With the door barely closed on 2014, we’ve wasted no time looking ahead to the onslaught of major productions opening in the new year. We had a handful of our writers throw out a few upcoming films that they’re excited about. This list is in no way exhaustive, in fact, it’s likely we’re missing one of your personal picks (if so, leave us a comment!), but we hope you enjoy exploring our overview of 2015 in cinema as we see it now, from the very early days of January.
THE DRESSMAKER
DIRECTOR: Jocelyn Moorhouse
CAST: Sarah Snook, Kate Winslet,
Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving, Judy Davis
SEE IT: October 2015
Having worked as a dressmaker in Paris for the majority of her adult life, Myrtle ‘Tilly’ Dunnage (Winslet) decides to return to her country hometown in Australia to take care of her mentally ill mother Molly (Davis). Yet Myrtle’s move is fuelled by deviousness, vengeance and arrogance: after being falsely accused of murder at age 10, she desires to exact revenge on those who wronged her. Adapted from the Australian gothic novel of the same title, The Dressmaker uses the socio-political framework of 1950s Australian culture to explore hypocrisy, prejudice and vanity alters, specifically, a woman’s perspective of herself. Having already been described by Moorhouse as ‘Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven with a sewing machine,’ the film looks to be an excitingly feminine exploration of fashion and the human senses. —Jo Batsakis
THE EARLY YEARS (La giovinezza)
DIRECTOR: Paolo Sorrentino
CAST: Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz,
Paul Dano, Harvey Keitel, Jane Fonda, Tom Lipinski
SEE IT: TBD
After 2013’s Academy Award-winning masterpiece The Great Beauty, this follow-up by Paolo Sorrentino won an easy place on my list. The Italian director is working in English this time, out to tell the story of a composer and a film director who share time at a lavish hotel in the Alps. A filmmaker who hides tenderness in high-style images, I’m excited to see what he does with this more limited story. Thankfully, he’s reteaming with cinematographer Luca Bigazzi (The Great Beauty, Certified Copy). —Taylor Sinople
THE END OF THE TOUR
DIRECTOR: James Ponsoldt
CAST: Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg,
Anna Chlumsky, Mamie Gummer, Joan Cusack, Ron Livingston
SEE IT: TBD
I first got hit with the David Foster Wallace bomb in freshman year of college, and have been trying to finish Infinite Jest in one straight go ever since but keep get pulled away and tasked with starting all over again. James Ponsoldt (Smashed, The Spectacular Now) is one of my favorite new directors. I’m ready for these worlds to collide, and Jason Segel looks to be a perfect fit for Wallace. Based on journalist and author David Lipsky’s book Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, Ponsoldt’s film promises to be filled with authentic insight into the process and life of a lost literary legend. —Taylor Sinople
EISENSTEIN IN GUANAJUATO
DIRECTOR: Peter Greenaway
CAST: Elmer Bäck, Luis Alberti, Stelio Savante
SEE IT: TBD
Also set to premiere at the Berlinale but hardly highly-anticipated, Eisenstein in Guanajuato is the latest offering from British director Peter Greenaway, whom you might know from his 1989 controversial masterpiece The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Greenaway seems to have mostly fallen out of the public eye, but has pushed forward with ambitious film and video projects (including a live ‘remix’ of da Vinci’s The Last Supper). With a strong understanding of art theory and history, Greenaway (along with Godard) is one of the few high-profile directors who seems truly interested in experimenting with the film form rather than being content to accept the traditional narrative feature as being ‘final form’ in the evolution of motion picture storytelling. —Maximilien Luc Proctor
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino
CAST: Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson,
Walton Goggins, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh,
Zöe Bell, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Demian Bichir
SEE IT: November 13, 2015
Quentin Tarantino’s much-anticipated follow up to his hit, Django Unchained, almost never happened. After his script was leaked, Tarantino vowed to shelf the film in favor of another project. When his initial anger subsided, he made the decision to go ahead with filming, which began in November 2014. In a teaser that was released in front of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Hateful Eight is described as centering on a group of bounty hunters (that’s familiar) in post-Civil War Wyoming. When a blizzard strikes, they are forced to find shelter, and find that “they share a deadly connection.” —Jordan Brooks
HIGH-RISE
DIRECTOR: Ben Wheatley
CAST: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons,
Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, Stacy Martin
SEE IT: TBD
