Summer 2014 was filled with some incredible movies, but fall looks to be even more packed. Here’s Hypable’s quintessential guide to every movie we’ve been waiting all year to finally see.
Jump to November movies | Jump to December movies
September
‘God Help the Girl’
September 5 (limited)
Written and directed by Stuart Murdoch of the band Belle and Sebastian, God Help the Girl stars Emily Browning as a girl who escapes from a hospital where she is being treated for anorexia nervosa and starts down the path of achieving her dream of becoming a musician.
The film is likely to result in diverging opinions. Early reviews have called the film incredibly twee; those who embrace its tweeness will likely love the film and others may be put off my the movie. The trailer seemingly does a good job of showing the tone of the movie without giving too much away, but we haven’t seen it so we can’t verify that for sure.
‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby’
September 12 (limited)
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is a unique movie. In the next two months, three different versions of the movie will premiere. On September 12, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them will hit limited release. On October 10, The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her will see its limited release.
Him/Her is two different movies that tell the story of an unraveling marriage from each spouse’s perspective, and Them is the combination of the two films into one, cut-together narrative piece. Written and directed by Ted Benson and starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby looks to be a movie worth seeing in any format. Them received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
‘The Skeleton Twins’
September 12 (limited)
When Bill Hader followed Kristen Wiig out the Saturday Night Live door, it was only a matter of time before the two SNL stars with incredible chemistry made a movie together. And it didn’t take long either as The Skeleton Twins made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival this year, a little over a year and a half since Hader walked away from SNL.
Given Wiig and Hader’s rapport The Skeleton Twins will be worth watching no matter the quality, but luckily the reviews out of Sundance were incredibly positive. The film was directed by Craig Johnson who co-wrote the script with Mark Heyman, and it also stars Ty Burrell and Luke Wilson.
‘The Maze Runner’
September 19
Of the movies yet to be released this year, there are few with a more passionate fanbase than that of The Maze Runner, an adaptation of James Dashner’s novel of the same name. Starring Teen Wolf lead Dylan O’Brien, this is an adaptation fans have been waiting for.
But does its September release date bear a curse? Traditionally a September release isn’t one studios give projects they are confident in, nor is its original February release. Will this be another The Mortal Instruments (which had an August release last year)? We certainly hope not. The film was directed by Wes Ball from a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, T.S. Nowlin, and it also stars Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Will Poulter.
‘This is Where I Leave You’
September 19
With a cast that includes Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, and Kathryn Hahn, where can This is Where I Leave You go wrong? The answer is likely one obvious place: under Shawn Levy’s direction.
Levy has helmed a few moderate successes like Date Night, but he’s also directed some huge duds like the Steve Martin Cheaper by the Dozen and Pink Panther movies, the successful but objectively terrible Night at the Museum movies, and, recently, The Internship.
There is hope that reteaming with Tina Fey will prove successful for Levy, and the fact that Jonathan Tropper adapted his own book for the screen will prove to be the best choice. With the cast it’ll be worth watching, but we certainly will have our reservations going in.
‘Tusk’
September 19
Tusk looks absolutely bizarre. This Kevin Smith project shows that the writer/director is completely rejuvenated as he plans to follow it up with Yoga Hosers and Moose Jaws, completing the “True North Trilogy,” a series “steeped in Canadian myths and culture.”
Tusk stars Justin Long as one half of a podcasting duo (the other is played by Haley Joel Osment) who goes up North to Canada to interview an eccentric man played by Michael Parks. Upon being skeptical at the man’s claims about the Walrus’ powers, Long’s character is kidnapped. He’s then named Mr. Tusk and the man starts trying to turn him into a Walrus. The movie looks weird and we can’t wait.
‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’
September 19
Say what you will about the quality of many of the films he stars in, Liam Neeson is a bonafide movie star who brings people into theaters. While not as big of a success as the Taken films, his last film Non-Stop nearly quadrupled its $50 million production budget, showing that even the lesser Neeson starrers are successful films.
The hope is that success will continue with A Walk Among the Tombstones, an adaptation of the book of the same name by Lawrence Block. The adaptation written and directed by Scott Frank will star Neeson as an ex-NYPD cop working as an unlicensed private investigator working outside the law. The film will also star Dan Stevens.
