 by Jacob Thomas Jones Each year, there are any number of films that inspire moviegoers to engage in conversation immediately after exiting the theater due to the innate need to share in the experience of what was just seen. You simply have to talk about certain moments, whether they were shocking, heartwarming, profound, awe-inducing, or just plain fun. Sometimes they’re all five, sometimes they’re one or a few combined. In any case, these moments can make our jaws drop, make us laugh, make us think, or give us a catharsis we didn’t even know we were waiting for. 2023’s movies were full of these moments, so many of them that whittling the list down to just five of them has been one of our toughest but most rewarding list-making tasks. A few notes before we begin: these are only the best individual movie moments of the year, so films we loved that stay consistently great all the way through, rather than having standout individual moments, are not included here. In kind, some films that appear on this list may not end up making it to our Top 10 Movies of the Year. But that’s the beauty of lists like these; they give us a chance to highlight films we may not otherwise get a chance to praise in such effusive terms, and ultimately, they offer us an opportunity to re-live, reflect upon, and re-immortalize some of the cinematic year’s greatest hits. Here are our picks for the Top 5 Scenes & Movie Moments of 2023! (Needless to say: heavy spoilers apply.)  5. Ginza – Godzilla Minus One Godzilla Minus One is already off to a hell of a start by the time the titular monster reaches the Japanese city of Ginza, the horrors of the enormous Kaiju’s rampage readily apparent to the viewer. It’s once he reaches that place, however, that Takashi Yamazaki’s film kicks into its highest gear, with the monster taking on the form of a great natural disaster as he wrecks everything around him, reducing the city to rubble, crumbling train cars in his jaws, and rendering the city streets craters as he stomps along. And then came the moment in which every viewer’s jaw hit the floor: the atomic breath. We’ve seen Godzilla’s atomic breath in movies before – 2014’s American Godzilla film features a quite famous moment where the Kaiju defeats another monster using it – but rarely have we seen it rendered this terrifyingly. The dorsal fins begin to protrude from Godzilla’s back, the blue glow illuminating them like a timer, and once he’s all charged up, the soundscape is entirely filled by the audio of what these characters call the “heat ray” being unleashed, which in turn unleashes an atomic explosion, wiping nearly everything out for miles around. As the camera takes a low angle, we witness the majesty of Godzilla as he roars into the sky; he has become the embodiment of nuclear terror.  4. I’m Just Ken – Barbie There are a few different moments from Barbie that could have made this list, but at the end of the day, it’s this showstopping musical dance number in the film’s third act that takes the cake. I’m Just Ken isn’t just lyrically innovative and riotously fun, it also gives the audience further insight into Ken’s frame of mind; plus, every background actor is giving everything to the audience frame by frame. If you look, you’ll notice details that you never noticed before. This is all before the dream ballet dance sequence begins, which may be the best part of the whole thing. The stage is gorgeous, the choreography is iconic, and the conclusion to it all is extremely cathartic. (Look at Kingsley Ben-Adir during the dream ballet’s final chorus – it’s a real treat.) And it’s all led by a stellar turn from Ryan Gosling, who we all knew could do comedy and could sing, but leave it to Greta Gerwig to pull the ingenious move of putting those talents together in one fantastic brush stroke.  3. Finale – Killers of the Flower Moon (There were no actual images of the scene in question available, so I had to use a regular still.) Perhaps the single most powerful conclusion to any film released in 2023, Killers of the Flower Moon sees Martin Scorsese confronting head-on his own complicity in not fully telling this story by concluding that he can’t fully tell this story – after all, he’s not Osage, and it would take a member of the Osage nation to sufficiently fill in the gaps Scorsese is unable to fully understand. Additionally, the film critiques the very idea of itself as a form of entertainment for mass audiences by criticizing the idea of large-scale crimes which have affected entire generations of people being turned into the true-crime tales we obsess over day after day. How complicit are we in trivializing real pain when these events and other atrocities become the entertainment we so desperately cling to? And how can we hope to rise above these issues if even those who seek to understand them cannot tell the full story? To read my words on it, one wouldn’t be able to get a full picture of just how powerful the ending is, but when seen through one’s own eyes, it’s one of the most profound self-criticizing moments in any big director’s recent filmography. How lucky we are that Martin Scorsese is still seeking to educate, and to learn, this deep into his wonderfully storied career.  2. Trinity – Oppenheimer Sometimes a great movie moment doesn’t have one individual thing making it great, but a whole host of different tools and history coming together to wow the audience with a showstopping sequence demonstrating the full power of a filmmaker’s capabilities. Christopher Nolan’s directorial vision is on full display in Oppenheimer, but nowhere does everything coalesce better than in the crescendo that is the Trinity Test. Even with the knowledge of history to back it up, Trinity is a masterfully-edited, brilliantly-scored, and perfectly-acted sequence in which our characters wait with bated breath to discover whether or not their atomic bomb will detonate, changing the world and everyone’s lives for the rest of eternity, whether all their work will be for nothing and they’re about to fire a dud…or whether, upon detonation, it will ignite the atmosphere, ending humanity as we know it. From the moment boots are on the ground to the sound dropping out when the bomb explodes to the second Kitty receives a phone call telling her they’ve succeeded in their quest, we are white-knuckled with anticipation, ready to witness history but knowing the horror it will leave in its wake. It’s a moment so arresting, it literally shakes the foundations of cinema.  