Welcome to MovieJawn’s Split Decision! Each installment, Ryan will pose a question to our staff of knowledgeable and passionate film lovers and share the responses. Chime in on Twitter, Facebook, our Instagram, with your pick!

This week’s question: What is on your 2023 watchlist?

I am most excited to see Cassandro starring Gael Garcia Bernal as a gay Mexican wrestler–co-starring Raul Castillo–and hope to at Sundance. (If I have to explain why, you don’t read me.) And I will admit that Saw X has tremendous appeal to me. –Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer 

Saying that I’m excited for Barbie feels like the most obvious answer and yet…all I can think about is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. I wasn’t a Barbie kid growing up, so my excitement doesn’t come from warm, childhood nostalgia. Instead, it’s from a purely cinematic place. Gerwig is one of my favorite directors and I’m just so curious about what story she’s crafted with Noah Baumbach for Margot Robbie’s Barbie. Is Barbie going to struggle to pay rent like Gerwig has in so many of her acting roles? Is Barbie going to go to one of those liberal east coast cities to find herself? How will Ryan Gosling’s Ken factor into all this?? You best believe I’ll be there on opening day. –Tina Kakadelis, Staff Writer

I also wanted to come in and say Barbie. Unlike Tina, I was, in fact, a Barbie girl (living in a Barbie world). I never played with baby dolls - I thought they were boring and ugly - but Barbie was a GROWN UP and she had BOOBS! The fact that it’s about Barbie is not as important as the fact that I trust Greta Gerwig at the helm. I think it’s going to be fun, silly, and like all of Gerwig’s films, absolutely earnest. I do think Armie Hammer should’ve been Ken, though. But he messed that one up for himself. –Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer

As a Martin Scorsese completist, I'm looking forward to Killers of the Flower Moon. Plus, I'm all aboard this Brendan Fraser love train, so I'm happy to be seeing that continue, too. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro together on screen again for the first time since forever? I'm psyched. –Billy Russell, Staff Writer

It’s a bit of a basic answer for a horror fan but boy am I stoked to see the new installment of Scream. Following up from the solid success of 2022’s Scream 2022 or ‘Scream V’ for the purists amongst us, the new film (Scream VI, naturally), follows the survivors of the last massacre in Woodsboro to New York City where they’re once again pursued by the bloodthirsty Ghostface. Promising even more gore and suspenseful chase sequences, it’s the first not to have Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell, absent due to pay disputes), but is bringing not only a crop of new blood (including budding scream queen Samara Weaving) for Ghostie to slice his way through, but also Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby Reed, a beloved character from Scream 4 whose fate was left ambiguous for over a decade. Here’s hoping she makes it long enough to hear the applause from Scream fans everywhere. –Chris Haigh, Contributor

I was linked to a Criterion list of the most-anticipated films of 2023 which added quite a few films to my already-bloated Letterboxd watchlist. Top of the heap is Alice Lowe’s Timestalker; I loved her first film, 2016’s Prevenge (I even recommended it in my first ever MovieJawn feature!), and it has been way too long since then! Rose Glass’ second feature, Love Lies Bleeding, looks to be much different than 2019’s excellent Saint Maude. That was so engaging, though, that I’ll watch anything Glass directs. A few French films caught my eye as well, but none more than Bruno Dumont’s L’Empire. Dumont’s 2021 film France put him on my radar, but the premise of L’Empire just sounds bonkers: space knights arrive on Earth to fight over a newborn child that might be the antichrist? And I have to mention Mélanie Laurent’s La grande odalisque, a heist film that’s set to co-star Laurent and Isabelle Adjani. –Clayton Hayes, Staff Writer

I want to follow Clayton only because their response makes me feel like a total fraud but in a good way. Like, Clayton would need me at their party, hunched in a corner eating hot dogs John Woo double-.45 wield-style—for the sake of juxtaposition. I bought both volumes of the Shawscope Shaw Brothers film collection released by Arrow Video and I am determined to get through all of it in 2023. In the last year, I became a (step)dad for the first time to twin 6-year old girls so my time to read about anticipated releases for 2023 has been mostly taken over by reading things like Grover Sleeps Over. Here’s what I hope happens: I get to see a second season of The Bear. I hope S. Craig Zahler releases something new. IMDB tells me his next project is adapting his novel, Hug Chickenpenny and I hope to everything that that sees the light of day. Beau is Afraid from Ari Aster is definitely a must-see. Perry Mason on HBO is finally coming back for its second season and EVERYONE should either watch or re-watch the first season. It is what every bullshit superhero origin movie wishes it could be. –Nikk Nelson, Staff Writer

I’m tired of catching up with new movies so I’m more than excited to spend the next few months kind of watching whatever I want. I figured it’s about time I put a dent in my stacks of unwatched Blu Rays. That means I’ll hopefully be watching 8 Million Ways To Die, Hell In The Pacific, Charley Varrick, Eyes Of Laura Mars and the like. Not to mention Criterion editions of Mississippi Masala and Until The End Of The World. I’ve also been meaning to finally watch the extended editions of Malick’s The New World and The Tree Of Life for forever. –A. Freedman, Contributor

