From Marvel to Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise to a coked-up bear — your can't-miss moviegoing guide for the year
Nicolas Cage in 'Renfield,' Margot Robbie in 'Barbie,' Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in 'Maestro,' Michael B. Jordan in 'Creed III,' Chris Pratt in 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' UNIVERSAL PICTURES; WARNER BROS; METRO GOLDEN MEYER PICTURES, NETFLIX, DISNEY/MARVEL STUDIOS
So what’s on deck for moviegoers in 2023? Looking down the barrel of this year’s lineups, we’re seeing superhero movies; sequels; threequels; adaptations of well-known books, from a classic YA novel to a bestselling nonfiction tale of murders in a Native American community; superhero movies; new twists on old characters (like, say, Dracula’s longtime henchman); the tale of a bear on a killer drug-fueled bender; superhero movies; a few outrageous comedies; some intriguing biopics on conflicted men; and more superhero movies.
It’s not quite as dire as it sounds, however, and there are any number of reasons why we’re looking forward to catching the 34 movies we’ve singled out here over the next 12 months. (There are also a handful of upcoming films that sound equally as intriguing, from Sean Baker’s wrestling drama The Iron Claw to Steve McQueen’s WWII thriller Blitz to the Todd Haynes showbiz-romance tale May December, but it’s TBD as to whether those will actually be 2023 releases right now.) Here’s what you’ll be seeing at a theater near you — and yes, go see them in movie theaters! — this year.
Once upon a time, Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) was the Michael Jordan of male strippers. Then a business deal went bad, and he finds himself bartending at private parties to pay the rent. Lucky for him, he meets a Miami-based businesswoman named Max (Salma Hayek) who takes quite an interest in the former “magic” man. The couple then head to London together, to jointly stage what promises to be the theatrical exotic-dance extravaganza to end all theatrical exotic-dance extravaganzas. Not only is the original Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh back behind the camera — he’s also hinted that the movies ends with a 30-minute musical number.
Everyone’s favorite teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, insect-controlling superheroes are back! Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly return as Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne, a.k.a. Ant-Man and the Wasp, and find themselves trapped in the “secret universe beneath ours” known as the Quantum Realm. It seems that the original Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) had some unfinished business there way back in the day, and, well… let’s just say that some crazy interdimensional shit is about to go down. Michael Douglas reprises his franchise role; Kathryn Newton joins in on the fun; Bill Murray stops by for a cameo; and we’ll get our first proper look at Jonathan Majors’ big-deal supervillian Kang the Conqueror.
Maybe you remember that story about a huge black bear that was found dead in the woods of Georgia, after a drug-running pilot accidentally dropped several kilos of cocaine out of his plane and the animal ingested all of it? And maybe, like us, you thought: Well, what did this friendly bear do while high on all that yayo? Did he trade some of it for honey? Did he come up with some super-great ideas that would, like, totally change the world but unfortunately dropped dead of a cardiac arrest before he could tell his friends? This movie, directed by Elizabeth Banks, dares to answer those burning questions by suggesting that the coked-up creature went on an insane, drug-fueled rampage!!! It’s called “cinema,” people. The cast includes a mini-Americans reunion, with Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and character actor Margo Martindale™, as well as the late, great Ray Liotta giving one of his final performances.
Michael B. Jordan not only dons the boxing gloves one more time to play Adonis Creed, son of Apollo and savior of the Rocky movie series; he’s also chosen this threequel to make his directorial debut. Having escaped the shadow of both his father and his trainer/mentor Rocky Balboa, Adonis is finally in a place of personal, professional and spiritual contentment. Then an old friend (Jonathan Majors, who’s about to have a very good year) from his past shows up, and wants to show his former childhood pal that he has what it takes to be a championship boxer. What starts as a reunion turns into a rivalry that can only be settled — yup, you guessed it — in the ring. Cue up those training montages!
Adam Driver is an astronaut jetting through the cosmos on “an exploratory mission” when his spacecraft is hit by asteroids. He’s forced to land on an uncharted planet, which — surprise! — is filled with giant monsters. To be more specific: those ginormous creatures are dinosaurs, because — double surprise! — it’s actually 65 million years in the past! Is your mind blown yet!? We’re actually down with Adam Driver, Action Hero, so this looks like it could be a lot of fun, to be honest. Ariana Greenblatt stars as the mission’s only other survivor: a young woman who Driver must protect at all costs.
