The Like Dark Brown, But Lighter Fall Movie Preview

The summer movie season is finally coming to a close and naturally, the only people who care are the people who call it the "Summer Movie Season" and people who work at movie theaters. The audiences are different, the movies are different, the quality is different and the overall feel of Hollywood starts to evolve. The summer was chock full of tentpoles wrapped in movie stars and money but lacking in quality but the fall usually brings the focus back to quality and the film festival favorites start to gain some attention. The best big-budget films of the summer, or at least my favorites, IRON MAN 3 and PACIFIC RIM among others, were epic in scope and budget but retained their auteur sensibilities. Indie movies in the summer usually tend to get lost in the shuffle but there were a few choice titles, THE KINGS OF SUMMER, MUD, and THE WAY, WAY BACK to name a couple. But the sweater weather months are ripe with good movies just waiting to be plucked so without further ado, the Like Dark Brown, But Lighter Fall Movie Preview.

(NOTE: The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the feelings of everyone associated with LDB,BL. There is only like one sci-fi movie and only one mentioned with a dragon in it.)

THE AWARDS CONTENDERS

Even though the time frame for potentially Oscar nominated films is the whole year, most of the films that eventually win are released in the fall and winter. I guess the Academy has a short memory. Some early, early contenders were released this summer, including Cate Blanchet in BLUE JASMINE, Brie Larson in SHORT TERM 12, Forest Whitaker in THE BUTLER and Michael B. Jordan in FRUITVALE STATION. The next few months will see a probable contender in 12 YEARS A SLAVE, the Steve McQueen (Shame, Hunger) film with Chiwetel Ejiofor about a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery before the Civil War. Another likely nomination will come for Matthew McConaughey in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB about a man's struggle with the law and the pharmaceutical companies after he is diagnosed with HIV. And this has Jared Leto as a a fellow HIV positive patient/prostitute for all those people who have been waiting for him to make a comeback. Anyone? Nobody? Okay. Tom Hanks stars in CAPTAIN PHILIPS as the captain of a Maersk shipping boat that is overtaken by Somali pirates. If this doesn't scream Oscar contention, I don't know what will. ENOUGH SAID is the James Gandolfini/Julia Louis-Dreyfus film from Nicole Holofcener (Please Give, Friends With Money) which will play the dead actor card and get lots of goodwill. Harsh but probably true, nobody ever says anything bad about somebody who dies. But Holofcener makes good movies about real people, simple as that and this should be good. NEBRASKA is about an aging drunk on a road trip to collect prize money with Bruce Dern and directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election). Looks great, and it's in black & white. Always a plus. The other ubiquitous old white guy Oscar contender is the Robert Redford in a boat movie ALL IS LOST which will give old people boners for weeks at the LC5. I hear Sandra Bullock is great in GRAVITY, the Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children Of Men) film about two astronauts adrift after an accident. Ridley Scott's new film is THE COUNSELOR, written by the reclusive author Cormac McCarthy (!) about a lawyer who gets in over his head with drug dealers. All star cast, great writer, usually always good director, should be pretty great. The Ron Howard film RUSH stars Chris Hemsworth (!) as a sexy Indy Car driver in a fierce rivalry with another driver. It also stars Olivia Wilde, so yeah, I'll be there. Most of the heavy favorites come out later in the year so there will obviously be more to contend with later on.

