Most Anticipated Films of 2021 (PART II)

 

PART II (90-81)

90) Dual

Director: Riley Stearns (The Art of Self-Defense)  Cast: Karen Gillan, Aaron Paul, Beulah Koale, Jesse Eisenberg, Martha Kelly, Sanna-June Hyde, Andrei Alén, Maija Paunio, and Kris Gummerus. 

Rare is the satire with pitch-black blood in its veins, yet has enough humanity for its protagonists to not sell their ultimate fate out completely to cynicism.  However, that is exactly what Riley Stearns managed to achieve with The Art of Self-Defense, his 2019 dark comedy that took sharp stabs at today's toxic masculinity culture.  With his upcoming film Dual, the director once again finds himself working within the realm of satire, this time blending the genre with sci-fi/action elements and an ambitious concept that's vaguely reminiscent of movies such as The Island and Gemini Man.  Karen Gillan stars as a woman who commissions a clone of herself after she becomes diagnosed with a terminal illness, in hopes it may ease her passing for her friends and family (not sure that would be my first course of action, but ok.)  Complications ensue when she suddenly makes a miraculous recovery from her disease, and her attempts to decommission her clone fail and lead to a court-mandated "duel" to the death (ah, love the clever wordplay with the title.)  Witty puns aside though, this looks like it could be an insanely wild and unpredictable ride, and I'm hoping Stearns is able to strike gold with his clone-incorporated plot where other films (like the ones I mentioned) have failed.  Gillan is a very charismatic and engaging performer who has also boded well with physically demanding roles (such as Guardians of the Galaxy and the recent Jumanji flicks), so she could be the secret ingredient to helping Stearns' material kick into all the right gears. 

Release: TBA

89) The Suicide Squad

Director: James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither)  Cast: Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Peter Capaldi, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Alice Braga, Pete Davidson, David Dastmalchian, Michael Rooker, Taika Waititi, Nathan Fillion, Storm Reid, Daniela Melchior, Steve Agee, Sean Gunn, Joaquín Cosío, Juan Diego Botto, Flula Borg, Tinashe Kajese, Mayling Ng, Jennifer Holland, Mikaela Hoover, and Marisol Correa. 

Remakes and reboots can also be added to the list of movies of which we could use a lot less of, their ranking only slightly above sequels, prequels, and spinoffs.  I give them a little more credit than that tier of cinematic offerings since the results can occasionally be very fresh and exciting, sometimes even managing to be (at the very least) interesting when they're failures.  Enter The Suicide Squad, probably the highest profile reboot from Warner Bros' upcoming slate of blockbusters, who are clearly hoping to erase the memory of David Ayer's disastrously uninspired turd from 2016 with this hopefully fresher and more fun take on the material from James Gunn.  Keeping within the model of a "reboot," the new film looks as though it's keeping what worked from the first movie (Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Viola Davis' Amanda Waller), discarding what didn't (Jared Leto's Joker and Will Smith's Deadshot), and adding a few new special ingredients of its own (introducing characters played by the likes of Idris Elba, Peter Capaldi, and Sylvester Stallone.)  Indeed, the movie's electric cast of pop-culture household names- as if it was designed in a lab to appeal to every fanboy and fangirl on the planet- is part of the exciting draw to this new spin on the story.  However, the most exciting aspect is director James Gunn, who is probably going to be the bread and butter to making this second attempt work, should it work at all.  I had my fair share of criticisms for his Guardians of the Galaxy films, but I can't dispute the level of high energy he brings to productions like this, and perhaps his experience working on those two films (and hopefully learning from the missteps he made with them) tied with not having to work within the confines of Marvel's calculated formula will create an opportunity to deliver something much better with this movie.  We've seen in the past that when Gunn is given creative free reign to embrace a truly B-movie aesthetic (like he did with Slither) is when his work really comes to life the most, and if he's able to bring any of that zaniness to Suicide Squad, then he'll have struck gold where Ayer came up short; and based on what I've seen from the movie so far, it's looking like he might have done that.  After all, the new movie boasts an anthropomorphic great white shark as one of the characters, and another named "Weasel" that looks like the evil, crack-addled cousin of Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy.  How much more "zany" can you get! 

