This is the second part of my list of the 2019 films I'm anticipating most this year. This post is for the smaller films, many of which don't have distribution or release dates yet. There's a good chance that a few won't be released in 2019 at all. However, I'm spotlighting them regardless. Films are listed in no particular order below.
"Jojo Rabbit" - Taika Waititi's next film is a dark comedy about a member of the Hitler Youth during WWII, who has made Adolf Hitler into his imaginary friend. Waititi will be playing the imaginary Hitler. The whole thing sounds bizarre and perfectly appropriate for Taika Waititi. Fox Searchlight has this one, and we'll probably see it pop up toward the end of the year during the awards crunch. No updates on the status of "We're Wolves," alas.
"The Laundromat" - Steven Soderbergh's next film will star Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman investigating the Panama Papers. It's been a while since Soderbergh has made such an obvious prestige project, but he's always experimented with different genres, including his recent basketball movie "High Flying Bird." Netflix is funding this one, so the timeline on a release isn't clear. If it's ready in time, it'll be part of this year's awards slate. If not, then next year's.
"Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" - Speaking of Sundance premieres, I'm really curious about Zac Efron playing Ted Bundy. I can take or leave director Joe Berlinger, and I've heard mixed things about the way the story plays out, but I've had my eye on this project since the first stills with Efron as Bundy came out. Just the image is so unsettling, I can't wait to see the full performance. I've been waiting for Efron to break out for a while now, and this may just do it.
"La Vérité" - Hirokazu Koreeda is making an English-language film, set in Europe, with Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke as a married couple. That checks off so many of my cinephile boxes, there's no way that I wouldn't want to see this. Koreeda has had his ups and downs over the years, but he's been enjoying renewed success after "Shoplifters," and I'm glad to see him taking advantage of all the attention to try something different.
"Untitled Noah Baumbach Project" (2019) - I have slowly but surely become a Noah Baumbach fan after his last couple of films. I have great affection for "The Meyerowitz Stories," and Baumbach has another one with Netflix in the works. This one is a comedy starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a couple getting a divorce. Driver has also been having a fantastic streak lately, and he and Baumbach have already shown they work well together.
"Guava Island" - This is the film on the list that I know the least about, but what I do know is more than enough to have me excited. Donald Glover and Rihanna will star in a tropical heist picture, directed by Hiro Murai, who worked with Glover on "Atlanta" and the music video for Childish Gambino's "This is America" - which I watched about a hundred times on a loop last year. "Guava Island" is being billed as a "Childish Gambino Film." Bring it on.
"The French Dispatch" - The next Wes Anderson film will be a WWII period piece, involve journalists in Paris, and already has a massive cast of notable names, including Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan. I'm glad Anderson is staying in Europe, as I prefer his brand of Continental nostalgia quite a bit more than the American variety. At one point this was reported to be a musical, but that proved to only be wishful thinking. Oh well, maybe next time.
"Harriet" - How is it that there hasn't been a major Harriet Tubman biopic until now? Well, Focus Features seems poised to do it right, pushing a long-percolating prestige pic forward, with Kasi Lemmons directing, and the endlessly impressive Cynthia Erivo starring as Tubman. There's already been some controversy about the casting, because Erivo is a non-American, but you can't argue with her talent. Expect this one to make an appearance at awards time.
"The Last Thing He Wanted" - Yet another Netflix project, this one based on a Joan Didion novel about a woman who becomes an arms dealer in the 1980s. Anne Hathaway and Ben Affleck will star, and Dee Rees is directing. I've enjoyed the resurgence in political thrillers we've seen lately, and this one sounds right up my alley. I'm also very interested to see what Rees will do with a genre piece, something completely different than anything she's done before.
"The Personal History of David Copperfield" - An adaptation of "David Copperfield" starring Dev Patel in the title role would be interesting enough, but this one has Armando Iannucci directing, which immediately puts it on the must-see list. It's not clear yet how straight an adaptation this is going to be, colorblind casting aside, but with Iannucci and his writing partner Simon Blackwell involved, there's sure to be more emphasis on the satire and wit.
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