A new year of films is upon us. There will inevitably be disappointments just as there are pleasant surprises. We’ll attempt to get around to seeing as many movies as we can and yet there will be those that inevitably pass under the radar. While January rarely offers exciting new releases, it does afford us time to look ahead to what we know is coming up and there’s plenty worth looking forward to in 2017. We’ve compiled a list of 33 films that you should look out for in the year ahead. From blockbusters to indies, these are the movies that you should put on your calendar now, and if they don’t have a release date yet, just be vigilant.
The Lost City of Z
Release Date: April 14th
Director:James Gray
Cast:Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland, Robert Pattison, Sienna Miller
Synopsis:The true-life drama of British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett (Hunnam), who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s.
Quite simply,James Grayis the most underrated American film director of this young century. His past two films,The ImmigrantandTwo Lovers(masterpieces both), have a history of being unceremoniously dumped by their distributor for Gray’s refusal to make the trims that the studio deemed necessary. But this passion project, which was previously set up to starBrad PittandBenedict Cumberbatch, is being fully supported by Amazon Studios (serendipitously!) just as Gray intended. Gray has expertly crafted some emotional melodramas but I can’t wait to see what he and his expert cinematographer,Darius Khondji, have up their sleeve for his first full-blown adventure. Judging from Chris Cabin’sreviewfrom its debut at the New York Film Festival, the long journey ofThe Lost City of Zis more than worth the wait. He called it “a masterpiece.”— Brian Formo
Wonder Woman
Release Date: June 2nd
Director:Patty Jenkins
Cast:Gal Gadot, Robin Wright, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, David Thewlis, Lucy Davis
Synopsis:An Amazon princess (Gadot) leaves her island home to explore the world and, in doing so, becomes one of the world’s greatest heroes.
We’ve waited a long time for this movie. Warner Brothers’ DCEU has a recent history of getting us ramped up with great marketing but then letting us down with product, but we soldier on undeterred.Wonder Womanlooks great. The juxtaposition between the isle of women warriors and the World War I setting looks fabulous. Gadot is extremely commendable as she’s taken on this role for all the positive qualities it should exude. Now, all we want is a really good movie.— Brian Formo
The Beguiled
Release Date: June 23rd
Director:Sofia Coppola
Cast:Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Angourie Rice, Nicole Kidman, Oona Laurence
Synopsis:While imprisoned in a Confederate girl’s boarding school, an injured Union soldier (Farrell) cons his way into each of the lonely women’s hearts, causing them to turn on each other.
Sofia Coppolacertainly made an interesting 180 when she dropped out of makingThe Little Mermaidto make a film set in the Civil War focusing on the seductive qualities of a soldier who’s been detained in a schoolhouse. That cast is great. Cannot wait for Dunst, Fanning and Kidman to get into Southern belle mode. And Farrell just turned in his career best performance inThe Lobster. The actor who burst out in the early 2000s with a ton of movie idol swagger now possesses a certain beaten down quality that keeps him humble. For this tale, Farrell’s newfound humility mixed with seductive deception and Coppola’s expert use of cinematography certainly has givesThe Beguiledthe potential to be as delicious as a Mint Julip on a hot porch.
Coppola has impressed me with many films but I’ve always loved her period works the most (The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette), so I am suited the hell up for this tale. (For the extra curious,The Beguiledis based on a book byThomas Cullinanwhich was turned into a pre-Dirty Harryfilm starringClint Eastwoodand directed byHarry’sDon Siegel.)— Brian Formo
Baby Driver
Release date: August 11th
Director:Edgar Wright
Cast:Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez
Synopsis:After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver (Elgort) finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.
We don’t know much, but all we need to know isEdgar Wright+ chase scenes and we’re there. The action is propelled by music, but Wright’s been mum on how the 35 tracks will be used to enhance the action. Essentially, once we get a trailer we’ll rev our engines and when it is released we’ll peel rubber to see what the unpredictable director has in store. We don’t doubt that it’ll be raucous fun. The young cast is appealing and the vets (Spacey, Hamm, Foxx) are stacked with winks.— Brian Formo
Release date: 2017
Director:Bong Joon-ho
Cast:Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Dano, Ahn Seo-Hyun
Synopsis:A young girl named Mija (Ahn) risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend—a massive animal named Okja.
Snowpiercerwas an imperfect first foray into English-language filmmaking from the Korean master,Bong Joon-ho, but it featured some of the most imaginative set pieces we’ve seen in a disaster film in ages.Snowpiercerwas an appropriate visual allegory for our modern awakening to widening income equalities and how that’s stitched into the fabric of globalization, but while Bong’s best films (Mother, The Host, Memories of Murder) have all featured polemic outbursts, they all happened on the side of the narrative. AndOkjasounds like it could be the director’s live-actionTotoro. Regardless of what the creature is, knowing that Bong’s making a creature feature again after making one of the bests withThe Hostis more than enough to make us very excited.— Brian Formo
Untitled Detroit Project
Director:Kathryn Bigelow
Cast:John Boyega, Will Poulter, Jason Mitchell, Jack Reynor, Hannah Murray, John Krasinski, Kaitlyn Dever
Synopsis:A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest citizen uprisings in the United State’s history.
