To Bathe in Filmic Waters

The six forthcoming titles I mentioned on part one of this list are simply projects that intrigue me more than anything else, whereas those listed below are films I’m a little more enthusiastic about.  Once again, these are personal choices that I’m sure will raise more than a few eyebrows, but I have my reasons. Please feel free to suggest your own most anticipated forthcoming titles of 2009, or indeed those titles that have already been released but you are yet to see. I had initially planned to include one or two unseen 2008 titles on this list but in the end thought better of it. I will get round to seeing the likes of Australia, Ballast, Beautiful Losers, Julia, Lorna’s Silence, Tony Manero and Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea eventually, but this list is for 2009 titles only.

06. (500) Days of Summer | Marc Webb

Now this is one of those choices that I mentioned above, the kind that will get eyebrows moving. Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer is, as the trailer tells us, not a love story but instead tale of “boy meets girl”. It stars fantastic talents Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in their first film together since Jordan Melamed’s Manic in 2001. I saw Manic. It was an interesting premise for a film, kind of like Breakfast Club meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, though rather average. One thing that made Manic watchable was the chemistry between the two (at the time) young actors, Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel. Since then, neither has gone on to the world-conquering fame that many predicted for them when starting out, but each has enjoyed a relatively successful career. I find it difficult to believe that (500) Days of Summer will attract the kind of large twenty-something audience that the trailer appears to be aiming at, but it could well be one of this summer’s sleeper hits. [OFFICIAL SITE]

05. Mother | Bong Joon-ho

Bong Joon-ho, like Park Chan-wook is a Korean filmmaker who has already had success overseas. His 2003 thriller Memories of Murder got heads turning before 2007’s creature feature The Host made it all the way to western theaters. This put the man’s name on the map and paved the way for a collaborative effort with Michel Gondry and Leos Carax entitled Tokyo! which was screened at selected festivals last year. After a cop thriller and  monster movie, I had half-expected Joon-ho to turn his hands to another well-worn genre, but the writer/direction instead appears to be taking things in a different direction. Mother will be unleashed on Korean audiences at the end of May and concerns a troubled mother who sets out to prove her son’s innocence after a brutal murder. It appears that Mother is a step back for Joon-ho, sounding less like a genre-movie but still very similar to Memories of Murder; a dense thriller laced with dark humour. [OFFICIAL SITE]

04. The Brothers Bloom | Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson burst onto the scene in 2005 with justly praised neo-noir film Brick, and many have been eagerly awaiting news of his next project since then. Unfortunately for us eager fans, “news” is all we’ve heard of Johnson’s caper-based follow-up The Brothers Bloom over the past three years. The film was shot through March, April and May of 2007 but complications have led to numerous delays, it looked set for release at the end of last year but was pushed back in favour of an early summer 2009 release. The Brothers Bloom appears to be one of those films that has everything going for it apart from a target audience. Brick, with its Dashiell Hammett-inspired dialogue and young cast was destined to be a festival hit from the start, but The Brothers Bloom has a $20 million budget resting on its shoulders so must find some success commercially. Despite the involvement of A-list stars like Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz, I can’t see The Brothers Bloom making much money this summer. I just hope that the director’s initial vision has remained intact. [OFFICIAL SITE]

03. Antichrist | Lars Von Trier

Many thought that 2009 would see the final chapter in Danish auteur Lars Von Trier’s USA – Land of Opportunities trilogy, but it looks we will have to wait a little longer for the tentatively titled Wasington. Von Trier is back at Cannes this year with a curious horror tale entitled Antichrist, a  film that stars just two actors in Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The pair play a grieving couple who, after the death of their child, retreat to a cabin in the woods where they are haunted by strange and terrifying occurrences. Despite my loathing of the typical modern horror movie, I’m very interested to see Von Trier tackle the genre. Antichrist seems to be concerned with the psychological aspect of horror more than anything else, and I’m curious to see how Charlotte Gainsbourg will deal with what appears to be quite a heavy role – indeed, the promotional material has hinted at an abundance of sexual explicitness, but this should be nothing new to Von Trier followers. [OFFICIAL SITE]

02. Moon | Duncan Jones

Like the aforementioned Marc Webb, Duncan Jones is a filmmaker I’d not heard of until now. Unlike Marc Webb however, Duncan Jones is probably used to fame by now. He is the son of David and Angela Bowie, and this year makes his full directorial debut with Moon, an intergalactic thriller starring Sam Rockwell. Jones penned the original story for Moon himself, a tale that sees astronaut Sam Bell (Rockwell) battle with personal demons at the end of his 3-year stint on a moon base. The setup itself draws immediate comparisons with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the impressive trailers and clips now circling the Internet do little to dispel this feeling, but early press hints that Jones may have created something entirely original in Moon. Sam Rockwell’s involvement is enough for me, though, and it’s great to see the man is now considered lead role material. One can only hope that Moon is a little better than last year’s Chuck Palahniuk adaptation; Choke. [TRAILER]

01. Where the Wild Things Are | Spike Jonze

Call it overwhelming pessimism, call it old age, but these days I rarely find anything to be happy about when wading through the slew of movie trailers released weekly over on Apple.com. After all, most of them are the work of a marketing department somewhere and not the filmmaker(s) in question. This is why, when a movie trailer like the one for Spike Jonze’s new feature Where the Wild Things Are comes along, we should cherish the moment. The children’s novel that Jonze has adapted is a book I’ve read countless times before, not only as a kid but also in my teenage years. There’s something so wonderfully magical about it, and it’s easy to see why the book is still just as popular as it was forty-plus years ago. Good children’s books span time, and Where the Wild Things Are has certainly done that. I, along with almost everybody else was admittedly a little baffled at the initial announcement of Jonze’s next project, but with a conscious decision to avoid special effects and the assurance  that the spirit of Maurice Sendak’s original tale is to be upheld, I’m definitely excited for this one. [TRAILER]

Thank you, and please feel free to suggest your own most anticipated films of 2009.