The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019 - Page 2 of 10

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90. “The Rhythm Section”
Director: Reed Morano (“I Think We’re Alone Now”)
Cast: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, Max Casella, Daniel Mays
Synopsis: A woman grieving the death of her family in a plane crash takes on a series of identities in her quest for revenge.
What You Need To Know: There have been a few attempts over the years to make, for want of a better phrase, “a female James Bond” work, but even a film as successful as “Salt,” or relatively well-liked as “Atomic Blonde,” didn’t seem to be franchise-starters. But “The Rhythm Section” has an advantage, in that it’s being made by Eon Productions, the company who’ve shepherded the 007 franchise for half a century. It’s based on a series of novels by Mark Burnell (who adapted the script himself), and should provide a good showcase for Blake Lively, who continues to impress in films like “The Shallows” and “A Simple Favor” while still being oddly condescended to. And DP-turned-director Reed Morano (who went A-list after “The Handmaid’s Tale”) is at the helm, which is doubly exciting.
Release Date: Currently set for February 22nd, but given that it’s just a few months away and Paramount’s marketing machine hasn’t kicked off, it might well get pushed back.

89. “Missing Link”
Director: Chris Butler (“ParaNorman”)
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Thompson, Timothy Olyphant
Synopsis: An explorer sets out in the Pacific Northwest to find a legendary creature that bridges man and beast.
What You Need To Know: Laika’s run of making good, but never quite great, movies came to an end back in 2016 with the utterly wonderful “Kubo & The Two Strings.” But that film also marked something of an end of an era for Portland’s finest stop-motion outfit, with CEO and “Kubo” director Travis Knight off working on his live-action debut with “Bumblebee” (and potentially the third “Guardians Of The Galaxy” movie after that, if rumors are to be believed), and parting ways with longtime distributors Focus, at least for now. This’ll be the second of THREE Bigfoot-themed animations within a year (after “Smallfoot” and next fall’s “Abominable”), but knowing Laika, it’ll certainly be the most charming.
Release Date: April 12th (a wise move from new distributors Annapurna, marking a break from the August/September dates that Focus traditionally gave Laika’s stuff despite it never really working).

88. “Native Son”
Director: Rashid Johnson
Cast: Ashton Sanders, Nick Robinson, KiKi Layne, Sanaa Lathan, Margaret Qualley.
Synopsis: The tragic story of a young African American man growing up in poverty in Chicago.
What You Need To Know: Any A24-backed movie with a principally African-American cast, especially one that shares a lead in the shape of Ashton Sanders, is going to be labeled ‘this year’s ‘Moonlight’?’ by someone. But trust us: unless this adaptation of Richard Wright’s seminal 1940 novel has strayed a long way from the source material, it isn’t going to be very much like “Moonlight.” Marking the directorial debut of visual artist Rashid Johnson and moving the 1930s setting of the novel to the present day, it’s likely to be controversial in some ways (there’s a LOT of violence against women in the text), but a script by the brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks will hopefully ensure that it’ll be sensitively treated. And it should look great too, with Johnson’s background, and “A Star Is Born” DP Matthew Libatique at the lens.
Release Date: Will bow at Sundance.

87. “The Addams Family”
Director: Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan (“Sausage Party”)
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll
Synopsis: Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Fester and the rest face off against a greedy reality TV host.
What You Need To Know: The Department Of Obvious Casting has long since decreed that if there were ever to be an Addams Family reboot, that Oscar Isaac should play Gomez (ideally with Eva Green as Morticia). Well, the day has finally arrived, albeit in stop-motion form from MGM and with Charlize Theron a more-than-acceptable replacement for Green. The 1990s “Addams Family” movies have aged like a fine wine, so we’re a little nervous about whether the directors can pull off the same macabre mix of tones, but the character designs look strong, and the cast (which also includes Allison Janney as the villain, Bette Midler as the grandmother, and “Eighth Grade” veteran Elsie Fisher) is as close to perfect as you could get without re-animating Raul Julia.
Release Date: October 11th, just in time for Halloween.

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86. “MIB”
Director: F. Gary Gray (“The Fate Of The Furious”)
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson
Synopsis: The London-based off-shoot of the agency that watches alien life on Earth become embroiled in a murder mystery.
What You Need To Know: Given what a big hit the original was, and how easily franchisable the property seemed, it’s sort of remarkable (slash a miracle) that we haven’t had a “Men In Black” movie every other year for the 22 years (!) since the original landed. Perhaps fed up of waiting for Will Smith’s schedule to clear, and after a failed attempt to cross-breed the series with the “Jump Street” franchise, a new approach was finally sought, with a globe-trotting script from the writers of “Iron Man” and with F. Gary Gray at the helm. It’s taking a shortcut to replicate the original’s Smith/Jones chemistry by borrowing a pairing already proven successful in “Thor: Ragnarok” with Hemsworth and Thompson — can this return the franchise to its glory days? (although reminder that “Men In Black 3” is actually pretty good — Paul Thomas Anderson is rightly a fan…)
Release Date: June 14th

