Explore where to stream the best films of 2023.
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Amerikatsi (Michael A. Goorjian)
If “Rear Window meets Life Is Beautiful” sounds like an all-timer of a cursed elevator pitch, then there’s nothing Michael A. Goorjian’s well-intentioned crowd-pleaser Amerikatsi will be able to do to win you over. A stubbornly unfashionable blend of broad comedy and highly sentimental prisoner-of-war drama, it’s paint-by-numbers middlebrow cinema of the kind the Weinstein Company would release regularly, albeit on a much more contained budget. While there is some brief novelty factor that movies of this distinctively Weinsteinian vintage are still getting made outside Hollywood, even as the broader cinematic landscape has moved past emulating that studio’s tried-and-tested formula in the hopes of awards success, that nostalgia for films that weren’t particularly good in the first place wears off quickly. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin)
Friedkin excelled with action (which I use as a term of endearment), often sublimating everything in his films to spectacle (which I note with more skepticism). The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is an action film with words, its cutting and command of space as sharp and rhythmic as the continuity edits splicing wides and close-ups in his car chases. What’s crucial is that there is no flashback to the tumultuous circumstances onboard; we receive alternating glosses on what happened, and who was responsible––especially regarding Maryk’s growing skepticism of Queeg and his possible mental instability across the ship’s whole campaign. It forces the unseen past events––a tense naval drama, in actuality––to vividly play in our head. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
With the successive features Dogtooth, Alps, and The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos seemed to be going down the same route as Wes Anderson, i.e. become one of those auteurs who refines rather than expands on his idiosyncrasies, making largely interchangeable films on an ever grander scale but with diminishing returns. In this regard, The Killing of a Sacred Deer represents a departure, venturing into genre territory previously uncharted by the director. Although a felicitous turn in principle, the dispiriting results suggest Lanthimos might have been better off staying on his original course after all. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
Immaculately scripted and evocatively realized, Lady Bird, writer-director Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, deftly captures the growing pains of adolescence through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old high school senior, caught between the realities of her daily life and the fantasies of her future. The heart of the film lies between Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother (Laurie Metcalf), whose contentious and warring relationship gradually reveals their inherent similarities. Packed with stunningly cast characters, beautifully quotable dialogue and painstaking attention to period detail, Lady Bird captures an arduous and ecstatic coming-of-age tone and feel with deeper emotionality than any other film in 2017. – Tony H.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Lynch/Oz (Alexandre O. Philippe)
The Wizard of Oz has become a tradition. Synonymous with the wonder of childhood and the wonder of movies, Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic plays in homes across America every year––often cited as the most-watched film in movie history. A portion of those watches come from filmmakers who think it a sacred text, traditional source material for any story they might want to tell. One of those filmmakers is David Lynch, populist surrealist actor, writer, artist, musician, and director. Lynch/Oz explores the connection between the famous film and dream-focused director. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
My Sailor, My Love (Klaus Härö)
Howard (James Cosmo) lives what appears to be a hermitic life of unwavering obstinance. He doesn’t even open the door when his daughter Grace (Catherine Walker) and her husband Martin (Aidan O’Hare) arrive—a seemingly inconsequential fact until you realize it’s his birthday and she’s there to ready for the celebration. It would be easy to dismiss his demeanor as immovable then. Why would he act like this with his loved ones if that wasn’t how he acts with everyone? Except attending the local bar afterwards to celebrate more inexplicably sees Howard suddenly sparkling to life. He regales the children with tales at sea, enjoys a slice of their cake (not Grace’s), and seems a decade younger. Where then is the disconnect? What are we missing? – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitksy)
When the trailer for Gene Stupnitksy’s No Hard Feelings made the rounds online, it felt like a mild event. Not only for a return to big theatrical releases for star Jennifer Lawrence, but also a return of the big-budget, theatrically released sex comedy, a genre that has been mostly relegated to streaming. It was great to see one of the few remaining stars who can draw an audience throw her considerable influence behind a straight-up comedy. But for No Hard Feelings to salvage comedy it must actually be funny. And overall it is. – Gabrielle M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green)
Kitty Green saw Hotel Coolgardie while on a festival jury, and the film impacted her so much she’s now adapted it into The Royal Hotel, a tense yet uneven thriller that sensationalizes its source material in almost all of the right places. In Green’s take, American tourists Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) travel to Australia to escape their lives back home, and we first see them partying it up on a boat in Sydney. Their partying days get cut short when they run out of money, which prompts Liv to find a temporary job for both of them at a bar hundreds of miles away in a barren mining town. Hanna dreads the idea of it; Liv goes with the flow. (Liv’s only question about the job: “Will there be kangaroos?”). – C.J. P. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)
The best word to describe Unrest is “clever.” It isn’t on the level of the artisans and thinkers it lovingly portrays––all the graphers (geo, carto, photo) and the ists (social, anarch, horolog, and so on)––but not so far off; and more than enough to be worthy of their story. Consider the title’s neat duality. “Unrest,” as the film explains, is another name for a wristwatch’s balance wheel: an instrument that, working in tandem with the spiral and escapement, creates the mechanism that makes it tick. Then there is the other kind. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Also New to Streaming
Hulu
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Netflix
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Pain Hustlers
Peacock
Five Nights At Freddy’s
Shudder
When Evil Lurks
VOD
Saturn Bowling
What Doesn’t Float