#1- We Need To Talk About Kevin

Directed by Lynne Ramsay

UK

Hell best describes Lynne Ramsay’s latest feature, her first in nine years ever since her brilliant and much overlooked Morvern Callar. Many critics have criticized the film for the characters portrayal, but they seem to be missing the point. One would assume the movie is about its titular character, but the movie really isn’t about Kevin at all. We Need To Talk About Kevin is all about perception – in this case, in how Eva perceives the world, how she regards her son and how she views situations in her past. It’s about Swinton’s Eva, her guilt, regret and loss; therefore the movie largely takes place in her tormented mind.

Ramsay’s direction is confident and composed. Her stylistic touches burn through the dread that is stripped back gradually through the blood-coloured production design. The actual massacre is wisely kept offscreen and instead recalled through a reoccurring motif of the colour red that filters through the pictures veins for its entire running time: from the unforgettable opening at a Spanish festival where a crowd of people drown themselves with tomatoes juice to the red paint splattered on her house by vandals, which Eva spends her days scrubbing away. Red is predominantly everywhere in sight, in food, traffic lights, make up, clothing and much more. The colour design here alluding at the tragedy buried deep in Eva’s soul. Rather than conflicting with its dark subject matter, the film’s visual beauty instead punctuates the horror. Ramsay with the help of editor Bini (best known for his work with Werner Herzog) commit to a time-shifting narrative from start to finish – juxtaposing thematic links between the past and present. To this end, she largely embraces the use of montage, cutting heavily between various shots to capture Eva’s perceptions of evens past. Her Mise en scène is, at the outset, nothing short of exhilarating. Eva is present in every frame of the movie, yet Ramsay shoots in Cinemascope, so no matter how close she gets, Kevin isn’t far behind. Tilda Swinton gives a tour-de-force performance conveying every thought racing through her character’s mind. Its a true work of art; her best yet. Kevin is too special a movie to be embraced by the masses, but from where I sit, it is inarguably Ramsay’s finest achievement so far.

#2- Kill List

Directed by Ben Wheatley

Screenplay by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump

UKz

Kill List is presented in three distinct but smartly connected tissues: Ben Wheatley and his wife and scriptwriting partner, Amy Jump, have created somewhat of a kitchen-sink gothic horror film that blends black comedy, domestic drama and the whole buddy hit-man movie element into a seamless whole. The film’s off-kilter take on violence can be traced back to movies like The Parallax View, Race with the Devil, Rosemary’s Baby Pulp Fiction and The Wicker Man.

Utterly gripping, deeply unsettling and genuinely terrifying, Kill List is remarkably clever and resourceful filmmaking. This is a brilliantly directed, superbly written British horror film with terrific performances from its skillful cast of actors that will be dissected and argued long after its theatrical run is over.

#3- Haywire

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Screenplay by Lem Dobbs

2012, USA

At it’s roots, Haywire is the sort of low-budget, straight-to-video action thriller that airs on late-night basic cable. Make no mistake about it, Steven Soderbergh purposely keeps the picture true to its low-rent B-movie principles, right down to the strong heroine at its center. On paper, Haywrire sounds like your sort of run of the mill spy thriller, but several things elevate the film to well-above-average. Screenwriter Lem Dobbs who previously penned Dark City, The Limey and Kapka, is an accomplished enough storyteller, but here, he strips down the plot to an old-school, thrill-a-minute, striaghtforward, lean, globetrotting Spy Thriller. Haywire isn’t a by-the-numbers action vehicle, this is a fast, crafty and spare thriller, with a sharp cast, and Steven Soderbergh’s unmistakably sly direction.

Soderbergh has a knack for being inventive without showing off, and Haywire is a prime example. The credit is all on Soderbergh’s shoulders since he acts as cinematographer, director and editor for his film. Haywire’s defining characteristic is its look. The selection of shots are random and varied but he opts for simple images. The fight scenes are music free and the use of ambient sound only heightens the drama and tension. And in between, we are treated to David Gross’s funk cool jazzy score which only helps to enhance the vintage feel. Shooting digitally on the 4K Red One camera, Soderbergh gives Haywire a visually sophisticated look, with tonal palettes color-coded to help make sense of time and place. Although some of the director’s choices seem to be without rhyme or reason, others accomplish a specific goal. Soderbergh picks his angles artfully and allows Gina Carano, the amazonian brunette, to demonstrate her arsenal of acrobatic fighting tricks in extended, no-cheating, cleanly choreographed hand-to-hand fighting. Haywire is a bit like the Bourne movies, only stripped down with a UFC twist.

#4- The Grey

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Screenplay by Joe Carnahan

USA

Writer/director Joe Carnahan adapts the short story Ghost Walkers by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers to deliver his best film yet. The Grey is a welcome surprise – a man vs. nature epic/survivalist thriller that’s quiet, contemplative, and straightforward. There’s an almost poetic quality to the way things develop, with characters becoming increasingly introspective. You don’t expect poetry in what is marketed as an action film, but The Grey delivers it in spades literally and metaphorically. For all its machismo speeches and standoffs, The Grey is at heart a simple moral fable.

At nearly age 60, Liam Neeson lights up the screen as Ottway, proving to be one of the few magnetic action heroes left working in Hollywood. The Grey also offers us three great moments: The initial meeting with the wolves works incredibly well as the director gradually reveals several sets of gleaming eyes peering through the darkness like headlights. The second: one of the most realistic and frightening air crashes ever committed to celluloid and the third: an extraordinary scene early on in which, just after the crash, Neeson’s character encourages a dying man to let go and accept his fate.