‘The Zero Theorem’
September 19 (limited)
The Christoph Waltz starrer The Zero Theorem has already been released in several countries, but it’s finally seeing its U.S. theatrical release September 19 (it’s already available for VOD rental or purchase). The film looks bizarre, but those who have followed the career of director Terry Gilliam should not be surprised.
Known for films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Twelve Monkeys, Gilliam has made a name for himself for not telling stories in a traditional way. Reviews have been mixed to this point, but for fans of Gilliam it will still be a must watch.
‘The Boxtrolls’
September 26
If “from the creators of Coraline and Paranorman” doesn’t give you a good feeling about The Boxtrolls, there’s something wrong. Those two movies were stellar, and The Boxtrolls looks like it will have the same look and tone.
We’ll have to wait and see if first time directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi and first time screenwriters Irena Brignull and Adam Pava will be able to pull off the same magic, but the trailer looks promising. The vocal cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, and Tracy Morgan looks great.
‘The Equalizer’
September 26
Everything said about Liam Neeson in the Walk Among the Tombstones entry can be echoed for Denzel Washington. Washington doesn’t make nearly as many movies as Neeson (he’s been on an about one movie a year pace for the last few years), so if anything that makes his films something of a mini-event.
We’ll still have to wait a while for him to appear in another Oscar-bait role (with his latest coming in 2012 with Flight) last year’s 2 Guns proved that Washington in frivolous action roles is always a lot of fun.
Reteaming with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua for The Equalizer may prove to be a great move. The Equalizer is based on the ’80s television series of the same name and also stars Chloë Grace Moretz.
Next Page: Which Oscar favorite will premiere in October?
‘Pride’
September 26 (limited)
Pride premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and so far it has received nothing but extremely high praise. All 11 reviews filed on Rotten Tomatoes are positive.
Pride was inspired by a true story. Set in the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike. Because of this, a London-based gay and lesbian activist group raises money to support the strikers’ families. The union originally doesn’t want anything to do with the activist group, but eventually they realize together there is strength in numbers.
The cast of Pride is incredible. Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, Andrew Scott, Joseph Gilgun, George MacKay, and Ben Schnetzer all star in the film. The film was directed by Matthew Warchus from a script by Stephen Beresford.
October
‘Men, Women & Children’
October 1 (limited)
Adam Sandler is starring in a film with awards potential, and it’s been a while since we’ve been able to say that (unless we were talking about the Razzies). To find a Sandler movie with a fresh approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes you’d have to go back to 2009 with Funny People, and that movie only barely was not deemed a dud by critics.
You’d have to go back even further to see a widely acclaimed Sandler movie: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love in 2002. With that in mind, it’ll be great to see Sandler star in Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children.
Assuming last year’s Labor Day was only a minor bump in the otherwise great road for Reitman, this film looks very promising. Featuring an impressive cast that includes Ansel Elgort, Judy Greer, Jennifer Garner, Emma Thompson, Dean Norris, Rosemarie DeWitt, and more, Men, Women & Children looks great.
‘Gone Girl’
October 3
Will Gone Girl be a major Oscar contender or will it be more of a commercial genre film? Can it be both? This is the major question surrounding this movie. It certainly has a lot going for it. From being directed by David Fincher, one of the greatest modern directors, to starring the never-been-hotter Ben Affleck to being an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best selling novel, Gone Girl will certainly make a lot of money.
But will the Oscars embrace it? Thrillers don’t usually make their way very deep into the Oscar race, and we can look at the pretty solid Prisoners last year as evidence. Still, the Academy loves Fincher, so it certainly has a shot. It’ll likely come down to critical reception and how hard Fox campaigns.
‘The Judge’
October 10
The Judge is Robert Downey Jr.’s first serious role since 2009 when he starred in The Soloist (which wasn’t any good), and regardless of the quality of this movie it’ll be great to see him in this kind of role again. Yes, we love him as Tony Stark and he’s done a fine job as Sherlock Holmes, but Downey Jr. is one of the greatest actors working today and we should want him to take meaty, Oscar-caliber roles in addition to big blockbuster roles.
Starring alongside Robert Duvall seems like a match made in heaven, and the cast that includes Vera Farmiga and Billy Bob Thornton only makes this sound even better.
