I know I’ve listed these films several times, and that a good portion probably won’t matter in the long run, and that some may not even open this year, but I’ve listed them anyway. Which ones would you describe as pulse-quickening and which sound meh or dismissable?
1. Damien Chazelle‘s First Man (Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Corey Stoll, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke).
2. Alfonso Cuaron‘s Roma (Marina de Tavira, Marco Graf, Yalitza Aparicio, Daniela Demesa, Enoc Leaño, Daniel Valtierra).
3. Adam McKay‘s Backseat (w/ Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell).
4. Cold War (d: Pawel Pawlikowski) (Joanna Kulig, Agata Kulesza, Borys Szyc, Tomasz Kot, Adam Ferency).
5. Bjorn Runge‘s The Wife (Glenn Close‘s Best Actress campaign + Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Annie Starke. Max Irons).
6. Bradley Cooper‘s A Star Is Born (w/ Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay and Dave Chappelle).
7. Jonah Hill‘s Mid ’90s (Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston, Lucas Hedges, Alexa Demie).
8. Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On The Basis of Sex.
9. Mary, Queen of Scots (Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, David Tennant, Jack Lowden, Guy Pearce);
10. David Lowery‘s The Old Man and the Gun (Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter, Tom Waits, Elisabeth Moss).
11. Steve McQueen‘s Widows (Viola Davis, Cynthia Erivo, Andre Holland, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Daniel Kaluuya, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell).
12. Barry Jenkins‘ If Beale Street Could Talk (Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Teyonah Parris, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Diego Luna, Dave Franco).
13. Bryan Singer‘s Bohemian Rhapsody (15-year period from the formation of Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury up to their performance at Live Aid in 1985) w/ Rami Malek, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, Lucy Boynton. (20th Century Fox, 12.25.18)
14. Luca Guadagnino‘s Suspiria (Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth).
15. Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates).
16. Spike Lee‘s Black Klansman (John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Corey Hawkins — Focus Features).
17. Robert Zemeckis‘s Welcome to Marwen (Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger, Merritt Wever, Janelle Monáe, Eiza González Gwendoline Christie / Universal, 11.21.18).
18. Asghar Farhadi‘s Todos lo saben (Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Barbara Lennie, Ricardo Darin, Inma Cuesta, Eduard Fernandez Javier Camara).
19. James Gray‘s Ad Astra (Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Jamie Kennedy).
20. Benh Zeitlin‘s Wendy (Fox Searchlight but will it even open this year?).
21. Yorgos Lanthimos‘ The Favourite (reign of Queen Anne in early 17th Century) (Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, John Tormey).
22. Jacques Audiard‘s The Sisters Brothers (Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Rutger Hauer, Riz Ahmed, John C. Reilly).
23. Felix von Groeningen‘s Beautiful Boy (Steve Carell, Timothy Chalamet).
24. Laszlo Nemes‘ Sunset (a young girl grows up to become a strong and fearless woman in Budapest before World War I) w/ Susanne Wuest, Vlad Ivanov, Björn Freiberg.
26. Terrence Malick‘s Radegund (August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Michael Nyqvist, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jürgen Prochnow, Bruno Ganz) — probably not opening this year — you know Malick.
27. David McKenzie‘s The Outlaw King (Braveheart-ish action-adventure piece about 14th Century Scottish ‘Outlaw King’ Robert The Bruce used cunning and bravery to defeat and repel the much larger and better equipped occupying English, etc.) Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Stephen Dillane;
28. Joel Edgerton‘s Boy Erased (Lucas Hedges)
29. Jason Reitman‘s The Front Runner (Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, Kaitlyn Dever, Sara Paxton, Molly Ephraim, J. K. Simmons)
31. Jennifer Kent‘s The Nightingale (Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman, Ewen Leslie).
32. Paolo Sorrentino‘s Loro.
33. Mike Leigh‘s Peterloo (David Bamber, Alastair Mackenzie, James Dangerfield, Eileen Davies, Liam Gerrard, Bronwyn James).
34. The Land Of Steady Habits (d: Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said) (Ben Mendelsohn, Edie Falco, Connie Britton, Thomas Mann, Elizabeth Marvel).
35. Gus Van Sant‘s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Jonah Hill, Jack Black, Mark Webber).
36. Marielle Heller‘s Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Jane Curtin, Jennifer Westfeldt, Dolly Wells).
37. Neil Jordan‘s The Widow (Isabelle Huppert, Chloe Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Zawe Ashton, Stephen Rea).
38. Thomas Vinterberg‘s Kursk (Matthias Schoenaerts, Colin Firth, Lea Seydoux, Max von Sydow, Michael Nyqvist, Audust Diehl, Peter Simonischek).
39. Tamara Jenkins’ Private Life (Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Molly Shannon, Kayli Carter, Denis O’Hare).
40. Untitled Noah Baumbach Project (Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Merrit Wever).
41. Lars von Trier‘s The House That Jack Built (Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Bruno Ganz).
42. Claire Denis’ High Life (Robert Pattinson, Mia Goth, Juliette Binoche).
43. The Other Side Of The Wind (d: Orson Welles / John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Oja Kodar, Susan Strasberg, Dennis Hopper, Claude Chabrol, Paul Mazursky).
44. Paul Verhoeven‘s Blessed Virgin (17th Century lesbian nun love affair) w/ Virginie Efira.
45. Rob Marshall‘s Mary Poppins Returns (Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep).
46. Woody Allen‘s A Rainy Day in New York (Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Liev Schreiber).
47. Harmony Korine‘s The Beach Bum (Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Snopp Dogg).
48. Olivier Assayas‘ E-Book aka Non-Fiction (Juliette Binoche, Guillaume Canet).
49. Lenny Abrahamson‘s The Little Stranger (Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, Charlotte Rampling, Kate Phillips).
