New on Sky Cinema and NOW in April 2023: Best movies and TV from Nope to Dreamland

A stacked April release slate for Sky Cinema and NOW in the UK is headlined by original drama A Good Person. The film, from writer-director Zach Braff, finds Florence Pugh on scintillating form as a woman plagued by grief and addiction trying to rebuild her life after experiencing immense loss.

Elsewhere on the originals front, if you’re looking for sheer escapism then fantasy offering The Portable Door has family film night sorted out for you. But, if you want pause for thought, then Aussie ecological family drama Blueback is well worth a look.

And, if you’d rather have paws for thought, then DC League of Super-Pets leads Sky Cinema’s April streaming premieres just in time for the Easter half-term. It’s joined by Jordan Peele’s decidedly less family friendly (but absolutely brilliant) sci-fi horror Nope, and first-time filmmaker John Patton-Ford’s teeth-clenchingly tense crime thriller Emily the Criminal.

Read more: Everything new on Prime Video in April

Read more: Everything new on Netflix in April

Read more: Everything new on Disney+ in April

Read more: Everything new on Paramount+ in April

On the TV side of things, Sky Atlantic’s new weekly drop comedy drama Dreamland is set to take viewers into a twisting, turning tale of sisterhood in Margate, while for those who prefer the city to the shoreline there’s the return of spoof spy series Intelligence, which is back for a one-off special.

Rounding out the month’s TV highlights is the long-awaited, much anticipated arrival of Barry S4, which will bring the chronicle of the life and times of everybody’s favourite acting assassin Barry Berkman to a close. *Sigh*.

Read more: Everything leaving Netflix in April

Here’s everything that’s heading to Sky and NOW this month…

New movies on Sky Cinema and NOW in April 2023

Emily the Criminal | 1 April

Aubrey Plaza stars as Emily, who may or may not be a criminal (she definitely is a bit), in the suitably named Emily the Criminal, a nerve-jangling film that would make a doozy of a double feature with The Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems.

This taut crime thriller follows Plaza’s Emily, a student mired in debt and down on her luck, as she gets involved in a credit card scam that sees her in way over her head in Los Angeles’ criminal underworld. Debut filmmaker John Patton-Ford won a richly deserved Film Independent Spirit Award for his striking first screenplay here.

The Portable Door (Original) | 7 April

Directed by Modern Family alum Jeffrey Walker, featuring the unparalleled puppetry of The Jim Henson Company, and starring Sam Neill and Christoph Waltz, there’s plenty of talent driving Sky Cinema family fantasy The Portable Door. Set within the walls of a mysterious London firm, this one sees two bright-eyed interns arrive at the company only to learn that their employers have big plans to disrupt the ancient magical world. Invoking Harry Potter and The Adjustment Bureau, this adaptation of the first book in Tom Holt’s J. W. Wells & Co. series is worth a watch.

DC League of Super-Pets | 14 April

It’s a truth almost universally acknowledged that the DCEU went to the dogs a long time ago, but it was actually just last year that DC’s animated universe literally went to the dogs with canine comic book caper DC League of Super-Pets. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart voice Krypto and Ace - Superman and Batman’s four-legged best friends - in this one, which sees the pair thrown together on a mission to save Superman when Krypton's prodigal son gets kidnapped. Come for Hart and Johnson’s continuing comedy double act routine, stay for Keanu Reeves getting his Dark Knight on.

Nope | 21 April

Nope — or, as nobody else calls it, ‘Sky Jaws’ — is a spectacular summer blockbuster from Jordan Peele, the visionary director of Get Out and Us. The film centres around OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) Haywood, siblings from a Hollywood stunt wrangling dynasty who find themselves experiencing what you might call A Close Encounter of the Third Kind. With breathtaking scope and scale, as well as a slyly interrogative through-line about audiences’ relationship with consuming others’ suffering for entertainment on screen, Peele’s latest is a must when it premieres on Sky Cinema later this month.

Blueback (Original) | 22 April

In Blueback, adapted from Tim Winton’s 1997 novella, Mia Wasikowska plays Abby Jackson, an environmental activist inspired to fight for the Australian Coral Reef’s preservation by her childhood friendship with a wild blue groper. Combining ecological awareness with involving family drama, this one has as much to say about its characters’ internal lives as it does about humanity’s collective need to back conservation efforts and look after our planet.

A Good Person (Original) | 28 April

Florence Pugh is on mercurial form in A Good Person, written and directed by Zach Braff. Here, Pugh is Allison, a young woman whose world is shattered when she survives an unimaginable tragedy. Dealing with drug addiction, survivor’s guilt, and unresolved grief, hope finds Alison in the form of her would’ve been father-in-law Daniel (Morgan Freeman), with whom she strikes up an unlikely but vital friendship.

An uneasy watch is complicated by the fact you almost literally cannot take your eyes off of Pugh, whose raw, unrestrained performance reminds us once again why she is Britain’s brightest star in Hollywood today.

New TV on Sky and NOW in April 2023

Dreamland S1 | 6 April

Described as a ‘dark comedic exploration of multi-generational female relationships, and their (somewhat dysfunctional) family dynamics’, Margate-set Dreamland is Sky Atlantic’s newest original comedy drama.

The show follows four sisters — played by Freema Agyeman, Lily Allen, Gabby Best, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards — as their dreams, loves, lies, and secrets are put under the microscope when one of them makes an unexpected return to the family fold. Based on a BAFTA-winning Sharon Horgan short, Dreamland might make you feel bad for a while, but mostly it encourages you to go ahead and smile. And yes, that was a Lily Allen reference.

Intelligence Special | 8 April

Although Nick Mohammed may have gone from Nate the Great to the Hateful Nate in Ted Lasso’s latest series, he’s still a lovable dork in Intelligence, Sky’s David Schwimmer co-starring espionage comedy series.

Created by Mohammed, the series — which is back for a one-off special this month — follows the buddy-comedy travails of his inept data analyst Joseph and Schwimmer’s former spook Jerry as the pair thwart nuclear plots and NHS takedowns left, right, and centre. In this outing, guest-starring Jennifer Saunders, the pair are forced to go rogue to save their jobs, their reputations, and the future of their GCHQ division.

Barry S4 | 17 April

Barry co-creator and star Bill Hader is in the director’s hotseat for all eight episodes of this, the final season of the Emmy-award winning dark comedy crime drama. The explosive third series finale saw hitman-turned-actor Barry Berkman (Hader) *SPOILER ALERT* taken into custody after an LAPD SWAT team thwarted his latest murderous plot, so it will be interesting to see what route Hader decides to take in ending one of the most gripping and technically astounding shows in recent memory. One thing’s for sure - you don’t wanna miss it.

Other movies/TV on Sky Cinema and NOW in April 2023

1 April

Shaq (Mini Series)

2 April

Death Pursuit (2022)

8 April

The Forgiven (2021)

9 April

Dig (2022)

Fashion Reimagined (Original Documentary)

10 April

Ross Kemp: Deep Sea Treasure Hunter S2

13 April

Peter O'toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba (Original Documentary)

15 April

Beast (2022)

16 April

Hunt (2022)

23 April

My Neighbour Adolf (2022)

29 April

Resurrection (2022)

30 April

Piggy (2022)

TBC April

Agathaland

American Auto S2

Hijacked

Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir

Perry Mason S2

The Essex Murders