Of course, we are wary of a movie directed by David Dobkin, who besides directing the moderately acclaimed Wedding Crashers has also directed some major duds like Fred Claus, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and The Change-Up. Luckily the screenplay sounds more promising as first time screenwriter Bill Dubuque wrote it with Gran Torino scribe Nick Schenk.
‘Whiplash’
October 10 (limited)
Whiplash premiered this January at the Sundance Film Festival and was a major hit. Not only was it the festival’s premiere film, but it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic category. The movie stars Miles Teller as Andrew Neyman, a young jazz musician who wishes to achieve greatness. He studies under an instructor played by J.K. Simmons. Simmons’ Terence Fletcher character is a ruthless instructor and pushes Andrew Neyman in extreme ways.
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, Whiplash looks like it will be a great movie, and there’s been lots of talk that Simmons could be a major contender for a Supporting Actor Oscar.
‘Kill the Messenger’
October 10 (limited)
No one has directed more episodes of Homeland than Michael Cuesta, and the director will make his first return to the big screen since Roadie. After directing eight Homeland episodes, he should certainly know something about how to tell a CIA story, and that’s exactly what Kill the Messenger is.
Jeremy Renner stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb who uncovers that the CIA imported huge amounts of cocaine into the country and was then the target of a huge smear campaign. Kill the Messenger was adapted by Peter Landesman and also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Sheen, Ray Liotta, Rosemarie DeWitt, Oliver Platt, Tim Blake Nelson, and many more.
‘Fury’
October 17
It’s interesting that David Ayer’s Fury is expected to be such a major Oscar contender. Earlier this year Ayer wrote and directed Sabotage, a movie that was pretty much universally critically reviled. Ayer is back with Fury, another movie that he both wrote and directed, and this one could be a Best Picture frontrunner, or at least a frontrunner to receive a nomination.
Ayer’s 2012 End of Watch proved he has what it takes to make an incredibly strong movie, and a World War II plot is usually enough for the Academy to take notice. The cast is downright incredible too. Brad Pitt stars in the lead role, and the cast also includes Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Scott Eastwood, Michael Peña, Jason Isaacs, and more.
The film was originally supposed to premiere in November, however, so it could be slowly backing out of the race. Still, Brad Pitt in a World War II movie? We’re in.
‘Book of Life’
October 17
Let’s be honest, an animated day of the dead movie produced by Guillermo Del Toro released just in time for Halloween sounds pretty cool.
Written and directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez (with Douglas Langdale credited as co-writer), Book of Life is a fantastical animated movie that will follow Manolo, a man who has to balance his family’s expectations and what his heart tells him to do. His journey to court Maria takes him on a journey through many worlds.
The vocal cast for the movie is excellent. It includes Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Ron Perlman, Danny Trejo, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, and more.
‘Birdman’
October 17 (limited)
If early reviews are any indication, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman may be the frontrunner for this year’s Best Picture race. Michael Keaton stars as a washed up actor famous for playing an iconic superhero who attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself while battling his ego and attempting to adapt Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love into a Broadway play.
The movie will exist somewhat in a meta space as Keaton’s relationship with Batman and this film sounds not all that different from his character’s relationship with Birdman. Early reviews have projected that Keaton’s performance could be the strongest of the year, and the film is said to have many other special elements as well.
A notable one is Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography that is made to look as if the movie is one continuous shot. Lubezki won the Oscar for Best Cinematography last year, and it’s possible he could repeat. Iñárritu wrote the screenplay with Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo, and the movie also stars Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan, and more.
‘Camp X-Ray’
October 17 (limited)
Even after only watching the Camp X-Ray trailer, we have to notice that Kristen Stewart looks far more at ease in this role as a military guard in Guantanamo Bay than she ever did in Twilight. Given her personality, it makes sense that these kind of roles could suit her more than roles putting her at the center of a romantic plot ever could.
So far Camp X-Ray has only received mixed reviews (it premiered at Sundance), but we can’t wait to see it to see Stewart in a different kind of role like this. Maybe this will be the beginning of a career shift.
Next Page: Which November release is a near guaranteed financial and critical success?
‘The Tale of Princess Kaguya’
October 17 (limited)
There’s often at least one foreign film among the Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature, and there’s a decent chance it could be The Tale of Princess Kaguya.
