Here Are The Movies We're Most Excited To See In 2019
Just last week we were recounting and arguing about all the movies we saw and loved in 2018 (for the record: I have since seen The Old Man & The Gun, it is super charming, and you should see it), but 2018 is dead and gone. It's time to look to the future, so here are a bunch of movies we are excited about seeing in the new year (which is this year).
Glass (January 18th): And the M. Night Shyamalanissance is complete. After being abandoned by audiences and Hollywood, the director has staged an improbable comeback (well-documented by Rolling Stone recently) culminating in this film, a sequel to two of his other hit movies (Unbreakable & Split). Shyamalan described it as "a very suspense-thriller-meets-comic-book movie."
High Flying Bird (February 8th): The great Steven Soderbergh's next film is an NBA drama due to be released on Netflix very soon (though it's kinda weird there's no trailer yet). It stars André Holland, Melvin Gregg and Zazie Beetz, and the logline reads, "A sports agent (Holland) pitches a rookie basketball client (Gregg) on an intriguing and controversial business opportunity during a lockout."
Climax (March 1st): Do you enjoy satanism, dance marathons and acid-laced Sangria? Then the latest movie from French provocateur Gaspar Noé is a must-see movie for you. Variety described it as, "Fame directed by the Marquis de Sade with a Steadicam," and I bet at least some of you really feel that description.
Captain Marvel (March 8th): The first release in another big year for Marvel (what year isn't?) sees the long-awaited introduction of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, aka the ultra-powerful Captain Marvel. She's just your everyday noble warrior hero half-human/half-Kree, and her interests include punching Skrulls-disguised-as-old-ladies, hanging out with digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson, and enjoying '90s cultural touchstones (including Blockbuster video stores).
Gloria Bell (March 8th): Director Sebastián Lelio has been on a hot streak the last couple years with A Fantastic Woman and Disobedience. Here, he remakes his own award-winning film Gloria, with the wonderful Julianne Moore playing a divorced mother who starts a romance with John Turturro's disco-dancing paintballer.
Us (March 15th): Jordan Peele has another provocative, socially-conscious horror film a'coming, this time starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss. This vacation-from-hell flick is all about doubles: "Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves."
Triple Frontier (March 15th): Ben Affleck, Ben Affleck's back tattoo, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal team-up to rob one of the world’s most violent cartels for this Netflix film. My reflexive cynicism about Netflix putting out bombs and second-rate films that couldn't get regular distribution was thoroughly tested in 2018 (Because they released great films including Roma! The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs! Private Life!), so I'm cautiously hopeful for this one. Also, it's directed by JC Chandor, who directed the excellent '80s NYC film A Most Violent Year.
The Beach Bum (March 22nd): Harmony Korine finally delivers a followup to his unforgettable Spring Breakers. This film, which based on early trailers seems cut from the same visual cloth as that aforementioned film, follows the real-life misadventures of Matthew McConaughey, who goes by the name "Moondog" here. for some reason Okay okay, it's a character and not the real McConaughey, but it does seem like the role he was born to play.
Peterloo (April 5th): Mike Leigh is one of the most underrated and brilliant indie filmmakers of the last four decades with an almost unimpeachable record of films (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake, Another Year, to name just a few). His latest film is a politically-relevant look at the infamous Peterloo Massacre of 1819, "where government-backed cavalry charged into a peaceful crowd of 80,000 that gathered in Manchester, England to demand democratic reform."
Under The Silver Lake (April 19th): David Robert Mitchell's polarizing followup to It Follows, which was supposed to come out last year (it was shown at Cannes), is finally being released in the US. The film is definitely not for anyone, but if like me, you love neo-noir stoner California mysteries (see: Inherent Vice, The Nice Guys), then you'll probably enjoy it too.
Avengers: Endgame (April 26th): You probably haven't heard of this gritty micro-budget indie film, which explores the lives of a motley group of people as they struggle to put their lives back together after tragedy. It's an intimate, raw look at grief, and also it will make at least two billion dollars at the box office. Ant-Man will save us all.
Detective Pikachu (May 10th): Maybe saying that we're excited about this upcoming Ryan Reynolds CGI vehicle is the wrong wording here. It's just... if the trailer alone could become such an instant and unforgettable meme machine, what will the full movie unleash upon the world?
John Wick 3: Parabellum (May 17th): After breaking all the rules in John Wick 2: Wicked John, Wick has a $14 million global contract on his head for this film. Among the many assassins after him are Jason Mantzoukas as Tick Tock Man and Mark Dacascos as Zero; Halle Berry joins the cast as another assassin who also loves dogs (she has two Belgian Malinois dogs); and Anjelica Huston plays "someone who was responsible for [Wick’s] upbringing and his protection."
Ad Astra (May 24th): Director James Gray (The Lost City Of Z, The Immigrant) has put together an epic cast for what is sure to be a thoughtful sci-fi movie about an Army Corps engineer who travels through the solar system to find his father, twenty years after dad left on a one-way mission to Neptune. Brad Pitt stars as the engineer and Tommy Lee Jones plays his missing dad in the film, which also stars Ruth Negga and Donald Sutherland.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (May 31st): If you're a fan of big dumb fun monster movies, you can't get much bigger or monster-y than Godzilla and pals (Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah). I don't really remember anything about the last Godzilla movie, but that probably doesn't matter, right? Just look at this cast: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, and Zhang Ziyi.
