At last, the summer’s nearly over, the nights are getting longer and the days
colder. Which can mean only one thing – the movies are getting better.
Freed from the need to pump our multiplexes full of effects-laden
child-satiating dross, the Hollywood movie machine has once more raised the
qualitative bar in its annual attempt to redress the balance of our fragile
moviemaking ecosystem.
Leading the more serious fare are, of course, the Oscar contenders. Here the
early arrivals include Joe Wright’s haunting adaptation of Ian McEwan’s
romantic tragedy Atonement, a big screen version of Khaled Hosseini’s
popular novel The Kite Runner, plus a Middle Eastern war story called Lions
for Lambs from the iconic director Robert Redford. This last film in
particular kicks off a slew of serious-minded movies about the Middle East
that include the Oscar-winning Crash director Paul Haggis’s In
the Valley of Elah, the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Rendition, and
Nick Broomfield’s Battle for Haditha.
Other trends include a resurgence in cowboy movies. These include the
impeccable Christian Bale/ Russell Crowe stand-off 3:10 to Yuma, the
Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, and Brad Pitt’s turn as
the eponymous outlaw in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford.
And if it all sounds a bit heavy and browbeaten it’s nice to know that
laughter is well represented by the Ben Stiller romantic comedy The
Heartbreak Kid and the gross-out spectacular Superbad, while
music can be found in the Joy Division biopic Control and the sweet
folk-rock love story Once. And even the kids are catered for with the
likes of Disney’s Ratatouille and the long-awaited preChristmas
release of The Golden Compass.
Here we have picked out the best of the rest of the movie world’s autumnal
offerings.
Bee Movie
Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick
The plot Barry B. Benson (voiced by Seinfeld), a disaffected but
adventurous honey bee, escapes the hive, falls in love with a New York
florist called Vanessa (Zellweger), then decides to sue humankind for
stealing and consuming the bees’ hard-earned honey.
Believe the hype? Seinfeld’s computer-animated comedy has “prestige
project” written all over it. Launched this year in Cannes and backed by
DreamWorks, it features typically whipsmart badinage, an irreverent
depiction of an inter-species relationship, and two stand-out cameos from
Chris Rock and Ray Liotta (the latter playing himself as a failed actor and
owner of a popular brand of honey). Bee Movie simply cannot lose.
Release Dec 14
Lions for Lambs
Starring Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep
The plot This contemporary drama boasts three interlocking narratives:
two American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, their
college professor (Redford) agonising over their fate in California, and a
presidential candidate (Cruise) in Washington, giving a politically
explosive interview to a jaded journalist (Streep).
Believe the hype? The three lead actors have 21 Oscar nominations and
four wins between them. The screenplay is by the white-hot Matthew Michael
Carnahan ( The Kingdom). Cruise and Redford are both hungry for hits
(the former needs critical kudos, the latter commercial success). So
provided that the audience isn’t suffering from an acute case of
Middle-Eastern crisis fatigue, Lions for Lambs could scoop both Oscar
and box-office gold.
Release Nov 9
American Gangster
Starring Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Cuba Gooding Jr
The plot Harlem, the 1970s, and the crime boss Frank Lucas (Washington)
is making $1 million a day from drug dealing and smuggling heroin into the
US in the coffins of soldiers killed in Vietnam. Lucas, however, has one
problem – a dogged narcotics detective (Crowe), who plans to bring down his
empire.
Believe the hype? Crowe and Washington together is a Hollywood dream
ticket. Crowe has recently kept his head down and out of pub brawls, and
instead concentrated on star turns in this and his forthcoming western
winner 3:10 to Yuma. His last collaboration with director Ridley
Scott was the romantic flop A Good Year, but this has both men back
in the firmer audience-pleasing territory of macho histrionics.
Release Nov 16
The Darjeeling Limited
Starring Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman
The plot Three estranged brothers, Francis (Wilson), Peter (Brody) and
Jack (Schwartzman), reunited by the death of their father, take a long train
trip through India in the hope of repairing broken bonds. Soon, however, the
brothers bicker and find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert.
