Fall movie season holds promise
Summer 2017 is already going down in history as one of Hollywood’s worst in recent memory, notwithstanding such standouts as Wonder Woman, Dunkirk and the little-rom-com-that-could, The Big Sick. But who are we kidding? Filmgoers of discerning taste know Hollywood typically holds back the good stuff for turtleneck weather, and this year is no exception.
With such highly anticipated films as Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing already earning plaudits on the festival circuit, it’s possible to dispense with cautious optimism entirely and look forward to several titles with downright abandon.
What will George Clooney do with the Coen brothers’ script for Suburbicon?
How will Joe Wright top Christopher Nolan in his Dunkirk movie, Darkest Hour?
(For a clue, look at his magnificent one-take staging of the Second World War evacuation in Atonement.)
Did the fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy – known as the label Rodarte – really make a movie? (They did, and it’s called Woodstock.)
And what in the everliving dickens is Mother! about, anyway?
All will be revealed in a fall schedule that’s crammed with promising filmmakers, cast members, genres and subjects.
Some themes have already emerged: it looks like sports are having a moment, between Battle of the Sexes, about the 1973 Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs tennis match; Stronger, about a 2013 Boston marathon bombing survivor; and Molly’s Game, if poker counts as a sport.
Art will be celebrated in Loving Vincent (about van Gogh), skewered in The Square (a Swedish satire about the pretensions of contemporary art) and portrayed in Goodbye Christopher Robin, in which Domhnall Gleeson portrays British author A.A. Milne.
There will be some fond looks back at movie history, with Blade Runner 2049, a remake of Murder on the Orient Express, Last Flag Flying (a sort-of sequel to the 1973 classic The Last Detail) and The Disaster Artist, an homage to Tommy Wiseau’s cringe-y cult film The Room.
All eyes will surely be on Rian Johnson to see what he will bring to the Star Wars franchise with The Last Jedi, a continuation of the Force Awakens story line.
(Critic’s recommendations are indicated by asterisks.) labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the first farm workers unions with César Chávez. Aronofsky, comes a psychological thriller about a couple whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home. J.D. Salinger, starring Nicholas Hoult. hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation in the United States and Africa. match between women’s world champion Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-men’s champ Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). the real-life women battling government control of reproductive health care. father accompanying his college-bound son to the East Coast, where he’s forced to reconnect with his old college friends. starts killing a college student’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey) friends. ligence agency faces a new challenge when their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage. Green Ninja (Dave Franco), who tags alongside Sensei Wu (Jackie Chan) to defeat a warlord. Boston Marathon bombing survivor and - double amputee Jeff Bauman. with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman, for this story about the real exploits of a hustler and pilot recruited on a dangerous experiment where they stop their hearts for short periods of time to experience some of the afterlife. 90-year-old atheist and the characters who inhabit his desert town. as Queen Victoria, who establishes an Karim (Ali Fazal). Kate and Laura Mulleavy take on their first feature film starring Kirsten Dunst as a haunted young woman experiencing personal loss. passed, and a new blade runner (Ryan Gosling) comes to the scene. frames of hand-painted oil paintings piece together the story of Vincent van Gogh’s life. Down the White House, a portrait of the special agent called Deep Throat for his work in helping journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal. threatens Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash and her friends must save their home. after a plane crash, two strangers band together to survive hundreds of miles of wilderness. intimate look at the relationship between beloved children’s author A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired Winnie the Pooh. keeps reliving the day of her murder until she discovers her killer’s identity. cious six-year-old, and her mother live week to week in a budget motel managed by a stern owner (Willem Dafoe). -