Armchair Travel
The 6 best new wanderlust-worthy movies to watch until we can travel again.For Pre-Spring, our designers were dreaming of their next big getaway and the promise of brighter days on the horizon. The sense of wanderlust can be felt in the sunburst hand-embroidery and postcard-worthy intarsia graphics that punctuate our new collection. While travel still may be restricted, let these styles serve as a gently hopeful reminder that we’ll vacation one day again. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy these six new and forthcoming travel-inspired films that will transport you to faraway places around the globe without ever leaving your couch.
Alice Hughes (Meryl Streep) is a world-famous, Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has been asked to go to England to accept a prestigious award. She can’t fly, so her agent (Gemma Chan) suggests they make the transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary 2. Joining them both on the journey are Hughes’s friends Roberta (Candice Bergen) and Susan (Dianne Wiest) and her nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges). With a quintet of formidable actors on board, Steven Soderbergh’s film was reportedly comprised of almost entirely improvisational scenes. Needless to say, we’re shipping this flick.
Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci) are partners of twenty years and are making the trip from the south of England up to Lake District in their dusty old camper van—for what looks to be their last vacation before Tusker’s (who has early-onset dementia) health severely deteriorates. Like all couples, they squabble over little things—like GPS directions and who is taking up the most space in the bed of their RV—then reconcile over a bag of chips one of them bought the other at a gas station. After all, nothing puts a relationship to the test like a long drive. Just as brilliant as Firth and Tucci’s on-screen chemistry is the epic stretch of landscape that frames the film.
Michelle Pfeiffer is generating Oscar buzz for her critically-acclaimed turn in French Exit. Adapted by Patrick deWitt from his own eponymous novel, the dark comedy casts Pfeiffer as a miserable New York socialite who, having squandered her late husband’s fortune, is left penniless. Forced to sell her jewels, paintings, and lavish penthouse, she scrapes together enough money to flee to Paris with her son (Lucas Hedges) and cat, who may or may not be her reincarnated husband. Cinephiles are comparing Pfeiffer’s performance to French screen sirens Isabelle Huppert and Nathalie Baye, making this high-society satire feel a bit more authentique. (Release date: February 12)
Robin Wright needed an escape from the hatred plaguing modern society—specifically, bullying on Twitter—so she found herself directing a new movie about human kindness. Newly widowed and grief-stricken, Edie (also played by Wright) goes off the grid, buys a remote cabin on the side of a mountain with no electricity or running water, and tries to live off the land. But even if you wouldn’t personally deal with an equivalent crisis by running away to Wyoming, Wright invites us all to retreat from life’s distractions and do some healing up on that mountain. (Release date: February 12)
The Bridesmaids Oscar nominees are back together again in this wacky flick about two lifelong friends, Barb (Kristen Wiig) and Star (Annie Mumolo), who embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they leave their small Midwestern town for the first time ever for a wild girls’ trip to Florida—replete with tropical-print dresses, all-night bacchanalia, and (spoiler alert!) a shirtless Jamie Dornan on the beach. (Release date: February 12)
Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van for a journey across the American West, exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. A poetic character study on the forgotten and downtrodden, Nomadland beautifully captures the restlessness left in the wake of the Great Recession.
Chloe Zhao’s third feature film has garnered critical praise since debuting simultaneously at the Toronto Film Festival (where it won the People’s Choice Award) and the Venice Film Festival (where it won the Golden Lion), making it the first film to get the top prize at both festivals. This week, Zhao made history again when she became the first director of Asian descent to receive a Golden Globe nomination. (McDormand was also nominated for her performance in the film.) With that kind of fuel in its tank, Nomadland is an award-season frontrunner that’s sure to pick up more than a few trophies on the road to the Oscars. (Release date: February 19)
