Best Movies Streaming April 2023: Cocaine Bear, 80 for Brady, Ghosted

Can Chris Evans and Ana de Armas convince moviegoers to flock to Apple TV+ this month? The streamer is surely hoping as it prepares to launch “Ghosted,” an action comedy in which a romantic hopeful (Evans) falls for a CIA agent (Armas) and gets entangled in her latest mission.

While Apple TV+ hopes to court young adults with its action romance, Disney+ aims to bring families together by launching its latest live-action fairytale remake: “Peter Pan and Wendy.” Unlike the upcoming live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which is opening exclusively in theaters over Memorial Day, “Peter Pan and Wendy” is skipping theaters and debuting directly on Disney+. The film is the latest from David Lowery, who directed Disney’s acclaimed “Pete’s Dragon” live-action remake a few years ago.

Elsewhere on streaming this month, Amazon Prime Video has the beloved Judy Blume documentary “Judy Blume Forever” and HBO Max is debuting the acclaimed David Bowie movie “Moonage Daydream.” Anyone looking for an easy crowd-pleaser will find it in “80 for Brady,” which streams on Paramount+ following a healthy run in theaters.

Check out the best movies new to streaming in April below.

Cocaine Bear (April 14 on Peacock)

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Elizabeth Banks’ horror-comedy “Cocaine Bear” cooked up $85 million at the worldwide box office, making it a spring hit for Universal Pictures following the studio’s early 2023 horror blockbuster “M3gan.” Inspired by a true story, “Cocaine Bear” follows several characters as they come face to face with a grizzly bear who consumed pounds of cocaine during a drug deal gone wrong. From Variety’s review: “Elizabeth Banks’ coked-up-bear-as-slasher comedy is better than ‘Snakes on a Plane.’ And we’re already cued to watch it as a wilderness thriller crossed with ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’….The line on ‘Cocaine Bear’ is that it’s so nutty, so luridly preposterous, so WTF-are-we-watching? that it’s all but irresistible.”
80 for Brady (April 4 on Paramount+)

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Paramount’s “80 for Brady” arrives on streaming after nearing $40 million at the worldwide box office. Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field play smitten Tom Brady fans who embark on a hilarious road trip to the Super Bowl. “Kyle Marvin’s directorial debut is a pleasant enough reminder that these gals are still game for a good time,” reads Variety’s review. “More fuddy-duddy buddy comedy than sports film, the female-scripted laffer (co-written by Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern) celebrates the fact that football appeals to more than just bros. Never mind that its central foursome seems less interested in Brady’s form than in how well he fills out his uniform.”
Peter Pan and Wendy (April 28 on Disney+)

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David Lowery found critical acclaim for his live-action “Pete’s Dragon” remake. Can lightning strike twice with his upcoming “Peter Pan and Wendy” movie? The film is the big Disney+ world premiere of April and stars Jude Law as Captain Hook and Yara Shahidi in a history-making role as the first Black woman to play Tinkerbell. The age-old tale follows the adventures of the eternally youthful Peter Pan, who whisks away a young girl named Wendy to join him in the mythical land of Neverland — a place where she, too, can roam free without fear of growing up. Their shenanigans run the gamut of all things fantastical, from meeting mermaids to pirates to fairies as they revel in the limitless optimism of childhood. Seven years after the release of director Joe Wright’s “Pan” and 31 years after Steven Spielberg’s “Hook,” “Peter Pan and Wendy” is the latest attempt at bringing the story to life in live action.
Ghosted (April 21 on Apple TV+)

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Chris Evans and Ana de Armas bring star power to Apple’s action comedy “Ghosted.” Evans stars as Cole, a lovelorn adult who has the date of his life with Sadie (de Armas). When she stops answering his messages after their first night together, Cole is convinced that she’s “ghosting” him, or ignoring his texts. Cole travels to London because he’s convinced they are meant to be together, but his attempt at a grand romantic gesture spirals out of control when he discovers Sadie is not the person he thought and is actually part of the CIA. The Dexter Fletcher-directed movie also stars Amy Sedaris, Adrien Brody, Tim Blake Nelson, Tate Donovan, Marwan Kenzari and Scott Vogel.
Moonage Daydream (April 29 on HBO Max)

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Brett Morgen’s “Moonage Daydream” is a visual memoir of David Bowie’s life and career. “The movie is two hours and 20 minutes of sound and fury: a kaleidoscopic head-trip meditation on David Bowie, rock’s shape-shifting astronaut of identity,” reads Variety’s rave review. “It’s no mere epic music video, though at times it feels like one, as it rides the pulse of Bowie’s music like a psychedelic locomotive. We’ve seen trippy documentaries before, but Morgen seems to have created this movie to be rock ‘n’ roll.. Watching ‘Moonage Daydream,’ there are essential facts you won’t hear, and many touchstones that get skipped over (in the entire movie, you’ll never even see an album cover). But you get closer than you expect to the chilly sexy enigma of who David Bowie really was.”
Judy Blume Forever (April 21 on Prime Video)

