Things I hope will happen in movies in 2016, in no particular order:
Hollywood takes itself way too seriously, true, and Ricky Gervais has previously been a breath of fresh air in a boozy, over-oxygenated, heavily botoxed room. But I sincerely hope that the Hollywood Foreign Press books a new host for next year’s Golden Globes: Gervais smugly threatened poisonous barbs but only managed one killer lob (at Ben Affleck/Matt Damon), while a vicious attack on Mel Gibson went on three times longer than it should have. When Gibson comes off as the victim, it’s definitely time for Gervais to retire.
I hope Liev Schreiber changes his name or becomes a welder, either one. I hate how his name auto-corrects to “Live” every time I type it, and apparently it isn’t even his first name. Plus, Ray Donovan would rock that welder’s mask and de rigueur sleeveless vest, I’m sure.
I pray that Zoolander 2 is awesome. The original Zoolander, 15 years ago (!), may be the most important film of all time, if you go by the number of times that “the black lung.” “school for ants” and “eugoogaly” jokes have been uttered in my household. Ben Stiller himself is directing and Justin Bieber is among the star-studded supporting cast.
I hope that Shia LaBeouf gets help, and three days’ worth of him watching his own movies in NYC does not count as therapy.
I’m hopeful that Howard Shore’s music for Martin Scorcese’s film Silence, about Jesuit priests forced to recant their faith in 17th century Japan (Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver), is as awesome as Ennio Morricone’s score for Roland Joffe’s The Mission (Jesuit missionaries in South America). Because it’s been a while since we had some decent conversion-to-the-faith music.
Superhero movies have become super-boring of late, and at least one spectacularly self-destructed (poor Fantastic Four). So let’s hope that Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool remains true to his character’s interior-monologue roots, and that the movie doesn’t suck. I also hope that you don’t need a Master’s degree to follow all the intertwining other-Marvel-movie plotlines in Captain America: Civil War. And that X-Men: Apocalypse is worthy of Oscar Isaac. Also that Batman vs. Superman offers some hope along with all that property damage, and maybe throws an Oscar bone to Ben Affleck, if only to get back at Gervais.
Let Alicia Vikander star in just one great movie, not two. This year she’s likely to cancel herself out in the Oscar race after worthy performances in both The Danish Girl and Ex Machina.
More Keanu. Because I just like saying his name.
Keep the girl-centric trends and decent roles for women coming. Pixar gambled on the premise that a girl could be more than a princess, creating a movie that cared deeply about a tween’s innermost thoughts, not her fashion choices. Sure, there was a little setback when Bryce Dallas Howard had to run from dinosaurs while wearing heels, but Charlize Theron’s Furiosa was the real star of Mad Max, Emily Blunt stepped into a role written for a man in Sicario, and it was a female Jedi who reawakened the Force (Daisy Ridley). Now to get more women in the director’s chair…
Ditto more diverse casting. Kenneth Branagh did it waaay back in 1993 when casting Denzel Washington as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing. Clearly we haven’t made nearly enough progress since.
No more Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, please. Or Adam Sandler films. Maybe not in that order.