Dark Phoenix (June 7th): Oh boy, well at the very least, we're really excited for Fox to finally dump this film (and The New Mutants, both of which were supposed to come out last year) so Marvel can take charge of the X-Men characters and hopefully reboot them into the MCU. In the meantime, maybe this pseudo-remake of X-Men: The Last Stand will at least get the Dark Phoenix storyline a little better. Here are a few predictions in the meantime: Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) will die, there will be one standout Quicksilver scene, and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) will help the good guys and then go back to being a bad guy.
Toy Story 4 (June 21st): This is one of the only beloved film franchises where every subsequent movie has been even better than the last. Couple that with new characters voiced by Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, and Keanu Reeves, and we are pretty excited. Here's the logline: "Woody has always been confident about his place in the world and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that’s Andy or Bonnie. But when Bonnie adds a reluctant new toy called 'Forky' to her room, a road trip adventure alongside old and new friends will show Woody how big the world can be for a toy."
Ford v. Ferrari (June 28th): After the success of Logan, James Mangold could make just about any movie he wanted to. This film follows a team of American engineers and designers, led by Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) as they attempt to build a new automobile to defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 5th): Spider-Man (Tom Holland) reportedly teams up with Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to fight baddies around Europe in the next chapter of his MCU adventures. A teaser trailer was already shown at Brazil Comic Con, but Marvel apparently wants to be careful about how it markets the film—it doesn't want to spoil too much before Endgame rolls into town (remember: Spider-Man is technically still dead...).
Hobbs & Shaw (July 26th): The relationship between The Rock and Jason Statham was the best part of The Fate Of The Furious (and also allegedly what caused Vin Diesel and The Rock's ongoing on-set feud), and they are being rewarded with the first spinoff of the Fast & Furious saga. DJ Idris Elba will play the bad guy and David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) will direct what is sure to be the most fun film of the summer.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (July 26th): Everyone in Hollywood has signed up for Quentin Tarantino's next sprawling film which is centered on the Manson Family murders. Leonardo DiCaprio plays struggling TV actor Rick Dalton (who happens to live next door to Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate), Brad Pitt plays Cliff Booth (Dalton's best friend and stunt double). The rest of the cast includes (deep breath): Al Pacino, James Marsden, Damian Lewis (as Steve McQueen), Luke Perry, Dakota Fanning, Scoot McNairy, Timothy Olyphant, Margaret Qualley, Emile Hirsch, Lena Dunham, Bruce Dern, and Tarantino regulars such as Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Kurt Russell.
And here a bunch more films that are coming in the second half of 2019...
James McAvoy, Bill Hader & Jessica Chastain portray grown-up versions of The Losers Club in It: Chapter Two (September 6th). Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss play wives who take over the Irish mob in 1970's Hell’s Kitchen when their husbands are nabbed by the FBI in The Kitchen (September 20th). Will Smith plays an elite assassin Ang Lee's sci-fi film Gemini Man (October 4th). Joaquin Phoenix dons the clown makeup in the much-documented origin film Joker (October 4th). Donna Tart's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch (October 11th) is getting adapted into a film by Brooklyn director John Crowley. Tom Hanks will star as Mr. Rogers in Marielle Heller's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (October 18th). Rian Johnson took a break from making Star Wars movies with whodunit mystery Knives Out (November 27th) which stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, and Christopher Plummer. Writer Lena Waithe (Master Of None, The Chi) and director Melina Matsoukas (Insecure, Beyonce's "Formation" video, Master Of None's "Thanksgiving" episode) team up for Queen & Slim (November 27th) about "a black man and black woman who go on a first date that goes awry after the two are pulled over by a police officer at a traffic stop." The Skywalker family saga probably (?) comes to a conclusion with Star Wars: Episode IX (December 20th). And Greta Gerwig has assembled quite the cast (including Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet) for her remake of Little Women (December 25th).
And a few more that currently don't have release dates:
I can't wait to see what Martin Scorsese has put together for Netflix with The Irishman, which stars Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, and is about the man who allegedly killed Jimmy Hoffa. Wes Anderson returns to making live action films with The French Dispatch, which is said to be a love letter to newspapers set in 1950s Paris. Legion and Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley will helm Lucy In The Sky about an astronaut love triangle starring Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm and Zazie Beetz. For their followup to the electrifying Good Time, the Safdie Brothers have recruited Adam Sandler to play a jewelry-store owner and gambling addict in Uncut Gems.Terrence Malick's next film Radegund depicts the life of Austria’s Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector during World War II who was put to death for undermining military actions. It's especially exciting because Malick actually wrote a script for it! Casey Affleck directs and stars in father/daughter film Light Of My Life. Mudbound director Dee Rees adapts Joan Didion's book about a journalist caught up in the middle of the Iran-Contra Affair (with Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, and Willem Dafoe) in The Last Thing He Wanted for Netflix.