The 25 Most Anticipated Holiday Movies of 2023

The three-decade creative partnership between filmmaker Todd Haynes and actress Julianne Moore is one of the richest in modern cinema (see: Safe, Far from Heaven, Wonderstruck). Here, the two have teamed up once more for a film inspired by the story of Mary Kay Letourneau that sees an actress (Natalie Portman) travel to Savannah, Georgia, to shadow a woman (Moore) she’s about to portray in a film who became the subject of scandal for statutory raping her now-husband (Charles Melton) when he was 13.

Written and directed by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) and adapted from Rumaan Alam’s novel of the same name, this psychological thriller centers on a white family (Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke) who have rented a house on Long Island. One day, a Black father and daughter (Mahershala Ali, Myha’la) claiming to be the owners of the house return and say they need to stay because there’s been a blackout and infrastructure is failing. The renter-family is suspicious, but as mysterious events keep occurring, start to believe them.

The latest battlefield epic from Ridley Scott (Gladiator) chronicles the life and conquests of Napoleon Bonaparte (a bitchy Joaquin Phoenix), who rose to become the Emperor of Europe while married to a former courtesan (Vanessa Kirby) who dished as good as she could take. Come for the battles and weird BDSM-lite sexual dynamic between Napoleon and Josephine, stay for Phoenix’s Napoleon whining to the British, “You think you’re so great just because you have BOATS!”

This biopic traces the tumultuous union of master composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), who contends with her husband’s maddening level of musical genius and his numerous affairs with younger men. Directed by Cooper and written by Cooper and Spotlight scribe Josh Singer, this rollicking follow-up to Cooper’s directorial debut A Star Is Born proves that the guy has the goods.  

Directed by Frozen’s Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, the 62^nd feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios follows Asha (Ariana DeBose), a 17-year-old rebel who wishes upon a star to save her kingdom of Rosas, which has been lorded over by the treacherous King Magnifico (Chris Pine), who’s played god with his people’s wishes. The fantasy-musical also features the voices of Alan Tudyk, Natasha Rothwell, Harvey Guillén, Evan Peters, and Ramy Youssef.  

This three-hour concert extravaganza serves as a tribute not only to Renaissance, Beyoncé’s outstanding ballroom-inspired seventh studio album that paid homage to its Black and LGBTQ+ forebears, but also the subsequent Renaissance World Tour that saw the singular performer sing and dance her heart out in front of millions of people across the world. More than anything, it’s a celebration of Beyoncé’s staggering work ethic and hunger for greatness.

Any John Woo shoot-‘em-up is cause for celebration, and this one marks the Chinese filmmaking icon’s first American feature in 20 years, since 2003’s Paycheck. Now, the man behind The Killer and Face/Off is back in action for this bullet-riddled saga of Brian Godluck (Joel Kinnaman), a man who is forced to navigate the criminal underworld to avenge the death of his young son on Christmas Eve. The film also stars Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, and Catalina Sandino Moreno.

Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, the film centers a lonely young woman named Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) working at a juvenile detention facility in 1960s New England. Her father (Shea Whigham) is an abusive alcoholic, and she often finds herself fantasizing about the inmates. One day, a glamorous woman (Anne Hathaway in a blonde wig, doing her best impression of Cate Blanchett in Carol) starts as the new juvie psychologist and Eileen finds herself drawn to her, though there may be more to this bewitching stranger than meets the eye.

Already released to critical acclaim in its native Japan, filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki’s origin tale is the 37^th film in the Godzilla franchise, and an official Toho Studios entry. It’s set in the aftermath of World War II, as Godzilla, mutated by America’s nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, wreaks havoc on Tokyo. So, a kamikaze pilot (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and a rogue scientist (Hidetaka Yoshioka) team up to put a stop to the radiation monster once and for all.

Based on the lovely 2007 film of the same name by Adrienne Shelly, who was tragically killed two months prior to its Sundance premiere, this is a taping of Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Broadway musical as Broadway slowly came back to life after the Covid shutdown. Bareilles stars as Jenna, a Southern waitress and pie baker who’s unhappy in her marriage to Earl (Joe Tippett), an abusive ass, so she embarks on an affair with Jim (Drew Gehling), her gynecologist. The feel-good show was nominated for 4 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion and one of the finest pictures of the year, the latest collaboration between filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone (The Favourite) tells the tale of Bella (Stone), a young, pregnant Victorian woman who, after jumping to her death, is salvaged by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a Frankensteinian scientist who places her unborn baby’s brain into her head and raises her like a daughter, refusing to let her leave the home. Aging at a fast rate and eager to learn more about the world, Bella goes off on a European adventure with Duncan (Mark Ruffalo), a horny lawyer, where she learns a lot about sexual desire, agency, and the male ego.

Jonathan Glazer began his career directing eye-catching music videos for the likes of Radiohead (“Karma Police”) and Jamiroquai (“Virtual Insanity”) and helming commercials. He then segued to film, directed Sexy Beast, Birth, and Under the Skin. His fourth feature, The Zone of Interest, might be his masterpiece. It follows Rudolph Höss (Christian Friedel), commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), as they lounge in their stately home adjacent to the concentration camp. It is a chilling study of the banality of evil.