WithPaul Thomas Anderson’s 1950s fashion film not shooting yet,KathrynBigelowarguably becomes the biggest American auteur todefinitelyhave a film coming out in 2017. It currently doesn’t have a distributor, butThe Hurt Lockerfilmmaker has reunited with herZero Dark Thirtysuper-producerMegan Ellison(The Master, Spring Breakers) to fund a tale that, though 50 years ago, is rife for being told right now. Hate crimes are rising coast to coast, intolerance is at its peak and people are misconstruing support for police reform to mean anti-police. That’s the story of 1967. And that’s still a story now.
Bigelow’s last film got railroaded by the press for its depiction of torture butZero Dark Thirtywas, in my opinion, one of the best American-made films of the aughts. Bigelow’s ability to build tension to a boil is unmatched right now. And the story of the Detroit Riots feels like an intriguing and necessary pot to boil.— Brian Formo
Wonderstruck
Director:Todd Haynes
Cast:Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Oakes Fegley, Tom Noonan, Millie Simmonds
Synopsis:The story of a young boy in the Midwest (Fegley) is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York (Simmonds) from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Because a newTodd Haynesfilm is always a cause for celebration. That he’s making a childhood adventure story from the author ofHugoamps our excitement. But nothing can be more exciting than Moore reuniting with Haynes for a third time after he lens two of her career bests inSafeandFar From Heaven. I’m on record everywhere saying that Haynes’ last film,Carol, is a masterpiece and one of the best examples of pure cinema from this century. So hell yeah—whatever his follow up is—I’m there, hoping to be “wonderstruck.”— Brian Formo
You Were Never Really Here
Director:Lynne Ramsay
Cast:Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola, Judith Roberts
Synopsis:A war veteran’s (Phoenix) attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong.
Now thatLeonardo DiCaprio’s won an Oscar can we all agree thatJoaquin Phoenixis the most overdue actor to win his first actor? His spotty but intriguing 2000s run included classic turns inGladiator, Walk the LineandTwo Lovers. But Phoenix has been on a tear in the aughts fromThe MastertoHer, The ImmigrantandInherent Viceand he only has a nomination forThe Masterto show for it. After that great run, Phoenix has taken a bit of a break. He showed up for the annualWoody Allenmovie in 2015, boughtDoctor Strangecomics and then finally shot a new movie!
The synopsis gives someTaxi Drivervibes, but what’s most appealing about the movie, other than Phoenix, is that this will beLynne Ramsay’s first film since she leftNatalie Portman’sJane Got a Gunas a broken home in one of the nastiest set walk offs of the modern era (actually after Michael Fassbender dropped out, she just didn’t show up to set at all). The director of the searingWe Need to Talk About Kevintook a great cast with her (Michael Fassbender, Jude Law and Bradley Cooper) and burned down a stately indie reputation she’d built up. Without ever speaking to the press, the director quietly madeYou Were Never Really Here, which could be the title of that failed Western’s tell all book.— Brian Formo
War for the Planet of the Apes
Release Date: July 14th
Director:Matt Reeves
Cast:Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, Max Lloyd-Jones, Terry Notary
Synopsis:A nation of genetically evolved apes led by Cesar (Serkis) becomes embroiled in a battle with an army of humans.
The reboot ofThe Planet of the Apesfranchise is definitely the most unexpected success of the new movie universes—no one was really clamoring for a fresh take, but the films have been so great it could feasibly become the best new trilogy of the modern era withWar for the Planet of the Apes. Serkis’ Caesar has become so seminal we often forget that this franchise was launched byJames Franco’s scientist.Matt Reevesand Fox were very smart with the sequel,Rise of the Planet of the Apes,in their awareness that audiences were most aligned with the apes and not the humans and they shifted their focus properly.
This franchise has elevated what motion capture can do for drama by directing attention to the apes communal rallying points and how they deal with trauma differently. Harrelson has the potential for a fun human foil because Harrelson is at his best as an opposition, but this sequel is all about Caesar and finding out who Zahn is playing as an unspecified iconic ape from the novels. We wring our hands at the volume of reboot announcements, but when they’re done as well as the first twoApesinstallments, it becomes a huge anticipation.— Brian Formo
The Dark Tower
Release date: July 28th
Director:Nikolaj Arcel
Cast:Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Abbey Lee, Jackie Earle Haley, Katheryn Winnick, Michael Barbieri, Fran Kranz
Synopsis:Gunslinger Roland Deschain (Elba) roams an Old West-link landscape in search of The Dark Tower, in hopes that reaching it will preserve a dying world.
Stephen King’s novels are so immense that a movie adaptation has seemed impossible, so the reports of how the screenwriters are starting midway through his books to work back into the lore is an interesting and potentially dangerous approach. Despite King’s fans growing weary about the timeline, the author has given his stamp of approval toNikolaj Arcel’s method of creating a cinematic world where the story doesn’t feel too immense. Time will tell if that’s done correctly, but Arcel is an intriguing choice, as his most recent film was a royal melodrama that introduced Hollywood toAlicia Vikander, in the rich period romance ofA Royal Affair.
The intriguing approach to the world-building, coupled with the immense acceptance of HBO’s sci-fi Western mash-up,Westworld, and the appealing dual casting of Elba and McConaughey, the timing seems perfect for a franchise that’s had numerous failures to launch. Now we’ll just have to see if they do it justice. Currently, you have to admire the ambition.— Brian Formo