1. Ely Cathedral – Maestro Despite the fact that Bradley Cooper’s sophomore directorial effort has become film twitter’s favorite movie to hate for awards season (a notion I thoroughly disagree with and do not share in), there remains one scene, one moment in the whole of film in 2023 that takes everyone’s breath away the minute it begins and refuses to give it back until the six minutes have passed: the Ely Cathedral sequence. Up to this moment, Leonard Bernstein has languished in toil, his life unable to fulfill him, his work unable to make up the gaps in his heart, and his delicate marriage to Felicia teetering on the edge of calamity. It’s difficult for him to hold on to the life he so loves; yet, when he gets in front of an orchestra, everything else falls away, and we are treated to an awe-inspiring groundswell of magnificent performance, direction, cinematography, and sound design. Cooper spends a full six minutes live-conducting the London Symphony Orchestra through Mahler’s “Symphony No. 2 in C Minor ‘Resurrection’,” his performance and the film itself reaching their ultimate crescendo as he and his baton navigate through every note with such passion it would take a stone heart not to be moved in some way. It’s impossible to describe just how arresting this moment is without one experiencing it for oneself, but in seeing Maestro in a Dolby Atmos-equipped theater, the effect was soul-shaking, a completely transportive, unforgettable, and riveting soundscape surrounding and driven by one of the year’s most spectacularly worthy efforts. I still love Maestro for all the supposed flaws it contains, and the Ely Cathedral sequence remains without question the singular best movie moment of 2023. And those are our picks for the Top 5 Scenes and Movie Moments of 2023! What were some of your favorite moments in movies this year? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
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 The Friendly Film Fan takes a look back at the scenes that made us laugh, cheer, cry, and fall in love with movies in 2021. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! As we begin engaging with the movies of 2022, it’s nice to go back and reminisce on everything we got to experience in the previous year, especially specific moments that touched us, thrilled us, saddened us, and made us leap for joy. We all remember where we were when the Avengers first assembled in The Avengers, when Cap wielded Thor’s hammer in Endgame, when Charlie’s head hit the pole in Hereditary, when the Joker finally donned his smile in Joker, when the basement opens in Parasite, when the final drum solo of Whiplash happened, when Rey and Kylo fought together in The Last Jedi, when Miles took his leap of faith in Into the Spider-Verse, when Sex Bob-Omb led the best opening credits music sequence ever made…we all remember the moments. Those specific moments when we fell in love with movies, the sequences we constantly keep talking about once a film has ended and the credits have stopped rolling, those moments where we fell in love with whatever it was we were watching. And those are what The Friendly Film Fan is celebrating today. Of course, in order to discuss these moments in full, a HEAVY SPOILER WARNING must abound, so consider that the warning for this list. Here are our Top 5 Picks for the Best Scenes and Movie Moments of 2021. (Disclaimer: Films which are considered for "best of the year" status but which don’t feature standout sequences or moments are ineligible for this list, for obvious reasons. 5. Paloma – No Time to Die Easily the best final film in any Bond actors tenure according to those who have stuck with the franchise long enough (I haven’t seen enough of them yet to decide), No Time to Die was an overlong but worthy addition to the iconic series and a bittersweet swan song for Daniel Craig as its leading man. Not keen to leave us without a standout sequence, though, director Cari Joji Fukunaga also introduced us to a wonderful new character named Paloma, played by the incomparable Ana de Armas. The sequence itself is fun, sexy, loaded with action, and brimming with charm as Bond and Paloma work together to take out a host of gunmen in a Santiago bar where the film’s villain has just executed all of the shadow organization Spectre. Ana de Armas is flawless in this sequence, keeping up with Craig in the fight choreography and having a fun little rapport with the character between bursts of bullets. The worst part of the whole sequence, however, is that that’s her only one. The character never comes back and is never mentioned again after this fight takes place, which is a real shame considering how she’s easily the best part of the whole affair. Wherever the Bond franchise goes after this is anyone’s guess, but any major action directors should take note of how swiftly de Armas steals the show here. 4. America – West Side Story Almost no one actually saw West Side Story in theaters when it released, but if its awards run is any indication, those people who passed it by missed out on something truly spectacular (and I would agree with this sentiment). The revamped musical, headed up by none other than the G.O.A.T. Steven Spielberg, updated a great many things from the original Broadway production, including deeper characterization for Tony and Maria, as well as the order and lyrics of a number of songs. Nowhere more clearly does this work to the film’s benefit than in perhaps the most famous of the musical numbers, “America.” The lustrous costuming by Paul Tazewell, the new choreography by Justin Peck, the performances of Ariana DeBose and a truly underrated David Alvarez, the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, and the updated instrumentation and lyrics all combine to create what is easily the standout sequence of the whole film, a joyous celebration and fun little quarrel between lovers, chock-full of all the things that make Spielberg a master of the craft. If ever there were an sequence most poised to show how Spielberg landed his Best Director nomination (and on his first musical, no less), “America” is it.  3. The Spider-Men – Spider-Man: No Way Home This is where the HEAVY SPOILER warning comes into play most, as it’s revealed during the third act of Marvel’s latest superhero adventure that there are, in fact, two more Spider-Men in this movie than appear on the film’s posters. Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire both reprise their roles as Peter Parker from the other Spider-Man films, and rather than quick cameos or small joke parts, the two actors are given full supporting character time, appearing in almost the entire third act of the film. Choosing the entire third act as a singular moment doesn’t really work most of the time, though (unless it’s the third act of Sorry to Bother You), so for this particular spot, I’m going with the moment in which they finally unite to fight as a unit. After resolving to cure the film’s villains of their various ailments at the Statue of Liberty, the three Spider-Men engage in a fight in which – at first – they don’t especially do very well, a fact which Tom Holland’s Peter Parker points out during a brief respite. But, after resolving to fight as a team and coordinate their attacks, the three Peters unite, and the moment is one any Spider-Man fan would be moved by. Three Spider-Men all jump from one of the structures, swinging together, and even swinging each other at a point on each other’s webs, as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man theme blares through the action. This truly is the moment “The Spider-Men” finally emerge, and to have experienced it in a theater – especially on the film’s opening day – was pure euphoria. (Plus, if you pay close attention during the fight that ensues afterwards, you can see each of the three Spider-Men fighting in their own unique styles from their own set of films. Pretty neat.) 2. Final Montage – The Green Knight As with David Lowery’s other works, The Green Knight is better than it has any right to be for a quasi-faithful adaptation of a short fantasy tale about King Arthur’s supposedly most cowardly knight, but it’s the film’s final moments that catapult it from an excellent genre flick to one of the straight-up best films of 2021, bar none. As Gawain’s quest to find the titular Green Knight comes to a close, and time for repayment of the blow which he dealt the creature one year prior draws is at hand, Gawain is seen kneeling face down towards the forest floor. The music swells, the axe drops, and Gawain suddenly moves, narrowly avoiding the blow thanks to a protective piece of cloth around his waist; failing in his quest, and heads back to the castle from which he embarked on his journey, and the audience is shown his ill-sought rule as the kingdom slowly crumbles around him. He is eventually left with no one and nothing, removing his belt just before his head falls off his body and to the floor, a clean cut clearly made by the Green Knight but staved off until Gawain has had nothing left to bring to ruin. But it’s not until the film’s final few seconds that Lowery’s masterful trick is revealed, when the camera suddenly flashes back to Gawain’s face as he kneels before the Green Knight. It’s at this point that the audience realizes the montage of ruin which befell Dev Patel’s Gawain was not the ending of the film, but a vision of what the ending might have been without honor’s intervention. Gawain removes the belt, and the Green Knight spares his life for being honorable enough to play fair in this Christmas game. It’s a brilliantly edited knock-out of an ending that not only demonstrates Dev Patel’s masterful performance, but a director in full command of the story he’s telling. 1. The Spice Harvester – Dune Even though it may not be as wish-fulfilling as the Spider-Men or as gobsmackingly unexpected as the Green Knight’s ending montage, from whence else could the best movie moment of the year come than the first chapter of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic, Dune. Though this is only Part One of a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic novel, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune packs a punch the likes of which sci-fi filmmaking hasn’t seen in decades. Everything, from the production design to the performances to the cinematography to that incredible score by Hans Zimmer, is working at its peak level, and nowhere do all of those things come together better than in the sequence where Paul and Duke Leto Atreides suddenly have to rescue an entire spice harvesting crew from the worm-ridden deserts of Arrakis. The sound design dropping out when the ship descends nose-first, the sudden resurrection of that sound when they find their lowest altitude, Hans Zimmer’s (once again) magnificent score, the editing, the camerawork, all come together to craft one of the most tense sequences in all of movies for 2021, and it’s this sequence in particular that showcases just how epic a story Dune really is and what a masterful director Denis Villeneuve has become (which makes it doubly criminal that he was egregiously snubbed for Best Director at this year’s Oscars). If ever there were evidence that Villeneuve was the right choice to adapt Dune, this whole sequence, with all its bells and whistles, is it. What a treat it was to experience this movie – and this scene – on a giant theater screen. And those are our picks for the Top 5 Best Scenes/Movie Moments of 2021! What were some of your favorite moments in film over the last year? Any you don’t see here that should be included? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
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