The Grey‘s abrupt cut-to-black ending will anger some viewers but in retrospect, it allows us to recognize how things would realistically play out while also giving us some form of hope, the same hope that impels the characters through their journey.

#5- A Dangerous Method

Directed by David Cronenberg

Screenplay by Christopher Hampton

USA

A Dangerous Method is a historical romantic tragedy about the early days of psychoanalysis, bolstered by terrific performances by the exceptionally charismatic Michael Fassbender (as a pent-up Jung), Viggo Mortensen (as the sybaritic, cigar-chomping Freud) and Keira Knightley (who inhabits the hysteria of Spielrein). Since the film’s three principals were pioneers in the field of psychotherapy, it goes without saying there’s a lot of dialogue about their practice – potentially enough to overload most audiences, but for more patient film-goers, it’s a handsome and stimulating film, noteworthy for its terrific acting and provocative ideas. Cronenberg has reached the stage of his career where he doesn’t feel it necessary to pander to expectations. Instead he seeks to engage us, and for the most part he succeeds, even if one can help but think he is just skimming the surface of what could have been more compelling material.

#6- Carnage

Directed by Roman Polanski

Screenplay by Roman Polanski’s

USA

Adapted from the play God of Carnage by director Roman Polanski and Yasmina Reza (who wrote the original stage play), Carnage makes no attempt to “open up.” With the exception of a brief prologue and epilogue, the entire film takes place within the confines of a New York City apartment complex. And when it comes to being stuck in an apartment, nobody quite knows how to entertain us like Polanski. Entirely dialogue-driven with almost no plot to speak of, Carnage is short, razor sharp, lean and hilarious. Much like Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, the film centres on two couples who over the course of an evening, spend the majority of the time bickering. Polanski’s smooth direction and the assured performances by Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet keep things moving at a quick pace, allowing Carnage tor rise above its inherent cinematic limitations.

No year is complete without at least one new Soderbergh vehicle, and despite his proclaimed status of sorta-retirement, 2012 will bring two of them; the first is the Gina Carano-powered actioner Haywire, which reteams him with Limey / Kafka scribe Lem Dobbs. (We’ll have to wait a little longer for his “Channing Tatum, Male Stripper” flick Magic Mike.) The whole gang is here to dissect the surprisingly divisive thriller, along with one that slipped through the SOS cracks last year, Contagion.

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Haywire

With the exception of his oft-maligned Ocean’s trilogy, perpetually-retiring journeyman Steven Soderbergh is rarely content to experiment in only one dimension, which makes his latest foray into genre fare, Haywire, yet another left turn of sorts. Besides the casting of a previously unknown quantity – comely MMA star Gina Carano – and a few aesthetic diversions, Haywire is one of his most straightforward movies ever, so singularly concerned as it is with showcasing its star’s fighting acumen (and not much else).

As with his considerably knottier Contagion, Soderbergh ropes in the sort of cast only he seems to have the pull and the Rolodex for. Carano toplines as Mallory Kane, a private special-ops team member with a reputation for exceptional badassery. As the film opens, she’s on the run, with former paramour/co-worker and current alcoholic Aaron (Channing Tatum) in bumbling pursuit. Betrayed by her employers (particularly handler Kenneth, played under a thin layer of slime by Ewan MacGregor), Kane continues to go rogue, accompanied by an overwhelmed civilian (Michael Angarano), to whom she unspools the details of her professional exile. Also floating in the ether: the now-ubiquitous Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Mathieu Kassovitz, and a well-cast Bill Paxton as Mallory’s ex-military father, who exhibits the appropriate balance of fatherly concern and strategic acumen.

Reteaming with screenwriter Lem Dobbs, with whom he had a difficult collaboration on The Limey, Soderbergh doesn’t attempt to mimic that film’s blend of genre-playbook action beats and psychological portraiture. (Relying on the screen-green Carano for the same depth of performance as Terence Stamp would, of course, have been a mistake.) Instead, Haywire is strictly about the former, albeit delivered with Soderbergh’s typically dynamic sense of visual and aural variety. An early chase scene is seen exclusively through a monochrome filter and sticks strictly to David Holmes’s 80′s-hued score, for instance. It’s difficult to shake, though, that these aesthetic tics, along with the script’s elaborately jumbled chronology, serve to distract from the fact that Mallory’s plight isn’t particularly convoluted.

Thankfully, the action element of Haywire mostly delivers, thanks in part to Carano’s peculiar blend of soft, even approachable, appearance, and her almost-mythical (in the world of the film) strength and dexterity. The fights are un-fussy, believable, and brutal without being overly stylized. The film also makes great use of her scenes with Angarano, whose perpetual look of disbelief allows for some very effective moments of levity. As for the actual fights, some work better than others; a hotel-room tousle with Fassbender is particularly memorable (and has, thanks to its sexual undertones, the added bonus of acting like a sort of wet-death-dream for his Shame character), and a Dublin foray into parcour is also a standout. The climactic standoff with the author of her troubles fizzles, though, in a manner more suited to one of Soderbergh’s artier outings. (It doesn’t help that, even at only 93 minutes, the last reels drag.)

As enjoyable as most of the action beats are, it’s difficult to shake the feeling that Soderbergh has essentially roped an A-list cast into what amounts to a DTV thriller, albeit a particularly witty one with a very mild experimental streak. If that doesn’t sound appealing, check back with him in six months; semi-retired, retired, or whatever his status is, it’s to his credit that he rarely keeps still for long.

Simon Howell

11- World War Z

World War Z is an upcoming post-apocalyptic horror film based on the best selling novel of the same name by Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks. The film is directed by Marc Forster and stars Brad Pitt, with a script written by J. Michael Straczynski and Matthew Michael Carnahan.

