Most Anticipated Films of 2024: Section Three, Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
The Middle Portion aka
"Now might be a good time to go to the bathroom, grab a quick bite, or make sure you are registered to vote."
40. EDEN
Director: Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) Cast: Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, and Richard Roxburgh.
So far on this list, there's already been a few directors featured who are veterans in the industry but have struggled to replicate the success of their earlier work (such as Burton and Scott.) Ron Howard is another filmmaker who has sadly found himself in this group, however, I will say his track record has been a bit more dependable and consistent (Hillbilly Elegy notwithstanding.) His next project, Eden (which is currently shooting in the Galápagos), has an exciting cast and an interesting premise that (if executed right) could translate in a way that's ambitiously cosmic. The plot follows a group of people who, fueled by a profound desire for change, abandon society for the harsh landscape of the Galápagos in search of the meaning of life. Conceptually, it sounds like the kind of schmaltzy, Eat, Pray, Love-ish vehicle for narcissistic white people to "find themselves" posing as enlightenment, but the caliber of talent involved (both in front of and behind the camera) paired with the story's unique setting and survival-thriller aspects has me hoping otherwise. Howard's next film is coming straight off his exceptional but underrated work in 2022's, Thirteen Lives, so I'm hoping this will be even more of a success and find its audience.
RELEASE: TBA.
39. Untitled Lulu Wang Project
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EXPATS (tie)
Director/Creator: Lulu Wang (The Farewell) Cast of Untitled project: Unknown. Cast of Expats: Nicole Kidman, Ji-Young Yoo, Jack Huston, Sarayu Blue, Brian Tee, Bonde Sham, and Flora Chan.
First tie of the list (in fact, I believe it's the first tie I've ever had on any of my lists), which has two projects from the same director- one a film and the other a... television series! (See, I told you this year's edition was going to be irregular.) Lulu Wang really impressed me in 2019 with her delicate and deeply personal sophomore feature, The Farewell. The film received widespread acclaim from both critics and guilds across the country, establishing her as a filmmaker to watch for and creating anticipation for whatever project she would tackle next. One of those projects that was confirmed early on was an adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee's novel, The Expatriates, which Wang would adapt as a series for Amazon Prime. Expatriates (or "expats" for short) are persons who reside outside their country of origin or citizenship, often applied to artists or skilled workers who conduct their business abroad, retirees, or those who have renounced their nationality and live as exiles in another country. Nicole Kidman was one of the first people to meet with Wang about the project and was shortly thereafter attached as a star and producer on the series. The story follows a close-knit group of expatriates, where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths, and marriages are played out publicly. Wang's other project, an as of yet untitled feature film, is a lot more obscure. Back when A24 picked up her last film at Sundance, the director signed on with the studio shortly thereafter to produce and finance whatever her next film would be. Rumors abound that it is a gender-swapped remake of Hirokazu Kore-eda's, Like Father, Like Son; I hope this not true, as Kore-eda's 2013 film (which won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2013) is already something close to a masterpiece, and remaking it feels both lazy and unnecessary. Other sources claim the film is a Chinese feature titled, Trouble Girl. Whether this is the same film as the Kore-eda remake or not, I haven't exactly figured out yet (as the rumored title of that film is called, It's a Mother, It's a Daughter), but if it's something original from the director, I'm all for it. Regardless of whether or not we'll be seeing it this year (assuming it's even been filmed), we'll have at least one project from Wang to look forward to in the form of Expats.
RELEASE: EXPATS begins streaming on Amazon Prime on January 26th. Wang's Untitled Feature is still TBA.
38. DREAMS
Director: Michel Franco (Memory, Sundown) Cast: Jessica Chastain, Rupert Friend, and Isaac Hernandez.
