Happy First Saturday of 2024!

Happy New Year! Delighted to have you back. I hope you did something spectacular to celebrate 2024, or maybe just pulled on your jammies and crawled into bed at 7pm — whatever felt best. We hung out with a bunch of Nic’s friends and their families and actually almost made it to midnight.

But! While we were at the NYE party, I chatted with several folks about the best movies of 2023. So here they are …

POOR THINGS. I was pretty primed for Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest, having loved “The Lobster,” “The Favourite” and “Dogtooth.” But the Greek auteur has truly outdone himself here with this wild and grotesque fantasy about a young woman’s journey toward self-discovery and sexual liberation. The performances are both nuanced and bold, particularly from Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, and every element of the film is thrillingly imaginative: the production design, cinematography, costumes, score and more. It’s so boring when Alonso and I agree on the best movie of the year, but here we are. In theaters.

From here, the rest of my favorites are in alphabetical order:

ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. The long-awaited film version of Judy Blume’s iconic 1970 coming-of-age novel is authentic and astute. The sincerity is what shines through most brightly in writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation, and spot-on performances from Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Benny Safdie and more make it deeply relatable. Hulu and streaming.

FOUR DAUGHTERS. We didn’t review this documentary on Breakfast All Day, but I wanted to mention it because I found it structurally clever and extremely moving. Director Kaouther Ben Hania tells the story of a Tunisian mother whose two older daughters ran off with Islamic extremists, leaving her and her two younger daughters searching for answers. The hybrid docudrama framework features reenactments that reveal devastating emotional truths. Streaming.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Martin Scorsese’s epic Western crime drama about the plight of the Osage in post-World War I Oklahoma is explosive and stirring, with tremendous performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons. A must-see on the big screen, but if you can’t get to a theater, it’s streaming on Apple TV+ starting Jan. 12. Alonso and I also did a separate spoiler discussion about the film’s ending.

MAY DECEMBER. Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman perform the most exquisite dramatic dance as they study, emulate and ultimately become each other. Charles Melton is a heartbreaker as the stunted man stuck in the middle in Todd Haynes’ juicy melodrama. Netflix.

OPPENHEIMER. An impeccable technical spectacle on every level, but also a return to engaging filmmaking from Christopher Nolan after the chilly, cerebral “Tenet.” I saw this in 70mm in Boston while on vacation last summer with Chris and Nic, so we didn’t do a full review on Breakfast All Day, but Alonso and I did a live Barbenheimer spoiler discussion if you’d like to revisit that. In theaters and streaming.

PAST LIVES. Gorgeously written and acted, this is a thought-provoking heartbreaker. Who among us hasn’t wondered: “What if?” about a long-ago love? Writer-director Celine Song explores that sensation with tenderness and sympathy in her feature filmmaking debut. In theaters and streaming.

SCRAPPER. A totally charming and clever indie comedy set in working class London with traces of “Paper Moon.” Harris Dickinson and Lola Campbell have terrific chemistry as an estranged father and tween daughter getting to know each other after a devastating loss. No one saw this movie but I’m gonna keep telling people about it in hopes that they do. Streaming.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE. I loved the first animated “Spider-Verse” movie from 2018, and this sequel takes the art form — and Miles Morales’ adventures — to even more dazzling, elaborate heights. This is the kind of movie you have to see more than once to catch all the witty details crammed into the frame. Netflix and streaming.

STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE. Michael J. Fox tells his own story, in his own words, in this thrilling, touching and very funny documentary. Director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) makes an inspired editing choice in allowing the actor’s on-screen work to comment on his off-screen life and his struggles with Parkinson’s. Apple TV+  

And this is a cheat but I’m going to add the 4K restoration of STOP MAKING SENSE (1984), because it’s one of the most glorious times I had at the movies in 2023. And in a year of big concert films from Taylor Swift and Beyonce, the Talking Heads and the late, great Jonathan Demme remind us how it’s done.

What were your favorite movies of 2023? Have you seen any of the ones on my top 10? I’d love to know!

And I couldn’t share a best-of without a worst-of-2023 list. I won’t clutter your brain with the ugly details (although these are some of the most fun reviews to watch), but just trust me when I tell you that you should avoid these movies. Lotta needless sequels here:

65. Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs should be more fun.

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM. Nicole Kidman riding a robot shark should be more fun.

EXPEND4BLES. Old dudes blowing shit up should be more fun.

GHOSTED. Chris Evans and Ana de Armas in a sexy spy comedy should be more fun.

HYPNOTIC. Ben Affleck in a twisty thriller should be more fun.

LOVE AGAIN. Any movie in which Celine Dion shows up and plays herself should be more fun.

THE MARVELS. A kick-ass, female-centric superhero movie should be more fun.

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3. Destination weddings should be more fun.

SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON. Kids blowing shit up should be more fun. We didn’t review this one (which, like “Hypnotic,” comes from Robert Rodriguez) on Breakfast All Day, but here’s my one-star RogerEbert.com review.

THE TUTOR. Garrett Hedlund as a hunky tutor should be more fun. I spared Alonso from reviewing this one on Breakfast All Day, too, but believe me when I tell you it’s bad. And if you’d like to listen to our FilmWeek review on LAist 89.3, one of our two local NPR stations, you can do that here.

Briefly …

• I couldn’t let the weekend go by without mentioning Tom Wilkinson, who died this week at 75. He had the depth and complexity of a veteran character actor, but the commanding screen presence of a leading man. His work is varied and lasting, but his performances in “Michael Clayton” and “In the Bedroom” are among my many favorites. My brilliant friend Justin Chang wrote a gorgeous appreciation of the British acting legend in the Los Angeles Times.

• We reviewed “Night Swim,” your annual January horror movie from Blumhouse, on Breakfast All Day. It’s about a pool … that eats people. It never quite reaches the dizzying heights of “M3GAN,” which opened this same weekend last year, but it’s silly and surprisingly well-made. If you’d like to read my RogerEbert.com review of the film instead, here it is. In theaters now.

• As you’re reading this, I’m moderating a Q&A with a bunch of the folks from “Poor Things”: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef and director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s in a huge theater on the Fox lot after a screening for Academy Award and SAG Award consideration. I’ve done a ton of these over the years, and it’s always an honor to meet the people whose work I admire and pick their brains about how they do what they do. But this is my favorite movie of 2023, and this is a giant setting, so I’d be lying if I said I weren’t a little more amped up than usual this time. Will report back next week! Look forward to seeing you then.