There it is – the credits are rolling on 2023, another year packed with incredible movies. The last 12 months have seen stirring and spectacular cinematic feats unfold across our screens – rollocking adventures, searing historical dramas, side-splitting satires and nerve-shredding horror films. Looking back on the best and worst films of 2023, check out the list.

THE BEST OF FILMS

Past Lives
Playwright Celine Song’s profound debut draws on her personal experience to follow a writer much like herself, played by Greta Lee with an unerring balance of careful self-possession and emotional transparency, as her childhood crush from Korea (Teo Yoo) resurfaces in her New York life, raising questions about her choices and stirring anxiety for her empathetic husband (John Magaro). This is an exquisite film as even-handed as it is insightful, digging deep on relationships; both the writing and all three performances elegantly skirt every convention of the romantic triangle drama.

Killers of the Flower Moon
A late masterwork from a revered filmmaker still boldly expanding his legacy at 81, Martin Scorsese’s enthralling account of the ruthless elimination of wealthy Osage landowners in early-1920s Oklahoma is an American history lesson as sobering horror story. Robert De Niro has arguably never been so monstrous, playing a seeming pillar of the community, respectful of the culture of his Indigenous neighbours but methodically plotting to rub them out and appropriate their oil-rich land, while Leonardo DiCaprio deftly pits his gullible character’s easygoing charm against contemptible spinelessness. But the commanding centre of the epic drama is Lily Gladstone, magnificent as a cruelly wronged woman registering every brutality committed against her people.

Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s oeuvre is full of dark and terrible machines, from the chrono-portals of Tenet to the dream-tech of Inception. This summer saw the master of science-fiction become the master of science-fact, Nolanising history by zeroing in on the story behind a real-life weapon more horrifying than anything he’s depicted yet. Oppenheimer may be based on fact, but it pulses with genre thrills and suspense, ratcheting up the tension as a team of scientists create something unthinkably powerful: maybe even a world-killer. The true brilliance, though, is what Nolan does in the film’s back half, after the Trinity Test comes to its white-hot conclusion. Headed up by a mesmerising Cillian Murphy, the vast ensemble make big and tiny moments alike pack a punch. A colossal feat of filmmaking, a profound, complex slab of storytelling, and Nolan’s most mature film yet.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
The run-up to release was all about that stunt, fevered reporting about Tom Cruise’s daredevil interfacing. In the movie itself, though, that moment is just another beat in a long series of knuckle-whitening thrills. McQuarrie and Cruise, the Hitchcock and Stewart of adrenaline, have now got this stuff down to a fine art. And even though the film struggles slightly to differentiate itself from previous installments, there’s a calm mastery at work here that forces you to submit. Lord knows how they intend to top all this with the story’s concluding chapter, but only a fool would (dead) reckon against them. Let’s just hope Mark Gatiss, in the most ‘Is that Mark Gatiss?!’ role ever, gets more to do next time around.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
This is how you say goodbye. For years, we’ve been awaiting James Gunn’s final farewell to the intergalactic A-holes he transformed into household names a decade ago – and it was worth every second. Tonally, Guardians 3 is a brilliant balancing act: it’s deeper, darker, sadder than any of the previous outings of Star Lord and friends, containing some of the most upsetting material in the MCU; and yet, it’s still the colourful, cosmic Guardians we know and love, off on one last adventure together to save Rocket Raccoon. For a while now, it’s been clear that the misanthropic rodent was the character Gunn most connected with – and here he becomes the narrative drive, hovering between life and death as the circumstances of his creation are unearthed.

Barbie
Sublime! What better way to describe Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie in just one word? Packed with pure invention, comedy, drama, and dancing, this is not the film based on the iconic doll that we were expecting – but one that absolutely delivered as one half of the summer’s oddest double-bill. Margot Robbie is stereotypical Barbie, a perfect feminine creation enjoying her life in the matriarchal Barbie Land, until the anxiety and fear from the woman playing with her in the real world – America Ferrera’s Gloria – starts to seep in, and turns everything upside-down. Robbie is exceptional, Ryan Gosling is having perhaps the most fun anyone’s ever had on screen, and the whole cast of Barbies and Kens commit entirely to this heightened, hilarious world. And, underneath that pink, plastic exterior lie genuinely moving musings on being a woman, a mother, a partner, and a human.

Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos has been irreverently thumbing his nose at genre constraints since his Greek Weird Wave breakout with Dogtooth. But nothing in his unique filmography can compare with the fantastical flights of this inspired riff on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Led by a spectacular high-wire act of physical comedy, intellectual curiosity and gleeful licentiousness from a never-better Emma Stone, this adventurous adaptation of Scottish cult author Alasdair Gray’s novel is part absurdist comedy, part picaresque feminist Candide and 100 percent breathtaking original. There’s not a weak link in a supporting cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Kathryn Hunter and Christopher Abbott.

AND THE FLOPS…

The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid was controversial upon its release for a number of reasons, but its many talking points at least managed to capture the attention of moviegoers for several weeks. The film, which is officially wrapping up its box office run now that it has a Disney+ premiere date, garnered over $560 million worldwide. Although earning over half a billion dollars at the box office is normally quite impressive, The Little Mermaid has a reported budget of $250 million. This massive budget managed to make Disney's latest live-action remake look visually stunning but also left the film with a $500 million minimum in order to break even. Eeking a mere $63 million profit is far from what Disney would have wanted in The Little Mermaid's theatrical run, especially when compared to other live-action remakes.

Fast X
Fast X is the first part of a proposed three-part conclusion to the long-running Fast & Furious franchise. With an absolutely massive budget of nearly $350 million, Fast X has only earned $719 million worldwide. The film is also already available on VOD, suggesting that it won't earn much more from its theatrical run. Although Fast X netted a profit on paper, it is important to recognise that there are many other factors attributed to a film's box office success – or lack thereof. After paying theater owners and any other fees not included in the promotion or production budgets, Fast X likely lost money in its theatrical run. As such, Universal may want to cut its losses and reconsider its burgeoning trilogy.

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts
Despite earning generally better reviews than its predecessors, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts couldn't quite live up to the box office heights of the Transformers franchise. With a budget of just under $200 million, Rise of the Beasts grossed $427 million at the worldwide box office. While Transformers may have fared better in a less crowded movie season, it barely has enough profits to be considered a success. This puts the franchise's future into question, as Paramount must decide whether it is worth making future films. Nevertheless, the G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover tease could be enough to rejuvenate the franchise before its demise.

The Flash
Once hailed by DC Studios as one of the best films it had ever made, The Flash was met with lukewarm reviews and even less enthusiastic box office numbers upon its release. The film opened poorly and only continued to decline, leaving its final worldwide gross at a mere $68 million over its production budget alone. The Flash struggled due to behind-the-scenes controversy regarding its star, unenthusiastic critical reviews, and a franchise that is about to be rebooted. Unable to make back all the money that Warner Bros. poured into its promotion, The Flash's losses will almost certainly be in the hundreds of millions. The film has even surpassed Green Lantern as DC's biggest flop of all time.

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny brings the Indiana Jones franchise to an end, with Harrison Ford in the lead one last time. Despite some hype among fans for the film's release, Dial of Destiny has only managed to earn about $360 million during its run so far. With the lion's share of its money already earned, the film is not going to make back the money that Disney invested. While Dial of Destiny is one of the highest-grossing films of the summer, it needed to earn no less than $600 million just to break even. It would appear that Disney overestimated just how much audiences wanted to see another Indiana Jones film, with the legacy sequel even proving unable to hold off smaller independent films like Sound of Freedom.