Promising new crop
>> There are lots of movies worth rooting for this autum

by MARK SLUTSKY

Okay, so this last year has not been such a great one, movie-wise. While there have been some great flicks here and there, ultimately it’s been slow. So it’s exciting to see what’s in store for moviegoers over the next four months, and from the looks of things, this could be the best movie season in years.

True stories
A bunch of oddball, sort-of-based-on-a-true-story pics stand out on this fall’s roster. Two of them come from the pen of Being John Malkovich writer Charlie Kaufman, and both look intriguing. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, directed by superstar George Clooney (and shot in Montreal) tells the strange tale of TV producer Chuck Barris, the guy who came up with The Gong Show and The Dating Game, and who also happened to be, if you believe the kooky autobiography the movie’s based on, an ultra-secret CIA assassin. Sam Rockwell plays Barris; Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymoore, Rutger Hauer (!) and Clooney himself also appear (Dec. 27).

Kaufman’s Adaptation, directed by Malkovich helmer and video king Spike Jonze, is another hall-of-mirrors oddity about a screenwriter (Nicolas Cage) who goes nuts trying to adapt Susan Orleans’s (Meryl Streep) book The Orchid Thief. Weird thing is The Orchid Thief is a real book, and Susan Orleans is a real writer, and the screenwriter character happens to be named Charlie Kaufman… (Dec. 6). But speaking of weirdo TV guys, another promising fall release is Auto Focus, which stars Greg Kinnear as Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane. Crane was murdered in a hotel room in 1978, and it would later be revealed to the world that he was a nutty sex addict whose antics would be videotaped by a creepy buddy (played by Willem Dafoe). Paul Schrader directs (Oct. 18).

Another legendary director taking on a real-life story is Roman Polanski, who’s finally made the World War II movie he’s always talked about. The Pianist, as it’s called (not to be confused with Michael Haneke’s La Pianiste), stars Adrien Brody as Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who somehow survived the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. The film took the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes fest—this is definitely one to look out for (Dec. 27). Also a winner at Cannes was Punch-Drunk Love, P.T. Anderson’s first movie since the massive Magnolia. Boy, does this ever look intriguing. Anderson took the Camera D’Or (director’s prize) for this apparently psychedelic love story with Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Anderson regulars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman (Oct. 11).

Norton mania
Frida should be hallucinatory as well, with Titus director Julie Taymor at the helm: Salma Hayek’s long-awaited Frida Kahlo biopic hits theatres this fall. It’s a pretty star-studded piece of celluloid, with Ashley Judd, Geoffrey Rush (as Trotsky!), Antonio Banderas and Hayek squeeze Ed Norton, who helped write the script (Oct. 25). Norton also stars in The 25th Hour, the latest from Spike Lee. He’s a stockbroker type who gets busted on drug charges; the movie follows him around his last night of freedom, before he heads off to jail in the morning to do a seven-year stint. Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson and the recently MIA Anna Paquin co-star (Dec. 25). Oh yeah, and Norton and Hoffman also both feature in Red Dragon, Brett Ratner’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’s first Hannibal Lecter novel, which, it should be noted, has already been brought to the screen quite amazingly by Michael Mann as Manhunter. Well, whatever: Anthony Hopkins is back, of course, and Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson also star, so at least it’s got a good cast (Oct. 4).

The man who made Hopkins famous as Lecter, Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, has got a new re-make under his belt as well. The Truth About Charlie is a take on Stanley Donen’s Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant thriller Charade, with Thandie Newton and Mark Wahlberg. Newton we like, but Wahlberg doing Cary Grant? We’ll have to see about that one. The whole idea is a little sketchy, but Demme can sure direct, so maybe some good will come out of this (Oct. 25). Yet another remake by a critically-praised director is Solaris, Steven Soderbergh’s take on Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 psycho-space-epic. Soderbergh buddy and producing partner George Clooney stars as an astronaut sent to uncover the strange goings-on at a space station orbiting a mysterious, possibly sentient ocean planet. Natasha McElhone, who hasn’t really been in much (besides FearDotCom) since her nifty turn in Ronin, plays Clooney’s dead wife. No way to predict how this one’ll turn out (Nov. 27).

Indie jones
Soderbergh used to be pretty much the archetypical American indie director type; he doesn’t really count as one anymore, but Alexander Payne (Election) and Todd Haynes (Safe) still do, and they’ve both got movies out this fall that seem worth a little excitement. Payne’s got Jack Nicholson starring in his About Schmidt, which has been getting pretty encouraging advance reviews. Nicholson plays a unhappy businessman who sets out on a trip to make some sense of his life; Hope Davis, Kathy Bates and Dermot Mulroney co-star, and if this one’s half as good as Election, you better go see it (Dec. 25). Haynes submits for our pleasure Far From Heaven, allegedly a melodrama in the Douglas Sirk mould, starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. Certainly worth a peek (Nov. 8). Another movie with a heavenly title is Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer’s Heaven (okay, heaven is the title). Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi star in this Italy-set lovers-on-the-run drama, which has been attracting some hardcore Kieslowski comparisons (Oct. 4).

