10 films picked by critics as the best of 2023

It was a challenging year for Hollywood as strikes paused production for months, but it was also a year for great and powerful films. Jeffrey Brown spoke with Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang and Linda Holmes of NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" about their favorites of 2023.

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"All of Us Strangers"

It tells the story of a lonely screenwriter who's played in a quietly gut-wrenching performance by Andrew Scott… It's a gay love story. It's a drama about parent-child reconciliation. And it's also — and this is not a spoiler — it's a ghost story. I haven't seen a more intimate movie this year.

– Justin Chang

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"The Zone of Interest"

Jonathan Glazer's chilling and searing drama about a Nazi commandant and his family living next door to Auschwitz. This is a movie I hesitate to describe as a Holocaust drama because it so completely subverts what we've been conditioned to expect about Holocaust dramas. It is very much about the banality of evil… It is a movie that I hope audiences will embrace the challenge of, because I think it's rewarding to watch.

– Justin Chang

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"Barbie"

I very much admired all the crafts that were on display in that film. The production design, the scoring, the costuming, all of that stuff I thought was wonderful. And I think this story in the end just was much more interesting. Greta Gerwig, in writing and directing that, just did much more with it than maybe people expected.

– Linda Holmes

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"The Holdovers"

It's about these three people who are stuck over the holiday break in a school. It is Paul Giamatti as this very grumpy teacher, one of the kids that is in his class and then the woman played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph… I think it's a beautiful movie. It's very generous to its characters… It's warm without being cloying.

– Linda Holmes

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"Oppenheimer"

I remember going into a theater, not even to see "Barbie" or "Oppenheimer," both of which I enjoyed very much in different ways… Just seeing theaters crowded on a Monday night… I think the lessons of both these movies is that personal vision and big budget blockbuster filmmaking can and should merge together in a way that they so rarely do.

– Justin Chang

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"Saltburn"

This very extravagantly vulgar, loopy thriller that was made by Emerald Fennell, who made "Promising Young Woman" a couple of years ago… I knew walking out of the theater how divisive it was and I've actually really enjoyed talking to people about it. I've heard a lot of smart people who can't stand it and really smart people who thought it was terrific. It's my favorite thing that happens is when people have smart conversations about divisive things.

– Linda Holmes

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"The Boy and the Heron"

It's a gorgeously drawn and surreal and inventive piece of animation, but what makes it so moving is it's also very much the story of an older man, perhaps Miyazaki himself, looking back at a younger version of himself and and asking questions like, how do we reconcile the pain of the real world and the escapism of fantasy? It's a beautiful film, and I think a profound one, too.

– Justin Chang

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Our critics also recommended…

"American Fiction"

"Priscilla"

"Iron Claw"