Feb 3, 2017

What I'm Loooking Forward To
This is a rushed list to kick the thread off. American stuff. Maybe @Twan @Vahn @FilmandWhiskey can help us there. Stuff that gets showings at Cannes is a good measuring stick.

• Song to Song (Terrence Malick) [3/17]
An upcoming 2017 American drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, starring an ensemble cast including Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman.

Malick shot this in 2011 so he's been painstakingly editing it. That's a very good sign when his previous pictures such as Days of Heaven (1971) and The Thin Read Line (1998) are renowned for some Malick's effort in post-production and are considered among his best work.

• The Beguiled (Sophie Coppola) [6/20]

While imprisoned in a Confederate girls' boarding school, an injured Union soldier cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him. It stars Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst, and Nicole Kidman.

Coppola made one of my favorite movies, Somewhere (2011), as well as one of many other people's favorite movies, Lost in Translation (2003). Her recent efforts, The Bling Ring (2013) and A Very Murray Christmas (2015), weren't as universally acclaimed, but she's definitely got the chops to make another great movie. It's a good sign that she's working with actors Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst who she's done good work with in the past. Oh, and it's a remake of a Clint Eastwood movie that I've never seen. Well, it's got the same title, but they're both adaptions of the novel A Painted Devil by Thomas P. Cullinan

• American Made (Doug Liman) [9/29]

The true story of pilot Barry Seal, who transported contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel in the 1980s.

I liked Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and this guy made that. It will be his second movie with Tom Cruise.

• The Commuter (Jaume Collet-Serra) [10/17]

A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home. It stars Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Sam Neil, Elizabeth McGovern, and Jonathan Banks (Mike on Breaking Bad).

Collet-Serra is responsible for that magic-realist shark movie you watched last year, The Shallows (2016). You thought it was dumb and kinda fun and you starred at Blake Lively's a--- a lot. So why am I excited for this? Because when Collet-Serra is working with Neeson, it's like we're still in the 1990s again. Their first two pictures together, Unknown (2011) and Non-Stop (2014), felt like somebody wrote them for Bruce Willis in the 80s.

Their most recent picture together, Run All Night (2015), was kind of a mess, but I think his shark movie proves that he's learned to keep it simple. This one takes part on a train so it's should be a spiritual sequel to Non-Stop (2014) which starred Neeson as an air marshall caught up in a criminal conspiracy on a train. Except the ensemble casting kind of worries me. So yeah, maybe wait for it to show up on Netflix first, and gauge your expectations on their previous trilogy of collaborations, because I'm pretty much the only Collet-Serra fanboy that I know.

• Downsizing (Alexander Payne) [12/22]

A social satire in which a guy realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Christopher Waltz, and Alec Baldwin.

From the director of Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), & Nebraska (2013). Besides the Coen Brothers, he's probably the best active maker of original American comedies. This co-written by Jim Taylor who helped Payne write Election, About Schmidt, and Sideways. I take that as a good sign. This could be the ensemble comedy that defines the the big screen careers of some of these people, NPH and Wiig specifically.

• Mute (Duncan Jones) [TBA]

A mute bartender goes up against his city's gangsters in an effort to find out what happened to his missing partner. It stars Sam Rockwell, Alexander Skarsgård, Justin Theroux, & Paul Rudd.

Duncan made Moon (2009) and Source Code (2011). I thought both were pretty good. This will be his first non-science fiction effort; I mean it takes place 40 years from now, but the plot isn't science fiction dependent. It stars Sam Rockwell who he previously worked with on Moon (2009). He's described it both as a spiritual sequel to Moon (2009) and as having been "heavily inspired" by Ridley Scott's Bladerunner (1982). My only qualms are that his most recent picture Warcraft (2016) was s--- on pretty heavily and this film had apparently been in development h--- for a long time before he took the reins.


What I'm Assuming Will Be Awful
fdDislaimer: These are predictions some of which are bound to fail.

• Fist Fight (Richie Keen)
Just watch the trailer.


• Emoji Movie: Express Yourself (Tony Leondis)
From the director of hit movies such as Lilo & Stitch 2 (2005) and Igor (2005).


• Amityville: The Awakening (Franck Khalfoun)
Truthfully, this is from the director who made the remake Maniac (2012) as well as the French extremism favorite High Tension (2003), so it could be decent. That said, there's been countless awful spin offs and sequels to the franchise and this an official poster. No, it's not a real Instagram post.



Here are some lists to help you find stuff coming out this year that you might be interested in:
HollywoodReporter
Vulture
RottenTomatoes
The Atlantic
Letterboxd

Spoiler

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Feb 4, 2017

The Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Wonderstruck (Todd Haynes)
Beguiled (Sofia Coppola)
The Lost City of Z (James Gray)
Song to Song (Terrence Malick)
Okja (Bong Joon-ho)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
A Ghost Story (David Lowery)
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies)
Sierranevada (Cristi Puiui)
Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh)
The Snowman (Tomas Alfredson)
You Never Were Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
Kathryn Bigelow's new movie
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo)
Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo)
Good Time (Safdie Brothers)
Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)