Countdown to the Oscars: Best Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio is the frontrunner for Best Actor for his performance in The Revenant.

Welcome to Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars, our daily look at this year’s Academy Awards race. Be sure to check back every day this month for analysis of each of the Academy’s 24 categories.

Best Actor

The nominees are:

Bryan Cranston for Trumbo

Matt Damon for The Martian

Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant

Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl

You cannot stop a moving train, especially when this particular train has been picking up steam for more than two years now. The world wants to see DiCaprio win an Oscar. The Internet certainly does, and for the first time, it seems like the Academy is coming around to that view as well. For the most part, this started two years ago when DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street performance lost out to Matthew McConaughey’s more traditional work in Dallas Buyers Club.

There are other exceptional performances this year – Fassbender and Cranston are particularly memorable – but there is no other narrative as strong as the one building up around DiCaprio. Damon and Redmayne have already won Oscars. Cranston is beloved, but he is a first-time nominee. Fassbender, like DiCaprio a generation-defining talent, will have other chances. No, the story is DiCaprio and his long-overdue recognition as one of the best in the business.

Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant – In reality, the obsession with DiCaprio winning an Oscar started long before The Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio has been one of the biggest stars in the world for nearly 20 years, but even before Titanic rocketed him to superstardom, he was an Oscar nominee for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? Many felt he was snubbed for Titanic, and in some quarters, a narrative built up that Academy members might consider DiCaprio too much of a pretty boy whose success was derived from looks and youth more than talent.

However, DiCaprio made smart choice after smart choice, rarely faltering in the projects he championed and never turning in a bad performance. His nominated work on The Aviator and Blood Diamond, as well as The Departed and Shutter Island, showed an actor willing to dig into the psyches of his characters and deliver raw, visceral experiences onscreen. We associate “getting ugly” with Best Actress winners – such as Charlize Theron in Monster or Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball – but the phenomenon is just as real for Best Actor. Consider McConaughey, Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, and Adrian Brody in The Pianist.

Well, DiCaprio not only “gets ugly” in The Revenant, but he goes feral, eating raw bison liver and subjecting himself to the many hardships of the frontier all in order to bring the story of Hugh Glass to life. However, this is more than a physical stunt. It is a searing, emotional portrait of a man betrayed, adrift, and alone. DiCaprio has never been better, and no other leading actor this year was this good. He will win, and in at least one respect, all will seem right.

Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs – Interestingly, the last time Fassbender was nominated, he lost Best Supporting Actor for his performance in 12 Years a Slave to McConaughey’s Dallas Buyers Club co-star Jared Leto. I would have gone the other way, but at least the Academy’s choice was defensible. What is not defensible is the fact that Fassbender is on just his second nomination after incomparable work in films such as Hunger, Shame, and Frank. Oh well, he is in the club now, and he will keep coming back because there is no other actor like him working today.

Director Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs is a frustrating movie with a number of fine elements teetering on the edge but never tipping over into greatness because the whole exercise feels just a little too self-conscious. Fassbender, however, is scintillating as the title character, a business genius whose personal life is in shambles. He creates chaos everywhere he goes, but because he sits in the eye of the storm, everything seems perfectly clear to him. Fassbender brings out the frustration and rage of someone who believes he is better than everyone else and cannot tolerate playing down to their level.

Bryan Cranston for Trumbo – Speaking of frustration and rage, we also have Cranston’s blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. A brilliant wordsmith, Trumbo was persecuted for his political beliefs, and rather than back down, he fought back with his typewriter. He refused to let the system shut him up and stood up to become a hero for freedom of expression. The great thing about Cranston’s performance is that he does not play Trumbo as a hero. Instead, he shows us a man annoyed by the stupidity and bigotry he must endure. He battles because it is in his nature to fight. He just happens to be fighting for a righteous cause.

Cranston is a beloved and respected figure in the industry. Though he is mostly known for his television work on Breaking Bad, for which he won four Emmys and a Golden Globe, Cranston has proven to be a popular character actor in films such as Drive, Argo, and Little Miss Sunshine. He is even the best part of the otherwise disposable Godzilla remake from 2014. In his first true leading film role, he knocks it out of the park. He will continue to be a force in this industry for as long as he wants, but this will not be the year he wins an Oscar.