Fans of J.G. Ballard’s dystopic novel about luxury condo living have been impatiently tolerating the development of a filmed version for decades. No less than Nicolas Roeg was once on board with the project. Finally, in 2014, Kill List writer-director Ben Wheatley was confirmed for this UK production, along with a sterling cast including Tom Hiddleston, Elisabeth Moss and Jeremy Irons. Here’s hoping that this adaptation (written by Wheatley’s frequent scribe, Amy Jump) nails the intensity and modern claustrophobia of the novel. —Adam Smith
KNIGHT OF CUPS
DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick
CAST: Christian Bale, Natalie Portman,
Imogen Poots, Cate Blanchett, Joe Manganiello, Teresa Palmer
SEE IT: TBD
Set to premiere at the Berlinale in February, Knight of Cups is the highly-anticipated new film from Terrence Malick, one of several he began production on almost immediately after the release of Tree of Life. While To the Wonder was full of whispered contemplations set against even quieter landscapes, the trailer for Knight of Cups suggests the new addition of a whole lot more excitement and loud noise than the average Malick picture. —Maximilien Luc Proctor
THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS
DIRECTOR: Derek Cianfrance
CAST: Michael Fassbender, Rachel Weisz,
Alicia Vikander, Anthony Hayes
SEE IT: TBD
2015 is going to be a huge year for Michael Fassbender in high profile roles. Outside of playing Steve Jobs and Macbeth, he’ll appear in this comparatively smaller film directed by Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine) as a lighthouse keeper who raises a baby he finds floating by on a rowboat. Cianfrance has a strong grip on emotional storytelling, but he’s yet to elevate his work to a certain standard I believe he has the potential for. Talk about stars aligning – with this adaptation of a hugely well-received novel by M.L. Stedman, Fassbender in front of the camera, and DP Adam Arkapaw (True Detective, Animal Kingdom) behind it, The Light Between Oceans could be the film that launches Cianfrance as a key figure in modern cinema. —Taylor Sinople
THE LITTLE MERMAID
DIRECTOR: Sofia Coppola
CAST: Andrej Pejic, and moreTBA.
SEE IT: TBA
In this upcoming film, we hopefully will see Coppola’s femininity, intimacy and keen attentiveness towards a character study of a young (mythical) woman based on Hans Christian Andersen’s short story. Similar to how Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides delved into the private world of teenage boys fascination with girlishness and femininity, The Little Mermaid will re-contextualize the visual concept of ‘fascination’ with the romantic idealism of fantasy, men and love under the sea and on land. It is unclear whether Coppola’s screenplay will be closely faithful to Anderson’s writing, however, as the film has been reported as a ‘live action’ retelling, this technical approach is exciting for all Coppola fans to see the filmmaker extending her vision into different areas of cinematic technology beyond digital filmmaking (as seen in The Bling Ring). A delightful surprise awaits! —Jo Batsakis
THE LOBSTER
DIRECTOR: Yorgos Lanthimos
CAST: Léa Seydoux, Rachel Weisz,
Colin Farrell, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly, Olivia Colman
SEE IT: March 2015
Master confounder Yorgos Lanthimos (director of Alps and Dogtooth – a film I don’t get enough chances to talk about) returns in 2015, this time to tell the story of a dystopian future in which every adult is given 45 days in a hotel to find a mate or face being transformed into a wild animal. While a bit more sci-fi driven than his usual sociological thrillers, I’ll show up for a Lanthimos movie about practically anything. —Taylor Sinople
LOUDER THAN BOMBS
DIRECTOR: Joachim Trier
CAST: Jeese Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne,
Isabelle Huppert, David Strathairn
SEE IT: TBA
This is a follow-up to Joachim Trier’s excellent Oslo, August 31st. The promise of that feature makes Trier’s inaugural English-language picture worth looking out for, not least for the intriguing combo of Jesse Eisenberg, Isabelle Huppert, Gabriel Byrne, and the consistently underrated Amy Ryan in the cast. Something of a family drama-mystery, the film has the potential to be a haunting and intimate entry on the festival circuit on the back half of 2015. —Adam Smith
MAD MAX 3: FURY ROAD
DIRECTOR: George Miller
CAST: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
SEE IT: May 15, 2015
Australian auteur George Miller returns with the fourth film in his post-apocalyptic action franchise Mad Max. The plotline is simple: in the outback wasteland, Max (Hardy) meets a Furiosa (Theron) who wishes to cross the desert. If the previous Mad Max films are anything to go by, Fury Road appears to rejuvenate the popular genre of the American Western within the uniquely dystopic Australian landscape. However what is most thrilling about the return of the franchise is the reappearance of Norma Moriceau’s inimitable costume design. Her “leather-fetish biker warrior costumes” provide that seedy, thrilling visual spin to the antagonist characters that allowed the Mad Max franchise from being sidelined with every other action film, and in particular, the limited production of Australian action films before that. —Jo Batsakis
