The Brighton Film Club's Films of the Year 2023

To say it’s been an interesting year for film just doesn’t cut it. There’s no way I can fit all of 2023’s talking points into this blurb before running down the best this year has had to offer.

Let’s start by saying that, like in the world of music, it’s astonishing just how many films have been released across the last twelve months.

It’s an absolutely staggering volume and undying gratitude must be shown to everyone who has contributed to every production to make that happen, many of whom then ended up on a picket line fighting for their own futures.

The strikes will have a knock-on effect in the coming years with delayed releases but, for various reasons, we can once again look forward to a stacked card of early 2024 releases here in the UK that have all seen US releases in 2023. Films such as Poor Things, The Zone Of Interest, American Fiction, The Holdovers, All Of Us Strangers, The Iron Claw and Priscilla (which is excellent) are all due for release within the next few weeks.

Even removing the above, this is still a list which could have been bigger and it’s been an immense challenge to whittle it down.

And, of course, there’s inevitably a chunk of releases that have just passed us by across the year and currently fill my bulging watchlist: Next Goal Wins and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom are currently out in cinemas (although possibly not contenders for this list if critical consensus is anything to go by) and don’t @ me about Tar, Beau Is Afraid, Polite Society, They Cloned Tyrone, You Hurt My Feelings, Flora & Son, Blackberry, The Killer, El Conde, May December, How To Have Sex, Anatomy Of A Fall, Maestro, Godzilla Minus One, Infinity Pool or Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret because they’re all high on the ‘must watch’ list!

And still! The below is an all encompassing, immense list of brilliance that marks 2023 as a truly great year for the movies.

After the customary squabbles and more shuffles than a Vegas casino, here are The Brighton Film Club’s Films of the Year 2023:

25. A Good Person

24. Missing

23. Bottoms

22. Theater Camp

21. The Marvels

20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

19. The Fabelmans

18. The Boy and the Heron

17. John Wick: Chapter 4

16. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One

15. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3

14. Babylon

13. The Creator

12. Dumb Money

11. Elemental

10. Saltburn

9. The Whale

8. Dream Scenario

7. Oppenheimer

6. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

5. Killers of the Flower Moon

4. Barbie

3. Past Lives

2. Rye Lane

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

You want even more to check out after all of that? How about Asteroid City, Air, Cat Person, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, Wish, Renfield, The Covenant and Wonka.

Even that doesn’t complete the set with plenty of others released this year that sadly weren’t quite scrapping for inclusion for the above.

Have a wonderful festive season and bring on 2024. Go and see more movies!