Co-writer and director Isao Takahata has made a number of highly acclaimed films like Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies), Omohide poro poro (Only Yesterday), Pom Poko (Heisei tanuki gassen pompoko) (The Raccoon War), and My Neighbors the Yamadas, so it’s a safe assumption that this could be a good film too. He co-wrote it with Riko Sakaguchi and Mike Jones has translated it into English.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a Studio Ghibli film and will be distributed by GKIDS in the U.S. Chloë Grace Moretz will voice the titular character in the English dub and James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden, Oliver Platt and Dean Cain will all have supporting voice roles.
‘Laggies’
October 24
Laggies is another movie that premiered at Sundance to less than stellar reviews, but when a cast includes Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and the always great Sam Rockwell, we’re instantly interested. This looks to be a coming of age film of sorts, but instead of focusing on a teen coming into adulthood it’ll focus on an adult coming into adulthood.
Knightley stars as a woman who in the decade since graduating high school has seen very little change in her life, so when her high school boyfriend proposes she freaks out and runs away for a week, meeting high school teen played by Moretz and her single dad played by Rockwell.
The arrested development subgenre of comedy is often male driven, so it’ll be nice to see a female in this role. If the film has as many problems as early reviews have suggested, it’ll be interesting to see if Rockwell can save the movie as he so often does.
‘St. Vincent’
October 24
As strange as it sounds, Bill Murray has only been nominated for one Oscar. He didn’t win for his terrifically nuanced Lost in Translation performance, and it looks like he might want another shot. That’s the way the St. Vincent trailer feels anyway, and it’ll likely all come down to how good the film is. The competition this year is high (as it always is) so even getting a nomination is a long shot, but it’s great to see Murray trying with this kind of role.
It’s also great to see Melissa McCarthy in a more serious role as she can actually act rather than a role where she’s just playing a female Chris Farley. The cast also includes Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd, and Terrence Howard, and it was written and directed by Theodore Melfi who is making his theatrical feature debut.
‘White Bird in a Blizzard’
October 24 (limited)
White Bird in a Blizzard is based on the novel of the same name from Laura Kasischke. The adaptation was written and directed by Gregg Araki, and if anything that means it’s certain to feature lots of teens having sex and more nudity than you can shake a stick at. The movie stars Shailene Woodley and Eva Green, two fantastic actresses.
In the movie, Woodley plays a teen who experiences the sensation of her hormones going wild and Green plays her mother who completely disappears one day. It’ll be great to see Woodley and Green play off each other as well as the rest of the cast that includes Christopher Meloni, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, among others.
‘Nightcrawler’
October 31
Nightcrawler is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, and it looks great. If the trailer is any indication, star Jake Gyllenhaal is giving a transformative performance as it looks like he’s lost a lot of weight for the role. No critics have seen the movie so it’s hard to gauge how strong his performance is, but if the performance is fringe nomination worthy, the weight loss could push it over the top as the Oscars usually like that.
If the trailer is any indication, this looks like a great movie. This is Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut, and he also wrote the script. Previously GIlroy wrote the scripts for Real Steel and The Bourne Legacy so there’s definitely some cause for concern, but word out of TIFF will come soon enough.
‘Horns’
October 31 (limited)
Will Daniel Radcliffe’s Horns be any good? That’s a big question, and after watching the trailer it’s hard to say. Based on Joe Hill’s novel of the same name, Horns tells the story of how a young man (Radcliffe) is accused of murdering his girlfriend (Juno Temple) and then starts sprouting horns which in the court of the public opinion confirms that he murdered her.
The movie looks to be treading the line between horror and comedy, and it’ll be interesting to see if it gets it right. Director Alexandre Aja’s only moderately acclaimed movie is Piranha 3D, so we’re not completely confident that it will. The script was written by Keith Bunin.
‘Interstellar’
November 7
It’s not very often that a film is both a major Oscar contender and also a contender to be the highest grossing movie of the year, but most movies aren’t directed by Christopher Nolan. There is no other director whose films are as big of events as Nolan’s. Titanic aside, no non-franchise movie has made more money at the box office than Nolan’s last original movie Inception, so it’s very likely that Interstellar will make stupid money.
