September 2014 Film Preview

The Summer is coming to close and it's times for films to start taking more of a serious edge as we get ready for Oscar buzz season. There appears to be a lot of indie films this month after a Summer of blockbusters. Please check your sources when you hit the cineplex and check out iTunes and On Demand for new releases. The rental prices are cheaper than the theater.

September 5th

• Innocence: Thin good looking wealthy teen has her stepmom enroll her in an stuffy prep school where weird shit happens. The stepmom, Kelly Reilly, seems to be at the source of the weird shit. As it turns out, the step mom is evil and she sacrifices virgins teen girls for eternal youth or something. 
• The Identical: Blake Rayne plays Ryan Wade, son of Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta, a conservative uptight minister. Blake loves to sign and by his teenage years, looks and sounds a lot like Elvis. He's really talented and the chicks dig him but (and there's always a but) his dad disapproves of rock and roll. So Ryan releases records under his alter ego Drexel Hemsley. The film traces wade/Hemsley's career from the 50s to the mid-70s. As Liota adds old man make up, he realizes how proud of Ryan he his. Ashley Judd ages quite well by the way.
• The Longest Week: Jason Bateman plays Conrad, wealthy do nothing living off his hotel-magnate family. One day the gravy train ends and he's evicted and disowned. He moves in with his pal Dylan (Billy Crudup) and falls for Dyaln's girlfriend Beatrice (it's Olivia Wilde, of course he's going to fall for her). As the relationship between Beatrice and Conrad develops, it doesn't sit well with Dylan. Jocelyn (Jenny Slate) plays the grounded friend who works for a living I guess. The film is directed by up and coming Wes Anderson wannabe Peter Glanz. This film looks quriky and has all the indie earmarks but its will be hard for me to get into a film about a 40 something dude who has to cope with the reality of not being wealthy anymore while still acting like an adolescent (wow, I feel like a grown-up). Also, Billy Crudup is a very handsome man (Bateman is no slouch either but...) and Wilde is trading down. Especially since he's penniless but I guess that means she can fix him. This also doesn't seem like a role for Bateman but maybe he feels he can't play Michael Bluth forever.
• God Help the Girl: Speaking of Wes Anderson wannabes  Stuart Murdoch directs a film that's produced by guys who produced a couple of Wes Anderson films. The film stars Emily Browning as a the quirky pretty girl who forms a band with other good looking people and perform in front of good looking (mostly white) people. The trailer is a lot of images of Browning and other cast members dancing around in clothes from a Wes Anderson film whilst the title song to the film plays. That's the trailer and very few people actually speak. I think the guy who Browning falls for says that she needs to join a pop band and then the song queues. If I want to see a Wes Anderson film, I'll go see a Wes Anderson film. PASS. 
• Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It: There's these 3 weird dudes living in a trailer park selling weed to the other weird residents of the trailer park. When the state or provincial government (they might be in Canada) come templates legalizing weed, they see their livelihood threatened. They go the the capital to try and stop the vote but hijinx might ensue. This isn't a slapstick weed comedy like Half Baked. Maybe it's more of the indie version of it instead.
• Frontera: When former sheriff Ed Harris's wife is killed, he wants answers. He's not quite sold on the the guilt of Michael Pena, who just happened to be crossing the border on Harris' property and who may have been the real target, so he decides to look for the real killer. Murder mystery that involves illegal immigrants, racism and killers of illegal of immigrants. My money is on Ed Harris finding the real killer and dispensing his own brand of justice. Maybe.
• Falcon Rising: If all of the good scenes from this film are in the trailer then count me in! Martial arts, Yakuza, katana blades and revenge. F*ck Yea! Michael Jai White (remember him from Spawn?) is an ex-solider with PTSD issues who goes to Brazil to investigate the murder of his sister Laila Ali, who was there doing humanitarian work. Turns out the Yakuza may be behind her murder and White is out for revenge. 
• Last Days in Viet Nam: Documentary about the final days of Saigon before it fell to the communists on April 30th, 1975. The film describes how when the North Vietnamese were on their way in, South Vietnamese were desperate to get out. Rory Kennedy writes/directs/produces a gut wrenching film about how some Americans did all they could to save as many lives as they could by getting as many civilians as they could out of Saigon. This should be a must see.
• The Remaining: Young couple get married and the rapture hits. Whoops! Lots of religious implications about the end of days but in a horror film kind of way. 

