With the release of the last big action blockbuster of the summer last week-G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra-the summer movie season has officially come to a close. As we bid adieu to the space ships and superheroes, a whole new slate of films is set to open. Will Holston and Landon Burris present their picks for their top ten most anticipated films of the year.
Landon Burris’s picks:
#1 – Shutter Island
Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s first feature film since the Oscar-winning The Departed, marks the director’s return to the thriller genre similar to his hit remake of Cape Fear in 1991. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), who leads an ensemble cast as a detective investigating the disappearance of a female inmate (Emily Mortimer, Lars and the Real Girl) from an insane asylum. The movie’s eerie premise and October release date make it a great option for the Halloween season.
#2 – Where the Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, has finally been adapted into a feature length movie by innovative director Spike Jonze. Since the book is short and almost entirely pictures, it will be interesting to see the results; based on two early trailers (wonderfully mixed with a track from Arcade Fire), it will do the source material justice. Newcomer Max Records plays Max, and stars like James Gandolfini (“The Sopranos”) and Catherine O’Hara (Best in Show) lend their voice talents to the various “wild things”.
#3 – Up in the Air
After his successes with Thank You For Smoking and the Oscar winning Juno, director Jason Reitman looks to go three for three with his new film, Up in the Air. Starring George Clooney as a professional corporate downsizer (that is, he gets paid by various firms to fire people), this is the film that had St. Louis abuzz last spring. Like Reitman’s last two films, this one mixes drama with more comedic elements; Clooney’s character’s main goal in life is to acquire 10 million frequent-flyer miles. Also starring the talents of Jason Bateman (Juno) and Vera Farmiga (Orphan), this is almost guaranteed to be a hit with critics and audiences.
#4 – Zombieland
Fans of the cult hit Shaun of the Dead will be looking forward to Zombieland, the new horror-comedy from director Ruben Fleischer (it’s his first feature film). Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson, Semi-Pro) and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg, Adventureland) play two men on the road in a world overrun with zombies. When they meet up with Little Rock (Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine) and Wichita (Emma Stone, Superbad), they try to figure out how to exist in “Zombieland.”
#5 – Extract
Starring Jason Bateman of TV’s “Arrested Development,” Mike Judge’s new comedy Extract revolves around the life of the manager of an extract plant (that is, a factory that produces walnut extract). He has to deal with his problems at work and with his unfaithful wife (Kristen Wiig). The movie also stars Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Ben Affleck (He’s Just Not That Into You) and, judging from the trailer and early buzz, it should be one of the funniest movies this year. Mike Judge could score his first theatrical hit since Beavis & Butthead Do America and fans of Office Space should make sure not to miss this one.
#6 – The Lovely Bones
Renowned director Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) takes on another highly anticipated genre-crossing project with The Lovely Bones. Based on the best-selling novel from Alice Sebold, the movie follows a murdered girl (Saoirse Ronan, Atonement) who watches over her family and her killer from heaven. As she watches from above, her family copes with the loss while she must decide whether or not to bring vengeance upon her killer. With talents like Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon and Rachel Weisz under Jackson’s direction, this will be one to watch come Oscar season.
#7 – The Informant!
Director Steven Soderbergh and Matt Damon team up once again for this in the vein of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven franchise. Damon is Mark Whitacre, the vice president of an agricultural business who turns into a government informant when his company is accused of price-fixing. The movie is based on a true story scenes of the film were notably shot in St. Louis.
#8 – A Serious Man
Hot off of the Oscar winning No Country for Old Men and last year’s hit comedy Burn After Reading, the Coen brother’s return to their indie roots with the small budget dark comedy, A Serious Man. The comedy’s premise involves a Jewish-American professor in the 1960s whose life is falling apart because his brother won’t move out of his home and, as a result, his wife threatens to leave him. The bizarre trailer is enough to get any Coen brothers fan excited.
#9 – Fantastic Mr. Fox
Another movie based on a book geared toward a younger audiences, Wes Anderson directs his first animated feature with Fantastic Mr. Fox. The movie features an all-star voice cast (George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson just to name a few), and will surely feature some of the meticulous direction that have made Anderson’s other films so enjoyable. This will be the movie to see during a Thanksgiving that also will produce the presumable turkeys 2012, Old Dogs and The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
#10 – Sherlock Holmes
Snatch director Guy Ritchie could have his first successful film since marrying Madonna with Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) continues his impressive comeback in the titular role, along with Jude Law (The Holiday) as his trusty sidekick, Watson. Though the film looks admittedly cheesy and unfaithful to source material, who wouldn’t want to watch a movie with RDJ and the lovely Rachel McAdams?
