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Earlier this year, the fine folks at Esquire Magazine once again asked me to put together a list of the year’s “most anticipated” movies. Like last year, this list will be updated monthly, transforming into a list of the “best” movies of the year. You’ll have to ask them why they update the one post rather than creating a new one. But regardless of the reason, the Most Anticipated list will soon be scrubbed from the internet (as much as anything ever really is). So, for posterity and continued reference, I’m quoting it below.
While I’m at it, though, I figured I’d explain a bit about how I think about putting it together. Because there are so many of these sorts of lists—and so many of them are basically identical—I try to include a mix of films that run the gamut in size, genre, and filmmaker identity. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive list of every movie due to be released (you could go to Metacritic for that), or even every movie I’m excited to see. Rather, the goal is to A) service Esquire readers by including the big-ticket items I think they’ll be excited for, and B) shine a light on new work from lesser known filmmakers who I’m a fan of and who maybe don’t have a huge marketing machine behind them. Beyond including films I’ve seen at festivals or heard about through word of mouth, I’ll usually survey a few people working in indie film in some capacity and comb through PR pitches. And then when the whole thing feels meaty but not too long, it’s off to my editor. And there you have it. Media, baby.
Anyway, here’s the list, courtesy of Esquire:
Here
What we know: Here, from director Bas Devos, follows a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels, as he finishes a job and prepares to move back home.
Why we’re excited: Here is equally great as a meditation on the slow process of change and as a celebration of soup. It was one of our favorite films we saw at this past year’s New York Film Festival.
Release date: February 9
Drive-Away Dolls
What we know: First Joel Coen went it alone with The Tragedy of MacBeth, and now it’s Ethan’s turn. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan play a pair of friends whose road trip to Tallahassee goes awry in what we imagine to be very Coen-ish ways.
Why we’re excited: The next best thing to two Coen brothers making a movie is one Coen brother making a movie.
Release date: February 23
Dune: Part Two
What we know: There will be a lot more Zendaya in the second and final part of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. This one–which was pushed to 2024 due to the strikes–will focus more on the Harkonnen. And Florence Pugh will be one of the new actors introduced.
Why we’re excited: Because there’s seemingly nothing in the world that gets Denis Villeneuve more jazzed than Dune.
Release date: March 1
Love Lies Bleeding
What we know: Rose Glass, who you might (or might not) know as the force behind 2019’s criminally under-discussed Saint Maud, directs this 1980s-set lesbian romance-thriller starring Kristen Stewart.
Why we’re excited: Saint Maud was a big-time casualty of the pandemic, premiering just as the country was locking down. We’re eager to see how Glass follows her electrifying debut, and hoping that she fares better this go-round.
Release date: March 8
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
What we know: Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World is a two-part Romanian black comedy about an overworked and underpaid production assistant (Ilinca Manolache) on a shoot for a workplace safety video.
Why we’re excited: Despite being two hours and forty three minutes with an equally long title, Radu Jude’s latest has been a massive hit on the festival circuit.
Release date: March 22
Free Time
What we know: Free Time, from first-timer Ryan Martin Brown, is the story of a man (Colin Burgess) who, nearing the end of his twenties, quits his unfulfilling desk job to have his “Summer of George”: embrace life, find himself, that whole rigamarole. But figuring out what to do with his time proves harder than expected.
Why we’re excited: Like Downtown 81 or Slacker, Free Time is one of those down-and-dirty ensemble movies that captures a burgeoning scene at a fertile time. In addition to Burgess, the film features a host of other Brooklyn mainstays who could soon be household names. Among them, Rajat Suresh, Jessie Pinnick, Holmes Holmes, Jeremy Levick, and a stand-out performance from distinguished yeller, Bardia Salimi. (Also, I appear for approximately one movie-stealing second as an extra.)
Release date: March 22
Riddle of Fire
What we know: Riddle of Fire, from first-timer Weston Razooli, is set in the Wyoming woodlands, and sends three mischievous kids on a minor odyssey.
