John Waters has named Ari Aster’s dark comedy Beau Is Afraid as the best film of 2023.
- READ MORE: ‘Beau Is Afraid’ review: the most bonkers movie of the year
The Pink Flamingos director shared his annual list of favorite movies of the year with Vulture, placing the A24 film at the very top.
“A superlong, super-crazy, super-funny movie about one man’s mental breakdown with a cast better than Around the World in 80 Days: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, and Amy Ryan,” Waters wrote. “It’s a laugh riot from hell you’ll never forget, even if you want to.”
Also making Waters’ top 10 were Pierre Croton’s A Prince, Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener, Fallen Leaves, Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World, Last Summer, and the short film Strange Way of Life.
The director also included Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which Waters argued “deserves the Oscar for being a big-budget, star-studded, intelligent action movie about talking.”
You can find Waters’ top 10 films of the year below:
- Beau Is Afraid
- A Prince
- Master Gardener
- Full Time
- Last Summer
- Sparta
- Fallen Leaves
- Strange Way of Life
- Oppenheimer
- Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Recently, Beau Is Afraid writer-director Aster told Vanity Fair that he was “disappointed” by the film’s reception, describing the movie as a social “experiment” for audiences.
“I always knew the film was going to be polarizing and it’s designed to be divisive. When you make a film like this, it feels in some ways like you’re just pulling yourself inside out. With this film especially as it came out, I felt very protective of it,” Aster said. “I’ve said this before, but it’s absolutely my favorite of my own films and I think the furthest I’ve been able to go.”
Elsewhere, NME recently revealed its top 20 films of the year, which includes Oppenheimer and Celine Song’s Past Lives.