I just started reading the book and needless to say it’s a real page turner. It will be interesting to see if the filmmakers keep the same structure since the book is an assortment of individual accounts in the form of interviews of different characters. Marc Forster and Paramount Pictures told the Los Angeles Times that they “each view World War Z as a trilogy that would have the grounded, gun-metal realism of the Bourne series tethered to the unsettling end-times vibe of AMC’s The Walking Dead“. Blending those two series sounds pretty amazing from my point of view.

12- Only God Forgives

I’ve been a fan of Nicolas Winding Refn since I saw Pusher back in 1997, and ever since, the Danish director hasn’t disappointed. We raved about Bronson back in episode 152 of the Sound On Sight podcast and Drive recently made my top 10 films of 2011. Reuniting once again with Ryan Gosling, Only God Forgives is described as a western set in Thailand that follows a man who runs a Thai boxing club in Bangkok and is running away from British authorities when getting involved in a drug smuggling operation. Anyone who’s seen the Pusher trilogy knows that Refn is the perfect director for a film about the criminal underworld.

Synopsis: A gangster (Ryan Gosling) lives in exile in Bangkok where he runs a Thai boxing club as a front for his family’s drug smuggling operation. After his brother is killed by a retired Thai police lieutenant, his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) forces him to track him down and seek revenge.

13- The Master

One of my favorite working directors (and one of the most celebrated American filmmakers around), Paul Thomas Anderson returns with only his sixth film, after his masterpiece There Will Be Blood. Focusing on another eccentric, power-hungry individual, The Master is reportedly based loosely on the life of L. Ron Hubbard and his founding of the Church of Scientology. His latest reteams the director with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and will also star Joaquin Phoenix, who thankfully is back from his false retirement. I’m such a huge fan of the director that The Master might just be my most anticipated film of 2012.

Synopsis: After returning home from WWII, a charismatic intellectual (Philip Seymour Hoffman) launches a faith-based organization and taps a young drifter (Joaquin Phoenix) as his right-hand man.

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14- Looper

I’ve been a huge fan of Rian Johnson ever since he released his first film, the neo-noir high-school-set Brick. And despite polarizing views, I rather enjoyed his follow-up, the con-man caper The Brothers Bloom. His third film Looper stars one of my favourite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and follows a topic I happen to love: time travel. It will be interesting to see a director like Johnson, who straddles the mainstream and art-house, put a spin on the genre. Even more, Johnson hired Primer filmmaker Shane Carruth as a visual consultant. If you haven’t seen Primer, then you should, considering it is one of the greatest (if not greatest) time travel movies ever made (and for no more than $8000, no less). Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo, Paul Dano and Garret Dillahunt round up the rest of the main cast.

Synopsis: In a future where time travel exists, but is outlawed, hitmen are enlisted to eliminate mob targets sent back from even further in the future, so as to leave no bodies then. However, the system falls apart when Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fails to pull the trigger on his older self (played by Bruce Willis).

15- Cosmopolis

While P.T. Anderson may be my favourite American filmmaker working today, David Cronenberg is not only my favourite Canadian filmmaker, but is somewhere on my list of my ten favourite directors of all time. The man has only made one film that I did not like (guess which one) and I’d easily place about five of his films on my top 100. Here Cronenberg adapts a critically revered and best-selling novel and places teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson at the centre, as a newlywed billionaire who ends up losing his bride and his billions in a single day. A bunch of Cronenberg’s favourite themes are explored, including man’s relationship with modern technology, murder and yes, sexual obsession. Apart from Pattinson, the impressive cast also includes Sarah Gadon, Kevin Durand, Jay Baruchel, Samantha Morton, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti, and Mathieu Amalric.

Synopsis: Based on the novel by American author Don DeLillo, it centers on Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson), a young multi-billionaire making an epic, ultimately doomed limo ride across New York City.

16- Prometheus

I’m not entirely sure if Prometheus is a prequel to Alien or not, since the director and screenwriter can’t even seem to agree themselves. What’s really important however is that Ridley Scott is getting back to his roots after taking a serious hiatus from science-fiction. The film stars Michael Fassbender (without a doubt the best actor of 2011) as an android, Noomi Rapace as a doctor (akin to Sigourney Weaver’s character Ripley), and Charlize Theron as the semi-villainous corporate figure. Apart from the fabulous cast, a great premise, and an A-list director, Prometheus also boasted the best trailer of 2011.

17- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I’m keeping my expectations low for The Hobbit since I don’t think it can match the brilliance of the origianl trilogy, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat excited. Peter Jackson returns as director of the film and also serves as producer and co-writer. The cast is out of control, starring Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug. Several actors from The Lord of the Rings will reprise their roles, including Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom. Also returning for the production are a big part of the production crew; among others, illustrators John Howe and Alan Lee, art director Dan Hennah and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie. As with the trilogy, props will generally be crafted by Weta Workshop and visual effects managed by Weta Digital. Additionally, composer Howard Shore, who wrote the score for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, has confirmed his role in both parts of the film project. In other words, with just about everyone back in the game, I don’t see how they could possibly do wrong?

Synopsis: In the first of a two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins relates an early journey with Gandalf and a pack of unruly dwarves to steal a horde of treasure from the dragon Smaug.

18- Argo

Argo is the new film directed by Ben Affleck. Following the critically acclaimed Gone Baby Gone and The Town won’t be an easy task but Affleck’s proven himself more than capable a filmmaker. This man has some serious talent both behind and in front of the camera. If Argo proves to be as engaging and well crafted as his previous two films, Affleck may be Hollywood’s future Eastwood. The cast is fantastic. Affleck assembled a respected ensemble, including Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler, Tate Donovan, Titus Welliver, Clea DuVall, Adrienne Barbeau, John Goodman, Michael Parks and Kerry Bishé.