Last year's Memory, the eighth film from Mexican auteur, Michel Franco, which had its world premiere at Venice, was definitely one of the best little indies that nobody saw (I only just watched a few weeks ago), and it resulted in two of the year's strongest performances falling completely under the radar. Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, who play opposite each other in a captivating and grounded drama about dementia, trauma, and how memory shapes identity, delivered two masterclass performances that challenge us even while they're breaking our hearts, so it's a shame their work went unrecognized (save for Sarsgaard, who did end up winning the award for Best Actor at the festival following its premiere.) But I suppose it's to be expected. Franco's filmography is the definition of "indie filmmaking" and his work, which often uses character studies as a vehicle to tap into a well of complex emotions and expansive themes, has never done well commercially. During Memory's premiere at Venice, the director announced that he had already wrapped production in San Francisco on his next film, Dreams, with which he reunited with Chastain on. The cast also includes Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice) and prominent Mexican ballet dancer, Isaac Hernandez. Plot details are very scarce, but the story is said to possibly revolve around a forbidden romance between a woman, who works for an arts foundation, and a ballet dancer (which would explain Hernandez's casting.) Franco has been evolving as a storyteller with each new film he makes, so I'm excited to see what he delivers in his next feature. I'm also excited to see him reunited with Chastain! Could this be the beginnings of a new director/actor partnership?RELEASE: TBA.
37. Hors du Temps (Suspended Time)
Director: Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper) Cast: Vincent Macaigne, Nora Hamzawi, Micha Lescot, and Nine d'Urso.
After his disappointing spy thriller, Wasp Network, Olivier Assayas makes his return to feature filmmaking for the first time since the pandemic with his new movie, Suspended Time (or Hors du temps if you're French.) Ironically, it's the pandemic that serves as the backdrop of the French auteur's latest film, a comedy-drama about two brothers, Etienne and Paul, who get confined to their childhood home in the country with their new partners, Morgane and Carole, during the COVID-19 lockdowns. With the outside world in a state of limbo, and their current accommodations filled with memories and ghosts around every turn, Assayas' new film is about two people trapped in a place that finds them haunted by both the pain of the past and the uncertainty of the future. Since COVID emerged and completely redefined how we live and filled us with renewed apprehension about the fragility our world, there have already been a few films made that have attempted to articulate the immense range of feelings and thoughts we were collectively experiencing as we navigated those murky waters (some of which we're all still processing.) I have yet to see a good one though. That being said, I do hope that that changes with Assayas' new film. The Bressonian disciple has always been fixated on the images and things that define the modernity of the present, and he's certainly no stranger to the idea of literal and figurative ghosts (if you haven't seen Personal Shopper or Clouds of Sils Maria, fyi they are brilliant!) Assayas' new film will be the first from the director to premiere in the competition section at Berlin, an interesting turn of events, given the director's films have generally premiered at Cannes in the past.
RELEASE: Premieres at Berlin Film Festival next month, with a theatrical release still TBA.
36. Dune: Part Two
Director: Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Blade Runner 2049) Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem.
It's so wild that we're only mere weeks away from the release of Dune: Part Two. When the first half of Denis Villeneuve's gargantuan undertaking of Frank Herbert's epic and groundbreaking sci-fi novel was released in theaters, it was a disappointing situation marred by possibly the worst experience movie cinemas had gone through since World War II. Faced with the obstacles of a global pandemic and an increasing demand for the comfort and safety that at-home streaming afforded, theaters were really struggling to get audiences back in their auditoriums, even for massive, multimillion-dollar blockbusters like Dune that demanded to be seen in the largest format possible. For what it's worth, Dune fared a lot better at the box office than a lot of other films in 2021 (in the worldwide box office, in came in at #12 with just over a $400 million), but its returns were still not nearly as much as Warner Bros had been expecting when the film initially went into production. A joint release on the HBO Max streaming platform the same day it launched in theaters (as part of a deal Warner Bros brokered during their merger with Discovery) definitely didn't help the film's box office performance either, and for a while the prospect of Villeneuve getting the greenlight to go into production on the film's second half became even murkier. Thank God he got it though, or else the movie might have gone down as one of those unfinished film sagas (like The Golden Compass) that gets unceremoniously struck down by the studio when it fails to meet their pecuniary demands. As far as the sequel to Dune is concerned though, I am absolutely pumped for it. I pretty much still stand by my original hot take of Villeneuve's first film when it came out, which is that it's so frustratingly committed to formalism that it nearly robs Herbert's story of all the weird and exciting fun that was found in the book, and the decision to split the story in two parts left the first film feeling like nothing but setup and exposition with no payoff (I will say that I've warmed up to it more with repeated viewings.) That being said, I've decided to hold off on my reservations until I see Part Two, especially since I know all the best and most psychedelically unhinged aspects of Herbert's novel all happen in the second half, and because I want to judge Denis' cinematic vision as one cohesive whole rather than two separate films. Other aspects about Part Two that I'm looking forward to are the new additions to the cast, with Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken all getting to stretch their legs and play in Arrakis' giant sandbox with the rest of the returning crew.
