The 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Movie

Each year, ComicBook.com‘s staff comes together to name their “best” of the year with the wide-ranging Golden Issue Awards and while every award category is carefully considered, and features some truly impressive nominees, there are few that we’re more passionate about than the movies. Every year, the Best Movie category is filled with impressive titles, each telling incredible stories that illuminate various facets of the human experience while demonstrating the sheer magic that is moviemaking. 2023 was no different. This year we saw long-awaited sequels, films that explored chapters of American history in ways we’ve never seen on screen, and even toys and games come to life like we never could have imagined; and all of them were big screen delights.

This year, ComicBook.com‘s 2023 Golden Issue Award for Best Movie is proud to present its winner from such an eclectic and creative batch of nominees. This year’s nominees included the long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water; both movies that made up the pop cultural moment that was Barbenheimer, Barbie and Oppenheimer; Martin Scorsese’s latest epic Killers of the Flower Moon; and the return of the tableetop game in live-action, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Each of these were an achievement, but only one can be the Golden Issue winner for Best Movie.

And the winner of the 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Movie is…

Barbie!

When the Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling starring Barbie was first announced, no one knew quite what to expect. The film had star power with a wildly talented cast and crew, but a film centered around a toy left many with questions. Would Barbie just be a long commercial for Mattel’s line of fashion dolls? How subversive could a film like this be if it was subversive at all? And perhaps the biggest question, how do you make a film about a plastic doll synonymous with girlhood appeal to a big enough audience to be a hit? But then, Barbie arrived not a commercial, a little subversive, and with an appeal so massive it not only became the best grossing movie of the year, but it shifted the cultural conversation in every imaginable sense.

Barbie is a cinematic force, taking something as universal and as well-known as Mattel’s iconic doll and turns it into both an adventure and an exploration of the human experience. The film, thanks to an incredible screenplay from Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, examines difficult truths about the “Real World” without sacrificing heart, humor, or hope. Anchored by an incredible lead performance from Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie, the audience is guided on a quest that is as much a candy-colored adventure as it is a journey of deep self-exploration. Through Barbie, we’re forced to see the world for all its beauty and for its flaws but Robbie’s Barbie isn’t taking this trip alone. America Ferrera and Arianna Greenblatt both turn in standout work as human women already existing in an inequitable world who, in a very real sense, hold up not just a mirror for Barbie to see and find herself in but for the audience as well, showing us the beauty in imperfection.

And those are just a few of the incredible performances that make Barbie more than just an IP romp. Gosling’s Ken is played with humor and heart, plus an eagerness that serves as a critical reminder that toxic masculinity — and, indeed, extreme gender roles of any kind — hurt men, too, while the rest of the supporting ensemble cast each offer something interesting and unique. There are also no shortage of scene-stealers, be it Simu Liu’s Rival Ken or Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie, the latter of which serves as a sage voice in the film reminding us that we have to choose the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. And on top of all that? Barbie even delivers indelible musical numbers. There’s nothing this film couldn’t do.

But the biggest thing that made Barbie such an achievement is its impact. Yes, Barbie was a good story that was beautifully acted and brilliantly put together, but the film did what all truly great films do: it became more than just a story on the silver screen. Barbie took on girlhood, presented in a way that unabashedly shows the stereotypically feminine aspect of things but never shies away from the darker side of existing in that same framework. The film opened conversations about narrative inequity in popular media and proved that the female audience is a powerful one with the film absolutely dominating at the box office against major heavy hitters including fellow Best Movie nominee Oppenheimer. As a film, Barbie completely changed the game in 2023 and that’s why it’s ComicBook.com’s 2023 Golden Issue Awards Best Movie.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Barbie on their Golden Issue Awards win!

The nominees for Best Movie are:

• Avatar: The Way of Water
• Barbie — WINNER
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Oppenheimer