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MOST LIKELY NOT WILL NOT SEE
20.Australia
Castrations or lobotomies, what will they hand out at the door? I don't know if I'd be too eager to watch a documentary entitled "Australia", never mind a movie by the director of Moulin Rouge starring two could-hardly-be-more-brain-numbing-and-overall-middling actors than Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman.
19.Brothers
The last time Tobey Maguire was going to make a movie with David Benioff involved that movie ended up being 25th Hour. That this go-round was produced during the writer's strike and is a remake of Things We Lost In The Fire director Susanne Bier's drama doesn't give me much hope however.
18.Appaloosa
I think I've seen this before. I've seen it with horses and without horses. I don't know if I need to see it with Renée Zellweger now. Pollock, Ed Harris' directorial debut, looked to be a pretty bland movie. Anyone care to report otherwise / convince me this won't be another unimaginative stint behind the camera for Harris?
17.Frost/Nixon
When I saw Secret Honor, I found the bonus features to be more compelling than Altman's actual film. While that may be just my reaction to that particular work, the idea of another adapted-from-a-play Nixon send-up leaves me feeling kinda cold. And Ron Howard is no Robert Altman, obviously.
16.W.
Oliver Stone seems to make his best movies (all one or two of them) when he's on coke / taking the piss at the government's expense. However, the current prospect of a "George Bush movie" strikes me as too-soon. I don't know if that makes sense, but I don't really want a biopic on someone who's still front page news.
15.Milk
Said it once, I'll say it again: Gus, even Scorsese took a break from the Italians throughout his career. Congratulations, you want to capture every pretty-faced, vulnerable-looking white male ever on film, but your pursuits seem strained as of late. How about a change?
TICKET PENDING ON REVIEWS OR CIRCUMSTANCES
14.Marley & Me
I expect heart-strings to be pulled a tad too far, especially since there's an animal involved. However, I like the two leads. They've been good before, though, admittedly, not recently. Truthfully, if Scott Frank weren't involved--despite the fact that he's been pretty unimpressive himself lately--I might find the promise of leering at Jennifer Aniston's legs to be the movie's sole reason for being.
13.The Road
Cormac McCarthy is dark. John Hillcoat is dark. Viggo Mortensen likes to play dark. The post-apocalypse has its perfect suitors. Despite No Country's success, McCarthy's been done wrong before, so . . . . I've never read the book myself, but I just hope there's enough of a story in place and that it's not just a dark mood or grim visuals throughout.
12.Revolutionary Road
Roger Deakins is back in the fold, and Mendes has always had a prime visual sense, though he doesn't have a great track record when it comes to picking prime scripts. However, DiCaprio is more selective than Gyllenhaal, so with the former's casting I hope that the giant misstep that was Jarhead will fade far, far away. Plus, the time period intrigues me.
11.Body of Lies
I liked the dialogue in The Departed, and we have Bill Monahan again here with DiCaprio. I liked Russell Crowe in Gladiator, and we have him and Ridley Scott here back together again. But then there's the whole Kingdom of Heaven fiasco that Monahan and Scott share together. Subsequently, the g-men thriller genre and the sure-bet that is DiCaprio are what I'm mostly looking forward to.
GOOD CHANCE I WILL SEE
10.The Brothers Bloom
I remember liking Brick (in spite of Joseph-Gordon Levitt even). It didn't change the world but it was a movie that took chances and largely succeeded. Cool to see the director get a real budget / cast this time, and I'm liking that he's gone back to a crime story. Literate dude with a penchant for spinning genres on their head, nice. Brick wasn't Blood Simple, but that's a good mold to be a part of nonetheless.
09.Synecdoche, New York
I have purposefully avoided much of what was written on this so far. I don't know the plot, but if I did, it probably wouldn't tell me much either way. Some kind of mind-fuck will happen, and even though I've only half liked what Charlie Kaufman did in the past (the Spike Jonze half), I'll always at least hear the guy out. Also, any cast that can claim Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, and Catherine Keener is at least going in the right direction.
08.Doubt
Back before Hollywood went to video games to make movies, the stage supplied a surplus of source material for moviemaking. I suppose if any playwright were to once more make the theater a successful breeding ground for films, the so-called "Bard of the Bronx" might be the one. (Also, I *just* learned he did the script for Moonstruck way back when.) I'm very interested in what Amy Adams does here.
