Film in 2017: 24 films not to be missed

T2 (Danny Boyle)

Released 27 Jan

We’d be lying if we said we weren’t itching to see Rents, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie on the big screen once more. But will this belated sequel be little more than a nostalgia trip? The trailer suggests otherwise: it looks as pumped up and vital as the original. [Jamie Dunn]

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)

3 Feb

Critics were outraged that Maren Ade’s hilarious and poignant Toni Erdmann didn’t win the top prize at Cannes last year and Sight & Sound subsequently named it their film of the year. A deadpan German comedy, it’s built around an apparent shaggy dog story about a father and daughter and, just as importantly, a tranche of belly laughs. [Ben Nicholson] 

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Paul W.S. Anderson)

3 Feb

A rare tie-in franchise that manages to be both about and from video games, writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson is quietly doing something very sophisticated with the freedom he has earned with his Resident Evil films. Full of slick, geometric set pieces and genuine existential horror – we’re excited for the final instalment. [Tom Grieve]

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

10 Feb

A bold and lyrical triptych of moments from a young black man’s life, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight has been turning heads on the festival circuit and building momentum towards the Oscars. It's both tragic and transcendent while subverting expectations at every turn. Watch out for some blistering performances and woozy, seductive visuals. [BN]

Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)

3 Mar

Kelly Reichardt's previous feature, Night Moves, was, to our mind, the first disappointment in her five film career. This quietly stunning slice-of-life portrait of several Montana women – played by a hand-picked ensemble that includes Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern and Reichardt's frequent muse Michelle Williams – suggests that was only a blip. [JD]

Elle (Paul Verhoeven)

10 Mar

We’re over the moon to see Paul Verhoeven back in the director’s saddle. His new film is a skew-whiff rape-revenge thriller where the victim, brilliantly played by Isabelle Huppert, is neither a victim nor particularly after revenge. If you haven’t already guessed, the Dutch auteur is still as provocative and transgressive as ever, despite pushing 80. [JD]

The Love Witch (Anna Biller)

10 Mar

The Love Witch is a strange but compelling labour of love from the intimidatingly talented Anna Biller – as well as writing and directing this densely detailed pastiche of 70s sexploitation films, she also edited it, composed the score, designed the costumes and dressed the sets. The result is fiercely feminist and funny as hell. [JD]

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)

17 Mar

Kristen Stewart was a revelation in Clouds of Sils Maria, the previous film from Olivier Assayas. They’ve teamed up again for this intriguing ghost story where Stewart plays a personal shopper who also happens to be able to talk to dead people. And the film itself is far more beguiling than that description. [JD]

Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

24 Mar

Kleber Mendonça Filho burst on to the scene in 2012 with the claustrophobic thriller Neighbouring Sounds. He’s still exploring the psychogeographic landscape of urban Brazil in his forthcoming followup Aquarius. Built around a much-lauded turn from Sonia Braga, it’s an almost-ghost story about identity, memory and place. [BN]

Free Fire (Ben Wheatley)

31 Mar

Free Fire’s premise is simplicity itself: two gangs meet in a warehouse to do an arms deal, but things quickly escalate until they’re in an all-out gun battle. Expect a Tarantinoesque, smart aleck caper fused with a Sam Peckinpah style bullet ballet. [JD]

Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders)

31 Mar

Despite a trailer showcasing a rather splendid-looking translation of its source material’s designs, the live action adaptation of anime Ghost in the Shell is plagued by one inescapable bugbear: taking a very Japanese story and populating most of the major roles with white people. Still, Tricky is in it for some reason, so that’s cool. [Josh Slater-Williams]

Neruda (Pablo Larraín)

7 Apr

Gael García Bernal reteams with No director Pablo Larraín for this intriguing kind-of-biopic set post-second world war, with Bernal playing a fictional Chilean police detective who’s trying to track down the in-exile poet and senator Pablo Neruda. Larraín is on absolutely top form at the minute, and Neruda is right up there with his best work. [JD]

Fast and Furious 8 (F. Gary Gray)