Written and directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma), this sprawling historical epic is a loose adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s celebrated book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, about how social stratification has influenced America’s history of racism. Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis stars as Wilkerson, who travels the country researching for the book. DuVernay’s all-star cast also includes Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, and Victoria Pedretti.

The internet has been pretty hard on this upcoming movie-musical sight-unseen, but may I remind you that the latest adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — this one a Willy Wonka origin story starring the gifted Timothée Chalamet — is directed by Paul King, who also helmed the first two Paddington films. Oh, and the cast is rounded out by Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa. Let’s reserve judgment, folks!

Marking the feature directorial debut of Cord Jefferson, a former Gawker editor turned Emmy-winning TV-writing MVP (Master of None, Watchmen, Succession), this satire stars Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a struggling writer who resents the success of Sintara Golden (Issa Rae, whom he feels has exploited Black culture for book sales. In a fit of rage, he pens a novel using every ugly stereotype he can think of — only to see it become a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Thelonious is then forced to manage the monster he’s unleashed.   

The latest from former DC Extended Universe steward Zack Snyder is a space opera in a future world wherein an ex-soldier (Sofia Boutella), a rogue starship pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and a former general (Djimon Hounsou) lead the rebellion against the Imperium, the army of the corrupt Motherworld government that rules over the universe with an iron fist. The film also stars Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, and Anthony Hopkins voicing a battle robot. Hopefully the online bots won’t be out in full force for this one.  

James Wan’s sequel to 2018’s Aquaman sees Jason Momoa’s half-Atlantean half-human aquatic superhero once again be called on to protect Atlantis from a dangerous threat: Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a Black Trident-wielding pirate who wants to kill Aquaman in order to avenge the death of his father. Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Randall Park, Dolph Lundgren, and Nicole Kidman all return for this $200 million DC blockbuster.

One of the only studio romcoms to hit theaters this holiday season, filmmaker Will Gluck’s (Easy A) latest pairs the charismatic Glen Powell, who established his romcom cred with the underrated Set It Up and his stud cred with Top Gun: Maverick, and Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney as two people who pretend to be in a relationship to make their exes jealous while vacationing in Sydney, Australia. While the first teaser left much to be desired, I wouldn’t bet against Powell.

Few filmmakers can capture gay male love and desire quite like Andrew Haigh, the creator of HBO’s Looking and director of the masterful 2011 film Weekend. His most ambitious project yet stars Andrew Scott (Fleabag) as a lonely man in a sparsely populated high-rise building in London who falls for his fetching neighbor (Paul Mescal). All the while, he is haunted by memories of his parents (Claire Foy, Jamie Bell) who passed away decades earlier.

Sean Durkin’s (Martha Marcy May Marlene) film is a portrait of the real-life Von Erich family — a group of wrestling brothers in 1980s Texas raised by an abusive wrestler-father who became known for the “iron claw” wrestling hold. Many of the young men died under tragic circumstances, and the family was believed to be cursed. The Iron Claw focuses on three of the Von Erich brothers — Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and David (Harris Dickinson) — and they’re joined by Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, Lily James, and Maxwell Jacob Friedman.

Not to be confused with last year’s Liam Neeson action-thriller of the same name, the latest film from Mexican director Michel Franco, whose New Order and Sundown explored class warfare in his native country, stars Jessica Chastain as an isolated woman whose life is turned upside down when a strange man (Peter Sarsgaard) follows her home from her high school reunion, causing her to reflect on how the past has colored the present. Sarsgaard won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance.

Last year, Bianca Stigter released her gripping documentary Three Minutes: A Lengthening, providing a deep analysis of three minutes of footage shot in the Polish village of Nasielsk before the Nazis arrived. This year her husband, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), is coming out with his own Holocaust doc — a 4.5-hour adaptation of Stigter’s book Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945, about how Amsterdam changed under Nazi occupation and how the reverberations are still felt today.

Michael Mann’s (Heat) first film in eight years stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, the Italian automaker who, still grappling with his son’s death and with his marriage and company on the verge of collapse, puts everything he has into Ferrari winning the 1957 Mille Miglia, a 1,000-mile race across Italy. Penélope Cruz chews up the scenery as his wife Laura, Shailene Woodley features as his mistress Lina, while Gabriel Leone, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey make appearances as members of the Ferrari racing team.

Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name, which was adapted from Alice Walker’s groundbreaking 1982 novel, this movie-musical follows Celie (Fantasia Barrino) across decades as she contends with the racism, domestic violence, sexism, poverty, and incest prevalent in the 1900s American South. The third film by Blitz Bazawule, who co-directed Beyoncé’s Black Is King, its dynamite cast includes Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Ciara, Jon Batiste, Aunjanue Ellis, and Halle Bailey.

George Clooney’s (Good Night and Good Luck) latest turn in the director’s chair is this adaptation of Daniel James Brown’s nonfiction book of the same name about a group of University of Washington rowers who beat the odds to take gold for the U.S. at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin — you know, the one where Jesse Owens won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler. Clooney’s film stars Callum Turner as rower Joe Rantz and Joel Edgerton as the team’s coach Al Ulbrickson. It also features a score by the great Alexandre Desplat.