The 20 best films and TV shows of 2023
Our choice of the year’s essential screen entertainment.
ByFilm reviews
Explore the world of cinema with our selection of film reviews, providing in-depth analysis, thoughtful critiques, and captivating insights into the latest releases and timeless classics.
The 10 best Christmas films of all time
Featuring Muppets, gremlins, elves and an assassin.
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Inside Elvis’s dollhouse
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic shows how the singer groomed his teenage wife – but his obsession with young girls…
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Timothée Chalamet is a sweeter – but weaker – Wonka
The Warner Bros origin story for the chocolatier adds songs and removes nastiness from Roald Dahl’s tale – for the…
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Bradley Cooper’s thrill-seeking Leonard Bernstein
In Maestro, Cooper emphasises the composer’s ambition and hedonism. But Carey Mulligan is the film’s roaring heart.
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Ridley Scott’s fast and furious Napoleon biopic
In this ruthlessly efficient and entertaining epic, starring Joaquin Phoenix, facts are beside the point.
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May December is a moral provocation disguised as soap opera
Todd Haynes’s sophisticated melodrama pits Julianne Moore against Natalie Portman in a bitingly funny duel.
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The Eternal Daughter is a haunting without ghosts
A protean Tilda Swinton completely inhabits the roles of both mother and daughter.
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Saltburn is a class satire without bite
Emerald Fennell’s story of an Oxford student who infiltrates the aristocracy values style over depth.
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How to Have Sex understands teen girl desire
This provocative, insightful film blows up a particular adolescent experience to better see its nuances.
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Anatomy of a Fall is a Hitchcockian thriller with depth
Justine Triet’s superb work of psychological suspense elevates the genre.
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Dance First is a catastrophic Samuel Beckett biopic
This film about the great Irish playwright will mystify those not familiar with his life and work – and irritate…
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Cat Person is a lesson in how to ruin a great story
Susanna Fogel’s take on the viral New Yorker story reveals the dangers of lazy adaptation.
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Killers of the Flower Moon is Martin Scorsese at his best
This late, great Western is a powerful study of greed, betrayal and evil.
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Why make a film about the BlackBerry?
In Matt Johnson’s film about the vanished electronic device, we all know what’s to come: the iPhone.
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Ken Loach’s turn to sentimentality
In the 87-year-old director’s new film The Old Oak, wishful liberal thinking comes at the cost of plausibility.
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Dumb Money is a monument to American greed
Craig Gillespie’s tale of the GameStop “short squeeze” shows how little amateur investors have learned.
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The Kenneth Branagh-Agatha Christie cinematic universe
In his third reinvention of Hercule Poirot, Branagh lends him new substance, a new moustache – and a new story.
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Celine Song’s Past Lives and the trap of autobiographical art
This debut film of lost love is full of material that is clearly important to her. Why should it matter…
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: a feeble last crack of the whip
The Harrison Ford franchise that began with spectacle and wit has ended with a dull, predictable, CGI-laden dud.
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