If you’re like me, you didn’t watch the Golden Globes last night, because you know that all the highlights will just appear online the following day. Well for those of you who wanted to save four hours of your life, here is a two and a half minute highlight reel of comedian/host Ricky Gervais’s best bits of character assassination.

It’s a new year and a new decade. Here’s looking forward to a prosperous decade of cinema. Will it known for a slew of sequels and comic book adaptations and funny cat videos like the 00’s were? Or will it be known for groundbreaking and socially relevant cinema like the 70s? There’s a glimmer of hope for originality in film with the monumental success of Avatar and the unexpected success of Inglorious Basterds and District 9. Could they have turned the tide? Could this lead us into an era of blockbuster auteur driven cinema? Not likely but one can still hope. But let’s just focus on 2010 for now. The lineup this year is extremely promising.

There’s no guarantee the films on the list will be released in 2010 (some have not even begun filming yet). They consist of festival favorites, summer blockbusters, and overseas gems. So let’s hope all goes well and these films can become readily available to see this year.

And because I worked so damn hard on this you better bookmark this page for the rest of the year!

30) The First Gun – Zhang Yimou’s (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) slapstick remake of the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple set 1,000 years ago. ‘Nuff said.

29) Your Highness – After the disappointing Pineapple Express, I thought I would be done with David Gordon Green’s Danny McBride and James Franco-led stoner comedies – but this one is a stoner comedy set in medieval times, so I guess I’m interested again. There seems to be more possibilities here. The plot involves something about a prince and a warrior going on a mission and saving a kingdom. Hopefully there will be plenty of inappropriate laughs along the way. And the supporting cast looks damn good: Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Portman, Damian Lewis and Justin Theroux.

28) Hadewijch – Controversial to say the least, Bruno Dumont’s (Twentynine Palms, Flanders) latest is an examination of religious faith. He is looking for the fine line that divides religious devotion and fanaticism. The IONCINEMA synopsis reads:

“The film is about a religious novice (Julie Sokolowski) whose ecstatic, blind faith leads to her expulsion from a convent. Returning to her former life, Hadewijch reverts to being Céline, a Parisienne and daughter of a diplomat. However, her passion for God, rage and encounters with Khaled and Nassir soon lead her down a dangerous path.”

IFC Films has bought up U.S. distribution for this one and should be releasing it on Video on demand as well as select theaters.

27) Somewhere – Looks like Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette) could be pulling a Wrestler on us by attempting resurrect the career of another fallen star, Stephen Dorff. Can’t wait to see the tagline on the poster: “Come witness the resurrection of Stephen Dorff.” The films is said to primarily take place in Hollywood’s legendary Château Marmot, where a hard-living movie star drinks his days away. That is, until his 11-year-old daughter pays him an unexpected visit. Can she save him from his destructive ways? Can Coppola save Dorff from direct-to-DVD hell? You’ll have to wait and see. The film is to contain some original music by the French pop band Phoenix and there is a supposed cameo appearance by Benicio Del Toro (no word on whether he is playing himself or not). Michelle Monaghan and Elle Fanning round out the cast.

26) Socialisme – French New Wave icon Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Contempt) is getting political again (when has he not been?) with his latest film, to which he credits six other filmmakers. I guess his latest will be an exploration / history lesson on the theme and it takes place on a cruise liner and features Patti Smith for some reason. That’s what I gathered from the official synopsis:

“A symphony in three movements. Things such as: The Mediterranean, a cruise ship. Numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday… An old man, a war criminal (German, French, American we don?t know) accompanied by his granddaughter. A famous French philosopher (Alain Badiou). A representative of the Moscow police, detective branch. An American singer (Patti Smith). An old French policeman. A fired female United Nations officer. A former double agent. A Palestinian ambassador. It’s a matter of gold, as it was before with the Argonauts, but what is seen (the image) is very different from what is heard (the word). Our humanities. Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona. Our Europe. At night, a sister and her younger brother have summoned their parents to appear before the court of their childhood. One of the parents in fact has to appear on television to stand as a candidate in the local elections at… The children demand serious explications of the themes of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.”

25) Untitled Mike Leigh Project – As usual nothing is known about the plot of the film. Mike Leigh ‘s film productions are always shrouded in mystery. But that doesn’t matter. Anything with the master filmmaker’s name attached is certain to be great. Since the late 80s he hasn’t made a single bad (or even mediocre) film. The cast includes Leigh regulars Imelda Staunton and Jim Broadbent. Look for a possible premiere at Cannes.

