With follow-ups to Gladiator, Alien, Inside Out, Mad Max and Beetlejuice, there are sequels galore in 2024.
1. The Taste of Things
Anyone with an appetite for “foodie films” should prepare to tuck into the most lavish of banquets. Trần Anh Hùng’s warm-hearted period drama is set in 1885 in the idyllic rural kitchen of Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel), the so-called “Napoleon of the culinary arts”.
He spends his days preparing gourmet feasts for his friends and a few wealthy clients, with the invaluable help of a loyal cook, Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) – and long scenes are devoted to the step-by-step preparation of their mouth-watering dishes.
The film also serves up a side order of tender romance. The pair have been happily in love for years, but Dodin may have to take his gastronomy to new heights if he is ever to persuade Eugénie to marry him. (NB)
Released on 9 February in the US and 16 February in the UK.
2. Bob Marley: One Love
Authorised biopics never stop coming at us, with mixed results, but this has two strengths going in: Bob Marley’s classic reggae music and the film’s star, Kingsley Ben-Adir, who has been convincing in everything he has done, in roles as different as Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, and one of Barbie’s many Kens.
The producers include Marley’s son, Ziggy, and his widow, Rita, played on screen by Lashana Lynch. Instead of cradle-to-grave, the story focuses on the years 1976-77, when Marley was politically active, trying to unify divided factions in Jamaica, and survived an assassination attempt, all while preparing for his huge One Love Peace Concert in 1978.
The director, Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard), has said, “It was a period of great creative genius, but he was also dealing with a lot, including cancer”, which caused his death in 1981 when he was just 36. Ben-Adir plays and sings in the film, but the songs we hear are a combination of his voice and recordings of Marley himself. (CJ)
Released on 14 February.
3. Perfect Days
A quiet character study of a middle-aged man who cleans public toilets in Tokyo? It may not sound like a must-see, but Perfect Days is a delightful return to form by Wim Wenders, the 77-year-old director of Paris, Texas and The Buena Vista Social Club.
Its modest hero is Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), who carries out his cleaning duties with the unwavering diligence of a monk. He lives the rest of his life in the same meticulous fashion, whether he is tending his plants or listening to his prized collection of classic rock cassettes.
There isn’t much plot, but Wenders depicts Hirayama’s perfect days in such loving detail that they begin to fascinate the viewer as much as they evidently fascinate the director. (NB)
Released on 23 February in the UK.
4. Dune: Part 2
Dune: Part 2 was on BBC Culture’s list of films to watch in 2023, but its release was pushed back due to the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes. Still, nothing short of an attack by giant sandworms should stop it from coming out in 2024.
In case you’ve forgotten, 2021’s Dune: Part 1 was directed by Denis Villeneuve, and adapted from the first half of Frank Herbert’s monumental science-fiction novel. It finished with Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides joining Zendaya’s Chani and her Fremen tribespeople in the desert, and preparing to fight back against the loathsome Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård).
In Part 2, the already star-studded cast is augmented by Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler (Elvis). Their epic battles on the planet of Arrakis are due to last 166 minutes – and if that’s not enough for you, Villeneuve has announced plans to turn the films into a trilogy, with Herbert’s second Dune novel being used as the basis of Dune: Part 3. (NB)
Released on 1 March.
5. Mickey 17
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite was the first ever film in a non-English language to win the best picture prize at the Oscars, so the Korean director’s follow-up is one of the most feverishly anticipated films of 2024. Adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey 17 is a darkly political science-fiction thriller in the vein of Bong’s last two films before Parasite: Okja and Snowpiercer.
Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey, a cloned labourer on a spacecraft heading to a distant ice planet. When one Mickey dies, another is manufactured to replace him, with most of his predecessor’s memories intact.
Eventually, one of the Mickeys questions why so many of his doppelgangers have died before him. Steven Yeun, Toni Colette and Mark Ruffalo co-star. (NB)
Released on 29 March.
6. Back to Black
Nowhere Boy was an account of John Lennon’s teenage years directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh. Now Taylor-Johnson and Greenhalgh have reunited for another drama about an iconic British pop star, Amy Winehouse.
They certainly won’t be short of material. Winehouse was one of the most influential vocalists and songwriters of her generation, but she was also prone to violence and addicted to drugs, and she died in 2011 at the age of 27.
As much as she achieved in her short life, the question is whether Taylor-Johnson and Greenhalgh’s film can be anything other than a depressing experience. The cast is promising, anyway. Marisa Abela stars as Winehouse, alongside Jack O’Connell as her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, and Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville as her parents. (NB)
Released on 12 April.
7. Challengers
Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name) love triangle among tennis pros, with Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, was on the 2023 preview, until the SAG-AFTRA actors strike caused a delay and knocked the film out of the opening night slot of the Venice Film Festival last September.
It’s still worth looking forward to, with Zendaya as Tashi, a former tennis champion now coaching her husband, Art (Faist), who is in a slump, and who is about to go into a low-stakes match with Patrick (O’Connor), her ex-boyfriend and his childhood friend.
There are flashbacks to their younger days, when Tashi had to choose for the first time. “What Luca is really good at is finding sensuality,” Zendaya told Empire magazine, with O’Connor adding, “The tennis is the sex.” There may be off-court sex too, and probably more personal drama than tennis from these three actors with immense screen presence. (CJ)
Released on 26 April.
8. Civil War
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