50 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2023

4. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

To many, Tom Cruise was the box office saviour in 2022 - a tirelessly committed performer whose hard work paid off with Top Gun: Maverick's absurd commercial success.

And in 2023 he's back with the seventh entry into the Mission: Impossible franchise, which from its electrifying first trailer looks set to (somehow) up the ante from the jaw-dropping Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

With an emphasis on practical action sequences and Cruise again putting himself in incredible, tangible danger for our benefit, there's no reason to expect anything less than a ludicrously entertaining time - and one that tees up the already-shooting sequel due out in 2024.

With a budget of $290 million it'll need to be one of the biggest hits of Cruise's career to be a success, but given the performance of Maverick it's easy to believe.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One releases on July 14.

3. Beau Is Afraid

Hereditary and Midsommar director Ari Aster returns with his much-anticipated third feature, a surreal comedy-horror film starring Joaquin Phoenix as Beau, an anxious man who returns home following his mother's death and is forced to contend with "wild supernatural threats."

The buzz on this thing is off-the-charts - Aster's first cut of the film was reportedly four hours long, and pairing such a tenacious filmmaker with an actor like Phoenix basically guarantees dynamite results.

The wider cast is killer, too, including Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, Michael Gandolfini, Richard Kind, and many more.

While it's reasonable to expect something divisive and profoundly weird from Aster, it should be a bewildering treat for those prepared to strap in.

Beau is Afraid releases sometime in 2023.