Every Apple TV+ Original Movie of 2023, Ranked According to IMDb

Announcing the launch of their very own streaming service in 2019, tech giant Apple defied convention when they joined the video entertainment race with Apple TV+, a platform that would contain strictly Apple original content. Relying solely on the success of their own productions, Apple Studios has ensured creative freedom for their platform while simultaneously avoiding future battles over licensing contracts in an industry already drowning in competition.

Now four years into their film-making venture, the catalog on Apple TV+ continues to expand at an impressive rate, adding season after season of hit series, such as workplace drama The Morning Show and David S. Goyer’s Sci-Fi epic Foundation, alongside a growing list of original films. Releasing nine original films in 2023 alone, the studio clearly means business, but how good are their movies really? The IMDb rating system gives us a look at how well these movies have performed throughout the year.

9 ‘Ghosted’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 5.8/10

Knives Out Co-stars Chris Evans and Ana de Armas reunite for a third time in Ghosted, an action-packed spy-thriller/rom-com by the director of Rocketman (2019), Dexter Fletcher. After a chance meeting where an unsuspecting farmer (Evans) falls for a secret agent (Armas), the two become entangled in an international mission to save the world.

Jam-packed with buckets of talent, the lead cast is joined by an almost distracting number of cameos over Ghosted’s runtime from Evans’ fellow actors from the MCU. While it may be a fun experience to watch and wonder what famous actor will pop up next, ultimately, Ghosted boils down to a pretty low-stakes watch with a bit of a silly premise.

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8 ‘Fingernails’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 5.9/10

Greek-born director Christos Nikou (Apples) delivers his English-spoken debut with Fingernails, a romantic drama exploring the frailty of modern relationships with a science fiction twist. Starring Jessie Buckley (I’m Thinking of Ending Things) alongside Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler) as colleagues who, while working at a love training institute, form a strong connection that threatens to upturn their personal lives.

Playing lightly with some science fiction ideas, the technology at the center of Fingernails’ story will likely make some viewers scratch their heads. Behold, a 1970s style retro computer, linked to what looks to be a microwave. In the world of Fingernails, this device eradicates the guesswork from love, enabling anxious couples to take part in a love test that will first demand the physical sacrifice of a fingernail before producing results.

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7 ‘The Family Plan’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 6.2/10

Teen pop idol turned blockbuster lead Mark Wahlberg (Ted) flexes his action chops and comedic timing alongside Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone) in The Family Plan. When Dan Morgan (Wahlberg), an ex-assassin, is discovered by some old enemies, he must abandon his quiet suburban life and lead his unsuspecting family across the country on an impromptu minivan trip to Las Vegas.

Penned by David Coggeshall, a screenplay writer mostly known for his contributions to horror, notably Orphan: First Kill and Prey, and brought to the screen by BAFTA Award-winning and Apple TV+ veteran director Simon Cellan Jones, who worked with the studio on their apocalyptic action series, See, The Family Plan’s camera work is slick, the action scenes feel heavy, but most importantly, its tone never strays far from the comedic roots of its screenplay.

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6 ‘The Beanie Bubble’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 6.3/10

The 2020s corporate biopic trend continues with The Beanie Bubble, a fast-paced comedy that recounts the ‘Beanie Baby’ craze of the 1990s. Starring Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) alongside Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games) as the creative forces behind a toy craze the likes of which the world has never seen, The Beanie Bubble, while very copy and paste in its approach to telling the story of a pop culture moment, excels due to the sheer fun its cast bring to their roles.

Stylistically reminiscent of its contemporaries in the ‘Buy-o-pic’ genre, like Blackberry or Air, The Beanie Bubble visually looks slick and professional but lacks a certain level of gritty realness that would elevate it above the rabble. Even so, for audiences that can sit back and enjoy the fun of it all, The Beanie Bubble entertains by the tipped-over beanie baby truckload.

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5 ‘Napoleon’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 6.6/10

Sir Ridley Scott (Gladiator) returns to the world of epic historical film making with Napoleon, the divisive blockbuster detailing the life of titular French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, and his infamous relationship with his wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby).

Led by Joaquin Pheonix (Joker), whose sincere and frankly brilliant performance as Napoleon, is unfortunately bogged down thanks to the injection of a few too many invented quirks and oddities into the personality of Bonaparte. Regardless, the film is a feast on the eyes, with breathtaking vistas, and bone-breaking battle sequences that deliver blockbuster entertainment on a level that only the director of Gladiator can bring to the screen.

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4 ‘Sharper’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 6.7/10

A stunning cast of A-list talent fills the screen during Sharper, a neo-noir thriller set in the bedrooms and bathrooms of New York’s uber-rich. Starring Julianne Moore (Magnolia) as Madeleine, a woman climbing through the ranks of Manhattan’s billionaires with the help of Sebastian Stan’s (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) predatory conman, Max.

Hot off the heels of his critically acclaimed work on three episodes of the Star Wars prequel series Andor, Sharper is the feature film-making debut of British-born director Benjamin Caron. Passionately photographed by Charlotte Bruus Christensen (A Quiet Place), whose style exudes class and vibrancy onto the screen, Sharper is elevated further by a ‘sharply’ written script and its actors’ layered performances, all of which combine to form a top-shelf thrill ride.

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3 ‘Flora and Son’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 7/10

Irish-born writer-director John Carney (Sing Street) delivers Flora and Son, a modern musical based around a single mother as she struggles to empower her son with a positive outlook on life and steer him in the right direction when one day she rescues an acoustic guitar from a dumpster.

Starring Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters) and Orén Kinlan (Sunlight) in the roles of Flora and Max, this heart-warming comedy also calls on the talent of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) as Max’s guitar teacher and mentor. Adding ‘Verified Spotify Recording Artist’ to his already expansive creative resume, Gordon-Levitt also recorded five tracks for the film’s delightful original soundtrack, an ambition he has said has always been on his bucket list.

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2 ‘Tetris’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 7.4/10

Whether you’ve played it or not, chances are you recognize the iconic imagery of Tetris, the classic puzzle video game that, since its initial release in the 1980s, has spawned over one hundred officially released sequels and remasters. Directed by Jon S. Baird (Filth), Tetris is no conventional biopic, shying away from telling the tale of the game’s inception, opting for a more captivating story with further reaching, even international, consequences.

Starring Taron Egerton (Rocketman) as Henk Rogers, a gaming entrepreneur whose race to secure the international distribution rights for Tetris led him to brush shoulders with Russian KGB agents and even the longstanding Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi (Togo Igawa).

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1 ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (2023)

IMDb Rating: 7.9/10

Film auteur Martin Scorsese makes a triumphant return with Killers of the Flower Moon, the director’s first feature length film since The Irishman in 2019. Based on David Grann’s best-selling book of the same name, Flower Moon follows the devastating true story of the serial murders of members of the Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in Oklahoma, after oil is discovered in their land.

A Scorsese film through and through, Flower Moon contains familiar faces from the director’s earlier works and many of the narrative tropes his fans have come to expect. From its Catholic undertones of guilt and suffering, to its portrayal of tense and morally gray characters who intertwine crime and business, Flower Moon is a film that builds upon the foundations of Scorsese’s long and illustrious career.

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