Hear that? It’s 2023 calling your name. We kick off the new year with an eclectic assortment of titles featuring jump scares, tears, laughs, and fears. A robotic doll gets a mind of her own in M3GAN, a horror film about friendship and what happens when smart technology gets a little too self-aware. Tom Hanks and Anna Kendrick are stirring up some Oscar buzz for their performances in A Man Called Otto and Alice, Darling. PEN15 star Anna Konkle is ready to make you uncomfortable in The Drop, a comedy about a woman who drops her friend’s baby at a wedding. Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza are wielding guns and slinging quips in Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, the latest adventure from Guy Ritchie. Plus, more movies featuring Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Lopez, Nicolas Cage, and Christian Bale.
Grab your popcorn and put fresh batteries in your remote! Let’s take a closer look at what movies will be hitting the big and small screens in January.
M3GAN
Release Date: January 6 in Theaters
Dolls are creepy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Get Out star Allison Williams returns to the horror realm with the freaky film M3GAN. Produced by Annabelle and Malignant producer James Wan, the sci-fi thriller follows roboticist Gemma’s (Allison Williams) attempt to bring comfort to her recently orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw) by gifting her a self-aware, human-like doll known as M3GAN. The toy and Cady hit it off, though things take a dark turn once M3GAN becomes increasingly possessive of Cady.
The Pale Blue Eye
Release Date: January 6 on Netflix
We know Edgar Allan Poe the author, but what about the West Point cadet? Based on the historical novel by Louis Bayard and written and directed for the screen by Scott Cooper, the gloomy 1800s-era mystery The Pale Blue Eye follows Augustus Landor (Christian Bale), a long-time, jaded detective trying to solve a series of murders of cadets at West Point, New York’s United States Military Academy. Augustus is determined, though can’t get very far given the cadets’ code of silence. He manages to earn the trust of the most observant and astute cadet at West Point: a young Poe (Henry Melling). The film also stars Gillian Anderson, Robert Duvall, Lucy Boynton, and Fred Hechinger.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
Release Date: January 12 in Theaters
Do you have good fortune? After some release date reshuffling, Guy Ritchie’s latest posh action adventure is here and ready for a good time. Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre stars Jason Statham as Orson Fortune, a private contractor who is tasked with preventing specific weapons from hitting the open market. The buyer? A wealthy arms dealer named Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) who cannot be caught with “conventional allure.” The plan? Recruit Greg’s favorite movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to help on the mission and distract Greg from Fortune doing his Fortune thing. Fortune wouldn’t be where he is, of course, without help from his lovable team of misfits Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), Nathan (Cary Elwes), and JJ (Bugzy Malone).
The Drop
Release Date: January 13 on Hulu
Well, this is awkward. Have you ever done something that just cannot be undone? Anna Konkle is the queen of cringe as Lex in The Drop, a comedy about a woman who drops her friend’s baby at a wedding. It’s fine, it’s fine. The baby is fine. But Mani (Jermaine Fowler) and Lex’s marriage is not. How is this event supposed to be even remotely normal now? Someone dropped a baby! Director and writer Sarah Adina Smith and her co-writer Joshua Leonard have concocted a comedy that will make you realize, “It’s not the baby…it’s how you handle it!” The ensemble includes Jillian Bell, Robin Thede, Aparna Nancherla, and Utkarsh Ambudkar.
A Man Called Otto
Release Date: January 13 in Theaters
Meet Otto. He is what you call “bitter.” Nothing has been the same since his wife passed away. More specifically, nothing can make him happy, and he does not feel as though he has a reason to live. His new, vibrant, zest-for-life neighbor Marisol (Mariana Treviño) and her husband and two little girls, however, see Otto (played masterfully by Tom Hanks) as a challenge. A nut they are determined to crack. Otto, though, doesn’t want to be cracked. At least, not at first. It’s only a matter of time before the irritable old man next door is (reluctantly) charmed by this loving curveball life threw his way. A Man Called Otto is directed by Stranger Than Fiction and World War Z director Marc Forster and is based on Fredrik Backman’s novel A Man Called Ove. A Swedish version of the film was released in 2015 and stars Rolf Lassgård.
