While the summer had a number of gems, our sights are now set on the majorly promising fall slate as we’ve highlighted 75 to keep on your radar. For a more specific breakdown, we now have our monthly rundown, which includes some TIFF and Venice films, and much more. It should also be noted that Michelangelo Antonioni‘s restored masterpiece La Notte will get a theatrical run starting on September 16 at NYC’s Film Forum, and will expand from there. Check out our recommendations below and let us know what you’re looking forward to.
Matinees to See: White Girl (9/2), Max Rose (9/2), The Academy of Muses (9/2), Zoom (9/2), Other People (9/9). Kicks (9/9), Dancer (9/9), London Road (9/9), Come What May (9/9), The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years (9/16), My Blind Brother (9/23), Girl Asleep (9/23), Goat (9/23), The Lovers and the Despot (9/23), The Magnificent Seven (9/23), Chronic (9/23), Sand Storm (9/28), Do Not Resist (9/30), Deepwater Horizon (9/30), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (9/3), and Denial (9/30).
15. The Light Between Oceans (Derek Cianfrance; Sept. 2)
Synopsis: A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
Why You Should See It: Despite being a disappointment when compared to his recent features, Derek Cianfrance fans will still find elements to appreciate in this latest drama. I said in my review, “Fassbender and Vikander are indeed luminous, quite literally so in a meet-cute in which it feels as if cinematographer Adam Arkapaw has dropped us into heaven, the light blown-out behind Tom’s head as his eyes meet Isabel’s. The intensity on display from both Fassbender and Vikander helps make up for their underwritten characters, each going through actions that can feel telegraphed from a stark distance when we rarely sense a genuine psychology behind their decisions.”
14. The Vessel (Julio Quintana; Sept. 16)
Synopsis: Ten years after a tsunami destroyed a small-town elementary school with all the children inside, a young man builds a mysterious structure out of the school’s remains, setting the town aflame with passions long forgotten.
Why You Should See It: Following the gorgeous-looking, long-awaited Voyage of Time and news that he’s already begun his next feature, this year brings another project from Terrence Malick. Martin Sheen, reteaming with the director over four decades after Badlands (although he was cut out of The Thin Red Line), leads the drama The Vessel, which is produced by Malick (along with frequent collaborator Sarah Green) and directed by Julio Quintana. With a score by Malick regular Hanan Townshend, much of the imagery in the trailer will be familiar to fans of the director, though we’ll have to wait and see if it has the same spark.
13. The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorhouse; Sept. 23)
Synopsis: A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.
Why You Should See It: While we’re quite excited about the current Toronto International Film Festival line-up, there’s still some star-studded features form last year’s festival awaiting a U.S. release. One of the bigger ones is 1950s set romantic drama The Dressmaker, which stars Kate Winslet. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (Proof) and also starring Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving, Sarah Snook, Judy Davis and Caroline Goodall, it looks to be a good deal of fun.
12. Demon (Marcin Wrona; Sept. 9)
Synopsis: A bridegroom is possessed by an unquiet spirit in the midst of his own wedding celebration, in this clever take on the Jewish legend of the dybbuk.
Why You Should See It: After getting some acclaim on the film festival circuit, this wild Polish horror feature will arrive this month. We said, “I saw Marcin Wrona‘s Demon under what I’d consider ideal circumstances: as a blind viewing at the tail-end of last year’s Camerimage Film Festival, by which point I was a bit delirious from the week’s workload and, most of all, the jet lag that had never quite faded away. And so what, to me, was rather clearly a unique take on the demonic possession story grew all the more odd and terrifying as a result of my half-closed eyes and open mind. Total surprises are hard to come by in even the best of films, even though its wheels were a bit greased — and the experience is what it is.”
11. Snowden (Oliver Stone; Sept. 16)
Synopsis: NSA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.
Why You Should See It: Despite Oliver Stone‘s decent track record depicting real-life figures, it’s difficult to muster up much excitement for his take on the Edward Snowden story when Laura Poitras’ stellar documentary Citizenfour exists. However, we’ve heard from more than a few people that it’s one of the director’s better films in some time, effectively giving a reason to see this story in narrative form. We’ll find out soon as it hits theaters just after its TIFF premiere.
10. Blair Witch (Adam Wingard; Sept. 16)
Synopsis: After discovering a video showing what he believes to be his sister’s experiences in the demonic woods of the Blair Witch, James and a group of friends head to the forest in search of his lost sibling.
Why You Should See It: In a Hollywood marketing machine that dates films half-a-decade (or more) in advance with constant updates reminding you to be excited for their latest property, how do you genuinely surprise an audience? Lionsgate, perhaps taking a note from Paramount’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, revealed this summer that the next film from You’re Next and The Guest director Adam Wingard, previously titled The Woods, is in fact a surprise sequel to The Blair Witch Project. Made with more or less the same team, and the same budget, as his excellent horror features, Wingard should have no problem exercising his style here.
9. Closet Monster (Stephen Dunn; Sept. 23)
Synopsis: A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.
Why You Should See It: One of our favorites of last year’s TIFF, we said in our review, “Writer/director Stephen Dunn’s feature debut Closet Monster cares little about convention to tell the story of Oscar Madly (Connor Jessup) growing up with a psychological revulsion to his sexual urges, all thanks to an extremely disturbing event witnessed as a child. This prologue glimpse at his youth (played by Jack Fulton) is a mash-up of tough coming-of-age-dramatics and a dark-edged imaginative whimsy that intrigues to draw you closer. It will be divisive with an idyllic world’s caring father (Aaron Abrams‘ Peter) “pushing” dreams into his son’s head via a balloon, a talking hamster named Buffy (voiced by Isabella Rossellini), and the horrific teenage assault of a homosexual with a piece of rebar in a cemetery. But this tumultuous roller coaster is worth you sticking around.”
