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2023 is officially in the books, and we’re still here, against all odds.

Actually, for the purposes of weird movie accounting, we put 2023 to bed last month. Our annual movie calendar traditionally ends on the last day of November. We’re usually not missing out on much; December releases are typically limited to Oscar bait dramas and extended-universe tentpoles. This year, however, a pair of major weird releases dropped in December, too late to qualify for this list: Hayao Miyazaki‘s animated fantasy The Boy and the Heron and Yorgos Lanthimos‘ horror/sci-fi satire Poor Things. I have a feeling that, based on their performance in my overall 2023 list (which, confusingly, does include December releases), you will see both of them place high in next year’s weird movie list.

As always, there were hard cuts at the bottom of the list. Quentin Dupieux struck again with another absurdist comedy, the picaresque, kaiju-esque Smoking Causes Coughing. Dream Scenario gave Nicolas Cage a mainstream prestige role, but still allowed him the chance to explore a nerdier shade of weird.  A New Old Play, which was made in 2021 but didn’t screen in the U.S. until this year, was a phantasmagorical trip  through Chinese history (and into Chinese Hell). Minimalist surrealism found expression(ism) in the low budget, mythologically-sourced Leda. And Zapper!, another microbudget psychedelic marvel with flying moose heads and banana guns, was the final film to miss the top 10 cut.

This year, this is my personal list, with no input from the rest of the staff—although you can see Giles Edwards‘ and El Rob Hubbard‘s choices at the bottom of this post (along with a composite from the three of us), and also in our most recent episode of Pod 366. Therefore, if you feel that it’s a crime that your favorite came in at #3 when any idiot can see it obviously deserves to be #1, I am the idiot to blame. When ranking, I use a secret proprietary formula that accounts for cinematic craftsmanship, the degree of surrealism/weirdness, and the perceived prestige in the weird movie community based on buzz and reader feedback, then I shuffle them into whatever arbitrary order I momentarily feel like without regard to any of that.

So, on to the official Weirdest Movies of 2023 List! As always, films are listed in random order—the weirdest of orders.

1. Once Within a Time: Also coming in at #10 on my overall 2023 top Continue reading TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES OF 2023 →

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Here is my obligatory/traditional annual top 10 list of movies, ranked according to mainstream standards. In other words, weird movies are allowed on this list, but I attempt to rank the 2023 releases according to their general cinematic merit, intended for people who don’t specialize in the surrealer genres. If you want an advance peek at the weird list (coming tomorrow), check out our latest episode of Pod 366.

There are a fair number of films that might have made this list but for the fact that I didn’t have time to get to them in 2023. Notably, I wasn’t able to screen awards contenders All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, American Symphony, Anatomy of a Fall, Apolonia Apolonia, The Color Purple, Fallen Leaves, Ferrari, Four Daughters, Maestro, May December, The Mother of All Lies, Rustin, Saltburn, Society of the Snow, The Taste of Things, or The Zone of Interest before drafting this list. I expect to see most of these before awards voting season concludes, and some of them may end up deserving inclusion here.

Before the official top ten starts, here are 2023’s numerous honorable mentions, in alphabetical order: Beau is Afraid, Beyond Utopia, Blackberry, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, Dream Scenario, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Give Me Pity!, John Wick 4, Killers of the Flower Moon, Lynch/Oz, Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, Past Lives, Robot Dreams, Suzume, Talk to Me, Unicorn Wars, Unidentified Objects, and When Evil Lurks.

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And now, the official list:

10. Once Within a Time: Curtains open on a glowing, chanting golden tree woman, then children watch a couple with wicker cages around their heads wander through incidents of apocalypse, technology, and wonder. Simultaneously ancient and hyper-modern, Godfrey  Reggio‘s visually-stunning surrealist experimental feature is as an apocalyptic dispatch from the far reaches of reality and a major cinematic event of 2023. With a new Philip Glass score, Iranian vocalist Sussan Deyhim as a tree-mother-goddess-spirit with a glowing heart, and a very special guest star as a pied piper who speaks in saxophone solos. Under an hour long, but because of its esoteric nature (Reggio dubs it a “bardic fairy tale”) its exposure was limited to museums and major art-house venues; hopefully it will find it’s way onto disc/streaming services soon.

9. The Origin of Evil [L’Origine du mal]: A sardine factory worker (a ruthless but needy Laure Calamy) reconnects with her rich, estranged father, who lives in an isolated mansion with four women, each of whom have their own secrets and schemes. A meticulously plotted French film where no one may be who they seem, slowly unraveling a great deal of nasty behavior amidst a sprinkling of satire and split screens. You’ll be wondering who’s plotting against whom— Continue reading TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2023: MAINSTREAM EDITION →