Oh good, it’s the comic relief of the D.C. Extended Universe, right on the heels of Black Adam and ready to make superhero moviegoers chuckle while Warners tries to buy some time in regards to their other… let’s say “highly compromised” tentpole project. Zachary Levi’s overgrown kid in the cape is now fighting alongside his similarly superpowered “Shazam family” — which is good, since he’s got to take on some ancient Greek gods (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu) who feel their powers have been stolen by mortals and they’d like said powers back, thank you very much. Also there’s a dragon. And, most likely, lots of quips.
An NBA coach (Woody Harrelson) gets fired, and then arrested. His community service involves coaching a team of developmentally disabled adults. And if this screw-up can get them into the Special Olympics finals, he may have a shot at redemption. You can see where this sports comedy is going, right? Keep in mind, however, that this triumph-of-the-underdogs tale reunites Harrelson and his Kingpin co-director Bobby Farrelly, which bodes well for those who like jokes about “ball-handling” on their way to an uplifting ending.
It would seem that Mr. John Wick — gentleman assassin, still-grieving widower and all-around murderous badass — isn’t quite done dishing out payback just yet. When we last left Keanu Reeves’ iconic action hero, he’d been banished by the secret organization known as the High Table, shot off the roof of a hotel by his dear friend Winston, and was being nursed back to health by associates on the Bowery. Now, he’s looking to get back into the good graces of his old employers (or at least avoid getting killed by their endless supply of highly-trained thugs) — a feat that will involve a lot of yakuza, a marriage, a duel to the death with a mysterious aristocrat (It’s killer clown Bill Skarsgård) and fighting a fixer in the form of martial-arts legend Donnie Yen.
The dynamic duo of Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams — easily one of the most consistently interesting director/actor pairings of the past 20 years (see: Wendy & Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Certain Women) — strike again, with this beautifully-rendered story of a Portland-based sculptor fighting with her family, her landlord (Hong Chau), her insecurities and one huge creative block while trying to mount an exhibit. Having quietly wowed folks during a 2022 run on the festival circuit, it’s finally coming to a theater near you, and not a moment too soon. A real funky-bohemian gem, this one.
The movie in which Chris Pratt somehow irks both video-gamers and Italian-Americans in one fell swoop. To say that this adaptation of the video game that turned Nintendo into an industry powerhouse has generated its share of casting controversy would be putting it mildly — and while we’re glad that Pratt didn’t try to go full that’s-a-spicy-meatball in trying to voice the world’s greatest mustachioed plumber, we understand why some people might be left going, um, really? In any case, it seems that Bowser (Jack Black) wants to take over Mushroom Kingdom, and only Mario, his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) and Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) can stop him. Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen lend their voices to the proceedings as well.
If you’re up on your Dracula lore, then you know that Mr. R.N. Renfield is a lawyer who comes to visit the count in Transylvania and, one bite later, ends up doing his undead master’s bidding. What director Chris McKay’s horror-comedy wonders is: What if Renfield finally got fed up with having to follow Dracula’s orders and tried to get out of what he realizes is an extremely “toxic relationship?” Nicolas Hoult — who, between Hulu’s The Great and The Menu, has been on quite a roll lately — stars as the title character. And no less than Nicolas Cage shows up as the alpha vampire, channeling his life-long love for Nosferatu, German Expressionism, etc., in the sort of part that he can really [dramatic pause] sink his teeth into.
Writer-director Ari Aster has described his third movie as a “nightmare comedy” — and given how mind-bendingly nightmarish Hereditary and Midsommar are, the expectations for this one are nosebleed-level high. Joaquin Phoenix is an anxious man named Beau, who’s planning to visit his mother. Outside his door, however, some sort of apocalyptic, social breakdown is taking place; also, he keeps running into either very young or very, very old versions of himself along the way. Nathan Lane, Parker Posey, Amy Ryan, Richard Kind and Patti LuPone help usher our hero through his long, strange trip as well.
Stans of Judy Blume, unite! The legendary YA author’s 1970 masterpiece about a young woman trying to find a spiritual connection to a higher power while suffering through the slings and arrows of early adolescence is finally getting the big-screen treatment it deserves. Abby Ryder Fortson is the title character (that would be Margaret, not God); Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie are her parents; Kathy Bates is her grandmother. Pre-Teen Sensations 4-eva!
