2023: a tumultuous, but also exciting year for cinema that saw the bottoms fall out of once unstoppable franchises and the rise of new and old masters. Characterized by surprise blockbusters, stinging excavations of the human condition, and a few bold oddities, this year was a cornucopia of great film. So much so that for the first time ever, I’m expanding the usual top 10 to a top 20.

David Fincher’s The Killer — a deceptively layered hitman yarn — closes out this year’s New York Film Festival. With a minimalist veneer that belies its toothy takedown of capitalism, hustle culture, and our deteriorating gig economy, Fincher’s latest mines new tensions from the disciplined loner trope. Many will mistake The Killer’s stripped-down trappings for a minor work, but it’s every bit as incisive and wrinkled as Fight Club or The Social Network.

What makes a killer kill? Netflix's new series from David Fincher and creator Joe Penhall about the birth of serial killer profiling, based on the true crime book of the same name, tries to answer that question in a mostly worthwhile trip to the 1970s with one caveat: the pilot is a mess. Tough out the first episode, however, and you will be rewarded with a gripping look at the real-life psyches of America's most disturbed murderers. Mild spoilers ahead...