25 Movies to Look Forward to in 2021
Curating a film preview for 2021 involves all the necessary caveats. Because the cinema industry remains deeply in flux and many theaters have yet to reopen, this year will likely be full of schedule changes and surprise decisions to move some projects to streaming. One major studio, Warner Bros., plans to debut each of its films simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max; others, like Disney, will offer some titles online for a premium price. What stands out about the 2021 movie landscape is how much the lineup resembles that of 2020: Almost every big studio project from then has been punted here, as distributors hope for a redo after a lost year. Whether they’ll get their wish is a colossal question.
The Little Things (January 29)
The rollout of Wonder Woman 1984 last month was a preview for an entire year of Warner Bros. films that will arrive simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters. While the glitz of a superhero movie was enough to pull record viewership numbers, will a more workmanlike crime drama make as big of a wave for the studio? Warner Bros.’s The Little Things, about a dogged county sheriff trying to crack a serial-killer case, has a hefty cast with Denzel Washington, Jared Leto, and Rami Malek (all Oscar winners). It could be a solid late-January distraction if nothing else.
Minari (February 12)
One of the first must-sees of 2021, Lee Isaac Chung’s was the biggest hit at 2020’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the U.S. Dramatic Jury Prize and the audience award. A delicate and thoughtful work of memory, it follows a Korean family who moves to Arkansas to start
