Michael Phillips | Chicago Tribune

Coming off our rainy, unfrozen holiday season, what do we want from our midwinter movies? Anything with snowstorms? (Yes!) Big blasts of sequel escapism? (Well, maybe.) The new film from the fiendish auteur behind “Parasite”? The fourth entry in the “Spider-Man” cinematic universe?

Any reliable predictions of quality regarding the next three months of moviegoing are such stuff as dreams, and nervous, well-compensated industry executives, are made on. My role in this annual list of 10 is simplicity itself. Based on a time-tested combination of hope, guesswork and trailers, it’s time to roll the dice and hope for a few surprises — if not in originality, then in execution, and in the spirit of teaching old brand names a few new tricks.

Release dates are subject to change.

“Mean Girls” (Jan. 12): The 2004 film, written by Tina Fey, was inspired in part by the nonfiction book “Queen Bees and Wannabes.” Fey’s script handled the bullying, cliques, insecurity and vicious high school dynamics with a popular blend of humor and pathos. Then came the 2018 Broadway musical version. And now, again with Fey a creative and on-screen force, the musical version of “Mean Girls” comes to the movies, directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.

“Lift” (Jan. 12): This Netflix-only premiere’s mission: Steal half-a-bil in gold, midflight, at 40,000 feet. Kevin Hart leads a team featuring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and, as the resident master of disguise, Vincent D’Onofrio. With that actor and that shtick, suddenly “Lift” becomes a must-see. Heist time!

“The Zone of Interest” (Jan. 12): A Tribune top film for 2023, this is a Holocaust movie unlike any other, focusing with clinical calm and horrifying irony on the lives, routines and unearthly moral blindness of Auschwitz camp commander Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife, Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, of “Anatomy of a Fall”). After limited runs in 2023, the film is getting around more widely. Directed and written by Jonathan Glazer, who optioned Martin Amis’ heavily plotted romantic triangle of a novel and then, wisely, tossed it out.

“The Teachers’ Lounge” (Jan. 19): Sony Pictures Classics distributes this acclaimed German drama, about a sixth-grade instructor’s painful education in racial animus, parental interference, surveillance culture and the fault lines of society at large. Think of it as an antidote to all the inspirational, tough-love heartwarmers in the world.

“Madame Web” (Feb. 14): A spinoff (web joke, inevitable) of the “Spider-Man” trilogy under the Sony banner, this one’s cowritten and directed by S.J. Clarkson and stars Dakota Johnson as Cassie Webb, New York City paramedic whose psychic abilities reveal future events in the Spider-verse that must be stopped. Or else there’s no hope for a sequel! Sydney Sweeney and Celeste O’Connor co-star as contrasting studies in Spider-Women.

“Bob Marley: One Love” (Feb. 14): A biographical portrait of the reggae legend and Rastafarian royalty, with Kingsley Ben-Adir playing Marley. Lashana Lynch portrays Rita Marley; the director is Reinaldo Marcus Green, who gave us the Will Smith vehicle “King Richard.”

“Dune: Part Two” (March 1): A 2023 postponement — blame it on the actors’ strike; the studios certainly did — arrives to continue the heavy-duty space epic directed by Denis Villeneuve, whose first “Dune” invested Frank Herbert’s words (and words, and words) with some truly spellbinding imagery. Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides, spice hunter.

“The American Society of Magical Negroes” (March 22): The hugely controversial and potentially backfiring trailer came out for the satirical comedy, and the heat was from both touchy, defensive white folks and from potential Black audiences. Premise: Aren (Justice Smith) is recruited into a “magical Negro” society, whose mission is to smooth and improve the lives of white people. Hollywood has recycled that trope for a century; it’s time to mess with it a little bit. Isn’t it?

“Mickey 17″ (March 29): South Korean master Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” made Oscars history just before the pandemic; now, the writer-director turns his eye to an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s science fiction novel, about an interstellar expedition to colonize an ice world. Expect clones, and Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo.

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (March 29): One of these “Ghostbusters” re-dos, they’re gonna get an enormous hit out of it, by gum! This one picks up where the 2021 “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” left off, with Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd and McKenna Grace (oh, and Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd) threatened with a second ice age, which is the last thing Manhattan needs besides another street performer on Times Square.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

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