Synopsis: Based on a true story, in which a CIA operative (Ben Affleck) hatched a plan to extract a group of American diplomats from Tehran in the midst of 1979’s Iranian hostage crisis, using the filming of a fake movie as their cover.

19- Magic Mike

Steven Soderbergh has another two films set for release in 2012. Hopefully this man will never retire since he doesn’t make bad movies. His last, Contagion, made our staff’s list of the 30 best films of 2011 and along with Magic Mike, everyone here at S.O.S. is excited for Haywire. Mike is Soderbergh’s Showgirls, only about male strippers instead. While the prolific filmmaker threatens us with retirement, every film he directs will be cherished even more so with hopes that he’ll change his mind and continue with his filmmaker career. The film is supposedly based on Channing Tatum’s own early life story when he worked as a male stripper. The cast is great, and apart from Tatum it includes Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Olivia Munn and Matt Bomer. Either Magic Mike will be a box office success or a box office bomb, but I’m betting on the former, not the latter result.

Synopsis: A young male stripper is taken under the wing of his older coworkers.

20- Untitled Spike Jonze / Charlie Kaufman Project

Spike Jonze teams up with Charlie Kaufman again for what is described as a Dr. Strangelove-style satire. Not much is known about the film since they are keeping details tightly under the wraps, but as I am a huge fan of both Jonze and Kaufman, I expect great things.

Synopsis: A satire about a gathering of world leaders as they plan a series of world-changing events, from wars to shifting oil prices.

Previous Ten

Next Ten

2012 is shaping out to be a banner year for Hollywood blockbusters. Between the amount of buzz that The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises alone are generating over the past year makes one feel that these heavyweights are exhausting their stay. It’s hard to believe that in a year filled with high budgets and wide adaptations, that there is room for anything else. Yet this year is also a frontrunner for many beloved cult filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers and Steven Soderbergh. In a way, one can imagine that this year is turning out to be a David and Goliath type of battle. Who will reign supreme? Will the victors be the fanboys or the mass audience? Shall the conquerors be those who bleed cinema or those who bleed green? You decide by checking out the list below. In no particular order, here are ten films highly anticipated for the forthcoming year:

1- Django Unchained

Coming off a very strong 2009 Inglorious Basterds, 2012 couldn’t get here any quicker for Tarantino fans. With an A-list cast that seemly gets bigger each month, one can expect many surprises to be slated in a B-genre laced film of spaghetti westerns and blaxploitation that made this director’s pantheon a sure-shot watch.

Synopsis: Set in the Deep South during the 1850s, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a German bounty hunter/former dentist who buys Django (Jamie Foxx) as a slave so that he can help Schultz identify bounties for him. After successfully helping the good doctor with his bounty hunting, Django is given his freedom papers and is recruited by Schultz to continue being his partner in the bounty hunting business.Django hones his bounty hunting skills until Schultz thinks he is ready to go to Mississippi; in order to free his wife (Broomhilda). When they find her where abouts through slave auction records, they discover she is in the hands of monsieur Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio); a francophile who takes great pleasure in watching Mandingos fight to the death. Django and Schultz cleverly con Candie into selling Django back his Broomhilda. But something goes rotten in the state of Denmark and Django finds himself fighting for his life, his wife, and sweet bloody vengeance.

2- Skyfall

I don’t know about you, but I’m stoked for Skyfall. After a critically slammed Quantum of Solace and financial woes placed on MGM and its franchise, it’ll be quite interesting how the theater director behind Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes) will do after reuniting with a very debonaire Daniel Craig this time around. Top that with cinematography by Roger Deakins (True Grit) and Javier Bardem as the main villain, and someone has to wonder why The Avengers is hogging all the franchise blockbuster buzz this year.

Synopsis: In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

3- The Dark Knight Rises

By far one of the most spread out and unique marketing campaigns of any upcoming film this year, from generating new photo creatives off of Twitter followers to showing its 12 minute prologue before Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in IMAX, it’s perplexing to think that the ride is almost over. Curtailing off of acclaimed responses from The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger’s over-the-top performance as the Joker, there is no doubt that Tom Hardy is feeling the pressure of seeing audiences’ reaction over his portrayal of the brutish terrorist Bane.

Synopsis: Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City, pushing it and its police force to their limits, forcing its former hero Batman to resurface after taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes.

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4- Haywire

Noted to retire from directing after 2013, the clock is ticking as the Ocean‘s director is encoring audiences with his new government thriller. After Liberace the director will put down the camera for a paint brush, so hopefully audiences’ reaction to Haywire will force him to reconsider. 

Synopsis: Beautiful freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

5- Gravity

If it’s not for blockbusters, 2012 is definitely the year of directors alike. From the man who brought us Children of Men, I’m quite excited to see what Cuaron will bring to the big screen, especially in 3D. Plus with Clooney headlining, I’m in like Flynn.

Synopsis: Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity is a 3D space film about the leader of a team posted at a remote space station. While he and a female colleague are traveling outside the space station, the other team members are decimated by debris from an exploded satellite.

6- Cogan’s Trade

After being on my anticipation list since last year, it’s awesome to see that the reunion of Brad Pitt and Andrew Dominik is coming about in 2012. Being a fan of the lesser loved yet vastly beautiful The Assassination of Jesse James, seeing Cogan’s Trade is pretty much a no-brainer. Plus with the winning streak of films Pitt has been producing lately from Inglorious Basterds to Tree of Life to Moneyball, and on the account that the megastar has also proclaimed retirement from acting soon, it’ll be interesting to see if his streak does in fact hold up. And a grease-haired Pit holding a shotgun looks pretty cool too.

