Most Anticipated Movies of 2022

 Most Anticipated Movies of 2022

(A Compilation of 50 Upcoming Films By Chris Bush)

Part III

20. May December

Director: Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven )  Cast: Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.

Of all the films I will include in this list, this one is probably the biggest stretch in terms of whether or not it actually comes out this year.  Cameras have not even begun rolling yet, and it's still unclear when exactly production is scheduled to begin (although I have heard sometime during the first quarter of the year from a few different sources.)  That being said though, I felt I had to include it because the odds of Haynes completing production before the end of the year are still not beyond the realm of possibility (at least not yet anyway), and this could totally be one of those dark horse films that pops up during the midst of awards season to upset a few hopeful nominees (think Spielberg's The Post, which filmed during the summer of 2017, only to wrap post-production in time for a fall bow that qualified it for awards consideration.)  My point is: it can totally happen.  And Haynes upcoming project is totally worth getting excited about too.  The director has always had a flair for telling very female-centric stories with characters and themes that are both fascinating and complex, and May December seems to be very much in that vein.  Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman will act opposite each other in this fictional drama that takes the term "character study" to a whole new, introspective level.  Moore is set to play Gracie Atherton-Yu, a woman who had been the subject of a notorious tabloid romance 20 years ago to a man 23 years her junior, and is now bracing for the next chapter of her life alongside her husband, Joe, as their twins graduate high school and leave home.  But when a Hollywood actress named Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) comes to spend time with the family to better understand Gracie, who she will be playing in an upcoming film, the dynamics of Gracie's family begin to unravel under the pressure of the outside gaze that has suddenly infiltrated their home.  Joe, having never processed what happened during his youth, starts to confront the reality of life as an empty-nester at 36 (daaaaamn, I...I did the math.)  And as Elizabeth and Gracie study each other, the similarities and differences between the two women begin to ebb and flow, carefully unfolding in a psychologically taut story that explores themes of truth, storytelling, and the difficulties (or impossibility) of fully understanding another person.  Haynes spoke of the script for the film, which is written by Samy Burch and based on a story by Burch and Alex Mechanik, calling it "exceptional," and based on the synopsis alone, it's easy for me to see why.  It sounds absolutely intriguing and very thought-provoking in how it challenges ideas about portraying real-life figures and who should get to tell another person's story; a topic that's been discussed a lot lately, and feels especially timely even at this moment with Pamela Anderson taking to the press to denounce the most recent Hulu series that's based on her sex tape scandal with Tommy Lee.  Hopefully, Haynes gets those cameras rolling soon, because I would love to see this come out before the end of the year.

RELEASE: Depending on how soon it's finished, I could definitely see this premiering at the New York Film Festival in October or AFI Film Festival in November.

19. Armageddon Time

Director: James Gray (Ad Astra, The immigrant )  Cast: Michael Banks Repeta, Anne hathaway, Anthony Hopkins, Jaylin Webb, Jeremy Strong, Ryan sell, Domenick Lombardozzi, Tovah Feldshuh, Teddy Coluca, Dane West, Griffin Wallace Henkel, Jacob Mackinnon, Landon James Forlenza, Eva Jette Putrello, and Andrew Polk.

James Gray isn't just one of the best directors working today, but also one of my personal favorites.  His films deliver BIG drama on a grand sale that never allows the magnificent production values of the movie to overshadow the emotional resonance of his stories and characters, but rather enhance them, and his understanding and love for the language of cinema is ingrained into every frame.  For his next feature, the director is scaling things back a bit from the epic-ness of his last two films (Ad Astra and The Lost City of Z) to deliver something more intimate and personal.  Following the success of Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza and joining Steven Spielberg's upcoming The Fabelmans, Gray will add yet another film to the most recent stream of semi-autobiographical works from today's current auteurs.  Set in Queens against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan's presidential election in 1980, the story is a coming-of-age tale loosely based on the director's childhood memories and tied together by the fabric of the relationships that cultivated his growth and understanding of the world, exploring themes of friendship, family, and loyalty and how they're both affected by issues of race and class.  It's very exciting to see filmmakers share such personal stories from their life through the medium of their craft, and I'm immensely intrigued to see something like this come from Gray, but I'm even more excited by the fact that he's attempting to share this kind of a story in way that also addresses complex topics and issues that we're still navigating as a society today.  Because when you expose a more intimate and vulnerable side of yourself to the audience, you have the ability to make them fall in love with you.  But if can you do that while also having something profound to say about the world, then you have the ability to change hearts and minds as well, and that's powerful.  If Gray manages to pull this off, it's going to be something very special.

RELEASE: Premieres in the Official Competition at Cannes.  A theatrical release is still to be announced. 

18. Babylon

Director: Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash )  Cast: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Tobey Maguire, Li Jun Li, Jovan Adepo, Diego Calva, Katherine Waterston, Max Minghella, Flea, Samara Weaving, Lukas Haas, Rory Scovel, Eric Roberts, P.J. Byrne, Damon Gupton, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, Phoebe Tonkin, Jean Smart, Chloe Fineman, Jeff Garlin, Troy Metcalf, Olivia Hamilton, and Sean O'Bryan.