Matt Damon for The Martian – Damon was the nominee about whom no one was really certain. There were a few other options hanging around the edges of the season such as Johnny Depp in Black Mass and Will Smith in Concussion, but ultimately, Damon prevailed. Looking back, it should not be that shocking – and if I can toot my own horn, this is the exact lineup I predicted in this category back at the beginning of December.

Damon carries The Martian on his shoulders entirely. The scenes back on Earth with the NASA team and everyone else are important to the plot of course, but the movie does not work without a tremendous actor playing Mark Watney, the man stranded on Mars. Damon is the perfect combination of brainy, funny, and sympathetic to pull off this role. Even in dire circumstances, he remains fun to watch because he gives the character a spark of mischievousness to counteract the seriousness of the situation. Everything we feel when watching The Martian is because Damon is able to bring those feelings out in us.

Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl – If Redmayne had not won this award just last year for The Theory of Everything, this awards race might have been a little closer. Indeed, some were positing that Redmayne could become the first back-to-back Best Actor winner since Tom Hanks in 1993-94 and just the third ever. Alas, The Danish Girl did not catch fire, either at the box office or with the industry, meaning Redmayne’s work does not have the necessary heat to make history at the Oscars.

The work is solid, and it is mesmerizing to watch Redmayne make the transition from portraying a confused man to a man becoming a woman and finally to the woman that man always was. Redmayne finds a number of subtle notes to play in the transformation, and with his guidance, the audience is never at a loss to understand the character. By the end, Redmayne simply becomes Lili, and it is as if that is how it was always meant to be.

The final analysis

There is not much else to say. Cranston and Fassbender each picked up some early critics’ awards, but that was before the locomotive that is DiCaprio in The Revenant pulled out of the station. Since then, DiCaprio has taken everything in sight – the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the BAFTA, among others. When he wins an Academy Award next Sunday, it will be one of my favorite moments in Oscar history, watching my favorite actor accept an award he richly deserves.

Will win: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant

Should win: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant

Should have been here: Tom Courtenay for 45 Years

Tomorrow: Best Documentary

Waiting game: 2015 Oscar nominations predictions

The critics’ awards are pretty much behind us, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out its honors on Sunday, and with the announcement today of the Directors Guild nominations, the most important industry groups have had their say. All that is left is for the Academy to announce its nominations, which it will do bright and early Thursday morning. Before that, let’s take a look at which films have dominated the awards season thus far and what we might expect from the Academy.

We discussed the critics’ groups around this time last month, when it seemed like writer-director Tom McCarthy’s journalism drama Spotlight would be the runaway champion. With the critics, anyway, that trend held true as Spotlight was awarded best film by group after group across the country, with a stray mention for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road here and there.

Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies.

As the industry started to chime in, though, the ground started to shift. The craftspeople such as the cinematographers, the art directors, the sound designers, etc., flocked to films such as Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant, while Spotlight has been left in the dust. This was to be expected since Spotlight is not exactly the kind of flashy film that draws a lot of appreciation for its technical achievements. However, Spotlight has hit with the four industry groups that matter most – Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild, Directors Guild, and to a lesser extent, the Writers Guild.

Even after its shutout at the Golden Globes, Spotlight is still sitting pretty. The same goes for The Big Short, which was also shut out Sunday but has done fine with the guilds. The Revenant has obviously been a technical juggernaut, and its triumph with the HFPA certainly gives it some momentum. Remember, though, that the Academy nominations were submitted before the Golden Globes, so that momentum only means something if the Academy has already gone for The Revenant in a big way.

