Hollywood | The most anticipated movies of 2024 From Gladiator 2 to Monkey Man and Challengers… bring on the 2024 bangers. Honestly, 2024 might be the year that does it. ‘It’ being save cinema (Barbenheimer who?). A quick survey of the cinematic excitement awaiting us over the next 12 months is already filling us with glee, clapping our little hands, ready to go to the movies.
There are some big blockbusters on the docket: Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel starring an ascendant Paul Mescal, the delayed Dune: Part II, and another (final?) foray into death-courting stuntdom with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part II. But there is also some delicious indie fare, not least tennis throuple outing Challengers and swoon-worthy Kristen Stewart in Love Lies Bleeding…
Poor Things
12 January
We can hardly think of a more joyous way to kick off 2024 than Yorgos Lanthimos’ beautiful new concoction Poor Things – a whirling, distorted, technicolour adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name. Starring Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, the subject of a Frankenstein-esque experiment best left undisclosed, this wonderfully funny and viscerally delightful film is a true celebration of how blessedly brilliant it is to be alive. Mark Ruffalo, for his part, is also very funny and sexy in this film: with an accent for the ages. You can watch Poor Things in cinemas now.
All of Us Strangers
26 January
Britain’s great cinematic translator of the modern queer experience, Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years, the TV show Longing) returns with a Rizla-paper-delicate rumination on gay loneliness, love, and how grief lingers like a spectre in the corner of the room.
It’s part ghost story, part nocturnal romance, part late-stage coming-of-ager. Andrew Scott stars as Adam, a depressed screenwriter working on a new script inspired by the death of his parents. For research, he visits his childhood home on the outskirts of London, only to find his mum and dad — Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, respectively — are seemingly alive and well, looking exactly as they did thirty years ago. Meanwhile, a steamy tryst blossoms with a stranger (Paul Mescal) in Adam’s empty apartment complex.
It’s stirring, and achingly felt. One of those movies to not see with your dad (or anyone else who you’re embarrassed to watch unflinching gay sex scenes with, or endlessly cry in front of). And it’s sure to stand as one of the best of the year. You can watch All of Us Strangers in cinemas now.
The Zone of Interest
The Zone of Interest is only the British auteur’s fourth film in his 23-year-long, eclectic directorial career (he also made 2000’s Sexy Beast, 2004’s Birth and ScarJo’s thrilling 2013 sex-alien-murderer movie, Under the Skin.) It’s also, arguably, his best, if “best” is the appropriate adjective for a holocaust movie that terrifies you into a hypnotised tremor with its pounding sound design and haunting visuals. And we rarely see inside the camp: loosely based on Martin Amis’ novel of the same name, The Zone of Interest tells the story of the Nazi genocide from the perspective of the camp commandant — and his doting family — who live next door. You’ll never want to watch it again. You can watch The Zone of Interest in cinemas now.
The Iron Claw
Who knew Zac Efron could get so swole? In The Iron Claw, he’s like a gigantic, walking bicep. But his hulking frame isn’t (entirely) the point of the film, which is a biopic of the Von Erich wrestling dynasty — a family of professional wrestlers beset by tragedy, not least the sons. Efron is a brilliant Kevin Von Erich, the slightly more fortunate star of the fraternal pack; Jeremy Allen White portrays Kerry, Harris Dickinson plays David, and Stanley Simons plays Mike. A tearjerker through and through, with plenty of 1980s dad rock bangers.
Madame Web
14 February
Sony’s latest offshoot of the Spider-Man property has given very little away in its promotion since its first trailer dropped (“He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died”). But here’s the rundown: Dakota Johnson plays Cassandra Web, a clairvoyant who has the ability to see the future in the ‘spider world’, presumably the one that’s been set up in the excellent Spider-verse movies. Sydney Sweeney also stars as Spider-Woman, but again, we don’t actually know that much about what she’ll be doing. The details are a bit thin on the web, so to speak. That said, we won’t have to wait long to find out as it’s due to hit screens on Valentine’s Day. What’s more romantic than spider worlds?