We all love a good Hollywood showbiz epic, and in the last 10 years we've had quite a few of them,  such as the Coen Bros.' Hail, Caesar! and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  Now Damien Chazelle will be taking a crack at it with his upcoming period drama, Babylon, which will supposedly be set during the pre-Code era of Hollywood, when the motion picture industry began moving over from silent films to talkies.  In case you missed La La Land (which you probably didn't), it's clear Chazelle has a deep love for Tinseltown and all the culture and history that's tied into it, so his decision to make a movie of this sort isn't so much surprising as it was inevitable.  That being said, Chazelle has proven to be such a virtuoso genre chameleon- going from directing a drama with psychological-thriller undertones (Whiplash) to a modern-day musical-romance (La La Land), and then finally a meta historical drama about the Apollo 11 moon landing (First Man) *all within the span of four years no less*- that his involvement in this is nothing short of exciting.  Based on what little we know as far as plot details, I'm definitely getting the sense that Babylon will be some kind of cross between Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but something still wholly unique and separate from those two films as only Damien Chazelle could envision.  And speaking of Tarantino's 2019 film, Babylon will also be a reunion of sorts for two of that film's leading stars, with Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie sharing the screen for the second time in yet another star-studded Hollywood epic!  What are the odds.

RELEASE: December 25th.

17. Nope

Director: Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us )  Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Barbie Ferreira, and Terry Notary.

Jordan Peele is one busy man!  Ever since Get Out gobsmacked audiences with its terrifying and enthralling allegory of race in America, becoming one of the most brilliant and financially successful debuts to ever hit screens, the director's status as a filmmaker has only propelled into the stratosphere.  Between his films and all the work he's done on hit television series (like Lovecraft Country and The Twilight Zone), the young auteur has had his hands in just about everything, with one exciting project after the other.  A huge part of that excitement comes from the fact that there's really no other voice in Hollywood quite like Peele's (his aesthetic is so uniquely his and feels fresh next to today's oversaturated blockbusters), and everything he's accomplished in the last five years seems to put him one step closer to delivering his inevitable masterpiece.  His upcoming film, Nope, is already building on the momentum of his respected brand, after unveiling a fantastic trailer at the Superbowl that's had viewers avidly anticipating whatever gonzo, cinematic treat he's got in store for them this summer.  While the trailer was smart about keeping most of the plot details tight, the footage does seem to tease that Peele will be giving audiences his take on the alien-invasion genre with a dose of spaghetti western folded in (it gave me very El Dorado meets Signs vibes), furthering his trend and affinity for stories within the sci-fi/horror realm.  The alien-invasion movie has been done more times than anyone can count, but if there's anybody who could give it bold, new dimensions, than Peele would be the guy.  Call it Close Encounters of the Terrifying Kind. 

RELEASE: July 22nd.

16. The Wonder

Director: Sebastián Lelio (Gloria, A Fantastic Woman )  Cast: Florence Pugh, Kila Lord Cassidy, Niamh Algar, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Burke, Toby Jones, David Wilmot, Elaine Cassidy, Josie Walker, Brian F. O'Byrne, Dermot Crowley, and Caolan Byrne. 

Since her star-making performance in Lady Macbeth, Florence Pugh has demonstrated (in only a few years) a knack for picking exciting projects helmed by some of the boldest voices currently working in cinema, and her upcoming film, The Wonder, is no exception. Set in the Irish Midlands in 1862, the story centers around a young girl named Anna O'Donnell who stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well.  English nurse Lib Wright (Pugh) is soon after brought into the village to observe the 11-year old Anna, as tourists and pilgrims mass to witness the girl who is said to have survived without food for months.  But Lib's involvement as a medical consultant quickly evolves into an internal battle of faith as she struggles to decide whether the village is harboring a saint surviving on manna from heaven, or if there may be more ominous motives at work.  Based on the novel by award-winning author, playwright, and screenwriter, Emma Donoghue, adapting one of her own books to the screen for the second time now following 2015's Room (which garnered her an Oscar nomination), The Wonder is a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.  Chilean auteur Sebastián Lelio is a fantastic choice to helm this novel's translation to the screen, having experience directing female-led stories with richly layered characters (Gloria, A Fantastic Woman) and intense dramas of inner turmoil and faith in crisis (Disobedience.)  The pairing of him with Pugh sounds like a match made in heaven, and the story honestly has one of the most original concepts I've heard in a long time!  Very excited for this!

RELEASE:  TBA.  Venice, Telluride, and Toronto are all viable bets.

15. The Northman

Director: Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse )  Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk, Willem Dafoe, Kate Dickie, Gustav Lindh, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Murray McArthur, Ian Whyte, Katie Pattinson, Ian Gerard Whyte, hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, Olwen Fouéré, and Ralph Ineson.

