Will Ashton discusses the movies to come out this fall.
As we collectively endure week six, I’m constantly surprised by not just how fast the weeks seem to have gone by, but that I’ve never gotten around to covering the fall movie season. I guess complaining about Catholics and today’s youth will do that to you.
Anyway, I’d like to take this opportunity to explore the upcoming onslaught of fall movies strutting into our local cinemas — all forcefully attempting to win over our hearts and those golden naked men named Oscar.
Of course, I can’t look at every movie coming out, but this is a good opportunity to see what we should be expecting to spend our cold, hard-earned cash on at the multiplex.
Coming out this Friday is the much-anticipated David Fincher adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Already earning rave reviews, this is undoubtedly among the most well-liked mainstream films so far this season. But whether or not those Academy people can look past its cold-hearted, bleak vision of reality will have to be determined in the months to come.
My most anticipated film of the season is the new Paul Thomas Anderson film Inherent Vice, another adaptation but this time from the pen of Thomas Pynchon. Featuring a high-profile cast with Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon and Oscar-favorite Martin Short, the movie finally got its first trailer this Monday, and, to me, it looks as delightfully zany as I’d hope.
Given the Oscars history with comedy — hint: it’s almost nonexistent — that may spell doom for the Anderson film. But I’m holding out for quality and talent to make this movie shine. It’s set to premiere at the New York Film Festival on Saturday, but will make its limited release on Dec. 12. Though, us non-LA/NY folks with have to wait until Jan. 9 to check it out.
After the fairly muted early responses to The Judge and Kill the Messenger, the next big Oscar-hopeful is, surprisingly, another comedy: Birdman. Starring the perfectly-casted Michael Keaton as a former superhero star attempting to regain his popularity on the Broadway stage. This movie has been loved by seemingly everyone who has seen it. And, considering it co-stars the likes of Emma Stone and Zach Galifiankis, there is also a good chance that it will have wide-audience appeal. As someone who loves dark comedy, I can only hope.
There’s also Fury, starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf as army men in World War II, which getting good advanced buzz. Nightcrawler is another film that stars a super-skinny Jake Gyllenhaal as a freelance crime journalist. He could get his second Oscar nomination from the film.
Then there’s the new Christopher Nolan epic Interstellar. Another flick nobody has seen yet, but considering the talent involved — it stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain — it is getting an appropriate amount of pre-consideration.
Fury, Nightcrawler and Interstellar all come out this November.
Another up and coming film is Foxcatcher, which has been getting great festival reviews since the summer, primarily for its stars, Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. The same can be said for the recent festival favorite, Stephen Hawking biopic The Theoryof Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne.
Other films worth noting are The Imitation Game, the new Hunger Games and Hobbit movies, Wild, Big Hero 6 and Exodus: Gods and Kings. But I think my point stands. Naturally, not all of these movies will shine. But things are looking good so far from this point of view. But then again, there may be something in here I regret saying in the months to come.
Will Ashton is a senior studying journalism and a writer for The Post. Email him at wa054010@ohio.edu.
