Most Anticipated Movies of 2020

Every year, hundreds of movie are released.  From micro-budget indies to gigantic blockbusters, the year the full of movies of all kinds from all around the world.  There are films that come out of nowhere (seriously, who saw Parasite being the movie of 2019?) which are always fun to see, and movies we have been hearing about for years finally being released.  But of the ones that I know are coming out this year, these are the ones that I am most excited for.

And look, I know we’re already almost a quarter of the way through 2020, but let’s be real, there wasn’t a lot of exciting movies coming out in January and February anyway. The only films from the first couple months that would have made this list would have been Bad Boys for Life, and possibly The Invisible Man. However, starting in March, 2020 gets really exciting, so it seemed like the perfect time to do this list.

Here are my most anticipated movies coming out in 2020.

 

*NOTE* – I am excluding any film that I saw at Sundance 2020.

 

 

 

 

25. THE LAST DANCE (Jason Hehir, June 26)

• Is it cheating to have ESPN’s 10-part docuseries about the Chicago Bulls during their historic 1997-1998 season on this list?  Maybe.  But as a life-long Bulls fan, I cannot wait to see the footage they show, the insight they get, and for them to show just insane and competitive Michael Jordan was.  This should be a real treat to any sports fan.

 

 

24. VENOM 2 (Andy Serkis, October 2)

• Venom was pretty silly, but rather fun and Tom Hardy’s performance was something special.  The sequel brings in the great Woody Harrelson to play Cletus Kasady/Carnage and pits Andy Serkis behind the camera, which should add more chaos to an already wild film.

 

 

23. SOUL (Pete Docter, June 19)

• Pixar has two original movies coming out this year, Onward and Soul.  Of the two, I am more excited to see Soul, mainly because I think the story sounds more interesting – it’s about a musician who has lost his passion for music is transported out of his body and must find it back – and co-director Pete Docter has yet to have made a bad movie (his previous films include Monster’s Inc., Up, and Inside Out).

 

 

22. GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (Jason Reitman, July 10)

• Though I was a big fan of Paul Feig’s 2016 female-led reboot, bringing back most of the original cast (R.I.P. Harold Ramis) and adding Paul Rudd in the mix could make for a great summer flick.

 

 

21. THE ETERNALS (Chloé Zhao, November 6)

• Black Widow is a near sure-thing for Marvel, but The Eternals, a relatively unknown part of Marvel with all new heroes and actors, will set the stage for the future of the MCU following the Endgame finale.

 

 

20. THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (Michael Chaves, September 11)

• I love the Conjuring franchise, particularly the Conjuring films, but with James Wan not behind the camera, I have my hesitations.

 

 

19. GODZILLA VS KONG (Adam Wingard, November 20)

• This franchise might be incredibly stupid and all over the place, but being able to see King Kong and Godzilla duke it out on the big screen will be ridiculously fun.

 

 

18. COMING 2 AMERICA (Craig Brewer, December 18)

• Between Dolemite is My Name and his hosting duties on Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy proved that even after a few missteps, he was still the man.  Coming 2 America is the sequel I didn’t know I needed, as Murphy reprises his role as Akeem who finds out he has a long-lost son in the United States.

 

 

17. MULAN (Niki Caro, March 27)

• Save for 2019’s The Lion King, I genuinely like the Disney live-action remakes.  Mulan looks gorgeous and epic and given the PG-13 rating (the first of these movies), looks to be a bit more intense than the animated original.

 

 

16. NO TIME TO DIE (Cary Joji Fukunaga, November 25)

• Usually I’d be more excited for a James Bond movie, but after the dud that was Spectre, I have my hesitations.  Still, Daniel Craig is one of the best Bonds ever and Fukunaga is an interesting choice for director, so I’m at the very least intrigued.

 

 

15. A QUIET PLACE PART II (John Krasinski, March 20)

• I LOVED the first film and thought John Krasinski showed a real talent behind the camera and really am excited to see what he does next in this world.  However, I wish he had focused the movie on another family or person during this bizarre invasion/crises, but we’ll see where he takes this story.

 

 

14. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (Edgar Wright, September 25)

• Genre-maestro Edgar Wright dives back into the horror genre in a film about one girl’s mysterious journey into the 1960’s that isn’t what it seems.  Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie lead the cast.

 

 

13. THE SOUVENIR: PART II

• Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, a powerful, beautiful look at love, trauma, and memory, was one of my favorite films of 2019 and a film I still think about to this day.  I cannot wait to see what Hogg does with Part II, as this is one of my most anticipated sequels of the year.

 

 

12. MALIGNANT (James Wan, August 14)

• The plot is unknown as of yet, but it’s an original James Wan horror movie and that is all I need to see this movie.

 

 

11. DUNE (Denis Villeneuve, December 18)

• I love Denis Villeneuve as a director and am always excited for any project he is a part of.  However, with such a big cast, budget, and the general idea of a Dune movie at this scale, is this going to be a “good” movie or just the “most” movie?

 

 

10. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (Aaron Sorkin, October 2)

• Any Aaron Sorkin screenplay gets me excited.  Even though it is the same in every movie, I am a sucker for the pacing and density of his words.  With 2017’s Molly’s Game, Sorkin proved that we was great behind the camera as well.  Having written A Few Good Men (one of the best courtroom dramas ever), The Trial of the Chicago 7 looks to be right up Sorkin’s alley, and with the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, and Sacha Baron Cohen, and Mark Rylance reciting his dialog, this seems like it could be a Sorkin classic.

