I Am DB

Well now that the Oscars are done (my commentary is forthcoming) and we can finally put 2010’s movies to bed, it’s time to look ahead to what 2011 has to offer…and with the release of one of these films now less than a week away, it’s not a moment too soon. As always, this list is based on the films I know about at this point, and there are even more that I’m looking forward to than I had room to include here. I’m sorry, for instance, that I didn’t list either of the two movies Steven Spielberg is directing this year, but what can I say?  Neither War Horse nor The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (both due for release days apart in December) are all that compelling to me at this stage. But I shouldn’t feel like too undevoted a Spielberg fan, as he is definitely connected to one of my top choices. Anyway, here goes…

20. MARGARET – Kenneth Lonergan’s debut film as a writer/director was 2000’s You Can Count On Me, a very good movie that earned a Best Actress nomination for Laura Linney, a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Lonergan and introduced moviegoers to Mark Ruffalo (in a role that should have been Oscar nominated as well). Lonergan was nominated again as a co-writer on 2002’s Gangs of New York. So expectations were high when he began production in 2005 on his second effort as a writer/director, Margaret, starring Ruffalo, Anna Paquin and Matt Damon. That’s right…2005. Turns out the film became bogged down in creative and legal quagmires, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times two years ago. Last summer it was reported that Margaret would finally be released this year. That’s the last I heard, so I don’t know if it’s still on track or not. Curiosity factor lands it on my list. After all that time and all the entanglements, can a good movie emerge? I hope we’ll get to find out. (Fall…maybe)

19. TAKE THIS WALTZ – There may be no more intriguing a match of director and actor this year than Sarah Polley and Seth Rogen. Polley is the young actress, writer and director behind the quiet, mature 2007 film Away From Her, about a couple dealing with the wife’s slide into Alzheimer’s. It earned Oscar nominations for Julie Christie and for Polley’s adapted screenplay. And Rogen, well, we more readily associate him with the hilariously crude tomfoolery of Judd Apatow films than the more indie, dramatic leanings of Polley (although she did go commercial as star of the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake). Not knowing the tone of the film, said to be a love triangle involving two guys and girl, it’s hard to say whether Polley or Rogen is the one stepping farther into unfamiliar territory. The fact that Sarah Silverman co-stars might suggest more of a comedy, but the main female role actually belongs to Michelle Williams, so…wow…this is quite the fascinating line-up of talent.  (Fall)

18. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – I have yet to get swept up in the literary phenomenon of Stieg Larsson’s Milennium Trilogy. I haven’t read the books, nor seen the Swedish films that launched actress Noomi Rapace to international stardom. But the American version is directed by David Fincher, so…’nuff said. Rooney Mara, who made a strong impression on Fincher as Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in the opening scene of The Social Network, takes on the role of hacker Lisbeth Salander, with other key parts filled by Daniel Craig, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgaard and Christopher Plummer. (December)

17. J. EDGAR – Leonardo DiCaprio teams up with director Clint Eastwood to play the famed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in this biopic written by Milk Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. I don’t actually know if the movie is scheduled for release this year; it just began production in early February. But given the efficiency with which Eastwood shoots and edits, he’s probably handing his final cut into he studio right around now. Alright, maybe not that fast, but a 2011 release seems likely. Eastwood’s last two outings – Invictus and Gran Torino – left me underwhelmed. But with DiCaprio in another strong central role, heading an ensemble that includes Judi Dench, Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas and The Social Network‘s breakout star Armie Hammer, this could be Eastwood’s return to form. (Fall/Winter)

16. RANGO – We’ve entered an era where the lines between live-action and animated films have become increasingly blurred. The Star Wars prequels found actors performing on stages against greenscreens, their environments digitally constructed around them, while Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron and Peter Jackson have led pioneering work in motion capture technology (with some results more successful than others). Now we’re seeing directors who’ve traditionally worked in one medium cross over to the other. Pixar’s Andrew Stanton and Brad Bird are working on their live-action feature debuts, and now Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski follows Wes Anderson into the world of animation. Rango tells of a lizard (voiced by Johnny Depp) who finds himself in an Old West town. How or why that happens I don’t know, but the animation looks great and early glimpses suggest a quirky, unique animated adventure. As you can see from the video below, the buzz has been building. (March)

15. HANNA – Popular film has gifted us many trends over the years: body-switching movies, erupting volcano movies, asteroid movies…and now we seem to be in the midst of a new trend: young girls killing the shit out of everyone in sight. Last year gave us the hilarious, hyperviolent Kick-Ass, a movie which was nearly stolen by pint-sized Chloe Grace Moretz as the blissfully homicidal Hit Girl. This year brings Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, but far more intriguing to me is Hanna, re-teaming director Joe Wright with his Oscar nominated Atonement star Saorise Ronan as a deadly tween on a mission…or something. I don’t know exactly, but it looks pretty damn cool based on the trailer. Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana also star. As it happens, Ronan will stick with this trend in the upcoming Violet & Daisy, playing another teenage assassin alongside Alexis Bledel and Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini. Girls just wanna have fun…by tearing your fucking head off. (April)

