With 2021 half in the bag, I've got my eye on a handful of crime flicks on the horizon... wouldn't be surprised to see any of these on my best of the year list
The Card Counter - Paul Schrader - Schrader's a name I'm always interested in and he's been hot lately. I'd love to see him knock this one out of the park. Cast includes Oscar Isaac, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe & Tiffany Haddish. Sounds good.Flag Day - Sean Penn - Don't know nothing about this one either, except that it sounds like a crime film and that's what I'm excited for Penn to get back to as a director. Dude started off with three terrific crime pics before jumping ship and losing me, but hey you make The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard and The Pledge, I will absolutely check out your next criminally-tinged drama.How to Deter a Robber - Maria Bissel - I don't remember how this one got onto my radar, but... it's there and I'm studiously avoiding reading anything about it. Maybe it'll be cool.
The Many Saints of Newark - Alan Taylor - Prequel to David Chase's seminal television show The Sopranos starring the late James Gandolfini's son Michael Gandolfini as Tony about to break bad. Jon Bernthal and Vera Farmiga as ma and pa Soprano, Alessandro Nivola and Ray Liotta as little Christopher Moltisanti's family tree. This could absolutely be a fuckup. It could also be super special.
Nightmare Alley - Guillermo del Toro - A remake of the 1947 Edmund Goulding classic based on William Lindsay Gresham's carny noir about a flim-flam man's rise and spectacular fall that answers the question, how does a geek end up like that? Script by del Toro and Kim Morgan... haven't seen a trailer or an actual release date, so maybe it's wishful thinking that it'll be out this year, but... I'm excited.No Sudden Move - Steven Soderbergh - Lookit that cast! Lookit the trailer! Lookit that, it's Christmas in July. This beast is available today on HBO Max. I'll probably have finished it by the time you read this, but I'm super excited for the rest of you!Pig - Michael Sarnoski - My man Nicolas Cage has (at least) two very exciting efforts coming this year. In this one little Nicky misses his truffle pig and leaves his forest home to find his babe pig in city... will his search end in an orgy of violence? Will it be tragic? Will it be kickass? I don't fucking know, but Cage is such a mega star the trailer alone has enough of a gravitational pull to suck the light out of the periphery of my vision and I am unable to look away. No idea what to expect, but I will not be surprised if he goes supernova at some point.
Prisoners of the Ghostland - Sion Sono - Cage front and center of a Sono film sounds awesome. They both have otherworldly energies and it should be memorable. Should. Be.