Last year’s Best Actor winner Matthew McConaughey stars in the film with Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Ellen Burstyn, Wes Bentley, Mackenzie Foy, Bill Irwin, Topher Grace, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, and even Matt Damon will have a small role in the film. It’s a star studded, ambitious movie, and there’s very few movies that we’re this anticipatory of.
‘Big Hero 6’
November 7
Walt Disney Animation Studios has been on a roll recently with Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, and they’ve really only had one dud (Meet the Robinsons) since the conglomeration between Disney and Pixar. Like all of Disney’s animation now, Big Hero 6 is a 3D computer-animated film.
It’s based on the little known Marvel comic of the same name, and it’s the first Marvel Disney animated movie. Centering around a young kid named Hiro Hamada and his robot Baymax, this is a story of a young team of heroes. Hopefully it can capture the same tone as Guardians of the Galaxy, another movie centering around a new team of heroes. It was directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, and Hall wrote the script with Jordan Roberts.
‘The Theory of Everything’
November 7 (limited)
The Theory of Everything will make its premiere this month at TIFF. Anthony McCarten’s script was inspired by Jane Hawking’s memoir Travelling to Infinity: My life with Stephen, and the sorta-adaptation was directed by James Marsh.
Eddie Redmayne stars in the film as physicist Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones stars as Jane Wilde, the arts student that Hawking fell in love with while studying at Cambridge University. Man on Wire director James Marsh helmed the movie which also stars Emily Watson and David Thewlis, among others.
‘Rosewater’
November 7 (limited)
Can The Daily Show host Jon Stewart direct a good movie? As Stewart has shown for years hosting his Comedy Central satirical news show, he is great at getting to the heart of issues, and it’s extremely likely that that ability will transfer over into Rosewater. But there are other elements that make a film a film, and in those areas Stewart has never been proven.
Rosewater Stewart wrote and directed himself based The New York Times best-selling memoir Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, written by Maziar Bahari. Rosewater premiered late last month at the Telluride Film Festival, and the few reviews so far have been solid.
Next Page: Which book to film adaptation will make a ton of money at the end of November?
‘A Most Violent Year’
November 12 (limited)
It’s a big year for Jessica Chastain. Between The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Interstellar, Miss Julie (which didn’t even make the list due to not yet having a U.S. release date), and A Most Violent Year, 2014 is a year of several incredible projects for Chastain. Her costars Oscar Isaac (The Two Faces of January, Mojave) and David Oyelowo (more on him later) are similarly busy, and with the three of them this is definitely a movie to watch.
J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year is set during the winter of 1981 in New York City during one of the most violent year’s in the history of the city. The story capitalizes on an immigrant family trying to capitalize on opportunities during the violence.
‘Dumb and Dumber To’
November 14
Can Dumb and Dumber To recapture the Dumb and Dumber magic? In all honesty we’re not very hopeful. The odds are probably closer to 1 in 1 million than 1 in 100, but we’re telling you there’s a chance. Jokes aside, we’re hopeful that this is good. (Scratch that, don’t put the jokes aside. We want jokes, and lots of them.)
There aren’t a lot of comedies coming out in this last third of the the year that’s mainly devoted to prestige films and the few holiday blockbusters, so at the very least it could wind up being a nice change of pace. Hopefully Jim Carrey will be on his A-game, it will be interesting to see Jeff Daniels in this kind of role again after The Newsroom, and the cast is filled with lots of other surprises.
‘Foxcatcher’
November 14 (limited)
Foxcatcher is expected to make a run at Best Picture this year, and it might be Birdman‘s biggest threat. This shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise after Bennett Miller’s prior two films Capote and Moneyball, and by winning the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, it’s confirmed that he’s made it three for three in directing stellar narrative movies.
Steve Carell is expected to be as big of a Best Actor contender as anyone this year, and that’s not too surprising given how little he looks like himself in the film, something the Oscars love. Carell is expected to go lead, but there’s a chance he could be campaigned for Supporting Actor instead. Mark Ruffalo is expected to make a strong run at Supporting Actor, and Channing Tatum’s performance is reportedly very strong too.
‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1’
November 21
Of the movies yet to be released this year, if Interstellar doesn’t make the most money it will be The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. If Inception and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire are good indicators, the two films could be very close in terms of box office totals.
