The best movies to watch in 2026
From the new Mandalorian film to a Devil Wears Prada sequel and The Adventures of Cliff Booth
Hollywood’s awards season has come to a close, celebrating an incredible year of film, from “One Battle After Another” to “Sinners”. But 2026 is already gearing up to be just as exciting. Whether you’re a “Toy Story” fan, or Christopher Nolan’s latest epic is more your speed, these are the must-see movies this year.
Wuthering Heights
“You could never accuse Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ of being a faithful adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel,” said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph – “but then fidelity doesn’t appear to be remotely of interest to it. Resplendently lurid, oozy and wild, the new film from the director of ‘Saltburn’ and ‘Promising Young Woman’ is fixated on its central illicit affair, as conducted by Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, to the exclusion of almost all else. It’s an obsessive film about obsession, and hungrily embroils the viewer in its own mad compulsions.” I loved it.
We first meet Cathy as a child (Charlotte Mellington), running wild on a “super-stylised version of the Yorkshire Moors”, said Vicky Jessop in The Standard. One day, her feckless father (an unrecognisable Martin Clunes) brings back from Liverpool a homeless child, Heathcliff (Adolescence’s Owen Cooper). Soon enough, the pair have become “implausibly gorgeous adults” (Robbie and Elordi) “who are clearly in love but separated through cruel circumstance (aka Heathcliff being poor, and Cathy being proud)”. The film is more “wholeheartedly romantic” than the novel. Heathcliff and Cathy have had their edges rubbed off, but “boy, do they have chemistry”.
Out now
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If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
“The latest addition to the rapidly expanding ‘unravelling mother’ genre”, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is a “gut-churning panic attack of a movie”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, it stars Rose Byrne as Linda, a therapist struggling to cope with the demands of her very sick child while her husband, an officer in the US navy, is on deployment. Linda’s life is a “soul-sapping” challenge at the best of times – then a ceiling in her flat collapses, and she is forced to move with her daughter into a grubby motel. The “inventive, needling use of sound and the blurring of reality and fantasy take us under the skin of a woman at breaking point”. It makes for “one of the most stressful experiences” you could have in a cinema, short of the “building catching fire”.
You might call this film – which was inspired by Bronstein’s own experience – “a comedy about motherhood”, said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times: “I have certainly never seen a funnier scene involving a hamster.” But it’s also a “nightmare”. For the first few minutes, you feel as though things are being “thrown at your head”, and it never really stops.
Out now
Marty Supreme
With his brother Benny, Josh Safdie brought us the Adam Sandler-led “masterpiece” “Uncut Gems”, said Collin in The Telegraph. Now he has struck out on his own, and the result – the “virtuosically madcap period comedy” “Marty Supreme” – may be “the best film of the year”. It stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a rising ping-pong star in 1950s New York. To say Marty lives for his sport “isn’t quite right”: it’s more that he “lives as it”, bouncing from one mad situation to another as if propelled between “two huge invisible” bats. A chancer who indulges all his worst instincts, he has impregnated a married woman (Odessa A’zion); incurred an “unpayable” fine from the international table-tennis federation; and is now trying to seduce a “fading movie star” (Gwyneth Paltrow), in an effort to access her industrialist husband’s immense wealth.
Out now
The Bride
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “fresh take” on Mary Shelley’s classic novel stars Jessie Buckley as the “kick-ass outlaw lover for a punk Frankenstein”, said Etan Vlessing in The Hollywood Reporter. Christian Bale takes on the role of a “lonesome” Frankenstein who recruits Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) to create him a companion by bringing a murdered young woman to life. Set in 1930s Chicago, the film has a touch of “Bonnie and Clyde”: the pair soon embark on a “monstrous” killing spree, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Out now
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The Mandalorian & Grogu
“‘Star Wars’ fans are one step closer to returning to a galaxy far, far away,” said Jordan Moreau in Variety. The action follows Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, a bounty hunter, and his “adorable sidekick” Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). Other big names among the star-studded cast include Jeremy Allen White as Jabba the Hutt’s son Rotta and Sigourney Weaver as a fighter pilot. In the trailer, the titular heroes fight “what appears to be a Rancor-like lizard monster in Rotta the Hutt’s arena and bring down a lumbering AT-AT, which slowly falls down a mountainside in epic fashion”.
Due out in May
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway have reunited for the sequel to the “beloved” 2006 film, “The Devil Wears Prada”, said Leia Mendoza in Variety. The follow-up will see Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Streep) attempt to “navigate her career in a world where print journalism is dying”. She soon comes into the orbit of Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), who is now a “high-powered executive for a luxury group with advertising dollars that Priestly desperately needs”. New additions to the cast include Kenneth Branagh, who takes on the role of Priestly’s new husband, with reported cameos from Sydney Sweeney and Lady Gaga.
Due out in May
Toy Story 5
The first trailer for “Toy Story 5” has offered a tantalising glimpse of the “highly anticipated animated sequel”, said Benjamin Lee in The Guardian. Disney has revealed a new nemesis for the toys: a smart tablet called Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack will be returning to the voice cast, while Ernie Hudson will take over the role of Combat Carl, following the death of Carl Weathers in 2024.
Due out in June
The Odyssey
After cleaning up at 2024’s Oscars with “Oppenheimer”, Christopher Nolan will return to the big screen with his 13th feature film – and the director is “dreaming even bigger”, said Ben Travis in Empire. Nolan will be “going back to where it all began”, tackling Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem: a “sprawling tale that sees Odysseus (here played by Matt Damon) make a decade-spanning journey home to his wife, Penelope, in the wake of the Trojan War, enduring unimaginable trials along the way”. The “seismic” story required Nolan to scale up. “Big locations, big stars, big spectacle.” It’s not to be missed.
Due out in July
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Tom Holland is “swinging back” into duty for the latest Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures collaboration, said Erik Amaya on Rotten Tomatoes. As expected, plot details are being kept “under wraps”, but we do know Peter Parker is trying to leave Spider-Man behind and focus on college. Zendaya is also returning as MJ.
Due out in July
The Adventures of Cliff Booth
Fans are “eagerly speculating at what to expect” from the David Fincher-directed sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, said Andrew McGowan in Variety. Brad Pitt is reprising his Oscar-winning role as Cliff Booth – the “cool, collected and devilishly charming 1960s Hollywood stunt double”. Details beyond this remain sparse, but we do know Fincher took up the “directorial reins” after Tarantino – who penned the script – decided he wanted to explore other creative projects. It’s a Netflix Original film, which means “it might not get much time on the big screen”, given the streaming platform’s “hesitancy to give its films wide theatrical releases”.
Due out in the summer
Irenie Forshaw is the features editor at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.