With the holiday rush currently in full swing and awards season about to kick off, it's easy to forget that a whole new crop of movies from a little year called 2019 are about to start slowly trickling into theaters. January features a pretty barren slate per usual as 2018's holdovers reign supreme, but the latter 3 months of the year's inaugural stretch features a pretty sizable volume of buzzworthy titles ranging from prestige Netflix projects (Velvet Buzzsaw, Triple Frontier, High Flying Bird) to some long-delayed passion projects finally expected to see the light of day (Alita: Battle Angel, Where'd You Go Bernadette) to several superhero titles (Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Shazam!, Hellboy) that should be able to make up for the lack of recent output in this scarcely-served genre. Here are the 10 movies I'm most excited to see this winter/spring.
10.Captain Marvel (3/8): While the latest trailer was alarmingly reminiscent of the god awful Jupiter Ascending, I'm still intrigued by a space opera-inspired superhero flick that features the almost always outstanding Brie Larson in the leading role as well as how the character will factor into the upcoming Avengers movie.
9.Triple Frontier (3/15): I haven't been overly high on director J.C. Chandor's past work, but this heist thriller's excellent trailer, loaded ensemble cast (Ben Affleck, Oscar Issac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, Garret Hedlund) and Mark Boal's (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) hand in writing the script is enough for me to overlook those lukewarm feelings I have about the guy behind the camera.
8.The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2/8): The Lego Movie was a surprisingly hilarious, heartful little movie, and with Chris Lord and Phil Miller returning to write the script despite handing off directing duties to industry vet Mike Mitchell (Trolls, Shrek Forever After), there's no reason this shouldn't be at least in the same realm of quality as its predecessor.
7.Captive State (3/29): Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt's return to sci-fi boasts an interesting premise centered around a dystopian future where aliens have taken over as the governing body of Earth and a dynamic cast including the typically great John Goodman, Ashton Sanders and Vera Farmiga that should be able to harvest the most out of this material.
6.Happy Death Day 2U (2/14): Happy Death Day was one of the most fun horror comedies I've seen in ages and hopefully expanding upon the "trying to solve your own murder while constantly reliving it" plot with a seemingly bonkers new set of rules will be enough for the sequel to successfully replicate that clever, tongue-in-cheek formula.
5.Velvet Buzzsaw (2/1): Its art world setting has me a bit concerned that this could turn into the type of meandering, try-hard indie horror flick that I absolutely loathe. That being said, a stellar ensemble cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Billy Magnuessen paired with a filmmaker (Dan Gilroy) who's had previous success with crafting deeply unsettling stories gives Velvet Buzzsaw a very intriguing pedigree that only a few other titles set to be released during this period can compete with.
4.The Beach Bum (3/22): Even without any substantial footage or specific plot details to draw from, Harmony Korine looks like he could be in his oddball element directing a stoner comedy that features a blonde wig-wearing Matthew McConaughey in the lead role, Jimmy Buffet playing himself and Martin Lawrence returning to the big screen after an 8-year absence to portray a character named Captain Wack. If it ends being even half as strange, hilarious and transfixing as Spring Breakers, I'll be elated.
3.Cold Pursuit (2/8): We're about to enter the early stages of the calendar year, which means Liam Nesson's annual return to the AARP action thriller game is imminent.This English-language remake of 2014 Norwegian revenge flick In Order of Disappearance, which centers around a small town snowplow driver seeking vengeance against a local crime syndicate following the mysterious death of his son, has a real opportunity to be the most absurd and satisfying entry of Nesson's transportation-based action flicks thus far.
2.Avengers: Endgame (4/26): Marvel fans have been waiting over a decade for the conclusion of this saga and after the universe-altering success of Infinity War, there's every reason to be optimistic that this era-capping finale is going to be a sweeping epic that goes down in the annals of superhero movie history.
1.Us (3/15): The bonkers trailer that dropped on Christmas Day only further solidified the stranglehold Us had on the top spot. Get Out was a multifaceted powerhouse that ranks among my favorite horror movies ever and I'm absolutely giddy to see what Jordan Peele has in store for a follow-up.
Also interested in:
The Last Laugh (1/11)
Replicas (1/11)
The Upside (1/11)
Glass (1/18)
The Kid Who Would be King (1/25)
Serenity (1/25)
Arctic (2/1)
Miss Bala (2/1)
High Flying Bird (2/8)
Lords of Chaos (2/8)
Alita: Battle Angel (2/14)
Fighting with My Family (2/14)
Donnybrook (2/15)
The Rhythm Section (2/22)
Climax (3/1)
Gloria Bell (3/8)
The Mustang (3/15)
The Dirt (3/22)
Greyhound (3/22)
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (3/22)
The Highwaymen (3/29)
Wounds (3/29)
The Best of Enemies (4/5)
Shazam! (4/5)
Teen Spirit (4/5)
Hellboy (4/12)
The Curse of La Llorona (4/19)
Under the Silver Lake (4/19)
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