recall the message was somehow about finding a community? Or maybe… impressing a community?

I liked it a year ago, so I’ll just trust my previous self’s opinion and go watch it again, and see how it holds up.

Apparently this was my second favourite 2023 film with a central character whose name starts with Leo… and the only film in my top 6 that isn’t an adaptation of some kind.

Despite being below TMNT (and generally less well-received), big chunks of this movie really stuck with me. I loved it. It’s comedy first-and-foremost, and it’s funny. I still remember some of the jokes and chuckle.

Adam Sandler is incredibly hit and miss for me, but this one was firmly a hit. The music was entirely forgettable, but the plot is sweet (and funny) and the jokes are funny and the villain was a scream (and funny).

Going into this, I somehow didn’t know that Hugh Grant was in it. In case you don’t know, I have a simple rule when it comes to film: if Hugh Grant is in it, I shall watch it.

(I missed Heretic for my 2024 list, but I’m excited to watch it when it comes out on streaming.)

Hugh Grant alone was worth seeing this for, but it made my top 6 for being such an incredibly fun film. Apparently it flopped, so we’re not going to see any more, but it hit all the right notes, and while I haven’t honestly thought about it much in the past year, when I do, it’s fondly!

December is one of my favourite times of year, because I get to just sit and watch a few dozen highly-recommended films. I always find a bunch of gems, and the top 6 spots end up being quite highly contested. In order, here are the films that were on the top list at some point, but got knocked off by the above:

Scream VI: I’ve loved all the Scream movies except 3, and this one was a banger. New setting, new characters, new stakes, loved it.

Totally Killer: Time-travel slasher film is such a great concept, and I felt like they pulled it off. The ending was a bit whatever, but everything up to that was great.

They Cloned Tyrone: This was probably the weirdest film I saw this year, I thought about it a lot. I almost don’t want to say anything more: go in knowing nothing and enjoy the ride.

Air: Who knew that a corporate biopic could be so fun?

A Haunting in Venice: I love Agatha Christie, and I love love love Kenneth Branagh’s adaptations. Not enough to make my top 10, but I’ll keep seeing them so long as he keeps making them.

No Hard Feelings: This movie was fun; I love a mid-budget comedy. There’s a scene in the middle (the song) which was… transcendant is too strong a word, but it was REALLY great, and if the rest of the film had been up to that standard it would have probably beat out Dungeons and Dragons.

Poor Things: This movie would’ve been top 6 except the ending was so stupid and they set up a perfect ending and why didn’t they do that instead. Frustrating! But I will admit, in 2024 I thought about this film more than almost everything else on this list.

Missing: My girlfriend loved the first one (Searching) and so was excited to show me this. And I really dug it! Love the constraint – the entire film takes place on a computer screen – and the twists. Well, the first few twists. By the end, I was all twisted out, especially since the later twists ended up undoing the earlier twists.

The Holdovers: Cute, film-y film. Glad it exists, glad I saw it, solid flick.