We’re hoping that Mockingjay will be as much of a critical success as its predecessor. Francis Lawrence surprised everyone with how well he did helming Catching Fire, and his work was definitely cut out for him to make Mockingjay – Part 1 not a disappointment. It’ll be interesting to see what new material was added for the movie and to see how fans react to it.
Unless Serena finally finds distribution this will be the only Jennifer Lawrence performance left this year, so that’s worth looking forward to as well.
‘The Imitation Game’
November 21 (limited)
When we started writing this fall movie preview, not much was expected out of The Imitation Game, but then it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and was instantly proclaimed a big awards season contender. The problem with trying to predict the best movies of the year (and tangentially the ones that have huge awards potential) before the films have screened anywhere is evident; last year 12 Years a Slave went from intriguing historical biopic to Best Picture frontrunner after its Telluride premiere.
In the early The Imitation Game reviews, Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as English mathematician and logician Alan Turing who helped crack the Enigma code during World War II was described as a Best Actor worthy performance. This will certainly be a movie to keep an eye on.
‘Horrible Bosses 2’
November 26
Horrible Bosses was a big financial success for Warner Bros. and New Line by making just under $210 million internationally on a $35 million budget. Because of this, Warner Bros. decided to make a sequel. Horrible Bosses 2 will feature much of the same cast as the first.
Lead funnymen Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis have all returned along with Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, and Kevin Spacey. The only original star who hasn’t returned is Colin Farrell, and he’s been made up for with the additions of Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine.
Can the sequel capture the same spirit as this first? Given that it was primarily successful because of the strength of the cast, we’re certainly hopeful.
December
‘Wild’
December 5 (limited)
Reviews are still trickling in from the Wild premiere at Telluride, and this movie looks to be the opposite of The Imitation Game. Every year there are films that look good on paper, but reviews come in far too mixed for them to make big awards season pushes. Will that be the case for Wild?
There have only been a handful of reviews thus far, but they’ve been far less than glowing. Reviews have cited a terrific performance from Reese Witherspoon, but often great performances in less than stellar movies are lost by awards season. It’ll be a lot easier to see where Wild is headed after it screens at TIFF next week.
‘Exodus: Gods And Kings’
December 12
Can Ridley Scott put it together again with Exodus: Gods and Kings? This movie certainly does look good on paper, especially with its talented cast that stars Christian Bale as Moses and also includes Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, and Indira Varma.
While we don’t agree with Scott’s decision to cast an inaccurate, primarily white cast (or buy his bogus excuses about it) and we can empathize with those who wish to boycott the film, we’re willing to withhold judgement until we see the film for ourselves, particularly since the cast in undeniably talented.
Given Scott’s patchy track record over the last decade, we’re not confident this will be great, but there’s certainly a chance it could be.
‘Inherent Vice’
December 12 (limited)
Paul Thomas Anderson. We shouldn’t have to say more, but we will. Every time Anderson makes a movie it’s an event, and that’s because he every movie he’s made has been great. At this point it’s hard it imagine him making a bad movie.
He’s made the great but small debut film Hard Eight, the terrific Boogie Nights that put him on the map, the epic masterpiece Magnolia, the remarkable Punch-Drunk Love that showed that Adam Sandler could be a good actor in the right hands, the multi-Oscar winning There Will Be Blood, and the appropriately titled The Master.
Only two years after The Master, Anderson is back with Inherent Vice, a movie that much is not known about. Anyone who has read Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name will know that the source material is weird, and there’s thought that the film might wind up being too bizarre for the Oscars to reward it, though Anderson’s name and the likelihood of stellar reviews may be enough.
But with Anderson writing and directing and a stellar cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Jena Malone, Sasha Pieterse, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson, and so many more, this looks to be something special. With a return to the ’70s we hope it captures some of that Boogie Nights magic, and we can’t wait to reaction out of the New York Film Festival in October.
‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’
December 17
Though we’ve been disappointed by the last two Hobbit movies, we still can’t help but be excited for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, if only mildly so. Opinions on An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug have been polarizing by fans and critics alike.