After the soul-shaking debut of The Witch followed by the deliciously bonkers insanity of The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers has solidified his place as one of today's most exciting and visionary new auteurs.  Just ask Nicole Kidman, who stars in the director's upcoming Viking revenge-drama, The Northman, who referred to Eggers as "a great filmmaker" and "part of the new guard" that's "coming in and taking over."  "Taking over" is certainly an apropos way of describing Eggers' ascent in the movie-making industry, who went from working on the modest budgets of his first two films (The Witch for $4 million, and The Lighthouse for $11 million) to making leaps and bounds ahead of other newer directors when he was granted $90 million to make The Northman.  It's even more impressive when you consider how studios hardly take such a gamble of that size on a director who only burst onto the scene barely six years ago and has only made R-rated adult-driven entertainment, let alone on an original story that wasn't some Marvel sequel or spinoff, which makes the very existence of The Northman nothing short of some kind of miracle.  Set in an unspecified time long ago that has echoes of Conan the Barbarian and Game of Thrones, the story follows a Viking prince (Alexander Skarsgård) and how far he'll go to avenge his father's murder.  Obviously, a lot will be riding on Eggers's mythic epic to deliver the goods when it opens this month, but fans of the director needn't worry, especially after the sheer spectacle and gonzo energy that was seen in its mind-blowing trailer.  On top of that, the endorsements of the A-list cast have been nothing if not exciting, with Kidman calling the film "weird, wild, and crazy" and Anya Taylor-Joy (who first collaborated with Eggers on The Witch) describing it as "something the world genuinely hasn't seen before."  Perhaps it's just the atmospheric chill that presides throughout Eggers' work, but I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about all this.

RELEASE: April 22nd.

14. Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths)

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Amores Perros )  Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Omar Leyva, Andrés Almeida, Ximena Lamadrid, Grantham Coleman, Edison Ruíz, Mar Carrera, Daniel Damuzi, and Hugo Albores.

A.G. Iñárritu has been very quiet these past six years, keeping a low profile and basking in the light of his two back-to-back Oscar wins (for The Revenant in 2016, and Birdman in 2015) while contemplating his next project.  Last year, that project went into production in Mexico (making it the director's first project in 20 years that's rooted in his ancestral homeland and spoken almost exclusively in Spanish) and wrapped after nearly six months of filming, and while the exact plot details are a bit vague, the facts we do know sound really fascinating and ambitious.  Pulling from the arsenal of bleak, satirical comedy skills he developed with Birdman, Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths) is a scathing and introspective comedy that explores the political and social modernity of Mexico, following a journalist and documentary filmmaker (the criminally underused Daniel Giménez Cacho) who returns to his native country only to be confronted by internalized struggles regarding his identity, familial relationships, the folly of his memories, and the contrast of the past vs the new reality of his country.  Iñáritu is an incredibly gifted filmmaker and storyteller, and I'm so excited for this movie, which sounds quite possibly like his most personal film to date.

RELEASE: TBA.  But a Venice premiere seems almost inevitable.

13. men

Director: Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina )  Cast: Jessie Buckley, Rory kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, and Gayle Rankin. 

I've been a fan of Alex Garland's work for a very long time, since before he was even directing his own scripts and was just one of the most in-demand screenwriters in the industry.  That finally changed when he made the jump to full-fledged auteur after directing Ex Machina, and it was the smartest move he could've made because it revealed a whole new range of dimensions and talents that we didn't even know he had, proving he was just as much a visionary filmmaker as he is an exciting and intellectual storyteller.  But it was Annihilation that, for me personally, cemented him as one of my new favorite directors to watch (it's possibly one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time.)  Men marks the third feature to be written and directed by Garland (not including his cerebral, mind-bending miniseries, Devs), and stars the fantastic Jessie Buckley (who has really taken off in the last couple years and continues to make smart choices with the films she signs onto) as a woman who goes on a solo vacation into the countryside following the untimely death of her husband, only to be haunted by demons (as well as multiple versions of Rory Kinnear) that refuse to let go of the past.  The film seems to be Garland's first foray into full-blown psychological horror (if you're not counting Annihilation, which definitely leaned hard into its horror elements despite its sci-fi trappings) and seems to have some echoes of religious allegory as well (thanks to a "forbidden fruit" reference revealed in the trailer) that's giving me a feeling of Darren Aronofsky's mother! meets Polanski's Repulsion.  Cinematographer Rob Hardy took to Instagram to announce when filming had wrapped last year, calling the project "truly extraordinary" and "reassuringly weird."  There's always more to Garland's films than initially meets the eye, something that can also be said about A24's horror filmography, so I'm sure the nightmarish trailer is only barely scratching the surface for what he has in store for us this summer.

RELEASE: May 20th.

12. Decision to Leave

Director: Park chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden )  Cast: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Lee Jung-Hyun, Go Kyung-Pyo, and Park Yong-woo.