Carl Nargle (Owen Wilson) is the beloved host of a popular how-to painting show on public access television. You wanna get those calls coming in for your annual pledge drive? Carl’s your man. Then his home station decides to hire a younger, hipper artist to liven things up, and suddenly, Carl is not so hot anymore. There had been some buzz about the script for this All About Eve set in the dog-gently-daps-canvas-of-other-dog world of PBS programming, and news that the Zoolander star would share the screen with Michaela Watkins, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Stephen Root suggested this would be a low-key indie comedy. Then the movie dropped its first look at Wilson’s character, who bears a striking resemblance to a real-life figure with a cult following, and suddenly this movie just shot near the top of everyone’s to-see list.
Marvel’s resident band of interstellar misfits returns for one final Guardians jaunt through the galaxy. (This is the MCU we’re talking about, though, so take that “final” bit with a boulder-size grain of salt.) Director James Gunn locks and loads what promises to be an epic cosmos-hopping adventure, which gives us a surly teen Groot and an origin story for Rocket Raccoon; brings back Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora from the dead (wait, what?); and promises to introduce Will Poulter (Midsommar) as Adam Warlock — a big deal if you grew up reading comic books in the 1970s. Expect the usual crossover cameos, a revelatory end-credits sequence or two, and a lot of cheesy classic-rock tunes dotting the soundtrack. And like 2023’s aforementioned Ant-Man movie, this entry is a key part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Phase 5,” so don’t be surprised if someone yells, “But what about the Quantum Realm?!” at least once.
What do the creators of the 10th official entry in the Fast & Furious franchise have in store for us, you ask? Well, what do you think? Cars! Outrageous, physics-defying stunts! Diesel — both the actor and the fuel! Fastness! Furiousness! Family!!! The ol’ F&F gang’s all here (minus Dwayne Johnson because, well, you know), including marquee-name series stalwarts like Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Helen Mirren and John Cena. Also joining in on the fun this time is Jason Mamoa as a very bad dude and Rita Moreno as Grandma Toretto.
Remember when racist right-winger shit-heels lost their minds over the notion of a Black mermaid when Disney dropped the trailer for this live-action adaptation of its animated classic? There’s something even more poignant now about seeing Halle Bailey singing “Part of Your World,” and we couldn’t think of a better casting coup than getting one half of Chloe x Halle to portray this generation’s Ariel. Director Rob Marshall is no slouch when it comes to movie-musicals (Chicago, Into the Woods) or Disney joints (Mary Poppins Returns), and the supporting cast is solid gold: Javier Bardem as Triton, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Daveed Diggs and Awkwafina voicing Sebastian and Scuttle, respectively.
Seriously, why have one Spider-Man — or even three of them — when you can have dozens? The sequel to the standout 2018 animated Spidey movie once again throws Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) into the middle of a whole mess of other web-slingers from alternate universes, all of whom are going up against a dimension-traveling Marvel supervillain known as the Spot. Jake Johnson and Hailee Steinfeld return as Peter Parker, a.k.a. the OG Spidey, and Gwen Stacy, a.k.a. Spider-Gwen. The voice talent this time around also includes Daniel Kaluuya (Spider-Punk), Oscar Isaac (Spider-Man 2099) and Issa Rae (Spider-Woman).
It’s the first of two Wes Anderson movies we’ll be getting in 2023 (the other one is an adaptation of a Roald Dahl anthology named The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, coming in what we assume is the second half of the year). This ensemble comedy about a group of folks at a Junior Stargazers’ convention in the 1950s promises a nice, heavy dose of the filmmaker’s formalistic whimsy. As for the cast, well… [cracks knuckles]: How about Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Hong Chau, Maya Hawke and Matt Dillon? And that’s not counting the ever-growing Anderson rep-company regulars who are also present and accounted for: Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Liev Scheiber, Adrien Brody, Jeff Goldblum, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe….
This solo joint for the fastest man in the DC Extended Universe didn’t start out with the goal of being the elephant in the superhero-cash-cow room. It was just supposed to be a chance to give Ezra Miller’s Scarlet Speedster the spotlight, as well as bring back Michael Keaton’s Batman (!) and integrate his Burton-era take on the character into the modern-day series. We were going to get to see Keaton and Ben Affleck’s Batmen shoot the breeze! And possibly get the adaptation of the “Flashpoint” narrative beloved by comic readers. Then, well, there were some delays, and that whole pandemic thing. Oh, and some offscreen criminality as well. There’s more of a car-wreck fascination now with It director Andy Muschetti’s contribution to the DCEU, at best. (Should Justice League fans feel like the whole thing is beyond repair, they’ll still have Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to look forward to in December.)