So, let’s take a look at what the guilds have given us to work with:

Producers: The Big Short; Bridge of Spies; Brooklyn; Ex Machina; Mad Max: Fury Road; The Martian; The Revenant; Sicario; Spotlight; Straight Outta Compton

Directors: Adam McKay (The Big Short); Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road); Ridley Scott (The Martian); Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant); McCarthy (Spotlight)

Actors: Best ensemble – Beasts of No Nation; The Big Short; Spotlight; Straight Outta Compton; Trumbo

Writers: Best original screenplay – Bridge of Spies; Sicario; Spotlight; Straight Outta Compton; Trainwreck. Best adapted screenplay – The Big Short; Carol; The Martian; Steve Jobs; Trumbo

For good measure, let’s throw in the British Academy nominations, which came out late last week:

BAFTA: The Big Short; Bridge of Spies; Carol; The Revenant; Spotlight

If you look closely, the only two films to show up on all five lists are The Big Short and Spotlight. No other movie shows up more than three times. Regardless of anything else you here, those are your frontrunners right now for Best Picture at the Oscars. The Revenant is close behind, though the likelihood of Iñárritu winning Best Picture and Best Director the year after winning both for Birdman is slim. Bridge of Spies, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, and even Straight Outta Compton look strong based on what we know now.

Still, what we know now does not amount to much. Everything could change – or nothing could, admittedly – with the Academy’s announcement Thursday. So, let’s make some guesses as to how the top categories might shake out.

Best Picture

My reasoning in this category is pretty much outlined above, so I will not go over it too deeply here. The big question now is how many films the Academy will choose to nominate. It could be anywhere from five to 10 but usually ends up on the high side around nine. So, that is where we will draw our prediction line. Based on everything that has happened up until now, here are the nine films I think are most likely Best Picture nominees (in order of likelihood): Spotlight; The Big Short; The Revenant; The Martian; Mad Max: Fury Road; Bridge of Spies; Brooklyn; Carol; Trumbo.

Best Director

This category rarely lines up directly with its guild counterpart, but most of the time, four out of the five make it. Last year was anomalous in that Bennett Miller was nominated for Foxcatcher despite that film not being nominated for Best Picture. I would not predict that happening again. The weakest name on the DGA list might be Scott for The Martian, but it is hard to know who else might slip in besides maybe Steven Spielberg for Bridge of Spies. So, against my better judgment, I am predicting it to match the DGA exactly (in order of likelihood): Inarritu for The Revenant; McCarthy for Spotlight; McKay for The Big Short; Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road; Scott for The Martian.

Best Actor

Not much has changed in this category since we last covered it, except that a few contenders have probably fallen by the wayside. Paul Dano in Love and Mercy for instance is likely to be shifted to the supporting category, while Will Smith (Concussion) and Johnny Depp (Black Mass) really have not picked up any momentum. For the win, Leonardo DiCaprio may finally be in line for an Oscar. Regardless of his feelings about it, which I covered here and here, his peers sure seem to want him to win, based on the standing ovation he got at the Golden Globes. Anyway, here are my Best Actor predictions, which have not changed since last month (in order of likelihood): DiCaprio for The Revenant; Bryan Cranston for Trumbo; Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs; Matt Damon for The Martian; Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl.

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn.

On the other hand, Best Actress is very much in flux since we still do not know how the Academy will choose to categorize Rooney Mara in Carol and Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl. Both have been campaigned as supporting contenders, but the Academy could still choose to place them (correctly) in the lead category. Either way, both are almost surefire nominees. The rest of the lineups in both categories simply depend on their placement.

Brie Larson’s performance in Room is picking up steam as the most likely winner, while Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) and Cate Blanchett (Carol) are right there as well. Despite the film’s lackluster reception, Jennifer Lawrence should still make it in for Joy, which leaves one space. I am guessing the Academy will place Vikander in lead and Mara in supporting, giving us (in order of likelihood): Larson for Room; Ronan for Brooklyn; Blanchett for Carol; Lawrence for Joy; Vikander for The Danish Girl.

Best Supporting Actor

Despite the mild controversy, which really should not have been any controversy at all, over his acceptance speech, it sure was fun to see Sylvester Stallone win an award at the Golden Globes. It is possible he will repeat that performance – with a better grasp of his thank-you list – at the Oscars, but I still have serious reservations about his chance for a nomination. Creed has not caught on with any of the guilds, and its heat seems to have died down since it was a considerable box-office hit in November and early December.