14. THE BEAVER – I know that I’m supposed to be completely disgusted by Mel Gibson these days, but I’m not. His personal demons are his personal demons, and I hope he works through them. As long as he doesn’t beat, maim, rape or kill, then it’s all just sticks and stones. Or not. I don’t know. The guy is a good actor, a good filmmaker and I still look forward to his work. The Beaver, directed by Gibson’s close friend and Maverick co-star Jodie Foster, centers on a man whose life is falling apart and who is so depressed that he can only communicate by using a beaver hand puppet. Sounds wonderfully weird. Early buzz on the film (which was filmed before The Great Meltdown of 2010), and Gibson’s performance in particular, is strong. And it certainly sounds like an original. Before Foster came along, the script was featured on the 2008 Black List, a Hollywood executive’s annual scroll of the best unproduced screenplays kicking around the industry. (Incidentally, Take This Waltz appeared on 2009’s list). Frankly, I can’t wait to see what Gibson does with this role. (May)

13. THE TREE OF LIFE – I know…we’ve been here before. This is the third year that Terrence Malick’s “new” film, featuring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt, has appeared on my list, but this time it’s really, really coming out. I swear. It has a poster, a trailer, a release date…everything an actual movie coming to a theater near you is expected to have. I don’t know too much more about it than I did the past two years; the trailer is somewhat cryptic, teasing a story as epic as the cosmos and as intimate as the relationships between fathers and sons. So what took so long? Apparently it got caught in limbo when there was a shake-up at the studio originally set to distribute it. Fox Searchlight picked it up last September, but decided to hold off on releasing it until they could market it properly, with the care warranted by a Malick movie. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if the director was still tinkering away on it all that time. But believe it or not, he’s already shooting his next film – his fastest turnaround ever. So look for that one to show up on this list next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. (May)

12. WIN WIN – I don’t know much about the premise of Thomas McCarthy’s third film as writer/director, but the fact that it’s written and directed by Thomas McCarthy is good enough to place it on my list. He’s given us The Station Agent and The Visitor, both of which are simple, unique and wonderfully acted. His newest stars Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan and Bobby Canavale. How can you lose? (April)

11. SOURCE CODE – One of 2009’s best cinematic surprises was Moon, the feature directing debut of David Bowie scion Duncan Jones. His follow-up finds him sticking with a sci-fi premise but significantly ramping up the action. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a soldier tasked with reliving an 8-minute period prior to a train crash over and over again until he can determine who is responsible for setting the bomb that caused the derailment. Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan and Jeffrey Wright co-star…but for me, Jones is the one to watch. (April)

10. THE DESCENDANTS – Hard to believe, but Alexander Payne hasn’t directed a feature film since 2004’s Sideways (he did contribute one of the best segments to the anthology film Paris J’Taime, and has kept busy with other projects). How nice it will be to have him back. His leading man this time around is George Clooney, and the actor’s impeccable eye for material makes his team-up with Payne all the more tantalizing. I don’t know much about the story (that’s quite a pattern, isn’t it?), but I’m further excited by the casting of Judy Greer and Matthew Lillard. Payne has shown a gift for matching actors to material, and has done so with people both on and off the A-list. He gave Virginia Madsen and Thomas Haden Church career-resurrecting roles in Sideways, so I’m crossing my fingers that Greer, a great actress whose long resume includes Adaptation, Arrested Development and many films and TV shows that aren’t as good as she is in them, will finally have a role rich enough to bring her the level of attention she deserves. And Lillard is usually seen as an over-the-top goofball in not-so-great movies, so I can’t wait to see if Payne can reign him in and show us another side of him. (Fall/Winter)

9. CARNAGE – Roman Polanski’s follow-up to last year’s gem The Ghost Writer is this adaptation of 2009’s Tony-winning Best Play, God of Carnage. The dark comedy is about two couples who meet to discuss a fight between their school-aged children, but prove as the night goes on to be not much more than children themselves. Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly will play one couple, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz the other. That’s one damn awesome cast, though I can’t help feel a bit of disappointment that the original Broadway quartet wasn’t tapped for the film. After all, we’re talking Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden (who won a Tony for her role; all four were nominated). That’s not exactly a slate of no-names. But then, the Broadway cast weren’t the originals either. The play ran in London prior to arriving in New York, and featured Ralph Fiennes and Janet McTeer. Despite the revolving door of performers, we’re surely in for a treat with Foster, Winslet, Waltz and Reilly tearing up the meaty script, adapted by Polanksi and the play’s author Yasmina Reza. (Fall/Winter)

8. THE IDES OF MARCH – In addition to his starring role in The Descendants, George Clooney steps back behind the camera this year as well, and may just have another Good Night and Good Luck on his hands with this story, based on the play Farragut North, about a dirty political campaign. (Is there any other kind?) I’m not sure if the film is a satire or straight-up drama, but whatever it is, this cast has me sold: Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti and Evan Rachel Wood. (October)