RELEASE: March 1st.
Director: Lucrecia Martel (Zama, The Headless Woman)
Perhaps the leading and most prominent voice in the New Argentine Cinema wave and one of the most celebrated and acclaimed auteurs in world cinema, Lucrecia Martel is a filmmaker and storyteller who is anything but conventional. The Argentinian director's films have frequented the likes of Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Toronto, and her work is rooted in intellectualism with a careful (almost painstaking) attention to details and layers that create a rich and transportive atmosphere. Indeed, her meticulous editing process is similar to Malick in some respects, but the results are always wholly and uniquely her own while still carrying traces of her distinctive cinematic influences, such as Bergman and Almodóvar. Chocobar, which will mark the director's fifth feature length film and her first documentary, will continue to showcase how the filmmaker is always evolving and challenging herself. Last year, she was on version four of her edit, so she's definitely been taking her time with this one, but I'm predicting the project is nearly complete. A huge part of why the film has been such an intense labor of love is perhaps to do with Martel's exciting ambition concerning the story and the cinematic language she's been carefully honing to translate it. The documentary chronicles the life and murder of indigenous activist and photographer, Javier Chocobar, who used is talents and voice to advocate against the removal of his indigenous community from their ancestral land in Argentina. If Martel's last feature, Zama, was an exploration of the structural violence that is embedded in colonialism, then Chocobar looks to continue on that subject, but with an even more intuitiveness and incisive interrogation. Supposedly, Martel hopes to create a cinematic language in the documentary that will convey the 500-year history of colonialism in the country, underscoring the spoken and unspoken language between the colonizer and the oppressed while debunking the mythos and fantasies the oppressor uses to manufacture their own personal narrative of history. It's an undeniably audacious undertaking and sounds like it will be absolutely brilliant. Can't wait for this!
RELEASE: TBA.
34. Dahomey
Director: Mati Diop (Atlantics)
As if tailor-made to follow the last entry (I'm serious, this next film would make a fantastic double-feature with Lucrecia Martel's, Chocobar) is the newest work from French-Senegalese actress-turned-director, Mati Diop. Also a documentary, Dahomey chronicles the journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey and their return to their ancestral homeland in Benin. According to reports, Diop has made something of a hybrid film, one that splices together elements of non-fiction documentary footage with narrative fiction to innovative and artistic effect while giving voice to a new generation's demands for decolonization. Diop is an extremely gifted artist and storyteller; her last film, Atlantics (a surrealist and starry-eyed romance brimming with visual poetry and audacious ideas), is the first film directed by a Black woman to premiere in competition at Cannes, where it later won the Grand Prix. She's branching out of Cannes this year with Dahomey, which is set to premiere in competition at Berlin next month, but I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before she graces the red carpet again at the Croisette.
RELEASE: Has its world premiere at Berlin Film Festival in February, with a theatrical release still TBA.
33. Father, Mother, Sister, Brother
Director: Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive, Paterson) Cast: Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps (the rest of the cast is currently unknown at this time.)