In this writer’s opinion, the Hobbit films are a disappointment, and it’s easy to see where the Lord of the Rings films were better. The Hobbit films have seen a degradation of the quality of effects as well as in story and character development. There’s a chance The Battle of the Five Armies will return to form, and we’re hopeful that it will.
In addition to focusing on the titular battle, this film can be a success if focus is put on the development of the characters. An interesting place to see this will be where the movie bridges the gap between the stories contained in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
Next Page: Is Christmas 2014 the most loaded Christmas ever?
‘Annie’
December 19
In the upcoming remake of the classic musical Annie, the title role will be played by Quvenzhané Wallis, the youngest person to ever be nominated for an Academy Award. Miss Hannigan will be played by Cameron Diaz and Benjamin Stacks (the “Daddy” Warbucks character) will be played by Jamie Foxx.
This version of Annie has been updated for the modern world. Gone is “Daddy” Warbucks and in is Benjamin Stacks, a business tycoon running for mayor of New York City. We don’t expect that the film will make any awards season push (even gaining positive reviews could be tough), but odds are it will be a popular family film this holiday season.
‘Mr. Turner’
December 19 (limited)
Mr. Turner premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and recently played again at Telluride, and it’s received nothing but positive reviews (currently all 19 reviews filed on Rotten Tomatoes are positive). It shouldn’t be a surprise given the film’s writer and director Mike Leigh is a seven-time Oscar nominee, but this could be a major player this awards season.
Legendary character actor Timothy Spall has a rare leading role in Mr. Turner, and he won Best Actor at Cannes, beating out stiff competition that included Foxcatcher stars Steve Carell and Channing Tatum. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Spall make the jump and receive an Oscar nomination too. In addition to Spall, Mr. Turner also stars Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, and Karl Johnson.
‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2’
December 25
A lot of movies are coming out this Christmas day, and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is one of them. This sequel to the modestly successful Hot Tub Time Machine features a lot of returning players in front of and behind the camera. Like its predecessor, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 was written by Josh Heald, directed by Steve Pink, and stars Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, and Rob Corddry. Other members of the cast include Adam Scott, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, and many more.
“The hot tub doesn’t take you where you want to go, it takes you where you need to go,” Chevy Chase says in the trailer. Where Hot Tub Time Machine 2 needs to go is outrageous R-rated hilarity, and the trailer hints that it might be successful.
‘The Interview’
December 25
The Interview looks to be one of the most controversial movies of the year. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made their directorial debut last year with the summer hit comedy This is the End, and this year they’re releasing their second directorial feature The Interview which they wrote with Dan Sterling. Like the prior, this film will star Rogen and James Franco.
The Interview will star Franco as a reporter who lands an interview with Kim Jong-Un (Randall Park). When the U.S. government finds this out, Franco’s reporter character and his producer played by Rogen are tasked with assassinating Jong-Un, something that, obviously, won’t go smoothly.
We’ve been looking forward to this movie for quite some time, and it looks to be quite hilarious. Rogen and Goldberg already made one of the funniest comedies of the year in Neighbors (as producers), and their written and directed project looks even better.
The big question here is how much of Rogen and Goldberg’s vision will remain untainted. After the trailer was released a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman called the film “a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and absolutely intolerable.” Later it was revealed that thousands of buttons worn by North Korean officials would be digitally altered and that a late third act plot point may be altered (click the link to see potentially spoiler-filled details). We hope Rogen and Goldberg’s vision stays primarily intact, but we don’t want the movie to start World War III.
‘Into the Woods’
December 25
Starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Lilla Crawford, Daniel Huttlestone, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, Mackenzie Mauzy, Billy Magnussen, and Johnny Depp, Disney’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim (music) and James Lapine (book)’s Into The Woods hits theaters on Christmas Day 2014.
There’s a rule when it comes to the Oscars, never, ever count out a film released in the heat of awards season that stars Meryl Streep. With a whopping 18 Oscar nominations, Streep has been recognized by the Academy Awards for her performances more than any actor in history.
Nearly everything bodes well for Into the Woods Oscar chances. A big part of that is director Rob Marshall who has already proven with Chicago that he has the ability to direct a musical to Best Picture. With Lapine’s return to adapt his own book for the screen, we have very high hopes for Into the Woods. Is there a chance it could be too dark for Oscar voters? Maybe. Is there a chance Disney will dumb it down too much? Maybe. We’ll just have to wait and see.