8. Sully (Clint Eastwood; Sept. 9)
Synopsis: The story of Chesley Sullenberger, who became a hero after gliding his plane along the water in the Hudson River, saving all of the airplane flights 155 crew and passengers.
Why You Should See It: Sight-unseen, the various jokes surrounding Clint Eastwood taking on a seemingly open-and-closed story such as that of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s (Tom Hanks) miraculous landing on the Hudson makes for some playful ribbing. However, the idea of Eastwood and Hanks teaming for the first time, all captured by (digital) IMAX cameras is intriguing. As a fan of Flight, we expect a more stately, less cocaine-infused approach, but hopefully something of the same dramatic caliber.
7. Operation Avalanche (Matt Johnson; Sept. 16)
Synopsis: In 1967, four undercover CIA agents were sent to NASA posing as a documentary film crew. What they discovered led to one of the biggest conspiracies in American history.
Why You Should See It: One of the better found-footage films as of late comes in an unexpected form: an authentic-feeling one about the moon landing (even featuring Stanley Kubrick) from Canadian filmmakers. We said in our review, “There is a palpable, Reddit-obsessed, audience for this kind of DIY thriller, and the filmmakers know how to serve them. Operation Avalanche is a solid piece of entertainment and a formal step up from their first feature. Where it lacks is in authenticity, too often feeling like an in-joke with no punchline.”
6. The Queen of Katwe (Mira Nair; Sept. 23)
Synopsis: A young girl from Uganda trains to become a world chess champion.
Why You Should See It: She broke out in 12 Years a Slave, but we actually haven’t seen Lupita Nyong’o onscreen since. Yes, she did motion-capture work for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Jungle Book, but those hoping for a more substantial role from the actress will get as much this year. Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair has adapted Tim Crothers‘ book, based on his own article for ESPN, with Queen of Katwe, which follows the true story of Phiona Mutesi, who emerged from the slums of Kampala, Uganda and became a chess prodigy as a teenager. Shaping up to be an authentic, feel-good drama, it’ll premiere at TIFF soon.
5. Klown Forever (Mikkel Nørgaard; Sept. 2)
Synopsis: Frank and Casper’s friendship is put to a test, when Casper decides to leave Denmark to pursue a solo career in Los Angeles. Determined to win his best friend back Frank chooses to follow Casper ensuring an eventful trip.
Why You Should See It: One of the century’s best comedies so far now has a sequel. We said in our review, “Those familiar with the off-kilter comedic duo behind the Danish TV series Klown (or Klovn as it is known in Denmark) — which spurned one of the most hilarious and inappropriate feature films of recent years — will know exactly what type of humor to expect from their sequel Klovn Forever. Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen star essentially as parodies of themselves in this Curb Your Enthusiasm-style comedy, combining mundane issues from their personal lives with some extremely outlandish situations. They push the boundaries of what is considered appropriate with their off kilter brand of humor, falling into categories that are intentionally offensive — such as misogyny and even racism. But therein lies the appeal: in these playful antics, here considered nonchalant, do we as an audience find humor in how outrageous and disrespectful they can be.”
4. Author: The JT Leroy Story (Jeff Feuerzeig; Sept. 9)
Synopsis: The story behind literary persona JT LeRoy, the fictional writer created by American author Laura Albert.
Why You Should See It: Before Kristen Stewart, James Franco, and Helena Bonham Carter turn it into a narrative drama, this month we have the documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story. We said in our review, “A sweeping first-hand account of the bizarre saga as told by Albert, Author: The JT LeRoy Story is wildly entertaining and truly stranger than fiction, even perhaps the fiction Albert wrote as LeRoy. Luckily for Feuerzeig, Albert, like his previous subject Daniel Johnston, recorded most everything, including intimate phone conversations with free help lines and celebrity interactions.”
3. One More Time With Feeling (Andrew Dominik; Sept. 8)
Synopsis: A documentary about the making of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree.
Why You Should See It: Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly) is back this year, although not with a narrative feature. Rather, he’s reunited with Jesse James composer Nick Cave for One More Time With Feeling, a feature on the making of the Bad Seeds‘ sixteenth album, Skeleton Tree. After premiering at the Venice International Film Festival, fans of Cave should note the the film will screen worldwide for only one night, so you’ll want to get tickets sooner rather than later.
2. American Honey (Andrea Arnold; Sept. 30)
Synopsis: A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits.
Why You Should See It: Although I’m not quite as high on it as some others, American Honey is an often exhilarating journey through the midwest. We said in our review, “Based on a 2007 article from the New York Times, it’s a backwater American road movie directed by an Englishwoman, Andrea Arnold, and shot by Irishman Robbie Ryan. We spot a few cowboys and gas stations and even the Grand Canyon, but it’s nothing to do with any of that. It’s about America (duh) but it’s also about friendship and money and learning to look out for yourself, and that primal connection young people make between music and identity. It’s visually astonishing and often devastating, too. This might be the freshest film about young people in America since Larry Clark’s Kids from 1995.”
1. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson; Sept. 9)
Synopsis: Documentary about the career of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson.
Why You Should See It: This moth, you’ll be able to see one of the very best films of the fall — and of the year, period. Kirsten Johnson‘s Cameraperson is an exhilarating, deeply personal look at the director’s decades of experience serving as a cinematographer and / or camera operator on documentary films. A likely eventual Criterion release, we said in our review, “Cameraperson is hypnotic, a montage of seemingly disconnected vignettes that slowly demonstrate commonalities among disparate figures around the globe. It’s B-roll and unused footage and logistical behind-the-scenes wrangling assembled into a video album. For non-fiction enthusiasts in particular, this is catnip, an interesting glimpse at sausage production.”
What are you looking forward to this month?