7. MONEYBALL – Here we have an adaptation of a book by The Blind Side author Michael Lewis, recounting how the Oakland A’s used unconventional statistics to put together a competitive team despite a significantly smaller budget than big spenders like the Yankees. That may not sound like gripping cinema, but neither did The Social Network…and like that film, this one boasts a script by Aaron Sorkin (re-writing a draft by Steven Zaillian). Ready for another killer cast? How about Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman (again), Robin Wright, and going against-the-grain, Jonah Hill and Parks and Recreation‘s Chris Pratt? Capping off the roster is director Bennett Miller, who made 2005’s stunning Capote but has been MIA ever since. With a talent line-up like that, the bases are clearly loaded. (September)

6. CONTAGION – No one enjoys catching a virus, but catching a good virus movie can be an entirely different proposition. There’s the slightly cheesy but highly enjoyable Dustin Hoffman flick Outbreak; HBO’s And the Band Played On is a great detective story about the early days of the AIDS epidemic; and post-apocalyptic tales like 28 Days Later, I Am Legend and 12 Monkeys all have a virus to thank for nearly wiping out mankind. So okay, Contagion doesn’t exactly cover new ground. But with Steven Soderbergh in the director’s chair and Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Laurence Fishburne all on the hunt, it’s ground I’ll be happy to tread. Soderbergh is shooting the film in 3D…which makes it the first movie since Avatar that I actually want to see in 3D. (October)

5. YOUNG ADULT – Four years after collaborating on Juno, director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody reteam with the story of an author who returns to her hometown and pursues an ex-boyfriend, now married with children. Charlize Theron stars, along with Patton Oswalt and go-to handsome guy Patrick Wilson. Reitman has emerged as one of the brightest storytellers in Hollywood, which makes anything he’s doing worth getting excited about. (Fall/Winter)

4. SUPER 8 – As someone who came of age in the Age of Spielberg – the suburban adventures of Close Encounters, E.T., Poltergeist, The Goonies and Gremlins fueling my imagination – the notion of J.J. Abrams writing and directing a film that pays homage to Spielberg’s 70’s and 80’s classics kinda makes me giddy. In many ways, Abrams is the second coming of Spielberg. He shares the youthful and infectious enthusiasm for movie magic, his work balances sentimental with scary (without going too far in either direction), he’s great at staging action, he draws good work from child actors…and he just pretty much rules. With Spielberg onboard as executive producer, and a trailer indicating that Abrams is clearly on the right track (which is more than can be said for the clip’s freighter train), I’m pumped for a smart summer movie that promises both a sense of discovery and taste of the wonderfully familiar. (June)

3. THE MUPPETS – Like the movies of Steven Spielberg, The Muppets were a major part of my childhood. And as I’ve never really grown up, they remain a source of serious joy. So when I heard a few years ago that Jason Segel was plotting to bring them back to the big screen, it was like music to my ears…if the music in question was a psychadelic, hard rockin’ jam by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Segel stars in the film, which he co-wrote with his Forgetting Sarah Marshall collaborator Nicholas Stoller. Flight of the Conchords director James Bobin is at the helm, and Segel is joined by Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and in keeping with Muppet tradition, a slew of big name guest stars. (November)

2. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART II – I had my usual issues with Part I of the final installment of Harry’s journey, but all in all I thought it was one of the best entries in the series. I’m sure I’ll have my issues with this grand finale as well (I’m already concerned by shots in the trailer that suggest Harry and Voldemort’s showdown takes place in isolation, rather than surrounded by their respective followers as it does in the book). But the final film has arguably the best cinematic potential of all the books, because its centerpiece will be the epic Battle of Hogwarts. An opportunity like this is one where, for as much as J.K. Rowling was able to accomplish on the page, the screen can just do so much more. I expect the filmmakers will draw out the battle, add details and generally go for broke. But I think more than anything, I’m looking to see how the filmmakers handle a chapter from the book called “The Prince’s Tale,” in which we finally learn the many hidden truths about Severus Snape. Alan Rickman, this is your moment. I know you won’t let me down. (July)

1. HUGO CABRET – Martin Scorsese’s career has covered a wide variety of ground, and after all this time the director is still exploring new territory…in this case, a children’s book. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is described by its author Brian Selznick, in a letter on the book’s Amazon.com page, as a story of “Paris in the 1930’s, a thief, a broken machine, a strange girl, a mean old man, and the secrets that tie them all together.” As usual, Scorsese has assembled a terrific cast, featuring Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Jude Law, Emily Mortimer, Sacha Baron Cohen and Ray Winstone. Most intriguingly, the director makes his first foray into 3D filmmaking to bring the book’s acclaimed pictures to life. I haven’t bought into the recent 3D explosion, but when filmmakers like Scorsese (and Steven Soderbergh, as mentioned above) embrace the technology, I’m eager to witness the results. (November)