Why we’re excited: Western vistas and kids on motorbikes.
Release date: March 22
La Chimera
What we know: La Chimera is a 1980s-set tomb-robbing drama from Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro), starring Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini. It was filmed around Italy and Switzerland.
Why we’re excited: Umm, an Italian-set tomb-robbing movie that stars Isabella Rossellini from one of our favorite young directors, Alice Rohrwacher? I believe the Italian word is Sorprendente!
Release date: March 29
Mickey 17
What we know: Robert Pattinson is going to space again–this time, as a clone in director Bong Joon-Ho’s loose adaptation of Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey7.
Why we’re excited: Bong is back, baby!
Release date: March 29
Dad & Step-Dad
What we know: The title does not lie. This is a movie about a dad (Colin Burgess) and a step-dad (Anthony Oberbeck) and the hijinks that ensue during their weekend excursion with their 13-year-old son Branson (Brian Fiddyment).
Why we’re excited: Tynan Delong’s first feature is a microbudget cult classic in the making.
Release date: March
The People’s Joker
What we know: Autobiography meets the Gotham City universe in Vera Drew’s very buzzy new film about–I’ll just go ahead and quote the film’s synopsis here–“a painfully unfunny aspiring clown [who] grapples with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City’s sole comedy program in a world where comedy has been outlawed.”
Why we’re excited: For the film itself, which sounds pretty rad. But also, to see if the folks at DC have a conniption and throw their legal weight against it (#FREETHEPEOPLESJOKER was trending after the film got pulled from TIFF after its premiere).
Release date: April 5
The Beast
What we know: Bertrand Bonello’s latest is a Cloud Atlas-style time-jumping sci-fi epic starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay as three sets of star-crossed lovers.
Why we’re excited: You either love The Beast or you hate it, and we’re predicting that the discourse is going to be hot around this one.
Release date: April 15
Challengers
What we know: Pushed from its initial 2023 release date due to the strikes, Luca Guadanigno’s latest stars Zendaya as a championship tennis star/coach who winds up in a love triangle with her husband and her ex at a challenger event.
Why we’re excited: Guadanigno’s bread and butter—or peach and hand, if you will—is kinky love affairs. Throw in Zendaya and competitive tennis and you’ve sold us.
Release date: April 26
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
What we know: Joanna Arnow directs and stars in this absurd, structurally audacious comedy about a 30-something navigating an unfulfilling casual BDSM relationship, meaningless corporate work, and the awkwardness of her family.
Why we’re excited: Arnow is a terrific filmmaker, who’s world class at building comedy out of uncomfortable situations. We’ve heard lots of great things about her first feature coming out of Cannes and New York Film Festival.
Release date: April 26
The Fall Guy
What we know: David Leitch got his start as a stuntman. More recently, he’s been the director of giant action smashes like John Wick and Atomic Blonde. Now he’s returning to his roots by remaking the hit 1980s TV show about a Hollywood stuntman who earns an extra buck by fighting crime.
Why we’re excited: Besides the director being a perfect match for the material, this one also got the perfect leading man for the part of Colt Seavers, in Ryan Gosling.
Release date: May 3
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
What we know: George Miller’s Fury Road prequel is finally here! It is set decades before the events of the previous Mad Max–and 45 years after the apocalypse–and will star Anya Taylor-Joy in the Charlize Theron role.
Why we’re excited: Fury Road set the world on fire (in both senses) and we’re ready to go as far into the godforsaken desert Miller wants to take us.
Release date: May 24
Hit Man
What we know: Inspired by Skip Hollandsworth’s renowned Texas Monthly story about an undercover hitman, Richard Linklater’s latest stars Glen Powell (who also co-wrote) as said undercover hitman. It’s set in New Orleans. And it features the greatest cinematic use of the Notes app to date.