24) The Green Hornet – This may be the epitome of cool, with Michel Gondry directing, Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) playing the villain and newly trendy metal band Anvil are set to make a musical appearance. Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz star.

23) Cemetery Junction – After the critical and box-office disappointment of The Invention of Lying (although something tells me it may become a future cult classic), Ricky Gervais and his directing partner Stephen Merchant march forth. Their latest has an unexpected subject mater involving the trial of three upstart professional men working for an insurance company in the 1970’s. The cast includes Gervais, Emily Watson, Mathew Goode, and Ralph Fiennes.

22) The Rum Diary – Bruce Robinson, the famed director of Withnail and I (one of the all-time great comedies), adapts Hunter S. Thompson’s book about Paul Kemp, a freelance writer (not unlike Thompson himself) who faces a critical turning point in his life that leads him to a path of self destruction. In not so shocking casting Johnny Depp is playing the central character with Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard costarring. It will be interesting to see how Robinson films the material, since this will be his first film in nearly twenty years.

21) Looking for Eric / Irish Route – We may find ourselves with a Ken Loach double feature this year. The first is a comedy of sorts. Looking for Eric has already opened in Europe to great acclaim for its gentile and wise portrait of an average football fan and postman whose life begins to fall apart. He seeks solace in the words famously philosophical UK football star Eric Cantona (who plays himself).

The second (still in production as far as I can tell) is a politically charged piece about dirty Irish contractors in Iraq. Loach has never been shy about his feelings on England and America’s foreign policy in recent years, but this is the first time he is addressing those issues head on. Route Irish tells the story of a private security contractor in Iraq who rejects the official examination of his friend’s death and sets out to find the truth. The film is certain to cause a stir.

20) Iron Man 2 – Certain to be the biggest movie of the year and hopefully as good as the first one. It features the Black Widow (Scarlet Johansen in a tight black suit, Nice!) and Whiplash (Mickey Rourke, not so nice.). Then there’s the feature film debut of War Machine. All awesome sounding. I just hope Jon Faverou has the good sense to keep those wonderful dialogue scenes with Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow. Their chemistry is unbelievable and it’s what made the first Iron Man installment stand out so much.

19) Meek’s Cutoff – With 2008’s Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt took a simple story about a girl searching for her lost dog and turned it into one of the most moving film experiences in recent memory. Here she reteams with Michelle Williams/ who co-stars with Paul Dano, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson and Zoe Kazan. Instead of filming one of her intimate present-day dramas, she has opted for a historical western centering on the famous American mountaineer Steven Meek. The IONCINEMA synopsis:

“The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst, and their own lack of faith in each other’s instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy. “

18) Greenburg – Noah Baumbach’s (The Squid and the Whale) follow-up to his polarizing Margot at the Wedding (a film I unabashedly love) sees him working with both A-list Hollywood (Ben Stiller) and Mumblecore favorites (Greta Gerwig and Mark Duplass). The film follows Greenberg (Stiller), a middle aged slacker, as he tries to find his next step in life while he housesits for his brother. Soon sparks fly when he meets Florence, his brother’s personal assistant. The most exciting aspect of the film seems to be Gerwig, who has potential to be a major star. Oh, and 2nd most exciting aspect is that LCD Soundsystem has produced some original music for the soundtrack.

17) The Turin Horse –Bela Tarr (Werckmeister Harmonies, The Man from London) is one of the greatest most daring filmmakers working today. But have you heard of him? His works are challenging and experimental in nature and this one seems no different. The film is inspired by the famous episode that marked the end of Frederick Nietzche’s career. The IONCINEMA synopsis is fascinating:

“The film is freely inspired by an episode that marked the end of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s career. On January 3, 1889, on the piazza Alberto in Turin, a weeping Nietzsche flung his arms around an exhausted and ill-treated carriage horse, and then lost consciousness. After this event, the philosopher never wrote again and descended into madness and silence. From this starting point, The Turin Horse goes on to explore the lives of the coachman (Miroslav Krobot), his daughter (Erika Bók) and the horse in an atmosphere of poverty heralding the end of the world.”

This guy is a true original. On a sad note, it is rumored to be Tarr’s final film, making it essential to be seen on the big screen.

