In a year filled with blockbuster hits, TommieMedia Reporter Kevin Lynch lists his top 30 movies released in 2023.

This ranking will be published in two parts, the first installment cataloging No. 30 to 16, the second featuring the final 15.

30. “Smoking Causes Coughing”

One part foreign “Power Rangers” spoof, one part horror comedy and another part existential meditation, “Smoking Causes Coughing” isn’t quite the heavy-handed PSA its title implies. There are all sorts of interesting ideas and themes at play — some of which can be equal parts disturbing and entertaining — though they all boil down to one undeniable conclusion: The French have a very strange sense of humor, and they’re certainly not afraid to share it.

The bizarre mashup of genres and jokes is played alarmingly straight by its over-the-top cast of characters, and it’s hard to deny the hilarious charm of seeing an already unique premise outdo itself again and again. It may not be smoking the competition in any regard, but it’s sure to light up any list it winds up on.

29. “Carmen”

Part of me is surprised that “Carmen” didn’t make much of a splash upon wide release this spring: a reimagining of the classic story of the same name with two up-and-coming actors, Melissa Barrera and Paul Mescal, attached as the leads seemed like a surefire slam dunk. In practice, the movie’s dreamy atmosphere and bizarre storytelling can certainly be off-putting at points, especially to someone expecting a more traditional love story — at least, that’s what the old couple sitting behind me in the theater kept muttering.

But these bizarre qualities are also what makes “Carmen” such a gem. It’s an incredibly visceral experience, with a loud, sweeping score and drawn-out sequences that force you to sit in the heavy emotions it’s projecting; each scene could be its own equally impactful short film for how well it conveys its story through powerful visuals and haunting music. Strung together in this way, it’s easy to see why it might not be for everyone — it certainly wasn’t entirely for me — but enough of its big swings connect to still leave you with a home run of an experience by the end.

28. “Chevalier”

“Chevalier” invokes the feeling of watching a perfectly average theater performance, and not just because its story of the titular French violinist takes place largely in concert halls. With over-the-top acting, an incredibly self-serious story and about as much depth as a birdbath, it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to be. And yet, that’s exactly why it’s so much fun.

It’s regurgitating the played-up biopic format we’ve all seen a thousand times before, but that doesn’t mean that the austere simplicity that “Chevalier” is offering is any less desirable. It sets up a satisfying conflict, develops it well enough, and then pays it off with a solidly effective conclusion. It would be morbidly boring if it weren’t for the movie’s graciously fast-paced editing, which turns the monotony into more of an elegant whirlwind of 18th-century drama, romance and intrigue that’s hard to look away from. Again, it’s nothing too special — much akin to something my mom would get a kick out of if she found it on Hulu one night — but for once, my mom’s not too far off.

27. “Nimona”

No matter how much other garbage they may pile on their service, it’s practically a tradition now that Netflix can at the very least be counted on to release one quality animated film per year. In 2021, it was Lord and Miller’s wildly enjoyable family romp “The Mitchells vs. The Machines.” In 2022, it was the crafty and spellbinding “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” In 2023, the prime candidate to fill this prestigious-yet-entirely-made-up category was “Nimona,” a long-awaited project that had been initially feared canned after Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox.

Netflix swooped in like the ravenous, money-hungry vulture it is and saved the film, a thankful decision for once. The final product isn’t too unlike many other buddy-comedy animated kids’ movies, but it’s got a fantastic animation style, some great wit and a surprisingly interesting political conflict that takes its story beyond that of a typical kids’ adventure to top it off. Add on some lovely, accessible queer representation to boot, and you have a recipe for an exceedingly enjoyable, well-rounded animated adventure, one that’s even worth braving the depths of Netflix to find.

26. “Of an Age”

“Of an Age” is probably the poster child for a buzzword-worthy romantic drama; it’s got love, loss and enough longing to fill several Olympic swimming pools. It has a “Before Sunrise”-esque quality to its plot, with a ticking clock on the characters’ budding romance for the majority of the runtime, but it doesn’t revel in it or turn to any other cheap gimmick in order to justify its existence. Rather, it opts to simply exist, and it’s all the better for it.

Elias Anton and Thom Green transform every scene they share into one of palpable tension, though it’s focused less on the will-they-won’t-they of it all and more on how their shared attraction impacts their expertly well-established characters. The feeling of grandeur that the film brings to the simple expression of love is remarkable, though the quiet glances exchanged between the two contain just as much expressive power. It’s not an exciting or fast-paced film, but it marinates you in the feelings of the characters just enough for you to leave the experience emotionally gratified without being completely overseasoned.

25. “Rye Lane”

There are lots of things that I didn’t know I needed in my life until I had them — pistachios, Spotify Premium and unlimited dining swipes are just a few that come to mind — but “Rye Lane,” a cozy British rom-com released on Hulu earlier this year, might be one of the most surprising. Following two 20-somethings both processing rough breakups, “Rye Lane” is carried by the sheer strength of its writing, with scene after scene that manages to be poignant, funny and heartwarming all in one breath, helped in no small part by the two charming performances from David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah that lie at its center.

