#23
A Most Wanted Man
TBA
[amz asin=”1416596097″ size=”small”]Here’s another one I’ve been writing about for a long time with zero payoff. Like Serena it was on my early year most anticipated list for 2013.
Director Anton Corbijn has given us Control and The American and now he turns his attention to John le Carre, which seems like a perfect pairing. Add to that a cast that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Willem Dafoe and Daniel Brühl and I’m sold.
The film will have its debut at the Sundance Film Festival this month.
When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, tortured half-to-death immigrant turns up in Hamburg’s Islamic community, laying claim to his father’s ill gotten fortune, both German and US security agencies take a close interest: as the clock ticks down and the stakes rise, the race is on to establish this most wanted man’s true identity – oppressed victim or destruction-bent extremist?
Poignant, compassionate and thrilling, A Most Wanted Man prickles with tension right through to its last heart-stopping scene. It is a cerebral tale of intrigue that is both contemporary and deeply human, touching on love, rivalry, politics and the world we live in.
#22
Before I Go to Sleep
TBA
[amz asin=”006224454X” size=”small”]In a preview over at The Guardian they describe this adaptation of S.J. Watson‘s novel as a “British riff on Christopher Nolan’s Memento” as Nicole Kidman plays an amnesiac desperately attempting to piece together her life.
The film is directed by Rowan Joffe whose Brighton Rock remake did nothing for me, but the description of the film’s plot and the cast, which also includes Kidman’s The Railway Man co-star Colin Firth, definitely has my curiosity piqued.
A woman wakes up every day, remembering nothing as a result of a traumatic accident in her past. One day, new terrifying truths emerge that force her to question everyone around her.
#21
Locke
April 25
I wrote about this one back in September 2013 and my write up from Locke starring Tom Hardy and why I’m interested in checking it out after it screened at the Venice Film Festival last year.
Written and directed by Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight, the film stars Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke, a man with the perfect family and a dream job, but a phone call forces him to make a decision that will put it all on the line. Leslie Felperin’s Variety review from Venice adds to the intrigue:
Writer-director Steven Knight’s sophomore feature, Locke, is basically just Tom Hardy driving a car while making a bunch of phone calls, and yet this ingeniously executed study in cinematic minimalism has depth, beauty and poise. A finely tuned showcase for Hardy’s exceptional acting skills, Bluetooth-enabled dashboard displays and the dynamic range of the Red Epic camera, the pic tracks a dark night of the soul for a construction-site manager en route from Birmingham to London. But if the disappointing performance of pics like Buried is any indication, one-handers are a tough sell theatrically, and Locke will need fine marketing calibration to click with audiences.
A clip for the film premiered last year and is featured below, but first a quote from an interview with Knight from The Playlist:
Shot in real time, Locke breaks new ground in movie making with Hardy holding the screen alone while the camera never blinks. The night time highway is part back drop, part art installation, as a stellar cast play the people Ivan loves and hates and who witness his extraordinary journey to despair and ultimately to redemption. A man’s life transformed in a half a tank of gas. I believe the journey of Ivan Locke is deeply moving and utterly compulsive.
And that does it for one more installment in my most anticipated feature and I have another ten titles coming your way tomorrow. For now you can check out films #31-40 using the navigation below and please share your thoughts in the comment section before you go.
Most Anticipated 2014 Navigation
