30. “Untitled Jonathan Glazer Holocaust Film”
Director: Jonathan Glazer (“Under The Skin,” “Birth”)
Cast: Unknown
Synopsis: A WWII concentration camp story, reportedly about a Nazi officer who has become enamored with the camp commandant’s wife.
What You Need To Know: Glazer is notoriously secretive. It’s unknown who stars— and or if any name actors will appear at all— but the drama is rumored to be loosely inspired by acclaimed British author Martin Amis’ novel “The Zone Of Interest,” set in Auschwitz. The 2014 book grapples with the discomfiting idea of love blooming in a brutal place and explores the human soul’s contradictions. “Can love survive the mirror? Can we even meet each other’s eye, after we have seen who we really are?” the book’s description asks. If this is indeed what Glazer is adapting, audiences will be in store for something undoubtedly challenging and uncomfortable.
Release Date: TBD (and honestly, it would probably be top 5 if we were genuinely sure it was coming next year). – RP
29. “Decision To Leave”
Director: Park Chan-wook (“The Handmaiden,” “Stoker”)
Cast: Tang Wei, Kyung-Pyo Go, Hae-il Park
Synopsis: A detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains meets the dead man’s mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
What You Need To Know: We haven’t heard from Park Chan-wook in four years, but he did make an AMC series in 2018 that sadly fell on deaf ears. For his latest, Chan-wook goes back to the crime, mystery drama genre that yielded terrific results for 2016’s “The Handmaiden.” Park Hae-il (“The Host”) plays the detective, while Tang (“Lust, Caution”) stars as the widow. Wook’s frequent screenwriting collaborator Chung Seo-Kyung (“Thirst,” “Lady Vengeance“) is co-writing.
Release Date: TBD, but the film just started shooting (and just experienced a COVID shutdown), so late fall if we’re lucky. – RP
28. “The Last Planet” / “The Way Of The Wind”
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Mark Rylance, Matthias Schoenaerts, Geza Rohrig, Joseph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Tawfeek Barhom, Ori Pfeffer
Synopsis: A retelling of several episodes in the life of Christ.
What You Need To Know: Given the thread of spirituality that runs through nearly all of his pictures, it’s a bit surprising it has taken this long for Terrence Malick to tackle the subject head-on. As per usual, details on the film are being kept under wraps, but what’s known at the moment as “The Last Planet” will focus on the life of Jesus Christ, as told through parables. Most intriguingly, Mark Rylance has suggested that he’ll be playing more than one version of Satan in the film. Joining him in crucial roles are Geza Rorig (“Son Of Saul”) as Jesus, with Mathias Schoenaerts as the Apostle Peter, who denied being a follower of Christ three times during the Last Supper.
Release Date: TBD. – KJ
27. “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Director: Shaka King (“Newlyweeds,” HBO’s “High Maintenance”)
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Ashton Sanders, Jesse Plemmons, Martin Sheen, Lil’ Rey Howery
Synopsis: The story of Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant, William O’ Neal.
What You Need To Know: The trailer for “Judas and the Black Messiah” is one of the more purely exciting pieces of movie advertising from 2020, promising Daniel Kaluuya’s fiercest performance to date as renowned Black Panther Fred Hampton. Will 2021 be the year that Kaluuya finally gives the performance that lands him his first Oscar? We all know the Academy loves true-life dramas, so long as they’re appropriately whitewashed, but with a cast this dynamic and appealing, that aforementioned question hardly even matters. All we know is we’ll be watching this one opening day.
Release Date: TBD – NL
26. “Memoria”
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” “Cemetery of Splendor”)
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego
Synopsis: Unknown at this time, but the plot is said to revolve around a Scottish woman traveling through Scotland who begins to hear a series of strange sounds.
What You Need To Know: Apichatpong Weerasethakul doesn’t make movies so much as he makes ineffable, transcendent cinematic experiences that are all but impossible to categorize. Plot particulars for “Memoria” are limited at this time, but you could sell us on this movie by telling us “Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton are making a movie together.” Knowing that Neon has nabbed the North American rights to the film has us jazzed, especially since the distributor has been behind some excellent films as of late (“Parasite,” “Palm Springs,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” among others).
