Just
like every year that has come before it, there are a plethora of new
releases that are slated for release in 2019 that I am eagerly
anticipating. However, 2019 looks to be potentially a particularly
strong year, as a very large number of my favourite directors are
releasing new films. From last years list, I'm still waiting on
releases for Neil Jordan's “Greta” (which was originally titled
“The Widow” during production), Brian De Palma's “Domino”,
and Martin Scorsese's Netflix crime drama “The Irishman”, which
are still hugely anticipated and should be considered an extension of
the below list (but I do not like including the same titles for
multiple years). Besides the titles below that I am shining a
spotlight on, 2019 will see a number of new and exciting films from
talented directors, the likes of Terrence Malick (“Radegeund”),
Ang Lee (“Gemini Man”), Roman Polanski (“J'Accuse”), Tim
Burton (“Dumbo”), Rian Johnson (“Knives Out”), Tomas
Alfredson (“Jonssonligan”), Trey Edward Shults (“Waves”),
Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“To The Ends
Of The Earth”), Sean Durkin (“The Nest”), Rob Zombie (“Three
From Hell”), Jordan Peele (“Us”), and the Safdie Brothers
(“Uncut Gems”), to name but a few. I am excited for them all and
many others but below are the eight films that I am most anticipating
for 2019.
PARASITE
While
I still think that South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho has yet to
direct a bad film, his recent big budget Netflix film “Okja” was
my least favourite of his so far. While technically very proficient,
the story just did not grab a hold of me like some of his previous
films. Still this has not dampened my anticipation for his brand new
film, which “Parasite” just happens to be. Very little is
actually known about the film except that it is a return for Bong to
a Korean language drama (after the international productions of
“Snowpiercer” and “Okja”) and that he has re-teamed with Song
Kang-Ho who plays the leading role. The imdb does have a brief plot
synopsis which seems to give away little: “ All
unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the Parks for
their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.”
Sounds very intriguing.
THE
LIGHTHOUSE
I
was a very big fan of Robert Eggers “The Witch”, which was
released in 2015, and was super stoked when he revealed that his next
film was going to be a remake of the silent classic “Nosferatu”.
He seemed like the perfect director to tackle this story once again,
but for reasons that I am not totally sure about, the film got put on
hold, and Eggers quickly found himself in production on “The
Lighthouse”. Again, very little is known about the film with the
only plot information from imdb being “The story of an aging
lighthouse keeper named Old who lives in early 20th-century Maine.”
It appears to be a very small production with the cast list only
having two names on it, Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, but from
all reports, “The Lighthouse” is something of a horror film.
There has been some talk too that it was quite a hard shoot with
tensions flaring a number of times, but hopefully this benefits the
final picture. The thing that I am most excited about in regards to
“The Lighthouse” is Eggers decision to shoot the movie on 35mm
using actual black and white film stock. With him re-teaming with
his cinematographer from “The Witch”, Jarin Blaschke, one thing
is certain, this is going to be one gorgeous looking film.
THE
WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
After
the critical and financial disaster that was “Pan”, Joe Wright
bounced back very nicely with his WWII drama “Darkest Hour” which
saw Gary Oldman net a Best Actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill.
Wright, always the chameleon and never tackling similar material
with consecutive films, has this time followed up with what appears
to be a thriller in the Alfred Hitchcock mould. It is about “an
agoraphobic woman living in New York [who] begins spying on her
neighbours only to witness a disturbing act of violence”. Playing
the lead role is the super talented Amy Adams, with Wright
immediately reuniting with Oldman who, along with Julianne Moore,
seem to have a significant roles in the film also. From the plot
description, this film is totally in my wheelhouse; I love thrillers,
I love “Rear Window”, and I have always wanted to see Wright
tackle a film like this, with his superior visual style. I am also
excited to see that his cinematographer for “The Woman in the
Window” is once again Bruno Delbonnel who is fast becoming one of
my favourite cinematographers. If all that wasn't enough, Wright has
also hired Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to work on the score for the
film. I have the feeling that “The Woman in the Window” could
turn out to be something very special.
IN
FABRIC
Unlike
the rest of the films on this list, “In Fabric” is already
finished and had festival screenings where it has been met with
mostly positive reviews. The film is a horror movie about a cursed
dress (!) where as it is passed on from owner to owner, the wearers
each suffer devastating consequences. While the plot sounds very
bizarre, it is the brainchild of writer/director Peter Strickland,
who thanks to his previous work, I have complete faith in him
delivering a compelling and very unique horror film. Strickland is a
filmmaker who is influenced by European genre cinema of the past and
uses the visual tropes from them to explore themes and stories that
are interesting to him. In “Berberian Sound Studio” he used a
lot of the visual language from Italian gialli of the 70's without
creating a giallo himself in the process, while “The Duke of
Burgundy” was clearly influenced by Jess Franco's work while also
being considerably different from them too. The best thing that I
have ever seen from Strickland was his segment in the omnibus film
“The Field Guide To Evil” which he did in the style of a silent
film, and it is the best section of that film, and visually
sumptuous. From all reports, “In Fabric” is also magnificent in
terms of its visual style and I cannot wait to check it out. To give
me more confidence in the film, my favourite distributors in the US,
A24, have picked up “In Fabric” for release.