It may be a fairly typical rom-com all things considered, but it manages to feel fresh all the same, with some eye-popping colors and a talent for turning intensely awkward sequences into some of the year’s funniest and most uplifting. It’s a perfect film to duck under a couple of blankets for, and I can’t recommend it enough.

24. “Blue Beetle”

Walking out of the theater from DC’s “Blue Beetle,” one particular thought struck me: “Huh. It’s kind of fun to watch a good superhero movie. They should make more of those.” And yes, “Blue Beetle” is nothing if not good. It inexplicably throws in every trope, one-liner and CGI set piece that has drawn every critic’s ire over the past decade, and, even more inexplicably, it still works. There’s a certain earnestness that drives it, persuading you to look past the cheap digital effects and hokey storyline to unearth the real heart that we didn’t even know we’d been missing in the genre.

It’s hard to think of a multi-million cash cow superhero movie as much of an underdog these days, but “Blue Beetle” manages to get you rooting for it to stick the landing by the end, which it does with ease. There’s not an ounce of shame or apprehension behind it, and it shows; even in the midst of the confusing, muddled state of DC’s cinematic universe, “Blue Beetle” stands apart as the exact sort of down-to-earth crowd-pleaser that made us fall in love with the genre in the first place, and one I won’t soon forget.

23. “Jawan”

“Jawan” is a rickety, run-down and probably not-up-to-safety-code roller coaster of a film, packing far too many genres, characters and ideas to describe in two paragraphs, much less an entire movie. And yet, when all of these flashy scenes and lofty ideals are whizzing past you a mile a minute, it’s hard to dispute their effectiveness. The political messaging may be shallow and half-hearted, but the sheer wallop of romance, action and drama packed into the nearly three-hour runtime is nothing to sneeze at.

Everything — from the epic music to the dramatic editing — ensures that you’ll be glued to your seat the whole way through, and the ever-shifting plot provides enough twists and turns to keep your head on a constant swivel, too. It can’t quite bear the weight of the ideas it’s spitting at you, but with the sheer force at which they’re presented to you, it won’t quite matter when you find yourself grinning along anyway.

22. Wes Anderson’s Netflix Dahl Shorts

I had a bit of a conundrum deciding whether or not to include Wes Anderson’s four Netflix short films — all of which are based on various short stories by Roald Dahl — on this list. In the end, I’ve settled on combining them into one and placing them in a fairly middling position compared to where I would have ranked them individually. For reference, my favorite short, “The Swan,” would have come in at about #15, whereas my least favorite, “The Ratcatcher,” wouldn’t have even cracked the list.

The shorts’ commonalities, though, make them easy to rank as a whole. They all tell their story through an uncanny theater-esque monologue, with the characters explaining the story in past tense while props and scenery whiz in out of nowhere to complement their retelling. All four share many of the same cast members, with Dev Patel’s even-toned line readings in “Poison” and “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Rupert Friend’s heartbreaking performance in “The Swan” and Ralph Fiennes’ simultaneously hilarious and unnerving acting as the titular ratcatcher as the biggest standouts overall.

I have a partiality for the two that use a tense, engaging story to comment on some inherent societal wrong — “The Swan” and “Poison” — though “Henry Sugar” and “The Ratcatcher” deliver a great deal of fun as well, a delightful combination of both Dahl and Anderson at the height of their respective creativity that transcends the best efforts of either.

21. “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret”

When I told my family members that I would be leaving dinner early to catch a showing of “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” one summer evening, they all looked at me with a great deal of skepticism. And while, yes, I may be outside the target audience for this one, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t an absolute treat all the same. “It’s Me, Margaret” is a coming-of-age story, but one without all of the self-awareness, cringiness or, frankly, Gen-Z-ness that has removed a layer of sincerity from a genre that requires sincerity perhaps more than any other.

Abby Ryder Fortson, needless to say, is the heart, lungs and soul — in addition to just about every other major organ you could possibly ask for — of the film as Margaret. Much of the film’s effectiveness comes from Judy Blume’s original source material, but there’s also something to be said for how Fortson, along with director Kelly Fremon Craig, delivers empathy and enjoyment in small moments that quickly add up. It’s also got more going on under the hood than one might expect, and it shines in the fact that the people in Margaret’s life feel just as real and three-dimensional as she is, making for a true winner of a family film.

20. “Bottoms”

Speaking of Gen-Z-ness, after a directorial debut that was just as hilarious as it was stress-inducing with “Shiva Baby,” Emma Seligman returns with an uproariously funny queer comedy that is just as generationally tailored as its predecessor: “Bottoms.” Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri are both pitch-perfect as two hopelessly downtrodden teen lesbians, but every member of the film’s intensely memorable supporting cast is given moments to shine as well.

