Today’s release of Inglourious Basterds (take that, spell check!) officially closes out the summer of 2009 with a bang. While only a handful of films really caught SPJ’s eye, this fall brings out some of the biggest names in film, including a few who have been away for far too long (I’m guessing Spike Jonze and James Cameron got really into beekeeping or something).
Shutter Island (10/2) (2/19/2010)
After finally matching longtime archrival Eminem’s Oscar tally with 2006′s The Departed, Martin Scorsese returns with an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s 2003 psychiatric hospital thriller Shutter Island. Previous adaptations of Lehane’s novels have worked incredibly well, and given that one of those films was Ben Affleck’s directorial debut (the fantastic Gone Baby Gone), it’s unlikely that the greatest director alive will be the first one to screw up. Frequent leading man Leo will be joined by a tremendous cast of some of the best character actors in the business, none of whom have ever worked with Scorsese before: Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Jackie Earle Harley, and even Max von Sydow. EDIT: Late today, Paramount moved Shutter Island out of the early October weekend that made The Departed such a hit to February 19, 2010, citing financial difficulties. That’s right: the studio that just made a billion on Transformers 2 doesn’t have the money it takes to promote a new Martin Scorsese movie.
A Serious Man (10/2)
Last year’s dark screwball comedy Burn After Reading featured one of the Coen Brothers’ most star-studded casts (Clooney, Pitt, McDormand, Malkovich). They’ve followed it up with a cast where the marquee name is Richard Kind and a film that seems utterly unclassifiable, at least judging from the funny, disturbing and perplexing teaser trailer that set movie nerd forums aflame earlier this month. Judging by the fact that it’s about a Jewish professor in the Midwest during the 1960′s, and they were raised by Jewish professors in the Midwest during the 1960′s, this looks to be the first of their films to pull at least a little from their own lives.
Where The Wild Things Are (10/16)
We’re used to teaser trailers coming out a year before a big film, but Where The Wild Things Are had its first public glimpse when Clinton was still president in front of the live action How The Grinch Stole Christmas way back in 2000. Since then Spike Jonze has switched studios, worked with several different scripts, changed his voice cast times a couple times over, fought with the new studio for final cut and even changed the technology used to render the characters. Fans were initially terrified that Jonze had a delicate masterpiece on his hands that evil execs were trying to murder, but Jonze has been adament that the studio has given him the time and space needed to realize his vision. Looks like he wasn’t lying: the Arcade Fire-scored trailer has silenced nearly all the naysayers.
The Road (10/16)
Director John Hillcoat’s The Proposition is about as desolate as a movie can be, so who better to tackle Cormac McCarthy’s stark tale of a father and son traveling through a post-apocalyptic earth? The real question is whether the film is still relevant three years after the book, which hit at the height of the Iraq War, and post-production delays that prevented an Oscar run late last year. Still, it’s put together by a great team including celebrated playwright Joe Penhall and a cast including Viggo Mortenson, Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron.
The Box (11/6)
Say what you will about Southland Tales, but it certainly wasn’t boring. Richard Kelly threw a divisive curveball with his follow-up to the cult classic Donnie Darko, and returns once more with a stripped-down cast and a simple, brilliant premise: a cash-strapped couple receive a box with a button in it. A mysterious stranger appears the next day and informs them that if they push the button, they’ll receive $1,000,000 and a person unknown to them will die.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (11/13)
Even Wes Anderson must have realized that The Darjeeling Limited was a hollow retread of his earlier, better films. He’s gone about as far away as possible with his next film: he’s not even using humans. His new adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s novel uses animation that looks completely different from anything you’ve seen in a animated feature before, and actually seems like a logical step from a director who’s been making painstakingly-crafted dioramas for years. It’s a surprise, then, that the first trailer seems oddly lifeless, and uses an all-star voice cast that feels a little too familiar.
Nine (11/25)
So how does one top an iconic, Oscar-winning role as a crazy turn of the century robber baron? By playing a crazy Italian movie director in a musical, of course! I’ve never heard Daniel Day-Lewis sing or speak Italian, which are likely requirements for this musical based on the life and films of Fellini, but he’s one of the greatest actors who ever lived so I’m sure he’ll do just fine. It will also be a welcome change of pace to see him NOT play a homicidal lunatic. He’ll be joined by a roster of beautiful ladies: Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren and that blazing hot silver fox Judi Dench.
Lovely Bones (12/11)
Peter Jackson hasn’t made a movie that’s not about monsters in so long that it’s easy to forget that he first came to prominence internationally on the back of a little movie called Heavenly Creatures about two teenage girls. It’s great to see him back on a smaller scale with this adaptation of Alice Sebold’s mega-bestseller. The trailer that came out last week looks fantastic, proving that Jackson can make something great with puny ol’ humans.
Avatar (12/18)
James Cameron’s long-in-the-works epic about paralyzed soldiers, giant blue creatures with strange apostrophes in their names, and the reality of reality will finally hit the big screen at the end of 2009, and we are talking BIG. You’ve got to see this one in IMAX, folks.