Korean cinema has- for a long period of time now- been putting out some of the best films you can find, and after Parasite's historic Best Picture win at the Oscars, it's evident that it's only growing more popular with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  Park Chan-wook has probably been one of the most major influences of catapulting Korean films into the mainstream, with his 2003 neo-noir thriller, Oldboy, becoming one of the most highly acclaimed films to ever debut out of the country (winning the Grand Prix award following it's Cannes premiere.)  After dipping his toes in the American television scene with his romantic mystery-thriller miniseries, The Little Drummer Girl, Park's next project takes him back to his Korean roots with a new neo-noir romantic thriller that finds the director operating within the comforts of his wheelhouse.  The story follows a detective (Memories of Murder's Park Hae-il) who falls for a prime murder suspect (Lust, Caution actress, Tang Wei) during an investigation of her missing husband.  The similarities to Chinatown are glaringly obvious, but Park is an amazing director who loves to pull the rug out from under his audience, so don't expect a lazy remake here.  He's waaayyy too good for that.

RELEASE: TBA.  But it's been tipped for a Cannes premiere.

11. Poor Things

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster )  Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Suzy Bemba, and Margaret Qualley.

Yorgos Lanthimos' penchant for pitch-black satire is equally matched by his superb filmmaking abilities and wrangling masterful performances from his talented cast.  But most of all, everything he's made so far feels exceptionally unique.  Each film he makes carries his individualistic stamp and fingerprints, while still feel wholly different from the last.  It's evidence that he's not afraid to experiment with genre while making the movie entirely and unabashedly his own.  If that's not the hallmark of an exciting filmmaker, then I don't know what is.  His next project sounds like his most ambitious film yet (which is saying something since he's already made a film about a dystopia where people are turned into animals if they fail to fall in love, and a horror film inspired Euripides' Greek tragedy, Iphigenia at Aulis), which offers up a Victorian sci-fi romance rooted in the influences of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  Based on the novel by Scottish writer and artist, Alasdair Gray, the story is a remarkable tale of love, discovery, and scientific daring, exploring the life of a woman named Belle Baxter (Emma Stone, reuniting with Lanthimos for the second time after The Favourite) after she's brought back to life by an eccentric scientist (the always dependable, Willem Dafoe.)  The award-winning book garnered widespread critical acclaim, receiving praise for it's "brisk, funny, and brainy" writing, as well as how Gray brilliantly articulated his concerns with social inequalities, relationships, memory, and identity (themes that were often touched upon or explored in his earlier work.)  Mary Shelley's centuries-old tale has been the influence and backdrop of many films, however, Yorgis Lanthimos is something of a mad scientist himself too, and armed with Gray's fantastic novel, he just may be able to provide the spark of life that makes the familiar feel new again.

RELEASE:  TBA, but all my bets are on a Venice premiere. 

10. Women Talking

Director: Sarah Polley (Stories We tell, Away From Her )  Cast: Frances mcDormand, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, and Michelle McLeod.

Welcome back, Sarah Polley!  It's been a long time (10 years to be exact) since her last feature-length film, the exquisitely brilliant  Stories We Tell, and boy have we missed her.  Of course, Polley couldn't just come back to the film scene after a decade-long hiatus to tackle just any old project.  Naturally, it would have to be for something meaty and ambitious, a thorny subject that requires a storyteller with remarkable empathy and sensitivity while still navigating the material in a thoughtful and challenging way.  Perhaps that's why Women Talking- Miriam Toews' harrowing, gut-punch of a novel- is the kind of page-to-screen adaptation that only a filmmaker like Polley could effectively translate, which is precisely why she had to be the one to do it.  The acclaimed best-selling book (which was the shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Awards in 2018) takes place in a religious Mennonite colony in Bolivia, and traces the course of two days when eight of the colony's women gather in secret one night to discuss a string of sexual assaults that have been committed by the men in their settlement.  As they contemplate their options, they engage in a series of fierce, philosophical debates concerning how they will heal, protect their children, educate their sons, and how and if they can reconcile their faith, even as it instructs them to forgive their abusers.  I have not read the book this is based on, but it sounds like an absolutely brutal and devastating watch, and if Polley is able to pull it off I can foresee it being one of the most vital and urgent works from a filmmaker to come out this decade (maybe even ever.)  Stacked with one of the most impressive casts this year, I have a feeling this is going to be a major player come awards season.

RELEASE: TBA.  Bets are on Venice.

9. The Zone of Interest

Director: Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin, Birth )  Cast: Unknown.