Synopsis: Cogan’s Trade tracks Jackie Cogan’s career in a gangland version of law and order. For Cogan is an enforcer; and when the Mob’s rules get broken, he gets hired to ply his trade — murder. In the gritty, tough-talking pages of Higgins’s 1974 national best-seller, Cogan is called in when a high-stake card game under the protection of the Mob is heisted. Expertly, with a ruthless businessman’s efficiency, a shrewd sense of other people’s weaknesses, and a style as cold as his stare, Cogan moves with reliable precision to restore the status quo as ill-conceived capers and double-dealing shenanigans erupt into high-voltage violence.

7- The Avengers

If by now you haven’t heard that The Avengers is coming, you must be living under a rock. Not being the biggest comic book movie fan myself, I do have to admit that the joining of some of the most mega box office franchises of the past decade sounds pretty epic in my book. No one, not even the high-brow film snobs out there, can denounce the fact that this will be one of the biggest cinematic milestones of the year.

Synopsis: The Avengers will bring together the super hero team of Marvel Comics characters for the first time ever, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk and more, as they are forced to band together to battle the biggest foe they’ve ever faced.

8- Inside Llewyn Davis

Even if you haven’t been living under a rock, Inside Llewyn Davis might have slipped under your radar. Is it a shameless plug to interject the Coen Brothers onto the list? Yes. Does it matter? No. Being on the subject area of 1960s music, it’ll be interesting to see if the brothers will have the same success soundtrack-wise as with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, with pop sensation turned actor Justin Timberlake at the wheel.

Synopsis: The Coen Brothers tackle the beatnik world of the American folk scene in Greenwich Village during the 1960s with this musical drama from StudioCanal. Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan star.

9- Stoker

On the cusps of greatness with such films as Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Oldboy and Thirst, the South Korean based director, Park Chan-wook, marks 2012 with his first ever English based film. Being a huge fan of Asian cinema, specifically with Korean cinema, it’ll be quite the treat to have a talented filmmaker of this magnitude dive into domestic markets.

Synopsis: Just before his demotion to the ranks of minor character actors, Monte Blue starred in an above-average series of programmers for Allied Pictures (one of the many forerunners of Monogram). In The Stoker, Blue plays Dick, a wealthy young man who is betrayed by his faithless wife Vera (Natalie Moorehead). Dropping out of sight, Dick goes on the bum along the waterfront, eventually landing a job as a ship’s stoker on a vessel bound for South America. He ends up on a below-the-border plantation, where he rescues the pretty owner (Dorothy Burgess) from the skullduggery of bandit leader Santono (Noah Beery Sr.) For an actor who was considered a has-been, Monte Blue gives a persuasively virile performance, though he’s a bit thick in the middle to be thoroughly convincing as a young hero.

10- The Grandmasters

I couldn’t leave this list without one pure Asian delight. Not coming down from the high of Ip Man, the legacy is continued as this film tells the story of the man who trained Bruce Lee. Filled with high octane martial artistry, watch the trailer to get juiced up for a promising 2012.

Synopsis: With martial arts getting more popular in the Thirties, more people seek to learn them via the professionals at Foshan in Southern China. Some of the experienced masters like to challenge their counterparts and undergoing battles. To have their whole concentration, it is their practice to lock up the venues and no one is allowed to leave during battles. No food and no rest before reaching any results.Ip Man is a young rich man extremely talented in martial arts, but he chooses to keep a low profile. Yet this doesn’t keep him out of these troubles ahead. One day he is trapped in this battleground so he has to use every means in order to get out of there. The masters are amazed by his abilities. Master Kung and his daughter Kung Yi are amongst, and the latter is attracted to this newcomer.A high warlord is assassinated by his own guard Yi Xian Tian. All masters in Foshan vow to take Tian down no matter what…

Next Ten

Steven Soderbergh’s latest opus is almost upon us, which means it’s time to ramp up the marketing machine and throw a new trailer for the film out into the ether. Haywire appears to be your standard “government op gets screwed over and wants revenge” scenario, but goodness, does it seem like it’s going to be a blast.

Gina Carano looks like a complete badass here — there’s even an armbar or two snuck in there as a hat tip to her MMA past. She has some top-notch support as well, with the likes of Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas and man of the moment Michael Fassbender filling out the cast. Can’t wait for this one.

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As a means of softening the blow that one of my favourite novels will be adapted by a filmmaker whose talents are not only questionable but ill-suited to adapting this particular work, I have assembled a list of filmmakers whose failures at adapting The Great Gatsby might be more interesting than most filmmakers’ successes. In each case, I will also suggest a “key casting” decision. This is of course reflective only of my own personal tastes and I am more than looking forward to your own suggestions for filmmakers and any defences you might have for the Luhrmann.

Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen has proved himself to be one of the most promising young filmmakers with Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011). His second feature demonstrating an understanding of the American ethos, using the backdrop of New York City as a means of reflecting the excess and lack of control of the central character. His startling modern style and ability to create a period drama that feels contemporary make him an ideal candidate to adapt one of the most vibrant works of the 20^th century

Key Casting: The two-faced nature of Michael Fassbender’s acting makes him an ideal choice for Jay Gatsby. He could easily embody the artificial construction while suggesting a darker past and a man of great secrets.

Lynne Ramsay

With her recent adaptation of the diary format novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay has demonstrated a talent for adapting difficult works. One can only assume her take on The Great Gatsby would be one suited for both the screen and her vision. Ramsay is a filmmaker who has a strong visual eye and creates imagery that are not only evocative but suggest a critical counter-balance to content. It creates an incredible dialogue between sound and image, a skill that will be invaluable in the adaptation of Gatsby’s lifestyle.