16) I Am Love – Magnolia Pictures snatched up the rights for this one. The classy Italian melodrama stars the magnificent Tilda Swinton as a woman who turns her affluent family upside-down when she begins forbidden love affair with a young cook. Hopefully there’s going to be buzz building on this one. It’s not only Swinton’s performance being praised. but the filmmaking and its exquisite attention to detail as well.

15) Mother – Korean master (The Host, Memories of Murder) may have another masterpiece on his hands. This darkly comic fable follows a mother on a desperate search to track down the man who framed her son for murder.

14) Cyrus – This appears to be the film where Mumblecore goes mainstream. Filmmaking brothers Jay and Mark Duplass have cast a bevy of established stars (Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener, John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei) for a premise that sounds very Hollywood. It’s about a recently divorced man finds the woman of his dreams but he first has to deal with her obnoxious son. But don’t expect anything conventional from the Duplass Brothers whose previous works (Baghead, The Puffy Chair) were hilarious subversions of tried genres.

13) Dogtooth – I would have put this film on the 2009 list of the most overlooked films but it has been vigorously celebrated all other the world and has gotten a lot of publicity from film bloggers. It’s Greece’s official entry for the Foreign Language Oscar. So why it doesn’t have U.S. distribution yet is beyond me. It does contain some disturbing NC-17 style content, but shouldn’t that spell out cult hit? Giorgos Lanthimos’s film follows three teenage siblings in their isolated country estate. They have no connection to the real world and have their own strange language. Their father (the only person allowed to leave the home) inflicts various tortures on then to keep them obedient. That is until an outside influence begins a rebellion.

12) Black Swan – I’m so completely sold on the idea of a modern day gothic supernatural ballet thriller and with Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) as director, aren’t you? There’s no telling how visually daring this film will be. It tells a story of a veteran ballet dancer (Natalie Portman) who is haunted by a rival dancer (Mila Kunis) who could either be real or imagined. If all that doesn’t interest you then there’s that much hyped sex scene with Portman and Kunis. So there ya go a film for everyone. Costars Winona Ryder and Vincent Cassel.

11) The Illusionist – Sylvain Chomet’s follow up to his animated 2003 masterpiece Triplets of Bellville is based off of an unproduced script by the late French master Jacques Tati. It’s definitely going to be a thrill to see Tati’s iconic Monsieur Hulot character after a nearly 40 year absence and to see him animated is just going to be fascinating. There is little else known about the production but here’s the Imdb synopsis: “Details the story of a dying breed of stage entertainer whose thunder is being stolen by emerging rock stars. Forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theaters, garden parties and bars, he meets a young fan who changes his life forever.”

10) Wild Grass – This was on my most underrated of 2009 (as were a few others on this list) but I just want to get the name out there. 87 year old Alain Resnais’ wildly surreal portrait of love begins with a lost wallet, its owner, and its retriever. The two become curious about one another and through many bizarre circumstances begin an unlikely romance. That’s just the starting point to a series of strange and darkly comic scenarios involving various other characters. This all leads to a conclusion that Glenn Kenny considers to be “as daring as Kubrick’s 2001.” I know that’s a terrible synopsis but there’s no paragraph that could describe what any Resnais film is about. You just have to experience them. The cast features Sabine Azema (Private Fears in Public Places), Andre Dussollier, Anne Consigny, Emmanuelle Devos (A Christmas Tale), and Mathieu Amalric (Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Quantum of Solice).

9) Kick Ass – Just watching the Hit Girl redband trailer got me stoked. The Mathew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) film is an adaptation of the famously crude Mark Miller comic book series of the same name. It follows the adventures of an unpopular high school kid and comic book nerd who decides to become a super hero himself despite having no training whatsoever. His actions then inspire a whole league of average Joes turned superheroes. Despite its expensive look, Vaughn made the film independently to keep every bit of the comic’s notorious vulgarity. The footage shown at last year’s Comic Con upstaged the first public showing of Avatar footage and early word of test screenings over the last few months as been astronomically positive.

Red Band

8 ) We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lynn Ramsey hasn’t made a film since 2002’s superb Morvern Callar. She spent much of the decade attempting to adapt The Lovely Bones – that is, until Peter Jackson got attached to the project (which is apparently a disaster). Tilda Swinton plays the adoptive mother of an adolescent boy who went on a Columbine –like killing spree. She has to then deal with the pain and guilt of her horrendous circumstances. It sounds like a standard hard hitting indie, but under Ramsey’s hands it could become something completely different.

