Most Anticipated Films of 2024: The Penultimate Chapter (numbers 20-11)
aka
An Assortment of Carefully Selected Wine Pairings Preluding Tonight's Main Course
20. Queer
Director: Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All) Cast: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, and Henry Zaga.
In addition to his penchant for sumptuous visuals, his handling of emotional complexity and the depth of unspoken feelings, and the sensuality he effortlessly builds from stories of desire and attraction, Luca Guadagnino is also no stranger to approaching the subject of queerness. The third film in his self-dubbed "Desire" trilogy, Call Me by Your Name, revolves around the sexual awakening, self-discovery, and heartache of first love concerning its 17-year-old protagonist, and does so with honesty, tenderness, and poetry. His HBO min-series, We Are Who We Are, explores similar subject matter to Call Me by Your Name (but to less effect than that film), and his romantic horror film of star-crossed cannibals, Bones and All, could also be interpreted as a metaphor for queer forbidden love. Perhaps that's why it comes as no surprise that when the time came to adapt William S. Burroughs 1985 short novel, Queer, it was Guadagnino who was approached to helm its translation to the screen from a script adapted by Justin Kuritzkes (who also penned the director's upcoming film, Challengers.) Burroughs's semi-autobiographical novel is set in Mexico City during the early 50s (or maybe late 40s) and is told through the eyes of Lee (Daniel Craig), who flees his country following a drug bust in New Orleans. His wanderings through the city and its seedy but vibrant club scene put him in contact with a diverse array of individuals, from American expatriate college students to bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits, but it's with the young Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey)- a discharged Navy serviceman and habitual drug user- that he develops an obsessive infatuation for. Queer may not boast the same level of mad genius that defined Burroughs' most provocative masterpiece, Naked Lunch (which Queer actually helped pave the way for), but it's still widely regarded as an essential entry in Burroughs' oeuvre that underlines the very themes that have most preoccupied Guadagnino in his work: desire, unrequited love, and the complexity of human emotions. Guadagnino taking on Burroughs- who was a deeply flawed and complex literary figure- is sure to draw the ire of the social media moral police, but I would argue that it's precisely because of how the director handles the material he works with that he is in fact the most ideal person to spearhead this adaptation. I'm also really looking forward to seeing Craig in such a meaty and challenging role, who hasn't gotten to flex his acting chops with a dramatic lead character like this in many years.
RELEASE: TBA.
19. The Beast
Director: Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama, Zombi Child) Cast: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda, and Dasha Nekrasova.
There is probably no other director working today that is as fixated on our relationship to the past, and how that relationship continually influences and dictates the events of both the present and future, than French auteur, Bertrand Bonello. The director's eight feature, Zombi Child, brilliantly underlines how thin the lines are between present-day Western civilization and its fraught history with colonialism and slavery, and House of Pleasures (his fifth feature) uses a Parisian brothel at the dawn of the 20th century as a foil for how the exploitation of flesh through commerce has continually shaped the identity of capitalist systems into the future. It's not all that surprising then that the plot of the director's latest film, The Beast (which premiered last year at the 80th Venice Film Festival), also seems to be expanding upon that theme. Freely inspired by Henry James' 1903 novella, The Beast in the Jungle, Bonello's decades-spanning story begins in a not-too-distant future where emotions have become a threat and technology dictates the lives of human beings, and centers around Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), who decides to purify her DNA using a machine that will immerse her in her previous lives, thereby ridding her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis (George MacKay), with whom she develops a powerful connection with, feeling as though she has known him her whole life. As their story unfolds over three distinct time periods- 1910, 2014, and 2044- the past, present, and future begin to blur, excavating the depths of their connection in this genre-bending romance that combines sci-fi with surrealist horror while untangling existential ideas of fate, love, death, loneliness, and meaning of our existence. The Beast played the competition section of Venice last year, where it became a frontrunner for the festival's top prize, The Golden Lion, ultimately losing to Poor Things, so the fact that it was even considered to be a legitimate contender against Yorgos Lanthimos' masterpiece is extremely telling.
Release: The film's limited run begins in NY and LA on April 5th before going nationwide in the weeks to follow.