Perhaps the most mysterious project on this list (maybe even the most avant-garde) is the long-delayed film from brilliant auteur, Jonathan Glazer.  The Under the Skin director is known for an aesthetic that exemplifies the very definition of "art house," and his style is much closer to Kubrick than most of the directors today who constantly get the comparison (such as Nolan or Villeneuve), but with a much more acute focus on humanity and empathy that the late director lacked.  It's easy to see why Martin Amis' novel, The Zone of Interest, would appeal to someone like Glazer.  The book falls into that category of "impossible-to-adapt" source material, as the story navigates a love triangle set inside a Holocaust concentration camp, and because so much of what's going on in the book (especially the more profound moments) is articulated through the character's thoughts and perspectives.  On top of that, Glazer has stated (rather ironically) that his script is an even looser adaptation of the novel, with an even greater emphasis on its more metaphorical and cerebral elements.  Under the Skin is without a doubt one of my 10 favorite films of the 2010s decade, and this sounds like another daring and ambitious offering from Glazer, one that I probably would have placed much higher on this list if I knew more about who had been secretly cast in the film, and if it's likelihood of a release this year was almost all but assured.  On a more reassuring note, however, the film did go into production sometime last August and then wrapped filming in the early fall, and A24 (who is backing the project) has had it mentioned a few times in the press regarding their upcoming slate of films, so fingers crossed!

RELEASE: TBA.  Glazer is a regular at Venice, so if it comes out this year, I imagine it will premiere there.  

8. Crimes of the Future

Director: David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome )  Cast: Viggo Mortensen, LéA Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, don McKellar, Lihi Kornowski, Tanaya Beatty, Yorgos karamihos, Yorgos Pirpassopoulos, Nadia Litz, and Ephie Kantza. 

·It's David Cronenberg doing sci-fi/horror·  That's pretty much all that needs to be said when giving reasons to be excited for the upcoming Cannes-bound, Crimes of the Future.  Sci-fi and horror have long been a playground for directors to stretch their creative muscles while pushing the boundaries of cinema's effect on the senses, even as they tamper it with intellectual and artistic integrity.  And few directors have been as influential within those genres (or rather, that hybrid of genres) as David Cronenberg.  After pretty much being declared "retired" during a seven-year stretch of no activity, there are not enough words to convey how excited I am for a new film from this director, let alone the first sci-fi/horror feature from one of the masters of the genre in over 20 years!  Indeed, Cronenberg's fingerprints can be found within so many of today's genre-heavy offerings, and his influences have become so intrinsic to the styles of new-wave filmmakers who wear them like a badge of honor, that the very notion of him returning to those roots was sure to guarantee him a spot on this list.  Between a recently unveiled trailer (a shocking and eye-popping 74 seconds of enough queasy and nauseous horror to haunt your thoughts in the following weeks leading up to the film's Cannes premiere) and some buzzy early press screenings that have pretty much tipped this as one of the most provocative films to ever come from the director (and possibly ever screen at the festival), Crimes of the Future has cemented its place as one of the films that will be on every cinephile's radar this year.  The story takes a deep dive into a not-too-distant future that has echoes of H.R. Giger and Philip K. Dick, in which humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings.  This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup.  There's not much I have to say to this, other than to quote the words of Max Renn in Cronenberg's classic, Videodrome: "Long live the new flesh."

RELEASE: Premieres in the Official Competition at Cannes, and although it remains to be confirmed, I've heard it's slated for a US release on June 3rd.

7. The Way of the Wind

Director: Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life, Days of Heaven )  Cast: Géza Röhrig, Mark Rylance, Matthias Schoenaerts, Philip Arditti, Nabil Elouahabi, Aidan Turner, Con o'Neill, Joseph Mawle, Karel Roden, Martin McCann, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Laëtitia Eïdo, Ali Suliman, Shadi Mar'i, Selim Bayraktar, Ori Pfeffer, Selva Rasalingam, Tawfeek Barhom, Makram Khoury, Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes, Douglas Booth, Sarah Greene, Mathieu Kassovitz, Numan Acar, and Björn Thors.

To watch Terrence Malick's films is to experience something spiritual, like walking into in a thousand-year-old church as the stained glass windows catch the light of the sun, or to stand in the middle of a majestic national park with only the sounds of nature traveling melodically through the air.  There's just something so texturally rich about his work that reaches something soulful, ethereal, and deeply profound.  So I suppose it was only a matter of a time before he made a sweeping epic of Biblical proportions centered around the most popular religious figure of all time.  The Way of the Wind, which will mark the director's eleventh full-length feature in a career spanning 50 years, is a historical drama that retells several episodes in the life of the Christ, with a prestigious cast that includes the likes of Ben Kinglsey, Mark Rylance, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Son of Saul's Géza Röhrig as none other than Jesus of Nazareth.  Malick is very reclusive about his work, so there's still so much about his upcoming film that remains a mystery.  Not even Mark Rylance- who plays multiple versions of Satan in the movie (something he's spoken with the press about several times)- hasn't divulged very much about the project.  But this is Malick we're talking about.  And he's making a Biblical drama about Jesus in true Malick-ian fashion that is sure to be epic in the grand and lyrical way that his movies almost always are.  Frankly, that's all I need to know.

RELEASE: TBA.  Malick takes so long in the editing process, it may not even come out this year.  But filming wrapped sometime during the fourth quarter of 2019, so there's a very good chance it could be finished this year.  Cannes looks to be off the table at this point (unless the movie becomes a last minute addition), but Venice is still a strong possibility.

