Back when I rallied the troops in early September, this was going to be a fall preview article. Now that fall is falling all around us, we’ll lose the pre. Still a mighty enticing list.
Alissa Wilkinson’s got her eye on some kidflix this fall, so we’ll let her kick off the conversation, with others chiming in at will. Women and children first…
Alissa Wilkinson: It’s somehow appropriate that, in the year that Reading Rainbow goes off the air for good, those who grew up with the show will be able to see some childhood favorites translated to the silver screen in some wonderfully innovative ways.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Alissa Wilkinson: I distinctly remember watching something about this book on Reading Rainbow, and though there’s nothing terribly interesting about the way it looks (3-D now being somehow ho-hum), the book had no real narrative. It will be fascinating to see how they’ve adapted what is essentially a child’s silly before-bed fantasy (delicious food falling from the sky and smashing the school? yes please) into a film that will hopefully capture the attention of kids and parents – and those of us who are somewhere in the middle.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Alissa Wilkinson: For the first animated feature from the infinitely quirky Wes Anderson, a Roald Dahl story could hardly be better source material. Dahl and Anderson both deal with hilarity and darkness with equal deftness. This is also reminiscent of another cinematic hallmark of our generation: stop-motion claymation. How could it go wrong?
Jason Morehead: Wes Anderson’s last few films simply didn’t do much for me: they felt like little more than routine exercises with the same themes — e.g., broken families, the damage done by distant or estranged fathers to their children — that Anderson had done before but with more panache and heart. So I’m glad that he’s tackling some different material this time aroound — i.e., Roald Dahl’s famous children’s story. It could be just what he needs. And the fact that the film is stop motion done in collaboration with Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) is the icing on the cake.
Where the Wild Things Are
Alissa Wilkinson: Somehow this is the film on which I hang all my hopes for a great cinematic experience this fall. Based on the beloved Maurice Sendak book, adapted by the king of hipster-writers-with-a-heart Dave Eggers (who has also written a novelized version of the film called The Wild Things that comes with a furry cover), and directed by the man himself – Spike Jonze – the film features actors in giant monster costumes and some gorgeous vistas, judging from preview clips. This is obviously a film for whom children are a welcome but not the only target audience. Sure hope it lives up to the long wait.
Jason Morehead: I have a confession to make: I’ve never read Where The Wild Things Are. I saw it performed as a play in grade school, but that’s about all the exposure I’ve had to the beloved story. So while I suspect that nostalgia is a major force for most folks itching to see the movie, that isn’t the case for me. But even so, I still get choked up every time I see the trailers. Suffice to say, my wife and I are already scheduling a babysitter for October 16.
M. Leary: I am pretty sure this will be the first film my three year old daughter will ever see in a theater. Still trying to decide between Dots and Mike & Ikes as the proper aperitif.
Jeffrey Overstreet: What Alissa said.
And now a pile of post-preschooler pix people picked…
The Box
Jason Morehead: Even after Southland Tales — which was a trainwreck, any way you slice it, albeit a very interesting trainwreck — I still want to see more from Richard Kelly. Adapted from a Richard Matheson short story (I also happen to be a fan of Matheson), the premise — a husband and wife receive a box that will give them a million dollars, but will also kill a person they do not know if they take the money — could hold a lot of promise for someone like Kelly. Or maybe this is all simply my undying love for Donnie Darko talking.
A Christmas Tale
M.S. Smith: Not a new theaterical release, but — just as welcome — a Criterion edition of Arnaud Desplechin’s most recent film. Desplechin has quickly become a contemporary filmmaker whose work I feel resolutely compelled to watch, and then watch again. He has a multi-facted approach to filmmaking, adopting and employing a variety of narrative and visual techniques, while he also surveys family dynamics with so much nuance that his films become as disturbing as they are revealing. The film features worthy performances by Emmanuelle Devos, Catherine Deneuve, and, particularly, Mathieu Amalric.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Jeffrey Overstreet: John C. Reilly plays a vampire. What more do I need to say?
The Damned United
M. Leary: This one has been out on R2 DVD for a while, but will be playing in the US this fall. It sounds like one doesn’t need to be a football insider to enjoy this adaptation of David Peace’s book about an infamous Leeds United manager in 1974.
An Education
Jeffrey Overstreet: Lone Scherfig directed Italian for Beginners, a intelligent romantic comedy I’ve revisited and recommended many times since its release. The rising buzz about Carey Mulligan’s star-making performance, not to mention the compliments paid to the great Alfred Molina for his supporting role, have made me impatient to see Scherfig’s new film. The fact that it’s about a teenage girl from suburban London being baited by an older man (Peter Sarsgaard) into a wild new life on the promise that he’ll give her a C.S. Lewis sightseeing tour of Oxford makes it seem that much more intriguing.
Gentlemen Broncos
Jason Morehead:: Napoleon Dyamite was awesome. Nacho Libre, not so much. But I get a great vibe from the Gentlemen Broncos trailer. A young man writes some sci-fi, which gets pilfered by his favorite author — Jemaine Clement, with an awesome hairdo and matching jewelry — and gets made into a film featuring transvestite heroes and surveillance does. I love the trailer every time I watch it, if only to see the flying, missile-launching deer.
Hadewijch
M. Leary: I am hoping that Dumont’s latest film about a devoutly Christian girl on the back of a Muslim’s motor scooter in Paris will be a late fall festival staple. His curious interest in Christian spirituality gave form to his La vie de Jesus, but this inter-religious romance seems even more timely.