The heat on Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies, though, just seems to be picking up as he has pretty much run the table with the critics’ awards. Michael Shannon, well liked and universally admired by his peers, seems a safe bet to be 99 Homes’ only recognition, while both Spotlight (Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton) and The Big Short (Steve Carell and Christian Bale) have multiple performances that could be highlighted. Bale seems like a sure thing, and while I cannot imagine the Best Picture frontrunner not getting an acting nomination, it is possible Ruffalo and Keaton split the vote and neither makes it.

Other than that, Jacob Tremblay (Room) and Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation) have dropped off the radar a bit, but I would not be shocked to see one or either end up with a nomination. Then, there is Dano as well. My predictions right now are (in order of likelihood): Rylance for Bridge of Spies; Bale for The Big Short; Shannon for 99 Homes; Dano for Love and Mercy; Stallone for Creed.

Best Supporting Actress

If we guess that Mara will end up here, she is a definite nominee and the biggest threat for the win, especially considering it is a co-lead performance. Winslet, who just won the Golden Globe in a bit of a surprise victory, is probably safe. Jennifer Jason Leigh has showed up on most lists for The Hateful Eight, and the Academy loves Quentin Tarantino, so she seems likely to benefit, plus she is great in the movie.

Helen Mirren has received a few mentions for Trumbo, and Kristen Stewart has been a critical darling for her turn in The Clouds of Sils Maria, but I expect only one of them to be nominated as I am going on a limb and predicting a double nomination for Vikander, here for her stellar performance in Ex Machina. Rest assured, if it happens, it will be one of the most pleasant surprises of the morning for me. Rachel McAdams also has an outside shot for Spotlight. My predictions (in order of likelihood): Mara for Carol; Winslet for Steve Jobs; Leigh for The Hateful Eight; Mirren for Trumbo; Vikander for Ex Machina.

Below the line & final thoughts

Cate Blanchett in Carol.

In the crafts categories, we can expect Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, and Stars Wars: The Force Awakens to dominate. All three could get in for Editing, Art Direction, Sound, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects. Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant are also frontrunners for Cinematography, along with Carol. Carol could be a more low-key force in the crafts given its gorgeous design elements, so look for it in Costumes and Art Direction as well. The same goes for Brooklyn and The Danish Girl. Bridge of Spies has showed strength with the crafts guilds, and it could be in for well-deserved recognition in Art Direction and Cinematography.

The Best Editing category is usually the strongest bellwether of Best Picture, and in addition to The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road, expect to see The Big Short and possibly The Martian. If Spotlight fails to nab an Editing nod, that will be its first real sign of weakness. I am not expecting that to be the case, but it could happen.

When the final tally comes in, I expect The Revenant to lead the list and for Mad Max: Fury Road not to be far behind. Iñárritu’s Western epic could hit in the following categories: Picture, Director, Actor, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Sound, Sound Editing, Costumes, Makeup, Visual Effects, and possibly Adapted Screenplay. That would give it 12. Mad Max: Fury Road could show up in all those places except Actor or Adapted Screenplay and wind up with 10.

As I said back in December, this is a wide-open year, and that makes it a fun year. Even after the nominations come out, we still will be flying mostly blind. When the guilds start to announce their winners at the end of this month and the beginning of February, we will know more, but for now, let’s enjoy the feeling that any movie we love is a potential nominee and maybe even a winner.

New movie review: Trumbo

Bryan Cranston plays Dalton Trumbo in director Jay Roach's historical drama Trumbo.

The U.S. has suffered a few black eyes over the years, mostly its own doing and mostly revolving around unfounded persecution. Native populations, blacks, women, Japanese, a whole cross-section of Europeans, and practitioners of most major and minor non-Protestant Christian religions have all been on the receiving end of the distinctly American us-vs.-them treatment. In the harsh light of history, all of these cases have been rightly viewed as affronts to human dignity.

Among the more fascinating ages in this country’s short history is the mid-20th century, when we rabidly feared communist aggression and insidious socialist agendas. Not a decade removed from four terms of the most socialist president the U.S. is likely ever to have, congress swung the pendulum the other direction in a big way with the House Un-American Activities Committee and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s legislative witch hunts.

