If you’ve been paying close attention to Paste Magazine for the past month—or to the film-covering media at large as 2023 comes to a close—you’ll be sick to death of lists. Beneath that sickness, though, there might still be a lingering curiosity. “Sure, these might be the best movies of the year, but who picked ‘em, and do their tastes resonate with mine?” That’s a perfect place to be as a reader and moviegoer, because nothing makes criticism go down smoother than finding a critic you’re in sync with. Lists in a vacuum have their uses, but personal best-of ballots can serve as markers of camaraderie: The first signs of a productive, lasting, engaging creative relationship.
So, one final list for 2023, where I, your humble Movies Editor Jacob Oller, and my Associate Editor Jesse Hassenger, list out the 10 movies that moved us most over the year. We only crossed over on four films, which is a lot more in common than we usually have but still provides for decently diverse lists.
I hope you find something to rage against, to nod along vigorously with, or to desperately Google because you think “Hey, the rest of these were good, so I might as well trust these folks after all.” But if you end up blowing up a pipeline after watching one of my picks, I cannot be held legally liable for your actions (even if I do approve of them).
These are the Paste Movies editors’ top tens for 2023:
Jacob Oller
10. Kokomo City
9. May December
8. The Taste of Things
7. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
6. Passages
5. Asteroid City
4. Past Lives
3. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
2. The Boy and the Heron
1. Killers of the Flower Moon
Jesse Hassenger
10. Priscilla
9. Showing Up
8. John Wick: Chapter 4
7. Oppenheimer
6. Barbie
5. May December
4. Past Lives
3. The Killer
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
1. Asteroid City
Jacob Oller is Movies Editor at Paste Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter at @jacoboller.
For all the latest movie news, reviews, lists and features, follow @PasteMovies.