Plane
Release Date: January 13 in Theaters
This is your captain speaking. 300 and Greenland star Gerard Butler takes flight as commercial pilot Brodie Torrance in Plane, an action thriller directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis. Panic mounts once Brodie must make an emergency landing on Jolo Islands, a dangerous, war plagued spot in the Philippines. Brodie has no choice but to trust Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), a convicted fugitive passenger on the flight. Can they save the day?
House Party
Release Date: January 13 in Theaters
It’s not a party. It’s an investment. In this remake of Reginald Hudlin’s 1990s cult-classic House Party, Atlanta writers Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori put best friends Kid and Play (Jacob Latimore and Tosin Cole) in a once-in-a-lifetime situation. The two friends need money desperately and are running out of options, so when they get the chance to clean LeBron James’ mansion while he is on a meditation retreat, they make the most of it. Rather than clean the house and collect the check, they throw an epic house party and charge all the guests a special fee. What could possibly go wrong? The film is produced by LeBron’s production company, SpringHill Company.
The Old Way
Release Date: January 13 in Theaters
Revenge is coming in the shape of Nicolas Cage. The Academy Award winner heads west and slings guns in The Old Way, a western directed by Brett Donowho and written by Carl W. Lucas. The period piece tells the story of Colton Briggs (Cage), a former gunslinger extraordinaire who has settled down in recent years to become a family man. His past comes back to bite him when James (Noah Le Gros), the son of someone he killed, avenges his father’s death by killing Colton’s wife. Now, the reformed cowboy is ready to get justice for his family, and is bringing his little daughter Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) along with him.
Saint Omer
Release Date: January 13 in Theaters
Alice Diop, the impressive French documentarian known for We and La mort de Danton, makes her narrative debut with the tense courtroom drama Saint Omer. The French submission for the Academy Awards, which is loosely based on a real 2013 trial, follows Kayije Kagame’s Rama, a novelist sitting in on the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a woman accused of leaving her 15-month-old daughter on the beach to be dragged away by the tide. Rama was hoping to use the trial for research for her modern adaptation of Medea, but ends up reflecting on her own life and pregnancy the more she learns about Laurence’s own traumatic experiences. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival and the award for Best Debut Feature for Diop.
Skinamarink
Release Date: January 13 in Theaters
What is going on in this house? Skinamarink, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball, is not your average horror film. The experimental and minimalist project, which Ball shot in his childhood home in Edmonton, Canada on a largely crowd-funded budget, tells the story of two young boys who wake up during the night to discover that their father is gone as well as all of the windows and doors in the house. But where is that voice coming from? The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival and is set for a Shudder release later this year.
When You Finish Saving the World
Release Date: January 20 in Theaters
Jesse Eisenberg is one busy dude. The Oscar nominee, known for his roles in The Social Network, Zombieland, and Now You See Me, is also a prolific playwright. Now he makes his feature film directorial debut with When You Finish Saving the World, which he also adapted from his own Audible Original audio drama of the same name. Produced by Emma Stone and Dave McCary, the coming-of-age drama follows Evelyn (Julianne Moore), a woman who cares for struggling youth at a shelter who ironically cannot connect with her teenage son Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard), an ignorant and aspiring internet music star. This dramedy navigates both the messiness and beauty that comes with mother-son relationships.
The Son
Release Date: January 20 in Theaters
Florian Zeller continues adapting his revered trilogy of family-centric plays for the big screen. Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins’ film The Father gets the prequel The Son, which follows Hugh Jackman’s Peter, a busy businessman dealing with the consequences of his selfish actions as he attempts to bury his past and raise his new family. When his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) comes back into the picture with their teenage son Nicholas (Zen McGrath), Peter is pulled away from his new wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby) and their baby, and must reconnect with his troubled son.
Missing
Release Date: January 20 in Theaters
In 2018, John Cho starred in the impressive and original film Searching, which was told entirely from the point of view of a laptop from director Aneesh Chaganty and co-writer Sev Ohanian. Now, the creative duo is back with Missing, a “standalone sequel” that follows another mysterious disappearance and the fear and helplessness that comes with the unknown. June (Storm Reid) was initially excited that her mother (Nia Long) was off to Colombia with her new boyfriend because she wanted the house to herself. But when her mother doesn’t return home, June is forced to reach out to people on the internet who might know where she went. The more she searches, however, the clearer it becomes that her mother isn’t who she said she was.
