January is a good month for catching up on the previous year’s awards contenders, and for studios to dump lackluster films into multiplexes. Now that it’s February and we head into the new movie year proper, we’re finally turning our attention to some of 2018’s most promising releases. Here are just a few of the films we’re looking forward to seeing this year.
February 9: Fifty Shades Freed
Directed by James Foley
The Fifty Shades films might be one of the most controversial – or just plain detested – studio-produced series in quite some time. It’s reviled by those with moral objections to the content on both the right and the left of the political spectrum, and despised by many filmgoers and critics on a quality level. The fact that the franchise is still going strong is bound to raise eyebrows for those who have only heard about these movies, and will quickly vanish from memory for those who choose to ignore its existence entirely. While Fifty Shades Darker (2017) disappointed after the surprisingly excellent Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), perhaps Fifty Shades Freed will be the triumphant third act this franchise deserves. In a film landscape dominated by superheroes and interconnected creative universes, Fifty Shades has stood out as a series tailored for a different demographic than those anticipating the next Marvel film. That’s not to say that there isn’t overlap in those audiences, but rather that a big-budget series doesn’t need action and someone threatening to dominate others… well, at least not in the conventional sense. – Grant Douglas Bromley
February 23: Annihilation
Directed by Alex Garland
Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac in a film by Alex Garland, the writer/director of Ex Machina – that information alone is enough to get my butt in the seat. Horror is not often my genre of choice, unless it’s combined with something like science fiction, as it seems to be here. The trailer for Annihilation looks super-sleek and very creepy. Here’s hoping Garland knocks it out of the park again. – Nigel Druitt
March 2: Red Sparrow
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Looking like a cross between FX’s slow-burning thriller The Americans and last year’s minor action hit Atomic Blonde, this film from the director of three Hunger Games movies casts Jennifer Lawrence as a Soviet agent pitted against an American operative played by Joel Edgerton. Russian espionage is obviously a hot topic right now, and Cold War stories have been having a heyday the last few years across the media landscape, but the seemingly mature tone of this movie is fairly different from anything [director] Lawrence has done before. It’s always worth seeing what the versatile [actress] Lawrence is up to, though, especially in the wake of 2017’s controversial mother! – David Conrad
March 9: Thoroughbreds
Directed by Cory Finley
From newcomer writer/director Cory Finley comes what appears to be a darkly comedic thriller about two teenage girls (one who “feels nothing” and one who “feels everything”) who hatch a plot to deal with an uncaring stepfather. The film has been gaining critical momentum at festivals for more than a year now since its debut at Sundance in January 2017, and finally has a theatrical release date. Starring two of the best young actresses to appear in recent years, Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) and Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), and featuring one of the final performances of the late Anton Yelchin, Thoroughbreds could be one the most enjoyable indie thrillers of 2018. – Tom Kapr
March 29: Ready Player One
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Ernest Cline’s nerdgasm of a novel simultaneously screams to be made into a movie and defies any idea that it could be filmed. For this reason alone, I want to see if Hollywood was able to pull it off. If anybody could, it would be Steven Spielberg… the Spielberg of the ’80s and early ’90s, at least. That Spielberg hasn’t really existed since Jurassic Park, a whole 25 years ago. I’m hoping Ready Player One can be his return to form. – Nigel
April 6: A Quiet Place
Directed by John Krasinski
Since gaining sitcom fame as Jim Halpert on The Office and spring-boarding that fame into an increasingly successful movie career, John Krasinski has proven his versatility as an actor, turning in great performances as diverse as a nervous, nerdy soon-to-be dad in the comedy-drama Away We Go and a battle-hardened soldier in 13 Hours. Now he co-stars with his real-life wife, the immensely talented Emily Blunt, in A Quiet Place, which he also co-wrote and directed. It’s a mysterious horror film in which even the smallest noise makes you a target for whatever monsters are lurking outside. The dialogue-free trailer is one of the most effective of recent memory, and it will be most interesting to see how the concept of not being able to make a peep will play over the runtime of a feature film. – Tom
May 4: Avengers: Infinity War
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
This is what it all has been building toward. If the first Avengers film was proof that a cinematic universe could be more than a series of hype-building post-credit stingers, Infinity War will be proof that a cinematic universe can build to an epic ending. Not that the MCU will end after the Infinity Stones plotline comes to a close, but this is a culmination of everything that has transpired in the previous 17 films. With a ridiculously stuffed cast and the return of MCU star directors Anthony and Joe Russo, Infinity War looks to be one of the most amazing action films in a long time. Captain America: Civil War proved the Russos could handle a massive cast and balance all of the characters well enough to avoid making a jumbled mess. If Josh Brolin’s Thanos is given the nuance that press material has hinted at, we’re all in for a treat. This is the most anticipation I’ve had for a Marvel film since the first Avengers. – Connor Adamson
July 15: The Incredibles 2
Directed by Brad Bird
Sure, I’ll see Black Panther, and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Everybody and their dog will see Avengers: Infinity War. I’m really looking forward to Deadpool 2. (After Justice League faltered, is anyone looking forward to Aquaman?) Yet the superhero movie I’m most looking forward to this year is one I was never really expecting to see.
