Anticipation is Mounting

My most anticipated films for the rest of 2021.

The French Dispatch

After more than a year of delays and disappointments, it feels like Film is finally returning full force, and there’s a lot to look forward to coming out in what’s left of this year. Here’s a quick rundown of everything I’m looking forward to watching coming soon.

We’ll start with the big stuff, in October we’ll get Dune, which I’m very excited about. Even if it doesn’t deliver completely, I think Denis Villeneuve has shown himself to be a master of setting and visual worldbuilding with Blade Runner 2049, and I look forward to spending a few hours in his version of Arrakis. We’ll also get Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, which if nothing else will provide more delightfully intricate set-pieces like his last two films. Finally, we get Edgar Wright’s riff on a Persona-style psychological thriller, Last Night in Soho. A bit of a shift for Wright, but one that I’m interested in nonetheless. In December, we’re getting graced with a Coen Brother (!) movie, The Tragedy of Macbeth. The trailer looks beautiful and I’m very interested to see how Joel Coen flies solo. We’re also getting a new Paul Thomas Anderson flick, Licorice Pizza. PTA returns to the ’70s, an era he’s well versed in, and we get to see a performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son! We’re also getting DON’T LOOK UP, from Adam McKay with an absolutely stacked cast.

For bigger, blockbuster releases I’m intrigued by Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (Ridley is very inconsistent these days), Chloe Zhao’s Eternals (can she transcend the heavy hand of Marvel Studios?), and Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections (the quality of the other Matrix sequels doesn’t seem to bode well for this one but we’ll see), but I don’t have super high hopes for any of these, but hope to be pleasantly surprised by at least on of them.

There are also a lot of smaller releases that look very promising: Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb looks beautifully bonkers, Bergman Island had me at the title and the cast (Vicki Kreps + Tim Roth!), C’mon C’mon looks like a promising 4:3/Jaoquin Phoenix/A24 spin, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter (starring Olivia Coleman!) will hopefully be good, I’m going to watch The Humans just for the Steven Yuen performance if nothing else, and oh yeah, there’s another Ridley Scott movie coming, House of Gucci, with Adam Driver and Lady Gaga.

That’s everything I’m most excited about coming up. What did I miss? Let me know in the comments.

New Videos:

I released two videos this month, check them out if you haven’t.

An examination of the existential threat of time as one of the core themes in David Lowery’s The Green Knight.

And an examination of the importance of the character Omar Little to The Wire. (Rest in Peace Michael K. Williams, you’ll be missed).

Update:

One last thing. If you enjoy my writing, I’ve started a second newsletter called Counterweight, it’s about media ecology, tech theory, and how we can navigate the challenges presented by the digital landscape that surrounds us. If those things sound interesting to you, I’d love it if you checked it out and subscribed (it’s free). My posting schedule there will be inconsistent at first, but it’s an area of my interest that’s been needing an outlet for a while and I’m excited to start writing in that space.

All the best,

TF