Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.

This week, I’m going to take a look at five films that are coming out this year that I’m most looking forward to. So, unlike my previous pieces, this one isn’t going to be about movies I’ve already seen. Some titles I considered include: Knock at the Cabin (a gay couple at the center of a potential major blockbuster is tantalizing…if not for M. Night Shyamalan), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (the Ant-man films have been entertaining, but not must see), Cocaine Bear (color me surprised, but the trailer was hugely entertaining), Scream 6 (I enjoy this series, but not as much as some others), Shazam! Fury of the Gods (the first film was surprisingly fun), Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan is a solid filmmaker, but the first trailer is anything but exciting), and Dune: Part 2 (I doubt the flaws of the first film will be resolved in the second). Also, I had covered Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse last year and it got pushed back. It’s still one of my top anticipated movies, but it feels unfair to take up a slot this year for it as well, so we’ll set it aside as a special condition.

Barbie (2023)

Before the trailer released, I only had a passing interest in the film. That interest was Greta Gerwig whose prior films have all been great. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling seemed like additional benefits, but the idea of a movie about Barbie was anathema to me. But that trailer. The film’s premise is still not clear at this time, but Gerwig has taken the Barbie concept and gone in a so-far unexpected direction.

The trailer is a straight up homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a narrative origin of the Barbie doll followed by a kaleidoscopic panoply of vibrant colors, that looks both fitting and exotic. It’s sure to have an undercurrent of sarcasm with a genuine dose of awe and reverence. While Barbie has come under withering fire since it was first introduced, there’s no denying its popularity or longevity. Nor can you escape the significance of its achievement and its historical importance. That’s the kind of notion that Gerwig can get behind and excel at. After all, her Little Women was a similar project and she nailed that one.

The Color Purple (2023)

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the plight of Black women in the early 20th Century. The first adaptation came courtesy of Steven Spielberg in 1985. His humane film starred comedian-turned-actress Whoopi Goldberg, pre-fame Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Margaret Avery. The film scored 11 Oscar nominations, but Spielberg wasn’t one of them. It notoriously tied The Turning Point for the film with the most Oscar nominations to have won none.

The Broadway adaptation wasn’t as unlucky. It wasn’t lucky either. The musical also nabbed 11 nominations, but it managed to win a single prize for Best Actress in a Musical for LaChanze. Its revival received fewer nominations at the Tonys, only four (only because revivals aren’t eligible in every category), but managed to win two this time for Best Revival and Best Actress in a Musical for Cynthia Erivo. Will the filmic adaptation of the Broadway musical do any better? While it’s surprising they didn’t get Erivo to reprise her role, a Broadway replacement, Fantasia Barrino, is taking on the role. That makes me a little less interested because her voice is more grainy, but since the Spielberg film is one of my favorites, I’m hoping that interest carries over to the other film adaptation.

Elemental (2023)

In spite of its recent output, Disney and Pixar films are always hotly anticipated films. While there’s no certainty that Elemental will be any different than the recent trend, one must still hope. Not much is known about the film except that it’s about a water elemental and a fire elemental who fall in love in spite of their obvious differences and their inability to touch. Will it be a Romeo and Juliet? Or does it sound just a little too much like Pushing Daisies.

That last thought might be an intriguing one. Unfortunately, Disney and Pixar do not take risks, so the film will likely be a fairly generic. Still, one can hope that the fabled animations studios can regain their once mighty footholds, but when they push things like Lightyear to the theater, but stuff Turning Red onto streaming, it very much seems like they are missing the boat on a lot of things these days.

The Little Mermaid (2023)

We’ve only seen one trailer and it’s a simple lead up to a chorus of a popular and familiar anthem from the original animated musical, but what a dazzling opening that was. Halle Bailey gives such a terrific rendition that it’s hard to understand why so many fanboys (and likely they are men) freaking out over the change in gender. She’s a merperson and it isn’t like she’s some historical figure, so I find the outrage misplaced.

What is obvious from the footage we’ve seen is that The Little Mermaid is sure to give Avatar: The Way of Water a run for its money in terms of underwater visions of loveliness. I didn’t adore the original animated film the way I adored Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Mulan, but I liked it more than the overpraised Aladdin. As for its status of a live action remake of an animated film, that does provide some concern. That said, I have had little interest in seeing any of these films and the only ones I’ve seen are Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast, so my interest is light and is based almost entirely on that one number, so we’ll see.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

The best thing that can be said about the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible films is that they’ve all been largely entertaining. All of them since Mission: Impossible 3 have been terrific, edge-of-your-seat espionage thrillers. Not even the recent Daniel Craig James Bond films can compete with the high level of creative energy and and output.

Christopher McQuarrie returns as director and his Rogue Nation and Fallout films were solid, though his direction wasn’t always. Bringing back Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird is the only thing they could have done better with this film. Just as long as J.J. Abrams never comes back since his 3rd film is the worst of the series. In the end, we just have to hope that it will all have been worth the long five-year wait.