THE POPCORN MOVIES

You always have to wonder why big budget franchise movies released in the fall weren't released in the summer. One figures that with less competition in the fall, there will be a better box office but when a movie like THOR: THE DARK WORLD is released in November instead of June, for some reason it automatically seems inferior. That could be flawed logic but I can't help but believe that T:TDW will not be great. Probably the biggest release of anything since the summer will be THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE which sees our hero Katniss Everdeen again returning to the titular games as punishment from the evil President Snow and dealing with the unwanted (or are they?) advances from her best friend and her games partner. This movie will basically be a license to print money for the studio. THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG will be another three hours of people looking for a dragon. You're already either in or out on that one. For those of us who have a secret fetish of seeing cute girls covered in blood (this is one of those views from the disclaimer above that is the sole opinion of the author and nobody else), we have the CARRIE remake with Chloe Grace Moretz. The star-studded adaptation of ENDERS GAME looks glossy and confusing and has the kid from Hugo as a gifted child going to alien war school. I think my colleague is psyched for that one. Leonardo DiCaprio looks like he is actually having fun in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, his umpteenth collaboration with Martin Scorsese (you've heard of him) and continues the amazing comeback of McConaughey, who has had a fantastic couple of years. ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE is not only my favorite movie title of the year, but it stars Mrs. Johnny Depp herself, Amber Heard and was directed (way back in 2007) by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, 50/50). The specifics aren't important (virginal high school girl is terrorized by somebody) but could be worth seeing. The too long absent Scarlett Johansson stars with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in DON JON about a couple of guidos deciding if they should fall in love with a real person or keep watching their porn and rom-coms. Johansson will also be in HER, the new Spike Jonze movie, about a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his robotic futuristic operating system, and it with him, as well as UNDER THE SKIN later in the year. The most fun film of the season will probably be MACHETE KILLS in which we find out that "Machete don't tweet" and that women really like Machete, both things we kind of already knew. The other badass of the season award contenders are Jason Statham in HOMEFRONT (written by Sylvester Stallone) about a guy who kicks all the asses of all the people who are messing with him and his daughter in a small town. It kinda reminds me of Straw Dogs but kinda not. Most importantly, James Franco is the villain, a meth dealer named Gator. Wait, why isn't this up there in the Oscar contenders section? And Josh Brolin stars in the reluctantly anticipated OLDBOY from Spike Lee which hopefully employs some of the brutality and strangeness of the Korean original. Lets just hope he eats a live squid to show his commitment to the role. 

ODDS AND ENDS

There is a movie that was all the hubbub at Cannes called BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, a 3 hour, NC-17 rated French film about a teenage girl who begins a very intense and relationship with Lea Seydoux. The hubbub comes from the supposed full length, incredibly graphic lesbian sex scenes throughout the film along with stories about how the director was basically a slave driver, asking for more than 100 takes sometimes. For the first time in a long while, a new Coen brothers film is on its way and I'm not excited for it. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, about a young singer-songwriter stars the couple who were Ryan Gosling's neighbors in Drive but just hasn't got me excited like their films usually do. In the ridiculous action film category we have ESCAPE PLAN with Arnold and Stallone as two prisoners who have to break out of the most secure prison on Earth. Spoiler Alert: Stallone built it! A very intriguing adaptation of ROMEO & JULIET from Julian Fellowes stars Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Ender's Game) and will not use Shakespeare's traditional dialogue. Traditionalists are already in a tizzy, I'm sure. A film called C.O.G. based on a David Sedaris story follows a cocky young man who travels to Oregon to work on a farm and experiences a completely different kind of life. Naomi Watts, fresh off the scandalous ADORE stars as the late Princess Diana in, wait for it, DIANA. I hear this is terrible, an abomination actually, but who knows. The complete opposite of an abomination is anything Idris Elba is in and the biopic about Nelson Mandela MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is sure to be lauded. Another Jack Kerouac story, this one being much lower profile than On The Road will be out soon, BIG SUR, starring a guy I've never heard of as Jack Duluoz. On a related note, KILL YOUR DARLINGS features Daniel Radcliffe among others as the various beat characters we have come to know. It has an excellent cast, just like On The Road did but these stories about the Beat Generation never seem to translate well to the big screen. There are a ton of good movies to look forward to in the coming months and they will only get better as awards season creeps ever closer. Lets cross our fingers for a bunch of good movies not mentioned above that will sneak up and pleasantly surprise us. Of course, I have not seen any of the films mentioned above and only recommend or take note of them based on trailers and reviews from people who actually get paid and are good at writing about movies.