The Big Picture · Discussion · Top Five · Roundtable · Interview
January 3, 2023/ 113 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda count down twenty-three movies they can't wait for in 2023 - Scorsese, Nolan, Gerwig, Fincher, a Von Erich biopic - then Sean talks with Nanny director Nikyatu Jusu.
38 films across 5 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
State of the Box OfficeBack from the holiday break
James Cameron's sequel rose in its third weekend, up to $66.8 million over the holiday frame and $1.4 billion worldwide after 17 days - the kind of legs a movie hasn't had since E.T. in 1982. Sean and Amanda agree it's a singular event, not a template for the industry.
Damien Chazelle's 3-hour-8-minute old-Hollywood epic struggled at the box office, but Sean calls it one of his five favorite films of the year and has seen it twice; he spent New Year's posting about it from a hot tub while Amanda handled both their kids solo.
One of the only other wide releases over the holiday frame; Sean gave it two and a half stars on Letterboxd.
Amanda's Most Anticipated Movies of 2023best to worst
No. 1. Greta Gerwig directs from a script with Noah Baumbach, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Amanda trusts Gerwig completely to make something sneakily ambitious out of a Mattel movie.
No. 2, sort of - Amanda admits it isn't formally her No. 2, but in her heart it is. Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, out July 14.
No. 3. Luca Guadagnino's tennis romantic comedy, starring Zendaya and Josh O'Connor, out August 11.
No. 4. Sofia Coppola writes and directs, adapting Priscilla Presley's memoir Elvis and Me. Cailee Spaeny plays Priscilla, Jacob Elordi plays Elvis.
No. 5. Ridley Scott directs Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as Empress Josephine. Traded onto Amanda's list from Sean's just before they started recording.
No. 6. Sam Esmail adapts Rumaan Alam's novel, starring Julia Roberts. Amanda and Sean interviewed Esmail about directing it while the film was still in post.
No. 7. Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum again, with Salma Hayek, out February 10 - which happens to be her son Knox's first birthday.
No. 8. Nicole Holofcener reunites with Julia Louis-Dreyfus for a Sundance premiere; formerly titled Beth and Dawn.
No. 9. Bradley Cooper directs and stars as Leonard Bernstein, with Carey Mulligan; delayed a year, which Amanda thinks was the smart call to avoid Tar.
No. 10, called Air Jordan on the show. Ben Affleck directs, Matt Damon plays Nike's Sonny Vaccaro, Viola Davis co-stars; based on Phil Knight's memoir Shoe Dog.
No. 11. Michael B. Jordan's directorial debut, with Jonathan Majors; Sylvester Stallone sits this one out.
Sean's Most Anticipated Movies of 2023best to worst
No. 1, again - it topped Sean's list last year too and still hasn't come out. Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons, from David Grann's book, for Apple.
No. 2, also carried over from last year. David Fincher directs Michael Fassbender, back from a five-year break, as an assassin having a change of heart. For Netflix.
No. 3, formerly titled Disappointment Boulevard and on Sean's list for three years running. Ari Aster's surrealist comedy-horror, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, and Patti LuPone.
No. 4. Denis Villeneuve's follow-up adds Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Lea Seydoux to the cast; out November 3.
No. 5. Jonathan Glazer's first film in eight or nine years since Under the Skin, a Holocaust drama based on Martin Amis's novel, starring Sandra Huller.
No. 6. Christopher Nolan's J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic, with Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. among a huge cast; out July 21, the same day as Barbie.
No. 7. Wes Anderson's western-adjacent ensemble piece, out June 16, with a companion Netflix short, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
No. 8, though Sean isn't sure it makes it out this year. Michael Mann directs Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, distributed by a financially shaky STX.
No. 9 - Sean's one last shot at the MCU. Peyton Reed directs Paul Rudd, with Jonathan Majors as Kang, out February 17.
No. 10, called How Do You Live on the show, the direct translation of its Japanese title. Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli comeback.
No. 11. Sean Durkin's docudrama about the Von Erich wrestling family, with Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, plus Jeremy Allen White, Lily James, Harris Dickinson, and Maura Tierney. An A24 release.
No. 12. M. Night Shyamalan adapts Paul Tremblay's novel The Cabin at the End of the World, starring Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, and Rupert Grint; out February 3.
Honorable Mentions one more each
Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott reunite after Shiva Baby and Bodies Bodies Bodies.
Said to be Joe Talbot's first film since The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Cory Finley, who made Thoroughbreds and Bad Education, adapts the Sundance sci-fi novel.
A costume drama about Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's last wife, starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law.
Nikyatu Jusu on Nanny
Her Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning debut feature, now streaming on Amazon via Blumhouse. She shot it over 27 days at the height of the pandemic without a single COVID case shutting down production.
The first film she remembers being moved by as a kid - about a woman's chaotic imaginary friend.
Her breakthrough short, funded by a Tribeca Film Institute/Chanel grant and premiered at Sundance's Midnight section, which led directly to her representation and Nanny.
The Blumhouse film she points to as evidence the label can support something more than jump-scare horror.
Her answer to the show's closing question - the last great thing she's seen. She loves Park Chan-wook's use of sound and match cuts.
Also mentioned raised along the way
2022's countdown, revisited Ticket to ParadiseDon't Worry DarlingElvisBrosFire IslandYou Hurt My FeelingsGlass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryThe Eternal DaughterThe Worst Person in the WorldShe SaidMaestroTop Gun: MaverickThe BatmanTarWomen TalkingBabylonThe FabelmansArmageddon TimeThe KillerEverything Everywhere All at OnceWhite NoiseThe NorthmanNopeKillers of the Flower Moon
MCU and Spider-verse tangent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3The MarvelsMadame WebKraven the HunterSpider-Man: No Way HomeDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Directors' back catalogs The NestMartha Marcy May MarleneGladiatorGladiator IIA Star Is BornRules Don't ApplyOn the BeachDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombThe Virgin SuicidesThe BeguiledThe French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening SunThoroughbredsBad EducationThe Last Black Man in San FranciscoShiva BabyBodies Bodies BodiesWest Side StoryDune
Amanda's off-the-cuff Scorsese filmography GoodfellasThe Age of InnocenceHugoSilenceThe Wolf of Wall StreetThe DepartedShutter IslandAfter HoursThe King of ComedyRaging BullMean StreetsWho's That Knocking at My DoorBoxcar BerthaAlice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreThe Color of MoneyThe Last Temptation of ChristCape FearThe AviatorNo Direction HomeRolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese
Also promised for 2023 Indiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyScream VISpider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseWonkaPoor ThingsThe BikeridersNight BitchEileenStrange Way of LifeInfinity PoolCorsageAll Quiet on the Western Front
Genre lineage cited in the Jusu interview The LodgeThe WitchSuspiriaRosemary's Baby
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Emily in ParisThe BearMindhunterDune: Prophecy
Books The Cabin at the End of the WorldElvis and MeShoe DogKillers of the Flower MoonLeave the World BehindHeat 2
Podcasts Last Song Standing
Ads Netflix FIFA World Cup Launch EditionNOS EnergyBoar's HeadFanDuelCarvana