Evan Alex as Jason, Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide, and Shahadi Wright Joseph as Zora in Us (Photo credit: Universal Pictures)
It’s a new year with a lot of goodies in store for us onscreen. For those who can’t wait to get into those movie-theater seats, these 13 dramas, thrillers, comedies, and adaptations of beloved classics will have you excitedly looking forward to the rest of the year. From Us to Captain Marvel and everything in between, these are the movies you’ll be rushing to see in 2019.
1. Greta
{Focus Features}
Release date: March 1, 2019
When Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) finds a handbag on the subway, she decides to track down its owner. Her search takes her to Greta (Isabelle Huppert), a lonely and eccentric piano teacher. Greta is a widow and Frances has just lost her mother, and the two quickly become close—that is, until Frances discovers her new friend’s cache of handbags identical to the one she “lost” and realizes Greta might not be who she seems. Huppert is great in everything, and after 2016’s Elle, I’m looking forward to seeing her in more thrillers.
2. Captain Marvel
{Walt Disney Studios}
Release date: March 8, 2019
Ready to go higher, further, faster? The new Captain is Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who becomes the mightiest superhero the galaxy has ever seen. Larson dazzled in 2015’s Room, and Captain Marvel is sure to be a smash.
3. Us
{Universal Pictures}
Release date: March 15, 2019
Jordan Peele is back to terrify us all. The Academy Award–winning director’s newest follows Gabe and Adelaide Wilson (Black Panther’s Winston Duke and Lupita Nyong’o!) who are spending a weekend relaxing on the beach with their children and friends. Everything is picture perfect until a group of strangers arrive—and insist on coming in. If you only see one movie this year, make it Us.
4. Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
{Annapurna Pictures}
Release date: March 22, 2019
This adaptation of 2012’s best-selling comic novel has been a long time coming, and we’re ready. Bernadette (Cate Blanchett) is a reclusive, once-famous genius who prefers to stay indoors. When she disappears suddenly from her Seattle home, her 15-year-old daughter, Bee (Emma Nelson), embarks on a wild mission to track her down —and in the process, understand what drove her away.
5. Fast Color
Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in Fast Color (Photo credit: Codeblack Films)
{Codeblack Films}
Release date: March 29, 2019
This sci-fi drama tells the story of Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who is forced to go on the run when her kinetic superpowers are discovered. Desperate for somewhere to hide in a dust-bowl American dystopia, Ruth realizes that her abandoned home—still occupied by the family she hasn’t seen in eight years—might be the safest place to go. Mbatha-Raw stole the show as Kelly in “San Junipero,” everyone’s favorite episode of Black Mirror, and I’m excited for more.
6. Teen Spirit
{Lionsgate}
Release date: April 5, 2019
Teen Spirit is the directorial debut of Max Minghella, whom you might know better as the brooding Nick in The Handmaid’s Tale. In this contemporary Cinderella tale, Violet (Elle Fanning) enters a singing competition that launches her out of a small European town and into the international pop stardom she’s dreamed of.
7. Men In Black: International
{Sony Pictures}
Release date: June 14, 2019
The Men in Black have always protected humans from the bad apples—human and otherwise—of the universe. This time, Agent M. (Tessa Thompson) and Agent H. (Chris Hemsworth) are tasked with the agency’s biggest threat to date: dealing with a mole within their own ranks. Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson also guest star. Can’t wait to see Agent M. kicking ass!
8. Downton Abbey
{Focus Features}
Release date: September 20, 2019
The plot is still under wraps, but the doors of Downton Abbey will be opening again this fall. The movie will pick up where the series left off after 52 episodes.
9. The Kitchen
Elisabeth Moss, Melissa McCarthy, and Tiffany Haddish in The Kitchen (Photo credit: Warner Bros.)
{Warner Bros.}
Release date: September 20, 2019
The Kitchen, based on a comic series, is set in 1970s Hell’s Kitchen and stars Tiffany Haddish, Melissa McCarthy, and Elisabeth Moss as the wives of mobsters who have to take over when their husbands are arrested by the FBI.
10. The Woman in the Window
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (Photo credit: HarperLuxe)
{20th Century Fox}
Release date: October 4, 2019
In this take on Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window, Amy Adams stars as Dr. Anna Fox, a recluse who spends most of her time in her New York City home. When the Russells (Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman) move in across the way, Anna finds herself addictively watching them from her window—that is, until she sees something so shocking she begins to doubt the foundation of her whole world. After Sharp Objects, I’m excited to see Adams in another thriller—with Moore, no less!
11. The Goldfinch
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Photo credit: Little, Brown and Company)
{Warner Bros.}
Release date: October 11, 2019
At the age of 13, Theo Decker (Ansel Elgort) survives a terrorist bombing at an art museum. In a daze, he takes the titular small painting with him, , and spends the subsequent years reckoning with both the theft and the death of his mother. Based on the 2014 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, The Goldfinch also stars Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, Jeffrey Wright, and Luke Wilson.
12. Charlie’s Angels
Naomi Scott, Kristen Stewart, and Ella Balinska with Elizabeth Banks (Photo credit: Instagram/Charlie's Angels)
{Sony Pictures}
Release date: November 1, 2019
The Townsend Agency has gone global, with fierce Angels worldwide. Ella Balinska, Naomi Scott, and Kristen Stewart are starring as the trio, and Elizabeth Banks is directing this next generation of Angels.
13. Little Women
Emma Watson as Meg March, Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan as Jo March, Florence Pugh as Amy March, Eliza Scanlen as Beth March, and Timothée Chalamet as Laurie (Photo credit: Instagram/Little Women)
{Sony Pictures}
Release date: December 25, 2019
Little Women is a beloved classic, and this year writer-director Greta Gerwig is giving us the eighth adaptation of the 1868 novel. Little Women explores the lives of the March sisters in 1860s Massachusetts, but this version will focus more on the lives of Meg (Emma Watson), Jo (Saoirse Ronan), and Amy (Florence Pugh) after they leave the family home. Laura Dern and Meryl Streep join as Mamee and Aunt March! Wow wow wow.