Will Holston’s picks:
Ten Most Anticipated
By Will Holston
10. The September Issue and Good Hair (tie): Two radically different documentaries-the first following notorious Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour during the creation of the magazine’s most important issue of the year and the second comedian Chris Rock’s satire on the subject of hair in the African American community-both attempt to understand the processes by which beauty is defined in a cultural context. Wintour, whose persona was the inspiration for Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada, gave unprecedented access to her professional and private worlds during the filming of the documentary, and Rock’s film was inspired by his daughters’ embarrassment about their natural hair.
9. The Lovely Bones: Peter Jackson returns from the land of epic battles and giant apes to the smaller, magical realism style of filmmaking that typified his career in films like 1994’s Heavenly Creatures. Adapted from the popular novel by Alice Sebold, Lovely Bones tells the story of the aftermath of the murder of a teenage girl as told from the murdered girl’s perspective as she looks down from heaven. Early production photos indicate that Jackson’s hyper-imaginative mind is at work again, especially in his vision of heaven that played such an important role in the novel, and the cast (including Rachel Weisz of The Brothers Bloom and Saoirse Ronan of Atonement) is impressive.
8. Antichrist: Besieged with cries of misogyny and nihilism after emerging from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Lars Von Trier’s controversial new film has so far been met with equal parts praise and damnation. Any film that stirs up so much provocative argument must be worth a look, especially coming from the always-polarizing Von Trier who proclaimed himself “the greatest director in the world” at an infamous and combative press conference at Cannes this year. Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (I’m Not There) won Best Actress at the festival for the film.
7. An Education: A sensation coming out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, this British film boasts an all star cast-Shattered Glass’s Peter Sarsgaard and Sense and Sensibility’s Emma Thompson chief among them-but much of its buzz has centered around the central role played by up-and-coming actress Carey Mulligan, recently seen in a small role in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. Though there’s always the fear that such magnanimous festival buzz will prove overblown, the film’s trailer implies a charming wit and personal touch that could make it an art house sensation.
6. Broken Embraces: Pedro Almodovar is back, and he’s bringing his newest muse (Penelope Cruz, who last collaborated with him in 2006’s Volver) with him in this colorful noir pastiche that appears to contain the same mix of cinematic imagery, surreal characters and saturated color that has made his style so instantly recognizable on the world stage. No one knows much about the plot of the film other than the lucky few who have screened it at various festivals. But already, Almodovar’s cult following has made it a much-anticipated fall release.
5. Taking Woodstock: Ang Lee, the amazingly versatile Taiwanese director whose films just might be the best “slice of life” depictions of American life today, returns with a comedy based on the real life story of Elliot Tiber who offered up his acres of land for the Woodstock festival in 1969. Starring comedian Demetri Martin in the lead role, the film is full of name actors-from Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as a cross dressing free spirit to Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) as Tiber’s eccentric mother. Audiences at Cannes were put off by the film’s comedic elements, but Lee is a filmmaker who has earned the benefit of the doubt.
4. Avatar: James Cameron’s first narrative feature since his film Titanic, Avatar is said to push the boundaries of filmmaking in tantalizing ways that imply it can either be a significant accomplishment or a magnificent failure. Cameron, who previewed footage from the film at this year’s ComiCon, has said in interviews that he explored the limits of 3D movie making in his newest science fiction opus. It is this ambition that has made Avatar an eagerly anticipated and hyped film that much of the world is waiting to see.
3. Nine: Armed with arguably the sexiest cast of the year, including Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies), and the same director that successfully brought Chicago to the big screen a few years ago, Nine is an adaptation of the Tony award winning Broadway musical of the same name, loosely inspired by Federico Fellini’s classic film, 8?. This is probably the most traditionally pedigreed film on this list and it smells a bit like rehashing the formula that made Chicago such a success. However, with this cast, it looks like it will be hard to miss.
2. The Burning Plain: Since winning an Oscar in 2003 for her performance as a real life drifter and serial killer in Monster, Charlize Theron has slowly become one of the most interesting actresses in Hollywood, choosing projects with interesting and up-and-coming directors from all over the globe. Here, she puts herself in the hands of Guillermo Arriago, writer of 21 Grams, on his first feature length film. She is joined by another Academy Award winner, Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential), in the interwoven, time spanning story of three women whose fates collide. Films from first time directors are always a risky venture, but the chance of finding a refreshing new cinematic voice is too good to pass up.
1. The Road: Several years in the making, this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel has been on many a film aficionado’s radar ever since The Proposition director John Hillcoat was announced as the director of the project and Viggo Mortenson (Eastern Promises) signed on in the lead role. Early footage from the film looks beautifully realized and appears to follow the bleakness of the source material. Also starring Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) and Charlize Theron (see above), The Road’s subject matter may be dark, but, if it’s done well, it might just be the most uplifting film experience of the year.
