20 Best Movies Of 2023

15. Passages

It takes a special kind of film to make an unlikable character sympathetic, especially when that sympathy is deeply unearned and hard to reconcile, but Passages makes it look easy, its protagonist Tomas (Franz Rogowski) a relentless narcissist who's at once relatable and abhorrent.

The story of a gay man who pursues an affair with a woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Passages makes its leading man a villain, then cleverly strips his layers away to reveal hidden depths of repressed feeling. It's a brutal love triangle he creates, as devastating as it is transformative.

At once thrilling, sexy, disquieting and frank in its depiction of a failing relationship and its fallout, Passages makes for another stunning addition to Ira Sachs' exciting filmography, a bracing, confrontational character study that proves to be a wickedly grand time.