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The acclaimed documentary “Judy Blume Forever” takes a look at the celebrated life of the “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” author, from her childhood to her prolific writing career that spawned several iconic books. The film also features celebrity cameos such as Molly Ringwald, Lena Dunham, Anna Konkle and Samantha Bee talking about their experiences with the author’s work. From Variety‘s review out of Sundance: “As a bio-doc, [directors] Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s film covers mostly expected territory, but its focus on Blume’s dedicated correspondence with young fans yields rich emotional rewards.”
Quasi (April 20 on Hulu)

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The Broken Lizard comedy troupe returns with a “Hunchback of Notre Dame” spoof that has a stoner-friendly 4/20 release. In “Quasi,” a hapless hunchback yearns for love but finds himself in the middle of a murderous feud between the Pope and the king of France, both of whom hire the hunchback to kill the other leader. Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske and Adrianne Palicki star in the film. Heffernan directed the comedy and wrote the script alongside Lemme, Chandrasekhar, Soter and Stolhanske.
Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now (April 5 on Netflix)

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Lewis Capaldi follows in the footsteps of Selena Gomez, Billie Eilish and more by becoming the latest pop star to get a streaming documentary. Netflix’s “Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now” is directed by Joe Pearlman (“Bros: After the Screaming Stops”) and gives fans an inside look into the multi-platinum, award-winning artist as he returns to his roots following unimaginable global success including five headline tours and chart-topping singles. As 26-year-old Capaldi returns to his family home in Scotland, where he started out, he grapples with balancing fame with normality as well as starting on the always-tricky sophomore album.
Chupa (April 7 on Netflix)

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The latest directorial effort from Jonás Cuarón, the son of Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón, is the Netflix family adventure “Chupa.” The movie centers on a young boy and his cousins who discover the mythical chupacabra hiding in their grandpa’s shed during a visit to see family in Mexico. “Our goal was to create an incredibly cute creature based on a terrifying legend,” the director told Tudum. “The mythical creature was described as a hairless dog with wings and sharp teeth. Chupa is furry and incredibly cute…I was a small kid when the legend started. When the idea came of turning [the myth] on its head and using it to tell a family adventure, I was immediately excited.”
Holy Spider (April 7 on Netflix)

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Ali Abbasi’s knockout thriller “Holy Spider” won Zar Amir Ebrahimi the best actress award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The movie follows a female journalist investigating a serial killer in Iran who is murdering female sex workers. Variety’s review called the film a “tense and convincing procedural,” adding, “It is hard to watch the brutalization of women on screen, especially when you know it is a re-creation of an actual crime. But it is harder still — rightly, valuably so — if you’ve been made to notice the way this woman’s lipstick is smeared over her cracked lips or watched her carefully stash her flats in a crinkled plastic bag as she switches into heels in a dingy bathroom. In ‘Holy Spider,’ the devil is in those devastating details.”
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always (April 19 on Netflix)

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The Power Rangers are back! Netflix is bringing back the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” cast for a 30th anniversary special, titled “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.” The Netflix special features many of the original heroes, including the Blue Ranger Billy Cranston (David Yost), the first Black Ranger Zack Taylor (Walter E. Jones) and Barbara Goodson, the voice of villain Rita Repulsa. It also includes Catherine Sutherland, the second Pink Ranger; Steve Cardenas, the second Red Ranger; Karan Ashley, the second Yellow Ranger; and Johnny Yong Bosch, the second Black Ranger. In the special, the Rangers reunite to fight Rita Repulsa, who is revealed to have killed Trini, the original Yellow Power Ranger.
Spider-Man Trilogy (April 1 on Netflix)

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Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy is streaming in its entirety on Netflix. The trilogy includes one of the greatest comic book movies ever made (“Spider-Man 2”) and one of the most divisive (“Spider-Man 3”). All three films are headlined by Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The actor reprised the role for a fourth time in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and is open to becoming the web-slinger for a fifth time on the big screen. “I love these films and I love all of the different series,” Maguire said earlier this year. “If these guys called me and said, ‘Would you show up tonight to hang out and goof around?’ or ‘Would you show up to do this movie or read a scene or do a Spider-Man thing?’ it would be a ‘yes!’ Because why wouldn’t I want to do that?”
The Bourne Trilogy (April 1 on Netflix)

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Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne trilogy is also streaming in its entirety on Netflix this month. The franchise centers on Damon’s CIA assassin, who must unravel his dissociative amnesia and fight the agency that betrayed him. With filmmaker Paul Greengrass behind the camera for “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” the franchise became the anti-Bond with its visceral, handheld approach to action filmmaking. From Variety’s “Ultimatum” review: “If they could bottle what gives ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ its rush, it would probably be illegal. The third and purportedly final installment in the mountingly exciting series is a pounding, pulsating thriller that provides an almost constant adrenaline surge for nearly two hours.”
Inception (April 1 on Netflix)