DEFINITELY
07.The Soloist
Visually, Atonement was stunning. Acting-wise, RDJ has been stellar throughout his career. Those two points coupled with the movie-about-music aspect present a solid case for my eight dollars. There are a couple issues with the movie I'm afraid of--they made the dude divorced in the movie though he isn't in real life, for one--but I'm still crossing my fingers. Also, Jamie Foxx was great in Collateral. I hope we get that Jamie Foxx.
06.Flash of Genius
I know how this one ends. Yeah, I read the wikipedia entry, but even without that, the trailer pretty much gives you everything but the closing credits. However, I'm a sucker for the-little-guy-against-the-big-guy movies. Also, I have a crush on Lauren Graham, like the idea that producer Marc Abraham (The Commitments, Children of Men) finally found a script that compelled him to direct after almost two decades in the business, and am ready to see a Dante Spinotti-lensed film once more (nothing he's been attached to post-Wonder Boys got my attention like this).
05.Miracle at St. Anna
My aforementioned aversion to JGL and that his character, the journalist figure who serves to propel the story (I hate that plot device), are my two biggest worries. Spike being Spike, Spike directing from another writer's script, and Spike getting Derek Luke in the lead outdo whatever hesitation I might have though. In a period of the year when most war-time movies will produce the same kind of bland, oh-so-precious-and-sprawling, queasy, pseudo-romantic feeling, I have faith in Spike to make sure his story has balls.
04.The Argentine + Guerrila
People will probably hate and adore this one for the same reason: Che. Either he's the best person in the world or the worst one (we all can agree he makes for a damn good t-shirt, right?). You can't really make a movie about him without the politics, I know, but I'm more interested in Soderbergh and Del Toro teaming back up again than I am the subject of what they're teaming up for. I'm envious of Soderbergh in a sort of unique way: even though I'm not continually won over by his work, he does get to / want to take on risky, left-field films, crossing styles, genres, and even budgets more than most in his position (plus, he gets to sleep with Jules Asner, though that's probabaly not a unique reason to be envious of him). Anyway, bring on Benicio's second Oscar. He's given more daring, memorable performances than most of his generation and is routinely the best part of the movies he's in. Hopefully, here, he's met his match.
03.Burn After Reading
The naysayers might say, "but the last two times the Coens did a comedy, they put out Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers." Well, I've learned not to place any faith in a movie the Brothers have co-written alongside some other person / people: Crimewave (they didn't direct but still terrible), The Hudsucker Proxy (excellent at points, deeply flawed mostly), and the abovementioned-Intolerable Cruelty (feels like they sleepwalked through it, the worst movie they have directed). Now, as far as The Ladykillers, I liked it . . . enough. It's like a dumbed down version of what they do best, but it's not as bad as those three listed earlier to make my only-trust-them-as-sole-screenwriters theory obsolete. Anyway, Brad Pitt looks hilarious and John Malkovich wields an axe. What more do you need?
02.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I watched Zodiac for the fifth time the other night. David Fincher is gonna have to direct a dozen straight-to-video hack pieces before he uses up all the good karma he collected from me for that one. Two of Brad Pitt's three great *lead* performances have come alongside Fincher, so there's that, too. Then there's Eric Roth, who's far from flawless, but usually comes up looking solid when working with A-list directors (The Insider and Munich, in particular). But this is Fincher's show, and though his fanboys are third behind only Kevin Smith and PTA in terms of so-fucking-annoying, Zodiac convinced me that, yes, he's a incredible director: an effects master who also can tell a great story. That's typically a rare combination, and one that seems perfect for this material.
01.Changeling
Okay, if I'm not all that big a fan of Eastwood as a director or Angelina Jolie movies generally, and if I had never heard of screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski, despite him apparently being some big deal in the sci-fi community, why is this the movie I'm most anticipating? It's probably the same reason I'd quickly throw on Zodiac on a lazy Sunday (see: above) or have watched L.A. Confidential steadily since '97: a great period police procedural movie is damn near unbeatable. To add to that, the story would certainly be interesting by itself if it were fiction, but that it's "real life" (or at least a version of it) compels me endlessly. And if word coming out of Cannes is worth paying attention to, my anticipation will not end in disappointment.
>Obviously, these aren't the only twenty movies coming out from
>here until Christmas. I tried to bias the list towards
>Oscar-buzzed flicks, but if there are any that I forgot /
>others you're waiting on, do post and tell.
Also on my radar but not likely "Oscar films" . . .
Adventureland
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091722/
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0981227/
Sugar
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0990413/
The Wrestler
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/
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