Key Casting: Though Myrtle has a certain earthiness that seems to demand an actress who is not so white-bread, Jessica Chastain’s performance in The Help makes me believe she can play a highly sexually charged man-eater, who is as much an aggressor as she is a victim.

Sofia Coppola

Even those who have grown tired of Sofia Coppola’s niche, have to acknowledge her talent at bringing the disillusioned and numb upper class to the silver screen. The idea of watching beautiful people in the 1920s sleepwalking through life is strangely alluring, especially if properly contrasted with Myrtle and Nick Carraway. Furthermore, Coppola’s pastel colour scheme is perfectly suited to the deco decade, where pinks, baby blues and creams ran rampant.

Key Casting: Elle Fanning is one of the most interesting young actors on the rise and Coppola has already proved she can get a strong performance from her. Fanning is still too young to play Daisy but she is perfectly suited for the youthful golfer Jordan Baker, a snarky and cruel lounging flapper beauty.

Jane Campion

Jane Campion has a unique talent at bringing to life poetry and I am not just talking literally as she did in Bright Star (2009). This ability is what makes her suited to bring to life the stronger symbolic elements of the text from the fading billboards to the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Also, considering her ability to reveal character’s inner violence, I have no doubt she will be able to make Tom Buchanan as frightening as he needs to be. She understands the multi-faceted nature of humanity and consistently allows for characters to say and mean two different things. This contradictory nature essential to bringing to life Fitzgerald’s work.

Key Casting: Paul Schneider proved all too well he can play brutish masculinity well in Bright Star as the slimey Mr. Brown in Bright Star. He still has the All American looks that could work for Tom Buchanan and is one of the best and under-utilized actors working today.

Arnaud Despleschin

Something of my wild-care choice, Arnaud Despleschin has never made an English language film. He is hardly known outside of film circles and his best known work is an operatic and hilarious family drama about sibling rivalry and cancer. His outstanding ability to handle multiple storylines and a large cast without neglecting any one person for a moment. Yet, it all works within a small scale. This ability to create a small and personal environment in spite of the scope and ambition would suit the extravagant setting but personal story.

Key Casting: Myrtle is all about oozing sexuality: broad hips, ample chest and tight clothes. She is American but her roots in the ‘old country’ still shine through. Lea Seydoux would be an interesting counter-casting, not fitting the page perfectly but somehow satisfying a perfect mind image.

P.T. Anderson

P.T. Anderson has already successfully brought to life two of America’s greatest institutions: the porn and oil industries, there is no saying he can’t be equally good at doing the same for one of the country’s greatest literary institutions. Especially considering the pull between greed and humanity at work in There Will Be Blood (2007), it’s easy to imagine him meticulously bringing to life the roaring twenties with similar care and artistry. His fascination with the crumbling American hero, brought down by their own hubris makes him an ideal match for the novel, and like Lynne Ramsay, has proved to be a strength for adapting challenging works of fiction.

Key Casting: Armie Hammer is one of the most promising actors on the rise, and the fact that he isn’t a big star (yet) might serve the narrative, contributing to the mysteriousness of Gatsby who seems familiar but you still can’t quite place him. A bit more youthful than many of my other choices, he has an air of experience that will suit the role beautifully.

Wong Kar-Wai

Sure Wong Kar-Wai’s transition to english-language filmmaking was less than stellar, that only means there is more room for improvement. The best possible scenario might actually be wildly divergent from the original text, which under normal circumstances might be a horrible idea, but for Wong Kar-Wai means some of his best work. Actually in choosing him I am reminded of the production process of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Arthur Penn was not the first choice of director, it was Jean-Luc Godard. Godard’s vision was too much for Hollywood though as he wanted to transplant the story to Tokyo. This might be history’s chance to give us an idea at what could have been, an Asian interpretation of a Western classic by one of the world’s premiere auteurs. The arthouse fan in me is giddy at the prospect.

Key Casting: Shu Qi as Daisy only seems right, she has a sort of flippant beauty and yet a histrionic performance style. She seems somehow perfectly suited for Daisy’s constructed artificiality and phoniness, while at once suggesting her incredible allure.

Steven Soderbergh

Soderbergh has displayed two key things over the course of his outstanding career: attention to detail and incredible range. Is there a working contemporary filmmaker who has excelled under so many different genres and circumstances as Soderbergh? His willingness to take risks and employ a recognizable albeit flexible sense of style promises an interesting and unpredictable adaptation of familiar material.

Key Casting: Matt Damon rarely plays against his “boy next door persona”, but it would be interesting to see him as the brash and utterly awful Tom Buchanan. Soderbergh who sees fascinating by the idea of celebrity is constantly bending expectations in terms of casting and him twisting Damon’s persona would be a sight to behold.

Guy Maddin

Though all prints are thought to be lost, there was an adaptation of The Great Gatsby made during F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lifetime. Little is known of it’s critical reception but Fitzgerald and Zelda were apparently none-to-fond of the screen depiction of Gatsby. That film lost, one can only guess at what a silent version of The Great Gatsby might look like. Here comes Guy Maddin, whose collage style has consistently and cleverly drawn on silent film style for decades. No other filmmaker could bring to life this vision as Maddin might, and his focus on style, construction and reflection might make him the best suited to tackle this tricky material.

Key Casting: Working under the assumption that Maddin will pull a full on silent with this adaptation, I want to cast Polish actress Karolina Gruszka as Daisy. The name probably doesn’t ring a bell, but she has a rather important role in Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006).