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Christopher Nolan’s cerebral blockbuster “Inception” returns to Netflix this month. Leonardo DiCaprio leads the cast as a grieving widower tasked with infiltrating the subconscious of a billionaire to perform a dream heist. From Variety’s review: “If movies are shared dreams, then Christopher Nolan is surely one of Hollywood’s most inventive dreamers, given the evidence of his commandingly clever ‘Inception.’ Applying a vivid sense of procedural detail to a fiendishly intricate yarn set in the labyrinth of the subconscious, the writer-director has devised a heist thriller for surrealists, a Jungian’s ‘Rififi,’ that challenges viewers to sift through multiple layers of (un)reality. As such, it’s a conceptual tour de force.”
The Hateful Eight (April 25 on Netflix)

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“The Hateful Eight” returns to Netflix just as Quentin Tarantino readies his 10th and final movie, which will be titled “The Movie Critic” and will most likely film this fall for a 2024 release. “The Hateful Eight” is Tarantino’s eighth movie and stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern as eight strangers who seek refuge and from a blizzard and clash in a stagecoach stopover sometime after the American Civil War.
Clock (April 28 on Hulu)

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It’s only April, but it’s never a bad time for a new horror movie. Directed and written by Alexis Jacknow, “Clock” stars Dianna Agron as a woman who enrolls in a clinical trial to try and fix her seemingly broken biological clock after friends, family and society pressures her to have children. Jay Ali (“Carnival Row,” “Daredevil”) plays Agron’s character’s husband and Saul Rubinek (“Unforgiven,” “Frasier”) stars as her father. Melora Hardin (“The Office,” “The Bold Type”) features as the pioneering doctor managing Ella’s treatment.
Spring Breakers (April 1 on HBO Max)

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Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” arrives on HBO Max just on the heels of celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its theatrical release. Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine play college friends whose spring break in St. Petersburg, Fla. spirals when they meet an eccentric local drug dealer (James Franco). From Variety’s review: “From its dayglo opening montage depicting the sights and sounds of a typical spring break — a relatively modern rite of passage that finds college students congregating in coastal towns for reckless drinking and indiscriminate sex — Korine is plainly aping the aesthetic of such vapid MTV exploitation shows as ‘Jersey Shore.’”
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (April 1 on Hulu)

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Marielle Heller’s excellent feature directorial debut “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” stars a breakout Bel Powley as a 15-year-old whose sexual awakening comes courtesy of an affair she has with her mother’s boyfriend. Alexander Skarsgård, Christopher Meloni and Kristen Wiig co-star. From Variety’s review: “Translating tricky source material to the screen with flying colors, actress Marielle Heller’s feature directing debut, ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl,’ manages to plunge into the too-precocious sex life of a 15-year-old girl without turning exploitative or distasteful. This adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s heavily autobiographical novel is ideally cast and skillfully handled.”
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (April 1 on Prime Video)

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Considering Michelle Yeoh just won the Oscar for best actress thanks to her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” it’s great timing for her beloved “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” to return to Amazon Prime Video this month. From Variety’s review: “From the moment 20 minutes into ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’ when two fighting women begin bounding up high walls, using the ground and rooftops as if they were trampolines and treating gravity like a minor annoyance, it’s clear that Ang Lee’s elaborate and buoyant new production aims to be ‘The Matrix’ of traditional martial arts films. In this, it is wonderfully and sometimes thrillingly successful, as the filmmakers apply intelligence and humor to a cartoonishly melodramatic story of intrigue and revenge and top it off with a series of stupendous combat sequences.”
Bros (April 4 on Prime Video)

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After making its streaming debut on Peacock last year, Billy Eichner’s romantic-comedy “Bros” becomes available at no extra cost to Prime Video subscribers this month. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “Bros” the fourth best movie of 2022, writing, “Eichner, who co-wrote the film, infuses ‘Bros’ with his literate acid wit, and he plays the most entertaining brainiac romantic dyspeptic since the heyday of Woody Allen. Entwined in the tale of Bobby, a New York podcast host, and Aaron, an estate lawyer too sexy for his job, is a full-on comic vision of gay romantic life in the 21st century. The characters may be looking for love, but they keep getting tripped up by the hookup culture they’ve created as a kind of playground — a culture the film both celebrates and satirizes.”
Ticket to Paradise (April 11 on Prime Video)

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In this romantic comedy film, George Clooney and Julia Roberts star as a divorced couple who travel to Bali after hearing of their daughter’s plans to marry a man she met on her post-graduation trip. Teaming up in Indonesia, Clooney and Roberts’ characters set out to prevent their daughter from making the same mistake they think they did over 20 years ago. Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier, Lucas Bravo and Billie Lourd also star. The film has been streaming on Peacock since last year, but it now becomes available to Amazon Prime Video subscribers at no extra cost.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (April 1 on Peacock)

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Jim Carrey gives one of his greatest performances in Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunhine of the Spotless Mind.” He plays Joe, a heartbroken man who undergoes a procedure to erase the memories of his ex love, Clementine (Kate Winslet). From Variety’s review: “If films about coping with memory loss and/or reverse-order storytelling now constitute a mini-genre, then ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ is arguably the best of the lot. It is certainly the most emotionally resonant, as the culmination of all the cinematic sleight-of-hand in this second collaboration between screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry is a romance that winds up at the most seductive destination for a love story — the beginning.”