You just can’t keep a good intellectual-property hero down. Yes, Harrison Ford is indeed still cracking bullwhips, punching bad guys and doing his best to avoid snakes (why does it have to be snakes?!) well into his eighties. And our man Indy returns to don his dusty fedora one more time in order to go after what we assume is another ancient artifact — we’ll happily give a year’s salary to anyone who can tell us what a “dial of destiny” is. Plot details are scarce, but we do know Phoebe Waller-Bridge is on hand as Indy’s goddaughter; Mads Mikkelsen plays a no-goodnik Nazi; and Antonio Banderas and Boyd Holbrook are along for the ride as well. Also: Steven Spielberg is handing the directorial reins over to James Mangold, who knows a thing or two about aging heroes (see: Logan).
OK, here’s a comic book adaptation we can 100% get behind. Based on the French comics series by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and Luc Jacamon, this neo-noir about a professional assassin who, per the logline, is “armed to the teeth and slowly losing his mind,” re-teams David Fincher and Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker. Michael Fassbender is the hit man on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Tilda Swinton plays a mystery woman. We are the moviegoers who are praying Netflix gives this a proper theatrical release so we can see Fincher do what he does best on the biggest screen possible.
Tom Cruise will open this seventh installment of the spy-vs-spy movie series by doing the most dangerous stunt in the history of motion pictures: jumping a motorcycle off of a huge cliff. Are you not entertained?! Watch the Last True Movie Star Standing risk life and limb and film-set insurance premiums repeatedly in the name of giving us, the audience, endless thrills, spills and chills is part of why the M:I films have been such a blast to watch. But Mr. Cruise’s cinematic death wish is only part of the reason people keep flocking to see them over the last few decades. They’re also consistently, surprisingly good. And the latest one, which once again pits Ethan Hunt and his comrades at the Impossible Missions Force against international powers aiming to disrupt the status quo, looks just as action-packed and airtight as its predecessors. The fact that this is only the first part of a two-part saga suggests either blatant marketing ballyhoo or acts as proof that this story is gonna be big.
It was perhaps inevitable that Mattel’s signature doll would get her own movie — what was surprising was that the person making it would be none other than Greta Gerwig. The Lady Bird and Little Women director, who also co-wrote the script with her partner (in life and in movies), Noah Baumbach, is said to have fashioned quite a campy romp centered around the always fashion-forward blonde. And if the leaked on-set photos — featuring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, roller-skating around in hot-pink outfits — are any indication, this should be a gas. (After the images sent the internet into a frenzy, Gerwig herself said she hadn’t realized how “insane” the costuming was.) The cast also includes Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel (no, really!), Simu Liu, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Hari Nef, Kate McKinnon and Michael Cera. It should be worth its weight in Malibu Dreamhouses.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a physicist who had studied in Europe and was recruited by the American government to work on a top-secret scientific endeavor known only as “the Manhattan Project.” You likely know him as the father of the atomic bomb, which helped the Allies win World War II… and eventually cost Oppenheimer his soul (and killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese people). Director Christopher Nolan heads up this biopic on one of the game changers of the 20th century. Cillian Murphy plays the conflicted scientist; Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman (as President Harry S. Truman!) and what appears to be half of modern-day Hollywood round out the all-star cast.
Both a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel and a continuation of the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, this MCU adventure from director Nia DaCosta (Candyman) pairs up Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau (who you may remember from WandaVision). The trio try to figure out why Danvers and Khan keep switching places at very unexpected, not to mention extremely inconvenient moments. Plus there’s a whole interstellar war going on between two alien races, and a bunch of intersecting plot strands from other films/TV shows, yadda yadda yadda.
You love them on Saturday Night Live, with their wacky digital shorts — now check out Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy in the moving pictures! Veteran SNL director Paul Briganti and producer Judd Apatow will put the Please Don’t Destroy trio through their paces as the trio, who feel like they’re collectively stuck in a rut, decide to go search for long-lost treasure (!) rumored to be buried deep within a local mountain. If it’s half as funny as their surreal sketch-show vignettes, then it will likely be twice as funny as most of the other comedies that come out this year.
