The 13 Best Scenes Of The Year

A countdown, a list, some rambling.

I’m hard at work on my Best Movies of 2023 rundown. Here’s a little behind-the-curtain look. Over the year, I keep a running list of everything new I see and move and rerank constantly. At a certain point, I take everything and throw it into a Medium page, but I still have to write up blurbs and rerank again, especially since there are a few year-end movies I haven’t seen yet.

Do I have to do all this? Do I have to follow all of these arbitrary and ridiculous rules for no reason other than I set this up for myself?

Yes. Yes, I do. It’s who I am.

Anyway, I’m super chill about it and not frantically trying to watch everything I can to make my list as good as possible. I’m a very relaxed, calm, reasonable person.

With that said, here’s a list of my 13 favorite movie scenes of the year. They’re not necessarily out of my top 13 movies of the year, but there are quite a few in there if you’re looking for some spoilers. “Why are there 13?” one might ask. Because I had 10 and needed to add in a few more. That’s why.

Also, there’s a chance that I’ve missed a few scenes since I have a bit more left to watch before January, but just know that I tried my best.

What a well-adjusted life I lead.

To the list!

13. Dressing Room Chaos in May December

I tried to find a clip of this one, but it’s somehow not online. Nevertheless, this is a horror scene of sorts as Gracie (Julianne Moore), Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) go shopping for a dress for Mary’s graduation. It’s a tense scene in which all of the characters are reflected in fitting room mirrors and Gracie shows just how accidentally and needlessly cruel she can be. Tremendous, terrifying stuff.

12. Godzilla Stomps in Godzilla Minus One

What else are movies for? Let’s see goddamn Godzilla attack a city. This scene is pulverizing and perfect, especially as the music crescendos. Great acting from Minami Hamabe here. This is what it’s all about.

11. Mia Goth Goes Berserk in Infinity Pool

If the world was good, Mia Goth’s insane (and evil) turn in Infinity Pool would be up for awards. What a weird, fun movie about clones on vacation. I have no clue how to explain the motivation behind this scene—just watch the movie—but rest assured that it’s as unhinged as this small sequence suggests.

10. The Overhead Shot in John Wick: Chapter 4

The John Wick movies constantly up the ante on what’s possible in action filmmaking, and they may have hit the ceiling with these gorgeous few minutes. An overhead, panning shot that features a flamethrower and Keanu Reeves. You guys are crazy for this one. In all of the best ways.

9. “I’m Just Ken” in Barbie

A beautiful, old Hollywood-inspired song-and-dance number that is up there for the best moments of the year. Our theater lost it on opening night when this started and kept building. Ryan Gosling is just on a heater lately, and he understands the vibe and gravitas that goes into such a ridiculous, awe-inspiring moment.

8. The Cheese Grater in Evil Dead Rise

Please don’t watch this if you’re squeamish and/or like cheese. This classic horror fight has one of the funniest and most terrifying moments of the year as a possessed kid catches a cheese grater and uses it to full effect. There’s a full beat between the grab and slicing, which shows a real understanding of the comedy and a wicked sense of timing from the directors. True sicko shit. Loved this movie.

7. Ely Cathedral in Maestro

The show-stopper of Bradley Cooper’s second feature film, this scene is when Maestro kicks into another gear. It’s a filmmaking feat from the build of the music to Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein-esque conducting to the slow camera movement interspersed with quick cuts to the various musicians. This is why Maestro exists, at the end of the day, and boy, does this sequence work.

6. Ayo Edibiri’s Rant in Bottoms

The year/decade/century of Ayo Edibiri continues. I know we’re not supposed to have parasocial relationships with celebrities, but she’s my best friend. This (apparently improvised) scene is Edibiri at her best, having the time of her life as she tries to make Rachel Sennott break. Bottoms is so fucking funny, and I hope these two actors and director Emma Seligman continue to work together forever.

5. Lizzie Q’s Death in Killers of the Flower Moon

This is another sequence I was unfortunately not able to find online. You should watch the entire movie anyway. For a movie so harsh and unsparing, one of the few beautiful moments is the quiet death of the matriarch of her family, Lizzie Q. Martin Scorsese films it as her meeting with her ancestors and walking off into the afterlife. Lizzie Q is one of the few characters that has any emotional closure. Contrasted with the evil deeds of the antagonists, this scene is even more haunting.

4. Let’s Dance in Poor Things

Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo are at their best in this dueling-dance scene. Stone’s Bella Baxter and Ruffalo’s Duncan Wedderburn are at odds throughout and that really comes through in this back-and-forth. Yorgos Lanthimos always finds interesting angles to shoot relatively normal sequences and the bizarre but fun music works so well here.

3. The Ending of Past Lives

Spoilers, obviously. Other than maybe Oppenheimer, I don’t think there was a better ending this year than Past Lives. An entire emotional arc comes together with one quick cut, a slow walk and a panning of the camera. Just an unbelievable movie about love and loss that concludes on an almost impossibly impressive high note.

2. Margot Robbie in Asteroid City

I know Margot Robbie’s 2023 will be remembered as Barbie and whatever else, but I would go so far as to say that her best performance was in Asteroid City. Just one scene, opposite Jason Schwartzman on a balcony. The two recollect as Robbie performs a cut monologue from a production that doesn’t exist. The camera cuts to Schwartzman (mid-crisis) as she says his lines and it all comes together magnificently.

Also, Asteroid City rules, because I just as easily could’ve had this Jeffrey Wright speech on this list as well.

1. Oppenheimer’s Speech in Oppenheimer

It’s pretty wild that for a movie that features the first atomic bomb explosion, the terrifying and lasting scene comes just moments after the blast when J. Robert Oppenheimer speaks about Trinity and what’s to come. It quickly turns from a successful rally to horror as a screech and shaky camera exemplify how Oppenheimer feels about his work. This may be the best thing Christopher Nolan has done in his career, which is saying quite a lot. Seeing this in 70mm IMAX is probably the best theatrical experience I had this year. I have a ticket to see it again in January too. Because of course, I do.