2021 is shaping up to be a big year for movies produced by major streaming services. Critic Sarah Ward picks 10 of the most highly anticipated.
At some point throughout 2021, cinephiles will be able to sit down at home, press play on their remotes and stream brand new films directed by The Piano’s Jane Campion, True History of the Kelly Gang’s Justin Kurzel and Holy Motors’ Leos Carax. All three might make it to cinemas, too—but if it wasn’t for streaming platforms, they wouldn’t exist.
Name a major streaming service and it’s likely they have more than a couple of big films on their agenda for 2021 (Netflix has 70-odd, actually). Here are 10 highlights to keep an eye out for.
Don’t Look Up (undated)
Following two astronomers tasked with informing humanity that a comet is about to wipe them out, Don’t Look Up sits on Netflix’s 2021 comedy state. Expect writer/director Adam McKay to skew closer to The Big Short in tone than any of the many Will Ferrell-starring flicks on his resume.
The film might just have the best cast of the year, too—or one of the starriest at least—with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as its leads, plus Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Timothee Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Matthew Perry, Melanie Lynskey, Himesh Patel, Kid Cudi and Ariana Grande also featuring.
The Mad Woman’s Ball (undated)
Melanie Laurent is an excellent actor, as Inglourious Basterds and Enemy have shown. She’s also an impressive filmmaker, with 2014’s Breathe and 2018’s Galveston among her directorial credits. With The Mad Woman’s Ball, she’ll showcase her talents both on and off-screen, and Amazon will add its first French-language original movie to its slate.
The thriller stems from the pages of Victoria Mas’ novel Le bal des folles, is set in 19th-century Paris, and takes place at a hospital where women who aren’t considered compliant with society’s expectations are forced into treatment—and to attend an annual ball with the city’s well-heeled.
I Care a Lot (February 19)
Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) has discovered the perfect moneymaking scheme, convincing judges to rule that wealthy seniors require her guardianship, then shipping them off to care homes, selling their assets, keeping them from their relatives and plundering their bank balances. That’s I Care a Lot’s killer premise.
Set to stream on Prime Video, it balances pitch-black comedy with twisty thrills, and pairs Pike’s commanding lead performance with memorable supporting turns from Eiza Gonzalez, Peter Dinklage and Dianne Wiest. And, as directed by The Disappearance of Alice Creed’s J Blakeson, it gets bleak as it rips into the capitalist drive for cash above all common decency.
The Power of the Dog (undated)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons play brothers Phil and George Burbank in Netflix drama The Power of the Dog, an adaptation of the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage. Co-owners of a hefty Montana ranch, the pair couldn’t be more different—and when George secretly marries the widowed Rose (Kirsten Dunst), Phil is determined to bring her down.
The Netflix film’s cast also includes Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Frances Conroy and Keith Carrdine, but it’s the fact that Jane Campion is behind the lens that’s the most exciting news. The acclaimed Oscar-winner writes and directs, making her first feature since 2009’s Bright Star.
Cherry (March 12)
Before they became the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s go-to directors, and before their TV comedy work on Community and Happy Endings, Anthony and Joe Russo helmed a crime-caper remake called Welcome to Collinwood. That light but charming 2002 film is reason enough to be intrigued by Apple TV+ feature Cherry, the siblings’ first movie outside the MCU in seven years.
The directors are joined by fellow Marvel alum Tom Holland, who plays an opioid-addicted military veteran who starts robbing banks to finance his habit. Also, the narrative comes via the book by Nico Walker, who partly based it on his own experiences.
Gold (undated)
Everyone in Australia knows that Zac Efron has spent most of the past year here, and doesn’t look set to leave anytime soon. He hasn’t been idle, making the outback-shot survival thriller Gold, the latest film directed by actor Anthony Hayes. The latter also co-stars, with the movie focusing on two drifters who discover the biggest gold nugget ever found, get overcome with greed and pledge to do whatever’s needed to claim the precious metal.
The first still released from the Stan-funded film sees Efron stranded against Australia’s unforgiving landscape, as his character is left to protect the gold while his offsider goes searching for equipment.
Annette (undated)
Hopefully 2021 will be the year that Annette makes its way to audiences. First announced in 2016, the project was picked up by Amazon in 2017, and shot in 2019 after a couple of cast swaps. If it does arrive, it’ll do so nine years after Leos Carax’s last film—and anyone who has seen Holy Motors has been eager to watch whatever the filmmaker does next.
Carax’s English-language debut, his latest is a musical, following a stand-up comedian (Adam Driver) and his opera singer wife (Marion Cotillard), and specifically charting how their life changes when their daughter Annette is born.
A Nightmare Wakes (February 4)
Frankenstein will never stop being adapted for the screen, spanning both faithful versions and inventive takes on the tale—plus movies that use it for inspiration but mould it different ways, which pop up quite frequently. Because the story behind the best horror novel ever written is also fascinating, filmmakers will always be just as drawn to its origins, too.
Coming to genre-focused streaming platform Shudder, A Nightmare Wakes spends time with Mary Shelley (Alix Wilton Regan) as she’s writing her famous tome. She starts hallucinating about her story, the whole experience affecting her relationship with Percy Shelley (Giullian Yao Gioiello).
Nitram (undated)
No Australian film will garner more attention in 2021 than Stan’s Nitram, which examines one of the country’s most horrifying recent chapters. Director Justin Kurzel and screenwriter Shaun Grant explore the events leading up to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, with the movie’s title referring to the perpetrator.
Other than the fact the feature will star the always-interesting Caleb Landry Jones, as well as Judy Davis, Essie Davis and Anthony LaPaglia, few other details have been announced. But Kurzel and Grant are no strangers to this type of territory, interrogating another awful Australian crime in 2011’s Snowtown, and unpacking the myths surrounding a different chapter of the nation’s past in True History of the Kelly Gang.
Moxie (undated)
Amy Poehler’s first feature filmmaking stint came via Netflix’s underwhelming Wine Country in 2019. This year, she’s returning to the platform with Moxie—which sounds as close as Parks and Recreation fans might get to seeing what a Leslie Knope-esque character would be like as a teenager.
Based on the 2015 novel by Jennifer Mathieu, the movie follows a 16-year-old who becomes fed up with her school’s attitude towards women, and just the toxic behaviour prevalent among her classmates in general. So Vivian Carter (Hadley Robinson) decides to fight back, via a zine that quickly garners attention. And, as Tina Fey did when she penned the screenplay for the also high school-set Mean Girls, Poehler co-stars.