MANGLEHORN
DIRECTOR: David Gordon Green
CAST: Al Pacino, Chris Messina, Holly Hunter
SEE IT: Spring 2015
The latest feature from thematically-ambidextrous director David Gordon Green, Manglehorn, premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival to mixed reviews. Al Pacino stars as a Texas locksmith whose life is marred by a lost love. As an avid Gordon Green fan, I am excited that this project plays to his strengths in drama (George Washington, Prince Avalanche) rather than his comedic pandering (Your Highness and The Sitter were a depressing waste of talent). If Gordon Green could make Nicholas Cage look good (Joe), I can only imagine what he can do with Pacino. —Jordan Brooks
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
DIRECTOR: Jeff Nichols
CAST: Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst,
Adam Driver, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Scott Haze, Jaeden Lieberher
SEE IT: November 25, 2015
Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter) works so well with narratives that express powerful domestic bonds while flirting with the otherworldly. Midnight Special finds him reteaming with regular player Michael Shannon and Mud-alumni Sam Shepard along with a few new faces in this story of a father and son on the run after the boy demonstrates superhuman abilities. Sure to be grounded in dark, dangerous realism, this is the superpower film I can’t wait to see. —Taylor Sinople
NOBODY WANTS THE NIGHT
DIRECTOR: Isabel Coixet
CAST: Juliette Binoche, Rinko Kikuchi, Gabriel Byrne
SEE IT: TBA
Spanish director Isabel Coixet has yet to make a major breakthrough in the mainstream, but her cult following among festival cognoscente should continue with this latest international co-production — not least because it was just selected to open this year’s Berlinale. Headed by Juliette Binoche, this is Coixet’s first feature historical drama, set among the “courageous women and ambitious men” laying life on the line in early-20th-century Greenland. Expect snow and intensity in equal measure. —Adam Smith
QUEEN OF THE DESERT
DIRECTOR: Werner Herzog
CAST: Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Robert Pattinson
SEE IT: TBD
On New Year’s Day I finally sat down and watched Stroszek. A few days later I ventured Into the Abyss. I plan to continue this trend. Any year featuring a new Herzog film is a good year, and 2015 will mark his first fiction film since 2009’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Thankfully, this year he went with a shorter title. Based on the life of Gertrude Bell and starring Nicole Kidman in the title role alongside James Franco and Robert Pattinson, the film certainly sounds interesting to say the least. And if you aren’t sold yet, just remember what Roger Ebert once said of Herzog: “Even his failures are spectacular.” —Maximilien Luc Proctor
THE REVENANT
DIRECTOR: Alejandro González Iñárritu
CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy,
Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Paul Anderson
SEE IT: December 25, 2015
Coming off the huge success of Birdman, Iñárritu runs the other way with this 1820s period piece starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. It’s a tale of revenge after a man survives a bear attack after being left for dead by his friends. Iñárritu reteams with master visual artist Emmanuel Lubezki behind the camera. I’m just waiting to hear about the structural twist – is it done in a single shot? Told in reverse order? Shot from the perspective of the bear? Iñárritu is known for excess, but The Revenant at this point seems uncharacteristically modest. —Taylor Sinople
THE SEA OF TREES
DIRECTOR: Gus Van Sant
CAST: Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts,
Katie Aselton, Ken Watanabe
SEE IT: TBD
The title alone of Gus Van Sant’s 2015 film The Sea of Trees evokes more atmosphere and emotive imagery than all of 2012’s Promised Land. This moody piece follows a suicidal American wandering through a forest near Mt. Fuji who comes upon a Japenese man who is also lost. I’m anticipating mystery, unforgettable dialogue, and exquisite imagery. Let’s hope Van Sant’s Danish cinematographer Kasper Tuxen is the right man for the job. —Taylor Sinople
SICARIO
DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve
CAST: Emily Blunt, Jon Bernthal,
Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro
SEE IT: TBA
It’s about “A young female FBI agent joins a secret CIA operation to take down a Mexican cartel boss,” but it could be about rabbits building a home and I would still go see it. After Villeneuve’s last two features – Enemy and Prisoners – I was left wanting more. They are excellently crafted psychological thrillers with puzzlingly unresolved endings. They are challenging, dark, moody, and entertaining. With leads Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro, Sicario promises no less than its predecessors. —Maximilien Luc Proctor
