At this point in the year, Marvel and Star Wars fans are eating with all the good, fresh content coming out. But what about those of us who aren’t into all that? Whether you’re a snob with an eternally upturned nose, or you’re just not into that nerd business and want to watch a different sort of movie, it might feel like there’s just nothing for you this year.
You’d be wrong, though: a24 has quite a few gems coming out in the near future, and they merit a close watch up until release. Here’s every a24 release for the rest of 2022.
Note: not every film has promo images or stills to share quite yet. In those cases, you’ll just have to use your imagination!
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
If you went to middle school in the early 2010s, you’ll remember the original Marcel the Shell series of shorts on YouTube. Some people loved them, some hated them, but either way, the nostalgia train seems to have picked it up for a feature-length mockumentary.
Set to release on June 24th, Marcel the movie will follow the eponymous shoe-wearing shell as he attempts to find his family. Jenny Slate will reprise her original voiceover role, with beloved comedians joining in as guests, such as Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter, and Nathan Fielder. And while I wasn’t a fan of the series as a kid, I gotta admit, this seems really cute and super sweet.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
When pieces of media attempt to mock Gen Z culture and sensibilities, it’s really a hit or miss endeavor, with the outcome veering more towards a complete and utter miss. That said, Bodies Bodies Bodies seems to be aware of this and is trying to subvert such ill-begotten attempts by mixing comedy with horror.
The plot follows a group of (tenuous) friends who are all fairly spoiled and out-of-touch as they vacation in a mansion. Isolated by a hurricane, their party game turns into a murder mystery as they try to discover whodunnit. I’m excited to see Shiva Baby‘s Rachel Sennott in a starring role again, although it remains to be seen whether all the “you’re toxic,” “you’re escalating the situation,” xyz etc. speak will start to grate.
When You Finish Saving The World
In 2020, actor Jesse Eisenberg released an audio drama titled When You Finish Saving The World, which went on to win an Audie for Best Original Work. Now, he’s adapting the drama into a feature-length film, starring Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore as a troubled mother-son duo.
Wolfhard plays Ziggy, a high schooler who’s amassed an online following for his original folk-rock songs, much to the bafflement of his strict mother, Evelyn. It sounds like a really fun concept for an indie movie, but I’ve also been waiting for another folk-music movie since Inside Llewyn Davis, so I might be biased.
Funny Pages
Once a child actor in Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson’s The Squid and the Whale, now Owen Kline is directing his own movie in Funny Pages. It’s a dark comedy about a kid who leaves the safety of home to try and make it as a cartoonist—a world that’s ultimately rather bleak, contrary to the products that come out of it.
After its debut at Cannes, it’s been described as an acutely morose film, whose dark sense of humor might be lost on some audiences. But as someone who’s followed the lives of various graphic novelists since my early teens, I’m pretty stoked to see this sort of lifestyle given the spotlight. It’s a thankless job, but the stories are more than worth telling.
God’s Creatures
Hoo, boy. Films about small Irish villages can be dark. Films about fishing communities, even darker. Combining the two and giving it a moral quandary as the central plot point makes God’s Creatures a juicy one to watch right from the get-go.
It follows Emily Watson as a dedicated mother who ends up in a tight situation, as a sexual assault allegation is lodged against her son, Paul Mescal. Many of the plot’s finer details haven’t been revealed yet, making the anticipation of this drama even more acute.
Showing Up
Eternal badass Michelle Williams is the lead in Showing Up, directed by Kelly Reichardt, who’s known for her artistic sensibilities in her films. This film will follow a nervous sculptor who’s preparing for (and dreading) an important upcoming exhibit, all while dealing with the frenetic aspects of her everyday life.
A rather simple premise, but good things have been said about it thus far. It sounds like it’ll be a tender examination of an artist’s life, with all the ups and downs that follow such a career.
The Stars At Noon
Based on a novel of the same name, The Stars At Noon will follow a romance between an English businessman and an American journalist who must escape Nicaragua. Whereas the novel takes place during the Nicaraguan Revolution, the film will take place during the onset of the covid pandemic.
It remains to be seen whether or not it handles its subject matter with grace, both in regards to the well-trod narrative of white people in a foreign nation, a faithful book adaptation, and its depiction of the pandemic itself. At the very least, I hope it does justice to my girl Margaret Qualley.
Beau is Afraid
If I say “Ari Aster,” will you start frothing at the mouth in excitement, or will you pitch a fit about how overrated he is? Ah, I’m just messing around, feel how you feel. It won’t stop him from releasing Beau is Afraid – formerly Disappointment Blvd. – another horror film, yet with a more comedic touch.
