The Ten Movies I’m most excited to see in the rest of 2021 (no order)

We only have 2 and a half months left to go in this here year, but there’s still plenty to see as Christmas flows in and all the services fill up their sites with wonders to peruse. Better yet, cinemas just have to re-open soon, and more blockbusters will be seen on our doorsteps, all of which I am excited for.

So here’s the 10 movies I’m most excited to see (and will probably review) in 2021. All look cool, all look interesting, all I’m lookin’ forward to seeing.

10. The Power of the Dog

A western starring Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by Jane Campion, the genius behind such films as The Piano, Margaret and the TV show Top of the Lake? Count me in!

Seriously, just from the cast of this film – Thomasin McKenzie, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Keith Carradine – it sounds awesome. I haven’t seen a good western in a long time, as many consider the genre outdated, and so it’ll be good to see one on such a platform as Netflix to reach the maximum possible audience. Plus, it’ll redeem Cumberbatch from whatever his redundant, comically-accented role in The Mauritanian was.

9. Nightmare Alley

Guillermo del Toro is a man with a twisted, dark, vast imagination, and he has the Oscars to prove it. I have loved much of his work from his classic Hellboy films to the recent The Shape of Water, and he appears to be pooling all of his best attributes into his latest film, a neo-noir horror starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett.

Combining the visual imagination of Hellboy, the star-studded cast of The Shape of Water, the mythology of Pan’s Labyrinth, the creepiness of Cronos and probably the sheer energy of Pacific Rim, Nightmare Alley looks to be a pretty darn entertaining thriller movie that we don’t get any more. I heard del Toro was gonna retire, but I’m glad he stepped up to do this one before that.

8. The Matrix Resurrections

I am admittedly somewhat sceptical about Matrix Resurrections, as the current lore of the Matrix series is incredibly complicated and the Wachowski’s last film, Jupiter Ascending, was a disaster. But there’s something about this IP, whether it be the leather jackets or the cool style or the sheer cajones to mix Biblical philosophy with gun kata action, that will always draw me back to it, through the good and bad.

I’m sure there’s going to be convoluted explanations to bring back Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss back from the death. I’m sure there’s going to be a ton of crazy philosophical talk and strongly sexual imagery. But I’m also damn sure that I’m going to have a pretty darn good time watching it.

7. The French Dispatch

Every now and then, you need a weird, idiosyncratic, crazy movie to stretch the imagination so your filmmaking palette isn’t so bland and gray. Maybe a Mandy, or Coraline, or MirrorMask, or Fried Barry. Or maybe a Wes Anderson film serving as a love letter to foreign journalists in France.

With an all-star cast, impressive visuals and praise from both critics and audiences, The French Dispatch looks to be a bloody good time. I’m not overly familiar with Wes Anderson’s work, but I should still fit right into the world of this symmetrical, weirdo Europe-loving filmmaker.

6. Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright is indeed my boyo, with his Cornetto Trilogy being among the best comedy films ever made, and Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim standing as excellent action films in their own right. And now he gets to run loose in a genre-loving, neon-lit horror set in the Swinging Sixties in London, starring Anya-Taylor Joy and Matt Smith. Awesome.

Having received rave reviews since its debut at the Venice Film Festival, Last Night in Soho looks to be another Wright slam dunk, especially with an audience in a theatre on old-timey film as it should be. I’m really looking forward to theatres re-opening so I can go see this one.

5. Tick, tick…BOOM!

Lin-Manuel Miranda is running absolutely rampant lately – aside from Hamilton last year, this year, I’ve seen In the Heights (which he wrote, produced and starred in) and Vivo (for which he wrote the songs and starred in). Later on, we’re also getting Encanto, which he wrote about a superpowered Latinx family. But then there’s Tick, Tick…BOOM!, which looks a lot more interesting.

Based on a stage play and following an author as he weathers a crisis of confidence in his career, Miranda makes his directorial debut with the great Andrew Garfield (who can bring life to even the worst films) and a significant departure from his crowd-pleasing roots. Let’s hope it’s damn good.

4. Army of Thieves

Zack Snyder was so confident in Army of the Dead’s success that he commissioned both a prequel AND an anime follow-up series. Indeed, Army of the Dead was a massive success, but in terms of quality, it was let down by its self-seriousness and all the Snyderisms holding it back. That’s why Army of Thieves looks to be a more interesting spinoff, because it doesn’t have those Snyderisms.

Matthias Schweighofer (who also directs) returns as Army of the Dead’s comic relief Dieter in a more bizarre take on the zombie heist that promises to be a romcom with action and zombies. Looking like it’s going to take the fun, trashy direction that Army of the Dead seemed so poised to leap for, Army of Thieves could be a damn good time.

3. Don’t Look Up

Having been promoted by Netflix since the start of the year for an eventual December release, Don’t Look Up seems to have all of the benchmarks of an Oscar film according to the press – a star-studded cast (led by Leo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence), a well-established director (Adam McKay of Vice and The Big Short), and a timely message about human stupidity.

While all of those things are indeed a draw, the originality of Don’t Look Up’s premise is what interests me the most. Following two astronomers who discover a comet heading for Earth but who are not taken seriously, Don’t Look Up certainly promises a new experience and an original plot, and I’m all for that.

2. Nitram

Joker, but Australian sounds like the meme of a lifetime, but that’s the goal of Justin Kurzel’s latest movie, which debuted to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival and even won the Best Actor trophy for Caleb Landry Jones. Following the perpetrator of the Port Phillip massacre as he slowly winds up to the killing, Kurzel’s film promises terror, anxiety and damning commentary on this character.

Port Phillip is still a touchy issue for many Australians, that will perhaps touch too hard for many who complain of the accents, the inaccuracies, the coldness, the fact that this film even exists in the first place. That’s all why I want to see it – I want to push past the discourse surrounding the film and see if it is truly as great as they say. If it is, I will be damn satisfied.

1. Dune

My number one most anticipated for the year, with rave reviews spiling out the wazoo and promises of grand adventure and action to come, Dune is everything I want – explosions, deep drama, majestic creatures, unique artistry and genuine artistry on display.

From director Denis Villeneuve, who made Sicario and Arrival (both of which I love), Dune follows Paul Atreides, the heir to an intergalactic mining empire who must ensure his destiny as essentially the controller of the galaxy. Based on a novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, a previous adaptation had been made in 1984 by David Lynch, which…didn’t go well, to put it lightly (it’s been called one of the worst sci-fi films ever made, and the most homophobic movie ever made, in a surprising turn).

Villeneuve’s version seeks to strip the story of Lynch’s bloat in favour of what made the book great – the wonder, the complexity, the characters, the uniqueness, the giant sandworms. With any hope, I’ll get to see this on a huge IMAX screen with a ton of people so I can feel like I’m discovering a world again, like I did when I watched Star Wars for the first time in a cinema.

Believe me, I hope you go to see these films as well. I put the trouble into researching them, they’d better be good enough for us both to enjoy them.