The big news ’round these parts is, of course, the Chicago International Film Festival; which I, frustratingly, will not be able to do up as vigorously as has been my wont. Though as of this writing, I’m guaranteed to hit at least three films, so it won’t be a total wipeout.
Anyway, with Oscar Season starting up in earnest, there are at least some other likely looking films in *shudder* the multplexes…
1.10.2010
And surely none of them is likelier than The Social Network, which has received basically the most glowing reviews of anything ever released in history. I was a late convert to this one – David Fincher has a lot to make up for after that foul Benjamin Button thing, and the idea of Aaron Sorkin penning a diatribe about the damn kids and their damn internet isn’t altogether the most appealing thought. But buzz like that, you can’t fake that. Obviously, there has to be a “there” there, and I’m pretty pumped about it.
Otherwise, it’s mostly the kind of horror-heavy weekend we expect from October: Case 39, a long-delayed (four years!) thriller with Renée Zellweger, of all random stars; Let Me In, a remarkably unwarranted remake of the perfectly perfect Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In; and Hatchet II, which requires, I think, no explication.
8.10.2010
Speaking of horror, Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl do the romantic dramedy bit in Life As We Know It.
A profoundly full weekend here: the actual horror releases include Wes Craven’s 3-D My Soul to Take and a remake of the infamous I Spit on Your Grave; and let’s go ahead and assume that the financial meltdown documentary Inside Job will be just as scary as either of them. For Oscarbait, Disney has Secretariat, a years-too-late rip-off of Seabiscuit, and there’s also a “Young Mr. Lennon” biopic, Nowhere Boy. Plus, a Robert De Niro/Ed Norton mash-up, Stone. Plus a sleepy-looking indie comedy, It’s Kind of a Funny Story. And, yes, it’s the first proper day of CIFF.
15.10.2010
Giving us all time to catch up on that huge explosion, there are just three wide releases. I am indecently excited for Red, a generic thriller with a terrifyingly solid cast (Willis! Malkovich! Freeman! Mirren! MIRREN WITH A BIG-ASS GUN!), which is just as well given that Conviction looks like a positively sterile prestige movie with Hilary Swank in full-on “I need awards” mode, and Jackass 3-D is, theoretically, a Jackass movie, but in 3-D.
22.10.2010
Even fewer wide releases! Just two, and they’re both forms of ghost stories. Paranormal Activity 2 makes no fucking sense conceptually, but I for one found the original blissfully frightening, so I will at least maintain an open mind. Then there’s Hereafter, which finds Clint Eastwood operating way the hell out of his comfort zone, less in a “this could be revelatory” way than in a “has he lost his mind?” way. And that coming from a full-throated Eastwood fanboy.
29.10.2010
They say that Saw 3D (bloody hell) will be the last in its franchise. What a shame.
Elsewhere, Monsters sounds pretty straightforward, but it’s actually a message movie about Mexican immigrants. And if you’re into spending your Halloween weekend in the art-house, then The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – the conclusion of the cinematically inert Millennium Trilogy – will do you up just right.