Looking ahead to 2023’s most-anticipated movies
Our film critic, Mark Walsh, examines what we can expect this year.
Cinema is attempting to find its way in the post-pandemic world. While the window between cinema releases and home streaming continues to narrow, the big screen remains the natural starting point for movies large and small, and if 2022 was a fabulous year for film – and it was – then 2023 looks to be doing its best to top it.
Here, then, are my films to look out for, with release dates subject to change.
January
While international release schedules have improved in the last few years, there’s still a handful of awards contenders that opened in North America before Christmas that we’ve had to wait for.
Foremost among them is Tár, Todd Field’s psychological drama starring Cate Blanchett as a conductor and composer facing her greatest challenges; Field’s challenges included recording all of the orchestral music live on set.
Steven Spielberg looks to have his best challenger in years with his semi-autobiographical The Fablemans, starring Michelle Williams as the mother of aspiring young filmmaker Sammy Fableman.
Till is also likely to be in the conversation, with Whoopi Goldberg and Bond producer Barbara Broccoli among the producers of the true story of a mother (Danielle Deadwyler) searching for justice after her sun is brutally lynched while in Mississippi in 1955.
The latest from La La Land and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, Babylon, may have divided the critics too much to stay in contention, but many are raving about its three-hour extravaganza set in the early days of Hollywood starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt.
Meanwhile, one of what is likely to be one of the year’s best documentaries opens, All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, telling the story of internationally renowned artist and photographer Nan Goldin and her battle with the family behind one of America’s biggest pharmaceutical companies.
Away from the hullabaloo of the red carpet battles, Tom Hanks pops up in a remake of a Swedish film; this time he’s A Man Called Otto, rather than Ove. Vicky Krieps continues a strong run of performances in More Than Ever, a drama about a woman with a life-changing illness who retreats to the Norwegian fjords. And horror fans will be well served in January with Enys Men, Bait director Mark Jenkin’s Cornish horror, Hannah-John Kamen finding goblins in the garden in Unwelcome and a robot friend for a young girl who soon gets out of control in M3gan, produced by Insidious and The Conjuring director James Wan.
February
With the BAFTAs on February 19 and the Oscars less than a month later, the final awards-worthy films of the season should be escaping into cinemas.
By then we’ll know Brendan Fraser’s likely chances of winning best actor for his heartrending performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, adapted by Samuel D Hunter from his own play about a morbidly obese English teacher attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink).
I’ll predict now that Saint Omer will be in my top five of 2023. I was blown away by documentarian Alice Diop’s astonishing first narrative feature about a novelist observing the trial of a woman who abandoned her baby daughter.
I’m hoping Blue Jean will do well at the BAFTAs in the British categories, Georgia Oakley’s impressive feature film debut about a closeted lesbian school teacher (Rosy McEwen) set around the time when Clause 28 was high on the new agenda, and as a new pupil of hers might expose her secrets.
On my ‘most anticipated’ list, I’ve also got Women Talking - Sarah Polley’s latest about a religious community that discovers a dark secret about itself with a notable cast including Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Frances McDormand.
One that looks less likely to feature, but still worth exploring, is Hugh Jackman and Anthony Hopkins in Florian Zeller’s The Son; he and writer Christopher Hampton’s previous film with Hopkins was the acclaimed The Father.
Elsewhere there’s plenty of entertainment with the new film from the always unpredictable M Night Shyamalan; Knock At The Cabin is a horror mystery with Dave Bautista and Rupert Grint based on Paul Tremblay’s novel.
There’s also the latest from one of my favourite Japanese directors, Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters). Broker looks at the concept of boxes where babies can be left for adoption.
And if it’s escapist entertainment that you want, then there’s Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Channing Tatum back to complete the trilogy for Steven Soderbergh, the first Marvel movie of the year in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear, inspired in part by true events (mainly a bear accidentally ingesting cocaine) and featuring one of Ray Liotta’s final performances.