6. Killers of the Flower Moon

Director: Martin Scorsese (Silence, The Irishman )  Cast: Jesse Plemons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De niro, Lily Gladstone, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, janae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, Scott Shepherd, Gary Basaraba, Jack White, Steve Eastin, Barry Corbin, Yancey Red Corn, Larry Sellers, Brendan Fraser, and John Lithgow.

Scorsese is a movie-making legend.  Anything he does is always going to have my immediate attention, and I think those feelings echo the sentiments of just about every other cinephile I know.  At 79, Scorsese is still continuing to demonstrate his growth and maturity as a storyteller, and the very fact that his last two features, Silence and The Irishman, are two of the best films he's ever made in his career, is a true testament to the validity of that case.  In their own tonal and metaphysical way, both films are so different than anything he's done before (which is saying something, since The Irishman is literally a mob movie starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci), and they've really set a whole new standard of what to expect from this masterful filmmaker.  That's a huge reason why I'm so excited for his upcoming adaptation of David Grann's bestseller, Killers of the Flower Moon.  The other big reason is because of what the book it's based on is about, which recounts a series of murders that happened to members of the Osage Tribe during the 1920s, after oil had been discovered on their tribal lands.  The dehumanization and genocide of indigenous Americans from white supremacy is an extremely underrepresented topic in cinema (especially in mainstream films), and it is so crucial now more than ever that it be given more attention, especially after the last couple years that have raised the level of awareness and necessity for racial equity and justice.  Scorsese clearly understands the level of care and urgency that must be taken with this film, and has publicly expressed a desire to handle the material as sensitively as possible.  Prior to production, the director went to Pawhuska, Oklahoma and met with Principal Chief Standing Bear to discuss how the Osage Nation could be involved with the film's production.  Since then, he and other members of his tribe have been chief consultants on the film.  The movie is also exciting for the mere fact that it reunites Scorsese with two of his favorite leading stars, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, in their first collaboration that includes all three of them working together.  Add that to an already impressive cast, and you have a film that is guaranteed to be on everyone's radars this year!

RELEASE: Sometime in November, but I'm sure it will have prestigious festival premiere somewhere first.

5. Bones and All

Director: Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria (2018) )  Cast: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland, Jessica Harper, Chloë Sevigny, Francesca Scorsese, David Gordon Green, Anna Cobb, and Jake Horowitz.

Luca Guadagnino makes very sensual movies.  They're like sexy courses of food at a fine dining restaurant, served with a tall glass of luscious red wine.  And when the director decided to make his debut in horror, signing on to remake Dario Argento's classic supernatural giallo/slasher, Suspiria, the challenge seemed to be whether he would be able to find a balance between his personal aesthetic for beauty, sex, and pathos and the genre's demands for grisliness and nightmarish fervor.  Thankfully, the movie he made did exactly that, enthralling audiences with a fantasia of blood, dance, and phantasmagoric anxiety, picking the scabs of generational trauma through magical realism while exploring the processes of transition and reaching a full state of self-actualization.  The success he achieved with Suspiria is proof that he was made to film an adaptation of Camille DeAngelis' novel, Bones and All, whose story requires such a delicate high-wire act to work that I can only conceivably see Guadagnino being able to pull off.  DeAngelis' story is a coming-of-age tale that combines romance and horror, following the travels of a young girl named Maren (Waves breakout, Taylor Russell) as she navigates the margins of society, learning to come to terms with who she is- a challenge made even more difficult by her insatiable desire to eat people.  Her journey eventually brings her together with Lee (the always reliable Timothée Chalamet), a like-minded soul who shares her appetite for human flesh.  Of course, DeAngelis's cross-country odyssey is a completely metaphorical one (and absolutely not a condonation of cannibalism) about forbidden desires, repression, self-acceptance, and female power.  It's honestly one of the most ambitious undertakings from a director I've seen in the last 10 years, and I can see it having the makings of a masterpiece if Guadagnino is able to hit each note with perfection.  Just don't expect it's cannibalistic love story to be to everyone's taste.

RELEASE: TBA.  But it's been strongly tipped for Venice.

4. White Noise

Director: Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale )  Cast: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy, André Benjamin, Alessandro Nivola, Jodie turner-Smith, Don Cheadle, Lars Eidinger, Matthew Shear, Sam Nivola, and May Nivola.

