Kids are going back to school, the heat is subsiding, and movies are in a weird place. This fall’s upcoming film slate ranges from riveting to potentially insensitive to heart-warming to horrifying. Here are a few offerings that could make those periodic autumnal hiatuses worth it.
September
Goodnight Mommy
Directors: Veronica Franz, Severin Fiala
In terms of critical acclaim, maternal horror often finds itself at the top of the genre. Rosemary’s Baby, Alien, and the Babadook contend that a mother’s dearest can be horrifying, yet Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy suggests the inverse is just as true. Living secluded in a house on the edge of a cornfield, two brothers (Elias and Lukas Schwarz) wait patiently for their mother’s (Susanne Wuest) return from facial reconstructive surgery. The two boys quickly infer that this woman, who or whatever she is, is far from their parent. If Goodnight Mommy‘s trailer alone can terrify the internet as much as it has, surely the real thing will.
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Sicario
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Not just one of the earliest Palme d’Or contestants to hit a relatively wide audience, Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario may also boast the highest octane of its Cannes competitors. Kate (Emily Blunt), a gung-ho and optimistic FBI agent, joins an ensemble of specialized operatives on the hunt for an elusive drug lord on the Mexican border. Alejandro (Benicio del Toro) and Matt (Josh Brolin), two militant men with very different outlooks, send Kate and company into an existential and lethal whirlwind in pursuit of the cartel. With 2013’s Prisoners, Villeneuve posited himself as an up-and-coming master of crime thrillers. Brushing against the same dissection of trust works like Michael Mann’s Heat and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Sicario may solidify Villeneuve into the action film canon.
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Stonewall
Director: Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall is already being identified as problematic, but it’s difficult to let go of a historical drama that has all the ingredients to be significant. Unfortunately, the trailer turns this tale into a story of the privileged, despite depicting a slew of minority groups both racially and sexually. Three minutes is far from an entire representation, however. Plus, actor Jeremy Irvine is due to recapture the thunder that spurred his performance in Spielberg’s War Horse. If Stonewall proves ignorant, it will least yield a glimpse into the process of rewriting history.
October
Taxi
Director: Jafar Panahi
2011’s This Is Not a Film followed director Jafar Panahi as he filmed himself under house arrest issued by the Iranian government. Taxi places the revolutionary filmmaker into even tighter corners. Though purportedly a work of fiction, Taxi illustrates the heart and soul of Iran through a series of conversations between residents of the country’s capital. Assuming the role of an anxious cab driver, Panahi’s brief encounters reveal more about his homeland than perhaps the artist himself anticipated. Expect Taxi to find its way on many of the year’s top 10 lists, much like its spiritual predecessor.
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Steve Jobs
Director: Danny Boyle
Maybe nothing will ever right the wrong of Joshua Stern’s Jobs, but Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs will sure as hell try. With Michael Fassbender assuming the titular role and Boyle’s decision to focus the narrative on a chronologically narrow, yet culturally broad, time frame, this biopic may readily trump the rushed Jobs. Between this and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, a season of Fassbender is on the horizon.
November
Entertainment
Director: Rick Alverson
Humor isn’t always funny. Rick Alverson’s The Comedy proved as much, but Entertainment takes the notion a few disheartened steps further. A failing comedian (Gregg Turkington) performs what may be his last series of shows in a scattered collection of dives strewn about in the Mojave Desert. Run-ins with the comedian’s past — compounded by a whiskey-fueled downward spiral — gradually temper the funnyman into either an enlightened storyteller or a hysterical mess.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
Director: Francis Lawrence
The Harry Potter franchise, along with countless other intellectual properties, may fall in the shadow of Francis Lawrence’s final entry into the Hunger Games saga. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) seeks to cast the final blow to a dystopian authority by eliminating its president (Donald Sutherland), thus freeing the districts from their poverty and barbarism. With this particular act’s first volume not doing itself any favors, let’s hope the oscillating exposition of Part 1 lends itself to a titanic finale, which also marks the last on-screen performance of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.
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The Good Dinosaur
Director: Peter Sohn
As other non-Pixar projects picked up traction, Disney’s 3-D animated renaissance kicked into overdrive this year. Fresh off the success of Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur follows Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), a young Apatosaurus who, after losing his parent, wanders into a primitive society. Assuming the fateful asteroid never struck Earth, the Good Dinosaur builds a fable out of humanity’s hypothetical relationship with its colossal brethren. Best of all, you’ll get to hear how hedonistic the whole affair was from your extended family over Thanksgiving dinner.
