Movies Update: Readers’ favorite movies of the year

Plus, Willy Wonka and 'Chicken Run' are back.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story December 15, 2023 By Mekado Murphy Movies Editor Hey, movie fans! Will it be chocolate or chicken for you this weekend? The latest film featuring that most eccentric of chocolatiers, "Wonka," comes to the big screen in musical form, with Timothée Chalamet in the lead role. Our critic Manohla Dargis calls this Willy Wonka "younger, sweeter and significantly less weird than his prior screen incarnations." And for fans of stop-motion animated poultry, the "Chicken Run" sequel has finally landed, a mere 23 years after the first film. This one, called "Dawn of the Nugget," has one young chick flying the coop. In her review, Alissa Wilkinson writes about how it echoes the theme from many animated children's films: "the overprotective parent who needs to calm down and let their kid have an adventure." As we approach the end of 2023, we continue our year-end roundups. Our specialty critics weigh in on the best genre movies of the year. We look at the breakout stars across television, movies, music and beyond. And even you, our faithful readers, shared your thoughts about what stood out in the year, and what our critics overlooked on their lists. ("Barbie," "Maestro" and "Saltburn" were among the candidates.) Thank you for your suggestions, and enjoy the movies! Jaap Buittendijk/Warner Bros. 'Wonka' Review: Willy When He Was Young and Oh So Sweet Timothée Chalamet stars as the chocolatier in this musical origin story, playing a wide-eyed innocent instead of an eccentric mad-hatter. By Manohla Dargis Aardman/Netflix 'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget' Review: Chickens in Paradise This sequel is in many respects a cover song, a repeat of the beats and characters of "Chicken Run." By Alissa Wilkinson A24 'The Zone of Interest' Review: The Holocaust, Reduced to Background Noise Jonathan Glazer has made a hollow, self-aggrandizing art-film exercise set in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. By Manohla Dargis Clockwise from top left: Randy Sartin/USA Today Sports, via Reuters; Gkids; Apple TV+; Jeenah Moon for The New York Times 'Barbie' Didn't Make Our Top 10. Readers Spoke Up. When our critics shared their top film, TV, pop music and theater picks, readers suggested "Billions," "The Holdovers," "Sabbath's Theater" and others. By Robin Kawakami Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT CRITICS' PICKS Claire Folger/Orion Pictures Critic's Pick 'American Fiction' Review: The Pen Is Mighty, the Pressures Mightier The first film from the director Cord Jefferson stars Jeffrey Wright as an author who becomes a pseudonymous success writing a potboiler he loathes. By Amy Nicholson Gilbert Uzan/Kino Lorber Critic's Pick 'Godard Cinema' Review: A Convention-Defying Auteur This documentary looks at the work of Jean-Luc Godard, who sought with each new work to confound assumptions about how movies could look and sound. By Ben Kenigsberg MOVIE REVIEWS Magnolia 'Immediate Family' Review: Unpacking a Musical Kinship The session musicians who helped create the soundtrack of 1970s pop step into the spotlight in the director Denny Tedesco's documentary. By Glenn Kenny Barron Claiborne/Netflix 'Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only' Review: Sold-Out Laughs This Netflix movie is aimed at comedy fans, even if they already know many of its stories. By Jason Zinoman Apple TV+ 'The Family Plan' Review: Who's Your Daddy? Mark Wahlberg plays a husband and father hiding a secret identity in this breezy, entertaining action-comedy. By Calum Marsh ANATOMY OF A SCENE Claire Folger/Orion Pictures Anatomy of a Scene Watch Jeffrey Wright Grapple With Stereotypes in 'American Fiction' The screenwriter and director Cord Jefferson narrates a sequence from his film. By Mekado Murphy Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT NEWS & FEATURES Charlotte Hadden for The New York Times The Breakout Stars of 2023 These eight performers and artists broke away from the pack this year, delighting us and making us think. By Maya Salam Warner Bros. Can the Oompa-Loompas Be Saved? "Wonka" is the latest film to try to shake the tiny unpaid laborers from their colonialist roots in Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." By Robert Ito Elias Williams for The New York Times 'American Fiction' Director Cord Jefferson on Hollywood's New Shuffle The Emmy-winning writer and former journalist drew on personal experience for his feature debut, a layered sendup of race and hypocrisy in the book and film worlds. By Reggie Ugwu Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple TV+ In Indigenous Communities, a Divided Reaction to 'Killers of the Flower Moon' The filmmakers' attention to detail draws praise, but the question of perspective and who gets to tell the story is also at issue. By Christopher Kuo Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times The Projectionist 'Past Lives' Is an Awards-Season Hit, and They Made It Soar Teo Yoo and John Magaro play a woman's former and current loves, and were kept apart until they met onscreen. But don't call their characters rivals. It's more cosmic than that. By Kyle Buchanan Warner Bros. Pictures 24 Things That Stuck With Us in 2023 Films, TV shows, albums, books, art and A.I.-generated SpongeBob performances that reporters, editors and visual journalists in Culture couldn't stop thinking about this year. Aardman/Netflix What Took the 'Chicken Run' Sequel So Long? The Reasons Are Epic. A flood, a fire, Covid and "Shrek" were just a few of the roadblocks to "Dawn of the Nugget," arriving 23 years after the original hit. By Shivani Gonzalez Ser Baff/Warner Bros. The Projectionist Golden Globes 2024 Snubs and Surprises: 'Past Lives,' Taylor Swift and More The Korean American drama from Celine Song got four nominations, while Swift's concert film got one. "The Color Purple" was overlooked for best musical. By Kyle Buchanan Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS Sam Lothridge/20th Century Studios The Best Genre Movies of 2023 We look at the finest in science fiction, horror, action and international films, all available to stream. By Elisabeth Vincentelli, Erik Piepenburg, Robert Daniels and Devika Girish Cinedigm Five International Movies to Stream Now This month's picks include a Canadian mumblecore comedy, an Argentine mother-daughter thriller, a Bangladeshi drama about a woman fighting a patriarchal system and more. By Devika Girish Tatum Mangus/Annapurna Pictures The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now New films, and classics, just keep coming, but you don't have to drill down to find the finest selections to stream. We'll do the heavy lifting. You press play. By Jason Bailey Paramount Pictures Stream These Ryan O'Neal Movies The actor became one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, and proved himself equally adept at drama, comedy and action. By Jason Bailey DreamWorks Pictures The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now Movies upon movies await, and you don't even have to drill down to find them. By Jason Bailey Claudette Barius/Prime Video Dashing Through These Films Holiday movies like "Candy Cane Lane" are arriving on streaming at "A Christmas Frequency." Here's a roundup of several to consider. By Elisabeth Vincentelli How are we doing? We'd love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to moviesupdate@nytimes.com. Like this email? 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