September 10th

• My Old Lady: Kevin Kline is an American who inherits a sweet apartment in France. He wants to sell it. Maggie Smith has been living in said apartment for decades and by some obscure French law he can't sell it until she dies. This makes Kline a little more bitter. Luckily, Smith has a daughter who happens to be romantically uninvolved and happens to be Kristin Scott Thomas. 
• Bee People: Compelling documentary about the decline in the Honey Bee population. Why is this important? Bees are responsible for most of the pollination which produces a lot of the food we eat. See why it's important now? Science doesn't know why the bees are dying off. So go out and start beekeeping.

September 12th

• No Good Deed: Idris Elba is a psycho ex-con who enters the life of Taraj P. Henson in a not so nice way and looks to ruin her life. The film takes place in Atlanta because if it was Florida or Detroit, Elba's character would've been shot knocking on the door. Elba looks pretty creepy in this one. Might be worth a look.
• Dolphin Tale 2: The cast from the feel good Dolphin Tale are back with some baby dolphins. 
• The Skeleton Twins: Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are estranged brothers and sister that haven't spoke in 10 years. Wiig and husband Luke Wilson are thinking about having a baby but Wiig is going through a bit of midlife crisis. Hader is kind of the "weird guy." They reminisce about the past and try to look toward the future. Ty Burrell also stars. Good solid coast, could have a few laughs and be worth a look.
• The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain are lovers with a great life. They're the 2 best looking people in the room and I can only assume that they have fantastic sex. While living together, McAvoy wakes up and Chastain is gone. It appears she's a commit-a-phobe. The ony thing she can commit to is her commitment issues apparently. This looks like a nice film with great actors but it's hard for me to get into a film like this. Two good looking people that can't make it work. I think things would work out for them eventually. 
• The Drop: Tom Hardy is a not that bright but streetwise Brooklyn bartender who works at James Gandolfini's bar. The bar is a "drop" for mob money. Unsavory characters drop off envelopes of cash all the time. Everything runs pretty smoothly and it's kind of quiet. Until some dudes decide to rob the place. The pleasant nature of this business gets a little of kilter. There's not a lot of violence in the trailer but there's a lot of shots of guys cocking pistols. The mob doesn't like it when people take their hard earned protection money so you know things are going to get violent at some point. These guys aren't known for the negotiating skills. Noomi Rapace also stars as Hardy's love interest. This looks like a solid film with a good cast and an interesting director in Michael Roskam.
• Honeymoon: Young, good looking white newlyweds take their honeymoon at the bride's family's cottage IN THE WOODS! It starts off nice then surprisingly, things get weird. Things go from weird to chaotic. Nothing good ever happens when good looking white people go into the woods. They usually die a gruesome death.
• At the Devils Door: Real estate agent tries to sell a home but the creepy daughter of the owners comes home. Since the realtor is a goody goody, she tries to help the daughter.  The thing is, when the creepy daughter returns, scary shit starts to happen. There's a lot of dimly lit shots with weird stuff and creepy figures coming up behind the realtor. Tough call as it could be a scary film or just a lame attempt at scary film. Buyer beware.

September 17th

• The Guest: Soldier rotates back to the states and visits the family of his friend who was KIA. He's very polite and caring towards the family. After the younger brother gets bullied, he takes care of it. By brutally beating the bullies up. Really bad. Of course the sister of the fallen soldier has feeling about the guy (he's a good looking dude). Things start to unravel and eventually there's a firefight. Tough call on this one. I can't see myself going to see this in the cineplex so maybe iTunes or just passing on it altogether. 
• 20000 Days on Earth: A film the explores the daily life of singer/writer Nick Cave. It's Cave's 20,000th day on Earth and the film takes a look into his life. Doesn't seem all that eventful. Cave still performs, writes and does film soundtracks. He's also a family man who watches tv with his kids. 

