40. “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”
Director: Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain,” “Life of Pi”)
Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, Chris Tucker
Synopsis: The surviving members of a squad of soldiers who served in the Iraq War experience the disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad when on a promotional “Victory Tour” in Texas.
What You Need To Know: Ang Lee has turned his hand to many genres over the years, almost always to uniquely intelligent and incisive effect (except maybe for “Hulk,” but even that has its defenders on staff). And so it’s exciting that he’s now adding a “war satire” string to his bow, and has assembled a very fine cast to help him bring Billy Fountain‘s acclaimed debut novel to the screen. Stewart’s going to have a big year, still riding her ‘Sils Maria’ success and with another Assayas film due out, and there are some eclectic other choices, like Diesel, Tucker, and especially Martin, whom we haven’t seen anything great from in quite some time and is well due. Lee is shooting in 120fps and in 3D, so it should be an interesting visual experience, but with the Oscar-winning Simon Beaufoy co-writing and Lee himself a Best Director winner, expectations are a lot higher than that.
Release Date: November 11th, heart of awards season.
39. “The BFG”
Director: Steven Spielberg (“E.T,” “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park”)
Cast: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Rebecca Hall, Will Forte, Jemaine Clement
Synopsis: A little girl befriends a dream-making giant who is an outcast because of his refusal to eat children.
What You Need To Know: There are things we try to maintain a level of objective remove about — and then there’s Roald Dahl‘s “The BFG.” Simply one of the greatest children’s books of all time (do not even try to argue this point), hearing it’s to be made into a film fills us half with joy and half with fear. But then you hear it’s coming from Steven Spielberg, and is being written by his “E.T.” scribe Melissa Mathison (who sadly passed away just after principal photography had wrapped), and you get to just relax into looking forward to it. Featuring Mark Rylance, fresh off his Globe nomination for Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” as the heartbreakingly goodnatured giant (courtesy of WETA vfx) and newcomer Ruby Barnhill as the little girl Sophie (so-called after Dahl’s niece, former model Sophie Dahl, trivia fans) and having found it’s natural home with Disney, we really hope this will be a kids classic for the ages.
Release Date: July 1st
38. “Personal Shopper”
Director: Olivier Assayas (“Summer Hours,” “Irma Vep,” “Clouds of Sils Maria”)
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Nora von Waldstätten, Lars Eidinger
Synopsis: Details are thin, but it’s apparently a ghost story that unfolds in the fashion underworld of Paris.
What You Need To Know: There are some of us around here who were not at all enamored of Assayas’ widely lauded “Clouds of Sils Maria,” but even we can admit that Kristen Stewart was not just the best thing in it, she gave a really great performance, certainly her best so far. She became the first American actress to win a César as a result and obviously wants the magic to continue, signing up as the star of the French director’s next. Also due to be in English (which is maybe a little cause for concern given the dialogue in ‘Sils Maria’) but set in the heady world of Paris fashion, it does sound like an interesting direction for Assayas to go in, bringing some atmospheric, spooky elements to the mix and, most interestingly, hopefully giving his new muse a role she can really get her teeth into.
Release Date: Nothing yet, but you’d be crazy to bet against a Cannes showing.
37. “Moonlight”
Director: Barry Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”)
Cast: Naomie Harris, André Holland, Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe, Trevante Rhodes
Synopsis: A young man comes of age in “War on Drugs”-era Miami, and struggles with a deteriorating home situation as well as his own sexual awakening.
What You Need To Know: Co-financed by instant heavy-hitters A24 and Brad Pitt’s Plan B, and cast with some breakout names in Harris (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” “Spectre“) and “The Knick“‘s Holland, to say nothing of the acting debut of singer/songwriter/sensation Monáe, it looks like there’s a lot of buzz around director Jenkins’ first feature since his very promising debut, 2008’s “Medicine for Melancholy.” The contemplative vibe of that film, the strong performances and the intelligence of its insights into class and race bodes well that this adaptation of Tarell McRaney‘s play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” should certainly avoid the cliches of the urban coming-of-age story.
Release Date: No date as yet, and since it only shot in October 2015, don’t look for it before fall.
36. “Jackie”
Director: Pablo Larraín (“Post Mortem,” “No,” “The Club”)
Cast: Natalie Portman, Greta Gerwig, Peter Sarsgaard, John Hurt, Max Casella
Synopsis: The story of Jackie Kennedy in the first days following the assassination of JFK.
What You Need To Know: Some have suggested that Pablo Larraín‘s latest might not hit until 2017, and to be fair, he does have two other movies opening next year. But with the movie already wrapped, and awards buzz possible, we reckon this could end up hitting in the next 12 months after all. It’s Larraín’s first U.S., English-language production, based on a longtime Black List script from Noah Oppenheim (“The Maze Runner“), and it has a superb cast, led by Natalie Portman in the potentially iconic role of Jackie Kennedy. This sort of historical recreation, especially of a famously beautiful, tragic figure, can go either way (the specters of “Grace of Monaco” and “Diana” loom large), but if the drama is handled right, we’re very hopeful this will rise above the pitfalls of “but x doesn’t look like y” to deliver something insightful and compelling about one of the more enigmatic figures of American history.
Release Date: Fall festivals, then potentially an awards-qualifying release of some kind late in the year.
