You know how this works. Having recently published our list of the best movies of the year, it’s time to rank the rest. And by “rank” I mean clump them into semi-arbitrary tiers. But don’t worry, even though they aren’t individually ranked, nothing’s to prevent you from kvetching that the comedy I slotted into Tier 3 actually belongs in Tier 5, and that the thriller I placed in the “Underrated” tier is Overrated, Actually. That kind of griping is exactly why we have the internet.
Per usual, in addition to identifying each movie’s director, I have also appended the specific service it’s currently streaming on (if any). Note that, given the vagaries of streaming and the gluttony of assholes like David Zaslav, this information is necessarily impermanent. In other words, stream ’em while you got ’em. (Remember, I have stopped including Rotten Tomatoes data because Rotten Tomatoes is trash.)
Here’s the full list of all 134 new releases I watched in 2023, split into tiers that are cogent and precise and totally rigid (where applicable, the hyperlink leads to my review of that particular movie):
Tier 1: The Top 20
Here lies the one tier that is ranked, mirroring our top 20 (which, again, you can find here).
1. Poor Things (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos; playing in theaters)
2. Past Lives (Celine Song; streaming on Showtime)
3. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, Peacock)
4. Afire (Christian Petzold; Criterion)
5. Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning, Part One (Christopher McQuarrie; Paramount)
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese; Apple)
7. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski, Starz)
8. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, Amazon Prime)
9. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, Amazon Prime)
10. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K. Thompson; Netflix)
11. Emily (Frances O’Connor; Showtime)
12. The Starling Girl (Laurel Parmet; Showtime)
13. The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green; available to rent)
14. Joyland (Saim Sadiq; Criterion)
15. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer; in theaters)
16. Of an Age (Goran Stolevski; Amazon Prime)
17. May December (Todd Haynes; Netflix)
18. Barbie (Greta Gerwig; Max)
19. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet; available to rent)
20. The Killer (David Fincher; Netflix)
Tier 2: Honorable Mention
In a year less loaded than 2023, quite a few of these 13 movies would have landed in the top 20.
All of Us Strangers (directed by Andrew Haigh; streaming on Hulu)
Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster; Showtime)
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson; AMC)
Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley; Hulu)
Eileen (William Oldroyd; available to rent)
Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki; playing in theaters)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber; Hulu)
The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin; in theaters)
Landscape with Invisible Hand (Cory Finley; Amazon Prime)
Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda; in theaters, maybe?)
Sanctuary (Zachary Wigon; Hulu)
Theater Camp (Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman; Hulu)
A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell; Amazon Prime)
Tier 3: Good Movies!
Maybe not as collectively strong as those in the honorable mentions (the tiers abide), these 11 movies are nonetheless highly recommended.
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (directed by Kelly Fremon Craig; streaming on Starz)
Elemental (Peter Sohn; Disney)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (James Gunn; Disney)
The Holdovers (Alexander Payne; Peacock)
Influencer (Kurtis David Harder; AMC)
Passages (Ira Sachs; Mubi)
Reality (Tina Satter; Max)
Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt; Showtime)
The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung; playing in theaters)
Tori and Lokita (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; Criterion)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson; Netflix)
Tier 4: Pretty Good Movies
They’re hardly flawless, but these 23 movies are still suitably entertaining.
Air (directed by Ben Affleck; streaming on Amazon Prime)
American Fiction (Cord Jefferson; playing in theaters)
Anyone But You (Will Gluck; in theaters, raking in cash)
The Beasts (Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Mubi)
Birth/Rebirth (Laura Moss; AMC)
Bottoms (Emma Seligman; Amazon Prime)
The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki; in theaters)
Creed III (Michael B. Jordan; Amazon Prime)
Dream Scenario (Kristoffer Borgli; available to rent)
Dumb Money (Craig Gillespie; Netflix)
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley; Amazon Prime)
M3gan (Gerard Johnstone; Amazon Prime)
Missing (Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick; Netflix)
No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky; Netflix)
One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve; Amazon Prime)
Polite Society (Nida Manzoor; Amazon Prime)
R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu; Hulu)
Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller; Hulu)
Saltburn (Emerald Fennell; Amazon Prime)
Sharper (Benjamin Caron; Apple)
Talk to Me (Michael and Danny Philippou; available to rent)
Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo; available to rent)
When Evil Lurks (Demián Rugna; AMC)
Tier 5: Not Bad, But…
I liked these 26 movies well enough, but each left me wanting a bit more.
The Blackening (directed by Tim Story; streaming on Starz)
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin; Showtime)
Chevalier (Stephen Williams; Hulu)
The Creator (Gareth Edwards; Hulu)
Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin; Max)
Gran Turismo (Neill Blomkamp; Netflix)
A Haunting in Venice (Kenneth Branagh; Hulu)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold; Disney)
Joy Ride (Adele Lim; Starz)
Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan; Amazon Prime)
Leave the World Behind (Sam Esmail; Netflix)
The Lesson (Alice Troughton; Showtime)
Maestro (Bradley Cooper; Netflix)
Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Steven Soderbergh; Max and Netflix)
The Marvels (Nia DaCosta; Disney)
Master Gardener (Paul Schrader; Hulu)
Napoleon (Ridley Scott; available to rent)
No One Will Save You (Brian Duffield; Hulu)
Nyad (Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi; Netflix)
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Guy Ritchie; Starz)
Reptile (Grant Singer; Netflix)
Rimini (Ulrich Seidl; Mubi)
Rustin (George C. Wolfe; Netflix)
Scream VI (Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin; Showtime)
Society of the Snow (J.A. Bayona; Netflix)
Wonka (Paul King; available to rent)
Tier 6: Critic are jerks!
This is where things get a little weird. I’m wary of the terms “underrated” and “overrated,” as they imply a critical consensus that doesn’t always exist. Suffice it to say that, based on my nebulous assessment of community perception, I liked these seven movies considerably more than their general reputation would suggest (and in a few cases, more than those movies listed in Tier 5).
Boston Strangler (directed by Matt Ruskin; streaming on Hulu)
Extraction 2 (Sam Hargrave; Netflix)
Foe (Garth Davis; Amazon Prime)
A Good Person (Zach Braff; Amazon Prime)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Francis Lawrence; available to rent)
65 (Scott Beck and Bryan Woods; Netflix)
To Catch a Killer (Damián Szifron; Hulu)
Tier 7: Critics are saps!
The flip side of Tier 6, I failed to respond to these 11 movies the way many of my brethren did.
The Color Purple (directed by Blitz Bazawule; available to rent)
Enys Men (Mark Jenkin; streaming on Hulu)
Fair Play (Chloe Domont; Netflix)
Ferrari (Michael Mann; available to rent)
Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg; Hulu)
Origin (Ava DuVernay; playing in theaters)
Priscilla (Sofia Coppola; available to rent)
Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball; Hulu)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Jeff Rowe; Amazon Prime)
They Cloned Tyrone (Juel Taylor; Netflix)
You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener; Showtime)
Tier 8: Could be worse
I’m not a fan of these 17 movies, but they aren’t exactly irredeemable.
The Beanie Bubble (directed by Damian Kulash and Kristin Gore; streaming on Apple)
Blue Beetle (Ángel Manuel Soto; Max)
Cocaine Bear (Elizabeth Banks; Amazon Prime)
Fast X (Louis Leterrier; Amazon Prime)
Flamin’ Hot (Eva Longoria; Hulu)
Golda (Guy Nattiv; Showtime)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (André Øvredal; Paramount)
The Lost King (Stephen Frears; Hulu)
The Marsh King’s Daughter (Neil Burger; available to rent)
Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi; Hulu)
Plane (Jean-François Richet; Starz)
Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire (Zack Snyder; Netflix)
Renfield (Chris McKay; Amazon Prime)
Run Rabbit Run (Daina Reid; Netflix
Sisu (Jalmari Helander; Starz)
Tetris (Jon S. Baird; Apple)
Wish (Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn; available to buy)
Tier 9: Bad Movies
What can I say? I didn’t like these six movies at all.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (directed by Peyton Reed; streaming on Disney)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (James Wan; available to rent)
The Boys in the Boat (George Clooney; available to rent)
El Conde (Pablo Larraín; Netflix)
Marlowe (Neil Jordan; MGM+)
Peter Pan & Wendy (David Lowery; Disney)
Jeremy Beck is the editor-in-chief of MovieManifesto. He watches more movies and television than he probably should.