I’m just about as intrigued by the Barbie movie as anyone can be and looking forward to why apparently everyone’s agent thinks it’s one of the best film scripts ever written. But my 2023 movie curiosity is also extended, among other things, to Priscilla (directed by Sofia Coppola but yet to have an official release date announced). Unlike many viewers, I was not so enamored with Elvis, Baz Luhrmann’s maximalist portrayal of Elvis Presley’s life and career. I’ve listened to Presley’s music practically all my life and felt that the film did have some good scenes from talented and dedicated lead actor, Austin Butler, and the performers who represented the Black musicians who inspired Presley, but it just didn’t completely work for me. However, my renewed interest in his music in the wake of seeing that film this summer also led me to discover the bad sides of Presley’s personality that I never knew about before. I don’t doubt that Priscilla loved him, that is obvious in interviews I’ve watched, but he also was controlling of her and likely gave her insecurities she never had prior to their relationship. Luhrmann’s film gives some examples of Presley’s temper (an aspect Priscilla praises for its accuracy), but his fixation on Priscilla’s looks is portrayed in a blink-and-miss-it moment as part of a fast-paced 1960s montage. I also discovered that Priscilla wrote a memoir, Elvis & Me, which was adapted as a TV movie in the 1980s. I’m curious to see how this new adaptation will tell her side of the story. With the more celebratory nature of Elvis still fresh in people’s minds, I’m excited for Priscilla to hopefully throw a wrench in things. Elvis got me thinking about how rock musicians’ wives are often given marginal roles in the films about their husbands, with many music biopics putting the wife in a role that does little more than support the male protagonist and his development. That role has value, as all people need moral support from those they love and get their inspiration from somewhere, but I hope Priscilla gets into the uglier and messier side of things, too, to get at a flawed humanity that, despite what those behind Elvis claimed they set out to do, didn’t get brought to the fore in that satisfying a way in Luhrmann’s film. Considering Elvis Presley’s iconic status, I hope that Priscilla’s story helps us to peek further behind that veil. In an ideal world, Olivia de Jonge and Austin Butler would reprise their roles for maximum audience impact because of their familiarity, but I’m also curious to see what other actors will do with these two mythic figures and how they will, hopefully, bring them down to earth. –Katharine Mussellam, Contributor

My personal New Years’ resolution was to dig into some of the boxed sets I’ve got that I’ve maybe only watched one or two titles from, so in 2023 I’m most looking forward into exploring those. For example, I’ve had the 1st Shawscope set for a while (I see you, Nikk!) and can’t justify buying myself the 2nd until I’ve watched the first, despite how much I *know* I’m gonna love it (eventually)! A few other examples: I have some sets that Mill Creek Entertainment put out (a Crime Wave collection, a Mad Science collection, etc.) and the Female Prisoner Scorpion collection that Arrow put out. And my dear partner Allison gifted me a TCM pre-code four-title set that I’ve highly interested in. As for new releases, any Brandon Cronenberg or Ari Aster titles definitely have my attention, so Infinity Pool and Beau Is Afraid are on my radar, plus Renfield which features my boy Nicolas Cage playing a goofy Dracula! What’s not to look forward to? And, having just seen Pearl (so much more interesting than X!) I’m back into this weird, wonky Mia Goth/Ti West collab film series, so MaXXXine also has my interest.  –Doc Hunter Bush, Podcast Czar

There is so much to be excited about this year. First off Infinity Pool, Brandon Cronenberg’s (Possessor, Antiviral) new film starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård two of my favorite weirdos. Also very excited for the body horror movie Sick of Myself which made some festival rounds last year and is slated to get a release this year. If we are all very lucky we will hopefully get a new Panos Cosmatos (Mandy) as he is working on his new movie Nekrokosm. The Evil Dead Rises trailer has sunk into my subconscious to the point where I am getting nightmares which is very cool. Also some great horror that will hopefully make its way to us are the Cornish Folk horror movie Enys Men and the found footage movie The Outwaters which gained quite a lot of buzz recently. This year is already off to a great start with things like Skinamarink making a small theatrical run so I can’t wait to see what else is coming our way. –Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

I’ve decided this is the year that I am going to immerse myself in pre-code films. During the talkie era there was a desire to enforce a Motion Picture Production Code to provide censorship guidelines. Despite the creation in 1930, it was often ignored by filmmakers and led to what some saw as sensational storylines and taboo topics. By the end of 2023, I want to become a walking, talking piece of celluloid circa 1929. To help me with this escapade I am hoping to attend the Turner Classic Film Festival (TCMFF) in April. After attending last year, I found it to be an incredible event for the classic movie lover as many of the flicks presented are pictures that are not always readily available, particularly to view in a cinema. Not many flicks have been announced as of yet, but I am rather excited to see the 1931 pre-code, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Fredric March as my eyes have yet to see this gem. I also have quite the fondness for Miriam Hopkins. And since the corporate villains have taken our chances away from catching Batgirl, I am rather excited to see the 1968 colorful film, The Batwoman, featuring professional wrestlers of the time. –Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport