Year-End Lists

Stephanie Zacharek: The 10 Best Movies of 2023, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

1. Fallen Leaves
   Aki Kaurismäki
2. Maestro
   Bradley Cooper
3. The Zone of Interest
   Jonathan Glazer
4. Priscilla
   Sofia Coppola
5. Revoir Paris
   Alice Winocour
6. Past Lives
   Celine Song
7. Killers of the Flower Moon
   Martin Scorsese
8. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
   Kelly Fremon Craig
9. Dreamin' Wild
   Bill Pohlad
10. Passages
    Ira Sachs

Honorable Mentions

• Oppenheimer
  Christopher Nolan
• Master Gardener
  Paul Schrader
• Poor Things
  Yorgos Lanthimos
• The Covenant
  Guy Ritchie
• Little Richard: I Am Everything
  Lisa Cortés
• Emily
  Frances O'Connor
• One Fine Morning
  Mia Hansen-Løve
• The Taste of Things
  Trần Anh Hùng
• Origin
  Ava DuVernay
• All of Us Strangers
  Andrew Haigh
• Perfect Days
  Wim Wenders

Cahiers du Cinéma: Top Ten Films of 2023

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Trenque Lauquen
   Laura Citarella
2. Close Your Eyes
   Víctor Erice
3. Anatomy of a Fall
   Justine Triet
4. The Fabelmans
   Steven Spielberg
5. Fallen Leaves
   Aki Kaurismäki
6. Unrest
   Cyril Schäublin
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
   Radu Jude
8. The Temple Woods Gang
   Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche
9. Last Summer
   Catherine Breillat
10. A Prince
    Pierre Creton
10. Showing Up
    Kelly Reichardt

Esquire: 10 Best TV Shows of 2023, compiled by Brady Langmann and Adrienne Westenfeld

[see also 2020 • 2010s • 2018 • 2017]

1. The Bear
2. Reservation Dogs
3. Succession
4. Jury Duty
5. The Last of Us
6. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
7. Barry
8. What We Do in the Shadows
9. Foundation
10. The Great

Esquire: 20 Best Albums of 2023

[see also 2010s]

1. Volcano
   Jungle
2. Guts
   Olivia Rodrigo
3. Unreal Unearth
   Hozier
4. Hackney Diamonds
   The Rolling Stones
5. Kaytraminé
   Kaytraminé
6. My 21st Century Blues
   Raye
7. Michael
   Killer Mike
8. Higher
   Chris Stapleton
9. AudioLust & HigherLove
   SG Lewis
10. Heroes & Villains
    Metro Boomin
11. Ends & Begins
    Labrinth
12. Endless Summer Vacation
    Miley Cyrus
13. Let's Start Here
    Lil Yachty
14. Zach Bryan
    Zach Bryan
15. Good Riddance
    Gracie Abrams
16. New Blue Sun
    André 3000
17. the record
    boygenius
18. My Soft Machine
    Arlo Parks
19. This Is Why
    Paramore
20. Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
    Lana Del Rey

Esquire: The 20 Best Books of 2023

[see also The Best Books of 2022 • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 • The 50 Best Books of 2021 • The Best Books of the 2010s • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019]

1. Chain-Gang All-Stars
   Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
2. The Rediscovery of America

   Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
   Ned Blackhawk
3. A Living Remedy
   Nicole Chung
4. Monsters

   A Fan's Dilemma
   Claire Dederer
5. Poverty, by America
   Matthew Desmond
6. The Wager

   A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
   David Grann
7. The Possibility of Life

   Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos
   Jaime Green
8. The Vaster Wilds
   Lauren Groff
9. Doppelganger

   A Trip into the Mirror World
   Naomi Klein
10. Yellowface
    R.F. Kuang
11. Biography of X
    Catherine Lacey
12. Lone Women
    Victor LaValle
13. Wednesday's Child
    Yiyun Li
14. Absolution
    Alice McDermott
15. Wrong Way
    Joanne McNeil
16. America Fantastica
    Tim O'Brien
17. Saving Time

    Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock
    Jenny Odell
18. The Late Americans
    Brandon Taylor
19. Crook Manifesto
    Colson Whitehead
20. Land of Milk and Honey
    C Pam Zhang

Matthew Gilbert: The 10 Best TV Shows of 2023, as published by The Boston Globe

[see also 2021]

1. Succession
2. The Bear
3. The Last of Us
4. Beef
5. Poker Face
6. The Other Two
7. A Small Light
8. A Murder at the End of the World
9. Shrinking
10. Fellow Travelers

Honorable Mentions

• Colin from Accounts
• Fargo
• Full Circle
• Rain Dogs
• Lessons in Chemistry
• Somebody Somewhere
• The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

The Economist: The Best Books of 2023

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2012]

Current affairs and politics

• Deadly Quiet City

  True Stories from Wuhan
  Murong Xuecun
• Fear Is Just a Word

  A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance
  Azam Ahmed
• Flowers of Fire

  The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide
  Hawon Jung
• The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

  American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
  Tim Alberta
• Some People Need Killing

  A Memoir of Murder in My Country
  Patricia Evangelista
• Sparks

  China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future
  Ian Johnson

Business and economics

• Anansi's Gold

  The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World
  Yepoka Yeebo
• Best Things First
  Bjørn Lomborg
• The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level
  John Cochrane
• The Geek Way

  The Radical Mindset Transforming the Future of Business
  Andrew McAfee
• How Big Things Get Done

  The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between
  Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner
• Material World

  The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
  Ed Conway
• The Missing Billionaires

  A Guide to Better Financial Decisions
  Victor Haghani and James White
• Scaling People

  Tactics for Management and Company Building
  Claire Hughes Johnson
• Unscripted

  The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
  James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams

Biography and memoir

• Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad

  A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival
  Daniel Finkelstein
• Ian Fleming

  The Complete Man
  Nicholas Shakespeare
• Into the Amazon

  The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist
  Larry Rohter
• J.L. Austin

  Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer
  M.W. Rowe
• King

  A Life
  Jonathan Eig
• Milton Friedman

  The Last Conservative
  Jennifer Burns
• Monet The Restless Vision
  Jackie Wullschlager
• Still Pictures

  On Photography and Memory
  Janet Malcolm
• Waiting to Be Arrested at Night

  A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide
  Tahir Hamut Izgil
• Wifedom

  Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life
  Anna Funder

History

• A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

  Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy
  Nathan Thrall
• The Blazing World

  A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
  Jonathan Healey
• Emperor of Rome

  Ruling the Ancient Roman World
  Mary Beard
• In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries in the Great Outdoors: A Past, Present and Personal Story
  Rachel Hewitt
• Judgment at Tokyo

  World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
  Gary J. Bass
• The Lumumba Plot

  The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination
  Stuart A. Reid
• Revolutionary Spring

  Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
  Christopher Clark
• On Savage Shores

  How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe
  Caroline Dodds Pennock
• The Wager

  A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
  David Grann

Fiction

• The Bee Sting
  Paul Murray
• The Fraud
  Zadie Smith
• Kairos
  Jenny Erpenbeck
• North Woods
  Daniel Mason
• Prophet Song
  Paul Lynch
• Soldier Sailor
  Claire Kilroy
• Western Lane
  Chetna Maroo

Culture and ideas

• Eight Bears

  Mythic Past and Imperiled Future
  Gloria Dickie
• Gradual

  The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age
  Greg Berman & Aubrey Fox
• High Caucasus

  A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland
  Tom Parfitt
• The Identity Trap

  A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
  Yascha Mounk
• Magisteria

  The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion
  Nicholas Spencer
• Pandora's Box

  How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV
  Peter Biskind
• Sailing Alone

  A History
  Richard J. King
• A Thread of Violence

  A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder
  Mark O'Connell

Science and technology

• The Coming Wave

  Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
  Mustafa Suleyman
• The Heat Will Kill You First

  Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
  Jeff Goodell
• Outlive

  The Science and Art of Longevity
  Peter Attia
• Time to Think

  The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children
  Hannah Barnes
• Ultra-Processed People

  The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food
  Chris van Tulleken
• What an Owl Knows

  The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
  Jennifer Ackerman

Richard Lawson: The Best Movies of 2023, as published by Vanity Fair

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

1. May December
   Todd Haynes
2. Past Lives
   Celine Song
3. The Holdovers
   Alexander Payne
4. The Zone of Interest
   Jonathan Glazer
5. Passages
   Ira Sachs
6. Earth Mama
   Savanah Leaf
7. Anatomy of a Fall
   Justine Triet
8. You Hurt My Feelings
   Nicole Holofcener
9. Showing Up
   Kelly Reichardt
10. Asteroid City
    Wes Anderson
11. Tótem
    Lila Avilés
12. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
    Radu Jude
13. Poor Things
    Yorgos Lanthimos
14. Four Daughters
    Kaouther Ben Hania
15. Perfect Days
    Wim Wenders
16. Monster
    Hirokazu Kore-eda
17. Memory
    Michel Franco
18. Sharper
    Benjamin Caron
19. Pretty Red Dress
    Dionne Edwards
20. Blue Beetle
    Ángel Manuel Soto
21. Reality
    Tina Satter

Alissa Wilkinson: Best Movies of 2023, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017]

1. Killers of the Flower Moon
   Martin Scorsese
2. Past Lives
   Celine Song
3. The Zone of Interest
   Jonathan Glazer
4. Reality
   Tina Satter
5. A Still Small Voice
   Luke Lorentzen
6. Oppenheimer
   Christopher Nolan
7. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
   Anna Hints
8. Godland
   Hlynur Pálmason
9. The Eternal Memory
   Maite Alberdi
10. Menus-plaisirs - Les Troisgros
    Frederick Wiseman

And don’t miss

• Afire
  Christian Petzold
• American Fiction
  Cord Jefferson
• American Symphony
  Matthew Heineman
• Anatomy of a Fall
  Justine Triet
• Anselm
  Wim Wenders
• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
  Kelly Fremon Craig
• Barbie
  Greta Gerwig
• BlackBerry
  Matt Johnson
• Eileen
  William Oldroyd
• Fallen Leaves
  Aki Kaurismäki
• Four Daughters
  Kaouther Ben Hania
• The Holdovers
  Alexander Payne
• May December
  Todd Haynes
• Poor Things
  Yorgos Lanthimos
• Priscilla
  Sofia Coppola
• The Royal Hotel
  Kitty Green
• Showing Up
  Kelly Reichardt
• The Starling Girl
  Laurel Parmet
• The Taste of Things
  Trần Anh Hùng
• You Hurt My Feelings
  Nicole Holofcener

Manohla Dargis: Best Movies of 2023, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Killers of the Flower Moon
   Martin Scorsese
2. Oppenheimer
   Christopher Nolan
3. Menus-plaisirs - Les Troisgros
   Frederick Wiseman
4. Occupied City
   Steve McQueen
5. A Thousand and One
   A.V. Rockwell
6. Asteroid City
   Wes Anderson
7. May December
   Todd Haynes
8. Showing Up
   Kelly Reichardt
9. Orlando, My Political Biography
   Paul B. Preciado
10. Stonewalling
    Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji

Ten more

• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
  Raven Jackson
• Earth Mama
  Savanah Leaf
• Fallen Leaves
  Aki Kaurismäki
• Ferrari
  Michael Mann
• John Wick: Chapter 4
  Chad Stahelski
• Past Lives
  Celine Song
• R.M.N.
  Cristian Mungiu
• Scarlet
  Pietro Marcello
• Will-o'-the-Wisp
  João Pedro Rodrigues
• Youth (Spring)
  Wang Bing