After three years of a downturn in movie quantity and a brief upturn this year resulting from the writer and actor strike delays, movie watchers may have seen the last good year of movies for a while.  Even last year’s preview of 2023 movies was much smaller than previous years–to the point that we added TV to the list.  But thanks to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Disney, Paramount, Peacock, HBO Max, BritBox, Apple TV, Hulu, and others, movies are still forging ahead.  Great storytelling–writing–continues to be what separates good from bad.  Are the years with several big movie spectacles dwindling?  It sure looks like it.

The Best Movies of 2023 means the best of Genredom.  For more than a decade we’ve stressed what that means here: The content that leans into one or more genres over basic dramas.  There are thousands of other places that cover plain vanilla dramas and the rest of the film world, but here we’re looking for movies we want to watch and watch again–not what the multi-million dollar marketing arms of studios and other review sites (most paid by or tied to studios and networks) want you to watch.  Note: Movies eligible were streaming on any platform prior to December 13, 2023.

Come back tomorrow for our best print media picks and later this month our annual borg Hall of Fame inductees.  And if you missed it, check out the Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2023 here and Best TV of 2023 here.  Wait no further, here are the Best Movies of 2023:

Best Film, Best Mystery Movie, Best Director (Kenneth Branagh), Best Writing (Michael Green), Best Cinematography (Hans Zambarloukos) – A Haunting in Venice (20th Century).  The third time was the charm this year for Branagh and his band of creators in their franchise adapting Agatha Christie stories.  This film had everything perfect, with a mix of twisty plot and spooky mood.  Branagh’s direction and performance are up there with his Academy Award-winning work in Henry V.  A pretty much perfect movie.

Best Sci-Fi Movie (tie), Honorable Mention for Best Writing (Robert Rodriguez and Max Borenstein) – Hypnotic (Solstice Studios), and Best Sci-Fi Movie (tie) – They Cloned Tyrone (Netflix) – Good storytelling in two sci-fi movies that weren’t blockbusters won the day this year.  Rodriguez tapped classic tropes for his thriller, mashing Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter style.  Then They Cloned Tyrone did its own spin on Carpenter with a 21st century version of They Live.  Runner-up for Best Sci-Fi Movie: M3GAN (Blumhouse).  Classic horror and science fiction themes came together in a fun 21st century twist on Frankenstein.

Best Retro Fix, Best Production Design (Adam Stockhausen), Best Coming of Age Movie, Runner-up for: Best Film, Best Director (Wes Anderson), and Best Cinematography (Robert Yeoman) – Asteroid City (Netflix).  In Anderson’s masterwork he re-created the past in ways that felt like they were filmed by Otto Preminger (when he keys in on Ed Norton in black-and-white), Orson Welles (when he builds his filmmaker world), and Alfred Hitchcock (in his use of color and beauty contrasted with the stark story in front of you).  Add to it that stylish vibe from Rear Window and Vertigo for an incredible movie experience.  Runner-up for Best Retro Fix: Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount).

Best Fantasy Movie, Best Visual Effects, Runner-up for Best Adventure Movie – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Netflix).  A big grand mix of the best of the genre:  It has heart and a well-drawn story like A Knight’s Tale and The Dark Crystal, the action of The Huntsman: Winter’s War, a roving band like in The Wizard of Oz, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and fantastic non-human species (both CG and makeups) on par with Peter Jackson’s Tolkien movies.  Runner-up for Best Fantasy Movie – The Portable Door (Prime Video).  It’s like Guillermo Del Toro for mainstream audiences and Harry Potter for adults–only this surprise gem was better than the Potter movies, as well as the Narnia adaptations and most of the adapted fantasy novels you can think of.  A fantastic magical movie.

Best Superhero Movie – Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Warner Bros.).  It’s the best DC adaption of comic books yet.  No other DC movie has all the spirit of the comic book characters, the fun and adventure, and the effects pulled from the comics pages, and it should be the top of everyone’s superhero movie list.  A great story about family, it ticks all the superhero movie boxes, introducing two of the best supervillains in any superhero movie, it’s faithful to the source material, and it has a great cast and story choices.  You couldn’t ask for more.  Honorable Mention for Best Superhero Movie: The Flash (Warner Bros.) and Blue Beetle (Warner Bros.).  Who’d have thought three DC films would headline a year of movies and leave Marvel in the dust?

Best Animated Film, Best Adventure Movie, Best Musical Score (Guo Haowei), and Runner-up for Best Fantasy Movie – New Gods: Yang Jian (Light Chaser / Bilibili / GKIDS).  A stunning, groundbreaking piece of animation that pulls together the very best of your favorite fantasy and mythology tropes, setting a new benchmark in animation, in storytelling among the chronicles of myths, legends, and magical tales in the tradition of classics from The Jungle Book to Aladdin to beloved anime from Princess Mononoke to Cowboy Bebop.  Honorable mention for Best Animated Movie: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Peacock).  This was a great year for animated movies and the studio made a better effort here than in most video game tie-ins.  Next up is another winner:

Runner-up for: Best Animated Movie, Best Musical Score (Christophe Beck), and Best Fantasy Movie – Nimona (Netflix).  The look blended Sleeping Beauty’s midcentury medievalism with Blade Runner-esque sci-fi flying cars and all the modern world’s communications tools–things you don’t usually see in a royalty fantasy.  It starred a superhero rooted in mythology and folk legends that mixed in kaiju and other creatures.  It’s all of these things, and somehow also unique, with a strong heroine like the girl in Brave.

