The best movies of 2023 (so far)

A mannered genius makes a movie about a mad scientist, and the result is explosive. Christopher Nolan digs into the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, his leadership in the development of the atomic bomb, his life overseas and his life after the bomb like a kid writing a research paper. Except he's one of the most gifted filmmakers alive, which makes Oppenheimer never less than cinematic. 

I know this list is full of recommendations, but you should really check out Past Lives. Its story of two Koreans who cross paths over time is one that will stick with you long after the credits roll. 

The real aliens in Wes Anderson's science-fiction movie are the humans. They are bland, deadpan drones that I couldn't connect with. That said, the movie looks incredible. 

Want some real emotion? Check out You Hurt My Feelings. The latest from Nicole Holofcener could easily be called Scenes From an Adorable Marriage, with the central couple being two of the warmest characters we've seen all year. She's a writer; he's a therapist. Together they make a great team, but things change when he says he doesn't like her book.

How many times can audiences watch the same thing and not realize they are watching the same thing? How many times can audiences watch the same thing and not realize they are watching the same thing? That's not a typo: just wanted to make sure you weren't one of those people. Marvel has pretty much been making the same thing for decades (with a few exceptions), which makes it a treat anytime the Guardians return to mix things up. 

The Eight Mountains takes bromance movies to new heights. In this story of two friends who return to the mountains each year, audiences will find themselves swept away by a grandeur that arrives as gently as a breeze.

Jennifer Lopez and weddings is the new Liam Neeson and revenge. Each year we are bound to get another pairing. This year's Shotgun Wedding might be her best yet, with some funny jokes about a group of terrorists taking over her ceremony.

After years of waiting, we finally got a Super Mario Bros movie (we're not counting 1993's). And guess what? It slaps. It hits on an emotional level, as two brothers do their best to look after each other in a video game world.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: what the heck is Scarlet? Pietro Marcello's latest did not get the same press as his masterpiece Martin Eden, mainly because it's nowhere near as good. But it's still a mystical story of a father and daughter that deserves to be seen. 

This comedy about a girl who tries to understand her changing body is hilarious. Like, really hilarious. Like the kind of comedy that made me laugh out loud in a theater full of women. That's the universality of a great script: it can have me invested in these characters even if they look nothing like me. 

Tom Cruise is back! And this time he's driving a motorcycle off a thousand-foot cliff. The latest Mission: Impossible entry is mainly just an excuse to see the actor do his thing, but that's exactly what we want in a Mission: Impossible movie.

Enys Men is one of the trippiest, most bizarre movies of the decade, which is exactly why we love it. You'd be hard pressed to find a more ambitious horror flick than this one. Its story of a woman losing her mind is lyrical madness. 

Plot twist! The latest from M. Night Shyamalan is really good. It's a nice to see Shyamalan bounce back after Old, a movie that dragged on for what seemed like years. It's a more controlled register for the director, who excels when his grand vision plays out on a smaller scale. This time everything takes place at cabin, where a family must decide who they will sacrifice to prevent the apocalypse. The biggest question is whether there is an apocalypse at all. 

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a lesson on how to blow up a genre, detonating the heist flick into a million pieces. Daniel Gholdbar turns the shrapnel into pieces of activism, action, comedy, drama, romance, politics, social commentary and social realism. The result is as every bit as explosive as it sounds.

It was only a matter of time before Indiana Jones turned into one of those old guys being dragged along for one last ride. It happens to every action hero at some point, at least the ones who use the same actor for every installment. Obviously it can't compare to Spielberg's original, but there's a lot to like in this rollicking adventure, especially the archeologist who saves the day.

How do you follow up a movie like Into the Spiderverse? You add more. More action, more animation, more dimensions, more colors, more jokes, more stakes, more emotion and definitely more Spider-Men. This Spider-Man has his work cut out for him when he learns there's a lot more heroes than he realized. 

Dungeons & Dragons takes what might be the nerdiest game ever and makes it cool. Plus, it makes it understandable for audiences who don't know how to play the game. It's like directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley had a Rosetta Stone for nerdspeak, translating the indecipherable into something accessible for a wider audience. 

The complete opposite of Barbie. Megan is a doll who brings suffering instead of joy to the characters onscreen, murdering everyone who messes with her owner. It makes for a campy diversion that some will like more than others. 

Plane is anything but plain. Sure, the story of a hero saving a bunch of strangers is familiar, and Gerard Butler has starred in a bunch of movies like this one. But Plane is directed with a muscularity that makes it stand out.  

The latest Barbie is made of anything but plastic thanks to Greta Gerwig's direction, those vivacious sets and those vivid performances. In a perfect Barbie world, Margot Robbie would win Best Actress for her performance as Barbie and Ryan Gosling would win Best Actor for his turn as Ken. They are utterly magnificent. The same goes for just about everything else in this great summer blockbuster.