Lester's Ten Must Absolute See Films for 2019

"Greyhound"

Release date: March 22, 2019 (USA)

During the early days of World War II, an international convoy of 37 Allied ships, led by Commander Ernest Krause (tom Hanks) crosses the treacherous North Atlantic while being hotly pursued by wolf packs of German U-boats. The film focuses on Krause, a career officer who was finally given command of a Navy destroyer Greyhound. Unlike the prototypical hero, he must battle his own self-doubts and personal demons to prove he belongs alongside the conflict with the enemy.

"Where’d You Go Bernadette?"

Release Date: March 22, 2019 (USA)

Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) seems to have it all -- a beautiful home, a loving husband and a brilliant teenage daughter. When Bernadette suddenly disappears, her concerned family sets off on an exciting adventure to solve the mystery of where she might have gone. Based on novel of true story.

"Captive State"

Release date: March 29, 2019 (USA)

An extraterrestrial force occupies the world, enslaving humanity under the guise of peaceful unity. The film explores the lives of a Chicago neighborhood on both sides of the conflict: the collaborators and the dissidents. It involves themes such as oppressive government, the public being lied to, and the way some rise up against it. The film follows the life of Chicago Police Officer Mulligan (Goodman), who is tasked with uniting the world against the extra-terrestrial enemy. He recruits Gabriel (Sanders), the young son of a fallen soldier who joined a rebel group called Phoenix.

"Ad Astra"

Release date: May 24, 2019 (USA)

Brad Pitt launches into space in this sci-fi adventure from director James Gray, whose spectacular Lost City of Z was one of 2016’s best films. Pitt’s character is searching for his father (Tommy Lee Jones) who disappeared two decades before on a mission to Neptune. Surely the resemblance to the Dad-lost-in-the-cosmos plot of A Wrinkle in Time is coincidental. 

Ford vs. Ferrari

Release Date:  June 28, 2019 (USA)

Based on a true story, Director James Mangold's (3:10 to Yuma) film follows an eccentric, determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his British driver, Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who are dispatched by Henry Ford II with the mission of building from scratch an entirely new automobile with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.

"Once Upon A Time In Hollywood"

Release date: July 26th, 2019 (USA)

Quentin Tarantino’s first film based on a true story and original material with a double dose of movie stardom plus extra-chilling hints of raw violence. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the fading star of a television Western and Brad Pitt is his stunt double, in a story set in 1969, soon before the Manson murders. Margot Robbie plays soon-to-be- Manson victim, Sharon Tate. Al Pacino appears as the DiCaprio character’s agent. All those stars don’t come cheap: the film reportedly cost $95 million. With its allusion to the epic title of "Once Upon a Time in the West" one of Tarantino’s directing heroes aka Sergio Leone, this film clearly has big ambitions for the year 2019. 

"The Woman in the Window"

Release date: October 4, 2019 (USA)

J Finn’s bestselling novel was widely praised as Hitchockian, a thriller ready-made for the screen. Here it is, burnished with Oscar nominees and winners. Amy Adams is an agoraphobic psychologist who spies on her neighbors – played by Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman – then has to convince the world that she hasn’t imagined the crime that happened across the street. Or did she? The great Brian Tyree Henry (Widows) adds to his string of supporting roles as a detective. Director Joe Wright is known for prestige period pieces like Darkest Hour and Atonement, but he also made the underrated 2011 thriller Hanna, with Saoirse Ronan as a teenaged assassin, so he knows how to ratchet up suspense.

“Zombieland 2”

Release date: October 11, 2019 (USA)

Zombie slayers Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock square off against the newly evolved undead. Woody Harrelson - Jesse Eisenberg - Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone in the sequel to the surprising 2009 mega hit.

"Midway"

Release date: November 8th, 2019 (USA)

Actor Roland Emmerich (FX The Americans) directs Woody Harrelson as Admiral Chester Nimitz and Luke Evans as Commander Wade McClusky in the WW2 Pacific story of the battle of Midway, told by the leaders and the soldiers who fought it.

"The Irishman"

Release Date:  TBD December (USA) 

Famed Great Director Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel tell the true story of Frank Sheeran who had a long standing ties with the Bufalino organize crime family and who also claims he was ordered to kill fellow Union Teamster Leader Jimmy Hoffa July of 1975.