Lars Von Trier

The Great Gatsby may be an ideally American story, but this sometimes necessitates an outside view. Lars Von Trier has already tackled America with both Dogville and Melancholia, both suggesting a strangely mythic land. Trier seems ideal in his ability to reveal the dark humour present in Fitzgerald’s text. Trier is stylistically unpredictable and there is no saying what approach he will take in adapting this work. Let’s not forget the sense of doom hanging over the film’s epilogue, if Trier can do one thing right, it’s the end of the world.

Key Casting: Alexander Skarsgard as Jay Gatsby might just be me fulfilling my desire to see Skarsgard as often as possible on the big screen, but the ambiguity of his nationality, his aptitude for uncomfortable sexuality and his personification of physical perfection makes him an interesting match for the alluring but mysterious Gatsby.

- Justine Smith

Contagion

Written by Scott Z. Burns

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

US, 2011

The big news behind Contagion is its star-studded cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Marion Cotillard and Bryan Cranston.  While the performances are exceptional, perhaps lost in the name-dropping is director Steven Soderbergh, who navigates skillfully through enough storylines to make Robert Altman jealous.

As its title suggests, Soderbergh’s film tracks the inception and spread of an unknown disease throughout the world, and the panic, paranoia, and finger-pointing that ensues.  It’s a frightening film, and the far-reaching reverberations and rapidity with which the disease spreads make it all the more so.  Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns take Contagion beyond a simpler Outbreak-type film through a journalistic, detached approach that at times feels more like reportage than fiction.

A series of enigmatic, nearly concurrent deaths take place across the world.  Among the victims is Beth Emhoff (Paltrow), wife of Mitch Emhoff (Damon).  Damon’s character is the “man on the ground” in Contagion.  He’s the only uninvolved civilian and one of the most empathetic figures in the film.  Leading the investigation and the race to find a vaccine are Dr. Ellis Cheever (Fishburne), head of the CDC, his new hire Dr. Erin Mears (Winslet), and CDC researcher Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle).

In China, Dr. Leonora Orantes (Cotillard) tracks Beth Emhoff’s whereabouts on the day of her suspected infection, while in England, blogger Alan Krumwiede (Law) stirs up controversy as he attempts to demonize the government through conspiracy-theory blog posts.

While the intertwined storylines are indeed impressive, and certainly bring this film far beyond microcosm and into full-blown pandemic, they are also a slight hindrance.  Because we are really only given any significant time with two characters – Mitch and Dr. Cheever – it’s difficult to find a real anchor of sympathy. When Beth dies we feel for Mitch.  When Dr. Cheever’s fiancé is attacked, we feel for him.  However, when the disease systematically kills off other characters, some of them major protagonists, the deaths are viewed with a cold eye – zipping body bags and mass graves, no tears.

This is, perhaps, part of Soderbergh’s plan.  Contagion is certainly a thriller, but it’s not a race-the-clock, headlong adventure.  This is a film that values realism and paranoia before its fictional narrative and conventional genre thrills.

Soderbergh’s technique here is dominated by a few stylistic traits that contribute to the detached mood: more wide-shots than close-ups, techno-driven montage sequences, and short scenes that move rapidly from one to the next.  Maybe the largest contributor is his use of text at the beginning of certain scenes to track the evolution of the disease (and devolution of society).  The film begins with Day 1, moves past Day 100, and then ends again with Day 1 when the source of the disease is revealed.  These numbers, functioning as a countdown of sorts, further the cold feel, presenting it as a report that could well have been published by one of the CDC characters represented in the film.

Burns and Soderbergh have targets.  There are people to blame.  Through the constant merging and concurrent narrative threads big business, Wall Street, the shadow of governments and the blogosphere are all demonized as power-mongering, greedy entities.  Yet, writer and director are careful to humanize individuals and, with the exception of Law’s Krumwiede, who himself is representative of the power and danger of the Internet, most of the blame is laid at the feet of faceless bodies.  Even when Dr. Cheever goes selfishly beyond protocol to warn a loved one of an impending quarantine his actions are still ultimately condoned, and he redeemed.

Contagion’s power lies in its ability to effectively characterize a massive chain of cause-and-effect.  From the small (touching a glass) to the large (mob riots), the film posits that the infrastructure and moral code that our world relies on is flimsy.  It is optimistic in its view of those selfless individuals who rise above the hysteria, yet remains cautionary with its final, circular images.

Neal Dhand

The onslaught of new trailers continues from Comic-Con. Last week we saw the debut trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming virus thriller Contagion, and now we have a trailer for another Soderbergh film, Haywire.

Haywire is Soderbergh’s first foray into action movie making or more precise the modern spy genre. The film’s screenplay was written specifically to be shot in Dublin. The majority of the film was shot mostly in Ireland on a modest budget of around $25 million dollars. The film stars Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, and Bill Paxton. Here is the trailer.

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Synopsis: Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious—and dangerous—trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s viral outbreak thriller Contagion, and it’s quite terrifying. I’m a huge fan of the director and it’s sad to know that this might be one of Soderbergh’s last efforts before retirement. Check out the intense performances from Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in the clip.

The film stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Lawrence Fishbourne, Bryan Cranston, Demitri Martin and Elliott Gould and opens September 9th.

Here is the official synopsis:

Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.

