Films like this summer’s “Inception” and “The Kids Are All Right” will get plenty of Oscar buzz come awards season.
But Fall film releases are the ones all but stamped, “please vote for me!”
And this Fall features a glut of movies praying for some face time with Oscar. The usual suspects are back to make some noise, including the Coen brothers and Clint Eastwood. But there’s another Oscar winner who could trump them all – Mr. “Gigli” himself, Ben Affleck.
- “The Town” (Sept. 17) Affleck’s redemption lap may come full circle with this gritty heist drama set in, where else, Boston. The trailer is great, the poster rocks and it looks like Affleck’s directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone” was just a warm-up act. The great cast includes the lovely Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner and Affleck himself, looking like he’s been taking acting lessons in between takes.
- “True Grit” (Dec. 22) When is a remake not a remake? When the Coen brothers put their stamp on it. The classic John Wayne film is reborn, and the new “Grit” promises to stay true to the source material, the 1968 novel by Charles Portis. Jeff Bridges snares the leading role here, re-teaming with the Coens for the first time since a certain bowling movie made cult history.
- “Never Let Me Go” (Sept. 15) Some movies simply have Oscar bait in their DNA. Consider “Go,” which is based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and stars Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan. Two boarding school chums struggle to remain close as their adult lives become ensnared in, according to the press notes, “love, jealousy and betrayal.”
- “Conviction” (Oct. 15) Hilary Swank already owns two Oscars, so nearly any project she stars in gets some award buzz going. Even “Amelia” hit theaters with big buzz before crashing down to earth. Plus, this one’s a tear jerker based on an amazing true life story of Betty Anne Waters, a woman who dedicated her life to freeing her brother (Sam Rockwell, an actor overdue for award consideration) from jail.
- “Hereafter” (Oct. 22) Clint Eastwood shouldn’t be considered an Oscar shoo-in after recent disappointments like “Changeling,” “Invictus” and his twin WWII epics. Tell that to voters who continue to write him down each and every year for one category or another. Here, he re-teams with Matt Damon to tell a multi-arc story dealing with life, death and the shades of gray between. Eastwood can get schmaltzy, but he also respects blue collar America enough to nail this project.
- “The Social Network” (Oct. 1) The dawn of Facebook is now a major motion picture – talk about grabbing the zeitgeist by the scruff of the neck. Director David Fincher works with an eclectic cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Rooney Mara, Andrew Garfield (aka Spider-Man 2.0) and Justin Timberlake.
- “The Fighter” (Dec. 10) Mark Wahlberg stars in this true tale of a dysfunctional boxing family with two pugilists under one roof – the other is played by Christian Bale. Director David O. Russell doesn’t make many movies, but even his flops like “I Heart Huckabees” are engrossing, and Wahlberg prepped hard to play what could be a real comeback role for him. No, “The Other Guys” doesn’t count.
- “How Do You Know?” (Dec. 17) Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson and writer/director James L. Brooks. Your honor … I rest my case.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hmmm, these actually sound interesting. If they are only s0-so, then they will easily beat out the previous 9 months of movies offered.