Aster has certainly included some tongue-in-cheek comedic elements in his past horror films, but it’ll be interesting to see how he leans into comedy this time around. Beau is Afraid will star Joaquin Phoenix as a successful entrepreneur, and considering this is supposed to be a horror film, it all sounds fairly hilarious as a premise to begin with. Like American Psycho, but with a modern touch.
The Eternal Daughter
There isn’t all that much to be said about this film, since its development has largely been done under cover of darkness. We do know that Joanna Hogg is the director, and it’ll feature Tilda Swinton. But aside from that, the plot is largely a mystery.
Which is fitting, I suppose, since it’ll be a mystery-drama.
The Whale
I’m pretty excited for The Whale for a variety of reasons. For one thing, our boy Brendan Fraser will be in it—hell yeah, we love our boy. For another, the plot seems like it’ll be a mixture of Beginners and Infinitely Polar Bear, two lovely indie films that everyone ought to watch at some point.
The Whale is a story of a 600lb man who’s trying to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter (played by the incredible Sadie Sink), years after he leaves his family to be with his gay lover, now passed. It sounds like it’ll be a heart-wrencher, to be sure, yet the premise sounds utterly captivating.
Aftersun
Producers really watched Normal People and said “Wow, we gotta have Paul Mescal in our movies.” He’s playing the aforementioned son in God’s Creatures, he was a primary character in 2021’s The Lost Daughter, and now he’s inhabiting a main role in Aftersun as the father of a young girl.
Aftersun will follow this girl’s recollection of a childhood trip to Turkey, and likely enough, all the traumas and bittersweet joys that occurred then. I have no doubt that Mescal will make a very convincing hot yet troubled dad, but either way, it appears that this film’s 100% on Rotten Tomatoes will make it a must-watch when it’s finally released widely.
Close
Directed by Lukas Dhont, this Belgian film will follow a friendship between two adolescent boys as it suffers major setbacks, and how they, therefore, seek to repair it. In particular, one of the boys will grow close to the others’ mother as he tries to understand what exactly happened.
I absolutely love this premise for a film, as movies rarely care to examine the friendships between young boys in a way that’s real. All relationships take work and heartbreak, and in order to maintain them, they need to be repaired and dealt with in an emotionally-rigorous manner. I feel like, societally, we forget to teach our boys how to do this, when their friendships deserve just as much care as anyone else’s.
Red, White, And Water
There still isn’t much to be said about this film, but according to letterboxd, it will follow a US soldier who “suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home.”
The soldier in question will be played by Jennifer Lawrence. And while I generally am opposed to films about the military, I think this perspective is sorely needed in regards to films of this nature: how PTSD affects our vets and how much care they need as a result. Most of all, though, apparently author Ottessa Moshfegh contributed to the screenplay, which has my inner book nerd very intrigued.
Sharper
Just when you thought there weren’t enough heist movies, a24 is coming at you with another one, starring Sebastian Stan, Julianne Moore, and Justice Smith (you know, from Detective Pikachu, my favorite movie). This particular heist will follow a con artist who’s trying to dismantle Manhattan’s billionaire elite, and let me just say, good on ya for it! Take the bastards down!
For legal purposes, I am just kidding. But seriously. Knowing Sebastian Stan, this is sure to be a fun one.
Beth & Don
Now we’re getting into the “Beyond” of this list, so details might become more sparse. In any case, this is a film about a novelist who overhears her husband talking trash about her work, and the ensuing decay of their marriage. And it stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I dunno about you, but it sounds like a perfect movie.
The Inspection
The Inspection sounds like it’ll be an incredibly tough one to watch, especially if you’ve ever been a target of homophobic hate crimes. It follows a marine named Ellis whose sexual orientation is revealed during his inspection, and therefore subjected to a hazing ritual that nearly kills him. This might be one to avoid if you’re sensitive to such subject matter.
Pearl
Ti West is directing this slasher film, intended to be a prequel of the movie X. Mia Goth will reprise her role as the titular Pearl, a villain from X, as viewers explore her origins and how she became such a villain. It takes place in 1918, during the war, so…I’m going to take a wild guess that nothing about this film will be pleasant.
Tuesday
Once again, Julia Louis-Dreyfus will fill a main role, this time as a mother whose daughter will be played by Lola Petticrew. Tuesday is described as a drama-fantasy film, a sort of fairy tale about a mother and her daughter, which sounds utterly delightful. Alas, that’s all we know for now.
(Featured Image: a24)