Release: August 6th.

88) Raya and the Last Dragon

Directors: Don Hall (Big Hero 6) and Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting)  Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Alan Tudyk, Gemma Chan, Sandra Oh, Daniel Dae Kim, Ross Butler, Benedict Wong, Patti Harrison, Lucille Soong, Izaac Wang, and Thalia Tran. 

The last decade of Disney films has been a considerable improvement than the decade that preceded before it, especially in terms of their full-length animated content.  With modern classics such as Tangled, Frozen, Zootopia, and Moana, the "Mouse House" delivered some of the best animation their studio had produced in years.  If they have any hopes of staying on that roll, they'll have to continue exploring vibrant and original worlds with pathos and strong, character-driven stories.  Perhaps that's why there's a lot riding on Raya and the Last Dragon, the 62nd full-length animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios and the first one of the new decade (Onward and Soul are from Pixar, and therefore technically don't count.)  Set in the fictional world of Kumandra, the story follows a lone female warrior named Raya, who must seek the help of a dragon to protect her civilization from an ancient evil.  To create the world of Kumandra, the team of animators pulled their influences from a variety of different Southeast Asian cultures, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Laos, so it's already looking like they're going to take us to someplace "vibrant and original" that we genuinely haven't seen before.  Hopefully, the storytelling proves to be just as exciting as the animation.  The script had its most recent touch-up by Crazy Rich Asians scribe, Adele Lim, and it's got two very solid and capable directors at the helm, the most exciting of which is Carlos López Estrada- taking a giant leap from live-action to animated storytelling after becoming a breakout director at Sundance in 2018 with his critically acclaimed hit, Blindspotting.

Release: March 5th.

87) In the Heights

Director: Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians)  Cast: Anthony Ramos, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco, Jimmy Smits, Noah Catala, Marc Anthony, and Lin Manuel-Miranda. 

For most people, it was the Tony award-winning Broadway production of Hamilton that was their introduction to Lin Manuel-Miranda and his electrifying talent that has captivated audiences in auditoriums and (thanks to Disney+) living rooms around the world.  But the rest of us theater geeks (such as myself) were aware of his incredible gifts long before that, going as far back as 2008 when his soulful music made it to the Broadway stage with In the Heights.  The production actually had its first premiere in 2005 at the Eugene O'Neil Theater in Waterford, Connecticut, so there are even some audiences who can claim to have known him longer.  All that aside though, his story of a young bodega owner in Washington Heights named Usnavi- torn between the home he's made for himself in New York and creating a brand new one in the Dominican Republic- and the friends and personalities of his vibrant community (some of whom are at a similar crossroads of coming into their own), is a beautiful and deeply personal story about the pursuit of the American dream and the ways in which the ideas of community and family intersect.  All eyes will be on director Jon M. Chu, who proved with Crazy Rich Asians that he's definitely capable of putting on a lavish, high-octane production, but I'm still on the fence about whether he'll be able to translate the soulful energy of Lin Manuel-Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes' story that was so perfectly captured on stage.  Thankfully, those two Broadway stars are heavily involved in the film's production, with both serving as producers and the only credits on the screenplay, so hopefully they'll have steered the adaptation on a course that resonates as faithful and equally joyous. 

Release: June 18th.

86) A Boy Called Christmas

Director: Gil Kennan (Monster House, City of Ember)  Cast: Henry Lawfull, Kristen Wiig, Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Michiel Huisman, Stephen Merchent, Sally Hawkins, Toby Jones, Rune Temte, Zoe Margaret Colletti, Sinead Phelps, Indica Watson, Philip Lenkowsky, Abiola Ogunbiyi, Saikat Ahamed, James Beaumont, and Rishi Kuppa.