18. The Room Next Door
Director: Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her) Cast: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola, and Anya Taylor-joy.
He's widely regarded as the most acclaimed and celebrated Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel, and at 74, Pedro Almodóvar continues to set the bar for cinematic excellence. For years now, the veteran auteur (whose films have all been traditionally in Spanish with Spanish-speaking actors) has been looking to diversify his range as a storyteller by making his first English-language feature. At one point in time, he had chosen to adapt Lucia Berlin's collection of short stories, A Manual for Cleaning Women, as his debut English film, and had Cate Blanchett attached to both star and produce, but unfortunately the project never materialized. But after finally dabbling in those waters in 2020 with his short film, The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton, and then again last year with another short feature, Strange Way of Life- a western/queer romance starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as old friends-turned-lovers who team up to catch a killer- Almodóvar is finally in production on his first full-length feature in English, The Room Next Door. The upcoming film reunites the director with his Human Voice star, Tilda Swinton, and also stars Julianne Moore, John Turturro, and Anya Taylor-Joy. The story focuses on the interconnected lives of three women- Martha (Swinton), a war correspondent, Ingrid (Moore), an auto-fiction novelist and friend of Martha's, and Martha's estranged daughter (Taylor-Joy)- and explores the ways in which people cope with the horrific realities of the world while navigating personal relationships. Swinton has described the project as a genuinely authentic Almodóvar film that highlights the director's strengths as a filmmaker and storyteller and calls it a "natural successor to Pain and Glory" (the director's last feature film.) Almodóvar has built a career telling extraordinary stories about women in ways both beautifully human and poetic, and it's exciting to see him working on a project that (on paper at least) recalls his most profound and personal work.
RELEASE: TBA.
17. Rumours
Directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson (The Forbidden Room, The Green Fog) Cast: Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Revello, Takehiro Hira, and Zlatko Burić.
I've always thought that Guy Maddin's last name was succinctly apropos for him. The celebrated Canadian auteur is something of a cinematic "mad scientist" behind the camera. While his inspiration and influences pull from a wide variety of iconic artists, from Bañuel to Lynch, Maddin's unique brand of surrealism is 100% his own creation, and he's always working on something, whether it be a new film, a book, a restoration, or an art installation (which in and of itself is a testament to the range of his talents as an artist.) After his last two projects, The Forbidden Room and The Green Fog, found him sharing directing credits with fellow collaborators, Evan and Galen Johnson, Maddin has once again joined forces with the sibling duo for his upcoming film, Rumours. In the directors' latest film, dark comedy is melded with political farce, as world leaders gather at the G7 summit but get lost in the woods whilst trying to compose a joint statement in response to a global crisis. Conceptually, it's the kind of premise that could easily be the subject of one of Ruben Östlund's films, and yet, if you're familiar with Maddin's work, then you know that his penchant for injecting high concepts into dreamlike fantasias is going to propel his story into a whole 'nother cinematic dimension of its own! Buckle up and get ready for a wild ride.
Release: Premieres at Cannes this month and is slated to hit theaters sometime this fall.
16. FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
Director: George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing) Cast: Anya Taylor Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, and Alyla Browne.
George Miller is a madman. Only a true visionary like him could conceive something such as the high-octane energy of Mad Max: Fury Road, or the bizarrely ambitious fantasy of Three Thousand Years of Longing. I do wish he would do more original works like the latter of those two films and not focus exclusively on Mad Max films, but it's hard to fault him for it when he does these movies so thrillingly and exceptionally well. Furiosa, which is set to kick off the summer movie season this year after a soft launch at Cannes, is the fifth film in the Mad Max franchise and focuses on the origins of the Fury Road heroine (portrayed in that installment by a fantastic, show-stealing Charlize Theron) and the events leading up to her introduction in that film. Anya Taylor-Joy (the breakout star of The Witch who catapulted to stardom after The Queen's Gambit) takes over for Theron in the role of Furiosa, who caught Miller's attention after he attended a private screening of Last Night in Soho. All of the over-the-top action and spectacle of Fury Road seems to be present again this go-around, which is either going to work tremendously to the film's favor or be criticized for hewing too closely to the last film and feeling recycled. To be perfectly frank though: I don't care. None of the summer blockbusters coming out this year look nearly as balls-to-wall entertaining as this film does. In addition to Taylor-Joy, the film also boasts supporting roles from Chris Hemsworth (sporting a prosthetic nose that renders him almost unrecognizable) as the film's big baddie and Tom Burke (the breakout star of Joanna Hogg's, The Souvenir, who is most recognized for his scene-stealing turn as Orson Welles in David Fincher's, Mank) as Furiosa's friend and possible romantic interest. But perhaps the most exciting news circling Furiosa at the moment was Taylor-Joy recently sharing with Total Film that the new movie contains an action sequences that lasts 15 minutes long, and that it took a total of 78 days to shoot and 200 stunt people to execute! If this isn't the kind of thing that puts the pedal to another level, then I don't know what does.