While I love to see directors share more personal dimensions of themselves in their work, digging into the recesses of trauma, memory, and lived-in experience to tell a story that's close to them, these projects can run the risk of being self-indulgent and alienating (something I've failed to mention in some of the excerpts related to the directors making semi-autobiographical films this year.)  It's truly a very tricky and narrow line to navigate and stay within the margins of.  However, none of that could ever be said about Noah Baumbach's last film, Marriage Story, which carries an element in its storytelling that is so sincere, objective, and ultimately universal, that it achieves something emotionally rich that manages to be both profoundly devastating and hopefully optimistic.  Baumbach has always been a talented storyteller, known for his barbed wordplay that cuts deep even as it elicits laughs and his finely drawn characters that are unmistakably human, even as his personal cynicism has often threatened to defang his work of any emotional resonance or profundity.  But with Marriage Story, he ascended to a new height that made him a much more mature, thoughtful, and affecting artist, and that's in large part why I'm so excited to see how he'll adapt Don DeLillo's challenging, masterclass of a novel.  Indeed, the award-winning book, which has been hailed by Time magazine as one of the greatest pieces of English-language literature between 1923 and 2005, represents a new kind of challenge for Baumbach's skills as a filmmaker, due to the complex and intricate subtext and structure of DeLillo's story that many would categorize as "unfilmable."  Set in an alternate world that is incontrovertibly American, and yet not, White Noise follows a year in the life of Professor Jack Gladney (Adam Driver)- a pioneer in the field of "Hitler studies" who teaches courses at "The-College-on-the-Hill"- as well as his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), and their four children.  The lives of him and his family are torn asunder by a cataclysmic train accident that casts chemical waste over his town, which becomes known as "the Airborne Toxic Event."  Tackling a myriad of heady, philosophical ideas, DeLillo's novel explores themes of death and our fear of it, the shortcomings of academia, consumer culture under capitalism, and religion.  Like a few of the entries already mentioned on this list, this is also one of the most ambitious undertakings I've seen from a director, and whether or not Baumbach is able to pull it off is going to be either a huge step forward or backward in his career.  Netflix, who is financing the project, must have a lot of faith in his abilities to make it work though, especially given the estimated $80 million budget they've bequeathed to him for its production.  However it turns out, it's going to be very fascinating!

RELEASE: TBA.  I could see it repeating the course of Marriage Story and beginning its festival run at Venice.

3. Blonde

Director: Andrew Dominik (The assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing them Softly )  Cast: Ana de armas, Lily Fisher, Adrien Brody, Bobby cannavale, Julianne Nicholson, Caspar Philipson, toby Huss, Sara paxton, David warshofsky, Evan Williams, Xavier Samuel, Garret Dillahunt, Scoot mcnairy, Lucy Devito, Michael Masini, Spencer garrett, Chris Lemmon, Rebecca Wisocky, Ned Bellamy, Catherine Dent, Eden Riegel, Tygh Runyan, Haley Webb, Ravil Isyanov, and Dan Butler.

She was a brilliant actress and one of the biggest stars of her generation, one of the most beautiful models and Hollywood sex symbols that ever lived, and her sheer charisma and magical screen presence remain iconic to this day.  "Marilyn Monroe" may not have been her real name, but it was the name that everyone in the world who fell in love with her knew her by.  Her life and legacy is legendary, just as it was also tragically cut too short when she was discovered dead at the early age of 36.  And there will never be another like her.  Many filmmakers have tried to make biopics about her enigmatic persona, attempting to capture the essence of who she was and what made her such a transfixing and complex public figure, and all of them have done so to no success.  Enter Andrew Dominik, a brilliant auteur who has always managed to hold the attention and respect of the film community, despite how sparse and limited his work has been (in just over over two decades, he's only made four feature-length films, one of which is a documentary.)  While he's never been one to gush about his films or the projects he's working on, he has taken every opportunity to upsell the prestigious quality of his upcoming film, Blonde, and believe me when I tell you: he is very excited for the rest of us to see it and confident about its prospects as a huge and substantial piece of filmmaking.  Based on the semi-fictional novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde will attempt to offer an intimate and poignant look at the inner and private life of the famed actress, Marilyn Monroe.  Joyce Carol Oates' novel, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is a very curious work indeed.  She insists that while the novel contains elements of truth, it is not a biography, but a work of fiction.  Much of the late star's life remains such a big mystery, that Oates studied her routines and rituals religiously, hoping to enter the psyche of what it must have been like to be Marilyn.  This experience led her to fill in the blanks and cracks in Marilyn's fractured life with what she believed felt true for her story.  The final result is Blonde.  The acclaimed writer is one of the few people to have seen a rough cut of Andrew Dominik's film, calling it "startling, brilliant, very disturbing, and an utterly feminist interpretation" (something she had never thought could be achieved by a male director.)  Dominik also has nothing but praise for his movie, which he describes as the cinematic lovechild of Citizen Kane and Raging Bull, and believes it will be one of the greatest films works of the 21st century (clearly not selling himself short here.)  The movie has an incredible cast, led by current "it girl" Ana de Armas as the blond bombshell herself.  Although de Armas does not look exactly like Marilyn, looking at behind-the-scenes set photos clearly show there is indeed a striking resemblance between the two, and the casting of de Armas is such a fascinating one.  Jamie Lee Curtis, who worked with de Armas in Knives Out and whose father, Tony Curtis, starred alongside Marilyn in the timeless classic, Some Like It Hot, has also seen the movie as well, and says that her costar's performance as the Hollywood icon floored her, embodying a complete and impeccable transformation.  If this movie turns out to be every bit as magnificent as the premature praise would suggest, there is only one film that will be at the forefront of everyone's minds by the end of 2022.