Last month, I wrote an op-ed over the holidays for a friend’s newsletter, in which I chronicled the cinematic history of Christmas films and how their decline in quality over the years may be tied to the inflating commercialization of the season, as well as a formula-driven, numbers-oriented box office model.  In the article, I lament the fact that we haven't been "gifted" a true holiday classic in many years.  The 40s procured the most exquisite and genre-defining staples (such as It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th St), even the 80s managed to give us a few great- albeit more fun and pop-friendly- holiday gems (A Christmas Story, Die Hard), but what the hell did we get from the 2000s or 2010s?  The only good film that comes to mind is the foreign-language Oscar nominee, Joyeux Noël, but surely we can do better than The Grinch (both the latest versions) and The Polar Express.  Hopefully, that's where director Gil Kennan comes in, whose upcoming adaptation of Matt Haig's acclaimed children's book offers a new take on the origins of St. Nick.  The visionary filmmaker behind Monster House and City of Ember hasn't directed a movie in over a decade, but if there was anything plainly evident from those two films, it's that Kennan knows how to craft quality family entertainment that transcends viewers of all ages on a level that is both wonderous and magical.  The prospect of him injecting those qualities into a genre that is sorely in need of them is nothing if not hugely exciting, and I'm really hoping he's able to fill a niche that's been empty for far too long. 

Release: Will be released through Netflix sometime in November. 

85) The Reckoning

Director: Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers)  Cast: Charlotte Kirk, Sean Pertwee, Steven Waddington, Joe Anderson, Rick Warden, Mark Ryan, Bill Fellows, Suzanne Magowan, Leon Ockenden, Sarah Lambie, Emma Campbell-Jones, Ian Whyte, Jordan Long, Indianna Ryan, Oliver Trevena, and Maximilian Slash Marton.

After slumming it in the superhero genre with his dull and laughably disappointing Hellboy remake, Neil Marshall seems to be taking a break from studio blockbuster fare and going back to his gritty, gore-splattered horror roots.  This is of course a very good thing, since the director does exceedingly well in the latter, and he can stay there for as long as he likes as far as I'm concerned.  He's got a couple upcoming projects (one that's still technically in development), but the first one we can expect to see is The Reckoning- a period horror about witch hunts set against England's Great Plague, which basically sounds like the director's answer to Robert Egger's The Witch.  Obviously, I don't expect Marshall's film to be of the same caliber as Egger's moody, gothic masterpiece, but I do imagine it will be a thrilling and deliriously entertaining decent into hell.  When it's this director behind the camera, what more could you ask for?

Release: February 5th. 

84) Deep Water

Director: Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Unfaithful)  Cast: Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Tracy Letts, Rachel Blanchard, Lil Rel Howery, Finn Wittrock, Jacob Elordi, Kristen Connolly, Dash Mihok, Jade Fernandez, Michael Braun, and Michael Scialabba. 

After an almost twenty-year hiatus, Adrian Lyne- the veteran director behind erotic dramas and thrillers such as Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful-  is back behind the camera again.  Of course, it wouldn't be a proper comeback if Lyne wasn't returning to what he does best.  Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water finds the director once again tackling an erotic psychodrama-thriller, which follows a well-to-do husband (Ben Affleck) who allows his wife (Ana de Armas) to have extramarital affairs if he can avoid a divorce.  But when her lovers begin to disappear and turn up dead, authorities suspect the couple may be hiding a deeply sinister secret, and its only a matter of time before their deadly mind games with each other causes one of them to crack.  Both leads (Affleck and de Armas) are perfectly cast here, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the sparks that bounce off between their performances. 

Release: Originally set for August 13th, the movie was recently bumped to January 14, 2022.

83) West Side Story

Director: Steven Spielberg  Cast: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Corey Stoll, Brian d'Arcy James, Rita Moreno, Curtiss Cook, Kevin Csolak, Ezra Menas, Ben Cook, Sean Harrison Jones, Patrick Higgins, Paloma Garcia-Lee, Maddie Ziegler, Josh Andrés Rivera, Ana Isabelle, Julius Anthony Rubio, Ricardo Zayas, Sebastian Serra, and Carlos Sánchez Falú.