Getting a film made and then seen by a wide audience is extremely difficult already, and that goes almost triple for indie films (with or without distribution.) It's a process that has only been exacerbated in a post-pandemic industry, which is perhaps why Jim Jarmusch, one of America's most idiosyncratic auteurs, has hinted these past couple years that he may never make another film again. If you're a fan of Jarmusch's work (like I am), these sorts of hints are devasting to hear, and if you're not familiar with his work then you're really missing out; he's a truly original cinematic voice whose films can best be described as a "mood." His characters are typically loners at odds with the rest of the world and their surroundings, and yet their flaws are portrayed with such a sensitive comprehension of the human condition that we find ourselves succumbing to their charisma and charm. Jarmusch's recent comments about quitting the film industry were thankfully short-lived though. Last November, it was reported that he had begun production on a new film with Cate Blanchett in the lead. The plot details are currently still a mystery, but Jarmusch has described the project as very quiet and minimalist, which checks with the rest of his past work, but has also hinted that the film may contain no music! For those who are familiar with the director's films, this is especially surprising, as music has always been a driving force in how Jarmusch crafts his stories and their hypnotic atmosphere, so this would definitely be a new kind of "mood" for him. Details concerning the cast are almost just as scarce as the plot; as mentioned already, the film is led by Cate Blanchett, and a recent report also sited Phantom Thread actress, Vicky Krieps, on set in Ireland. But aside from those two actors, the ensemble remains a mystery. Hopefully more will be revealed in the months to come. If Jarmusch works fast (and sometimes he does), this could be ready for Cannes in May.
RELEASE: TBA.
32. MaXXXine
Director: Ti West (X, Pearl) Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon.
When horror maestro, Ti West, debuted X- his ode to old-school American slasher movies- at the SXSW Film Festival in 2022, he promised all of us a trilogy of movies, and it would seem that the director has stayed very true to his word. X was followed up almost six months later with Pearl (which premiered at Venice), a gory, technicolor fantasia that plays like a warped version of The Wizard of Oz (imagine if Dorothy never got to go to some magical land beyond the rainbow, and finally snapped from being trapped by the banality and repetitiveness of her everyday existence) as it explores the origins of X's tragic villain. West concludes his trilogy this year with the final chapter, MaXXXine, picking up where X left off as it follows the film's surviving heroine, Maxine (Mia Goth), who has made it to Hollywood and continues her quest for fame and stardom. While much of the plot has managed to remain a secret, there are some very exciting details that have become public knowledge and give us an idea of what to expect from the capper in Ti West's blood-soaked trilogy. For starters, Mia Goth (who also serves as a producer on the film) claims that MaXXXine boasts the best script of the three films, and sources allege that the film is both a "whodunit murder mystery" as well as a slasher film. Furthermore, audiences who have attended test screenings have said that if the influences West drew from to make X were films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, and Friday the 13th, then this time they're in vein of classic Italian giallo flicks (probably my favorite horror subgenre), recalling the great masterworks in the genre from filmmakers like Dario Argento and Mario Bava. (Hell fucking yes!) There's also allegedly a surprise actor in the cast that will make horror fans scream (with glee), but it's VERY hush hush at the moment (fine with me; the more surprises, the better.) If I didn't know any better, I'd say MaXXXine is gearing up to be the crown jewel in West's trilogy. Fingers crossed!RELEASE: TBA.
31. Untitled the Weeknd & Trey Edward Schultz Film
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Mystery Trey Edward Schultz Film (tie)
Director: Tred Edward Schults (Krisha, Waves) Cast: the Weeknd, Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan, Gabby Barrett, and Paul L. Davis.
Trey Edward Schults, the budding auteur who once interned for Terrence Malick and has now become one of the most promising new filmmakers to have emerged in the last decade, is responsible for the second tie on this list. Ever since his brilliant debut, Krisha, premiered at SXSW and was immediately scooped up by A24, the director has formed a partnership with the studio that has already produced two films (the psychological horror film, It Comes At Night, and the heart-ripping family drama, Waves.) This year, he'll be releasing his third collaboration with the studio, but this time, it wasn't only A24 who Schults was collaborating with. His next film (an as of yet untitled project) is based on a script that he penned with none other than four-time Grammy award-winning music artist, the Weeknd! According to reports, the story is a horror film that is a loose remake of Stephen King's Misery and is supposedly infused with some personal details from the popstar's real life. The movie finds the Weeknd essentially playing himself, with Jenna Ortega playing his deranged fan and stalker (ummm, yes please!) After production wrapped on this film, Schults told reporters that he had also wrapped a second film, but good luck finding out what it is. The project isn't even listed on IMDb and there's been no reports as far as casting or what the mysterious film might be about. If Schults is telling the truth though, we may be getting more than one film from him this year, and that's exciting!
RELEASE: TBA.
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