September 19th

• The Maze Runner: Set in the dystopian future, good looking teens have to go through an impossible maze or die but the maze does most of the killing. My guess is that the best looking ones make it at through at the end.
• This is Where I Leave You: All star cast consisting of Jason Bateman (his 2nd release this month), Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Adam Driver as a pseudo-estranged family getting together after the death of the patriarch. Bateman gets informed of the passing after catching his wife sleeping with his boss. Fey plays the older sister who tells him to get his life in order (going after Rose Byrne is a good start) when they sit out on the roof. Fonda is the touched up matriarch who tries to keep the kids in the nest for a little awhile. There are so many cliches in the trailer I don't know where to begin. PASS!
• A Walk Among the Tombstones: What was the last film Liam Neeson kicked a lot of ass or left a large swathe of bodies in his wake? Non-Stop perhaps? I would argue no. We haven't seen a spike in body bag sales from a Neeson film since 2012's Taken 2. Neeson is a disgraced ex-NYC cop who is hired for his "unique skills" to track down some kidnappers. That plot sounds familiar doesn't it? Much like Denzel in The Equalizer, good or bad, I'm seeing this film.
• Tracks: Mia Wasikowska is Robyn Davidson. In 1977 Davidson decided it would be a good idea to travel 1700 miles across the deserts of Australia to the Indian Ocean. She only took her dog and four camels. Why? Why not I guess. She's Australian and Aussies have a tendency to march to the beat of the own drummer. Apparently, it has taken some 30 years to adapt the book to the silver screen. 
• The Zero Theorem: Visionary director Terry Gilliam directs this futuristic film about a programmer (Christoph Waltz) who is searching for an algorithm to determine if life has any meaning. To be honest, I took that from it's wikipedia page because I have no clue how to describe the trailer. Waltz is a bit obsessive and a bit of social outcast. If you've seen any of Gilliam's prior films (Brazil, 12 Monkeys), then you know that he doesn't take the low road. This is a film I am going to see. Gilliam is far from a cookie-cutter director and there is some amazing imagery in the trailer. 
• Tusk: This film is pretty straightforward but it's hard to describe with out a "what the f*ck?" So I'll be brief, Justin Long goes to interview reclusive weirdo Michael Parks, who's got a thing for walruses. You read that right. He's so much into walruses that he turns Justin Long into one. It seems really disturbing. The strong cast includes Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment.
• Hector and the Search for Happiness: Simon Pegg plays a psychiatrist who is bored with his life and he feels that his patients under his care are going nowhere. So decides to go on a quest for what makes people happy despite the fact that he lives a pretty good life himself, with a sweet apartment and a lovely live-in girlfriend (Rosamund Pike). But it's not enough. Pegg travels the world, meets people and what not. This is nothing new, well to do white guy who has a lot but still feels empty. The film sports an all-star cast with Toni Collette, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard and Christopher Plummer as the old professor giving out advice in the forms of cliches.
• Pride: Based on a true story. In 1984 there was a particularly nasty miners strike in Britain. A group of gay activists decide to help the miners (a group not typically fond gays in those days) by raising money for their families. The relationship between the townsfolk and the activists is frosty at first but eventually things thaw as the townsfolk see that the activists are genuinely concerned fro them. A real triumph of the spirit. Or something like that.
• Fort Bliss: Michelle Monaghan plays a decorated soldier who faces a mountain of struggles upon returning home from a tour in Afghanistan. She has to reconnect with a son who barley knows her and deal with a jerky ex-husband (Ron Livingston) who seems bitter that she was off serving her country leaving him with all of the parental responsibilities. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it is for soldiers in general trying to return to their lives after serving in war. I suspect it might be even more so for women in this type of situation. 
• Pump: Documentary about the evils of Big Oil and how really possible it is to start waning America off its oil addiction. I'm always interested in films like this.

September 26th

• The Equalizer: Denzel Washington takes on the role at Edward Woodard made famous on CBS between 1985-1989. Denzel comes out of "retirement" to help out some locals from unsavory characters. This looks a lot like...I don't know...Taken? Or better yet...Man on Fire? Every few years Denzel comes out with a film that he kicks a lot of ass. I'm going to see this. Good or bad. Kind of like Neeson's release from the prior week.
• The Boxtrolls: Animated film about furniture that comes to life or something. Not for my demographic.
• The Two Faces of January: Interesting thriller starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, Viggo kills a guy while vacationing in Italy with Dunst. While trying to rid himself of the body he runs into Oscar Isaac and now they're all on the lamb. As they try to dodge the law, Isaac and Dunst start getting a little too close. The trailer looks real interesting and the cast is excellent. There's a lot of similarities between this film and The Talented Mr. Ripley, obviously. I may take this for a test drive.
• Jimi: All is By My Side: Andre Benjamin plays guitar legend Jimi Hendrix in this biopic about Hendrix's life in 60's London. Benjamin looks great as Jimi and makes an honest effort to sound like him too. The film charts Jimi's start in London but it's hard to tell how much of his career it covers. Looks interesting but I'm not 100% on Benjamin as an actor.