Go see ... Meryl Streep in Altman's A Prairie Home Companion
We can guess by now which films are likely to feature prominently in next spring's awards season. But forget about the Oscars, which we can only be relied upon to get wrong. Pay no mind to the Baftas, which only exist to try (and fail) to outshine the Oscars.
The films that most of us are genuinely excited about, in that pop-eyed, giddy-headed, first-in-the-queue-on-opening-day kind of way, are rarely those prestige productions with built-in award appeal. At a time of year when most people are thinking about what they'll be getting for Christmas, I'm already rubbing my hands at the thought of what the new year will bring.
Top of my personal to-see list is I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' skewed take on the life of Bob Dylan (though in truth, that's been top of my list ever since I first heard it was on the cards five years ago). The film, currently in post-production, uses actors of contrasting age, gender and race to portray Dylan at various points in his life - an idea that Haynes was touting long before Todd Solondz's similarly-structured Palindromes - and comes with the full, unprecedented blessing of Dylan ("I can use whichever songs I like," Haynes told me, wide-eyed, in 2003. "It's in ink!"). The bizarre mix'n'match cast brings together Richard Gere, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Julianne Moore. How much better can it get? We should probably move on before I swoon.
Also looking mighty promising is the new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson, the turn-of-the-century oil saga There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis, his first release since the sublime Punch Drunk Love. Also on the list is Francois Ozon's The Real Life Of Angel Deverell, starring the French director's muse Romola Garai, and Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain which provoked boos and fisticuffs when it premiered in Venice. Savage Grace, Tom Kalin's long-awaited follow-up to 1991's Swoon and Robert Altman's final film, A Prairie Home Companion, due to hit cinemas in January will also be worth queuing for.
Closer to home, it's been too long since we heard from Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger, British co-directors of The Lawless Heart, so it's a relief that their new film Sparkle, about a Liverpudlian lad's romance with an older woman, will arrive in 2007. Still reeling from this week's London To Brighton, I can't help but cheer at the news that the film's director, Paul Andrew Williams, is hard at work on his second feature.
That's the upper reaches of my wish list exhausted. But what are the coming attractions that you've already cleared an evening in your diary to see? Share your tips here, no matter how demented they might be.