Release Date: TBD. – NL
25. “No Sudden Move”
Director: Steven Soderbergh (“Out of Sight,” “High-Flying Bird”)
Cast: Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Hamm, Matt Damon, Julia Fox, Amy Seimetz
Synopsis: A group of criminals brought together under mysterious circumstances has to work together to uncover what’s really going on when their simple job goes entirely sideways.
What You Need To Know: Soderbergh is committed to experimentation. However, “No Sudden Move,” formerly titled “Kill Switch,” sounds like a return to early, grubby crime-comedy territory a la “The Limey” and the “Ocean’s” trilogy. The cast is nothing short of astonishing – not only the stars mentioned, but also David Harbour, Ray Liotta, Noah Jupe, Brendan Fraser, Kieran Culkin, and Bill Duke, making this the Soderbergh equivalent of a Harlem Globetrotter’s game.
Release Date: TBD, but Soderbergh works lighting fast. Even if he’s producing the Oscars this year, it will follow “Let Them All Talk” and premiere on HBO Max presumably later in the year around festival season. – NL
24. “Malcolm & Marie”
Director: Sam Levinson (“Euphoria”)
Cast: John David Washington, Zendaya
Synopsis: A filmmaker and his girlfriend engage in a tense discussion about past affairs that takes them down an unexpected road together.
You Need To Know: “Malcolm & Marie” was one of the first movies where principal photography took place during quarantine, but the project would be worth including on this list alone for the degree of talent involved. Washington and Zendaya are both new-school stars, very much on the come-up, and Levinson displayed a bold and distinct directing style with HBO’s youth-gone-wrong drama, “Euphoria.” “Malcolm & Marie’s” film-world milieu is also a selling point, and the prospect of these two electric performers casting romantic sparks off of one another… why it’s almost more exciting than any Hollywood tentpole could ever be!
Release Date: February 5, 2021, via Netflix. – NL
23. “The Harder They Fall”
Director: Jeymes Samuel (“Jay-Z: Legacy”)
Cast: Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield, Regina King, Jonathan Majors, Delroy Lindo, RJ Cyler, Danielle Deadwyler
Synopsis: A man discovers that the cold-blooded killer who murdered his parents is being released from prison, and brings his old gang back together to track him down.
What You Need To Know: If nothing else, “The Harder They Fall” should be worth seeing here for two reasons: a) It’s the first bonafide Black Western in what feels like a decade or more, and b) Seriously, have you looked at the cast? Samuels has lined up a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble for his feature debut, produced by none other than Jay-Z. The movie will reportedly feature contemporary music in a similar vein to Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” (the link is not coincidental; Samuels, a musician, worked on the soundtrack for that film). If nothing else, the idea of Idris Elba in a Western sounds fun.
Release Date: TBD. – NL
22. “Next Goal Wins”
Director: Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit,” “Thor: Ragnarok”)
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Armie Hammer, Elizabeth Moss, Rhys Darby
Synopsis: Dutch coach Thomas Rongen attempts the nearly impossible task of turning the American Samoa soccer team from perennial losers into winners.
What You Need To Know: We ask you: who among Taika Waititi’s legion of fans wouldn’t want to see the goofy New Zealand humanist tackle a big-hearted sports redemption movie? Waititi excels at these kinds of crowd-pleasing tightrope walks: it’s exactly what many people didn’t like about “Jojo Rabbit.” We’re hoping that Waititi, a Polynesian Jew, finds ways to subvert the white savior narrative that another filmmaker might lean into while telling this story – something tells us that the director has an ace up his sleeve with this one.
Release Date: TBD, although we’ve heard whispers that this will end up at Sundance 2021. – NL
21. “No Time To Die”
Director: Cary Fukunaga (“True Detective,” “Beasts of No Nation”)
Cast: Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas, Léa Seydoux
Synopsis: Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
What You Need To Know: The behind-the-scenes drama of “No Time To Die” has threatened to eclipse the release of the film itself, from the early departure of director Danny Boyle due to “creative differences,” to the film’s multiple COVID-related dramas. That said, there’s plenty of reason to look forward to the latest new Bond outing. For one, it’s the last time that Daniel Craig will play 007, and Cary Fukunaga is a terrific director, and arguably an improvement over Sam Mendes.
Release Date: April 2, 2021, via MGM. – NL