The fall also sees a pair of pop superstars with matching starring vehicles. The most promising of the two is probably 8 Mile, starring the sensational Eminem. Directed by Curtis Hanson, the movie’s supposed to be a look at the life of a poor, Eminem-like kid from the Detroit slums who finds his voice as a rapper. The trailer for this one looks alright, but Hanson has a tendency to make movies that seem pretty appealing from a distance but turn out to be duds (see L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys). Kim Basinger and Brittany Murphy co-star (Nov. 8). The other musician with movie is Madonna, who’s starring in her husband Guy Ritchie’s grotesque-looking remake of Lina Wertmuller’s Swept Away. The former Ciccone plays a spoiled rich wife cast away on a desert island with her hunk of a servant (Adriano Giannini), and they seem to smack each other around a lot. If you’ve seen any clips, you know this is one nasty-looking movie. Prediction: bomb of the season (Oct. 11). If you want to buck the trend and watch some actors singing, and not the other way around, check out Chicago, director Rob Marshall’s take on the famous Kander & Ebb musical. Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere star (Dec. 27).

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for pranks and lunacy, Jackass: The Movie should be the ticket. Starring Johnny Knoxville and his band of maniacal pseudo-stuntmen, it’s the feature-length version of the demented MTV show (Oct. 25). As the tagline says, “Do not attempt this at home.”

Big boys
Okay, so maybe we should get around to discussing the big boys. Though fall’s always got more of a prestige movie thing going on, what with the proximity to the Oscars and all, the holidays always see a sort of mini-blockbuster fest, and this year’s no different. First, we’ve got a pair of sequels to last year’s big fantasy successes. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets should be just as spectacularly popular as last year’s Potter flick. Chris Columbus returns to direct (although Y tu mamá también director Alfonso Cuaron takes over for the third), and lovable moppets Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint once more play the kids. Plus there’s that big line-up of Brit superstars like Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane; this year you can add Kenneth Branagh to that list (Nov. 15). For the more sophisticated fantasy fan, Peter Jackson drops The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which may very well be the Empire Strikes Back of the series. This one should just plunge right into the action, hopefully avoiding too much of the draggy set-up that slowed down the Fellowship of the Ring (try watching it again and you’ll see what we mean). Plus, it’s got the battle at Helm’s Deep! Fun! (Dec. 18)

Pierce Brosnan plays James Bond for what will likely be the last time in Die Another Day, the latest in the deathless series. Halle Berry co-stars, which is A-okay. We’ll have to wait and see if Lee Tamahori, who directed Once Were Warriors and then totally crapped out with Mulholland Falls and Along Came a Spider, can make it work (Nov. 22). Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart star in something called The Core, which is some silliness about dudes who have to dig to the centre of the Earth to prevent the core from ceasing to rotate. Well, maybe it’ll be cool (Nov.). If that gets you in the mood for some futuristic fun, check out what they’re saying may be the last Star Trek movie (doubtful), Star Trek: Nemesis. Though the last couple of entries have been certified snoozers, this one seems a little darker. And make sure you wear a tie, ’cause rumour has it Troi and Riker are getting married! Yay! (Dec. 13)

Film fatale
Brian De Palma has been pretty inconsistent as of late, so here’s hoping that his newest thriller, Femme Fatale, is one of the good ones. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos plays a sexy jewel thief, and there’s a great big robbery that takes place at the Cannes film festival (and that was actually filmed there). Antonio Banderas co-stars (Nov. 8). Banderas is actually kind of everywhere this fall, what with his role in Frida and the nutty-sounding Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, where he plays a super-spy squaring off against Lucy Liu (Sept. 27). Owen Wilson’s made quite a niche for himself in sidekick roles lately; his latest is I Spy, with Eddie Murphy, ostensibly based on the ’60s TV show with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp (Nov. 1). Wilson’s also slated to star opposite Jackie Chan in Shanghai Knights, sequel to the oater-fu Shanghai Noon. That won’t be coming out till the winter, though, so if you must see Chan in a buddy movie this season, you’ll be heading to The Tuxedo, where he plays a hapless chauffeur who dons a super-tuxedo to become the stunt-crazy Jackie Chan we all love. Jennifer Love Hewitt co-stars. (Sept. 20)

If you’re looking for big movies, though, nothing’s going to be as big as the Christmas Day face-off between Leonardo DiCaprio and himself. That’s when Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can both open, both starring Leo, and both directed by legendary, ’70s-spawn filmmakers. They would be, of course, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, respectively. Scorsese’s movie, the release of which has been put off for a while now, also features Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz in New York’s bloody 19th-century underworld. This could really be the best movie ever, or the most crushingly disappointing. Pray. Catch Me If You Can is based on the very entertaining memoirs of Frank Abagnale Jr., a legendary con man who bluffed people into thinking he was a pilot, a doctor, and a university professor, among other things. Ol’ reliable Tom Hanks plays the G-Man on his trail.

Last words
If you’re looking for something different this fall, there are always a couple of local events that tend to come through with interesting and unusual cinema. At the Goethe-Institut, this year’s edition of the German Highlights film series spotlights “the best of the ’90s,” with films from Tom Tykwer and a bunch of other notables. And don’t miss the Festival of New Cinema and New Media (or whatever it’s called this year), which runs Oct. 10–20. Check www.fcmm.com for details. :

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