Upcoming Movies

August is for Thrillers

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It’s no surprise that we open August with some thrillers.  In The Bourne Legacy, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town) takes over the lead role from Matt Damon.  (Except the protagonist is named Aaron Cross, not Jason Bourne.)  Tony Gilroy, who wrote the two earlier Bourne films, directs this one.

The oft-delayed Killer Joe is a dark crime comedy/thriller.  A white trash family gives a hitman  (Matthew McConaughey) the teen daughter (Juno Temple) as a deposit. It is directed by 70s guru William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist).  I’ve seen it, and it rocks.

In 360 , acclaimed director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), intersects the stories of several relationships in a film with some very suspenseful moments.  The ensemble cast includes Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins and an even creepier than usual Ben Foster.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.  Here’s the trailer for 360.

 

More July Movies

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Other than the superb Beasts of the Southern Wild and Take This Waltz, it hasn’t shaped up to be a very rich July at the movies.  But I’m interested in three upcoming releases.

Dark Horse is an indie comedy by Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse) in which an epic underachiever falls in love with a heavily medicated depressive.  Reportedly, Solondz’ take on these characters is clear-eyed, but not mean.

Christian Bale growls on in Christopher Nolan’s newest chapter of the Bat Man saga, The Dark Knight Rises.  The cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Juno Temple and Liam Neeson.

Farewell, My Queen is a lavishly staged French costume drama tracing the end of Marie Antoinette’s reign.  Early reviews focus on the performances by Diane Kruger as the Queen, Virginie Ledoyen as the Queen’s intimate friend and Lea Seydoux as the servant with ambiguous motives.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To. Here’s the trailer for Farewell, My Queen:

June at the movies

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June 2012 looks pretty promising at the movies.  June 15 is the opening for the always quirky Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, which premiered in Cannes.

We’ll also get Elena, a Russian contemporary noir about a rich guy who marries his nurse and then tells her that he is leaving his fortune to someone else.  Plotting ensues.

That weekend, I’m also looking forward to the opening of the Kristin Scott-Thomas thriller The Woman in the Fifth, the screen version of Broadway’s Rock of Ages and an indie dramedy with Emily Blunt, Your Sister’s Sister.

The next weekend, June 22, brings the opening of Woody Allen’s latest, To Rome With Love.  We’ll also get to see two blockbusters – Brave, Pixar’s much anticipated fable of a Scottish princess and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the movie from Seth Grahame-Smith’s bestselling novel

Finally, Take This Waltz with Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen opens on June 29.  33-year-old Canadian actress Sarah Polley wrote and directed;  Polley’s debut feature was Away From Her, my pick for best movie of 2006.  I’ve seen Take This Waltz and it’s a very special movie.

You can read descriptions and watch the trailers on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page. Here’s the trailer for The Woman in the Fifth.

movies for late May

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It looks like a really strong late May at the movies, with several promising releases for Memorial Day weekend.  I’ve already seen Polisse, a riveting French police procedural about the child protective services unit – it’s one of the best films of the year.

Intouchables is story of a paraplegic rich French guy who hires a black street guy as his caretaker; though not critically praised, it’s the second most popular movie of all time in France.

Moonrise Kingdom is another entry from Director Wes Anderson, who has had some quirky hits (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore) and some quirky misses (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), but he’s always original.

With Hysteria, director Tanya Wexler brings us a female look at how Victorian medicine addressed female sexuality.  Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as a proto-feminist and High Dancy plays the doc who invented a proto-vibrator.

You can read descriptions and watch the trailers on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page. Here’s the trailer for Polisse.

Upcoming movies: late April edition

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After a dry spell, we’re starting to get promising movies by the handful.  This weekend will bring a promising Hollywood romantic comedy, The Five-Year Engagement, the animated Pirates! Band of Misfits and the indie thriller The Hunter.

The Five-Year Engagement features Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s writer-star Jason Segal and the director Nicholas Stoller, plus Emily Blunt.

Pirates! Band of Misfits comes from Aardman Studios, the folks that created Wallace and Gromit.

The weekend after will bring The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India that looks like fluff, but fun fluff.  Great cast:  Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey).

You can read descriptions and watch the trailers on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page.

In The Hunter,  Willem Dafoe stars as a hunter sent to find the Tasmanian Tiger, thought extinct.  He looks for the beast, finds a thriller.  Here’s the trailer.

 

SF Film Fest to show “Polisse” and “Oslo August 31”

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Two films on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To are coming to the San Francisco International Film Festival in late April.

Polisse is a reputedly riveting French police procedural about the child protective services unit.  It was a hit at Cannes and stars an ensemble cast led by Karin Viard (Paris, Potiche, Time Out).

In Oslo August 3, the Danish director Joachim Trier (Reprise made my list of the 2007’s best) returns to Norway with a slice-of-life about a recovering addict.

Find out how to see these films and others at the SFIFF here.

Here’s the trailer for Oslo August 3.

 

 

movies for late March

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We begin on March 23 with Israel’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, Footnote.  A rising Talmudic scholar sees his career-topping prize accidentally awarded to his grumpy father.  It won the the screenplay award at Cannes.

The Kid with a Bike is the latest from the Belgian Dardennes brothers, two of my favorite film makers (The Son, Rosetta).  A 12-year-old boy wants to find the father who dumped him at a children’s home, but meets a woman who becomes his de facto foster mom.  The Kid with the Bike will be released in the US by Sundance Selects on March 23.

The Salt of the Earth (Gianni e le donne) stars and is written and directed by Gianni Di Gregorio, just like the very fun Mid-August Lunch.  Releases March 30.

You can read descriptions and watch trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

Here’s the trailer for Footnote.

For Presidents’ Day: the Lincoln movie

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Daniel Day-Lewis in LINCOLN

In late December, we’ll see a movie about perhaps the greatest American made by perhaps our greatest filmmaker.    Steven Spielberg is directing Lincoln, based on Doris Kearn Goodwin’s absorbing Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field play the Lincolns.  The dazzling cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Jared Harris, Jackie Earle Haley, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, James Spader, Bruce McGill, David Straithern, Tim Blake Nelson, Walton Goggins (Justified) and Dakin Mathews (the horse trader in True Grit).

Upcoming Oscar bait

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I recently updated  Movies I’m Looking Forward To, where you can see descriptions and trailers of upcoming films.  I’ve included some Oscar bait coming out just before the end of 2011, including:

A Dangerous Method:  David Cronenberg’s tale of Freud and Jung  with Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbinder, Vincent Cassel and Keira Knightly.

The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher.

Coriolanus:  Ralph Fiennes’ contemporary version of the Shakespeare play.

Carnage:  Roman Polanski’s dark comedy with John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Walz and Kate Winslet.

Here’s the trailer for The Iron Lady.