by Jim Keller
With February’s Academy Awards quickly becoming a distant memory, let’s gaze into the crystal ball and see what 2013 has in store. There, we can see shimmering particles slowly come together to create what will become concrete images, baring the faces of tomorrow’s contenders. What controversy awaits? What new names will become second nature? Here are some films debuting this year that could be the answers we look for.
Gravity (director: Alfonso Cuarón):
Why you might like it: The lone survivor of a space mission to repair the Hubble telescope desperately tries to return to Earth and reunite with her daughter.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: Besides featuring Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, Cuarón earned critical acclaim with 2006’s Children of Men and 2001’s Y Tu Mamá También.
August: Osage County (director: John Wells):
Why you might like it: A family overcomes their differences when their alcoholic patriarch goes missing.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: Meryl Streep is the lead in this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play.
Twelve Years A Slave (director: Steve McQueen):
Why you might like it: Based on the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northrup, it tells of Northrup’s tragic kidnapping in Washington DC in 1841, where, despite being born free, he was forced into slavery in Louisiana until his rescue 12 years later.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: McQueen is always one to watch and has reunited with Shame’s Michael Fassbender. It also features Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Quevanzhane Wallis, among others.
Saving Mr. Banks (director: John Lee Hancock):
Why you might like it: Author P.L. Travers travels from London to Hollywood in this untold story of how Disney’s Mary Poppins made it to the big screen.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney? Sold!
Inside Llewyn Davis (director: Joel & Ethan Coen):
Why you might like it: You’re a fan of the Coen’s unending talent.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: While the film’s synopsis is simple: a singer-songwriter navigates the 1960s folk music scene in New York’s Greenwich Village, Coen brothers films are often complex, and with Carey Mulligan in tow, they can’t go wrong.
The Wolf of Wall Street (director: Martin Scorsese):
Why you might like it: After a brief hiatus with 2011’s Hugo, the director returns to form with this adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s memoir, which chronicles his refusal to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving Wall Street corruption, the corporate banking world and mob infiltration.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: Scorsese is at home with anything mob-related, and Leonardo DiCaprio is Belfort—a man with a hard-partying lifestyle and tumultuous personal life, which included drug and alcohol addictions.
Untitled (director: David O. Russell):
Why you might like it: Russell has been on fire lately with 2010’s The Fighter and last year’s Silver Linings Playbook.
Why I’ve got my eye on it: It features Christian Bale and Amy Adams as partners in crime forced to work in an FBI sting with an out-of-control, Federal agent (Bradley Cooper) to bring down con artists, mobsters and politicians in the 1970s.
Foxcatcher (director: Bennett Miller):
Why you might like it: It is the true story of the murder of an Olympic wrestler by John du Pont (Steve Carell).
Why I’ve got my eye on it: There’s something thrilling about seeing Carell portray a paranoid schizophrenic and heir to the du Pont chemical fortune.
March 2013