Alice, Darling
Release Date: January 20 Exclusively in AMC Theaters
There is nothing darling about this relationship. Anna Kendrick delivers a powerhouse performance in Alice, Darling, a tense thriller that demonstrates the crippling effects of a psychologically abusive relationship. Alice (Kendrick) is constantly on edge, and her friends Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) are worried about her. The three try to escape from their busy lives and reconnect at a remote cottage for a birthday get together, but Alice cannot fully detach from her manipulative and toxic boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick), who refuses to share Alice with anyone. Not only are Alice’s friendships on the line, but her sanity is as well. The film, which was directed by Mary Nighy and written by Alanna Francis, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Teen Wolf: The Movie
Release Date: January 26 on Paramount+
There must be a full moon because the werewolves are back. Continuing from where the Teen Wolf series left off in 2017, Teen Wolf: The Movie reunites us with our favorite creatures. Er, characters. A new threat has hit Beacon Hills, and Alpha Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin) are determined to take out the latest and deadliest baddie to hit their streets. Other returning actors include Colton Haynes, Shelley Hennig, Dylan Sprayberry, Linden Ashby, and Holland Roden.
Maybe I Do
Release Date: January 27 in Theaters
Ah, marriage. You say “I do,” but, do you really want to? That’s what Michelle (Emma Roberts) and Allen (Luke Bracey) are asking themselves in Michael Jacobs’ Maybe I Do, and it’s largely because of their parents. Neither Michelle’s parents (Richard Gere and Diane Keaton) or Allen’s parents (William H. Macy and Susan Sarandon) have a sound marriage to begin with, but things get even more interesting when Allen and Michelle’s parents meet for dinner and realize they actually know each other quite well. How long will their secrets last, and whose love will prevail?
Distant
Release Date: January 27 in Theaters
Outer space can make you feel lonely. That’s what happened to Andy (Anthony Ramos), a not-so-important mining engineer whose plans derail when his ship is hit by an asteroid and is knocked onto an alien planet. He’s all alone (well, unless you include his AI survival suit voiced by Zachary Quinto) and is at a loss. Of oxygen. He’s relieved to hear the voice of Naomi (Naomi Scott) come through a radio, though is quickly disheartened when he learns she is trapped inside her own space vehicle far away. The film, which is directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and written by Spenser Cohen, is distributed by Steven Spielberg’s company Amblin Entertainment.
Shotgun Wedding
Release Date: January 27 on Prime Video
The whole “‘til death do us part” thing might be coming a lot sooner than these two thought. In Shotgun Wedding, the destination festivities for Tom (Josh Duhamel) and Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) get unexpectedly violent when armed criminals storm the “I Dos” and force our lovebirds to take their lives into their own hands. Can the madness that’s pulling their wedding apart actually bring their love for each other closer together? The action comedy was directed by Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore and also stars Jennifer Coolidge, Lenny Kravitz, and D’Arcy Carden.
You People
Release Date: January 27 on Netflix
This awkward conversation between Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill is going to make you lose your appetite. The Netflix ensemble You People, directed by Kenya Barris and co-written by Barris and Hill, follows the blossoming relationship between Ezra (Hill) and Amira (Lauren London) and their attempt to connect with their potential and very protective in-laws. Can Ezra’s “progressive and semi-woke Jewish parents” played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny get along with Amira’s “unyielding yet concerned Muslim parents” who are played by Nia Long and Eddie Murphy? Got to love culture clashes.
One Fine Morning
Release Date: January 27 in Theaters
Is he her friend, boyfriend, or both? No Time to Die and Crimes of the Future star Léa Seydoux shines in the complicated romance One Fine Morning. Written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve, the drama focuses on Léa’s Sandra, who is dealing with her father’s (Pascal Greggory) diminishing health due to a neurodegenerative disease and her increasingly curious young daughter. As she and her loved ones try to secure the proper care for her father, she begins an intense romantic relationship with Clément (Melvil Poupaud), an old friend who’s married.