Believe the hype? The indie wunderkind Wes Anderson returns, three long
years after his $100 million success The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Anderson’s movies, with their heavy art design and quirky emotionalism,
aren’t to everyone’s taste, but The Darjeeling’s trailer
has set internet movie-watchers abuzz.
Release Nov 23
St Trinian’s
Starring Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Mischa Barton
The plot Never really a strong concept, even in the classic St
Trinian’s series of the Fifties, this incarnation revolves around
an attempt to save the titular boarding school from bankruptcy by stealing Girl
with a Pearl Earring from the National Gallery. Believe the hype?
This is surely the wild card of the bunch. The slightly slutty Britney
Spears uniforms, the sight of Everett in drag as the headmistress and the
cameo presence of bland popsters Girls Aloud all suggest screamingly inane
kitsch. And yet something about the movie suggests that St Trinian’s
may well be the sleeper hit of the autumn.
Release Dec 21
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Starring Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish
The plot Reuniting the director Shekhar Kapur with Blanchett, this film
picks up where Elizabeth left off. The film gallops through vast
swaths of British history, pennants flying and swashes buckling. The
supporting cast does sterling work but it is Blanchett’s film. Her Elizabeth
is formidable; her wrath when crossed by the cowardly Spanish is truly
terrifying.
Believe the hype? Blanchett famously missed out on the Oscar for her
previous stint as Queen Bess, but if anything, she’s better than ever as the
older, more complex and flawed monarch.
Release Nov 2
Eastern Promises
Starring Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel
The plot A young, heavily pregnant Russian girl staggers into a
hospital, but dies before she can see her newborn child. Maternity nurse
Anna (Watts) finds a diary in her bag and, by trying to discover the girl’s
identity, places herself in danger at the hands of Russian gangsters.
Mortensen is the inscrutable driver who is not all he seems. Stylish and
gory, this David Cronenberg film paints London as a place of baroque
violence and underground subterfuge.
Believe the hype? Fans of Cronenberg’s mordant thriller A
History of Violence, will find much to enjoy. Mortensen is brilliant –
brooding, deadly and tattooed to within an inch of his life.
Release Oct 26
Ratatouille
Starring Peter O’Toole, Ian Holm, Patton Oswalt
The plot Remy the rat dreams of greatness as a chef in the kitchens of
Paris. He forms an unlikely alliance with Linguini, the garbage boy in the
kitchen run by TV chef Gusteau. But can a friendship between rat and man
survive the hardest test of all – cooking for the food critic Anton Ego?
Believe the hype? The latest film from Pixar is an absolute delight.
The American press is already suggesting that the film has the recipe for
success at the Oscars.
Release Oct 12
The Golden Compass
Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green
The plot Based on the Philip Pullman novel H is Dark Materials:
Northern Lights, the film is a star-laden fantasy set in a parallel
universe. A girl called Lyra sets off on an epic journey to try to save her
kidnapped friend. Braving encounters with armoured bears and witches,
gobblers and gyptians, Lyra learns that her destiny is inextricably linked
to the fate of her world. Believe the hype? Big budget, big ambitions
and even bigger names – this picture aims to be the holiday movie of choice
for the whole family. A stunning Nicole Kidman is second only to the special
effects.
Release Dec 7
Michael Clayton
Starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson
The plot Michael Clayton (Clooney) works as a “fixer” for one of
Manhattan’s top law firms. His job is to clean up the mess left by the
company’s high-paying, high-maintenance clients. He is good at it – until a
top lawyer at his own company has a nervous breakdown and sabotages a
multimillion-dollar law suit.
Believe the hype? Intelligent thrillers are thin on the ground so there
should be an audience, particularly as Clooney gives a fine performance. But
the world of corporate law is a complicated one: a little too much wordy
exposition is required to let the audience know what is going on.
Release Sept 28
