See: Some of the best movies of 2023 that have played out so far

Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biopic about J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, brings the tragic figure at its center to fascinatingly paradoxical life, says critic Ann Hornaday. In the title role, Cillian Murphy embodies Oppenheimer’s contradictions: He’s “part machinist, part mystic, ever questioning the apocalyptic implications of what he’s discovering.” (180 minutes.)

Barbie: Greta Gerwig’s live-action meta-movie based on the iconic doll plays like a TED Talk about the patriarchy covered in glitter. Barbie (Margot Robbie) embarks on a quest from her hot-pink Dreamhouse to the real world, where she discovers that she and her fellow agents of Mattel-approved empowerment have not, despite the marketing hype, solved the problem of sexism. It quickly becomes clear, Ann Hornaday writes, that this heroine’s journey will be “a whipped confection of canonical faithfulness, knowing humor and bitterly pointed irony.” (114 minutes.)

The Little Mermaid: Is this live-action remake of Disney’s beloved 1989 animated classic flawless even necessary? Maybe not: It’s overlong and uneven. But Halle Bailey is incandescent in the title role of a mermaid who longs to live on land, says Ann Hornaday. “She delivers a lovely performance that’s all the more accomplished for being delivered amid crashing waves, sweeping vistas and the crushing expectations of generations of fans. As a new generation’s Ariel, she makes 'The Little Mermaid’ her own — with confidence, charisma and oceans of charm.” (130 minutes.)

The Covenant: “Emotionally affecting” is not a phrase you often hear in reference to a film by director Guy Ritchie, who is best known for such raunchy, rambunctious action comedies as ‘The Gentleman’ and ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.’ Make no mistake, critic Michael O’Sullivan writes, this tale of a wounded soldier (Jake Gyllenhaal) who returns to Afghanistan to bring the interpreter who saved his life (Dar Salim) back to the United States is manipulative — “skillfully, entertainingly and at times almost overbearingly so. But oh, boy, does it work.” (123 minutes.)

The Eternal Memory: Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi’s alternately tender and tough documentary portrait of a couple grappling with the slow disintegration of Alzheimer’s disease is a must-see, Ann Hornaday writes, for every about-to-be-engaged couple, between ring shopping and tux fitting. “From its first moments, ‘The Eternal Memory’ announces that this will be as gentle and uplifting as the first words spoken by Paulina ‘Pauli’ Urrutia as she awakens her husband, Augusto Góngora.” (84 minutes. In Spanish with subtitles.)

Creed III: Actor Michael B Jordan makes a strong directorial debut, reprising his role as boxer Adonis ‘Donny’ Creed in this third instalment of the ‘Rocky’ spinoff series. Ann Hornaday says that Jonathan Majors, who plays Donny’s pugilistic nemesis “with a fascinating combination of menace and sensitivity,” is more than a stock villain, possessing a “singular ability to recruit the audience to his side virtually at first sight, [troubling] that easy read to create a character who manages to be sympathetic even at his worst.” (116 minutes.)

Bobi Wine: The People’s President This documentary follows the titular Ugandan singer-turned-presidential candidate in his losing 2021 campaign — followed by a suspect election in which the film suggests he might nevertheless have gotten the most votes. Critic Mark Jenkins says that the movie demonstrates that, despite the vote outcome, “Wine is more vigorous, charismatic and concerned about the Ugandan people than the declared winner, Yoweri Museveni, the constitution-bending autocrat who’s held the presidency since 1986.” (118 minutes. In English with some subtitles.)

BlackBerry: Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson star as Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, best friends who invented the BlackBerry smartphone in this funny, insightful corporate biopic. Ann Hornaday says that the film, directed by Johnson, “tells the unlikely story of how a ragtag team of Canadian computer nerds invented the titular device — a combination ‘pager, cellphone and email machine’ that would revolutionise modern communications until it became known as the thing you owned before you got an iPhone.” (124 minutes.)

Air: Ben Affleck directs the story of how Nike negotiated a sneaker endorsement deal with a young basketball player named Michael Jordan. Everyone knows how this one ends, Ann Hornaday writes, but Affleck, working from a solid screenplay by first-time screenwriter Alex Convery, “has created something that Hollywood has seemed incapable of making in recent years: a smart, entertaining movie that, for all its foregone conclusions and familiar beats, unfolds with the offhand confidence of the most casually impressive layup.” (112 minutes.)