2. Bob Marley: One Love
The licensed biopics keep coming, with mixed results, but they have two strengths: the vintage reggae music of Bob Marley and the film’s star, Kingsley Ben-Adir, who has convinced in everything he’s done, in roles like Malcolm X in One. Night in Miami and one of the many Barbie Kens. The producers are coming with Marley’s son, Ziggy, and his widow, Rita, played on-screen through Lashana Lynch. Instead of focusing from the cradle to the grave, the story focuses on the years 1976-77. when Marley was politically active, he was trying to unify the divided factions in Jamaica and survived an assassination attempt, while preparing for his big One Love Peace concert in 1978. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) said, “It’s a wonderful time of death. ” “He’s an artistic genius, but he also deals with a lot of things, besides cancer,” which caused his death in 1981 when he was just 36 years old. Adir plays and sings in the film, but the songs we hear are a mix of his voice and recordings of Marley himself. (CJ)
Released on February 14.
Perfect Days (Credit: Mastermind Ltd)
3. Perfect Days
7. Challengers
Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name) love triangle among tennis pros, with Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, was on the 2023 preview, until the SAG-AFTRA actors strike caused a delay and knocked the film out of the opening night slot of the Venice Film Festival last September. It’s still worth looking forward to, with Zendaya as Tashi, a former tennis champion now coaching her husband, Art (Faist), who is in a slump, and who is about to go into a low-stakes match with Patrick (O’Connor), her ex-boyfriend and his childhood friend. There are flashbacks to their younger days, when Tashi had to choose for the first time. “What Luca is really good at is finding sensuality,” Zendaya told Empire magazine, with O’Connor adding, “The tennis is the sex.” There may be off-court sex too, and probably more personal drama than tennis from these three actors with immense screen presence. (CJ)
Published April 26.
Civil War (Alamy)
8. Civil War
Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Men) excels at creating dystopias, and this short- or long-term action mystery is terrifying to some of us. The U. S. is in the midst of an all-out civil war, with gunfire raging in the streets after the secession of 19 states from the union. Kirsten Dunst plays a photojournalist who heads to the damaging war zone of Washington, D. C. , where a colleague played by Stephen McKinley Henderson warns, “They’re shooting the bloodhounds you see on Capitol Hill. “. ” Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) stars alongside Nick Offerman as the president of the United States, who sent the army to attack insurgent cities. Garland will have to give an explanation for the fictitious Western forces that have real political opponents, Texas and California, allies (as if). Otherwise, this fiction will be considered a warning or a prophecy. (CJ)
Published April 26.
The scapegoat (Credit: Alamy)
9. The Scapegoat
Anyone who has seen the hilarious Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) will know that Ryan Gosling was funny years before he was Just Ken. In this action romcom inspired by the 1980s television series, Gosling plays Colt, a one-time stunt man, called back to work on a film directed by his ex, Jodie, played by Emily Blunt. Their can’t-live-with-you-or-without-you sparring picks up again. When the fictional film’s egomaniacal star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing, Colt is assigned to find the actor he once doubled for. The director, David Leitch (Bullet Train and Deadpool 2), was once the stunt double for stars including Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, so the film is a kind of homage to his former profession, but the cast guarantees that the comedy will dominate, with Hannah Waddingham as Jodie’s demanding producer and Stephanie Hsu as Ryder’s assistant. (CJ)
Released on 3 May
Yes (Credit: Paramount)
10. Yes
John Krasinski wrote and directed this family film about a young girl, Bea (Cayley Fleming), who can see IFs, imaginary friends, that other kids have left behind as they grew older. Ryan Reynolds plays a neighbour, called only The Man Upstairs, who shares her talent for seeing these abandoned creatures, all CGI’d with the voices of, it seems, every star John Kraskinski has ever met, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Matt Damon, Awkwafina, Jon Stewart and Steve Carell (as a giant, fuzzy purple IF named Blue). Bea and the neighbour friend set about trying to match the IFs with new children, which would seem to limit the new kids’ imaginations, but let’s not split hairs. During the Covid-19 lockdown, Krasinski created an online show called Some Good News, to bring something cheerful to the world, and he has said about If, “I want this to be Some Good News in movie form.” (CJ)
Released on 17 May
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros. )
11. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
12. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise, which debuted in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has been solid commercially and creatively, with engaging storylines and a generation of motion capture that makes apes feel human. This fourth installment begins three hundred years after the occasions of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), which ended with the death of Caesar, a role that earned Andy Serkis so much praise. Now, apes dominate humans (maybe we were asking for it?) , when an evil, power-hungry ruler emerges, calling himself Proximus Caesar. Owen Teague (It) plays the lead role in motion capture as the idealistic ape, Noa, who, along with a wild young woman named Mae (Freya Allen), demands Proximus situations. Wes Ball, from the Maze Runner trilogy, succeeds Matt Reeves as director. (CJ)
Released on 24 May
Inside Out 2 (Credit: Walt Disney Studios)
13. Inside Out 2
14. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1
