I Am DB

Yes, it’s May. Yes, it’s a little late for a list of movies I’m looking forward to in a year that is already five months old. Yes, I’m going to do it anyway. After all, how many really good movies have you seen in the last four months?

That’s what I thought.

The only earlier releases that would have made my list are Shutter Island and Greenberg, and so far there have been few flicks that have really impressed (How to Train Your Dragon is one of the few). So with the summer just getting started and the fall still ahead, here are the movies I’m most eager to see (of the ones I’m already aware of…)

20. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT – I love movies that give actors a chance to shine, and the reviews out of Sundance (the festival’s output is heavily represented on this list) say this film does just that. Julianne Moore and Annette Bening earned high praise as a longtime couple whose teenagers seek out the sperm donor from whence they came (played by Mark Ruffalo). The comedic drama is directed by indie darling Lisa Cholodenko, whose credits include High Art and Laurel Canyon. (July)

19. SOLITARY MAN – I’ve always liked Michael Douglas, but I’ve never thought of him as one of my favorite actors. Yet I get pretty excited everytime a movie comes along that offers the potential of a rich role for him, so maybe I need to re-evaluate. In this film directed by the screenwriters behind Rounders and Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen and The Girlfriend Experience, Douglas plays a guy dealing with the fallout from years of selfish behavior and damaged relationships. Supported by Mary Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Susan Sarandon, Jesse Eisenberg and his old friend Danny DeVito, Douglas is earning his best reviews since Wonder Boys. If that’s the bar he’s meeting, we’re in for a treat. (May)

18. THE TOWN – In 2007, Ben Affleck made an impressive directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone, so I’m hopeful that his second outing behind the camera – a heist film which he co-wrote – will yield similarly positive results. His casting of Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper and Jon Hamm suggests he’s on the right track; his casting of himself might suggest to others that he’s not. But it doesn’t worry me; I’ve liked Affleck’s performances in films like Good Will Hunting, Chasing Amy, Shakespeare in Love, Changing Lanes and Dogma, so I’m firmly rooting for his efforts both in front of and behind the camera. (September)

17. THE SOCIAL NETWORK – On paper, this film about the personal battles that went down around the founding of Facebook sounds less than exciting. But when a movie is written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, attention must be paid. Here’s hoping they prove my initial judgment wrong. Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, rising British star Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) and Rashida Jones head the cast. With all the recent developments around Facebook’s privacy policy, I already smell a sequel. (October)

16. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD – Michael Cera stars as a geeky kid (big surprise) who must battle his dream girl’s evil ex-boyfriends in order to date her. It’s based on a cult comic book which I’ve never seen, so my interest in this boils down to its director, Edgar Wright, whose Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are two of the best comedies in recent years. Those films had the advantage of a hilarious on-screen duo in Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but Wright’s snazzy, energetic direction was a big part of the appeal. Combine that with a goofy concept, Cera’s awkward charm and a cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Chris Evans and Brandon Routh as some of his foes, and this could be one of the year’s most fun movies. (August)

15. THE CONSPIRATOR – There are simply not enough films that put the beautiful, smart, incredibly underrated Robin Wright front and center. For that reason alone, this film makes my list. Under the direction of Robert Redford, Wright plays a woman on trial as one of the figures who planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. James McAvoy co-stars as her attorney, a Union soldier who takes the case reluctantly and then has reason to wonder if his client is being wrongly prosecuted. Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Danny Huston, Alexis Bledel, Jonathan Groff and Kevin Kline also star. (Fall)

14. THE FIGHTER – Director David O. Russell re-teams with his Three Kings and I Heart Huckabee’s star Mark Wahlberg in this story of boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward. That name means nothing to me, but here are some that do (in addition to Russell and Wahlberg): Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and screenwriter Paul Attanasio, whose credits include Donnie Brasco and Quiz Show. (December)

13. BLUE VALENTINE – Another Sundance breakout, this one chronicles the crumbling marriage of a young couple played by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. Sounds like familiar territory, but it was received with near universal praise at the festival and promises to be a great showcase for two of our finest young actors, who were being pegged for 2010 Oscar nominations before 2009’s had even been announced. (December)

12. WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS – It’s been over 20 years since Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas collaborated on Wall Street, earning the latter an Academy Award and introducing “greed is good” into the annals of pop culture. But whereas most sequels are made with a single motivation in mind – cash money – here is the rare example that actually feels justified. The original wasn’t exactly a blockbuster, so it’s not like the motivatation here is profit or a desire to cash in on an idea that had some mileage initially but has nowhere left to go. Instead, we’ve got a central character who’s actually worth revisiting years later. Like Fast Eddie Felson, who Paul Newman returned to play in The Color of Money 25 years after originating the character in The Hustler, Gordon Gekko is ripe for revisiting in the wake of a financial crisis brought about by the very greed that he claimed was so good. What has happened to him after his imprisonment and the collapse of the financial markets? I look forward to seeing what Stone and Douglas come up with after all this time. The sterling supporting cast features Shia LeBeouf, Frank Langella, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan and Susan Sarandon. (October)

11. SOMEWHERE – I wasn’t so into Sofia Coppola’s last film, the visually sumptuous but narratively unengaging Marie Antoinette. Her latest, however, seems more akin to Lost in Translation, and that’s a good sign. The unexpected casting of Stephen Dorff, as a partying movie star left in charge of his 11-year old daughter while staying at Hollywood’s famous Chateau Marmont, only adds to the curiosity factor. (December)

