Edmund Lee highlights 12 essential films to open the new decade.

Alice in Wonderland
(Dir Tim Burton)
Who else to lead us on a hallucinatory head trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton’s 3D pseudo-sequel to Lewis Carroll’s kiddie classic sees a 17-year-old Alice return to free Wonderland from the totally big-headed Red Queen. Oh, and did we mention that Johnny Depp is the dreamy Mad Hatter? (Mar 4)

Black Swan
(Dir Darren Aronofsky)
Those who’ve followed The Wrestler director’s career will know the world of difference between a good mindfuck (Requiem for a Dream) and a bad mindfuck (The Fountain). In his upcoming psychological thriller, Natalie Portman plays a veteran ballerina competing with a rival dancer – who may exist only in her head. (TBC)

Bright Star
(Dir Jane Campion)
Campion returns in top form with this heart-achingly delicate portrait of doomed lovers John Keats and Fanny Brawne, matching the beautiful verses of the early-19th-century Romantic poet with a visual splendour – from Brawne’s fashion right down to the sunlight gently shining through the windows – that is truly out of this world. (TBC)

Fish Tank
(Dir Andrea Arnold)
One of the best British social realist dramas to come out in recent years, Arnold’s beautiful yet compellingly downbeat second effort combines humour, sadness and screen poetry in a mixed-up teenage girl’s struggle to find her place in the world outside her broken family and decaying surroundings. (TBC)

The Hurt Locker
(Dir Kathryn Bigelow)
War is the new adrenaline fix in Bigelow’s critically acclaimed Iraq War action drama, which, in a series of uncompromisingly tense situations on the streets of Baghdad, pins down the warped existence of a three-man US Army bomb-disposal squad as they repeatedly flirt with oblivion. (Mar 11)

Inception
(Dir Christopher Nolan)
When the mind-bending master behind Memento and The Prestige went easy with his storytelling, it became a little gem called The Dark Knight. All eyes will be on his new sci-fi mystery project, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page, and is about a blackmailing scandal that takes place in your sleeping mind. (Jul 15)

Kick-Ass
(Dir Matthew Vaughn)
Consider this the Watchmen of 2010. The postmodern backlash against the superhero genre continues with this darkly comic, ultra-violent adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book series, about a high school dork who decides to become a superhero – despite having no powers or any valid reasons to do so. (Apr)

The Legend of Chen Zhen
(Dir Andrew Lau)
After playing Bruce Lee’s mentor in two martial arts biopics, Ip Man 1 and 2 (the latter to be released in May), action star Donnie Yen is set to go one better by reinventing the fictional ‘superhero’ character of Chen Zhen, who was first made famous by Lee in the classic Fist of Fury. Apparently, Yen is also playing the piano for the film… So there you go. (Dec)

A Prophet
(Dir Jacques Audiard)
Forget The Shawshank Redemption. First-time actor Tahar Rahim rises above the system in this violently gripping French prison drama, transforming from a helpless new victim between the walls to a real mafia kingpin in the outside world – all in brutally realistic detail. (Jan 28)

A Serious Man
(Dir Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
The Coens put the most stinging jokes on their suburban boyhood in this pitch-black comedy set around a Jewish community in mid-1960s Minnesota, conjuring up a stunningly bleak view of faith, morality, and everyday suffering, where the only salient advice is to “accept the mystery”. (TBC)

Toy Story 3
(Dir Lee Unkrich)
Mark your calendar: refresh yourself with Pixar’s Toy Story 1 (Apr 22) and 2 (Apr 29) in all their 3D glory, before catching up with Woody and Buzz, who now inevitably face a life in a daycare centre after owner Andy goes to college. (Jul 15)

Up in the Air
(Dir Jason Reitman)
No doubt a topical image of these dangerous times, George Clooney dazzles as the guy who flies around the country and fires people for a living. Juno director Jason Reitman’s desolate romantic comedy is a delight – albeit a painfully satirical one. (Feb 25)

Upcoming films and festivals

January
21 An Education
21 Séraphine
21-Feb 3 European Film Festival
28 Broken Embraces
28 Confucius
28 Edge of Darkness
28 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

February
4 Air Doll
11 14 Blades
11 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
11 The Princess and the Frog
11 True Legend
11 Valentine’s Day
11 The Wolfman
18 Hot Summer Days
25 It’s Complicated
25 Little Big Soldier
25 Nine
25 Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
TBC I Love You Phillip Morris
TBC The Young Victoria

March
4 The Last Station
11 Echoes of the Rainbow
11 Shutter Island
11 A Single Man
12-21 IFVA Festival
18 The Lovely Bones
21-Apr 6 Hong Kong International Film Festival
25 Tooth Fairy
TBC Clash of the Titans
TBC The Fourth Kind
TBC Green Zone
TBC Love in a Puff

April
1 How to Train Your Dragon
8 Date Night
15 Micmacs à tire-larigot
22 Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps
30 Iron Man 2
TBC Fire of Conscience
TBC A Nightmare on Elm Street
TBC Once a Gangster
TBC Piranha
TBC Season of the Witch
TBC Triple Tap
15-Jun 15 Le French May Festival

May
13 Shelter
13 She’s Out of My League
27 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
27 Sex and the City 2
TBC Break Up Club
TBC Ip Man 2
TBC Robin Hood

June
10 The A-Team
17 Area 51
17 The Last Song
17 Jonah Hex
TBC Grown Ups
TBC The Karate Kid
TBC The Stool Pigeon
TBC Asia Society Summer Film Series
TBC I Shot Hong Kong Film Festival
TBC Italian Film Festival

July
1 Knight & Day
1 Shrek Forever After
8 Predators
22 The Last Airbender
TBC Despicable Me
TBC Little Fockers
TBC Salt
TBC The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
TBC InDPanda International Short Film Festival

August
5 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
TBC The Expendables
TBC Step Up 3-D
TBC Summer International Film Festival

September
9 The Town
23 Guardians of Ga’Hoole
TBC Australian Film Festival

October
TBC Detective Dee
TBC Going the Distance
TBC Let the Bullets Fly
TBC Saw VII
TBC The Social Network
TBC KINO/10 German Film Festival
TBC Asian Film Festival

November
18 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
TBC Due Date
TBC Megamind
TBC French Cinepanorama
TBC HK Asian Independent Film Festival
TBC HK Jewish Film Festival
TBC HK Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

December
TBC The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
TBC The Green Hornet
TBC Life as We Know It
TBC Shaolin
TBC Tron Legacy
TBC Yogi Bear
 

2010 planner:

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