I never get this right.
Admittedly that wasn’t the most promising way to start an obvious attempt at clickbait. Yet you’re still here. So there’s that.
2018 is now behind us and we’re already looking forward to the biggest, brightest, and weirdest of 2019. Yet every time I make one of these lists I find that I’m disappointed by the films when they come out. Is it just that hype is a killer?
One thing is for sure: Disney will dominate the box office. Glass. Captain Marvel. Dumbo. Avengers: Endgame. Aladdin. Toy Story 4. The Lion King. Artemis Fowl. Frozen 2. Star Wars: Episode IX. Let’s do the mental maths. Yup, checks out. That’s before you include anything coming out of the pending Fox merger. I, for one, welcome our new Disney overlords.
Naturally, the House of Mouse dominates this list. I am at heart a geek and always will be. Yet there’s a stack of films to get excited about in 2019, from the indies to surefire animated Japanese classics. So find a comfy place on your sofa or pre-book your favourite theatre seat. This ride has already started. 19 tickets, please.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
While the first film had its issues, it has spawned a multimedia empire for LEGO that is frankly a welcome juggernaut. More LEGO films mean more LEGO sets. The only question is: where will I store them all? Directed by Mike Mitchell (Trolls), it’s due out in US cinemas on 8 February and in Australia on 21 March.
Captain Marvel
Based loosely on the Kelly-Sue DeConnick run of the comics, Marvel Studios takes us back in time to the 1990s when Brie Larson was a superhero and Samuel L. Jackson had both of his eyes. Most importantly, there’s a ginger cat. After being teased in Avengers: Infinity War, this will be the second biggest Marvel film of 2019. Disney sends this to Australian cinemas on 7 March.
Us
Jordan Peele’s Get Out was one of the most highly acclaimed horror-thrillers of the last few years, and his next film looks set to take it up a few notches. Speaking directly to race in America, many have already speculated that it will form part of the Get Out cinematic universe. It arrives in US cinemas on 15 March.
Avengers: Endgame
Do I really need to tell you why I’m looking forward to this? 10 years, 21 films, several TV series, billions of dollars, and one violent raccoon later we find ourselves at the climax of one of the greatest pieces of modern storytelling and world-building in the history of the medium. Yeah, I went there. It arrives in cinemas in April.
The Sun is Also a Star
Ry Russo-Young is one of the most interesting indie filmmakers of the last few years. Following 2012’s Nobody Walks, and the curious YA sci-fi flick Before I Fall, her latest film adapts Nicola Yoon’s 2016 novel of the same name. Starring Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton, Jake Choi, and Miriam A. Hyman, it’s due out in the US on 17 May 2019.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu
Hear us out on this one. based on the video game of the same name,
Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) directs a film he penned with Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel) with Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu. A joint US/Japanese production, it also stars Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton and Ken Watanabe. You have to be curious, right? As the theme song goes, you gotta catch ’em all. There’s really no choice. It’s out 10 May in the US and 16 June in Australia.
Toy Story 4
Yes, it’s another Disney. Even after leaving us emotional wrecks at the end of Toy Story 3, I reckon 9 years is enough time to get excited about this franchise again. There’s a fair bit of Buzz around it, after all. (See what I did there?) Josh Cooley (co-writer of Inside Out) makes his feature directorial debut
Weathering With You (天気の子)
Makoto Shinkai has earned a major reputation with Voices of a Distant Star,
Children Who Chase Lost Voices and 2017’s Your Name. His next animated film comes with a massive amount of buzz, and follows high-school leaver Hokada writing for a shady occult magazine on a rainy island and
Akina, a young girl who has the power to clear the grey skies. It hits Japanese cinemas on 19 July.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
That sound you hear surrounding Quentin Tarantino’s film focusing on the Manson Family murders may be a tone-deaf clang, especially in light of his recently unearthed and distasteful comments on Roman Polanski’s rape of an underage victim. However, a film about a faded TV actor and his stunt double starring Margot Robbie, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning, and many more is something to get very intrigued about. It is released in the US and UK on 26 July.
