Big Oscar-seeking movies are on the way. Some will be good. Others won’t. Release dates will change. Something will get pushed to next year. Other things will show up unexpectedly. We’ve seen very few of these. The important thing to remember here is that we’re guessing.
But if we’re guessing, let me suggest that this could be a very good year for the talkies. Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity is (incredibly) the director’s first feature film since the remarkable Children of Men in 2006; early reviews suggest it was worth the wait. Tom Hanks finally has another role which he can sink into in Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis - a fictional take on the early ’60s folk scene - is intriguing. Matthew McConaughey’s career renaissance continues with his turn in Dallas Buyers Club, while Joaquin Phoenix turns up in a Spike Jonze movie (Her).
There’s also the much pleaded for Anchorman sequel and Alexander Payne has a black-and-white movie called Nebraska that presumably has nothing at all to do with the 1982 Bruce Springsteen album. There’s another Hobbit movie and another Thor.
We’ll tell you what it meant after the tsunami waters recede andall the “For Your Consideration” DVD screeners have been snapped in half and discarded to prevent piracy. Let’s all meet on that far shore to decide whether 2013 was an excellent vintage. But for now, we present the latest installment of “reviews of movies we haven’t seen yet.” FRIDAY
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 - A 3-D animation that continues the adventures of Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) as he joins Chester V (Will Forte) at The Live Corp Co. But wait, there’s more: Kristen Schaal joins the voice cast as Barb, a talking and lipstick wearing orangutan with a human brain. Monkeys are always good right?
Don Jon - Joseph Gordon-Levitt directs himself in a small story of a Jersey palooka with a porn addiction and a hot girlfriend (Scarlett Johansson). We’ve heard good things about this one, which was the closing film of this year’s Little Rock Film Festival.
Rush - Ron Howard brings the Formula One rivalry between racing legend Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) and the roguish James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) to the big screen. It’ll be tough to top the racing documentary Senna for thrills and/or drama.
OCT. 4
Gravity - Our man Piers Marchant reports from the Toronto International Film Festival: “An awesome and moving spectacle film from Alfonso Cuaron that somehow manages to be both a technical marvel and an emotional powerhouse … astronauts George Clooney and Sandra Bullock have only a short time to banter before a storm of space debris sends them hurtling out of control … might not be the best film of the festival so far, but it’s certainly the most breathlessly awe-inspiring.”
Runner Runner - A poor college student (Justin Timberlake) becomes the protege of a slick offshore entrepreneur (Ben Affleck). Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) directs. Expect this to perk up Timberlake’s somewhat flagging film career.
OCT. 11
Captain Phillips - Paul Greengrass directs Tom Hanks in the fact-based story of Richard Phillips, captain of an American cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009. Expect Best Actor buzz.
The Fifth Estate - Early reports indicate the white hot Benedict Cumberbatch is somewhat miscast as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Others say director Bill Condon is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination for this allegedly fact-based drama which Assange has denounced as a “series of lies” (reportedly he has seen only an early version of the script and not the finished movie).
Machete Kills - Danny Trejo returns to do the dirty work of the U.S. government in Robert Rodriguez’s second installment of his planned Machete trilogy. The cast includes Mel Gibson and Carlos Estevez (Charlie Sheen), but expect no Best Actor buzz.
Romeo and Juliet - Carlo Carlei directs Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth as those crazy kids.
OCT. 18
12 Years a Slave - In the pre-Civil War United States, a free black man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Marchant saw this in Toronto. He says: “It is certainly severe and brutal at times, but … it is also [director Steve] McQueen’s most emotionally fulfilling film …. The bleakness of his horrific ordeal never quite breaks the staunch spirit of our protagonist … in his strength, our hope too remains at least dimly kindled.” Mucho awards buzz.
All Is Lost - A one-man show starring Robert Redford as a highly resourceful sailor who - after his yacht collides with a shipping container - finds himself stranded at sea. So far, notices have been mixed for writer-director J.C. Chandor.
Carrie - A wonderful cast - including Chloe Grace Moretz in the Sissy Spacek role - and the usually reliable Kimberly Peirce in the director’s chair serve to raise expectations for what otherwise might be considered a superfluous remake of Brian De Palma’s horror classic.
OCT. 25
Bad Grandpa - 86-year old Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) accompanies his 8-year-old grandson (Billy Nicoll) on a trip across America, in which they encounter “real people,” a la Borat.
The Counselor - Ridley Scott directs Brad Pitt, Goran Visnjic, Michael Fassbender and Javier Bardem and the script is by Cormac McCarthy. I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing it.
NOV. 1
Ender’s Game - Controversial author Orson Scott Card’s 1985 science fiction cult classic comes to the screen with Hugo juvenile Asa Butterfield in the lead role. The cast also features Abigail Breslin, Harrison Ford and Hailee Steinfeld.