35. “Manchester By The Sea”
Director: Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me,” “Margaret”)
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Gretchen Mol, Kara Hayward, Tate Donovan
Synopsis: A man must take care of his teenaged nephew after the boy’s father dies.
What You Need To Know: There are few movie-release tales more tortured than the story of Kenneth Lonergan‘s “Margaret,” a sprawling, flawed but also quite brilliant film that took more than five years to get through a fractious post-production, and then was buried in a minuscule release. With luck, the journey of his new film will be a lot smoother, because it sounds like it could be another of his brilliantly human, deeply insightful observational dramas, this time of familial relationships and surrogate parenthood. And it’s a mouthwatering cast for this type of drama (one of two anticipated titles to feature “Moonrise Kingdom“‘s Kara Hayward, incidentally, along with Jarmusch’s “Paterson“) so yes, we can’t wait. Thankfully, we don’t really have to.
Release Date: Already announced for Sundance, with (fingers crossed) wide release later in the year.
34. “How to Talk to Girls At Parties”
Director: John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Shortbus,” “Rabbit Hole”)
Cast: Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, Ruth Wilson, Matt Lucas, Alex Sharpe
Synopsis: In 1970s London, hapless punk wannabe Enn falls for a girl at a party only to discover she and her friends are aliens sent to prepare the way for a mysterious interplanetary ritual that will put Enn and his newfound love in mortal peril.
What You Need To Know: After two carnal classics in ‘Hedwig’ and “Shortbus‘ director John Cameron Mitchell surprised everyone with a left turn into somber drama with the Nicole Kidman film “Rabbit Hole.” Kidman returns for this whimsical story, based on an award-winning Neil Gaiman short story which the director co-wrote for the screen with Philippa Goslett. It’s a punk-inflected story (so we expect a cracking soundtrack) and a romantic comedy with sci-fi-ish elements, so it’s another brand new string to Mitchell’s bow, and it’s looking increasingly like he can do anything. Plus this cast, with the destined-for-greatness Fanning, and the already-great-in-everything Wilson as well as Kidman? We’re there.
Release Date: No word yet.
33. “Nocturnal Animals”
Director: Tom Ford (“A Single Man”)
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Armie Hammer, Amy Adams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Michael Shannon
Synopsis: A woman is asked to read a manuscript for a novel by her ex-husband, but finds herself deeply drawn into the story of the book, which follows a family vacation turned violent.
What You Need To Know: After a quietly stunning and (of course) ravishing-to-look-at debut with “A Single Man,” star designer Tom Ford puts his other hat (immaculate, no doubt) back on and directs this ambitious-sounding sophomore title. With quite a stellar lineup of talent involved (and seriously, is there any 2016 film that doesn’t have Michael Shannon in it?) and an interestingly involved premise, the film is based on the book “Tony and Susan” by Austin Wright, and was adapted for the screen by Ford himself, sometime presumably during all that free time he has. Focus Features bankrolled the film, granting Ford complete creative control, for $20m in one of the biggest Cannes Film Market 2015 deals, so expect to see it heavily promoted and pushed for potential awards.
Release Date: No date yet, could it get selected for Cannes?
32. “Paterson”
Director: Jim Jarmusch (“Stranger Than Paradise,” “Dead Man,” “Only Lovers Left Alive”)
Cast: Adam Driver, Kara Hayward
Synopsis: Set in modern-day Paterson, New Jersey, this is the story of a bus driver and a poet.
What You Need To Know: For all the snarkiness about “emo Kylo Ren,” Driver’s tortured villain proved one hell of a showcase for the actor, especially since, while the others get to run around and be very charming a lot, Driver’s the one who actually has probably the acting centerpiece of the whole film. So we’re very much on board the Driver train, which is in any case next being boarded by one of our favorite directors, Jim Jarmusch, possibly the coolest man on earth. Coming off his glorious, atmospheric vampire tale “Only Lovers Left Alive,” this marks a return to the present, though details are so scarce that we’re not even sure if the bus driver and poet he mentioned are two different people. Anyway, it’s maybe best that details are left to be a surprise with Jarmusch films, though we should note that with this and Kenneth Lonergan‘s “Manchester By The Sea,” “Moonrise Kingdom“‘s Kara Hayward is about to have big (indie) year.
Release Date: None yet, but it could very well show at Cannes.
31. “Wiener-Dog”
Director: Todd Solondz (“Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “Happiness,” “Life During Wartime”)
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Zosia Mamet, Kieran Culkin, Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn, Tracy Letts
Synopsis: A dachshund travels around the country and impacts the lives of all he meets for the better, bringing comfort and joy to all.
What You Need To Know: A sorta-sequel to Solondz’s wonderfully eccentric 1995 dramedy “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” his new film will feature a few of those characters later in life, notably ‘Dollhouse’ protagonist Dawn Wiener, previously played by Heather Matarazzo, here by Greta Gerwig. It’s great to have Solondz, one of our most willfully idiosyncratic independent auteurs, back on screens for the first time in the five years since his underseen “Dark Horse,” and he has assembled quite the cast of indie ringers for this very sweet-natured sounding canine-oriented tale (though we’re on the lookout for Solondz’s mile-wide dark streak to manifest somewhere in there). The loose-limbed sound of the narrative would give us pause ordinarily (do I get a reward for not writing “paws”?), but if these are the stars of the vignettes along the way, actually we’re more than fine with it. Also, Gerwig can do no wrong.
Release Date: Will play Sundance, so we’ll see very soon.