85. “The Parts You Lose”
Director: Christopher Cantwell
Cast: Aaron Paul, Danny Murphy, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Scoot McNairy
Synopsis: A fugitive criminal hides out on a remote North Dakota farm, where he befriends a young deaf boy.
What You Need To Know: It was watched by approximately twelve people during its four-year run on AMC, but “Halt & Catch Fire” will be looked back on as one of the best TV dramas of the past decade — a rich, novelistic, years-spanning drama that shifted from something a little familiar, to something entirely of its own. And it’s our love of that show that has us excited for “The Parts You Lose,” given that it marks the directorial debut of H&CF co-creator Christopher Cantwell. Re-uniting with that show’s star Scoot McNairy, as well as the reliable Aaron Paul and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, he’s working from a script from “Goosebumps” writer Darren Lemke. And so long as it comes closer to Season 4 “Halt & Catch Fire” than Season 1, we’ll be all over it.
Release Date: Not at Sundance, so maybe SXSW or Tribeca if it’s not being held for the fall.

84. “Going Places”
Director: John Turturro (“Romance & Cigarettes”)
Cast: John Turturro, Bobby Cannavale, Audrey Tautou, Pete Davidson, Susan Sarandon
Synopsis: Three sexually-depraved misfits go on a rampage together.
What You Need To Know: Definitely one of the weirdest projects on this list, “Going Places” serves as both a remake of Bertrand Blier’s controversial, Gerard Depardieu-starring 1974 sex comedy of the same name, AND a semi-sequel to “The Big Lebowski,” with Turturro reprising his role as bowling-loving pederast Jesus Quintana (with permission from the Coens, who are otherwise uninvolved). Cannavale and Tautou take the other leads, which is certainly reason for hope, even if Turturro’s films as a director haven’t always lived up to his skill as an actor. A word of caution, though: this actually filmed back in the summer of 2016, and still hasn’t seen the light of day. Maybe in the #MeToo era, it turned out to be not such a good idea?…
Release Date: Not a peep for a while, but could surface in Berlin.

83. Untitled Danny Boyle/Richard Curtis Musical
Director: Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran, Lamorne Morris
Synopsis: A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles.
What You Need To Know: In a parallel universe, this would be the first of two Danny Boyle movies due this year, the second being a James Bond flick. But the latter fell through due to creative differences, so he’s had more time to focus on his team-up with two other British institutions: “Love Actually” writer Richard Curtis and The Beatles. Boyle’s talents have always seemed well-suited to musicals, and when Curtis is on form he’s one of the comedy greats, but we have to admit that we’re a bit suspicious of this one: partly memories of “Across The Universe,” we suppose, and partly the presence of Ed Sheeran in the cast. Still, Boyle rarely makes a true stinker, and even in the worst case scenario, it’s at least a movie musical this year that isn’t “Cats.”
Release Date: June 28th

82. “The Kid Who Would Be King”
Director: Joe Cornish (“Attack The Block”)
Cast: Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Dean Chaumoo, Tom Taylor, Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Ferguson
Synopsis: A 12-year-old schoolboy finds the legendary sword Excalibur, and must form a new Round Table of knights to protect England from the sorceress Morgana.
What You Need To Know: Given it was one of the most highly-praised debuts of the last decade or so, it’s insane, and a bit depressing, that it’s taken eight years for Joe Cornish to follow up “Attack The Block.” Various original projects never quite made it to the starting line (comic book adaptation “Rust,” spy thriller “Section 6,” cyberpunk tale “Snow Crash,” although the latter is at least now becoming an Amazon series), and Cornish flirted with but never took blockbusters like “Star Trek Beyond,” “Kong: Skull Island” and “Gambit.” But finally this kid-friendly take on “The Sword In The Stone” et al was the one, and the trailer suggests it’ll be as much fun as “Attack The Block.” Will it find an audience? We certainly hope so.
Release Date: January 25th

81. “Roads”
Director: Sebastian Schipper (“Victoria”)
Cast: Stéphane Bak, Fionn Whitehead, Ben Chaplin, Moritz Bliebtreu
Synopsis: A refugee from the Congo searching for his brother teams up with a young British runaway.
What You Need To Know: If you’re going to make a splash with your breakout movie, you need to find something to break away from the pack, and Sebastian Schipper found exactly that with his “Victoria” a few years ago — a relentlessly thrilling drama taking in place in real time, across one two-hour-plus take. His follow-up doesn’t have the same one-shot gimmick as far as we’re aware, but there was a solidity to the storytelling in that film that suggests he may not need it. This is a timely subject matter too, and the presence of “Dunkirk” lead Fionn Whitehead as one of the two central boys (Stéphane Bak from “Elle” is the other) means it could find a wider audience than the cult one his previous film picked up.
Release Date: Opens in Germany at the end of February, so a Berlin bow is virtually guaranteed.

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