Free Birds - A turkey (voiced by Owen Wilson)living out his life in comfort at Camp David after receiving a presidential pardon teams up with the radical leader of the Turkey Liberation Front (Woody Harrelson) to hijack a government time machine and avail themselves of a second chance with Rachel McAdams. (Or to get turkey off the Thanksgiving menu.)
Last Vegas - The Hangover for the AARP set? Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline bachelor party in Vegas. NOV. 8
Thor: The Dark World - The sequel could be better than the first one. The original cast, including Tom Hiddleston as Loki, returns. Game of Thrones stalwart Alan Taylor directs.
NOV. 15
The Book Thief - An adaptation of the young adult novel about a young girl who copes with the horrors of living under the Nazis by stealing books and sharing them with others. Sophie Nelisse, remarkable in Monsieur Lazhar, stars.
The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite in this based-on-a-true-story abouta corrupt stockbroker. Oscar buzz is high.
NOV. 22
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Something about someone named Katniss Everdeen. With Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Nebraska - Alexander Payne’s latest is a highly anticipated story of an old alcoholic (Bruce Dern) who travels from Montana to Nebraska in the company of his estranged son (Will Forte) to claim a million-dollar lottery. NOV. 29
Black Nativity - Kasi Lemmons’ (Talk to Me, Eve’s Bayou) ambitious mounting of Langston Hughes’ gospel musical with Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson and Mary J. Blige.
Frozen - Animated adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale co-directed by Jennifer Lee, co-writer of Wreck-It Ralph. Magic Eight Ball says “good bet.”
Grace of Monaco - Nicole Kidman chases awards as the Princess of Monaco during a political dispute between Prince Rainier III and Charles de Gaulle, and the possibility of French invasion in the early 1960s.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - Striving bio-pic with suddenly everywhere Idris Elba in the title role. Oscar bait.
Oldboy - Spike Lee remakes Chan-wook Park’s 2003 classic meditation on vengeance. The material and cast (Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley) is strong.
DEC. 6
Dallas Buyers Club - Word is Matthew McConaughey is a shoo-in for an Oscar nod for his transformative turn as rowdy Texas electrician Ron Woodroof, who, after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, fought the medical-pharmaceutical establishment to supply alternate treatments to those with AIDS. One of the year’s big ones.
Inside Llewyn Davis - This is the film I’m looking most forward to, the Coen brothers’ take on the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Oscar Isaac is the Dylanesque title character.
Out of the Furnace - Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Zoe Saldana and Woody Harrelson in Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper’s vigilante thriller.
DEC. 13
American Hustle - David O. Russell continues his comeback with a ’70s-era true crime story that stars Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. I wasn’t fond of The Fighter or Silver Linings Playbook, but he’s on a roll.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Another bloody elf movie.
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas - Madea rides again.
DEC. 20
Anchorman: The Legend Continues - Ron Burgundy takes his shtick to New York in the ’80s. Stay classy, youse guys.
Her - Spike Jonze returns with a sci-fi romantic comedy about a lonely writer who develops a relationship with a new computer operating system. Solid casting includes Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson and Rooney Mara. Wimpy’s pick to click.
The Monuments Men - George Clooney directs himself, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Bill Murray in this World War II-set story of art historians and museum curators racing to recover art pillaged by the Nazis.
Saving Mr. Banks - Blind Side director John Lee Hancock. Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Emma Thompson. Colin Farrell. Something for everyone.
DEC. 27
47 Ronin - Keanu Reeves in a samurai movie. Budget overruns and release jiggling (this was originally supposed to hit theaters in November 2012) give some pause.
August: Osage County - According to Marchant’s epistle from Toronto, this is “the very definition of searing drama, based on the Pulitzer-winning play by Tracy Letts. Meryl Streep is in fine form … as the terminally broken and twisted matriarch to a brood of bitter, damaged girls played by Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis. Filled with rage, drug abuse, occasional black comedy and potential incest, this is anything but a soppy chick flick family ensemble.Expect multiple Oscar noms
” ….
Grudge Match - Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone mock the sport that helped make them stars as a pair of aging boxing rivals who come out of retirement for a rematch, 50 years after their last bout.
Jack Ryan: Shadow One - Chris Pine is CIA analyst Jack Ryan. Kenneth Branagh directs the latest Tom Clancy movie.
Lone Survivor - Peter Berg’s military thriller, based on the failed June 28, 2005, mission Operation Red Wings in which a small team of Navy SEALs faced down about 200 Al Qaeda fighters. Stars Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster and Eric Bana.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Ben Stiller directs himself in the remake of a film based on the classic James Thurber story. We’re really interested in how he uses Kristen Wiig and Patton Oswalt.
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Style, Pages 51 on 09/22/2013