It: Chapter 2🎈
While Stephen King’s Constant Readers knew IT‘s power all along, the surprise horror hit of 2017 returns in 2019 with James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, and Isaiah Mustafa as the Loser’s Club all grown up as Pennywise returns after 27 years. It’s released on 6 September in the US. 🎈
The Goldfinch
Director John Crowley’s film, based on the Donna Tartt novel of the same name, is popping up on lists like these with regularity. Not for nothing: the cast includes Ansel Elgort, Aneurin Barnard, Ashleigh Cummings, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Wilson, Sarah Paulson, and Nicole Kidman. It hits US cinemas on 11 October.
Frozen 2
Disney was never going to let it go. After earning almost $1.3 billion at the box office – and spawning short films Frozen Fever (2015) and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (2017) – the proper sequel hits US cinemas in time for Thanksgiving. While very little is known about the film’s plot, most of the original cast return. Can it live up to the first film? Will it rival the box office?
Star Wars: Episode IX
While we’ve been a bit saturated with Star Wars content in the last few years, it’s hard not to get a bit excited about the as-yet-untitled conclusion to Rey’s journey. J.J. Abrams returns to the director’s chair following The Last Jedi. If you didn’t know already, it’s arriving everywhere around 20 December, give or take a few international datelines.
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Longtime followers of this site will know that we love almost everything avant garde filmmaker Sion Sono puts out. While there’s no firm release date set, his first English-language film starring none other than Nicolas Cage should be on every list for the next 10 years. Given Sono’s output, there’s a good chance he’ll have another 5 films out before the end of the year anyway.
Parasite (패러사이트)
Bong Joon-ho (Okja, The Host) returns to Korean-language filmmaking with regular star Song Kang-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host, Snowpiercer). No date set yet, but Neon has got the North American rights to CJ Entertainment’s film, so expect a global theatrical screening.
Jojo Rabbit
OK, if this was anybody other than Taika Waititi, I’d say that this was the wrong tone at the wrong time. Based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, it’s about young boy Jojo “Rabbit” Betzler who escapes into a fantasy world during World War II with his imaginary friend…Adolf Hitler (Waititi)? Also starring Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, and Thomasin McKenzie, this will have tongues wagging when it gets a release.
The Truth
Following the massive success and Palme d’Or for Shoplifters, one of the best films of 2018, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda will swiftly follow it with The Truth (La Verite), starring Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ludivine Sagnier. It’s Kore-eda’s first non-Japanese film, shot in English and French. It’s also the second Juliette Binoche film planned with a Japanese director as she is also planned to appear in Naomi Kawase’s Vision.
The Irishman
Martin Scorsese gets the boys back together for Netflix. Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino appear together in the master’s film about a mob hitman who remembers his (possible) involvement with the death of Jimmy Hoffa. Scorsese’s first film since 2016’s Silence, he brings back cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto for what is sure to be a handsomely shot film on any size screen.
The Laundromat
Speaking of Netflix, Steven Soderbergh also makes a pair of films for the streaming service. Based on the book by Jake Bernstein titled Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite, it’s a safe bet The Laundromat is probably catchier. How’s this for a cast: Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Alex Pettyfer, David Schwimmer, Will Forte, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Parnell, James Cromwell and many more. Also coming to Netflix from Soderbergh is High Flying Bird. It might just be the year that Netflix steals all the Oscar winners.
Other films to look out for
So as not to completely fill up the column with Marvel content, I’m also very excited by SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, which is said to pick up right after Avengers: Endgame. THE CALL OF THE WILD is another adaptation of Jack London’s classic, this time from Chris Sanders, who follows the likes of Lilo & Stitch, The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon with his first live-action film.
Another Stephen King film makes its way to cinemas in the form of PET SEMATARY, Harmony Korine returns after 7 years with BEACH BUM, Greta Gerwig turns her talents to LITTLE WOMEN, bringing Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep with her.
Dee Rees follows Mudbound with THE LAST THING HE WANTED following a journalist (Anne Hathaway) who stops covering the 1984 US Presidential election to care for her dying father (Willem Dafoe).
Ok, I cheated. That’s 25 films. It’s just not as catchy as 19 in 2019, right?