The Informant!
Jeffrey Overstreet: I always come away from Soderbergh’s Ocean‘s films wishing they’d start a whole spinoff series about Matt Damon’s character. This is as close to that as we’ll get. Damon’s done adequate work in the Bourne franchise, but I think his comedic capacities are more interesting. The mustache works.
Liverpool
M. Leary: The more Lisandro Alonso interviews I read, the more I look forward to following his cinema for the unforeseen future. If I am not mistaken, Liverpool seems poised to have the widest US theatrical distribution of any of his quiet, socially conscious films to date.
The Lovely Bones
M. Leary: I was far more interested in this Alice Sebold adaptation when Lynn Ramsay was slated to direct, but I am hoping that Jackson’s technical chops will suffice as a proxy for Ramsay’s knack for troubling yet sensitive cinema.
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Jeffrey Overstreet: I hadn’t heard about this one until I saw the trailer, and the prospect of Ewan McGregor as an American reporter does not thrill me. But to see Jeff Bridges as an ex-hippie trying to train a battalion of U.S. Army officers (including George Clooney) to use paranormal powers in their missions… that would be worth the price of admission.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
M.S. Smith: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith). Several advance reviews of Ehrlich and Goldsmith’s documentary on the man who revealed secret U.S. policy in Vietnam mention “hokey” recreations, normally the very thing that would make me approach a documentary hesitantly. But Ellsberg’s story is inherently interesting, and his role in the shakeup of the Nixon Administration was historic, not only for all the Pentagon Papers revealed, but for the characteristic response of Nixon’s office. Burglars broke into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist office hoping to find something damaging about the man who had “betrayed” the government; the act was indicative of the paranoia of Nixon’s administration and a precursor of things to come.
Nine
Jeffrey Overstreet: There are too many Nines in theaters this fall. I’m interested in the one that isn’t science fiction. Rob Marshall’s Chicago was underwhelming and overrated. But I’ll stand in line to see Daniel Day-Lewis take the lead in a musical, you betcha.
Ninja Assassin
Jason Morehead: It’s called Ninja Assassin. What’s that? I have give a real reason for including this film? Well, it’s about ninjas and assassins, and the fifteen-year-old inside of me — the one that went bonkers for films like The Octagon and Revenge of the Ninja — simply won’t be denied. Admittedly, the recently released trailer didn’t do much for the thirty-three-year-old me (I was more impressed by the behind the scenes training video that popped up on YouTube a few months ago), and I don’t expect much from James McTeigue (his adaptation of V For Vendetta was serviceable, but only just), but as long as there are ninjas flipping out and doing dastardly ninja stuff, I won’t really be able to complain… I hope.
Paris
Jeffrey Overstreet: Juliette Binoche is in it.
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Jeffrey Overstreet: Director Lee Daniels’ film about an overweight, illiterate Harlem teen who dares to press on for a better life is earning praise for the lead performance by Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe.
The Road
Jeffrey Overstreet: Choosing director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) to helm an adaptation of this tremendous novel by Cormac McCarthy is a stroke of genius. And casting Viggo Mortenson in the lead role only sweetens the deal. There’s no reason to expect anything other than… what’s that, Todd McCarthy? You’ve seen it? It really, really sucks? Well, crap. Never mind then.
Jason Morehead: The reviews of this film coming out of the Venice Film Festival have been mixed, but no matter. Every so often, a film comes along that you know you have to see, and The Road is just such a film for me, and reviews be damned. I love the novel: indeed, it was impossible to not picture it as a film while I was reading, thanks to Cormac McCarthy’s inimitable prose, and the story’s themes have become even more impacting now that I’m a father myself. The fact it’s directed by John Hillcoat and stars Viggo Mortensen only sweetens the deal for me.
Shutter Island
Jeffrey Overstreet: Martin Scorsese chose to put off his long-promised adaptation of Shusako Endo’s Silence again in order to direct this direct this adaptation of the thriller by Dennis Lehane. I want to find out what was so exciting that he would delay his version of Endo’s harrowing novel.
The Tree of Life
M. Leary: Last I heard, this film is scheduled to be released by the end of this year, but I won’t be dismayed if that date turns out to be provisional. That one of the seminal Judeo-Christian religious images popped up as the title to a project Malick has apparently been thinking about for decades is reason enough to keep this in the queue regardless of its release date.
35 Shots of Rhum
Jeffrey Overstreet: Claire Denis directed it. I saw Beau travail once, on DVD, on a small TV screen, several years ago… and I can remember the whole movie like they were events I witnessed in peson. I plan to see everything else she’s directed eventually.
M. Leary: Any Denis film that I can’t catch at a festival ends up on the top of my list until it finally makes it to the art-house circuit, but the interminable lag time for 35 rhums has been tough to handle. Family, loneliness, Agnes Gordard nocturnes – sounds like a return to the rigor of Vendredi soir.
M.S. Smith: Relatively lighter than her previous films, Denis’ latest concerns family history and rituals, the relationship between a father and a daughter, independence, social class, neighbors, and the inevitable trajectories that life brings as we age. Denis made 35 Shots of Rum in part as a nod to Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring, but she filters the subject matter as much through her own lens as she does through his. I saw this at the Los Angeles Film Festival and am hoping to catch it again when it arrives in limited release.