RELEASE: Premieres at Cannes on May 15th before hitting theaters on May 24th.
15. The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol
Director: Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist) Voice Cast: Noa Staes.
French animator and cartoonist-turned-French animated filmmaker, Sylvain Chomet, may only have two films under his belt, but both of those films have proven that he is a serious talent in his field that is not to be slept on. Both his debut feature, The Triplets of Belleville, and follow-up feature, The Illusionist, garnered widespread critical acclaim and were nominated for Best Animated Film at the Oscars. It's been over a decade since his last film, but in the that time the director has been nothing if not busy. He tried his hand at live-action filmmaking in 2013 with the French comedy, Attila Marcel, directed an episode of The Simpsons in 2014, a short film in 2016, and has also been attached to a few projects that sadly never went anywhere past the development phase. However, it looks as though his third animated feature, The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, is nearing completion and should be ready to make a splash at one of this year's upcoming film fests. Based on the life of famous French auteur, novelist, and playwright, Marcel Pagnol, the story will trace his journey from his humble, middle-class beginnings in Marseilles to becoming one of the country's most influential and prolific artists. Marcel Pagnol lived a very fascinating life filled with outstanding accomplishments that left behind an incredible legacy, so I'm very curious to see how Chomet translates his story and pays homage to that legacy, especially after some of the controversy he received for his last animated feature, The Illusionist, which also has ties to the legacy of another infamous French artist, Jacques Tati (if you're not familiar with that controversy, it's definitely interesting stuff worth taking the time read about.) All that aside though, Chomet's latest is certainly shaping up to be one of this year's most talked about animated films.
RELEASE: TBA.
14. BLITZ
Director: Steve McQueen (Small Axe, 12 Years a Slave) Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Leigh Gill, Erin Kellyman, Stephen graham, Josef Altin, Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, and Hayley Squires.
I've always been a huge fan of Steve McQueen, but after his brilliant film anthology, Small Axe, I will always be crazy excited for whatever project he has lined up next. I found his Holocaust documentary from last year, Occupied City (which clocks at a runtime of over 4 hours), to function better as an art installation at some memorial site or museum, but it's an ambitious work nonetheless from one of Britain's most distinguished visual artists and filmmakers. His upcoming movie, Blitz, which is produced and distributed through Apple TV+, centers on a group of Londoners during the events of the capital bombing of World War II (also known as The Blitz.) Murmurings from a test screening that occurred last fall were extremely promising, with one viewer describing the film as "jaw-dropping, epic, intimate, and a major achievement" for McQueen. You can expect this one to be a major heavy hitter this "awards season," one that keeps the director very busy in the press rounds and could be his first golden ticket to the Oscars since 12 Years a Slave.
RELEASE: TBA.
KINDS OF KINDNESS
13. KINDS OF KINDNESS
KINDS OF KINDNESS
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Lobster) Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer.
