The first half of the year usually produces one or two solid hits that may make it into the bottom half of critics’ end-of-year lists. While maybe not as strong as the first half of 2022, 2023 so far has produced some solid material that gives hope to the second half of the year. Here are, in alphabetical order, the best movie scenes of the year so far.

Beau is Afraid; The Woodland Play

There’s certainly a lot going on in Ari Aster’s third feature, Beau is Afraid. Some coalesce effortlessly into the ideas he has at play, and some are a little more messy in their execution. The standout from a visual perspective arrives a little over the midway point of his Oedipal Odyssey, as Joaquin Phoenix’s Beau comes upon a traveling group of performers in the woods. What follows is a surreal side quest that explores Beau’s fragile psyche and puts him in the shoes of the parent he so desperately aims to please. The sequence is pure visual poetry, as production designer Fiona Cromble uses painted tableaus to make it a fully immersive experience.

Cocaine Bear; The Ambulance is Coming

If you could distill the wacky horror comedy of Cocaine Bear into a single scene, this would be it. Within the scene, director Elizabeth Banks ratchets up the stakes for a doomed group of characters while rooting it in silliness and gore. After Margot Martindale’s lovably obtuse park ranger is attacked by the titular bear at the ranger station, she and a handful of hapless dopes wait it out until their ambulatory savior arrives. What follows is an outrageous blend of Marx brothers inspired motion and pure gross-out horror, as the bear either picks them off one by one or they’re killed by their own stupidity. The remainder of Banks’ sorta-true tale touches on the deliriousness within this scene, but for a few minutes, Cocaine Bear is a genre-bending delight.

John Wick: Chapter 4; Dragon’s Breath

This list could easily be filled with scenes from the fantastic third act of John Wick: Chapter 4, but what earns this scene a spot on the list is the way director Chad Stahelski creatively films the action. On its surface, it’s just another scene where John (Keanu Reeves) dispenses a countless number of faceless bad guys. But when Stahelski shifts the perspective to an overhead tracking shot, it creates something new that we haven’t seen in the entire franchise to date. It’s nothing new to equate the John Wick films to a video game, but the scene truly blurs the line in a way that shows the franchise in a brand new light.

Return to Seoul; Freddie in the Café

Arriving early in writer-director Davy Chou’s searing character study, this scene serves not only as an introduction to the world of Return to Seoul but to the whirlwind that is Freddie (Park Ji-min). Having just recently touched down in Seoul for what she thinks will be a two week excursion, Freddie sits in a cafe with her translator friend, but quickly unites the rest of the patrons, all strangers to one another and to Freddie. It’s all done so effortlessly by Freddie, defying Korean social norms in the process, and showing how easily she can adapt to changing circumstances. But it provides a window into Freddie’s youthful mentality, as she avoids any kind of deeply personal questions and deflects to more casual conversation about the people she’s just met. In the grand scheme of the film, it’s a relatively inconsequential scene, but it provides almost everything you need to know about Freddie’s essence, which will continue to unravel over the next two hours.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; The Canon Event Explained

At the root of every Spider-Man story is an unfathomable tragedy. Whether it’s Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben being killed, or Gwen Stacey’s best friend, it’s as much of their DNA as the venom from the radioactive spider. So when Miguel O’Hara, voiced by Oscar Isaac, tells Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) that his Uncle Aaron was not his “canon event”, it sets off a chain reaction that gets to the heart of what works so beautifully within Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. That is, our commitment to change our story, and the question of what it actually means to be Spider-Man. Films about Spider-Man are at their best when they tap into the uphill battle that Spider-Man, and his alter ego, must face. For every step forward he takes by saving the world, he takes two steps backwards in some other facet of his life. Just like the rest of the film that surrounds it, it’s a pivotal scene that uses that theme while also blending cheeky humor, mind-bogglingly great animation, and a captivating choice for its web-headed hero.