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Soderbergh’s impressive resume spans almost three decades and has tackled an array of thought provoking films. Beginning with 1989’s scandalous Sex, Lies and Videotape that captivated Sundance and snatched up the Palm d’Or at Cannes, to his Oscar windfalls (for Best Director) in 2000 with Julia Roberts (Best Actress) for Erin Brockovich and the critically acclaimed Traffic (films of which garnered him simultaneous nominations) to his very frequent collaborations with George Clooney (10 to date). Then there is his most recent efforts with 2008’s epic two film biopic Che that starred Benicio Del Toro in the title role as Che Guevera the famed Cuban revolutionary and last year’s foray into the documentary genre by helming And Everything is Going Fine, about the life of actor/playwright/monologuist Spalding Gray; it is really rather curious that he would suddenly leave it all behind.

In an interview with Studio 360, Soderbergh attempts to explain his “early retirement” by saying “It’s just time. When you reach the point where you’re like if I have to get into a van to do another scout I’m just going to shoot myself, it’s time to let somebody else who’s still excited about getting in the van, get in the van” and affirming that this was not a hasty decision he goes on to say “For the last three years I’ve been turning down everything that comes my way,” Click on over to Studio 360 for the full 45 minute interview to hear more.

Not to fret, as mentioned before Steven Soderbergh still has some projects in the pipeline at various stages of production to keep him very busy before he disappears into the ether. Soderbergh has two films set for release in the fall: Spy thriller Haywire starring Michael Douglas and the very star packed action thriller Contagion starring Matt Damon and boasts names like Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet and Lawrence Fishburne.

One of his final opuses has him working with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon once again in the biopic of the famed entertainer Liberace, which apparently will have the two male leads getting steamy as Matt Damon humbly told E! “I never thought I would get to kiss Michael Douglas.” Steven Soderbergh’s swan song is indicatively a final reunion with proud associate George Clooney for the big screen remake of the 60s spy show The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

To close out, the director jokingly (or maybe not?) expresses his “relief” in the 360 interview saying “You’re not gonna have Steven Soderbergh to kick around anymore.”

What will you miss the most about Steven Soderbergh?

Spalding Gray is best remembered as a theatrical monologist who gained notoriety through his public displays of introspection. Director Steven Soderbergh, having collaborated with Gray in the documented monologue Gray’s Anatomy, once again shows a symbiotic understanding of Gray’s fragile genius. After Spalding Gray’s tragic death by apparent suicide, his widow asked the director to make a documentary about her late husband. The result is And Everything is Going Fine, which is presented not as “a documentary by Steven Soderbergh,” but as “a tribute by” the director. There are no new interviews or narration; but rather a collage of archive materials simply used as a chance for Gray to give one final monologue on the events of his life. Here is the official synopsis:

Apple has the trailer in HD, and this synopsis:

AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE, an incisive and entertaining portrait of Spalding Gray by director Steven Soderbergh provides an intimate look at the master monologist as described by his most critical, irreverent and insightful biographer: Spalding Gray. Soderbergh distills 25 years of rare and revealing footage to construct a riveting final monologue. An official selection of the SXSW, True/False and Edinburgh film festivals, this inspired one-man show is a bittersweet display of the writer-performer’s playful and embattled intelligence, and his gift for tracking universal truths by looking himself squarely in the eye.

And Everything is Going Fine opens on December 10.
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As reported yesterday, the film is looking to be scripted by Scott Z. Burns, the writer behind Soderbergh’s The Informant and the upcoming Contagion. Soderbergh is currently set to shoot his Liberace biopic in the summer or early fall of 2011, around the same time he’s hoping to get U.N.C.L.E. off the ground. Soderbergh is no stranger to shooting multiple films within a year, and with the possibility that Clooney may very well be putting the final touches on his directorial effort The Ides of March around the same time, we could maybe see a release for early 2012.

Now Deadline reports that The Last Station director Michael Hoffman has taken over of the Coen Brothers-scribed remake of the 1966 film Gambit, a project that was also linked to Doug Liman. The film is a remake of the Michael Caine/Shirley MacLaine crime caper about a cat burglar Harry Dean (Michael Caine) preparing to steal a priceless statue from the world’s richest man. Sounds like a project the Coen brothers could direct themselves if they were so inclined.

The script has been knocking around for years, with the likes of P.J. Hogan, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston all attached at various points, but the project has now found funding via, Crime Scene Pictures, with production to start as of next May in London.

And Everything Is Going Fine

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

It’s strange, the effect stories have when you know that they are true.  They feel more immediate.  That’s the power of non-fiction: the images are somehow more vivid, the blood somehow wetter.  There is no disbelief in need of suspension.  These things happened.  They exist.

It goes without saying that the monologues in Stever Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine – all conceived and performed by the late actor, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist Spalding Gray – lack the power of immediacy they would’ve had were you in the theatre with him.  It is as spare a documentary as you’re likely to find: made up almost entirely of interviews and filmed performances of Gray’s minimalist one-man shows, his is the only voice you hear in the whole film and his only subject is himself.  He is an uncomfortably honest autobiographer.  Even as a shadow on film, Gray’s presence is captivating.  I confess I knew nothing about the man when I walked into the packed theatre, but I left convinced that his death deprived the world of an artful and empathetic storyteller.

Like all good stories, Gray’s life can only be described as funny and tragic.  His mother killed herself when he was twenty-six.  In 2001, he suffered a broken hip and a fractured skull in a car crash that was the primary cause of his last bout of a lifelong depression.  In the spring of 2004, at the age of 62, his body was discovered floating in the East River in New York, an apparent suicide.  Ok, maybe that leans more towards ‘tragic’.  But his stories are funny, and that, unfortunately, isn’t really something I can do justice to in this review.  The funniness lies in Gray’s performance, a neurotic, manic humanity.  We may no longer be able to experience that humanity in the flesh, but this doc is a good place to get a glimpse of it.

- Lena Duong

Visit the official home page for the Hot Docs Film Festival @ http://www.hotdocs.ca/

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