March And April
Jonathan Majors looks set to dominate the Marvel universe in the next few years and February’s Ant-Man will be his first film appearance as Kang, but he’s also found time to appear as the rival fighter in Creed III, with Adonis Creed actor Michael B Jordan taking over the director’s chair in this Rocky series follow-up with no Sylvester Stallone for the first time.
The Scream franchise also moves on without Neve Campbell (but still with Courtney Cox) in Scream 6.
The early spring is packed with other sequels and prequels; we finally get to see the prequel to horror director Ti West’s X with Mia Goth returning in Pearl, the DC universe is looking to have fun with Helen Mirren joining Shazam: Fury Of The Gods, and Keanu Reeves is still delivering top-quality action in John Wick: Chapter 4.
There’s also films based on existing franchises or properties: another film in Sam Raimi’s horror world as Evil Dead Rise, Chris Pratt voicing the Italian plumber in animation The Super Mario Bros Movie and an eclectic cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant rolling the dice on a new Dungeons & Dragons movie.
Slightly more original are Taika Waititi’s comedy Next Goal Wins about the American Samoan football team (but that’s already been a documentary), Nicolas Cage as Dracula opposite Nicholas Hoult as his henchman Renfield, and Adam Driver as an alien astronaut fighting prehistoric dinosaurs in 65.
May And June
May is typically when blockbuster season is in full force, and the 2023 line-up includes James Gunn’s farewell to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (at least, for now) with Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol 3 exploring the past of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper). Brie Larson and Jason Momoa have joined the cast for furious car shenanigans in Fast X, and Disney’s latest attempt to live-action up their animated back catalogue reaches The Little Mermaid.
There’s new animation from Strays, with Will Ferrell and Isla Fisher voicing stray dogs seeking revenge on a former owner, and thankfully Pixar’s new film Elemental is due to get a cinema release after a run of home streaming releases due to the pandemic.
There’s also an animated sequel, with Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse: Part 1 again seeing Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) meeting up with a variety of other Spider-Things, and the latest attempt to breathe life into Autobots battling Decepticons arrives with Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts.
The much-delayed return of both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck as Batmen is due in DC’s The Flash, but the biggest event of June is likely to be Harrison Ford’s (probable) last outing donning the hat and the whip for archaeological antics, joined by Phoebe Waller-Bridge to fight against the Nazis one more time in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
July To December
July looks set to be peak cinema, in every possible sense. Tom Cruise will be riding motorbikes off them for the increasingly challengingly punctuated Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One, and if I could see only one film in 2023, it would be the latest mission extremely difficult, adding Hayley Atwell and a returning Henry Czerny to the cast. But if I could see two, I might find it difficult to choose between Barbie (yes, really) Greta Gerwig’s intriguing take on the famous toy with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, or the new Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer (with Cillian Murphy as the titular scientist) for which, almost unsurprisingly, Nolan is reported to have recreated a nuclear explosion with practical effects. Those last two are both set to open on July 21, making for 2023’s most spectacular double bill if you fancy.
If you’re not all Marvelled out by then, The Marvels sees Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel teaming up with Iman Vellani’s Ms Marvel and Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau, which will make sense if you’re an MCU fan.
The end of the year also has more DC drama with Jason Momoa as the underwater superhero in Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom.
Kenneth Branagh has another all-star cast for his next Poirot adventure, A Haunting In Venice, while you can expect a new version of The Color Purple as well.
There’s a prequel to Katniss Everdeen’s trials and tribulations in The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, set around the time of the tenth Hunger Games.
Finally, there’s two films starring the increasingly ubiquitous Timothée Chalamet, returning once again as Paul Atriedes in Denis Villeneuve’s sandy sequel Dune: Part 2, featuring more Zendaya and added Florence Pugh, while The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon provides songs for chocolate factory prequel Wonka with Chalamet as a young Willy meeting the Oompa-Loompas for the first time. Director Simon King and co-writer Simon Farnaby (Ghosts) will be trying to work the same magic they brought to Paddington 2, with a supporting cast including Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins and Rowan Atkinson.
