Photo by Netflix
Welcome to the best new movies of 2023, where you can discover the latest films championed by the critics community! Every movie on the list is Certified Fresh, meaning they held on to a Tomato meter (rottentomatoe.com) score of at least 75% after a minimum number of critics review — 40 for limited or streaming releases, 80 for wide theatrical releases, with five of those reviews coming from Top Critics.
The year started off strong with successive surprise genre hits in January, like M3GAN (from Blumhouse), Plane (starring Gerard Butler), Missing, and Infinity Pool (see the best horror movies of 2023). Notably, no wide release in February went Certified Fresh, plus we saw misfires from the normally reliable Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike’s Last Dance) and Marvel Studios (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). By contrast, almost every week in March saw a new major release hit the Certified Fresh mark, including John Wick: Chapter 4 (starring Keanu Reeves), Creed III, and Scream VI.
April was showered with inside-baseball basketball drama Air, anime fantasy Suzume, the return of Evil Dead with Rise, YA adaptation Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Kelly Richardt’s Showing Up, and The Covenant, Guy Ritchie‘s best-reviewed movie ever. In May, summer season kicked off with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and while other blockbusters didn’t get as much critical fanfare (Fast X, The Little Mermaid), smaller releases like BlackBerry, You Hurt My Feelings, and The Wrath of Becky did.
June took us Across the Spider-Verse, over Asteroid City (with a stopover in Element City), and into Past Lives. In July, Joy Ride and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One were a preamble to the dual juggernaut of billion-dollar Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer. A24 also saw renewed horror success with Talk to Me, and then we got a new entry for the best Asian-American movies list with Shortcomings.
The penultimate quarter of the year closed with one last superhero gasp, Blue Beetle, before the return of Denzel Washington in September’s The Equalizer 3. Saw X and A Haunting in Venice surprised by becoming the first Certified Fresh entries in their respective franchises. And Wes Anderson notches two critical winners with the release of Netflix’s The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, following Asteroid City from June.
Latest additions: Totally Killer, The Royal Hotel, Sitting in Bars with Cake, Strange Way of Life, Saw X, The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, No One Will Save You, Flora and Son, Brother, Fair Play, Mutt, A Million Miles Away
Check back every week for the latest best new movies of 2023! — AppyLaw.com