Sorry, fans of superheroes and special effects, the summer is over and Hollywood is ready to bring out its A-list (for “Adult”) fare.
This is the season for films of substance, even if Tom Cruise is back with his fourth Mission: Impossible flick, director David Fincher is trying to remake a Swedish film noir into a domestic blockbuster and Martin Scorsese tries his hand at making a 3-D movie.
This is the season that most of the Academy Awards’ Best picture nominees get released, so we are willing to bet that the majority of this year’s best are listed below. After all, we’ve already seen what has opened in 2011 so far and feel certain the winner is yet to come.
The Ides of March (Oct. 7) — George Clooney is one of the few stars who can get a serious film about the machinations of a presidential election campaign made by a studio, and fortunately Columbia Pictures said “yes” to him directing and appearing in a movie adaptation of Beau Willimon’s intricate off-Broadway play, Farragut North. It concerns a rising, though naïve media strategist (Ryan Gosling) trying to take a progressive Democratic governor (Clooney) to the White House. Call it The Best Man for a new generation.
The Skin I Live In (Oct. 14) — Fans of the great Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar would eagerly anticipate any new release from him, but particularly his first reunion with Antonio Banderas since 1990’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Banderas plays a plastic surgeon who experiments with unconventional skin grafts, and both filmmaker and star describe the results as “disturbing.” Count us in.
Anonymous (Oct. 28) — Scholars love to debate the identity of the writer of the plays and sonnets that have been attributed to a guy named William Shakespeare. Chances are most moviegoers really do not care, but perhaps they will be drawn to this tale of Edward de Vere, earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans of Notting Hill), who may be the mind behind Hamlet and Macbeth. Curiously, this film comes from Roland Emmerich, best known for mega-action flicks like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.
The Rum Diary (Oct. 2
8) — Hollywood’s most bankable star, Johnny Depp, owes us all some better movies after The Tourist and the umpteenth and (please let it be the) last Pirates of the Caribbean installment. It sounds like he is back in his strength of offbeat characters here with this early novel by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, playing an expatriate American newspaper reporter on the skids in Puerto Rico. Supporting him are Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard, with direction by Bruce Robinson (Withnail & I).
Puss in Boots (Nov. 4) — Chances are you have not spent a lot of time wondering how that rakish orange tabby from the Shrek flicks became a crook, but when it was decided that he (and voice talent Antonio Banderas) deserved his own spinoff, the screenwriting team went with an origin prequel. It seems he was hanging out with the wrong element (Humpty Dumpty, voiced by Zach Galifianakis) which led to his life of crime. Could be fun, but it sounds more like summer fare to us.
My Week with Marilyn (Nov. 4) — That would be Marilyn Monroe, and the combative backstage story of her filming 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl with her co-star/director, Laurence Olivier. The still-underrated Michelle Williams takes on the challenge of playing iconic sex symbol Monroe and Kenneth Branagh has the almost-as-unenviable task of portraying Olivier.
J. Edgar (Nov. 9) — Speaking of taking on real-life challenges, Leo DiCaprio tackles the larger-than-life role of J. Edgar Hoover, who helped found the FBI, then ran it for nearly half a century, nabbing crooks and making enemies along the way. Clint Eastwood instigated the film, which usually means Oscar nominations all around. And yes, Hoover’s sexual orientation is examined, which probably means DiCaprio gets to wear a dress.
Hugo (Nov. 23) — We were starting to think — or maybe just hope — that the 3-D revival was waning, but then we heard that Martin Scorsese was jumping on that gimmick bandwagon. He applies the extra dimension to a story about an orphan who is helped deal with his grief by a robot left to him by his late father. Yes, it sounds like an after-school special to us too, but we have learned never to underestimate Scorsese.
The Descendants (Nov. 23) — Speaking of favorite directors, it has been seven years since Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt) last released a feature film, the Oscar-nominated Sideways. Since his new one stars George Clooney as a Hawaiian real estate magnate, it seems likely that he will draw his largest audience yet. Especially if Clooney’s fans overlook the likely downbeat premise of him dealing with his wife going into a coma.
Young Adult (Dec. 9) — Charlize Theron plays an author of teen novels who is emotional stuck back in high school, and when she hears that her old boyfriend is married and just had a child, she flies to her hometown to win him back. OK, not that interesting a premise, but factor in that it comes from director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody — the team that gave us Juno — and the film graduates to the must-see list.
A Dangerous Method (Dec. 9) — Another reunion worth looking forward to is the latest collaboration of director David Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) in a biographical tale of pioneering psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Specifically, it concerns his friendship with psychiatrist colleague Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), which dissolves over — what else? — a woman (Keira Knightley).
The Iron Lady (Dec. 16) — Yes, it is months until the Oscars, but the buzz has already begun for Meryl Streep’s latest transformation into former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who led her nation with a conservative iron hand in the 1980s. True, that was eons ago for many moviegoers, but if they can stand a little education along with an object lesson in acting, this one has got to be worth a look. Streep reunites with her Mamma Mia! director, Phyllida Lloyd.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Dec. 21) — The Swedish-made trilogy adapted from Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novels about a Goth computer hacker and a crusading journalist who team up to fight crime were hugely successful with the art film crowd, but that is a small fraction of the movie-going public. So now comes David Fincher (Benjamin Button, The Social Network) to remake them, with a cast headed by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Nothing in this movie season is more anticipated and more dreaded.
Extremely Loud and Extremely Close (Dec. 25) — Coming close on the heels of the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks is this adaptation of a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything Is Illuminated) about a young boy’s search for the lock that fits the curious key left to him by his father, who died in the Twin Towers that fateful day. Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock head the cast, directed by Stephen Daldry, whose films are usually Oscar bait.
War Horse (Dec. 28) — It figures that Steven Spielberg would be attracted to Michael Morpurgo’s children’s book about a British lad and his beloved, rundown horse Joey, who both enlist in the army during World War I. The story has all the emotion and sentimentality on which the name-brand director has built his reputation. Before it was a movie, though, it was an imaginative stage production with life-sized puppets for the horses. Of course, Spielberg used real horses. Those who saw the play cannot imagine it being effective that way, those who never saw the play cannot imagine it without horses.
Carnage (late December) — Also coming from the theater is Yasmina Reza’s comedy of ill manners (originally called God of Carnage), about two sets of parents who meet and try to remain civil and adult getting to the bottom of a playground altercation between their nine-year-old sons. Of course, they fail miserably and their childish behavior leads to most of the fun. The four juicy roles have gone to Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz. Roman Polanski directs, which means the Brooklyn location will be played by somewhere outside the country.