It’s been 14 years since director Brad Bird‘s superhero family graced theater screens, making this the longest gap between Pixar sequels. (Finding Dory was released 13 years after Finding Nemo.) Sequels (and prequels) from the studio have been a mixed bag, and even though I have mostly enjoyed them, I never really wanted to see one for The Incredibles… until the teaser trailer was released. Suddenly, I’m looking forward to spending more time with the Parrs. Just how do you raise an infant who possesses basically every super power in the book, anyway? – Nigel
July 27: Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise
Initially, I was a little bit sad when I heard that Christopher McQuarrie was returning to direct the sixth installment of Tom Cruise‘s superspy franchise. After all, part of the charm of the Mission: Impossible series for me was having a different director behind the camera for every film.
Then I realized that 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is pretty easily my favorite M:I film, and I started to feel a lot better. Even more good news: Cruise and McQuarrie are rounding up a whole gang of franchise veterans, from Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames to Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin and Rogue Nation breakout badass Rebecca Ferguson, with Superman himself, Henry Cavill, making his M:I debut to boot. Yeah, I’m ready to go on another improbable mission with Ethan Hunt.
The first trailer for Fallout is expected to land during the Super Bowl on February 4. – Nigel
August 3: The Predator
Directed by Shane Black
Writer/director Shane Black (front, right) with ‘The Predator’ cast members (from left) Sterling K. Brown, Trevante Rhodes, Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Keegan-Michael Key and Jacob Tremblay (front, left).
Shane Black made his big-screen debut (aside from a small, uncredited role in Night of the Creeps) as Hawkins in the original Predator in 1987, the same year that his script for Lethal Weapon set the template for the buddy-cop film. Black had originally been approached to rework the script for Predator, but he refused, preferring to just be an actor on the film. Now, of course, following his most recent big splash directing Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys, Black has worked on a Predator script, putting him at the reigns of the franchise’s newest sequel, simply titled The Predator.
