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Benedict Cumberbatch, standing in a room lined ceiling to floor with books, stares directly into the camera while holding up another book in Wes Anderson’s Netflix film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Image: Netflix

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The best new movie on every streaming service

Here’s what you should be watching

The streaming landscape is vast and hard to keep track of. The rush of new movies on streaming services (and the rush of new streaming services on our devices) is more than any one person can keep up with, and not all of them can be winners.

That’s what we’re here for. We’re going to keep this post updated with the most recent movie on each of the major streaming platforms that we liked, as well as some other options if our pick doesn’t sound like your particular jam.

So, below, find the best new movies on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Apple TV, Peacock, Shudder, Mubi, and the Criterion Channel. Our latest update gave this whole post a facelift.


The best new movie on Netflix

Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl shorts

Wes Anderson’s Netflix film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Image: Netflix

Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel

Wes Anderson continues to push himself in new and exciting directions, and his four adaptations of Roald Dahl stories as Netflix shorts are exhilarating experiments in form.

The first and longest, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is the best, but all are well worth your time if you are fans of Anderson’s work (especially his recent stuff, which sees him experiment more with artifice and theatricality). —PV

Also good: They Cloned Tyrone, a hilarious genre-bending debut from director Juel Taylor; Kill Boksoon, a Korean assassin/single mom action thriller; You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, a very teen comedy starring Adam Sandler’s entire family; Missing, a great “screenlife” thriller that follows up on Searching; Lost Bullet 2, France’s answer to the vehicular mayhem of the Fast and Furious series; Athena, a French crime thriller that was the single best Netflix original of 2022; Emily the Criminal, an Aubrey Plaza-led crime thriller; Hustle, Adam Sandler’s basketball dramedy co-starring real NBA players.

The best new movie on Hulu

No One Will Save You

Kaitlyn Dever as Brynn Adams hides from a wooden joint doll in No One Will Save You Photo: Sam Lothridge/20th Century Studios

Director: Brian Duffield
Cast: Kaitlyn Dever

Hulu’s straight-to-streaming alien invasion movie really deserved its hour in theaters, if only because writer-director Brian Duffield calibrated the whole thing around the kind of breathless commitment that’s much harder to achieve at home. Booksmart co-star Kaitlyn Dever stars as a small-town pariah who has no one to turn to when an alien shows up at her house — the implied rest of the title, “…except yourself,” winds up being most of the movie, as Dever’s character Brynn tries to outrun, outthink, and out-endure what winds up being a whole lot more than one alien.

Duffield’s movie starts as a home-invasion thriller with a sci-fi twist, then skips merrily through several more horror genres on its way to one of the year’s most unpackable, debatable, argument-starter endings. It’s worth watching just for the ride Dever and Duffield take you on, but also for the conversations that follow the film’s stunning final sequence. —Tasha Robinson

Also good: How to Blow Up a Pipeline, an eco-thriller that packs a punch; Infinity Pool, the latest eerie creation of Brandon Cronenberg; Theater Camp, the funniest movie of 2023; Broker, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest meditation on family; Inu-Oh, Masaaki Yuasa’s rebellious and strange rock opera; Prey, Dan Trachtenberg’s revival of the Predator franchise in 18th-century Comanche territory; Crimes of the Future, David Cronenberg’s latest body horror masterpiece; Fire Island, a modern gay adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

The best new movie on Prime Video

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant

A group of soldiers in desert camouflage, bulletproof vests, and holding rifles in Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. Photo: Christopher Raphael/MGM

Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Antony Starr

The Covenant is a strong return to form for director Guy Ritchie, who killed it with Wrath of Man and is back at it again with another tightly wound, impeccably executed thriller.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a sergeant in the special forces who is assigned a new interpreter (Dar Salim). The two form an uneasy bond that is cemented when their convoy comes under fire and they have to seek a way out of dangerous territory.

The Covenant isn’t content to stay a war thriller — the second half nimbly moves over to bureaucratic drama, as Ritchie turns the movie’s attention over to the forgotten promises of the U.S. government. The Covenant shines through its impeccable craft and the powerhouse performances of its two leads, especially Salim. —PV

Also good: Knock at the Cabin, M. Night Shyamalan’s apocalyptic family drama; M3GAN, who remains the moment; Creed III, Michael B. Jordan’s terrific directorial debut; Pathaan, a mega-budget Bollywood spy thriller starring the legendary Shah Rukh Khan; Nope, Jordan Peele’s excellent new sci-fi horror; Catherine Called Birdy, Lena Dunham’s 13th-century coming-of-age comedy; Thirteen Lives, Ron Howard’s dramatic retelling of the Thai cave rescue; Ambulance, Michael Bay’s intense LA crime thriller; The Outfit, a single-location crime drama with Mark Rylance.

The best new movie on Max

The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart

Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton) standing in an alley flanked by O.S.I. troopers in The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart. Image: Warner Bros.