Yorgos Lanthimos is coming off of a fantastic year. After delivering what many have called his career-best work with Poor Things, the director is back less than a year later with a new film! His latest movie, an anthology that covers three stories and features his cast playing different roles for each one, is a kind of return to the director's roots, reuniting him with screenwriter, Efthimis Filippou (with whom he collaborated with on The Lobster and The Killing of the Sacred Deer), for the first time in almost five years. Kinds of Kindness is said to clock at a runtime of nearly three hours, which makes sense given Lanthimos' comments that working on the movie was like "making three films." I'm very excited to see him attached to another film with Efthimis Filippou again. Their work together on The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer is some of my favorite stuff from both of them, and Yorgos has grown so much as a filmmaker since those two films came out that it will be interesting to see how that impacts their latest collaboration. Intel from programmers and industry professionals who have seen the new film has begun leaking out to the public as the film prepares for its big bow at Cannes in just a few weeks, and the word so far is incredibly promising, with one insider describing it as "hostile, aggressive, and more akin to the director's earlier work." Fantastic!
RELEASE: The film debuts at Cannes this month before hitting theaters on June 21st.
12. CLOSE YOUR EYES
Director: Victor Erice (The Spirit of the Beehive, El Sur) Cast: Manolo Solo, José Coronado, Ana Torrent, Maria León, Petra Martínez, Soledad villamil, Antonio Dechent, Mario Pardo, Helena Miquel, José Maria Pou, Juan Margallo, and Venecia Franco.
Legendary filmmaker, Victor Erice, is one of the most respected and influential names in Spanish cinema. His 1973 masterpiece, The Spirit of the Beehive, is widely regarded as one of the greatest Spanish films ever made, and the movie's symbolism and articulation of childhood during the Spanish civil war would later go on to heavily influence the work of Guillermo Del Toro. In the last few decades, Erice's work has mostly consisted of short films and art installations, but last year, the director surprised the world with the release of Close Your Eyes, his first full length feature since 1992's, The Quince Tree Sun. Sadly, the film had difficulty finding a wider audience at its Cannes premiere, largely in part because of festival director, Thierry Frémaux, who placed the movie in the Premiere section as opposed to the Competition section (which is historically a larger platform for films looking for distribution if they don't have it yet) and didn't bother to notify Erice of his decision until the day the program was announced. Adding further insult, the director later found out that Frémaux never even watched the film! Erice was so devastated and hurt by the treatment of his first feature in over 30 years, that he famously didn't even attend the festival last year to promote his new work. He later expressed that if he had known about Frémaux's decision sooner, he would have considered other options about where he wanted the film to premiere, such as rival festivals like Venice and Locarno. Nevertheless, the film still made an impression, becoming one of the best reviewed films out of Cannes and even placed at #2 on Cahiers du Cinéma's top 10 list and #1 on Esquire's. The story of Erice's latest revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a famous actor, who went missing during the production of his last movie. Fast forward to twenty years later, and the incident is still the stuff of myth that many people have fun attaching their own theories too, having become the fodder for the kind of "true crime" reality TV that is often sensationalized for public consumption. But when a caller from a small coastal village notifies the press that they have identified the actor in their local community, the past catches up to the present, unraveling a story that explores themes about the interconnectedness of memory and identity and ultimately, the extraordinary power of cinema.
RELEASE: August 23rd.
21. Evil does Not Exist
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) Cast: Hitoshi omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani, Hazuki Kikuchi, and Hiroyuki Miura.
After making a HUGE splash in 2021 with back-to-back features, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car, the latter of which became one of best reviewed films of the year and won the Oscar for Best International Film, acclaimed Japanese auteur, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, made a surprise return last year when his latest film, Evil Does Not Exist, came out of nowhere to crack the competition section at Venice. Production of the film had been completed in total secrecy- with no one even knowing it existed until the festival announced its official program- and the film was greeted at the Lido with rave reviews, ultimately winning the Grand Jury Prize at closing ceremony after it came close to securing the top award of the event (the coveted Golden Lion, which would end up going to Poor Things.) Hamaguchi's latest once again takes a deceptively small human drama and expands it by juxtaposing it against the backdrop of larger and more ambitious themes. The story is set in a small village not far from Tokyo and centers on the village's inhabitants (primarily a father-daughter relationship that's reportedly the heart and soul of the film), exploring the conflict that arises when a powerful corporation moves in to develop their nearby forest and turn it into a glamping resort. An environmental fable and family drama all once, Evil Does Not Exist ruminates on themes concerning the importance of community and the toll of unfettered capitalism.
RELEASE: Limited release begins May 3rd.
Comments
Post a Comment