Hollywood has gone to this well a few times, most recently and most successfully with George Clooney’s stellar Goodnight and Good Luck, about newsman Edward R. Murrow’s fight against McCarthy. Now comes director Jay Roach’s Trumbo, which looks at the role Hollywood itself played in discriminating against ideas deemed dangerous or subversive. Trumbo plays like a lighter companion piece to the Clooney film, neither as hard hitting nor as tightly crafted but not without merit.

Cranston in Trumbo.

Bryan Cranston, in his first major post-Breaking Bad screen appearance, plays Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter and novelist at the top of the world. As the film begins, Trumbo’s books and movies are never more popular, he and his lovely family live on a massive estate, and he signs a deal to become the highest paid writer in Hollywood. Writer John McNamara, adapting the book Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Cook, spends the first half of his script stripping away everything Trumbo has spent his life building. The second half chronicles his fight against the system that tried to destroy him.

The plot kicks off with Congress becoming concerned with the messages being promoted by Hollywood films – an unsurprising and sadly still relevant turn of events. Showing a cowardice that had hurt it before and would hurt it again, the movie industry took steps to censor itself under the spurious logic that if anyone was going to harm the film business, it might as well be the studios themselves. In this way, the infamous blacklist was born.

The Hollywood Ten, which counted among its ranks Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr., chose not to answer HUAC’s questions and were cited for contempt of Congress. They took their battle to the Supreme Court, where they lost, and most of them ended up in prison, except for one who turned against the group and cooperated with the investigation. When Trumbo gets out of prison, he finds himself to be a pariah, unable to work or support his family.

He and a number of other members of the Hollywood Ten began taking writing jobs from schlock movie producer Frank King (John Goodman) and producing scripts under aliases. This specific topic was tackled in the tremendous and tremendously underrated 1976 comedy The Front, directed by Martin Ritt. Trumbo certainly has elements of that earlier film but fills in the history around the edges for audiences who are another four decades removed from the era.

Roach, known mostly for comedies such as Meet the Parents and the Austin Powers series, is a bit out of his element directing a historical drama. There is an undercurrent of black comedy running through the film, but it is tempered by the gravity of the events being depicted. Traditionally comic performers such as Louis CK and Alan Tudyk deliver solid, measured performances in supporting roles, and even the most overtly comic character, King, benefits from committed, carefully crafted work by Goodman. It should be noted Diane Lane and Helen Mirren also provide sharp supporting performances in less well defined roles as the wife (Lane as Cleo Trumbo) and antagonist (Mirren as Hedda Hopper).

Helen Mirren and Cranston in Trumbo.

Where Roach gets in trouble is in the details. Namely, there are too many. Running more than two hours, the movie feels at least an hour longer and could easily have been a half-hour shorter. Roach and McNamara get bogged down in their step-by-step recounting of the trials of the Hollywood Ten early on and the writing of the King scripts later. There is something to be said for historical context and a desire to get the details right, but good filmmakers know when to trust the audience, and Trumbo too often feels as though it is holding the audience’s hand.

It is a shame because if ever there were a story that could breeze by on the strength of its emotional resonance, it is this one. The communist witch hunts and Hollywood blacklist are such a clear systemic failure that audiences need just a basic understanding of the events to become invested in the struggle of those facing persecution. Had the filmmakers stripped away some of the minutiae, they could have given the story much more room to breathe and cleared the way for Cranston’s towering central performance.

As with his famous portrayal of television anti-hero Walter White, Cranston absolutely commands the screen as Trumbo. He imbues his Trumbo with a brash, swaggering confidence and a palpable sense of righteous indignation. He has the maniacal single-mindedness of someone who believes there is a right and wrong answer to every question and also believes he always has the right answer.

The world according to Trumbo: Early in the film, his daughter asks him if she is a communist since he is. He proposes a scenario in which she has a sandwich and another child at school does not. Would she share her sandwich or tell the other kid to get a job and buy his own sandwich? Share, she says. Then, she is as much a communist as he is. The script occasionally buys into this highly simplified worldview, but Cranston never does. At all times, he is selling the nuances of a broken system that Trumbo refuses to let break him.