7) Rabbit Hole - John Cameron Mitchell is one of my heroes. His 2001 glam rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch is my favorite film of the past decade and his sophomore experiment Shortbus featured real sex and was still popular enough to play at multiplexes across America. Rabbit Hole, an adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, is his first stab at the mainstream. It stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as married couple grieving over the loss of their young son. Mitchell is said to be drawing from his own experiences with loss into the material and to be avoiding every Hollywood melodrama cliché in the book.

6) You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger – The title alone makes me want to see this one. Like always the case with every Woody Allen film in production the plot is kept under wraps, but internet rumours say it involves a large family and their troubled love lives and theres a high class prostitute in it too. The cast may be Allen’s best in 10 years (which is really saying something): Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Frieda Pinto (of Slumdog Millionaire fame), Lucy Punch, Anthony Hopkins, Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), and Bollywood star Anupam Kher.

5) Miral – With a track record that includes Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, director Julian Schnabel has a reputation for making some of the most beautiful films ever. The Imdb synopsis says: “A chronicle of Hind Husseini’s efforts to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 petition and the creation of the state of Israel. The international cast includes Hiam Abbass (The Visitor, The Limits of Control) as Husseini, William Dafoe, Frieda Pinto, and Alexander Siddig (Syriana).

4) Steven Soderbergh – The prolific filmmaker just came off his most artistically ambitious year yet with four releases (the two Che Guevara bio-pics, The Girlfriend Experience, and The Informant!). He already completed his Spalding Grey documentary And Everything is Going Fine, which it’s set to debut at the Slamdance film Festival later this month. He is then scheduled to begin filming his Point Blank meat Borne style thriller Knockout starring real life boxing champion Gina Carano. Its supporting cast is full of big names: Ewan Macgregor, Micheal Douglas, Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, and rising star Micheal Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds, Hunger, 300). If all goes well there, he should go straight to filming a Liberace biopic with Michael Douglas in the title role and Matt Damon (as one of his lovers) at round summer time. It’s expected to be finished and released by December. But wait, there’s more. It was recently reported (by the Playlist) that Soderbergh has just finished a secret movie in Sydney, Australia. It’s reported to be completely improvised and in the vein of his small works Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience. He filmed it with the cast of his Sydney play Tot Mom last fall. No word yet on story details. but if his recent output is any indication it should be at least a little groundbreaking.

3) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – The hotly anticipated (for critics and comic book nerds alike) adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley cult comic book series could in fact be an event as big as last year’s Watchmen (hopefully not as disappointing). It follows the adventures of Scott Pilgrim a 22 year old slacker who finds the girl of his dreams but first must fight off her seven ex-boyfriends in battle to win her heart. Just about everyone involved in the film seems right. The director, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), is capable of exhilarating cinematic style that goes hand in hand with comedy. The cast is a ridiculous with Micheal Cera (in the title role), Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman, Allison Pill, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Kieran Culkin, and Marc Webber. Those who’ve read Michal Bacall’s script say it’s absolutely hilarious. The soundtrack could become a classic as well, with the likes of Beck, Metric, and Broken Social Scene. All of this could mean potential hipster nirvana. Enthusiastic early word comes from Up in the Air director Jason Reitman, who tweeted up a storm about the film:

* In London, (Wright) showed me 30 min of “Scott Pilgrim.” While sworn to secrecy (so much, surprised blood wasn’t demanded) I will say this:

* It is a game changer for Edgar and the genre. It moves the speed of light and carries more unadulterated joy than I’ve seen in recent cinema.

* SP does what everyone our age has been dreaming about: achieves the first all encompassing film of the joystick generation.

* I’m in awe of the sheer control in the filmmaking. It feels like a “Matrix” for love and how willing we are to fight for it.

* If I had a movie coming out next year, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it. Hats off my friend. Can’t get it out of my head.

2) Inception – I don’t know what the hell this movie is about either but it looks great and Leonardo Dicaprio looks solid. There cool looking effects and a great supporting cast: Ellen Page, Marion Cottiard, Michael Cane, Tom Hardy (From last year’s Bronson), Cullen Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lucas Hass, and Ken Watanabe. But the “From the Director of The Dark Knight” title card may still be the greatest thing about it.