Kevin Costner’s role as a rancher in the hit series Yellowstone wasn’t his first Western. He won an Academy Award for directing Dances with Wolves (1990), which also won Best Picture. He returned to the Wild West and directed and co-wrote and starred in this epic two-component film set in the 1860s, the time before and after the American Civil War. Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington are part of the larger cast of more than 170 people, joined by Luke Wilson, Jenna Malone and Danny. Huston, in a story that explores how the West was colonized. In the trailer, the vast landscape looks spectacular, but the main themes of the story are vague: Costner crosses an open range, turns around, and fires his gun at an unseen enemy. But he once said that the film debunked myths about the West, so there you have it. And he’s evidently taking his time, because those films are the first in a series of four screened in the saga. (CJ)
Chapter 1 is released on 28 June, Chapter 2 is released on 16 August
15. A Quiet Place: Day One
Day One is a spinoff of the creepily effective horror franchise about alien monsters with supersensitive hearing who kill humans as soon as they hear a pin drop. Set before the timeline of A Quiet Place Parts One and Two, this story takes us back to the start of the invasion. Lupita Nyong’o is the heroine, who is in noisy New York City when the attacks begin. Alex Wolff, Denis O’Hare and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) are also in the cast, along with Djimon Hounsou. His character is the only one to return from the earlier films, where he was seen as the leader of an island community whose small population silently escaped the chaos. John Kraskinski, who directed the previous films, came up with the story for this one, written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, which sounds like a smart choice. Sarnoski made the sharp, intense, sensitive drama Pig (2021) starring Nicolas Cage. (CJ)
Published June 28.
Deadpool 3 (Credit: Walt Disney Studios)
16. Deadpool 3
This installment of Marvel’s action comic book franchise, starring Ryan Reynolds as the scarred superhero hidden behind his suit and sensitive cracks, doesn’t have an official title yet, though the lofty idea is clear: Deadpool meets Wolverine. Hugh Jackguy, who had stated that he does not return to the role after the character’s death in Logan (2017), has replaced his brain and plays Wolverine in a story set before the events of that film. (Time is a moving target in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. )Deadpool and Wolverine are said to have a cinematic dynamic of fights and friends, which Jackguy described by saying, “He’s a loudmouth who talks fast and my character just needs to punch him in the head. He spoke like a guy who understands his character. Emma Corrin plays a seductive villain. “and the director is Shawn Levy, of the films Night at the Museum. That deserves to be more fitting for Levy than the recent debacle of a drama from All the Light We Can’t See. (CJ)
Released on 26 July
21. Alto Knights
This crime story, set in the 1950s, chronicles the rivalry between the mobsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, a fight so intense that Genovese tried to have Costello killed. The trick is that Robert De Niro plays both characters. It may be a stunt, but I’m there for it. The title refers to a New York social club that was a mob hangout, but the working title was The Wise Guys, which sounds familiar for good reason. The screenplay is by Nicholas Pileggi, whose non-fiction book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family was the source for Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Barry Levinson (who made The Wizard of Lies, starring De Niro as Bernie Madoff) directs here, with a cast that includes Debra Messing as Costello’s wife, Bobbie, and Sopranos veteran Katherine Narducci as Genovese’s wife, Anna. (CJ)
Released on November 15.
23. Villain Part 1
An entire generation has become fans of the Broadway musical Wicked since its premiere in 2003. (It’s still applicable today. ) Finally, the myth-busting story about the witches of Oz will hit the screen as one of the most anticipated of the Year. films, starring Cynthia Erivo as the misunderstood green-faced Elpheba and Ariana Grande as the blonde Glinda. Beginning with his years in witchcraft school, the film, directed by Jon M Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), has Michelle Yeoh as the director, Mrs. Morrible, and Jeff Goldblum as the con man. The adaptation, which will be released in two parts, with the time scheduled for 2025, includes of course the Broadway songs, as well as stories by the composer himself, Stephen Schwartz. He hinted that the first component ends where Act I of the Broadway showcase ends, with Elphaba doing a song “Defying Gravity,” a song he says is “written especially to bring the curtain down. “
Released on November 27.
24. Mufasa: The Lion King
The unlikely selection of Barry Jenkins, the brilliant Moonlight and The Underground Railroad filmmaker, to direct this prequel may give a new artistic dimension to this infallible story. A live musical, it tells the story of how Mufasa has become one of the Wonder Kings. of Pride Land, a story that Rafiki, Timon and Pumbaa (John Kani, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, all returning to voice those characters) tell Simba’s children. Aaron Pierre is the voice of young Mufasa and Kelvin Harrison Jr is Scar. Jenkins said, “We assume he was just born into his lineage, but Mufasa was really a little orphan who had to navigate the world alone. ” James Laxton, the cinematographer who has worked on all of Jenkins’ films, uses the photorealistic generation used. in the 2019 remake of The Lion King. Composer Nicholas Brittell (who created the indelible theme Succession) provides the soundtrack, as well as as-yet-unknown music by Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams. (C. J. )
Released on December 20.
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