What’s most striking about “Bottoms” is how unapologetically absurd it allows itself to be; most high school comedies have at least some sort of grounding in reality, but when lines like “Could the two ugly, untalented gays please come to the front office?” are dime-a-dozen here, the satire is already ratcheted up through the roof. It could easily come across as an in-your-face exercise in buzzword usage, but it retains this savvy snark while still executing a cute, predictable but ultimately satisfying teen comedy plot to great effect. It has its share of tropes and inconsistencies that force it to rely on humor more than it likely should, but when it delivers laughs this big, it’s hard to complain.

19. “Saw X”

Fun fact about “Saw X”: The trap used in the majority of the marketing for the movie, the Eyeball Vacuum, isn’t an actual trap in the movie. It takes place in a hypothetical dream sequence about 20 minutes into the movie, likely included only to break up the pacing of the exposition-heavy first act. After realizing this, I knew from then on that the movie would be a masterpiece; when you suck out a man’s eyeballs just for fun, you know you’re making a good “Saw” movie.

With the slimiest gore, the creepiest scares and the wickedest traps in the series to date, “Saw X” is easily the series’ best since the 2004 original, a breath of fresh air for a franchise that had been stuck in a metaphorical Oxygen Crusher trap since 2009. It’s gross and shlocky in all the best ways, and it tells a nice, concise story that warms your heart while simultaneously churning your gut. In short, I need a dozen more “Saw” sequels, and I need them ASAP.

18. “Barbie”

For all of “Barbie’s” cultural impact, it’s hard to classify just what about it clicked with audiences in such an overpowering way, because, in many ways, it’s not doing anything particularly well. Its humor is clever, yet nothing too original, its musical numbers are catchy and fun but not very substantive and its feminist musings ultimately ring hollow amidst its inherent corporate shallowness. From an objective standpoint, as the youngsters might say, “It’s lowkey mid.”

But then, as if through some sort of Barbified magic, this cadre of individually half-baked, underwhelming ideas twinkles, sparkles and rollerskates its way into becoming one of the smartest, funniest and most surprisingly enjoyable pieces of pop entertainment in years. Yes, it’s still bizarre, cobbled together and lacking in much, if any, emotional substance, but that’s what makes it such an utter blast. It’s a comedy movie where everything is a punchline, where nothing makes sense, where no one acts human and where everything is either melodramatic and self-important or ridiculous and banal.

In this movie, Margot Robbie will be having an existential breakdown in one moment only to cut to a momentary gag of Dua Lipa and John Cena as Barbie mermaids in the next. In short, Greta Gerwig throws feminism, corporate greed, social strife and a touch of cosmic destiny into a hot-pink Easy-Bake Oven, and the results come out baked to perfection.

17. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”

Out of every experience I had watching movies this year — and believe me, I had many — there were few I enjoyed more than those magical July weeks during which I binged the majority of the “Mission: Impossible” series for the first time. From pacing around the room in anticipation during a particularly fraught sequence in “Rogue Nation” to unexpectedly bursting into tears after seeing Ethan Hunt disarm a nuclear warhead, my watchthrough of the franchise ahead of the release of “Dead Reckoning – Part One” cemented it as one of my all-time favorite film series. And, thankfully, the payoff was well worth the wait.

“Dead Reckoning – Part One” is nowhere near my favorite in the series — I actually find it to be the weakest of director Christopher McQuarrie’s three “M:I” movies — but it has an intense, fundamental understanding of what makes the franchise tick. In many ways, it mirrors the original 1996 film; Hunt is once again on the run from everyone, including his own government, with his allies and loved ones in constant danger due to his own inability to accept compromise. The team of Ethan, Benji, Luther and Ilsa are now facing down an unknowable, unstoppably powerful artificial intelligence that tears up rules that we had never expected to be broken. It suffers a bit as only the first arc of the story, but that doesn’t mean that its set pieces are any less bombastic, its characters are any less charismatic or its stakes are any less dire. It’s one of the purest, most uncompromisingly exciting films of the year, and a worthy member of the greatest action franchise of all time.

16. “They Cloned Tyrone”

It’s hard to praise “They Cloned Tyrone” without inevitably looping back to one crucial statement: Watch it, and watch it now. Featuring one of the best ensembles of the year with John Boyega, Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx at the helm, it’s an irresistible mix of sci-fi, thriller and comedy that rolls off the screen so effortlessly that you’d be forgiven for assuming it had just materialized out of thin air. The ideas of gentrification and urban conspiracy work hand-in-hand to provide a hopeless, disturbing air in the background that wells up into full-on paranoid thrills at certain points throughout.

More than anything, it’s a treat to see this much fresh talent put on display and in a project making such effective use of its actors’ talents. It succeeds most by integrating some interesting and highly specific ideas with deliberate elements of mass appeal that make it whiz past all too quickly. So again: Watch it, and watch it now.

Next week: the final 15.

Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.