1) Tree of Life – Shot way back in early 2008 with reportedly 3million feet of 35 millimeter film. This is Terence Malick’s largest production yet and still only his fifth film since his 1973 debut Badlands. The project had been in the legendary filmmaker’s head for 30 years. Originally titled Q, the film was to be the follow up to 1978’s Days of Heaven, but Malick took a 20 year hiatus from film. For years since his return, the film was constantly being rumored for production and now it’s a reality. Malick also made an adjacent (Brad Pitt-narrated) documentary to the film called The Voyage of Time, which is supposed to chronicle the “birth and death of the universe” (I’m not sure if both films will be playing together). Here’s the IMDb plot synopsis:

“The film opens documenting the origins of life, through the age of reptiles and mammals and then man. Progressively, we are swept through time until the 1950s, where the birth of life suddenly comes to seemingly pointless sickness and death. Pointless, that is, to young Jack, who is unaware of all that has led to this point and time, only to arrive to the tragedy he must come to grips with. This is the philosophical thrust of older Jack’s struggle to coexist in a world that seemingly has little to no value for him. The “tree of life” is the framework of the story, how one thing leads to another, a miracle of growth and evolution, where nature is purposeful, and never random.”

Brad Pitt plays the father (a part originally intended for Heath Ledger) and Sean Penn has the role of the older Jack. It is also rumored that there will be two different versions of the film (one exclusively for IMAX theaters). We also have hot shot cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men, The New World) and composer Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Birth) on board. Go ahead, try to top that.

You think this is a lot of movies to look out for, wait ’till Sundance in a next week. And this isn’t even counting the films I’m not anticipating like David Fincer’s Facebook saga The Social Network. or Clint Eastwood’s supernatural thriller Hereafter. as well as the long awaited (and studio-tinkered) Wolfman. Ridley Scott’s Robin Rood looks horrendous but may be enjoyable as pure camp. Toy Story 3 could be great but to me it feels like it could be the Godfather Part III of Pixar. Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island looks gorgeous but early word suggests a dopey screenplay. And what is this Alice in Wonderland movie Hot Topic cares so much about?

- Anthony Nicholas

Originally Posted in Creative Loafing.

2009 is already halfway over, and the fall movie season (with all the originality and Oscar-bait it has to offer) is just around the corner. What follows is my list of the 25 films I’m most interested in seeing in the second half of 2009. Read all the way to the bottom for some honorable mentions and films that flat out didn’t make the cut, despite the big-name talent behind the production. (I’m looking at you Scorsese and Apatow.) Then let me know in the comments what you’re looking forward to seeing in the next six months.

Read on for the my 25 most anticipated films of the rest of 2009.

25) Big Fan (August 28)

I know the Sundance hit wasn’t praised for its production values, but The Wrestler scribe Robert D. Siegal looks like he has written another winner about a loser. Patton Oswalt plays a very big New York Giants fan who, though a misunderstanding, is beaten up by his favorite player. From there his life goes into emotional turmoil, and Oswalt is said to give a fearless dramatic performance.

24) Nine (November 27)

I’m a sucker for Musicals and anything Fellini so here we are with Nine. This is another in a series of film-to-stage-to-film adaptations: In this case the movie is Federico Fellini’s 1963 classic 8 ½, about a film director dealing with an artistic crisis and all the various woman in his life simultaneously. The cast consists of six Oscar winners (Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, and acting God Daniel Day Lewis) and Fergie.

23) Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (TBA)

Touted as the “first Mumblecore musical” David Chazelle‘s debut feature has delighted audiences on the festival circuit. The film (shot on 16mm black and white) follows the lively romance of a jazz trumpeter and a tap-dancing beauty on the streets of Boston. The film looks like the perfect blending of old and new.

22) The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (TBA)

Davis Russo’s feature film debut has turned heads at festival circuits all year. The film is about bizarre experiments involving janitors and deliciously addictive cookies. These cookies, as it turns out, cause strange visions, wild mood swings and some quasi-male pregnancies. The janitors band together as they become midwives for one another, each man giving birth to a small blue fish. Oh, what a beautiful synopsis.

Listen to podcast #135 for a full review

21) The Lovely Bones (December 11)

Peter Jackson’s long awaited adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel is almost here. The story is about a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family and her killer from heaven, observing how their lives have changed. Jackson looks like he is returning to the kind of supernatural drama of Heavenly Creatures (my favorite film of his).

20) Ponyo (August 27)

It’s Hayao Miyazaki, so how could one not be excited. With this feature he has gone for a more old school look with a water color and pastel-like animation style and using as little CGI as possible. The story is a take off on The Little Mermaid, but this time it’s a goldfish princess who longs to be human.

