We had teen romances Love, Simon; Sierra Burgess Is a Loser and urgent dramas BlacKkKlansman; The Hate U Give ; stylish thrillers A Simple Favour ; Widows and blockbuster smashes Black Panther; A Star is Born. Now it's time to look forward. Mark your cinematic calendars, here are the buzziest movies to watch this year. In a coup for diversity,whose Asian heritage had prevented her from finding her footing in period drama, also appears in the film as Bess of Hardwick. From the inventive brain of the film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos The Lobster; The Killing of a Sacred Deer comes The Favourite, a wickedly bawdy comedy set in the court of Queen Anne — the capricious, sickly monarch played with relish by Olivia Colman who will further her royal duties in season three of. Shot with a fisheye lens that further warps this distorted world of duck racing and seductive playfighting, The Favourite is delightfully outlandish and uproariously funny its acerbic humour is evident in its ricocheting wordplay and stiff dance sequence. The movie is gaining momentum as an Oscar contender, and leads the pack with the most nominations at the British Independent Film Awards. Colman — who shines as the insecure, easily wounded monarch — may even win the Academy Award. She did take home the best-actress prize at the Venice Film Festival, after all. The former New York Times-bestselling biographer Lee Israel Melissa McCarthy is down on her luck and behind on her rent. Fired from her copywriting job for swearing at her manager twiceLee refuses to bow to authority. In a moment of desperation, Lee realises she has a knack for imitating the epistolary style of other artists. Fooling independent booksellers into acquiring her forged letters proves to be lucrative. The sophomore film of Marielle HellerCan You Ever Forgive Me. McCarthy — beloved as a comedy actress — stands her own in this drama, demonstrating her range as the spiky, sharp-tongued Lee. Based on a true story, Can You Ever Forgive Me. Described as a reverse Driving Miss Daisy, the film follows Don Mahershala Alia concert pianist seeking a chauffeur for his tour of the still-segregated Deep South. He hires the best indie movies 2019 Italian-American Tony Viggo Mortensen and the men soon forge an odd-couple friendship. Ali has earned critical acclaim for his turn as the well-to-do musician, and his progressive agenda is a tonic to the wave of conservatism sweeping the United States. The provocateur has united the Nineties heartthrobs Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a tale of a washed-up actor and his stuntman trying to transition from television to film in 1969 an amusing notion nowadays when A-list talent is. Other cast members include Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning and Lena Dunham. In that case, expect stylised violence, cinephilic references and unbridled profanity. After eventually winning his Best Picture Oscar for Moonlight, Barry Jenkins is back. When Fonny Stephan James is falsely imprisoned, his pregnant girlfriend Best indie movies 2019 KiKi Layne toils to free him, tracking down his accuser with the help best indie movies 2019 her mother a heartbreaking Regina King. Sumptuous and arresting, If Beale Street Could Talk is exquisite film-making of the highest order and, as far as this writer is concerned, the very best movie of the year. How do you overcome a disjunct between mind and body. This is the question posed by the Belgian film-maker Lukas Dhont in Girl, a quietly affecting French-language drama in which the transgender 15-year-old Lara Victor Polster chases her dream of becoming a professional ballerina as she awaits gender-confirmation surgery. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, this one. Now, Marvel is finally catching up. Check out our guide to everything you need to know about Captain Marvel. Based on a pair of bestselling father-son memoirs, Beautiful Boy tells the harrowing story of how drug abuse tears families apart. What starts out as teenage experimentation gradually engulfs the lonely, Rimbaud-reading Nic Timothée Chalametwho becomes addicted to crystal meth. His despairing father David Steve Carell is at a loss as to what to do with him, alternately spending thousands of dollars on rehab best indie movies 2019 withdrawing financial support. Nic is trapped in a never-ending cycle of relapse and recovery, a track-marked, vomit-smeared existence that at times makes for difficult viewing. The dying wish of the Still Alice screenwriter was that his husband, Wash Westmoreland, would direct Colette. Three years later, his dream is a reality. Our cover star takes on the title role of the acclaimed French writer in the biopic. Colette is a simple-pleasures country girl who discovers the lavishness of Parisian high society when she marries Willy Dominic Westan oafish boor determined to enter the literary elite at any cost. Undeterred by his own lack of talent, he achieves success though his wife, locking her in rooms to write then appropriating her work. She is spirited, sarcastic and sexually explorative — a thoroughly modern heroine notwithstanding her corset. Knightley, who is best associated with period drama, stood up for the often-dismissed genre when on the festival circuit with the film. In this era where brand power is eclipsing star power, Disney is reinventing its classics for a whole new generation. Donald Glover and Beyoncé will lend their voices to Simba and Nala, while Seth Rogen and Chiwetel Ejiofor breathe life into Pumbaa and Scar. The film was shot using virtual-reality headsets, allowing the actors to wander through the chalky tundra of East Africa without leaving the lot. The first-look images bear witness to stunning cinematography, including establishing shots of stampeding animals and wide angles on burnt-orange skies at sunset. Fans of the 1994 original can take comfort in the fact that the plot does not seem to stray too far from its roots; most importantly, the new film will begin with the rousing power ballad Circle of Life. The director Richard Linklater reportedly auditioned 500 girls before settling on Nelson. Since sexuality continues to be policed in the United States — a country where 700,000 of its citizens have undergone conversion therapy — Boy Erased is, sadly, of-the-moment. Another year, another incredible Christian Bale transformation. Vice will take us back to the Bush administration and reveal some home truths about the indiscretions best indie movies 2019 its key figures. The film boasts a stellar cast that includes Sam Rockwell as the President and Steve Carell in the role of his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. If The Big Short is anything to go by, Vice will be smart and slick, an expertly penned distillation of complex, big-picture issues.