Cranston does not play Trumbo as a hero so much as an indignant rabble rouser who happens to be on the side of good. It is because of people like Trumbo, Murrow, the Hollywood Ten, and others that we are able to look back critically on times when ignorance and injustice threatened to destroy us from within – if only we could look at ourselves with the same critical lens, learn from our mistakes, and not repeat them. That world might be an okay place to live.

See it? Yes.

10 most anticipated movies (no, Star Wars is not one)

Michael Fassbender stars in Macbeth, one of Last Cinema Standing's 10 most anticipated movies of the fall.

We did it last year. We’ll do it this year. If we do it next year, that will make it a tradition. Last Cinema Standing’s 10 most anticipated movies of the fall actually falls in line with another annual tradition: the end of summer blockbuster season. It’s that time of year when Hollywood studios put away their superhero spandex and bust out their prestige pictures. That’s right – it’s Oscar-chasing time, which is just fine by me.

Before we get to the 10, a couple notes: First, merry Christmas to me as my two most anticipated movies both come out Dec. 25, so if you do not hear from me on Christmas Day, it is because I am at the movies. Second, if it seems these selections skew toward name recognition, they do. I love a good story, but what gets me excited about going to the theater is the idea of talented directors, actors, and craftspeople taking on interesting projects.

Last year, my most anticipated films provided an interesting dichotomy. That list included three films that wound up on my end-of-the-year top 10 list, including my No. 1 film of the year, Leviathan. However, it also included Interstellar and Unbroken, which I would call two of the worst films of last year. Hopefully, this year’s list will trend toward the former.

Finally, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (and may need a nap again after saying that whole title) will not appear below. The new Star Wars film will probably top many of your lists and may be the most anticipated movie since The Phantom Menace in 1999. My anticipation level hovers somewhere between curiosity and dread. If it floats your boat, more power to you, but it does nothing for me. Here are 10 movies that do:

10. The Walk, directed by Robert Zemeckis

Release date: Oct. 9

Zemeckis is a great stylist, but he has a tendency to use visual flair for its own sake. However, when he has a compelling story to tie his more whimsical flights of technical fancy to, few can compare (see: the plane crash in Flight). If you have seen the Academy Award-winning documentary this film shares its story with, Man on Wire, you know what to expect. The true story of a tightrope walker (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempting to walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center should be a perfect vehicle for Zemeckis’ particular gifts.

9. Trumbo, directed by Jay Roach

Release date: Nov. 6

As a film fan, I am also a nerd when it comes to old Hollywood. The history of film often reflects the history of America, and this is doubly true in one of this country’s darkest chapters – the era of McCarthyism and communist witch hunts. Trumbo is the story of writer Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston), who as a result of government pressure, was blacklisted by Hollywood for socialist leanings and fought back the best way he knew how: by writing. This is one of the most interesting and troubling periods in our shared cultural experience, and I cannot wait to see it brought to life on screen.

8. Steve Jobs, directed by Danny Boyle

Release date: Oct. 9

Counting Steve Jobs, Oscar-winning director Boyle has made just 11 feature films. None is less than interesting, and several (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) are unimpeachably brilliant. Add to that Michael Fassbender – whom I consider the most exciting actor working today – and my favorite actress, Kate Winslet, and I will be there on day 1. I cannot say I am terribly intrigued by a biopic of the late Apple founder, but with Boyle, this cast, which also includes Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, and Michael Stuhlbarg, and an Aaron Sorkin screenplay, I think we have every right to expect something extraordinary.

7. Suffragette, directed by Sarah Gavron

Release date: Oct. 23

Led by a cast including Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, and Helena Bonham Carter, Suffragette details the rise of the feminist movement and the push for women to gain the right to vote in the U.S. I will admit to being unfamiliar with Gavron’s previous work, though screenwriter Abi Morgan co-wrote one of my favorite films of the last few years, Steve McQueen’s excellent Shame, which also starred the fearless Mulligan. The story is timely and relevant, and it will be exciting to see one of the most important struggles of American democracy dramatized.