10. TREE OF LIFE – A holdover from last year’s list, this is the first new film from Terrence Malick in five years…and only his fifth since 1973. I don’t know any more about it now than I did a year ago, but as a big fan of The Thin Red Line and The New World, I’m looking forward to seeing what the poet auteur comes up with this time. Sean Penn and Brad Pitt appear. (Fall)

9. LOVE RANCH – Another selection from last year’s list that didn’t see the light, this long-on-the-shelf film is finally getting a small release this summer. Directed by Taylor Hackford, it tells the story of the first legal brothel in Nevada and the husband and wife who founded it, played by odd-couple Oscar winners Joe Pesci and Helen Mirren. Pesci is the reason this movie makes my list. This marks his first non-cameo role in a film since 1998, and it will be great to finally have him back in action. (June)

8. THE COMPANY MEN – John Wells, the television writer and showrunner whose small-screen work includes ER , The West Wing, Southland and China Beach, makes his feature directorial debut with a timely film about the effects of corporate downsizing and the troubled economy on a group of men and their families. One of the best reviewed movies at Sundance this year, it stars Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper (also together in The Town), Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt and Craig T. Nelson. (Fall)

7. BLACK SWAN – For his follow-up to The Wrestler, director Darren Aronofsky unveils this psychological thriller featuring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as rival ballet dancers. That’s all I know about the plot…and with the promise of Portman and Kunis in leotards for two hours, it’s all I need to. (Fall)

6. THE OTHER GUYS – For every pair of Mel Gibson-Danny Glover A-list cops who are out on the streets getting all the action and cracking the big cases, there’s another duo who aren’t quite as…good. In the latest from Will Ferrell’s partner-in-comedy Adam McKay, Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play the second-banana team to Samuel L. Jackson and Dwyane Johnson’s top cops. If the McKay-Ferrell comedy stylings of Anchorman and Talledega Nights – or this awesome “motion” poster – are any indication, this should be pretty damn funny. (August)

5. MACHETE – Robert Rodriguez generally makes two kinds of movies: those based on ideas his young kids come up with – resulting in horrifying films like Shorts and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl – and R-rated, pulpy action films whose lineage can be traced back to his breakthrough, El Mariachi. These include Once Upon a Time in Mexico, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, Sin City and Planet Terror (his half of the three-hour Tarantino collaboration, Grindhouse). While the mere trailers for the films in the first category tend to make me throw up in my mouth, I’ve always enjoyed his contributions in the latter, and found them to be great over-the-top fun. Machete looks to follow in that tradition. Born as one of the fake trailers created for Grindhouse, Rodriguez is expanding the premise of a revenge-seeking ex-Federale to feature length. Danny Trejo, a Rodriguez regular who starred in the trailer, is onboard as the title character. He heads up a wildly eclectic cast that includes Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan, Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal and Robert DeNiro. That’s right – Lohan, Seagal and DeNiro, together at last. How can a movie with a (real) trailer like this not kick ass? (September)

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4. TOY STORY 3 – A couple of months ago, I asked a friend who works at Pixar how Toy Story 3 was looking. She glanced up, and lit by the glow of her iPhone, ominously answered, “Dark.” Wuh? Toy Story? Dark? What, does Andy get a limb hacked off or something? Maybe not that dark, but the word is that while the latest adventure of Buzz, Woody and the rest is as much fun as ever, it’s also heading to some surprising emotional places. The return of these characters already had me reeled in, but curiosity over this mysterious new direction has piqued my interest considerably. Most of the main voice actors return, including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack and Don Rickles. Newcomers to the toy chest include Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Timothy Dalton and Ned Beatty. Little Miss Sunshine’s Academy Award winning screenwriter Michael Ardnt penned the script. (June)

3. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART I – The Potter films always thrill and frustrate me in equal measure. As a die-hard fan of the books with a detailed level of recall, I get irritated by alterations that seem unnecessary or leave gaping plot holes. But seeing J.K. Rowling’s world come alive through incredible production design, cinematography and performances by a cast of stellar British actors never gets old. As the final chapter in Harry’s saga, Deathly Hallows is the densest book in the series and in many ways the trickiest to adapt. Splitting it into two films (Part II arrives in July 2011) is a smart move, but even that won’t allow the filmmakers to capture everything. Seeing how they begin to resolve Harry’s onscreen saga earns the movie a high place on the list. There’s one particular sequence from the book that I’m dying to see on film. I don’t know if it will be in Part I or Part II, but if they do it right it could be as creepy as anything in The Exorcist. Yeah…you heard me. (November)

2. THE WAY BACK – I don’t know what this movie is about. I think it’s set during World War II. I know that it stars Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Saorise Ronan and Jim Sturgess. That’s an appealing line-up. But the reason this movie makes my list can be summed up in four words: Directed by Peter Weir. The gaps between Weir’s movies are often long, but he almost always delivers something worth the wait. With a filmography that boasts Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, The Truman Show, Dead Poet’s Society, Witness, and Fearless among others, Weir always leaves me anxious for his next film. Having waited since 2003 for a new one, I’m more than ready. (Fall)

1. INCEPTION – From his debut Following to his breakthrough Memento to his gigantismash The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan has shown a consistent knack for twisty plotting, strong character development and more recently, all the action and spectacle of the best popcorn movies. His latest, said to be his most ambitious film to date, sounds like the ideal vehicle for him to take it all to yet another level. Details have been tightly guarded, but it apparently involves a team of high-tech thieves who infiltrate people’s dreams. Nolan just keeps getting better, and this one sounds scary-good. Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and a back-from-the-80’s Tom Berenger star. (July)