With cinemas opening their doors again, here’s what we can’t wait to see.
With evidence that COVID-19 cases are now on the downswing, malls have responded by opening up a major source of missing revenue: cinemas. Yes, folks. You can now go to the mall and watch a movie.
READ ALSO: Five Movies to Watch (when possible)
There are of course rules: a required body temperature check, an authentic vaccination card that shows the completion of two vaccine doses, adherence to the current IATF’s ruling on face shields and masks (as of today, no more shields, yes to masks), no eating inside the cinema, socially-distanced seating (even if you are with a companion, which means no snuggly movie dates), and encouraged cashless transactions.
Out of the above regulations, the only one that seems particularly hard to deal with is no eating, which fellow Lifestyle Asia writer Mica Cruz mentioned on a Zoom meeting the other day: it was hard to watch Dune without popcorn to munch. The rest is manageable, minor sacrifices we must make to participate in what today counts for a functioning society.
A few months ago, I wrote an article on movies I was excited to watch. Included on that list were The Quiet Place II (directed by John Krasinski) and Dune (directed by Denis Villeneuve), both of which have already started airing. Here’s a list of other movies to watch out for.
Spencer – Nov 17
Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana! The Royal Family being mean! Pablo Larrain perfecting the rich, miserable woman biopic! None of us can relate to being Princess Diana, but we have all had traumatic family Christmas dinners so on that count, this is the perfect Christmas movie.
Stewart is getting a lot of Oscar buzz for her role depicting three days in the life of Diana as she comes to grips with the end of her marriage, amidst the claustrophobic, heady Christmas atmosphere with the Windsors. Such fun!
House of Gucci – Nov 24
The movie whose trailer launched a million Halloween costumes, House of Gucci is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Lady Gaga and Adam Driver. This absolutely bonkers real-life story is based on the book by Sara Gay Forden about the fight for control of the Italian luxury label.
In the middle is of it is Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani, a magnetic force of nature. Everyone is speaking in Italian accents here, and while I can’t judge its varying degrees of success, this will be a fun movie. Fashion lovers will be agog at the outfits: the brand participated in the production and lent clothes from the archives to wear. Read the book, all the articles, and enjoy.
West Side Story – Dec 15
In early 2020, the world watched Cats, a musical that precipitated the end of the world, as we knew it. Now we’re opening up again, this time with a new West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg. Hopefully, it doesn’t portend any more ominous things to come.
Starring Ansel Elgort as Tony and newcomer Rachel Zegler as Maria, and choreographed by New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck (he’s no Jerome Robbins but he’s ok), the story and the songs we all know and love are here.
Spider-Man: No Way Home – January 8
Everyone’s coming home in the latest installment of the Tom Holland Spider-Man: Dr. Strange is there, along with a few familiar baddies: Alfred Molina is back as Doc Ock, along with very obvious hints that the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church) will be around to mess things up for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
The website Nerdist seems to think it’s going to be a face-off with The Sinister Six which means there are two slots left open for previous villains to return, even the ones from the current series. This means we might see current real-life villain Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, back with his purple cape (not a scarf).
Who else could there be? If the legendary villains are back, and if it’s a multi-verse, Twitter has been awash with theories that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield might pop in to reprise their roles.
The final shot of the trailer had tails wagging: Spidey (Tom Holland) jumps off a ledge to save MJ (Zendaya). The Spiderman he replaced couldn’t save his MJ the last time this happened, so…could it be?
