The 11 Most Exciting Films of 2018

As we edge closer to the New Year, I’m going to name 11 films I’m looking forward to in 2018. Chances are, very few of these will ultimately be among my Favourite Films of 2018 (many of which I haven’t even heard of yet), but — from the pool of projects with confirmed production and release dates — here’s a batch I’ll be heading to see.

1. INCREDIBLES 2

The greatest animated film ever made finally gets its sequel, as the Parr family fight evil once again in a suburb of lost dreams and expired society. The Incredibles is a rich, postmodern satire — peerless in its sophistication — and there are countless ways this sequel could go horribly wrong. But writer/director Brad Bird has consistently delivered good films par one (2015’s dull, weirdly right-wing Tomorrowland) and there’s a part of me that just needs to see Edna Mode again more than anything else.

ETA: June 15

2. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

I declared I would never watch Rob Marshall’s Poppins sequel. Until Marshall did everything right. Emily Blunt, the only English actress of her generation who I actually find charming, is Mary Poppins. Multi-hyphenate Lin Manuel Miranda is the male lead. Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer are the grown-up Banks children. Meryl Streep is the Uncle Albert counterpart, and Colin Firth is the latest Dawes son to run the bank. But, most importantly, Rob Marshall recruited Dick van Dyke and Angela Lansbury for small roles in the film, the former reprising his role as Old Man Dawes and apparently performing a musical number, and my heart just burst. It’s hard to gauge what my emotional response to that musical number will resemble (pray van Dyke — 92 — survives until the film’s release), but I imagine it would be worth recording. I may hate this film with a passion, but by god I’ll be queuing to see it on day one.

ETA: Christmas Day

3. THE IRISHMAN

Pacino has never worked with Scorsese. DeNiro and Scorsese haven’t worked together in 23 years. DeNiro and Pacino haven’t made a good movie together since Heat. Joe Pesci hasn’t made a real movie since 1998. So forgive me if I’m a little excited for this weird, expensive spiritual sequel to Goodfellas, coming to Netflix and costing millions of dollars thanks to de-aging effects that’ll be used to present our main characters in flashback.

ETA: Awards season

4. FIRST MAN

I could care less about the life story of Neil Armstrong, but there are four words key to my interest in First Man: Damien Chazelle. Ryan Gosling. Chazelle has, with two of the century’s best films, become my favourite director, and his first foray into non-musical territory is certainly an enigma. The supporting cast could be stronger — Kyle Chandler, Claire Foy and Jon Bernthal aren’t exactly the most exciting choices, but I’ve come to trust Chazelle as I do Chris Nolan or Wes Anderson to deliver something special with whatever material he’s working with.

ETA: October 12

5. MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN

I know the trailer looks horrendous, and there’s literally no positive reason for this film to exist, but I can’t sit here and pretend I’m not incredibly excited for more cornball camp ABBA karaoke on a Greek island. As long as Brosnan and Firth and Benny and Bjorn are around, I’m in.

ETA: July 20

6. ISLE OF DOGS

I don’t really like dogs. In fact, my favourite animated film of this year was the passionately anti-dog The Boss Baby. But a Wes movie is a Wes movie and Isle of Dogs has incorporated some interesting *cough cultural appropriation cough* Japanese imagery.

ETA: March 23

7. FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD

I’m aware a new Fantastic Beasts movie doesn’t exactly stoke excitement among my generational peers — what with J.K. Rowling’s gradual turn to the Tory side and the involvement of Johnny Depp, and the fact that FB1 was pretty unremarkable — but The Crimes of Grindelwald has two very important elements: a return to Hogwarts (ie. my heart) and Jude Law as Young Albus Dumbledore, which sounds positively pornographic in its perfection.

ETA: November 16

8. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

On the one hand, everything about Solo’s production suggests a damp mess of a spin-off; directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired and replaced by the intensely unexciting Ron Howard. Yet the prospect of Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian is irresistible, and Woody Harrelson has a role (not that War for the Planet of the Apes benefited from that). Rogue One succeeded in spite of its reshoot-y issues, so why can’t Solo?

ETA: May 25

9. UNTITLED MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE SEQUEL

The Mission movies are the most consistently solid action franchise of this century, and Chris McQuarrie promises to deliver *unimaginably cool* new stunts in №6. Cruise is back, and so are Pegg, Rhames, Ferguson and Baldwin. Light the fuse.

ETA: July 27

10. BACKSEAT

Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney movie has a ridiculously strong cast: Christian Bale as Cheney, Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush, Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry as Colin Powell. This could be the best film yet about the Bush White House.

ETA: Awards season

11. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

My interest in Avengers: Infinity War lies not in any expectation that it will be a “good” film, but in pure curiosity at Joe and Anthony Russo’s attempt to cram three dozen star names (Robert Downey Jr, Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch etc.) into one semi-coherent kids movie about a magic bracelet. Marvel movies are terrible. Why would this be good?

ETA: May 4

Honourable mentions: Suspiria, Loro, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Little Stranger, A Kid Like Jake, Ralph Breaks The Internet, Ocean’s 8, The Catcher Was A Spy, Come Sunday, Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far On Foot, Hearts Beat Loud,