Director: Jackson Publick
Cast: Doc Hammer, James Urbaniak, Patrick Warburton

For over 15 years, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer’s irreverent sci-fi comedy The Venture Bros. felt like a series too good to be true — a satirical riff on Jonny Quest that gradually morphed into one of the most daring and original animated series of its time. And then, the unthinkable happened: It got canceled. In the aftermath of the show’s premature conclusion, Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart is a bittersweet boon, a feature-length Venture Bros. special created to tie off the series’ dangling plot threads and give everyone’s favorite dysfunctional family of super scientists and bodyguards the send-off they deserve.

The movie succeeds at this and then some, delivering a fitting finale packed with shocking revelations and hilarious jokes. Publick and Hammer have both reiterated in the past that, though The Venture Bros. as a series may have concluded, the adventures of Rusty, Hank, and Dean Venture will continue on — it’s just that we, the audience, won’t see them. There’s something comforting in knowing that, so long as Publick and Hammer still have the desire to tell stories in this universe, goodbye is never really goodbye; it’s only until next time, Team Venture. —Toussaint Egan

Also good: The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh’s award-winning black comedy; Barbarian, Zach Cregger’s completely bonkers horror comedy; The Menu, a black comedy at an elite restaurant starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy; Kimi, a modern take on Rear Window from Steven Soderbergh and starring Zoë Kravitz.

The best new movie on Disney Plus

Elemental

(L-R) Fire elemental Ember (Leah Lewis) watches water elemental Wade (Mamoudou Athie) flex his arms in Elemental Image: Pixar

Director: Peter Sohn
Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Catherine O’Hara

After a disappointing opening weekend that had pundits rushing to label it a flop, Pixar’s Elemental quietly lingered in theaters and racked up nearly $500 million at the box office, while its short-lived competition came and went. When it hit Disney Plus, the company promptly proclaimed it was the biggest hit on the platform since Pixar’s Turning Red.

Why the soft launch and the big finish? Maybe the early descriptions of the movie as a semi-autobiographical second-generation immigrant story made it sound dry or familiar, and it took word of mouth to convince filmgoers that it’s actually a stunningly beautifully realized and also deeply strange story that’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s true that the concept “Person made of fire and person made of water fall for each other, but can they kiss?” sounds like the most Pixar “What if X item had feelings?” storyline ever. But the movie is a lot weirder and more winning than that bare description sounds. The soundtrack in particular is a big ol’ banger. —TR

Also good: Turning Red, Pixar’s previous most recent success; Fire of Love, an award-winning documentary about volcanology pioneers Katia and Maurice Krafft.

The best new movie on Paramount Plus

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

April O’Neil, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo laugh while looking at a mobile phone in a still from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Image: Nickelodeon/Paramount

Director: Jeff Rowe
Cast: Micah Abbey, Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Shamon Brown Jr., Ayo Edebiri

No one will blame you if you feel a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount of Mutant Ninja Turtlery out there in the culture: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s weapon-wielding humanoid reptile force get a new incarnation every few years or so, and not all of them are memorable. This movie stands out from the crowd, though.

For the first time, the heroes on a half-shell are voiced by actual teenagers, and written like them, too. This particular story, where they all yearn for basic acceptance and normal teen lives, feels relatable in the best way. Their periodic big, stunning, cleverly crafted battles? Less relatable, maybe, but still a whole lot of fun. The animation in this movie is dynamic, stylish, and exciting in a way that’s begging for home viewing and freeze-framing, and watching this at home, you’ll finally be able to loop back and get all the turtles’ frequently overlapping excited dialogue. Animation fans shouldn’t miss this one, whether or not they’re TMNT lifers. —TR

Also good: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, a courtroom drama that is the final film from the late, great William Friedkin; Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the surprisingly fun D&D movie; Top Gun: Maverick, a smash box-office hit and enormous technical achievement; Orphan: First Kill, the deliriously fun prequel to the 2009 horror movie; The Lost City, an outrageously silly adventure rom-com with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.

The best new movie on Apple TV Plus

Flora and Son

Flora, played by Eve Hewson, walks through Dublin in a jacket with a guitar case strapped to her back next to her son, Max, in the Apple TV Plus film Flora and Son Image: Apple TV Plus

Director: John Carney
Cast: Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jack Reynor

Once director John Carney returns to his musical ways with this family story about a mom trying to connect with her son through the power of music. From our review:

Carney’s films aren’t particularly challenging to watch — they’re earnest, big-hearted stories that labor to convey what it’s like to find a creative flicker in yourself, nurture it with someone else, and learn with them that some things can only be said with a guitar and a broken heart. The connections his characters make with each other are acts of bravery: It’s hard to be vulnerable enough to make music, or to express your love to someone else. Anyone can do it, but doing it right — in a way that, as Jeff says at one point, inspires a visible change in the person in front of you — that’s something else entirely. —Joshua Rivera

Also good: The Tragedy of Macbeth, Joel Coen’s stark black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation starring Denzel Washington.

The best new movie on Peacock

Asteroid City

A motel manager (Steve Carell) stands in front of a desert motel, wearing a green sunshade and looking into the camera, while two people in pale clothing (Aristou Meehan and Liev Schreiber) stand in the distance behind him in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City Photo: Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features

Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks

Anderson’s latest feature stars a fantastic ensemble cast, plenty of rapid-fire jokes, memorable musical numbers and practical effects, and a deliciously meta story about storytelling. As Tasha Robinson wrote in our list of the best movies of 2023:

In Asteroid City, his ridiculously meta story-within-a-story sci-fi film about an alien encounter, that voice hones in on the question of art and creativity — who it’s for, what it brings the artist and the audience, why any form of recognition or acclaim is good enough for one creator while another strains to find connection and resonance in their work.

It’s yet another unforgettable movie from a one-of-a-kind filmmaker. —PV

Also good: Polite Society, an action comedy about sisters; Sick, John Hyams’ tense COVID-era thriller; Tár, Polygon’s No. 6 movie of 2022 and a masterful study of a celebrity conductor’s life collapsing.

The best new movie on Shudder

A Wounded Fawn

Josh Ruben from the Shudder horror movie A Wounded Fawn carrying a lantern with a bandage on his head Photo: Peter Mamontoff/Shudder

Director: Travis Stevens
Cast: Josh Ruben, Sarah Lind

One of 2022’s most underrated horror movies is this Greek mythology-inspired tale of a serial killer, and what happens when he picks the wrong victim. Gorgeously shot on 35mm, A Wounded Fawn has the kind of grainy texture you’d want from this sort of low-budget thrills-and-kills project. It also features fantastic leading performances from Josh Ruben (director of Werewolves Within and Dropout TV regular) and Sarah Lind. —PV

Also good: Skinamarink, an experimental horror movie that has turned into a viral sensation; Saloum, a genre-bending thriller from Senegal; Resurrection, a psychological thriller with one of the year’s best performances from Rebecca Hall; Hellbender, a family-made low-budget movie about a young girl who discovers she comes from a family of witches; The Last Thing Mary Saw, starring Isabelle Fuhrman as a young girl suspected of murder.

The best new movie on Mubi

Passages

Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw standing close to one another on a crowded dancefloor in Passages. Image: Mubi

Director: Ira Sachs
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos

For anyone wondering where the line is between ethical and nonethical polygamy, the easy answer is “Watch Ira Sachs’ Passages.” A startlingly frank and graphically sexual drama about a bi guy (Franz Rogowski) who can’t make up his mind, Passages feels like Blue Is the Warmest Color with an extra participant thrown in to complicate feelings further.

Narcissistic movie director Tomas (Rogowski) abandons his marriage to Martin (Ben Whishaw) to chase Agathe (Blue Is the Warmest Color’s Adèle Exarchopoulos), but gets anxious and indecisive when Martin also takes up with a new lover. His ping-ponging back and forth between them is a little maddening (and very hot), but as the tension builds between the three of them and their various friends, lovers, and families, Passages gets more and more surprising. A late-film conversation between two members of this love triangle is one of 2023’s most memorable and exquisite scenes. —TR

Also good: Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook’s latest masterpiece.

The best new movie on Criterion Channel

The Eight Mountains

Pietro (Luca Marinelli) in hiking gear sits atop a mountain reading a book, with more snow-topped mountains behind him, in The Eight Mountains Image: Janus Films

Directors: Felix Van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch
Cast: Alessandro Borghi, Luca Marinelli, Paolo Cognetti

This drama tells the story of two old friends who reconnect in their 30s in the Italian Alps. As Matt Patches wrote in our roundup of the best movies of the year:

Adapted from a slim novel by Paolo Cognetti, the two-and-a-half-hour film deep-breathes its way through the ups and downs of Pietro’s and Bruno’s lives while basking in the backdrop. This is not a movie draped with green-screened matte shots; van Groeningen and Vandermeersch clearly hauled cameras, crew, and their acting troupe to mountain peaks to frame pithy scenes of two men talking in ways that are typically exclusive to IMAX nature films. The clash makes what could be a navel-gazing character study into a profound look at what it means to live — and touch grass.

Also good: I Was a Simple Man, a beautiful Hawaiian ghost story; Infinite Football, an offbeat and charming soccer-related documentary from Corneliu Porumboiu.

The best new movie on Tubi

Accused

Chaneil Kular looks at his phone in disbelief as tears well in his eyes in Accused Image: © Stroud Lane Productions Limited 2022

Director: Philip Barantini
Cast: Chaneil Kular, Frances Tomelty, Lauryn Ajufo

This tight 88-minute thriller went straight to Tubi in the U.S., and it’s one of the more interesting smaller-budget movies to come out this year. A young man (Chaneil Kular) barely misses being on a train that was targeted by a terror attack. While he spends the weekend at his parents’ house, self-appointed internet detectives wrongly accuse him of being the perpetrator. Accused deftly shows this through social media and television news, before distorting into a tense home-invasion thriller. —PV

Also good: The Outwaters, a delightfully grotesque horror movie; Cinnamon, a crime thriller about young lovers who rob the wrong people.

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