19) The Princess and the Frog (December 11)

Disney’s long awaited return to hand drawn animation had me hooked five years ago when the project was announced. Featuring Disney’s first African-American princess, the film takes place in the beautifully detailed New Orleans’ French Quarter during the Jazz Age.

18) Agora (December 18)

Alejandro Amenabar‘s latest may have gotten mixed notices at Cannes, but I must say the film looks spectacular. This uncommonly high-minded epic set in Roman Egypt’s famed city of Alexandria concerns a slave who turns to the growing surge of Christianity to pursue freedom while falling helplessly in love with his master, famous atheist philosophy professor Hypatia (Rachel Weisz).

17) Life During Wartime (TBA)

Todd Solondz has always made polarizing films and dealt with the most taboo subjects. This film is said to be a loose sequel to his 1998 classic Happiness. Many of that film’s characters now inhabit what seems to be about a war-torn world. Unfortunately I don’t think Paris Hilton is in this one as was originally reported. But it should be interesting nonetheless.

16) Cold Souls (August 14)

Sophie Barthes debut feature has already been compared to the work of Charlie Kaufman. The wacky post-modern comedy is set in the not too distant future where corporations can extract human souls and sell them as commodities. The story centers on Paul Giamatti (playing himself) who decides to try the procedure to help him get into a soulless character for the stage. His plan backfires when he tries to retrieve his soul and learns it has been sold on the Russian black market.

15) The Road (October 16)

This post-apocalyptic tale looks depressing as hell, and I can’t wait. We could either have another Children of Men on our hands (which is good btw) or another Blindness (not so good). There is The Proposition director John Hillcoat helming the adaption of Cormac McCarthy‘s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel and starring Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron. I think were in good hands.

14) Where the Wild Things Are (October 16)

I would have put Spike Jonze‘ latest higher on the list if not for the current post-production hell it’s currently in. The trailers look spectacular, but the test screenings have been near-disasters and I’m a little worried on how the overall product is going come out. Will it pander too much to younger audiences or will it be a tedious art film? But we do have hipster novelist Dave Eggers involved, and the vocal talents are outstanding.

13) World’s Greatest Dad (August 21)

Robin Williams looks as if he could actually be good here. He plays a sad sack of a high school poetry teacher with an insufferable sex-crazed jackass of a son. But when a tragic event occurs, Williams’ character turns it into an opportunity to make his long-crushed dreams come true. Vulgar comedy extraordinaire Bob Goldthwait looks like he could have a crossover hit on his hands.

12) Beeswax (TBA)

Andrew Bujalski‘s follow up to 2005′s Mutual Appreciation was a hit at South by Southwest along with Joe Sawnberg‘s Alexander the Last. The film will follow the complicated lives and loves of two identical twin sisters, one of which is a paraplegic.

11) Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (TBA)

In a bizarre choice of material, film-making icon Werner Herzog has made a remake (or sequel) to Abel Ferrara‘s Bad Lieutenant. This time out, Nicolas Cage stars as a crooked, drug-addicted cop whose life spins (somewhat hilariously) out of control. The film also stars Eva Mendes, Exhibit and Val Kilmer — and already feels like it could be a cult classic.

10) Thirst (July 31)

Oldboy auteur Chan-wook Park enters the lucrative world of the vampire genre with his latest film. The film follows a small town priest who, during a failed medical experiment, becomes a vampire. This, of course, leads him down the road to anguish and depravity — but he still struggles to maintain his humanity.

9) Broken Embraces (November 20)

Pedro Almodovar‘s latest looks like his most gorgeous film yet, and it’s lovely to see Penelope Cruz in an assortment of dazzling wigs. The film tells the story of a blind filmmaker (Lluís Homar) and how he lost not only his sight but love of his life (Cruz).

8 ) The Illusionist (TBA)

This is the new feature from France’s new animation king Sylvain Chomet, his first since the Oscar-nominated Triplets of Bellville. Another exciting element is the fact that the film’s screenplay was written over 30 years ago by the legendary comic filmmaker Jacques Tati. This means we may very well catch a glimpse of the iconic Monsieur Hulot once again (in animated form of course).

