The 20 Best Movies of 2023 So Far

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
and Keith Kimbell, Metacritic Film Editor – July 1, 2023

Which films impressed critics during the first half of the year? In the gallery on this page we rank the highest-scoring movies debuting in theaters (or straight to VOD/streaming) between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2023. Titles are ranked by their Metascores as of June 30, 2023 and must have a minimum of 7 reviews from professional critics to be eligible for inclusion.

13 of 21 photo by The Cinema Guild

86Walk Up

(#8) Hong Sang-soo’s 28th feature (which actually reached American theaters after his 29th, In Water) first premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. The incredibly prolific filmmaker has once again found a clever way to explore familiar themes as each vignette of the story plays out on different floor of a Seoul apartment building. The characters include Byungsoo (Kwon Haehyo), a film director, his estranged daughter Jeongsu (Park Miso), and the building’s owner (Lee Hyeyoung), an old friend of Byungsoo. Wine is the lubricator of truth in this Hong outing, as every flight of stairs leads to a new life.

Walk Up has completed its theatrical rollout but is not yet available to stream.

“With each new film, Hong Sang-soo’s work becomes more subtextual, more fraught, even funnier.” —Chuck Bowen, Slant

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