THE
DEAD DON'T DIE
Like
a lot of these anticipated films, the plot of “The Dead Don't Die”
is unknown but what we do know about the film is enough for me to be
salivating for its release. This is the latest film from Jim
Jarmusch and it is a zombie comedy. While that may not sound like
the two things should go together, it was only six years ago that
Jarmusch graced us with his version of a vampire tale with “Only
Lovers Left Alive” which turned out to be freaking amazing in every
way, so if he can produce the same sort of gold with his take on
zombies, I am all for it. Jarmusch has also assembled quite an
amazing cast for “The Dead Don't Die” with him even reuniting
with some old favourites. In the film are Adam Driver, Bill Murray,
Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Chloe Sevigny, Selena Gomez
(!), Danny Glover and Caleb Landry Jones. Wow! While I am a
Jarmusch fan through and through, his two previous films I have
absolutely loved to bits, so I am totally chomping at the bit to see
“The Dead Don't Die”.
PAIN
& GLORY
The
latest film from genius Spanish director Pedro Almodovar is “Pain &
Glory” and its about “a director reflecting on the choices he has
made in his life as past and present come crashing down around him”.
For the past thirty years, I can not think of another director who
has been as constant as Almodovar at releasing brilliant and
challenging films, so whenever the man ever has a new film coming
out, you can guarantee it will end up on my most anticipated list of
that year. The new film sees him once again collaborate with Antonio
Banderas, who plays the lead here (and maybe Almodovar's on-screen
alter-ego? Who knows?), as well as one of his favourite actresses in
Penelope Cruz. These two actors always produce their best work, in
my opinion, when they work with Almodovar so I am expecting big
things out of “Pain & Glory”. As usual, Almodovar has put
together his regular team of Jose Luis Alcaine as cinematographer,
and Alberto Iglesias doing the music, who he works with beautifully.
With “Pain & Glory” due to be released in Spain on March
22nd,
you would assume that we will see a trailer for it very soon. As
usual, I cannot wait to watch the new Pedro Almodovar film.
ONCE
UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
As
I have said on numerous occasions, any time Quentin Tarantino brings
out a new film, it will be added straight onto this list and will
almost always be right at the top. The imdb describe “Once Upon A
Time In Hollwyood” as so: “A faded TV actor and his stunt double
embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film
industry during the Helter Skelter reign of terror in 1969 Los
Angeles.” Tarantino has indicated that this is most like “Pulp
Fiction” in style compared to his other films, which works for me.
It appears that he is working on a huge canvas here, and just from
looking at the cast list, I am expecting a film with a significantly
extended running time here. Much has been made of the casting of
Margot Robbie in the role of Sharon Tate, but apparently the film is
not about the Mason family rather that story serves in the
background. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are the stars of the
film but the cast is teeming with names like Al Pacino, Dakota
Fanning, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Bruce Dern and Luke Perry (!).
Since Quentin Tarantino is the creator of this movie, you know that
it is going to be shot on 35mm film and once again Robert Richardson
is Tarantino's cinematographer. This film screams “EPIC” and
if QT stays true to his claim that he will only make ten features in
his career before retiring, then that makes “Once Upon A Time In
Hollywood” his penultimate film.
BENDETTA
My
most anticipated film of 2019 is Paul Verhoeven's “Bendetta”
(although I much prefer its original title of “Blessed Virgin”)
and to be honest, the reason I am so looking forward to it is really
nothing more than a gut feeling that it is going to be great. Well
that is not entirely true, as I am a massive fan of Paul Verhoeven's
directorial career and “Bendetta” seems like a movie that totally
fits his talents perfectly. On imdb it is described like so: “A
17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and
erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship
between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.” I
guess it could be very easy to just classify this as Verhoeven's
“lesbian nun” film but while Verhoeven never shies away from
nudity or sexual content of a story, he doesn't just do so to
titillate like he is often accused of. Rather he often tackles
difficult subjects and stories that have this component and stays
true to the presentation of these moments as opposed to just glossing
over them or ignoring them completely. Following on from his most
recent film “Elle”, this is another French language project and
he reunites with that films screenwriter on “Bendetta”.
Interestingly, Verhoeven's longtime writing partner Gerard Soeteman
until recently shared a writing credit on this too, but has distanced
himself from the project by asking his name to be removed from the
credits as he felt the film focused too heavily on the sexual aspects
rather than the political nature that he deemed more interesting.
With this recent development, it only whets my appetite more to see
just how “Bendetta” turns out.
Well,
that is it. My enormous round up of the year that was 2018 is finally
over. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it and got something out of it,
but how about we go back to watching some new films now?
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