10/7
Ides of March
Clooney makes a return to the director’s chair after the misstep of “The Leatherheads,” which came nowhere near the brilliance of this previous two directing efforts (“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Good Night, Good Luck”). The story unfolds during the frantic last days before an Ohio presidential primary. Ryan Gosling plays a young campaign press secretary who gets wrapped up in a political scandal involving his candidate (George Clooney) and must choose where his beliefs lie. Paul Giamatti and Marisa Tomei also star.
Machine Gun Preacher (Limited)
The film is the true story of Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), a former drug-dealing biker who discovers God and becomes a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children forced to become soldiers. Director Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace”) is no stranger to the action flick and should have no problem drawing a crowd in limited release.
Real Steel
Based on the 1956 short story “Steel” by Richard Matheson, “Real Steel” is set in the year 2020, when robots have replaced humans in the world of boxing. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) loses his chances to become a boxing champion and is forced to take a job as a small-time promoter. But he won’t give up and, with the help of his son Max, builds a robot that can contend for the championship. You can stop laughing now. At least Danny Elfman was kind enough to do the score, so the film at least has one thing going for it.
Restless (Limited)
Gus Van Sant follows up his award-winning “Milk” with “Restless,” the story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and may also be friends with the ghost of a Japanese World War II kamikaze pilot. Sure it sounds a bit strange, but Van Sant has yet to make a bad apple. We’re betting on this to be the sleeper of the fall film season. The film, which recently screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, stars Henry Hopper, Mia Wasikowska and Ryo Kase.
10/14
The Big Year
An odd array of friends obsessed with bird-watching (Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, Jack Black) set out on a quest to outdo each other by finding the most species of birds in North America. Let’s cross our fingers and hope the film is much better than the trailer portends it to be. If not, this is going to be a rough October.
Footloose
Another film gets remade this month with an update of the ’80s classic “Footloose.” This time around, city boy Ren moves from Boston to Bomont, where he rebels against the law that bans dancing and rock music. Why talented director Craig Brewer (“Hustle and Flow,” “Black Snake Moan”) slapped his name on this one is beyond us, but it may be the film’s one saving grace. Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough take the lead roles, with onetime A-listers Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell along for the ride.
10/21
Dirty Girl (Limited)
Originally set for a 2010 release, this throwback comedy stars Juno Temple as a troubled Oklahoma teenager in the 1980a. She argues with her mother (Milla Jovovich) and befriends a shy, gay classmate (Jeremy Dozier), who joins her on a road trip to Los Angeles to find her birth father. While a one-year delay is never a good thing, distributor The Weinstein Company hopes to draw the right crowd.
Paranormal Activity 3
In a series that honestly never needed a sequel, the money-hungry studio is back for more with the third feature in this horror series. A couple is pursued once again by an evil spirit in their own home. In an attempt to unveil the mystery, they install cameras throughout the house to capture the strange paranormal activity occurring. Wait a minute, isn’t this the plot of the other two films?
Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (Cedar Lee)
“Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness” tells the tale of the rebellious genius who created an entirely new literature. The documentary is a riveting portrait of the great writer whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Take Shelter (Limited)
Shot right here in Northeast Ohio, “Take Shelter” tells the story of a young husband and father plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions that questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself. Both a sensation at Sundance and the winner of the Grand Prix Critics Week award at the Cannes Film festival, the film stars Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire”) and Jessica Chastain (“The Tree of Life”), two character actors due for the limelight.
Three Musketeers
Just when you thought we really didn’t need another adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel, Hollywood counters with a 3D version of the swashbuckling story we’ve grown to love—or possibly loathe. Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Christoph Waltz, Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich are all involved this time. The threadbare plot unites young D’Artagnan with three formerly legendary, now down-on-their-luck Musketeers to defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne.
Weekend (Limited)
Winner of the Audience Award at this year’s SXSW for Emerging Visions, “Weekend” follows a one-night stand that becomes something more. The film purports to be an unconventional love story between two young men trying to make sense of their lives.
10/28
Anonymous
Roland Emmerich (yes, the guy who once made the blockbuster (“Independence Day”) is back with a bit of a change of pace this time, with a film about the political intrigue between the Tudors and the Cecils for the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave). The film follows Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), as not only the incestuous lover of Queen Elizabeth, but also the true author of the works of William Shakespeare. While the film looks to contain its fair share of the action we’ve come to expect from the director of “The Patriot,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012,” “Anonymous” also looks like new territory for Emmerich.
In Time
In a future where people cease to age after 25 and must work to buy themselves more time, a young man (Justin Timberlake) finds himself with more time than he can imagine and must run from the corrupt police to save his life. Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy and Olivia Wilde join Timberlake in this action-packed sci-fi thriller, which looks to be a return to form for director Andrew Niccol, who made a splash in Hollywood in the late ’90s with smart, unique films like “Gattaca” and “The Truman Show.”
Johnny English Reborn
Johnny English returns. You know, the guy that plays Mr. Bean. Anyways, in the new film from this ongoing British series, Johnny English goes up against international assassins hunting down the Chinese premier. Rowan Atkinson reprises his role as Special Agent Sir Johnny English and is joined by actress Gillian Anderson, who’s clearly hard-up for cash after the mediocre box-office draw of the last “X-Files” film three years ago.
Margin Call (Limited)
This indie picture, which stars an ensemble cast including the likes of Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci, takes place over a 24-hour period at a large investment bank and focuses on the actions taken by a group of employees during the financial collapse of the economy.
The Rum Diary
Johnny Depp stars in yet another film adaptation of a Hunter S. Thompson novel. (See also: “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”) Paul Kemp (Depp) is a journalist who grows tired of New York and America under the Eisenhower administration and travels to Puerto Rico to write for The San Juan Star. This is where Kemp starts drinking rum and becomes obsessed with a woman (Amber Heard). Writer/director Bruce Robinson, a one-time alcoholic, had been sober for six-and-a-half years before he started writing the screenplay and found himself suffering from writer’s block. He started drinking again: a bottle of alcohol a day until he finished the script, and then he quit drinking again. Color us intrigued.