I'm not sure the world was exactly clamoring for a remake of a film that is considered by many to be a masterpiece (and yes, I am aware that the 1961 version has a few problems that are not compatible with today's "PC" standards.)  That being said, Spielberg has had the itch to direct a full-blown musical for years (something that many auteurs and high-profile directors dream of doing at least once in their career), and given his open love and admiration for Leonard Bernstein, I suppose it only makes perfect sense that he would choose the late composer's Tony award-winning musical as the vehicle to do that.  Spielberg's version will reportedly adhere closer to the original stage version than even the 1961 film, a decision that will no doubt please theater purists, and he's even managed to snag acting legend Rita Moreno (who famously starred as Anita in both the film and stage version) for a supporting role.  The film has a very Oscar-friendly release date set for the first half of December, so it's clear that Disney (who acquired the film after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox) has high hopes for its potential with audiences and voters.  Aside from The Post though in 2017, I've found it difficult to connect with Spielberg's more current body of work over the last 10 years, which remains brilliant on a technical level, but lacking the depth and soul of his earlier, career-defining films.  However, I'm hoping that his love for the material and desire to deliver a show-stopping musical ultimately shine through and prove me wrong.  If it does, this could end up being truly sensational.

Release: December 10th.

82) Don't Look Up

Director: Adam McKay (The Big Short, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy)  Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Evans, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Melanie Lynskey, Ron Perlman, Matthew Perry, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Ariana Grande, Himesh Patel, Michael Chiklis, Kid Cudi, Gina Gershon, Rob Morgan, and Tomer Sisley.

This might be a controversial statement for some, but I don't think director Adam McKay has quite found his creative groove yet as a filmmaker and storyteller.  His earlier films (such as Anchorman and Talladega Nights) would always gravitate between being witty and gut-bustingly funny, and then ridiculously stupid and immature the next (sometimes occupying both states at the same time.)  They're like extended SNL skits that straddle the line of completely wearing out their welcome by the movie's end.  The director's last two films (The Big Short, Vice) showcased sharper, more observant comedy with a more dramatic and serious tone, but were never emotionally engaging or compelling enough, and their distrust in the audience's intelligence made them borderline condescending as well.  This of course makes sense- McKay spent most of his career dumbing down his audience, so why should he expect them to be smarter all of the sudden.  All that being said, I'm actually excited to see his upcoming film, Don't Look Up- a cataclysmic disaster comedy and satire that boasts what may be the starriest cast of the year.  The plot follows a pair of low-level astronomers who embark on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an impending comet headed for Earth.  Hysteria ensues, conspiracy theories are contrived and circulated, the media is distrusted, science is debatable for all, and if any of this all sounds familiar, that's because that is exactly Adam McKay's point.  Do bear in mind that McKay developed the story for Don't Look Up long before the COVID-19 pandemic, so even he could never have anticipated just how timely and close to reality his new film could be.  But in the wake of 2020, I'm not sure it could be more apropos for the current moment.  Meryl Streep (who stars in the movie) recently compared the movie to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove in how it uses comedy and satire to address and explore the crises and paranoias of their contemporary time.  And although I find all this extremely intriguing, my excitement for McKay's project mostly has to do with the fact that it isn't inspired by true events or real-life public figures like his last two films.  Telling a fictional story that's free of the pressure to translate complex economic and political issues might actually allow McKay's material to finally breathe so we can connect better with the story and characters.  If Don't Look Up manages to pull that off, it will be a winner.

Release: TBA

81) Stillwater

Director: Tom McCarthy (Spotlight, The Station Agent)  Cast: Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin, and Deanna Dunagan.

Whether he's directing a comedy, a drama, or both, Tom McCarthy always crafts his films with compassion, grace, and a sensitive hand.  I think we could all do with a lot more of that right now.  Like his previous feature Spotlight, his next film also looks like it will be another heartbreaking, thematically heavy drama, which follows a father's struggle to exonerate his daughter after she's arrested for murder.  McCarthy's experience engaging with themes about tragedy and paternal bonds in his previous work should provide him a deft hand when navigating this material, and Matt Damon certainly has the reliable acting chops to help give the drama a beating heart.  The big question mark here is actually Abigail Breslin, who just hasn't quite come into her own yet as an adult performer.  As a child actress, she charmed the house down as Olive in Little Miss Sunshine, a role which earned her an Oscar nomination.  However, since transitioning from childhood, she's been unable to find the right role that would solidify her as a serious talent to continue watching.  McCarthy is known to bring out the best work in his cast, so perhaps playing Matt Damon's accused daughter may be the big break she's been finally waiting for.

Release: July 30th.

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