The best new movies on major streaming platforms in January 2023 (2023)

"Primary" (region: Robert Drew, 1960)

shit willrealon the Criterion Channel, as the gold standard of movie streamers kick off the new year with a profound and refreshingly essential array of cinema vérité masterpieces, ranging from iconic political documentaries like Robert Drew's 'Primary' to defining portrait works like 'Portrait of Jason' and movies of concerts you're in, like 'Woodstock' and 'Gimme Shelter'. The series also offers a wonderful entry into the faux-observational style of Abbas Kiarostami's early work, which Criterion contextualizes in a retrospective of the late director's "children's films" (including the immortal "Where's a Friend's House?").

From direct cinema to life scene dramas, the channel also presents eight of the formative television dramas created by Mike Leigh for the BBC during the 17 year gap between his first two feature films; Films like Grown-Ups and Home Sweet Home, while slightly darker than his later work, are too rich in memorable characters and heartbreaking drama to be dismissed as mere Secrets and Lies projects or anything else. And while cinema can, should and probably will be divided into "before 'EO'" and "after 'EO'", a trio of lightning rods amid Jerzy Skolimowski's career ("Deep End", "The Shout' and 'Moonlighting') are a stark reminder that the man responsible for the best donkey story of 2022 has always been one of the GOATs.

Available to stream January 1st

Other highlights:

– “Adults” (1/1)
– “Boca duster” (1/1)
– "Where is the friend's house?" (1/1)

„Zero Fucks Given“ (Regie: Julie Lecoustre & Emmanuel Marre, 2021)

For the fifth consecutive year, Film Movement Plus has partnered with MyFrenchFilmFestival.com to present the latter site's programming, and the eight-film selection is packed with big Cannes and Venice premieres that never found their way (and in some cases still do). awaiting proper US clearance). That's especially true in Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre's nighttime stroll Zero Fucks Given, in which the intrepid Adèle Exarchopoulos plays a rootless flight attendant who finds solace in the soul-destroying corporate rituals of late capitalism.

Zero Fucks Given explores the head in the clouds of its pretentious and deeply ingrained heroine. While following the same broad plot as Jason Reitman's impeccably smiling "Up in the Air," an itinerant traveler with no interest in changing his lifestyle readjusts his approach to takeoffs and landings to make it feel like I'm going somewhere. Like Fleeing From Another Place: Lecoustre and Marre's intriguing film debut is richer and more structured, as it sees this lifestyle through the eyes of a crew member rather than a passenger. The coming-of-age bop "Magnetic Beats," about a group of friends who stream a free radio station from their homes in 1980s France, is worth it for the soundtrack alone, while the dating drama starring Laurent Larivière's children, About Joan offers a haunting reminder that French cinema is still unrivaled when it comes to stories of romantic entanglement.

Available to stream January 13th

Other highlights:

– „Magnetic Beats“ (1/13)
– “Last Autumn” (21.1.)
– "Holy Narcissus" (28/1)

"The Menu" (Director: Mark Mylod 2022)

We know it's sad that Noma closed its doors before you had time to fly to Copenhagen for reindeer brain pudding at 'the best restaurant in the world' (and you were about to plan your trip!), but a quick read from The Menu should help ease the pain, because Mark Mylod's delicious satire on the Michelin world will leave you very grateful for those Hot Pockets you just took out of the microwave. This First Edition delicacy, one of 2022's few niche hits, is easily the most recognizable release on an HBO Max slate, otherwise peppered with current library titles ("Support Girls") rather than ("From Here to Eternity"), while Streamers clearing the deck for "The Last of Us" to live at the top of every subscriber's homepage for months to come.

Available to stream January 3

Other highlights:

– “Touch of Cloth” (1/1)
- "Lawrence of Arabia" (1/1)
– “Wild Rose” (1/1)

"Riotsville, USA" (Director: Sierra Pettengill, 2022)

Fleishman may not be in trouble anymore, but Hulu continues to reward its subscribers in the new year with a handful of big exclusives that make the most of the streamer's exit deals with independent film distributors. Don't miss Harry Wootliff's obsessive novel True Things, which is another great addition to the growing subgenre of stories about people who are so desperate for a little danger in their lives that they decide to seek romance and/or creativity to get involved. starring Tom Burke, despite the fact that he's a 6-foot red flag who'd rather self-destruct than repay someone's emotional investment (past posts include "The Souvenir", "The Crown", and "Mank"). Or Audrey Diwan's very urgent Happening, a dramatic period film about abortion that eerily foretells our present. Or, most notably, Sierra Pettengill's mesmerizing Riotsville, USA, one of the best documentaries of 2022, reflecting the evolution and current consequences of the US military's riot management program.

Available to stream January 12th

Other highlights:

- "True Things" (1/8)
– „Paris, 13. Arrondissement“ (1/15)
- "It happened" (1/22)

"Hold me tight" (Regie: Mathieu Amalric, 2022)

MUBI is starting the new year on a high note as the streamer's 2023 slate kicks off with Mathieu Amalric's utterly spellbinding marital drama Hold Me Tight, starring the ever-beautiful Vicky Krieps as the woman on the run from her family. Anyone feeling Sundance FOMO or just wanting to get into the spirit of the season should check out MUBI's selection of Sundance favorites, ranging from hard-to-watch trivia from Tom Noonan's "What Happened Was..." to hits like "Tangerine' , 'The Wolfpack' and the wonderful 'Touchy Feely' by Lynn Shelton. The summer of 1993 from Carla Simón, director of Alcarràs, and the mind-blowing Beyond the Black Window from Panos Cosmatos, and it's even scarier than its sequel Mandy.