14 Apr

UK viewers will sadly not be getting Fast And Furious 8's gloriously stupid US title (The Fate of the Furious) come April time, but the eighth instalment of cinema’s daftest mega-franchise probably doesn’t even need that cherry atop the silly sundae. This time round, Vin Diesel goes bad, there’s a fight against an arctic submarine, and, yeah, we’re probably gonna find this series heading to space by instalment #10. [JS-W]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (James Gunn)

28 Apr

It’s hard to remember that before the first Guardians of the Galaxy dropped in 2014, it seemed a risky proposition. Of course, it proved to be an uproarious success and we’re now preparing to load Mixtape vol. 2 into our Walkmans for more space shenanigans with Star Lord and his ragtag band. And how cute is Baby Groot!? [BN]

My Life as a Courgette (Claude Barras)

5 May

Adapted from Gilles Paris’ novel by Celine Sciamma (Girlhood), Claude Barras' stop motion animation looks like an irresistible charmer. It’s a story about life as an orphan, balancing frank depictions of life’s harder moments and playful asides and indoor snowball fights. That it’s been shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Oscar speaks volumes. [BN]

The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Wit)

26 May

The fact that The Red Turtle is a Studio Ghibli release will be enough to engender excitement, but for those who saw his Oscar-winning short film, Father and Daughter, it’s director Michaël Dudok de Wit that will really set hearts aflutter. His debut feature is a timeless fable, completely free of dialogue and utterly magical. [BN]

Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins)

2 Jun

Wonder Woman is the gold standard for female superheroes – a character more than capable of going toe-to-toe with anyone – and it’s imperative that they get her film right. Her brief appearance in Superman v Batman was promising and the trailer for Patty Jenkins’ solo outing suggests an ass-kicking actioner with one of comics' toughest warriors. [BN]

Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts)

7 Jul

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was one of the highlights of Captain America: Civil War. Marvel showed in just minutes that they know exactly how to handle a character who’s vexed Sony over the past few years. That the new film is being billed as John Hughes with super-powers suggests a welcome return to the character’s high-school roots. [BN]

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)

21 Jul

After the intergalactic hokum of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan brings us back down to Earth with his WWII drama that looks like his version of a David Lean stiff-upper-lip wartime epic. The cast has Nolan favourites (Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy), dependable British thesps (Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance) and the odd wildcard (One Direction’s Harry Styles). [JD]

Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson)

4 Aug

The near-$500 million global gross of Lucy seems a likely cause for Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp splashing out on big bucks for the director’s newest sci-fi, an adaptation of an influential French comic that could be a risky proposition outside of Europe. The teaser, featuring a neat remix of The Beatles’ Because, suggests a promising return to the mode of The Fifth Element. [JS-W]

It (Andrés Muschietti)

8 Sep

Pennywise the Clown, an eternal creature that feeds on a town’s children every generation, is Stephen King’s most terrifying creation. He was memorably played by Tim Curry in a 1990 TV movie, but the film itself has not aged well. Can Mama director Andrés Muschietti bring King’s vision to life? (We hope so.) And will he include the pre-teen sex orgy that ends the book? (God, we hope not.) [JD]

Blade Runner 2048 (Denis Villeneuve)

6 Oct

Which way will this long belated sequel go? The good news is Harrison Ford is back (will we find out if he really is a replicant?) and he’s joined by Ryan Gosling. Our biggest reason to be hopeful is director Denis Villeneuve resently showed he had some soul to go along with his technical prowess with sci-fi cracker Arrival. [JD]

Justice League (Zack Snyder)

17 Nov

Regardless of what you’ve made of Warner Bros’ first few entries into the DC Extended Universe, it’s difficult not to feel a little buzz at the thought of finally seeing the JLA get together. They’ll be teaming up for an Avengers-level showdown with the dastardly Steppenwolf, and with Zack Snyder once again at the helm, expect spectacular mayhem. [BN]

Star Wars: Episode VIII (Rian Johnson)

15 Dec

Disney are two for two since taking over the Star Wars mythos, with the nostalgic re-introduction of The Force Awakens and the adrenaline injection of Rogue One. Rian Johnson’s thus-far-unnamed Episode VIII will hopefully break new ground with the continued adventures of Rey, Finn, and BB-8 – this time with added Luke Skywalker! [BN]