 

 

9. F9 (Justin Lin, May 22)

• The Fast and Furious franchise is one of my favorites.  It is an utterly insane franchise that features ridiculous stunts, gigantic set pieces, some racing, and the theme of family.  I don’t know what F9 has in store for us except for Charlize Theron is back as our villain Cipher, John Cena is in the film as Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) brother, and Han (Sung Kang) is back some how.  Whatever.  I’m in.

 

 

8. NOMADLAND (Chloé Zhao, TBD)

• The fact that we could get two films from the great Chloe Zhao in 2020 gives us a brief insight as to how great 2020 is going to be.  Though Eternals will arguably be the movie that shapes the MCU for the next decade, I’m more looking forward to Zhao’s look at woman (two-time Oscar winner Francis McDormand) as she embarks across the American West after losing everything in the Great Recession.

 

 

7. THE FRENCH DISPATCH (Wes Anderson, July 24)

• Wes Anderson is one of the best and most unique auteurs working today.  All of his movies are wildly original, wonderfully written, gorgeous to look at, and feature a stellar cast and The French Dispatch looks to have all of that and then some.

 

 

6. TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Christopher McQuarrie, June 26)

• Tom Cruise is one of my favorite actors and his partnership with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has been one of his best career choices.  Their latest collaboration pits Cruise back in the cockpit (literally) as he reprises his legendary role as Maverick in this sequel to the 80’s classic Top Gun.  Val Kilmer returns as Iceman and we get a slew of new cast members such as Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, and Miles Teller as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s late-friend Goose.  I’m most interested in the meta-narrative of the film, as Maverick’s career in the Navy seems to replicate Cruise’s as a movie-star, which has been a fascinating one.

 

 

5. WONDER WOMAN 1984 (Patty Jenkins, June 5)

• Does the DCEU still exist?  Who knows and honestly, who care?  But back in 2017 when it was in full swing and doing miserably, Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins came and shook the game up.  Wonder Woman is one of my favorite comic book movies ever  It was a thrilling, funny, action-packed film that features one of the greatest superhero moments ever on camera with the “No Man’s Land” scene.  There has only been one teaser for Wonder Woman 1984 and it already looks incredible.  Gadot looks great, Chris Pine is back, Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal are the villains, and every visual esthetic, from the costumes to the sets to the color pallet look great.  Oh, and did I mention Wonder Woman swings from lightning bolts using her lasso?  No?  Well that, and I’m sure many more exciting moments like that are going to happen in my most anticipated comic book movie and sequel of 2020.

 

 

4. WEST SIDE STORY (Steven Spielberg, December 18)

• This is the most interesting and weirdest film on the list, yet it is one I genuinely cannot wait to see.  Everyone knows West Side Story, the legendary Romeo and Juliet reimagining about two lovers from rival gangs that won numerous awards for its stage play and ten Oscars when it was adapted to the big screen.  The fact that this latest adaptation is directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tony Kushner is what makes it intriguing.  Spielberg has never made a musical and his films of late have been quieter, politically-focused films (save for The BFG and Ready Player One).  How will he fare in an adaptation of one of the most beloved plays of all-time and one of the greatest cinematic musicals ever?  Spielberg is a master director, so this is bound to be interesting.

 

 

3. DA 5 BLOODS (Spike Lee, TBD)

• For a while there, I thought Spike Lee had lost it.  Having not made a great movie since 2002’s 25th Hour, it looked like Lee had lost all of his creative spark, making some of the worst movies of his career.  But with 2017’s BlackKklansman, writer/director Spike Lee proved that he still had the goods and that he was just as great as he was in 90’s.  Da 5 Bloods, a title I love, Lee heads to the jungle of Vietnam, as veterans from the Vietnam War return to the jungle to find their lost innocence.  Starring Chadwick Boseman, Paul Walter Hauser, and a slew of great character actors in Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Clarke Peters, Giancarlo Esposito, and Jean Reno, let’s see is Lee can keep his streak alive.

 

 

2. MANK (David Fincher, TBD)

• It’s been seven years since David Fincher directed a feature film.  The Oscar-nominated director spend that back-half of the 2010’s focusing on producing Netflix shows like Mindhunter, House of Cards, and Love,Death, & Robots, so at least he was staying busy.  Director’s latest cinematic venture follows screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s tumultuous development of Orson Welles’ iconic masterpiece Citizen Kane.  The great Gary Oldman stars and Mankiewicz and Tom Burke, who gave one of the great breakout performances of 2019 in The Souvenir, stars as Welles in a performance I cannot wait to see.  It’s one of my favorite directors making a movie about one of the greatest movies ever made.  How can I not be excited?

 

 

1. TENET (Christopher Nolan, July 17)

• Is Christopher Nolan the best director working today?  There’s a strong case for it.  After a decade that saw Nolan make films like Inception, Interstellar, and Dunkirk, he’s back with yet another original action epic.  The plot of the film is unknown as of yet, but it has something to do with globe trotting espionage and time travel.  The cast is Nolan’s most impressive since Inception, featuring spectacular actors such as John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, and Nolan’s favorite, Michael Caine.  Nobody makes movies like Christopher Nolan.  Every film he makes is an event and in a year with no Star Wars and a mysterious Marvel slate, Tenet is the cinematic event of 2020 and the perfect way to start the decade.

 

 

 

 

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