Why we’re excited: This is the sort of breezy, well-made original movie everyone’s always clambering for. The rare flick that a whole family can get down with. Powell has never been more charming.
Release date: June 7
The Bikeriders
What we know: Inspired by the 1967 photo book of the same name, writer-director Jeff Nichols goes for a ride with the Vandals MC. This Chicago-based outlaw motorcycle gang sports Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.
Why we’re excited: To see what voice Tom Hardy does this time.
Release date: June 22
Twisters
What we know: Lee Isaac Chung is following Minari with an update to Jan de Bont’s 1996 film, Twister. It has a stacked cast, which includes Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, and Tunde Adebimpe.
Why we’re excited: A big-budget action sequel is a tad left field for Chung following Minari, and we’re very curious to see his take on storm chasing!
Release date: July 19
Flint Strong
What we know: This year will see a Barry Jenkins directorial effort (in December’s Mufasa: The Lion King), as well as a Bary Jenkins screenplay credit. This one–about the life of professional boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields–comes from Rachel Morrison, in her feature debut.
Why we’re excited: Morrison was the cinematographer for Black Panther and Fruitvale Station, and we can’t wait to see what she does in her first feature-length directorial effort.
Release date: August 9
Gladiator 2
What we know: This is (extremely regrettably) not Nick Cave’s famed version in which Maximus is resurrected through the body of a dying Christian and tricked into killing his own son.
Why we’re excited: Though significantly less intriguing than Cave’s concept, writer David Scarpa’s is not such a horrible consolation: It is set 20 years after the original Gladiator and stars Paul Mescal as Maximus’s grown nephew as he returns from the wilderness and–we’re going out on a limb here–fucks shit up. Denzel Washington is in it. So is Pedro Pascal. Ridley Scott directs.
Release date: November 22
Nosferatu
What we know: Robert Eggers will put his own spin on F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic. It will star Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, and Nicholas Hoult.
Why we’re excited: Is there any director from whom you’d more want to see a vampire movie?
Release date: December 25
Anora
What we know: Sean Baker is making another film about sex workers, set in New York and Las Vegas, and shot on 35mm.
Why we’re excited: Baker’s journalistic writing process reliably takes him to often-ignored subcultures and yields compelling characters.
Release date: TBA
Berman’s March
What we know: This’ll be another hazy micro-budget effort, set in the rural northeast, and about a working class character finding their way, from the team behind last year’s Hannah Ha Ha.
Why we’re excited: Jordan Tetewskey and Joshua Pikovsky infuse their films with a lot of heart.
Release date: TBA
Blitz
What we know: Steve McQueen has recruited Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, and Stephen Graham for a drama about the bombing of London by Axis forces during World War II.
Why we’re excited: Because anything Steve McQueen does is worth watching.
Release date: TBA
Booger
What we know: Mary Dauterman, a fixture in the New York indie scene, makes her feature debut with a comedy about a woman named Anna (Grace Glowicki) who unravels after the death of her best friend, fixating on her cat (the titular Booger) and the wound it inflicts upon her.
Why we’re excited: A surreal New York odyssey fueled by grief and a missing cat? Me-owww.
Release date: TBA
Death of a Unicorn
What we know: Death of a Unicorn finds Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega driving through the woods–when they run over a unicorn with their car. The unicorn, apparently, escaped from a billionaire pharma CEO’s estate. Surprise surprise this is an A24 film.
Why we’re excited: Writer-director Alex Scharfman wins the award for Most Intriguing Concept of 2024. Will his film live up to it?
Release date: TBA
Faces of Death
What we know: How To Blow Up a Pipeline director Daniel Goldhaber is back at it with a sort-of remake of John Alan Schwartz’s notorious 1978 shockumentary. This version, penned with Goldhaber’s frequent collaborator Isa Mazzei, is about a content moderator who comes across a series of violent videos. It stars Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, and Barbie Ferreira.
