1- DUNE: No, I never read the novel, nor the sequels, nor watched the entire David Lynch film. But this is about as epic as epic can get. This year there's not a lot of "big" popcorn films for whatever reason. No "Star Wars" or good Marvel/DC movie. And while this is super expensive and fantasy and has a hero and villain and action and all of that...I kind of doubt anyone under 30 will actually go see this. Has a big budget, art house film ever existed? It's definitely going to be unique. Denis Villeneuve directed, and while the sci-fi movies he's made look great ("Blade Runner: 2049" and "Arrival"), they weren't really that good. This one has a great cast, with Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Dave Bautista, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, and Jason Momoa. Should be quite the spectacle. And maybe finally we can all forget about Jodorowsky's "Dune."
2- THE FRENCH DISPATCH: Wes Anderson is back with his first live action picture since the four-star "The Grand Budapest Hotel." This one is about a newspaper and is an anthology, so it's a bunch of short films connected. The cast is massive: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray, Elisabeth Moss, Willem Dafoe, Christoph Waltz, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Benicio Del Toro, among others. Should be another superb, perfect little pretty puzzle box of a film.
3- TENET: Christopher Nolan hasn't made a film since "Dunkirk." His movies are always huge events shrouded in secrecy. From the first trailer, this looks a lot like "Inception," which is a good thing. It's too bad he won't just make Batman movies until the end of time, but I digress. This one stars Denzel Washington's son, who's a terrible actor (he was in Spike Lee's "BlacKKKlansman"). Also Robert Pattinson, who, for whatever reason, has lately been refusing to do anything but weird, usually awesome indie films (granted, he's in the next Batman movie playing Batman). It looks like this is about time travel or something. Should be amusing.
4- NEXT GOAL WINS: At this point, Taiki Waititi can do no wrong. I can't wait for his Star Wars film which will probably come out in, what, six years? He's filming this movie right now in Hawaii. It's like "The Bad News Bears" but this time it's a Samoan soccer team. It stars Michael Fassbender as the coach and also Elisabeth Moss. If this is anything like "Shaolin Soccer" then it might end up the best film of the year.
5- THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND: I admit that, unfortunately, Judd Apatow doesn't make good movies anymore. This one stars Pete Davidson, the funniest "SNL" cast member, though, and is based on his life, so I can't see this not working. Unless it's a train wreck. Get it? The last film he directed was "Trainwreck." Sigh. This should be hilarious. Let's all hope it's not three hours long, though.
6- LAST NIGHT IN SOHO: Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors of all time, even though "Baby Driver" sucked. This one is a horror movie about fashion and the '70's and stars Thomasin McKenzie (who was great in both "Jojo Rabbit" and "Never Leave a Trace"), Anya Taylor-Joy (who was great in "Thoroughbreds" and "The Witch" and "Split") and Matt Smith. Wright is a master at style and fast-cuts...so this could be a pretty wild and intense ride.
7- NO TIME TO DIE: Didn't Daniel Craig say he was quitting playing Bond like three movies ago? Either way he's back, and this time we've got a great director in Cary Joji Fukunaga (he directed the first, awesome season of "True Detective" and the best show of 2018, Netflix's "Maniac"). We also get Rami Malek as the big bad. Sure, this'll be the same crap, and sure, I miss the stupid/funny Roger Moore Bond, but this'll at least be entertaining and pretty to look at.
8- ON THE ROCKS: Sofia Coppola seems to be returning to her best film, "Lost in Translation," with a film starring Bill Murray that's about an old, playboy dude and a young mother in New York City. Coppola's films are always interesting and artsy, but she hasn't made anything worthwhile since that Bill Murray Christmas special on Netflix a few years ago (I never did bother to watch her "The Beguiled" remake...and she won a directing trophy at Cannes for it...so maybe I should). Coppola and Murray are the perfect team so this should be great.
9- GODZILLA VS. KONG: I could say that this is Godzilla verse King Kong and isn't that enough for you? But this is also directed by Adam Wingard, who has made a few good horror films in the past ("You're Next" was fun, "Blair Witch" not so much). Let's all pray that this isn't ungodly awful like "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" was.
10- MANK: David Fincher returns after six long years of collecting money by finally directing another feature film (since 2014's "Gone Girl" he directed a few episodes of "Mindhunter" on Netflix). This one stars Gary Oldman and is about the making of "Citizen Kane." Jesus Christ, just give it all the Oscars already.
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