The dust of the summer blockbusters is finally settling. The Avengers and Mad Max were explosive fun, Adam Sandler disappointed unsurprisingly, and Josh Trank is still tweeting about how his Fantastic Four reboot was better a year ago before half of its scenes were removed from the final cut. But that was then and this is now. What are moviegoers to do when coming down from the high-octane, adrenaline fueled summer movie season? Well have no fear, because this fall looks promising with a plethora of potential box-office breakers. Below is my list of highly anticipated fall movies.
Biography
Fall seems to be full of interesting biopics of famous figures. One of the strongest upcoming films in this category will definitely be Scott Cooper’s Black Mass in which Johnny Depp gives a terrifying portrayal of infamous Boston gangster, James “Whitey” Bulger. Despite its fascinating focus, it will be especially great to see Depp in a serious role, supported by an amazing cast (Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, Peter Sarsgaard, and many more), and most importantly, in a film not directed by Tim Burton. You can check out Black Mass on September 18th and watch a trailer here.
Next up is The Walk. Based on the Autobiography “To Reach the Clouds,” The Walk stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as French tightrope walker Philippe Petit, who walked between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. The film is directed by Robert Zimeckis, visionary director of Back to the Future (Parts I and II), Castaway, Forest Gump, and much more. The Walk will be released October 9th. Check out the trailer here.
Coming November 6th is Jay Roach’s Trumbo. Bryan Cranston plays Dalton Trumbo, an eccentric Hollywood screenwriter who was put on Hollywood’s blacklist in the 1940’s for suspected Communist activities. This movie made my list for one big reason- Bryan Cranston- and one minor reason- I’m interested to see what Roach can do with a serious actor and a serious topic. Trumbo is a notable descent from Roach’s other projects, which all usually involve Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen and/or Zach Galifianakis. Check out the trailer for yourself.
Horror
I’m usually not a big fan of horror films, but this fall season there are some really great and scary looking ones that can’t be missed. First up is a film that has actually already hit the big screens, but looks too interesting not to mention. After last year’s The Babadook, people are surely looking for their next foreign horror fix. German horror/thriller Goodnight Mommy is here to fill that void. After a mother returns from facial surgery to her twin boys, they begin to question whether the woman underneath the bandages is their real mother. It looks both horrifying and fascinating. Here’s the trailer.
Next on the list is Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno. The film revolves around a group of student activists who become stranded with a hostile tribe in the Amazon. To film this, Roth traveled deep into the Peruvian jungle to film tribes never before shown in Hollywood. Roth claims his film is a social commentary on the laziness of “social justice warriors” in modern society- a concept that should be interesting to Brandeisians. Look at the trailer here.
Most anticipated amongst the horror films is undoubtedly Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, staring Charlie Hunman, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, and Mia Wasikowska. This marks the second collaboration between Toro and Hunman, after the wildly successful Pacific Rim. The film looks completely terrifying and it bares Toro’s stunning visual mark seen in his other classics like Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy. Here’s the trailer.
Documentary
There’s only one documentary I’ve had my eye on for the fall season. Finders Keepers seems like one part story telling and one part character study. It follows a string of events in 2007 North Carolina, where a severed human foot is found in an auctioned off grill. The man who finds it, and the man who lost his foot, engage in a battle of custody for it. This weird story is a late fall release, September 25th. Look at the trailer here.
Keep an eye out for Part 2!
Photos:
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