WHAT’S HOT IN 2017
Our critics choose the best things to WATCH, HEAR and READ this year
1. La La Land
Out January 13 This heavily tipped Oscar hopeful gets underway with a quite astonishing opening: a brilliantly choreographed song-and-dance sequence that unfolds on a Los Angeles freeway – seemingly in a single shot – and simply takes your breath away. Set in the present day but with roots that go back to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Damien Chazelle’s musical follow-up to Whiplash sees Ryan Gosling playing a down-on-hisluck jazz pianist who falls in love with Emma Stone’s aspiring actress. They sing, they dance, they dream of making it big... what could possibly go wrong?
2. Hacksaw Ridge
Out January 27 The second coming – or is it the third? – of Mel Gibson continues. Last year he showed what a good actor he still is with
Blood Father and he kicks off 2017 demonstrating he’s lost none of his powers as a director, either. But you’ll need a strong stomach for this retelling of an extraordinary true story. Andrew Garfield is fabulous as the American conscientious objector who becomes a medical orderly in one of the most brutal conflicts of the war, as US troops try to overcome the Japanese on Okinawa. The battle scenes make the first 20 minutes of Saving
Private Ryan look restrained. Vince Vaughn also stars.
3. T2: Trainspotting
Out January 27 Twenty years have passed since we last encountered Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) and Spud (Ewen Bremner) and we can confidently predict that life for most of them will not have worked out as planned. Little is known about the sequel other than Danny Boyle once again directs and that it begins with Renton returning to the side of Edinburgh that the tourists never see. Choose life? Somehow I doubt it.
4. 50 Shades Darker
Out February 10 No one admits to having gone to see the original, so how come it took almost $600m at the global box office? And I’m sure the sequel will enjoy similarly inexplicable success, as billionaire Christian Grey – played by Jamie Dornan – is reunited with Anastasia Steele – Dakota Johnson – and no doubt they both tie themselves up in knots again in this pre-Valentine’s release. Personally, I’m dreading finding out what ‘darker’ refers to. With the lights off, perhaps?
5. Miss Sloane
Out February 24 John Madden may not be the most prolific of filmmakers but he certainly has a high success rate, as the wonderful likes of Mrs Brown, Shakespeare In Love
and The Best Exotic Marigold
Hotel will attest. His latest is set in Washington DC and couldn’t be more topical, with Jessica Chastain playing a ruthlessly ambitious political lobbyist and giving a performance that is tipped to secure her a third Oscar nomination.
6. Their Finest
Out April 21 I absolutely loved this at last year’s London Film Festival and can’t quite understand why it’s taking so long to go on release. It’s definitely worth the wait, with Gemma Arterton on delicious form as Catrin Cole, a young Welsh woman who, in the wake of Dunkirk, grabs her big chance and ends up writing supposedly morale-boosting scripts for the Ministry of Information. It’s touching, funny and the roguish Bill Nighy, playing a fading matinee idol, gently steals every scene he is in.
7. Alien Covenant
Out May 19 Despite its title Alien Covenant, pictured, is not so much the long-awaited next film in the Alien franchise as a sequel to
Prometheus, the 2012 film that, strictly speaking, is an Alien prequel. Confused? There’s every chance you will be as Ridley Scott returns to the helm of the series and the crew of the colony ship Covenant bravely goes where only the crew of Prometheus
has gone before. And look what happened to them. David, the android played by Michael Fassbender, is apparently the only survivor.
8. Wonder Woman
Out June 2 Disney’s Marvel-lously successful superhero franchise The Avengers – you know, Captain America,
Iron Man, Black Widow etc – shows no sign of running out of commercial steam and, oh, how Warner Bros would love its own superhero property, the Justice League, to demonstrate similar commercial durability. Star Gal Gadot kicks things off in June with the standalone Wonder Woman film – apparently tracing her Amazonian roots – before the whole DC Comics gang (Batman, Superman et al) er, assemble for Justice League in November.
9. Dunkirk
Out July 21 This is surely destined to be one of the events of the cinema year. Little is known about the project, apart from that it involves superstar director Christopher Nolan – he of Dark Knight, Inception and Interstellar fame – taking on one of the biggest stories of World War II, helped by a cast including Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh (not to mention One Direction’s Harry Styles, left, in his first film role). Good enough for me.
10. Blade Runner 2049
Out Oct 6 The original from 1982 is widely considered to be Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, so when he announced he wouldn’t be directing the sequel, it felt like the kiss of death for the project. But new director Denis Villeneuve delivered Arrival, one of the smartest sci-fi films for years and the excitement is right back. With a story set 30 years after the original, Ryan Gosling, above, stars and Harrison Ford returns as Deckard. Be still my beating, Tyrell Corporationmanufactured heart.