11 movies you’ll froth in 2023

Tom Cruise, Margot Robbie and Timothee Chalamet headline some of the most exciting offerings in movies in 2023.

A new year means a new slate of irresistible movies to make you cry, laugh and ask life’s great questions.

And these are the films we’re most excited about, including some you can’t afford to miss if you have any hope of keeping up.

Barbie

How will parents explain to their kids that this highly anticipated Barbie movie is not for them but for grown-ups? The Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling flick is far from another iteration of Barbie in Swan Lake, with those children’s cartoons rarely dealing with existential questions of true happiness.

Directed by beloved filmmaker Greta Gerwig from a script co-written by her and Noah Baumbach, the Barbie movie is expected to recast the cultural icon with a subversive sheen and interrogate what she really represents in a modern world. It’ll also be very bright and fun, and properly kick-off the “Barbiecore” trend. We hope you really like pink.

Barbie is due for release in July.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One

If it’s been too long since the most recent Mission Impossible movie was released in 2018, at least we had Top Gun: Maverick to remind everyone that nothing comes between Tom Cruise and an ambitious onscreen stunt – barely even gravity.

Cruise has already teased a jaw-dropping spectacle for Mission Impossible 7 – soaring off a cliff in a motorcycle into a BASE jump – and part of the excitement comes from knowing that it’s the movie star and not a stunt man flying across the screen. At this point in the franchise, the story doesn’t even matter.

Mission Impossible 7 is due for release in July.

Killers of the Flower Moon

After The Irishman, Martin Scorsese seems to have caught the streaming bug. His next epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, is also destined for the small screen, but this time on Apple TV+. The film will reunite him with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro in a cast which also includes Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser and Lily Gladstone.

Adapted from a non-fiction crime book, the movie will track the investigation following the murders of members of the Osage native tribe after oil is found under their land in 1920s Oklahoma.

Killers of the Flower Moon has yet to confirm its release date.

Oppenheimer

If there’s one filmmaker still devoted to a cerebral cinematic experience, it’s British writer and director Christopher Nolan. If he broke your brain with Tenet (admit it, he did), then know that Oppenheimer is expected to be less twisty, and closer in spirit and tone to his war epic, Dunkirk.

Starring frequent collaborator Cillian Murphy, as well as a stacked cast including Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Robert Downey Jr, the movie is centred on the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the events leading up to his creation of the destructive force that is the atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer is due for release in July.

Asteroid City

Known for his idiosyncratic style and visual tableaux, American filmmaker Wes Anderson is turning his very specific eye to a story about a 1950s teenage stargazing convention, where chaos and drama reigns when scientific ambitions are interrupted by a world-changing event.

And like every other Anderson movie, it has a murderer’s row of talent including Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Sophia Lillis, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston and Maya Hawke as well as his regular repertoire such as Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody and Jeff Goldblum.

Wes Anderson’s latest film is due for release in June. Picture: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

Luther: The Fallen Sun

If every Luther episode inspired you to double check your doors are locked, imagine how rattled your nerves will be after a supercharged dose with the long-awaited Luther movie, which will bring back creator Neil Cross and star Idris Elba.

A serial killer is stalking London but after the events of the most recent season, Luther is sitting in a prison cell, his signature tweed coat nowhere to be seen. Haunted by his failure to capture his foe, he decides to break out and finish the job.

Luther: The Fallen Sun is due for release in cinemas in February and on Netflix in March.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Harrison Ford confirmed this fifth Indiana Jones movie will be his last adventure donning the hat, so fans better make the most of it. Directed by James Mangold, who gave Wolverine an emotional send-off in the neo-Western Logan, it also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas and John Rhys-Davies.

Set mostly in the late 1960s, Indy is embroiled in a Space Race drama when he has to contend with the American government’s decision to recruit former Nazi scientists to beat the Soviets. It promises moral ambiguity, whip-cracking and the sunset era of a hero who belongs in another time.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is due for release in June.

Dune Part Two

There are those who thought Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation was a perfect sci-fi film, from its thundering sound design and bold visuals to its pitch perfect performances and nuanced take on destiny. And then there are those who felt cheated of an ending when they realised the first movie only took Frank Herbert’s book to the midway point.

Thanks to a decent box office as well as near-universal acclaim, Dune Part Two arrives later this year with a continuation of the story of Paul Atreides, the boy prince gunning for revenge against those who conspired against his family while taking on the burden of the fate of world. Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya will reprise their roles while newcomers include Florence Pugh and Austin Butler.

Denis Villeneuve’s sequel with Timothee Chalamet is due for release in November. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Napoleon

Ridley Scott has had a patchy run in recent years but re-teaming with his Gladiator star Joaquin Phoenix is a good omen. And whether it’s gold breastplates or medieval chainmail, the still prolific filmmaker loves a costume drama.

As the title suggests, the historical epic follows French leader turned emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his tempestuous relationship with his first wife Josephine. The cast also includes Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim and Ben Miles.

Napoleon has yet to confirm its release date. Picture: Rachel Luna/Getty Images

Wonka

Now that we’ve had a few years to try and erase from our minds the image of Johnny Depp frolicking as Willy Wonka, the trauma has subsided enough to consider a new Wonka – Timothee Chalamet.

This prequel will follow Willy Wonka’s life as a young man before he became proprietor of the world’s most dangerous chocolate factory. It also stars Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, Matt Lucas, Jim Carter and Olivia Colman. And, oh yeah, did we mention it’s a musical?

Wonka is due for release in December.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3

While it seems like there’s no end to Marvel’s dominance at the cinemas, there is, however, a final chapter in the adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The crew will bow out after the third instalment, with writer and director James Gunn now running rival DC Studios.

The superhero blockbuster will see the return of the OG crew, on a dangerous mission to save those that need saving. Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord tries to convince the alternate reality version of Gamora that they’re each other’s destinies while Will Poulter joins the universe as antagonist Adam Warlock.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is due for release in May.