You’d never know it by reading most Internet movie sites, but believe it or not, there are still some of us out there who enjoy seeing a film every once and a while that doesn’t rely on a supernatural slant or caped crusader saving Earth yet again… to thrill its audience. That’s why we here at BNH anticipate the “prestige” Fall Film Season in much the same way that the Comic-Con Crowd salivates for summer. Here’s what has our pulses racing…
1. 12 Years A Slave – Steve McQueen’s much-anticipated follow up to 2011’s controversial Shame officially kicked off its Fall 2013 shock and awe campaign at last week’s Telluride Film Festival. The provocative film, set in the pre-Civil War South, reteams the visual artist and director with his fearless leading man, Michael Fassbender, as well as an explosive Chiwetel Ejiofer, who’s already generating Oscar buzz for his unflinching portrayal of a New York man captured and sold down river. And as if this film didn’t have enough smoldering talent, Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch round out the cast as well.
2. August Osage County – Of course we find it ironic that one of autumn’s most anticipated “indies” stars two of the biggest Hollywood actresses working in film today. We just don’t care. Julia hasn’t been onscreen since the Mirror Mirror misfire, but what better way to make one’s triumphant return than at the center of a meaty, Pulitzer Prize-winning family drama where none other than Meryl Streep, perhaps the best actress alive, is playing your mother? We haven’t seen a face off this epic since John Wu gave us Cage versus Travolta.
3. Blue Is The Warmest Color – the French have always been known for their boundary-pushing willingness to explore sexuality onscreen, so I guess it’s no surprise that this undeniably frank and startlingly intimate flick came from the same country that gave us To Our Loves and A Real Young Girl. Yet while this one certainly has its fair share of salacious bits, Abdellatif Kechiche’s deeply touching and profound look at first love also features dynamite performances from French beauties Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, who in addition to baring their bodies, bare their fragile souls.
4. Don Jon – Ever since he ditched the Joey and started collaborating with a slew of today’s best filmmakers, including Rian Johnson, Greg Araki, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan, Joseph Gordon Levitt has delivered some of the most authentic and alive onscreen performances this side of Gosling. That being said, we haven’t been this excited to see him step out of his professional comfort zone (in this case, by writing and directing) since he sang and danced his way through 2009’s charming 500 Days of Summer.
5. Enough Said – when writer/director Nicole Holofcener first burst onto the scene in 1996 with the cult-classic, Walking and Talking, she practically invented this whole mumblecore style of filmmaking that has made filmmakers like The Duplass Brothers, Joe Swanberg, and spiritual little sister, Lynn Shelton such current indie superstars. Now, after trudging through the aughts with witty and insightful female-centric ensemble pieces like Lovely and Amazing, Friends With Money, and Please Give, Holofcener returns with this touching love story that finally gives comic genius, Julia Louis Dreyfuss her first bigscreen starring role, as well as the phenomenal James Gandolfini his last.
6. Inside Llewyn Davis – The Coen Brothers tackle the 60’s Greenwich Village music scene with their characteristically offbeat sensibility and quirky wit as they loosely adapt folk singer Dave Van Ronk’s posthumously published memoir of that time, The Mayer of MacDougal Street. The film already won the Grand Prix Award at Cannes and features another dynamite cast including Carey Mulligan, Garret Hedlund, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, and Mr. VMA’s himself, Justin Timberlake.
7. Kill Your Darlings – Now, from folkies to beatniks… This one received rave reviews for its first-time-feature director, John Krokidas, as well as its preternaturally gifted young cast of Hollywood movers and shakers when it premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Daniel Radcliffe is Allen Ginsberg, Ben Foster is William Burroughs, and rising stars Dane DeHaan and Jack Huston (grandson of John and nephew of Angelica and Danny) play Lucien Carr and Jack Kerouac respectively. Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Jason Lee, and Elizabeth Olsen also star.
8. The Past – Asghar Farhadi isn’t afraid to explore the human condition in all of its complex and perilous beauty. Like many of his talented countrymen and women who’ve had to fight (and flee) in order to express themselves creatively amidst a notoriously oppressive regime, he’s helped ignite a golden age of Iranian filmmaking; one that is redefining what it means to call this ancient land home. For his much-anticipated follow up to 2011’s universally praised A Separation (which won the 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) the sure-footed director enlists handsome and talented French-Algerian leading man, Tahar Raheem, as well as Oscar-Nominee Berenice Bejo to tell another tale of family, love, and life set amidst an ever-evolving culture of diaspora.
9. Thanks For Sharing – In 2010, Stuart Blumberg collaborated with writer/director
Lisa Cholodenko, and together, they won a screenwriting Oscar for their authentic and unfussy delight, The Kids Are All Right. This time however, he’s all-alone, directing his first feature about a group of sex addicts in NYC struggling to live healthy, productive, “sober” lives. The A-List cast of Tim Robbins, Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Joely Richardson are reliably superb, but look for breakouts Josh Gad and Alecia Moore, aka. Pink to truly bring the tragi-comic laughs.
10. Diana – Ok, much like public opinion of the People’s Princess, which often wavered between that of empowered global crusader and, or spoiled, self-involved celebrity, reaction to this film can go either way. It is worth pointing out however, that the fiercely dedicated and woefully underappreciated Naomi Watts sinks her teeth into the title role. Lost hunk, Naveen Andrews, plays the dashing Pakistani heart surgeon that had Diana yearning for a much simpler way of life, and almost gave it to her. Obviously, we know how this one turns out, but strong performance from Watts and Andrews could make Diana’s tragic fate a distant thought, at least for two hours.