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Spaceman
1 March
In which Adam Sandler plays a Czechoslovakian astronaut who befriends a giant alien spider voiced by Paul Dano (no, we’re not kidding). Here’s another sombre space drama, directed by Chernobyl helmer Johan Renck, confronting the eerie loneliness of the cosmos. In Spaceman, said isolation looks to be both literal and a metaphor for the broken romantic bonds between Sandler’s Jakub Procházka and his Earthbound wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan). Sandler has killed it whenever he’s played it straight recently — see also: Uncut Gems, Hustle — so, as big proponents of the ongoing Sandlernaissance, we can’t wait for this one.
Dune: Part Two
1 March
Victim to the writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood, Dune: Part Two was set to land in late 2023, likely following a glitzy film festival premiere (many cinephilic eyes were on Venice). Nevertheless, we don’t have to wait too long for Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up to his gargantuan sci-fi epic, with this one posed to centre on Zendaya’s Chani, the Freman warrior we glimpsed through Paul Atreides’ (Timothée Chalamet) visions in the first one. Dune MVP Jason Momoa doesn’t return for the sequel as far as we know, owing to his character being very dead — but clued-up stans of the original Frank Herbert books might just be expecting a cameo…
Drive Away Dolls
15 March
We are cackling with gleeful excitement about Drive Away Dolls, Ethan Coen’s solo debut as director. Starring indie darlings Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Stars at Noon) and Geraldine Viswanathan (Bad Education, The Broken Hearts Gallery), this road movie caper following two friends who skip town together only to find a mysterious … something … in the trunk of their car is set to be the first in what Coen’s called his ‘lesbian B-movie trilogy’. Truly, long live the lesbian B-movie. What a time to be alive. Pedro Pascal is in it too!
Road House
21 March
Remember Road House, the 1989 action flick feat. Patrick Swayze? Well, that’s fine, because if you’re in need of a refresher, Jake Gyllenhaal has teamed up with Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman to give us a remake that amps up the budget and gives us a lot more boat explosions than the original. Gyllenhaal will play Elwood Dalton, a punch-happy former MMA fighter who’s down on his luck. Unable to turn down a job, he soon finds himself working as the muscle at a road house in the Florida Keys. This is a Doug Liman picture after all, so it’s not long before trouble brews and real-life boxer Conor McGregor shows up as one of Dalton’s hot-heated rivals. Come for Gyllenhaal in full action star mode, stay to see him and McGregor effectively just beating the shit out of each other.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
22 March
Who ‘ya gonna call? Ghostbusters: Afterlife, for all of its focus on fan-service and nostalgia bait, was a lot of fun, zhuzhing up the existing formula for the ‘80s franchise, switching out the old proton pack for one newly charged. Frozen Empire brings back the new characters we were introduced to in Afterlife — Paul Rudd’s Gary Grooberson, Carrie Coon’s Callie Spengler, Finn Wolfhard’s Trevor Spengler, Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe Spengler, among others — with the O.G.’s returning, too. As far as we know, this one sees the Spenglers move to New York and restart the Ghostbusters from the iconic firehouse, when a new evil arises.
Io Capitano
5 April
This timely, oft-somber drama charts the Homeric odyssey of two Senegalese boys, Seydou and Moussa, who leave their hometown of Dakar with the promised land of Italy in their sights, chasing a deeply human dream: a better life. Their perilous journey sees them traverse arid desert and furious seas. They’re captured, extorted and exploited by traffickers. Terror abounds, but so does hope. We saw it at the Venice Film Festival, and it’s a gloriously shot picture by Matteo Garrone, who has made one of the most impactful, moving films about the European migrant crisis in recent years. No wonder it was nominated for a Best International Feature Film Oscar.
Monkey Man
5 April
Dev Patel as director and Jordan Peel on production duties – what an electric combo. In Monkey Man, the former’s debut, we’re introduced to “Kid”, played by Patel, who’s part of an underground fight club in which he wears a Gorilla mask every night (hence the film title) while getting beaten to a pulp by other more popular fighters for cash. Eventually, “after years of suppressed rage”, Kid finds a way to “infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite.” Essentially, it’ll be a satisfyingly bloody revenge film with plentiful punching and Patel in full action mode. The film was originally slated to be released via Netflix, but is now being theatrically released through Universal (hallelujah).