RELEASE: After trying to get the movie screened in the "Competition" section at Cannes multiple times, but unable to due to Cannes' strict rules regarding theatrical distribution (the film is owned by Netflix, who refuses to budge on their distribution strategies, which are very limited theatrically), the movie seems to be locked for a Venice premiere.  After that, it's rumored to be released sometime this December.

2. Three Thousand Years of Longing

Director: George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Witches of Eastwick )  Cast: Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba.

I love a good passion project from a filmmaker I admire, and George Miller has been trying to get the the script for his "epic, fantasy romance," Three Thousand Years of Longing, made for a very, very long time; some might even say it's felt like "three thousand years of longing" just trying to find the right studio that would take the financial gamble on Miller's extraordinary (and expensive) vision.  Luckily, it was MGM who finally came through, and the finished film will finally be making its world premiere at Cannes in only a matter of weeks.  Tilda Swinton (who has publicly stated how much she wanted Miller's dream project to come to fruition) stars opposite Idris Elba (in a casting match made in heaven) as an apathetic scholar who encounters a Djinn (Elba) during a trip to Istanbul.  Their conversation in a hotel room leads to consequences neither of them could have ever expected.  Miller has tried to remain as tight-lipped as possible about the film, only describing it as an anti-Mad Max movie, one that's very dialogue-driven but punctuated by several elaborate action set pieces, and that it is also jaw-droppingly visual.  This should come as no surprise though.  Miller in a fantastic filmmaker whose work has always brought an unparalleled, breath-taking vision and scope to the screen.  Producer Doug Mitchell described the production sets as "some of the most spectacular" he had ever seen, and Oscar-winning DOP John Seale (a frequent collaborator with Miller) came out of retirement just to shoot this thing.  Fantasy in movies is a very tricky feat to accomplish.  How do you create "magic" that feels real and organic while still conveying the wonder of the "otherworldly' and fantastic?  Many filmmakers still don't understand this, and yet they still continue to adapt every YA fantasy bestseller for any studio with enough dollar signs in their eyes to grant them a handsome budget for all the soulless CGI that money can buy.  But Miller is a true original, and although he's known more for the projects he's wanted to make but ultimately never came to be, there is something unique and exciting about his work, and his upcoming film boasts what is honestly one of the most intriguing premises I've ever heard.  I've been hoping it would get made ever since I first heard Miller speak of it many years ago, and I'm so happy for him that it has finally worked out.  Let's hope it was worth the wait!

RELEASE: Cannes premiere.  Theatrical release TBA.

1. How Do You Live?

Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Wind Rises)

And here we are at last.  The filmmaker whose current project made the top of my list requires no introduction.  His animation, and the legacy it has carved out for itself in the hearts and minds of children and adults alike, has made him one of the most influential storytellers of all time.  An outspoken environmentalist, an unabashed feminist, and an extremely talented and humble individual, there is no other storyteller (filmmaker or author) with an imagination and personal aesthetic quite like Miyazaki's.  And while there are many gifted artists who I'd say stand equally toe-to-toe with him, the Japanese animator behind such classics as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away is truly one of a kind.  Amidst the breathtaking beauty and stark harshness of the worlds he creates, there's a deeply profound love and sense of optimism that permeates every journey he takes us on, and though his eyes we're able to envision the kind of world we'd like to live in ourselves.  Back in 2013, Miyazaki announced that The Wind Rises would be his final film before entering retirement (much to the disappointment of his very devoted fanbase.)  Three years later, the director- deciding he still had some unfinished business in the animated arena- came out of retirement to direct one last film.  As soon as the announcement was made, Studio Ghibli (the animation workshop that was founded by Miyazaki and two of his fellow animators back in 1985) reopened its doors and began getting to work on the director's swan song project.  How Do You Live? is based on the 1936 novel from famed Japanese author, Yoshino Genzaburō.  The novel, which has become required reading in the Japanese Public School System, traces the psychological and spiritual development of a teenage boy and his relationship with his uncle, exploring the world through their eyes as it navigates themes of poverty, education, class, Japanese culture, and existentialism.  Miyazaki's adaptation is said to incorporate the animator's signature style of fantasy and magical realism, and that the movie is dedicated to his grandson as a departing gift before he passes on into the next life (uggh I'm gonna ugly cry so hard during this movie, it's not even funny.)  This could be without a doubt my most anticipated film of the decade, and if Miyazaki and co manage to finish it before the end of the year, I think I could be completely content knowing that if the world does suddenly end, at least I got to see one more film from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.

RELEASE: It's difficult to say whether this is a lock for this year, but I know their desired projection has been for 2022 or 2023, so fingers are crossed for a Venice premiere. 

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