6. Crimson Peak, directed by Guillermo Del Toro

Release date: Oct. 16

Del Toro has a weird place in the Hollywood machine. He is the director of movies such as Blade II, Hellboy, and Pacific Rim, as well as a number of B-level horror films He also wrote the three Hobbit movies. There is nothing necessarily wrong with any of this work, uneven as some of it may be, but right in the middle of it all sits Pan’s Labyrinth, an absolute gem of a film. Crimson Peak, starring Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska, looks like a return to the gothic fairytale horror of that masterpiece, and if so, we are in for one hell of a ride.

5. The Lobster, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Release date: To be determined

Greek writer-director Lanthimos is incapable of making a boring film, and there is nothing about the romantic sci-fi comedy The Lobster that suggests it will be his first. It is, however, his first feature in the English language, and it stars an enticing, eclectic international cast, including Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, and John C. Reilly. About a futuristic society in which those who do not mate are turned into animals, Lanthimos does not appear to be dialing back the weirdness to appease the larger audience The Lobster seems likely to attract. For that, we should all be thankful.

4. Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Spielberg

Release date: Oct. 16

Could anything feel more classic than a Spielberg-Tom Hanks war movie? Any Spielberg film is reason to be excited, and this one seems right up his alley, following an American lawyer (Hanks) who helps the CIA rescue an American pilot in the Soviet Union. The script is co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen, as well as by Matt Charman, and while the Coens have not had much luck handing over their writing to other directors (Unbroken; Gambit), this is Spielberg. For good, old-fashioned moviemaking, there simply is no one better.

3. Macbeth, directed by Justin Kurzel

Release date: December

Remember how I said Fassbender is the most exciting actor working in Hollywood today? Well, as neat as it will be to see his imitation of Steve Jobs, the idea of him playing one of William Shakespeare’s greatest creations is enough to make me shake in my seat. On top of that, Marion Cotillard is Lady Macbeth. If you cannot get excited about seeing two of the best actors of their generation play two of the best characters ever written, there is something wrong with you. Kurzel is a relatively untested director, but if he can balance the epic canvas of the story with the intimate drama of the characters, this has the chance to be something special.

2. The Hateful Eight, directed by Quentin Tarantino

Release date: Dec. 25

Yeah, I grew up in the ’90s, and yeah, Taratino is one of the main reasons I love film. Django Unchained was neither the best nor my favorite of his films (I humbly submit Inglourious Basterds and Reservoir Dogs for those respective titles), but any new film from Tarantino is more exciting and more interesting than almost any new film by almost any other director (see one spot below on this list for the exception to this rule).

The Hateful Eight finds Tarantino back in the Western mode he explored with Django Unchained, and for this one, he brings along a similarly star-studded cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Zoë Bell, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and many more. If you love movies, this is the kind of movie that is made for you.

1. The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Release date: Dec. 25

Fresh off winning three Oscars as the director, producer, and co-writer of last year’s Birdman, Iñárritu returns with something wholly different. If you check out last year’s list of Last Cinema Standing’s most anticipated films, you will find Birdman in the No. 1 spot. That is not a coincidence. No director chooses more thrilling or intriguing stories to tell than Iñárritu.

He also brings along a crew of unrivaled skill: cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (back-to-back Oscars for Birdman and Gravity); editor Stephen Mirrione (Oscar winner for Traffic, nominee for Iñárritu’s Babel); production designer Jack Fisk (Oscar nominated for There Will Be Blood); and costume designer Jacqueline West (twice Oscar nominated for Quills and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). What I am saying is the movie has one hell of a pedigree.

That alone would be enough – and frankly is enough – to land at the top of this list, but there is more. The film stars my favorite actor, Leonardo Dicaprio, in what looks like the most physically demanding role of his life. There is a lot of talk about Dicaprio possibly finally winning an Academy Award for this part. That would be great, but in the grand scheme of things, it does not matter. What matters is that Dicaprio is nearly certain to turn in the performance of his career. All of these factors combined, I cannot imagine another film more deserving of the title “most anticipated.”