SILENCE
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
CAST: Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver
SEE IT: TBA
Scorsese has been working on this passion project for years, and in 2015 it’s finally coming to fruition – and, shockingly, it doesn’t star DiCaprio! In seventeenth century Japan, two Jesuit priests arrive to tell of Christianity but face violent persecution. I’m not sure how the likes of Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield will fit into the period setting, and I’m not confident they’ll be able dial down their celebrity to fit into these humble roles, but if we’ve learned anything in modern American cinema it’s “trust in Scorsese,” so, let’s wait and see. —Taylor Sinople
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS
DIRECTOR: J.J. Abrams
CAST: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill,
Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, John Boyega,
Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Warwick Davis, Lupita Nyong’o
SEE IT: December 18, 2015
I, along with the entire world, was burned the day Star Wars: Episode I was released. Growing up watching Star Wars was a right of passage for my friends and I, and when we had a chance to see one in an actual theater, we couldn’t have been more excited. Cue Darth Vader as a little kid, and Jar Jar Binks… The news of Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, and subsequent green lighting of Star Wars was huge news back in 2012, and fans have been clamoring for the eventual result. J.J. Abrams was named to helm the first entry, and despite his many cinematic faults, is wholly capable of turning out a great film. Directors for the next three “sequels” have already been announced (congratulations Rian Johnson), and massive fan speculation continues to surround the various productions. Please don’t let us down J.J., we’re counting on you. —Jordan Brooks
STEVE JOBS
DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
CAST: Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen,
Kate Winslet, Katherine Waterson, Jeff Daniels
SEE IT: TBA
The “good Steve Jobs movie” (compared to the seriously bad one) finally comes to fruition in 2015 with Danny Boyle in the director’s seat and Fassbender set to star as Jobs. While I’m still grieving the loss of Fincher from the project, I’m excited to see this non-traditional approach to a biopic that covers only a few hours in the life of the iconic entrepreneur. —Taylor Sinople
THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
CAST: Ryan Guzman,
Zoey Deutch, Tyler Hoechlin, Glen Powell
SEE IT: TBA
Should Richard Linklater win an Oscar (or, should we be so lucky, multiple Oscars) next month, his Boyhood follow-up That’s What I’m Talking About will be one of the hot hands for 2015. For those Linklaterites who’ve caught wind of the loose framing of this film as a spiritual successor to his 1993 mainstream-ish breakthrough, Dazed and Confused, it’s already a big deal, and despite a cast of largely-unknown young actors this Texas-set chronicle of a college freshman year has tremendous promise. —Adam Smith
THE TRAP
DIRECTOR: Harmony Korine
CAST: Jamie Foxx, Benicio Del Toro
SEE IT: TBA
After the dizzying extravagance of 2012’s Spring Breakers, the newest film by Harmony Korine hints at an even grander scale than anything he has previously made, with big name stars Jamie Foxx and Benicio Del Toro set to star in a film about some sort of crime family in the southern United States. With such a broad premise and such big stars, it sounds like a Hollywood hit in the making – or at least it might if not for the fact that it is a Korine-helmed film, who surely has a few nice surprises hidden in waiting for us. —Maximilien Luc Proctor
WHILE WE’RE YOUNG
DIRECTOR: Noah Baumbach
CAST: Ben Stiller, Amanda Seyfried,
Naomi Watts, Adam Driver
SEE IT: March 27, 2015
Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha) made a couple of films on the sly in 2014, and while he has another collaboration with Greta Gerwig showing at Sundance 2015 (titled Mistress America), it’s the Ben Stiller-fronted While We’re Young project that I’m most anticipating. We know that Baumbach understands young people – understands post-college slumps, aimless youth, and how to capture New York City with a hand-held camera – so this look at a middle-aged couple’s marriage is sure to be something new from Baumbach. It’s also another shot at seeing Stiller get to the top of his dramatic potential. —Taylor Sinople
UNTITLED WOODY ALLEN PROJECT
DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
CAST: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone,
Jamie Blackley, Parker Posey
SEE IT: TBA
Allen, Phoenix, Stone? I’m there. More details to come. —Taylor Sinople
Continue Reading Issue #33
