Get Out and Other Can’t Miss Movies of 2017

Say what you will about 2016… it was a great year for movies! We’re only in February 2017, and it already appears we have an overabundance of reasons to rush out to the multiplex this year too. Here are five movies that I’m already looking forward to in 2017, starting with one to be released this week:

1. Get Out (February 24)

We all miss the hysterically funny and provocative sketch comedy of Key and Peele, which ended on a high note after five seasons in September 2015. It’s nice to see that its creators have moved on to great things. Among many other achievements, Keegan-Michael Key memorably played President Barack Obama‘s “anger translator” at the 2015 White House Correspondents Dinner, and he shined last year in Mike Birbiglia‘s ensemble comedy film Don’t Think Twice. And now Jordan Peele has taken a sharp left turn from comedy into horror with his feature debut as a writer/director in Get Out, starring English actor Daniel Kaluuya as a young black man who is confronted with racially charged terror while visiting his white girlfriend’s family. The stellar cast also features Allison Williams, Emmy-winner Bradley Whitford, and Catherine Keener, one of the finest actors we have. Early reviews are strong, buzz is heavy, and it would appear that Jordan Peele is about to expand his résumé in a very big way. Count me in.

 2. Personal Shopper (March 10)

Remember when people weren’t sure if Kristen Stewart could act? Ha! Ever since she finished work on the enormously lucrative but critically unloved blockbuster Twilight saga, Kristen Stewart has steadily been defining herself as one of the most gifted and versatile actresses of her generation. She’s not the most expressive actress, and she works miracles with subtlety and measured understatement. Last year alone, Stewart gave dynamite  performances in Café Society, Certain Women, and Billy Lynn‘s Long Halftime Walk, among others, and she showed off her comedic chops earlier this month in a wildly successful stint on Saturday Night Live (I watched that Totino’s sketch so many times I briefly forgot about the current political climate). In French writer/director Olivier Assayas‘ new thriller Personal Shopper, Stewart stars as a personal shopper for the rich and famous who receives ambiguous visits and messages, possibly from the undead. It’s a flashy Hitchcockian ghost story for which Assayas won the Best Director prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and Stewart has been getting raves for her performance. Sign me up.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 (May 5)

My expectations for this one couldn’t be greater.  Co-writer and director James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy was one of the biggest hits of 2014, and it was everything we wish the Star Wars prequels were. A whiz-bang space opera with unforgettable characters, a heartfelt story, spectacular action, and uproariously funny good humor, Guardians was also a critical darling, and arguably the all-around best film so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gunn is back to helm the sequel, with stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista and Vin Diesel all returning in front of the camera. As if that weren’t enough to get us excited, the first trailer was absolutely hilarious, and last week The Hollywood Reporter informed us that Volume 2 tested higher than any other film in Marvel’s nine year history, scoring an unprecedented perfect 100 with test audiences. May 5 can’t get here soon enough.

4. Blade Runner 2049 (October 6)

Popular opinion of Ridley Scott‘s 1982 film Blade Runner has evolved since its original release more than perhaps any film in history. Initially a commercial and critical failure, over three decades and several high-profile re-edits, Blade Runner is now so universally accepted as a masterpiece of the genre that almost any attempt at a follow-up would be dismissed outright as sacrilege. Almost. Then we heard that Denis Villeneuve‘s name was attached. The French-Canadian director of Sicario and Arrival is revered by critics and fanboys alike. And he’s also shown that he has true depth and range of vision– Sicario was a bruising and merciless indictment of the War on Drugs, while Arrival, for which he’s nominated for an Academy Award, is a delicate, warmhearted, and, frankly, perfect small-scale science-fiction tale. All of Villeneuve’s movies look gorgeous, and on Blade Runner 2049 he’s working with legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins. The first trailer nailed the look and feel of the original film, and with a talented cast featuring Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, and a returning Harrison Ford, even the most stubborn skeptics are beginning to eye this one with great interest.

5. Untitled Cloverfield Anthology Film/God Particle (October 27)

The film on this list most shrouded in mystery at this time, this is the third installment in the J.J. Abrams-produced anthology of sci-fi films. Though the films actually share very little common elements, they are set in the same universe, historically have uniquely tantalizing marketing campaigns, and also deliver the genre goods that fans hope for. Paramount Pictures’ prerelease marketing for 2008’s Matt Reeves-directed Cloverfield was a watershed moment in viral movie advertisement. A chilling and blunt theatrical teaser showing simply a beheaded Statue of Liberty and no title at first generated enormous interest from moviegoers, creating an interactive experience that changed the way film studios think about advertising films, particularly genre movies. What’s more, Cloverfield, as it was publicly titled only briefly before its release, a found-footage horror fiasco about a massive kaiju rampaging through New York City, turned out to be a genuinely satisfying thrill ride, a scary monster movie treat.

In a similarly risky and ambitious marketing move, the “spiritual sequel”, 10 Cloverfield Lane, which followed a young woman kidnapped in an underground bunker above which there may or may not be an alien invasion, was only announced by Paramount Pictures less than two months before its March 2016 release, unprecedented for a studio release. With razor-sharp direction by Dan Trachtenberg, a screenplay co-written by Damien Chazelle (yes, that Damien Chazelle, the Oscar-nominated writer/director of La La Land), and featuring powerful performances from John Goodman and B-movie goddess Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 10 Cloverfield Lane ended up being quite special, only about a million and half times better than you’d expect a high-concept, low-budget, woman-in-peril thriller to be.

Fast forward to later in 2016, when Paramount Pictures announced a science fiction thriller, God Particle. Set in the near future, the story centers on a team of astronauts on a space station making a terrifying discovery that challenges everything they believe about reality, as they must fight for their survival. Originally scheduled for a February 2017 release in IMAX, a few months ago, Paramount Pictures unceremoniously cancelled the film’s release, but sneakily scheduled something called 2017 Cloverfield Movie for an October release. Variety has since reported that God Particle and 2017 Cloverfield Movie are, in fact, the same movie. With the Cloverfield series, Abrams and Paramount have truly earned a reputation for creative strategies for selling a movie, and also for executing B-movies with A-level talent. With the latest film featuring a terrific cast of esteemed international actors including Daniel Brühl, Chris O’Dowd, Elizabeth Debicki, Zhang Ziyi, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and David Oyelowo, it looks like we are getting more of just that. To say I’m intrigued is an understatement.