2023 - A Year in Viewing

A stupidly stacked year of movie-watching. I don’t have the motivation/discipline/time/capacity (take your pick) to write about all or any of these right now, so we’ll let the images speak for themselves.

Yes they are ranked but we all know how fluid these silly rankings are (click on the images to see them in their full beauty!)

100 Favorite First-Time Watches of 2023 

#100 - Smithereens (Susan Seidelman, 1982)

#99 - Ma (Tate Taylor, 2019)

#98 - Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984)

#97 - Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders, 1974)

#96 - The Happening (M. Night Shaymalan, 2008)

#95 - Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks, 1991)

#94 - Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)

#93 - Brewster McCloud (Robert ALtman, 1970)

#92 - Belly (Hype Williams, 1998)

#91 - Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara, 2007)

#90 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)

#89 - Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)

#88 - Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004)

#87 - She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949)

#86 - The Foot Fist Way (Jody Hill, 2006)

#85 On The Beach At Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo, 2017)

#84 - Bram’s Stoker Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)

#83 - The Empty Man (David Prior, 2020)

#82 - Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980)

#81 - The Married Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

#80 - Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)

#79 - Happy as Lazzaro (Alicia Rohrwacher, 2018)

#78 - Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)

#77 - Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957)

#76 - Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)

#75 - Hard Target (John Woo, 1993)

#74 - The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924)

#73 - Kuroneko (Kanteo Shindo, 1968)

#72 - The Rapture (Michael Tolkin, 1991)

#71 - Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)

#70 - Klute (Alan J. Paluka, 1971)

#69 - All I Desire (Douglas Sirk, 1951)

#68 - Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)

#67 - Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! (Charles Roxburgh, 2012)

#66 - Popeye (Robert Altman, 1980)

#65 - The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)

#64 - Passion (Brian De Palma, 2012)

#63 - Police Story (Jackie Chan, 1985)

#62 - Pickpocket (Jia Zhangke, 1997)

#61 - Mary (Abel Ferrara, 2005)

#60 - School Daze (Spike Lee, 1988)

#59 - The Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)

#58 - Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)

#57 - Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)

#56 - Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (Tsui Hark, 1983)

#55 - The Blackout (Abel Ferrara, 1997)

#54 - Obsession (Brian De Palma, 1976)

#53 - The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961)

#52 - Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)

#51 - Stuck On You (Peter & Bobby Farrelly, 2003)

#50 - Bone (Larry Cohen, 1972)

#49 - Center Stage (Stanley Kwan, 1991)

#48 - The Fate of Lee Khan (King Hu, 1973)

#47 - Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961)

#46 - Mysterious Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000)

#45 - The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-wai, 2013)

#44 - A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (Tsui Hark, 1989)

#43 - Miami Blues (George Armitage, 1990)

#42 - Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)

#41 - Man on Fire (Tony Scott, 2004)

#40 - House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello, 2011)

#39 - The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

#38 - The Nun (Jacques Rivette, 1966)

#37 - Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)

#36 - The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)

#35 - The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, 1970)

#34 - Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)

#33 - Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)

#32 - Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

#31 - Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, 2002)

#30 - The Student Nurses (Stephanie Rothman, 1970)

#29 - Tale of Cinema (Hong Sang-soo, 2005)

#28 - Two-Lane Backdrop (Monte Hellman, 1971)

#27 - Local Legends (Matt Farley, 2013)

#26 - A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

#25 - A Page of Madness (Teinosoke Kinugasa, 1926)

#24 - Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)

#23 - The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)

#22 - Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970)

#21 - Bullet in The Head (John Woo, 1990)

#20 - Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)

#19 - Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#18 - Wagon Master (John Ford, 1950)

#17 - Je, Tu, Il, Elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974)

#16 - Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)

#15 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953)

#14 - Vive L’Amour (Tsai Ming-liang, 1994)

#13 - Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Ōshima, 1983)

#12 - 2 Or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

#11 - The Bad News Bears (Michael Ritchie, 1976)

#10 - Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, 2002)

#9 - Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)

#8 - The Killer (John Woo, 1989)

#7 - The River (Tsai Ming-liang, 1997)

#6 - Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#5 - The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975)

#4 - How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941)

#3 - New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara, 1998)

#2 - My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

#1 - A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1971)