Why we’re excited: How to Blow Up a Pipeline was one of our favorite movies from last year. We’re dying to see what Goldhaber and his team does next.
Release date: TBA
Good One
What we know: India Donaldson’s first feature, which will screen at this year’s Sundance, follows 17-year-old Sam (Lily Colias) on a weekend backpacking trip with her father (James Le Gros) and his oldest friend (Danny McCarthy).
Why we’re excited: We’re big fans of Donaldson’s short films, and have heard this one compared to Old Joy.
Release date: TBA
Handling the Undead
What we know: Thea Hvistendahl’s feature debut is an adaptation of acclaimed horror novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2005 book of the same name. It’s set on an unusually hot day in Oslo, when a strange electrical field brings about a collective migraine, causing electronics around the city to malfunction and the deceased to return to life.
Why we’re excited: Fans of The Worst Person in the World will be excited to see stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie reteam in another Oslo-set drama.
Release date: TBA
His Three Daughters
What we know: This one, from Azazel Jacobs, casts Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne as three sisters who spend time together in their dying father’s Lower East Side apartment.
Why we’re excited: If we’re going to spend a movie pent up in an apartment, we want to do it with Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne.
Release date: TBA
I Saw the TV Glow
What we know: Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up to creepypasta sensation We’re All Going to the World’s Fair has been described by the filmmaker as the second part in a trilogy of sorts. It follows two teenagers who bond over their shared love of a scary television show, only to have that show get mysteriously canceled.
Why we’re excited: Schoenbrun’s first feature was a triumph of microbudget filmmaking. Now, they’ve got A24 behind them, as well as a bigger budget. We’re excited to see what they do as they level up in scope.
Release date: TBA
Janet Planet
What we know: Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker makes her big screen directorial debut with a 1991-set story about an adrift single mother (Julianne Nicholson) and her precocious 11-year-old daughter (Zoe Ziegler), who live in rural Massachusetts and have various eccentric people enter their lives.
Why we’re excited: We caught Janet Planet at New York Film Festival, and fell for it hard. It’s funny, so well observed, and Nicholson and Ziegler are both great.
Release date: TBA
Megalopolis
What we know: Francis Ford Coppola dumped a ton of his personal savings into his decades-old passion project: A sci-fi love story set in a future New York vying to become a utopian society.
Why we’re excited: Coppola’s big swings don’t always connect, but when they do they’re, uh, you know, some of the greatest movies of all time.
Release date: TBA
Polaris
What we know: Not a lot. This one comes from Lynn Ramsay. And it’s rumored to be an Alaska-set period piece horror film.
Why we’re excited: Ramsay will reunite with Joaquin Phoenix, who starred in her last film, pitch-black 2017 thriller, You Were Never Really Here.
Release date: TBA
This Closeness
What we know: Kit Zauhar is following her acclaimed DIY debut, Actual People, with a film about a couple (Zauhar and Zane Pais) who stays in an AirBnb with a reclusive host (Ian Edlund).
Why we’re excited: Zauhar is a promising young filmmaker, with a knack for crafting complex characters as they flounder through early adulthood.
Release date: TBA
Tuesday
What we know: Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a mother who, alongside her daughter (Lola Petticrew), must confront death when it visits in the form of a talking bird.
Why we’re excited: To see if the bird flies into Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s head at all.
Release date: TBA
What films are you most excited for this year? Leave a comment below.
Listings
Bre Thomas is looking for a production designer and prop master for an upcoming comedy short. March 22 - 25. Jersey City & Wood-ridge, NJ. Must be comfortable with food styling. Email: Bre.thomas@gmail.com.
The Future of Film Is Female’s 2024 Winter Cycle is open for submissions through February 15 for short films in pre-production, production, and post-production for all women and non-binary filmmakers. Submit here.
Film At Lincoln Center is hiring a full-time Digital Production Coordinator of Film Comment’s digital publications and assets. More info here.
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