The best movies of 2023 — and where to find them

There's nothing like watching a movie with an audience — and, as I realized a few months ago, there's nothing like watching an audience watch a movie.

It was in October during the 61st New York Film Festival and, as one of the event's part-time programmers, I found myself backstage at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall during a screening of Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things." I'd seen it twice already and liked it enough to linger for about 45 minutes in the wings, surveying a giant video feed of the packed auditorium that reduced the big screen itself to postage-stamp proportions.

It was far from an ideal way to actually watch the movie, or indeed any movie: The images looked stiff and remote; the dialogue and music echoed unnaturally; and the audience laughter, while explosive, felt oddly muffled and distant. But it was a fascinating experience too, enveloping in its own