Movie Enthusiast Issue 43: 18 to Watch in 2018
2017 is almost over; good riddance! Let’s wrap up the year by looking forward to some movies set to open in 2018. I’m omitting movies that already have full trailers out in the wild—Annihilation, Ready Player One, Black Panther, Isle of Dogs—and I’m assuming that everyone knows by now that Ocean’s Eight is happening.
The Other Side of the Wind – Netflix will be completing and releasing this storied Orson Welles film, shot by the director in the 1970 and never finished…until now!
E-Book – After Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas turns to the world of publishing to make a “full-blown comedy,” if IMDB is to believed.
Widows – “Set in contemporary Chicago, amidst a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities take fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.” (directed by Steve McQueen [12 Years a Slave], starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Jacki Weaver, Daniel Kaluuya, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, André Holland, Carrie Coon…I just keep reading down the cast list and seeing more names I’m excited to see in another movie again)
If Beale Street Could Talk – Barry Jenkins follows up Moonlight with an adaptation of the 1974 James Baldwin novel, which you should all go read immediately because it’s the best novel I read all year.
Roma – “A story that chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.” (directed by Alfonso Cuarón, for whom I hear this movie has been a passion project a long time coming.)
Radegund – Allegedly Terrence Malick is returning to coherent narrative form for his new movie, about the Catholic martyr and WWII conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter.
Everybody Knows – Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman) heads to Spain to make one of his signature morally complex dramas with Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote – “An advertising executive jumps back and forth in time between 21st century London and 17th century La Mancha, where Don Quixote mistakes him for Sancho Panza.” (directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Adam Driver)
Peterloo – I thought Mike Leigh had announced his retirement after Mr. Turner, but surprise! He’s making a film about the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, the violent crushing of a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester.
High Life – As previously discussed in these pages, Claire Denis is making a sci-fi film with Robert Pattinson, written by Zadie Smith. Maybe this won’t actually be ready in 2018? I’m just going to assume it will.
Maya – Mia Hansen-Løve follows up Things to Come with a film about a Syrian-war reporter taken hostage. Will star Juliette Binoche in an as-yet-unknown role.
The Irishman – Martin Scorsese returns to mob violence with Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Anna Paquin, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and others in tow.
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan – Xavier Dolan makes his English-language debut with this fascinating-on-paper epic about a former child star who reminisces on his relationship with an older actor. Starring (and I can’t understand how this cast list is real) Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Kit Harington, Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, and narrated by Michael Gambon.
Crazy Rich Asians – Based on the excellently titled novel of the same name and headlined by Constance Wu of Fresh Off the Boat fame, this will be one of the only (if not the first?) major Hollywood releases to star an all-Asian cast. I’m, uh, cautiously optimistic this will be good: I didn’t think the book was campy enough and director Jon Chu doesn’t have the credits to his name to inspire confidence that he’ll work the material for all its potential. We’ll see!
Suspiria – Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, I Am Love) remakes Dario Argento’s iconic giallo film, with Chloe Grace Moretz, Dakota Johnson, and Tilda Swinton set to star.
Black Klansman – “Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully managed to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local chapter.” (directed by Spike Lee)
Stoner – Joe Wright adapts a novel that has alternately been called “the American masterpiece you’ve never heard of” by literally every independent bookstore I’ve ever been to and also “an imminently hatable novel” by literary critics in the know. Starring Casey Affleck. The Online Discourse on this one’s gonna be fun.
The Incredibles 2 – Ummmmmm wait I just learned right now that this is happening next year? …why? Is nothing sacred anymore? (I mean if it’s good I won’t complain but…huh.)
There’s also that Paul Verhoeven nunsploitation film in the works which I’m not telling you to watch, but there you have it.
Thanks for sticking with this silly little newsletter for yet another year! Movie Enthusiast will be back on January 8 with the 2nd Annual Box Office Olympics and on January 22 with my 2017 “Oscar Ballot.”