7) In the Loop (July 24, VOD: July 15)

Based off the British TV series The Thick of It, this comedy has been described as “Dr. Strangelove meets The Office.” The political farce centers on a British Secretary of State and his entourage trying to halt a war they may have accidentally started, through any means necessary. The reviews for this one have been enthusiastically positive.

Listen to podcast #141 for a full review

6) Humpday (in limited release now)

The Bromance to end all bromances. Lynn Shelton‘s latest was a sensation at Sundance with many critics citing it as the first Mumblecore film that could crossover into the mainstream. Two old buddies go to a party at a sex positive commune, get wasted and dare each other to enter a gay porn contest. The next morning the two find themselves unable to back down from their bet. But how is the wife of one of the guys going to take this turn of events?

Listen to podcast #141 for a full review

5) Antichrist (October 23)

I’m so up for the bat-shit craziness this film has to offer. Who doesn’t want to see a NC-17 horror film that looks like a perfume ad? Ok, maybe not as many as I think, but I’m there. What if I told you there is supposedly a talking fox and the mutilation of Willem Dafoe’s little man? Lars Von Trier‘s (or “the greatest director in the world” as he likes to call himself) film centers on a grieving couple who retreat to a mysterious cabin in the woods. Then some bad things happen.

4) The Hurt Locker (in limited release now)

What else can I say about this one? Kathryn Bigelow‘s film is the most universally acclaimed so far this year (along with Up) and the #1 art house event of the summer. We follow an elite Army bomb squad in a city in Iraq in brilliant uncompromising detail. Just watch this clip and you shall see what everyone is talking about.

3) The Tree of Life (TBA)

It’s still up in the air whether the film will be released this year or next, but I have my fingers crossed. Director Terrence Malick is notorious for his long post-productions, but any Malick film is a huge event. (This would be his fifth film of his 40 year career). The descriptions I’ve heard about this one are mind-blowing, and Malick has reportedly been planning this film for over 30 years. Life will follow the evolution of an 11 year old boy. The audience will see the world through his eyes, full of beauty and love and his visions of history. But as the boy gets older, he gets his first glimpses of death and sickness and parental conflict (Brad Pitt will play the father). The world then becomes a harsh unforgiving place. Sean Penn is will play the boy as a disillusioned adult yearning to find meaning in his life again. There will also supposedly be a time-line of the history of the world that goes back far enough to include the dinosaurs. Talk about ambitious!

2) Avatar (December 18)

James Cameron’s “cinema changing” film is so close. The buzz I’ve heard from all around has been uniform ally great. (Sample buzz: “Avatar will change movie industry forever. Thank you Jim” … “It’s nothing you can imagine, it’s real. Cameron made a new planet and took a cam there.” … “THIS WILL CHANGE MOVIES FOREVER. Trust me, it will.” All I can say is that the film stills are simply mind blowing.

1) Inglorious Basterds (August 21)

Well what did you expect? I’m a Quentin Tarantino fanatic (yes, I even loved Death Proof) so how can I not be excited? The lukewarm Cannes reception, mediocre trailers and the supposed reediting haven’t deterred me one bit. The complex “Nazi scalping” plot looks ingenious, and the international cast doesn’t look bad either: Brad Pitt, France’s Melanie Laurent, England’s Michael Fassbender, The Office‘s B.J. Novak, Diane Kruger, and even Mike Myers. Then there’s Germany’s Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, and major Oscar contender Christopher Waltz.

Check out the review from the secret screening held at the Fantasia Film Festival in July

Now, I did leave off some notable films. Scorsese’s latest Shutter Island just does not look interesting to me, and Judd Apatow’s Funny People has a surprisingly unfunny trailer. (But I’ll see it anyway, simply for Leslie Mann.) I guess I just don’t know enough about the Coen brothers’ latest A Serious Man to get excited about it. For honorable mentions I would put Soderbergh’s The Informant!, Ricky Gervais’ The Invention of Lying (the trailer makes the film look to slight to me). And Richard Kelly may have actually made a film I give a shit about with The Box.

TIFF Lineup Announcements

The 2009 Toronto International Film Fest has begun to unveil its lineup, and it’s a doozy so far. From Cannes, we have Jane Campion’s Bright Star, Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank and Johnnnie To’s Vengeance. Premieres include: opening night film Creation, which stars Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany as Emma and Charles Darwin; Ricky Gervais’ first original feature-film screenplay, The Invention of Lying; Steven Soderbergh’s corporate-fiasco farce The Informant, starring Matt Damon; and the eccentric-sounding Leaves of Grass, starring Edward Norton and directed by Tim Blake Nelson.

