NETFLIX Marriage Story Having dissected a child’s experience of divorce in his 2005 film The Squid and The Whale, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, Noah Baumbach has crafted a more expansive portrait of the same subject in Marriage Story. Starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a playwright and an actor going through a messy, bicoastal divorce, the drama also takes a close look at the legal system surrounding the couple. Delving into dark comedy, with musical moments in the mix, the cast includes Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda. The Irishman Robert De Niro reteams with Martin Scorsese for the first time in over two decades to star in this gangster film, based on a 2004 memoir by Charles Brandt. Starring opposite Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci, De Niro plays Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a hitman for the mob, who in later years takes stock of the jobs he took on for the Bufalino crime family and what they cost him personally. Bringing the drama to the New York Film Festival in September, Scorsese employed Industrial Light & Magic to produce groundbreaking VFX work that would de-age the actors at its center, in a way never before seen on screen. The Two Popes Two men of God with two radically different worldviews collide in Fernando Meirelles’ feature, scripted by Anthony McCarten. Set in 2013, the drama imagines an encounter behind Vatican walls between the progressive, soon-to-be Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) and the conservative, incumbent Pope Benedict
(Anthony Hopkins), men with vastly different approaches to the papacy, and contrasting visions for the future of the Catholic Church. The men debate tradition and innovation in scenes that include a recreated Sistine Chapel, and Hopkins himself expertly playing the piano. SONY PICTURES Little Women The eighth film adaptation of a classic 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott marks Greta Gerwig’s highly-anticipated follow-up to her 2017 directorial debut, Lady Bird, which earned her Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Directing. Prominently featuring several members of the Lady Bird cast, including Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet and Tracy Letts, the drama follows the March sisters, four women coming of age in the wake of the Civil War. Set for release this December, the film’s cast includes Meryl Streep, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern and Bob Odenkirk. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Following up on last year’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Marielle Heller casts two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks as a singular American treasure, in this portrait of children’s television host Fred Rogers. Based on a true story, the film pits Rogers against a magazine journalist (Matthew Rhys), who reluctantly sets out to profile him. Wary at first of Rogers’ intentions and his innate good-heartedness, the writer’s life is forever changed through his exposure to an icon and a worldview counter to his own. Susan Kelechi Watson and Chris Cooper round out the cast.
The Irishman
Little Women
Avengers: Endgame
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt share the screen for the first time in Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, produced by David Heyman. A love letter to ’60s LA and the cinema culture that birthed the auteur, the feature centers on the friendship between a faded television actor and his stunt double, as they navigate an industry they no longer