‘Paddington’
December 25
We’ll be honest: our excitement for Paddington was higher when Colin Firth was set to voice the titular bear, but we’re sure Ben Whishaw will do a fine job. His supporting cast is impressive; new Doctor Who lead Peter Capaldi, Nicole Kidman, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, and Hugh Bonneville all have roles in the film.
While the trailer doesn’t give us any indication of the quality of the film, we’re sure Paddington will be a popular choice for families on Christmas and the weeks after as that’s certainly the audience it’s geared towards. Paul King isn’t an especially proven writer or director, but with Harry Potter producer David Heyman guiding the film we certainly are hopeful that it succeeds.
‘Unbroken’
December 25
This one looks remarkable. Though Angelina Jolie’ narrative debut as a director (In the Land of Blood and Honey) was less than a success, we aren’t counting her out yet. We believe she’ll turn out to be quite the talented director, and Unbroken will likely be the movie to prove it to everyone.
It will certainly help that she’ll have quite the script to work from. After Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence left Unbroken and Jolie was tapped as the new director, Oscar winning writers and directors Joel and Ethan Coen were tapped to rewrite William Nicholson and Richard LaGravenese’s early drafts of the script.
It looks as if Unbroken could be a huge player this awards season. Given its World War II setting which the Oscars typically love, there’s a good chance Unbroken could earn nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and it could even have a shot at winning. It will have stiff competition, but this could wind up being the movie this year.
Though the film has yet to screen, it looks like 23-year-old star Jack O’Connell doesn’t have a huge chance of earning an acting nomination. This could be the film that puts him on the map as one of the next big breakout stars, however. The film also stars Jai Courtney, Garrett Hedlund, and Domhnall Gleeson.
‘American Sniper’
December 25 (limited)
Like Fury director David Ayer with Sabotage, American Sniper director Clint Eastwood already delivered a major disappointment this year in Jersey Boys, but that shouldn’t automatically mean American Sniper doesn’t have a chance to be one of the year’s best films.
American Sniper is a passion project of Bradley Cooper’s that he developed as a producer, and he originally brought on multi-Oscar winner Steven Spielberg. Spielberg ended up dropping out of the project, and multi-Oscar winner Clint Eastwood was brought on to replace him.
The movie is based on U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s memoir of the same name with a script by Paranoia screenwriter Jason Dean Hall. The film will certainly rely on Eastwood having a great film left in him. The film’s late release date is reminiscent of Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby. To expect a film that great would be expecting too much, but if the film is that great it would be something special.
‘Big Eyes’
December 25 (limited)
Can Tim Burton make an Oscar contender of a movie? In Big Eyes, Burton has taken on a project outside of his comfort zone this year. It will be great to see the director take on the kind of project that he normally wouldn’t.
He definitely picked the right kind of project to do it with too. Big Eyes has been touted as the film that could finally land Amy Adams her first Oscar. With five nominations under her belt with nothing to show for it, this very well could be her year. The film could also make a play in other categories like Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz. With its December 25 release date, Big Eyes will be a prime Oscar candidate.
Big Eyes stars Adams as Margaret Keane, the highly successful painter who had to deal with her husband Walter (played by Waltz) taking credit for all of her work. The film will follow the pair’s relationship from its beautiful beginning to its courtroom end where Margaret and Walter have to participate in a “paint-off.”
‘Selma’
December 25 (limited)
Selma is another Christmas release that is expected to be a major Oscar contender. All of the pieces involved make this look like a very special film.
Selma will tell the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people which concluded with the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. If done well, a biopic of this topic could be a major film, but if it’s done poorly it could be forgettable like Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom last year.
We have every reason to believe this will be done well. Writer and director Ava DuVernay is becoming a force in Hollywood on multiple levels, and her two narrative feature length movies (I Will Follow and Middle of Nowhere) have been critical successes.
David Oyelowo stars in the film as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he could very well receive an Oscar nomination for his performance. Of course, the film will have to screen for an audience before that can be predicted accurately. Many thought Idris Elba was a frontrunner last year before Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom flopped. Oyelowo stars alongside Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tim Roth, Giovanni Ribisi, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lorraine Toussaint, and many more.
No trailer yet.