Available to stream January 13th

Other highlights:

– "River of Grass" (1/3)
– „Touchy Feely“ (1/23)
– „Diamante“ (1/28)

"The Hunt" (Director: Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)

Another Round fans take note: this isn't the first time Thomas Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen have collaborated on a sober (sorry) drama about a middle-aged man in crisis. The Hunt stars Mikkelsen as Lucas, a divorced kindergarten teacher whose already difficult life is made even more complicated when a rebellious student falsely accuses him of embarrassing her. The truth of the matter is finally becoming clear enough, but the stain of sexual impropriety is hard to wash away, and Lucas, branded a predator by those he's known his entire life, succumbs to his paranoia. Like "Another Round," "The Hunt" is a prickly but sympathetic and disturbingly honest film about decent people in search of a better way to live with each other and with themselves. Mikkelsen is phenomenal, and the film surrounding him refuses to mince words, coming up with an ending as memorable as the one Vinterberg concocted for Another Round, albeit in a far less cathartic sense.

Available to stream January 17th

Other highlights:

- "Blade of the Immortal" (1/3)
- "The Double" (1/10)
– "Julia" (1/10)

„Mars One“ (Region: Gabriel Martins, 2022)

In what appears to be a sign of things to come, especially after a month in which the streamer has poured a fortune into the little-seen adaptation of Noah Baumbach's White Noise, Netflix kicks off 2023 with a lineup that closely resembles the original. Movies and many library favorites that seem to hit shelves every other month (“Jerry Maguire,” “Brokeback Mountain,” etc.). The Kenyan-Barris Jonah Hill/Eddie Murphy comedy You People is the one major exception, and while it hasn't yet been screened to critics, the film's trailer is much sharper than any of the other films Barris has written. Girl trip."

This makes Gabriel Martins' wonderful Brazilian Oscar-winning film 'Mars One' an easy choice for our pick of the month. Inyour glowing review of the filmJude Dry of IndieWire wrote that Martins' film, which follows a single working-class family as they yearn for more, love each other, reflect on themselves and struggle to survive after Jair Bolsonaro's 2018 election victory, is simple. , yet simple, a monumental portrait of people who "wake up every day and get through survival until they can thrive".

Available to stream January 5

Other highlights:

- "Secret in the Mountain" (1/1)
– „Jerry Maguire“ (1/1)
– "From" (27/1)

Ray and Liz (Region: Richard Billingham, 2018)

Made from the same stuff as hard-hitting cinematic memoirs like Terence Davies' The Long Day Closes, Ray & Liz - the haunting, crushing first feature from photographer Richard Billingham, who's been interested in form since the end'. 90s - It's like watching someone painstakingly build a rusty time machine that just sends them back to their own rotten past. Billingham's work has always been praised for its lack of obvious beauty; His most acclaimed images, of his lazy parents locked away in Birmingham's bleakest Thatcher-era council house, are shocking in their deprivation and self-sufficiency.

His first film continues this trend as Billingham recreates childhood memories of his drunken father and brutal mother, as if every moment is a fragment of a broken mirror he is trying to put back together with his own hands. The result is a mature, bloody act of self-reflection that's so personal it can feel like Billingham made it just for himself as it stands between us and what he smeared across the screen. But film, like Billingham's photography, is all the more powerful for refusing to order, explain itself, or attempt to bestow any retroactive grace on an impoverished existence marked by boredom and neglect. Through the right lens, Ray & Liz discover that life can be read like a landscape.

Available to stream January 6

Other highlights:

– “My Imaginary Country” (1/26)
– "The Maids" (1/27)
– “Privilege” (1/27)

"Honk Jesus, Save Your Soul" (Diretor: Adamma Ebo, 2022)

Prime is keeping things pretty quiet this January, with a random selection of pre-1990 library titles ('The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', 'An Officer and a Gentleman') joining more recent masterpieces, but also randomly, like 'Si Beale Street Could Talk' and Steven Spielberg's 'A.I.', which feels more valuable than ever after 'The Fabelmans'.

Adamma Ebo's megachurch mockumentary Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul can't compete with any of those movies, but it's worth noting its arrival on Prime in a month when Peacock, home of the sitcom's debut, isn't doing enough as your own synopsis. qualify. In her Sundance 2022 review, Kate Erbland of IndieWire wrote that "Honk for Jesus" was "as funny as it is heartbreaking" and that stars Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown are wonderfully sacrilegious as selfish preachers in a "religious victory". fall." Seething and our worst human impulses."

Available to stream January 3

Other highlights:

- "A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (1/1)
– "The man who shot the Liberty Valance" (1/15)
– “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1/15)

"Sorry for the Devil" (Diretor: Emily Hagins, 2023)

The story of a heartbroken bachelor who moves into a new home only to find out: great news! - You might not be so alone as you thought "Sorry About the Demon" would stand out from the rest of Shudder's January lineup just because of its wonderfully funny title. Even more compelling is the fact that it was written and directed by Emily Hagins ("Grow Up, Tony Phillips"), who has always had a knack for using horror tropes to convey the kind of funny, heartfelt human story that tells who bleeds. good. . off screen. We haven't seen this one yet, but all signs point to another gorgeous one.

Available to stream January 19

Other highlights:

– “We have to do something” (1/2)
– “We’ve always lived in the castle” (9/1)
– „Brain Freeze“ (1/16)