The Second Annual Julie and John Awards, Pt. 2 (Favorite Movies of 2023)

The movies!

Part 1, covering games and books, is here.

Going to the movies has become more of a refuge for me than I ever expected it would post-lockdown, and that only ramped up in 2023. Whenever I noticed my mood taking a nosedive, I’d throw myself into the nearest theater to turn my brain and phone off for a couple of hours. And even if I didn’t like the movie in question, I almost always felt better for having gone.

I say again, almost always. Aftersun, while a great movie, hurt.

So compiling a favorite list this year was much harder, especially in the absence of a runaway favorite like Everything Everywhere All at Once. But after much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I’ve finalized my favorites. And before we dive in, I want to talk about a movie that I fully expected to end up here, but didn’t quite make the cut.

X. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse didn’t make my top ten. Yes, you’re reading that correctly, yes, I’m as surprised as you, and no, this isn’t an attempt to artificially establish some objectivity before inevitably lavishing the third film with praise.

Not entirely, anyway.