In between writing and directing Thor movies, co-producing the greatest show currently airing on television, costarring in a pirate love story and just being a dapper gent overall, Taika Waititi somehow found time to also make this sports-underdog tale of a Dutch soccer coach (Michael Fassbender) who’s hired to whip the American Samoa squad into shape. Let’s just say that the veteran footballer initially has his work cut out for him, given the nature of this ragtag bunch. If you happen to have seen the 2014 documentary of the same name, then you know what happens next. If you haven’t, you’re in for a pleasant, Waititi-esque surprise.
National treasure and MVP Marvel skeptic Martin Scorsese goes for the big guns again with this period piece tackling David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction book about a particularly dark moment in our nation’s history: an epidemic of murders among Oklahoma’s Osage Nation in the 1920s, tied to the tribe’s oil rights. Longtime Scorsese leading men Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are both on board, paired for the first time in one of the director’s movies (and for the first time onscreen since 1993’s This Boy’s Life). Lily Gladstone is Mollie Burkhart, whose sisters died under mysterious — and very suspicious — circumstances, prompting her to petition the U.S. government to look into these crimes. And The Power of the Dog’s Jesse Plemons, the unsung hero of nearly everything he appears in, is an agent in the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation, who comes out to investigate.
Writer-director-actor Bradley Cooper follows up his epic take on A Star Is Born with this biopic of Leonard Bernstein, the composer and conductor who became a towering figure of 20th century classical music. Carrie Mulligan plays his wife, the Chilean actor Felicia Montealegre. Jeremy Strong, Maya Hawke, Matt Bomer and Sarah Silverman round out the cast. This has awards-season prestige project written all over it.
Each Spider-Man fan has their own personal favorite archvillain in the Webhead’s universe, but we’ve always been partial to Kraven, one of the original bad guys in Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s groundbreaking comics. Now, we finally get a screen version of the big-game hunter, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson donning the character’s dope animal-print outfit and getting his own solo outing before his inevitable meet-up with Spidey. The movie’s plot? No idea yet. What we do know: Ariana DeBose, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and The White Lotus’ Fred Heichinger have supporting roles, and there’s no way in hell that this can be worse than Morbius.
We may possibly get a double shot of Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos this year: the anthology movie And, which is rumored to be a potential 2023 release, and this adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel about a woman (Emma Stone) who goes to extreme measures, i.e. death, to escape an abusive relationship. Then a doctor brings her back to life by [checks notes] replacing her brain with her unborn baby’s brain. Lanthimos reunites with both his Favourite star and that film’s screenwriter, Tony McNamara. The cast also features Mark Ruffalo, Jerrod Carmichael, Ramy Youssef, Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe. This sounds warped, weird and right up the Greek filmmaker’s alley in the best possible way.
He who controls the sequels controls the universe! Denis Villeneuve is determined to finish what he started and bring the second half of his colossal take on Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic to the biggest screens possible. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya reprise their roles — as Paul Atreides, future savior of the universe, and Chani, the Fremen warrior who will help him achieve his destiny — as do returning actors Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Stellan Skarsgård. Meanwhile, franchise newbies Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, Austin Butler, Tim Blake Nelson and Christopher Walken will be getting fitted for first-time stillsuits as well. If this is even half as epic as the Oscar-winning, world-building Part 1, we’re in for a treat.
We all know how Willy Wonka — world-class chocolatier, man-of-industry eccentric, inventor of the Everlasting Gobstopper and a personal friend of the Oompa Loompas — ends his reign as king of the candy universe. But how did he get to the top of the sweet-treat heap? Timothée Chalamet dons the signature top hat in this tale of Wonka’s early days. It’s also a musical as well as an origin story, and the fact that the Paddington movies’ director Paul King is calling the shots makes us positively giddy to see this. Expect one mondo cinematic sugar rush.
From Rolling Stone US.
One of the world's top DJs will bring in Holi celebrations at D.Y. Patil Stadium…
Get ready for "The Vanishing Of —," "Escape From Camazotz," and the big finale —…
Set in India, Amazon's latest attempt at mating James Bond-meets-John Wick action with international 'CSI'-type…
"I’m always going to do pop stuff, I pinky promise, but I don’t think doing…
The songwriting residency program aims to foster creative and commercial ties while creating new music…
With fresh styles and creativity, these women are leaving a lasting impact on the EDM…