TIFF typically functions as a testing ground for Oscar’s favorites, so keep one eye firmly focused on it.

Stephen Chow will not be Kato in The Green Hornet

Something is amiss with The Green Hornet and Stephen Chow, and it has me worried. First, Chow was signed on to both direct and play the Hornet’s sidekick, Kato, to Seth Rogen’s lead. Chow was ousted from the director’s chair in favor of French wizard Michel Gondry. Now, Sony has announced that Chow has been dropped from the production entirely. Of course, we still have Rogen, Gondry, and an Evan Goldberg screenplay to fall back on, but that’s still a little suspect; Chow seemed to be one of the more passionate figures surrounding the project, and his absence may be a sign of a lack of quality control.

Toronto’s After Dark Fest has a lineup announcement, too!

Not to be outdone, After Dark, Toronto’s pre-eminent genre fest, has announced its initial lineup, which features a few Fantasia heavy hitters, including Embodiment of Evil, Paul Solet’s Grace and the much-delayed triptych Trick r’ Treat, but it also features a few new ones, including British sci-fi flick Franklyn, the frankly awesome-sounding Someone’s Knocking at My Door, and Joko Anwar’s supernatural thriller The Forbidden Door. That’s hardly all the weeklong fest will have on offer, so keep your ear to the ground.

Simon Howell

The trailer for the Ricky Gervais written and directed comedy The Invention of Lying (orginaly titled The Other Side of the Truth)look to be promising.  With a great cast (that includes Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest, Jason Bateman, and Jenifer Garner) this film looks conventional enough to attract a mainstream audience while still keeping that trademark Gervais humor.  The film takes place in a world where no one has ever told a lie, until of course a writer (Gervais) takes full advantage of this world for personal gain.  It opens wide on September 25th.

Ghost Town
Directed by David Koepp

Sometimes there’s nothing more dispiriting than getting exactly what you expect. Anyone who caught trailers for Ghost Town would have glimpsed the often-brilliant British comic Ricky Gervais (The Office, Extras) prancing about in what appeared to be a formulaic American romantic comedy. Barring some slight aberrations, that’s exactly what we get here, and the clash of styles – with Gervais’ trademark impish unpleasantness being made to conform to an oppressively “pleasant” genre – is almost bracing in its sheer capacity to do wrong.

Gervais stars in a US production for the first time as dentist Bertram Pincus, an intensely antisocial individual who avoids human contact at all cost, even brushing aside his troubled-but-attractive neighbor Gwen (eternal mark of mediocrity Téa Leoni). After a botched colonoscopy which kills Pincus for “a lil’ less than seven minutes” (a very funny Kristen Wiig as Pincus’ surgeon), he finds himself hounded by the dead, who (in a direct rip from The Sixth Sense, acknowledged by the film’s tagline) hound him to fix their “unfinished business.” Among them is Gwen’s recently deceased husband Frank (Greg Kinnear, dialing up the smarm), who convinces Pincus to break up Gwen’s impending marriage to a human rights lawyer in order to keep the demanding ghosts at bay.

Based on that description and the film’s denotation as a rom-com, you already know as well as I do where the film goes. Ghost Town annoys more than most of its kind because of the potential at hand – among all the half-baked ideas and predictable plot machinations there’s an occasional moment of inspiration. Nearly all of them come from Gervais, who reprises his awkward schtick to great effect in many scenes (there’s a nod to Office fans in the form of the term “willy-nilly”). The rare scenes in which he gets to interact with Wiig makes one long for a movie in which they’re paired up, rather than imposing a more traditionally palatable vaccuum like Leoni. Kinnear can be great in the right role, and he occasionally taps into his peculiar blend of charm and contemptibility to nice effect, but he’s hamstrung by a character whose choices seem arbitrary and whose ultimate payoff – his “unfinished business” – rings false.

Actually, it’s falsehood that is the movie’s true undoing – Gervais’ characters in his beloved series do have a likable core, but here that aspect of his personality is overplayed, effectively defanging much of the humor. Pincus’ necessary switch from “bad” to “good” is neither smooth nor convincing, and the film’s proffered explanation for Pincus’ beastliness trivializes Gervais’ approach. That, combined with the perfunctory manner in which Gervais and Leoni’s courtship is rolled out, makes enjoying the film more work than it has to be.

Simon Howell