Runner-Up for: Best Film, Best Adventure Film, Best Action Film, Best Retro Fix, Best Director (James Mangold), Best Musical Score (John Williams), Best Costumes (Joanna Johnston), and Best Visual Effects – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Disney/Lucasfilm).  A surprisingly good return, with Mangold, Williams, and Ford turning in their all, squeezing the last nostalgia out of the franchise in the best way.

Best Suspense/Thriller, Runner-up for: Best Film, Best Production Design (Daniel Taylor), and Best Retro Fix – TETRIS (Apple TV).  Breathtaking spy movie thrills, international intrigue, 1980s nostalgia, and a video game tie-in all in one.  An Oscar-worthy drama that blended the best of Atomic Blonde and The Courier for one of the year’s best films.  It shows a good filmmaker can create a great story about even an obscure topic from decades past.

Best Action Movie, Best Costume Design (Sanja Milkovic Hayes) – Fast X (20th Century).  In the action genre bigger isn’t always better, but you won’t find a movie bigger this year and with better action sequences.  Easily the most entertaining movie of the year.  It was like Hasbro made a live-action adaptation of its Mouse Trap game if it was merged with a live-action adaptation of its Hot Wheels toys.  Superhero and sci-fi costumer Hayes brought her stunning ideas to a cast of thousands.  Runner-up for Best Action Movie: Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount).

Best Comedy Movie – Quiz Lady (20th Century).  The silly off-color and offsides laughs are so gut-bustingly funny expect to need breaks so you won’t have convulsions or hyperventilate from laughing.  It’s sweet, it’s hilarious, and it’s everything you want in two hours of comedy.  Runner-up: Barbie (Warner Bros.).  Margot Robbie & Co. leaned into the fun and reflected everyone everywhere and the bonds kids make, all via Barbie and her creator, ageless heroines for all–a two-hour celebration of nostalgia.

Best Horror Movie, Best Makeup, Runner-up for Best Action Movie – Renfield (Universal). The next Universal Monsters movie was worthy of the franchise’s history, with a Dracula as good as Legosi.  Not since Young Frankenstein and Memoirs of an Invisible Man have we seen a classic Universal monster update this good.  Runners-up for Best Horror Movie: M3GAN (Blumhouse) – a great mix of sci-fi and scares, and Totally Killer (Blumhouse) another fun horror flick from Blumhouse that surprised as a better film than the bigger budgeted Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Best Borg Movie, Best Borg – Blue Beetle (Warner Bros.).  Raoul Max Trujillo as cyborg/OMAC character Carapax – also known to comics readers as Indestructible Man.  At first he’s a mere henchman for Sarandon’s villain, but the battles between Carapax and Blue Beetle are what kids and fans of all things borg should be here for.  Carapax reflects the plight of many sci-fi borg–he’s a victim of circumstance and the evil deeds of others, but his redemption allows him to do what’s right for the good guys in the end.

Best Actress – Tina Fey (A Haunting in Venice).  Not just “an authoress” she’s THE authoress, adapted in various media for nearly a century, and Tina Fey made Ariadne Oliver look like she owned Hercule Poirot from her opening scene in an Oscar-worthy performance.  Fey created such a fascinating take on the character she’s a must for future movies in the Branaghverse of Agatha Christie adaptations.  Runner-up: Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City).  

Best Supporting Actress – Teyonah Parris (They Cloned Tyrone).  Actresses rarely get the opportunity to step into the skin of such a crazy, multi-faceted character as Yo-Yo.  But Teyonah Parris plays her so cool, calm, collected, you may think you’re watching the next Tarantino–Jackie Brown, but the sci-fi version.  Runners-up: Amie Donald/Jenna Davis (M3GAN), Sandra Oh (Quiz Lady).

Best Actor – Taron Egerton (TETRIS).  Despite several big roles this was the first that allowed Egerton to show off his major league acting talent.  Egerton’s entrepreneurial marketing guy has all his plates spinning in the air: a family at home, deals across the world, and the plates are dropping one by one.  At times Egerton seems like he’s going to burst out of his skin for his frustration and angst, and yet he conveys a believable balance of subtle, fearful calm.  Close Runner-up: Kenneth Branagh (A Haunting in Venice).  Honorable mention: John Boyega (They Cloned Tyrone).

Best Supporting Actor – Nicolas Cage (Renfield).  In some of his scenes as Dracula, Cage seems like all his kooky parts and decades of movies were leading to this–the next worthy heir to Bela Legosi.  In other scenes the Oscar-winning actor shined in ways that ran circles around past Oscar and BAFTA-winning greats like Gary Oldman and Christopher Lee.  Honorable mention: Nikita Efremov (TETRIS). 

Best Movie Villain – M3GAN (M3GAN).  “Creepy Little Girls” are rarely so much fun.  Writers Akela Cooper and James Wan with performers Amie Donald and Jenna Davis created a villain that actually made audiences cheer her… or it… on.  Honorable mention: Count Dracula (Renfield).

Best Cameo – Paul Reubens (Quiz Lady).  What a great surprise for fans of the actor behind Pee-wee Herman.  Reubens appeared as himself–sort of–in his last appearance before succumbing to illness this year.  A great sign-off for the beloved actor and comedian.

Come back tomorrow as we reveal more of the borg Best of 2023!  And don’t forget to check out the Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2023 here and Best TV of 2023 here.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg