We want to try something different at Ready Steady Cut this year. Instead of waiting until the end of the year to name the top films, we thought of keeping a running list of 2023’s very best films throughout the year. This way, we can maintain the progress of movies not just around the award season blitz but during the lonely cold months.
There are some exceptions to the list we are curating. Any film that was given a limited release or eligible for the 2022 awards season – but opening in a wide release in 2023 – will not be included in this list. Also, any film released in a film festival without finding distribution, for example, at Sundance or SXSW, will be excluded until finding a release date,
Please scroll down and read the list of the Best Movies of 2023 So Far! Make sure to check back at the end of every month for updates like what has been added, dropped, and mistakes rectified in cultivating the year’s best films! Also, if you want to delve into more best movie lists, check out our Best Movies On Netflix 2023 article too.
Last updated: March 3rd, 2023
Best Movies of 2023 So Far
10. Infinity Pool (2023)
Infinity Pool, per the Rotten Tomatoes consensus, is turbulent waters even for strong swimmers. Infinity Pool provides a visceral all-inclusive retreat of Cronenbergian perversion for those wanting to escape commercial sundries.
Official Premise:
“While staying at an isolated island resort, James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. But guided by the seductive and mysterious Gabi (Mia Goth), they venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism, and untold horror. A tragic accident leaves them facing a zero-tolerance policy for a crime: either you’ll be executed, or, if you’re rich enough to afford it, you can watch yourself die instead.”
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård. Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88% (120 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
9. Cocaine Bear (2023)
There’s life before Cocaine Bear and after. You may feel dumber going out than in, but the greatest cocaine-infused bear horror B-movie ever made is a glorious, gory good time.
Official Premise:
“After a 500-pound black bear consumes a significant amount of cocaine and embarks on a drug-fueled rampage, an eccentric gathering of cops, criminals, tourists, and teenagers assemble in a Georgia forest.”
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70% (213 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
8. You People (2023)
You People is a funny take on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner that is timely, relevant, and uncomfortable for all reasons. This comedy film is refreshingly blunt. By allowing ruminating thoughts to simmer, it can be side-splittingly funny. That’s why the script by Barris works to deconstruct the argument of the social construct of race.
Official Premise:
“Families and cultures clash when two LA millennials from different backgrounds fall in love and face the ultimate relationship test: meeting the parents.”
Director: Kenya Barris
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Jonah Hill
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45% (84 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10
7. Plane (2023)
There is nothing more than what mainstream critics like more: A Gerard Butler action spectacular. With Greenland (78%) and Cop Shop (80%) strumming the approval cords since the pandemic, his current film Plane has gotten the same praise.
Official Premise:
“In the white-knuckle action movie PLANE, pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning.”
Directors: Jean-François Richet
Cast: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, and Tony Goldwyn
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95% (143 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
6. M3GAN (2023)
The first big hit of 2023, M3GAN has made 146 million dollars in the first month of the year alone, on only a 12 million dollar budget.
Official Premise:
“M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by Gemma, a brilliant roboticist, M3GAN can listen, watch and learn as it plays the role of a friend, teacher, playmate, and protector. When Gemma becomes the unexpected caretaker of her 8-year-old niece, she decides to give the girl an M3GAN prototype, a decision that leads to unimaginable consequences.”
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Allison Williams, Jenna Davis, and Violet McGraw
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% (283 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
5. Narvik (2023)
Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Narvik is a stunning-looking war film that’s naturally gripping and does an above-average job playing up the moral dilemmas despite, at times, being frustratingly inert.
Official Premise:
“By April 1940, Narvik, a small town in northern Norway, routinely has 85% of the iron ore used by Nazi Germany’s war machine transported from its port. Attempts to disrupt this process over two months of fierce winter warfare caused Hitler to be handed his first major defeat.”
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg
Cast: Kristine Hartgen, Carl Martin Eggsbø, Cristoph Gelfert Mathiesen, and Henrik Mestad
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% (4 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
4. Knock at the Cabin (2023)
The cast is phenomenal; this is Dave Bautista’s best career performance. Knock at the Cabin is a tightly wound, well-paced, and plotted movie that delivers some stoic thrills and poignant moments that relieve the tension without needing comic relief. This is an exceptionally made thriller with satisfying flaws to pick at and debate.
Official Premise:
“While vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand they make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. Confused, scared, and with limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.”
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67% (311 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
3. Boy From Nowhere (2023)
Boy From Nowhere is a raw, gritty, poetic film about the rape and pillaging of cultural identity and history.
Official Premise:
“After losing his father and home, a lost and gentle young boy is brainwashed into becoming a child soldier for the local rebel faction.”
Director: S.J. Finley
Cast: Gary Jumawan, Nack Nack Abugyan
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% (4 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 5.4/10
2. Missing (2022)
This stand-alone sequel of the surprise smash hit Searching. Missing is an anxiety-ridden and armrest-grabbing. This is the type of old-fashioned thriller that trades star power for a good story that audiences are clamoring for.
Official Premise:
“After her mother goes missing, a young woman tries to find her from home, using tools available to her online.”
Director: Will Merrick and Nick Johnson
Cast: Storm Reid, Joaquim de Almeida, Ken Leung, Amy Landecker, Daniel Henney, and Nia Long
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84% (92 reviews)
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
1. Creed 3 (2023)
Creed 3 is a crowd-pleaser effort, with Jonathon Majors at his ferocious best and Phylicia Rashad is sensational.
Official Premise:
“After the events of Creed II (2018), Adonis “Donnie” Creed is thriving in both his boxing career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damian “Dame” Anderson, resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring.”
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% (68 reviews)
IMDB Rating: N/A (opens nationwide 3/3/23)
And that completes our Best Movies of 2023 list. What’s your favorite movie so far? Comment below.
Check out our Where to Watch Shows and Movies Online Discovery Tool