Black reportedly envisions this as a “creative sequel” and not a remake of the original film. This means there’s no “rebooting,” and past efforts like Predator 2 and Predators still exist in this world. Which is for the best. The anthology feel of Predator, with different characters in different locations battling the intergalactic poachers, is part of the franchise’s appeal. I can’t wait to see if Black has made a worthy sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s immortal sci-fi action classic. – Nigel
August 17: The Happytime Murders
Directed by Brian Henson
Concept art for ‘The Happytime Murders’
Brian Henson, son of the late, great Jim Henson, has spent the last two decades producing plenty of content for television, but hasn’t directed a feature film since the ’90s, when he gave us two wonderful Muppet adaptations of classic lit, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. It seems what has finally drawn him back into the cinematic realm is this decidedly darker (and apparently R-rated!) story of “a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye” who steps in to solve the murders of “the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show.” Oh yeah, the P.I. is a puppet too. With comedic talents like Elizabeth Banks, Joel McHale, Melissa McCarthy, and Maya Rudolph attached, it will be interesting to see just who is and is not a puppet. Either way, it will be fun to welcome Brian Henson’s work back to the big screen. (Plot synopsis quoted from the IMDb.) – Tom
August 31: The Little Stranger
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Lenny Abrahamson on the set of ‘Room’ with Brie Larson
Lenny Abrahamson delivered the best film of 2015 with Room, which scored Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Directing, and Adapted Screenplay, and a win for leading actress Brie Larsen. Much of Room‘s drama stemmed from an expertly constructed atmosphere of isolation and claustrophobia and an expertly directed child performance from Jacob Tremblay. That talent should transition nicely into Abrahamson’s next film, The Little Stranger, a horror-mystery that takes place in a centuries-old family mansion and insinuates a creepy child element. Sounds perfect. Working from a script by Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl) based on a novel by Sarah Waters (The Handmaiden), and featuring a cast that includes Charlotte Rampling, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, and rising star Domhnall Gleeson, this haunted house project has talent oozing from its walls. – Tom
Release Dates to Be Determined
The following films are expected to arrive in 2018, but have no firm premiere date yet.
High Life
Directed by Claire Denis
Claire Denis
No, High Life is not a feature film about the “champagne of beers,” but rather a science fiction film by renowned filmmaker Claire Denis. Starring Robert Pattinson, Mia Goth, Juliette Binoche, and André 3000, the film follows a father-daughter duo on a deep-space expedition in search of alternative energy resources. Since her 1988 directorial debut, Chocolat, Claire Denis has proven that she’s a fearless filmmaker with an uncompromising style – just look at the cockfights in No Fear, No Die (1990) or the vampiric lovemaking in Trouble Every Day (2001). While Alex Garland’s Annihilation will be premiering in February, High Life will be worth keeping an eye out for later in the year when festival season swings into high gear. – Grant
Le livre d’image
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is one of the last French New Wave filmmakers living and breathing among us, and the prospect of a new film from him feels timely considering international concerns about the rise of populism and the continued migrant crises throughout Europe. Described on the production company Wild Bunch’s website as “Nothing but silence, nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters, like the five fingers of a hand,” Le livre d’image (a.k.a. Image and Word, or The Image Book) is set for a 2018 release, though there is no premiere date at the moment. One would be justified in thinking that it may premiere at Cannes – as Godard’s previous film, the 3D film Adieu au langage (2014), did. However, the teaser poster for the film jokes that the film will be “available worldwide excluding: France.” While it’s unlikely that the film won’t screen in France, it would be in keeping with Godard’s penchant for provocation. If anything, this early jab in the promotional materials for Le livre d’image confirms what we Godard faithful already knew: JLG hasn’t lost his charm. – Grant
Radegund
Directed by Terrence Malick
August Diehl in ‘Radegund’
The past four dramatic features by Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life, To The Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Song To Song) have been must-misses for some and among the most exhilarating cinematic experiences of the decade for others. Defining the once-reclusive filmmaker’s most prolific period of filmmaking has been Malick’s shift from a romanticized past to the physical and emotional decadence of contemporary life. However, for the first time since his 2011 Palme d’Or winning film The Tree of Life (which was set in both the present and the past), Terrence Malick will be trading in the present for the Second World War. Radegund is based on the true story of Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl), an Austrian who refused to take up arms for the Nazi cause. It is being shot in the German language for authenticity and on 35mm film, which should aesthetically ground it in the past. As a fan of Malick, I’ve felt that his recent films – like Knight of Cups and Song To Song – have pushed the medium of dramatic feature filmmaking forward, so it’s worrisome to learn that he’s not only returning The Thin Red Line (1998) territory, but that he’ll also be sticking to a script. (Wait… I’m the only one mad about that?) On the other hand, it could be interesting that the film’s narrative is communicated through letters, à la Bresson’s Diary of A Country Priest (1951). – Grant
