OCTOBER
“Joker”
Audiences had every reason to be skeptical of the upcoming “Joker” movie. After all, Heath Ledger’s performance in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is arguably the most iconic big-screen interpretation of Batman’s most menacing foe. “Joker’s” director, Todd Phillips, is known mostly for bawdy boy’s comedies like “Old School” and “The Hangover” movies – not exactly somebody you’d hire to direct what is reportedly less a standard superhero movie and more a grimy throwback to crime epics of the 1970s. And then… that first trailer dropped. And boy, was it beautiful, disturbing, funny, and steeped in a Koch-era N.Y.C. noir vibe. In other words, it was everything you’d want a “Joker” movie to be. It doesn’t hurt that Phillips cast Joaquin Phoenix to step into the shoes formerly worn by Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson. Granted, Warner Bros. is known for cutting great trailers for bad movies (see: “Suicide Squad” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”), but with a cast that includes Robert Deniro, Zazie Beetz, Marc Maron, and Shea Whigham – not to mention Bradley Cooper and Martin Scorsese on producing duties, and some promising festival dates on the horizon – we’re going to say that it would take a lot for this particular Joker movie to fail.
Release Date: October 4 – NL
“Lucy in the Sky”
Acclaimed writer/director/showrunner/novelist Noah Hawley, the man responsible for turning the movie “Fargo” into one of the best anthology shows on television, makes his much-anticipated feature film debut. Previously known as “Pale Blue Dot” (which some of us think might have been a better title), “Lucy in the Sky” stars Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Dan Stevens, Zazie Beetz, and Ellen Burstyn. Loosely based on the true story of astronaut Lisa Nowack, who was charged with the attempted kidnapping of an Air Force Captain, following a romantic affair with a fellow cosmic explorer named William Oefelian – sounds kind of like a Coen Brothers crime caper gone wrong with a space twist, no? Another interesting tidbit is the factoid that Portman was originally slated to star in Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity.” The actor seems to have an interest in exploring characters with galactically induced trauma. While Hawley began his career primarily known for writing, his work on the psychedelic head-trip of a series, “Legion,” proved that the talented creator has visual storytelling chops as well. There were rumors that the film might slip its way into the 2020 calendar, but it has now secured an October 4 release and a slot at TIFF.
Release Date: October 4 – AB
“Parasite”
One never quite knows to expect from South Korean master Bong Joon-ho. Will his next film be a slow-burn procedural in the vein of his terrific “Memories of Murder?” A full-bore monster movie like “The Host?” An environmental parable disguised as a rollicking genre entertainment a la “Snowpiercer” or “Okja?” Bong is one of the most eclectic, least predictable directors currently working, and cinephiles are waiting with bated breath for the release of “Parasite,” the director’s latest eerie, uncanny genre mash-up. “Parasite,” which is said to be a class-conscious dark comedy with a hellacious final act, looks discernibly less arch than the more fantastical likes of “Snowpiercer” and “Okja.” Bong’s latest also earned rave reviews and a Palme d’Or honor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has since secured a very Awards-friendly October 11 release date (the film will be distributed in the U.S. by Neon). Little is known about the plot of “Parasite” – and if you’re a fan of this director, you know that it’s often best to go into his movies cold. Viewers can expect the director’s signature alchemy of comedy, thrills, and social satire, all of it shot through a distinctly Korean lens that could very well make it his most revealing work to date.
Release Date: October 11 – NL
“Pain And Glory”
Hailed out of the French Riviera as one of Spanish auteur, Pedro Almodóvar’s best works to date, “Pain and Glory,” was praised by critics as a vibrant return to form on the self-recognition required to be a true artist. Starring Antonio Banderas as a director who lives in Madrid named Salvador Mello, a man struggling with his aging physical condition and a mid-life crisis of the soul. The movie also reunites the filmmaker with former muse Penelope Cruz, who plays Salvador’s mother in flashbacks. The film is arguably getting the director’s best reviews since “Volver,” released over a decade ago, with the emotional maturity of his latest project being praised in particular. “The degree of posterity and self-reflection on display in ‘Pain and Glory’ suggests it’s a film that’s could not have come without suffering,” we said in our Cannes review, “one Almodóvar could not have made without crossing the threshold of self-accepting salvation.” Given his track record, expect the flick to be wrapped up in Best Foreign Language film talk later this year.
Release Date: October 11 – AB
“Gemini Man”
Director Ang Lee has one of the most eclectic careers in the film industry, bar none. You have your technology and boundary-pushing filmmakers on one side, people like James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez, etc. and then you’ve got thoughtful classicist dramatists on the other side, the Sidney Lumet, Mike Nichols, Bergman, and Lee is arguably both sometimes vacillating to one corner of VFX driven genre-focused work (“Hulk,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“), ping-ponging to the opposite side of quiet drama (“Brokeback Mountain“), and sometimes merging both ideas (“Life Of Pi,” “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk“). For his latest, “Gemini Man,” starring Will Smith, it appears the filmmaker is swinging back to the genre side of things with, yes, a technological envelope-pushing element. “Gemini Man” is a science-fiction film about an over-the-hill hitman (Smith), trying to leave the life who is forced to face off against a younger clone of himself (Smith). But apparently, Lee is doing something groundbreaking and unprecedented: not using de-aging VFX or face-replacement, instead of a completely digital creation based on Smith’s motion-capture performance? What’s the difference? Honestly, it’s unclear to the laymen (or movie writer), but it’s the new tech that Paramount, Lee, and Smith are all heralding as the next iteration of how VFX will change filmmaking. Now let’s hope they have a good story to go along with it.
Release Date: October 11 – Rodrigo Perez
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Jojo Rabbit,” the latest from writer/director Taika Waititi, doesn’t sound like it should work on paper. Waititi’s stock-in-trade, up until now, has been a kind of droll, poker-faced fairy tale humanism: one that’s often laced with piercing moments of sadness. His authorial style is mannered, occasionally bordering on twee. This makes Waititi’s decision to tackle the subject of WWII and the Holocaust a curious one, to say the least. And yet, “Jojo Rabbit” looks to be a far cry from the ungainly blend of “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Great Dictator” that its superficial plot synopsis might suggest. On the contrary, Waititi’s latest seems to be another one of his delightfully peculiar stories about the pains of boyhood – only Johannes Betzler, the boy at the center of “Jojo Rabbit,” just happens to have Adolf Hitler (played as a despicable, sniveling doofus by Waititi himself) as an imaginary best friend. This is undoubtedly Waititi’s most ambitious work to date, and if it’s well-received, it could be a crossover player at next year’s Academy Awards. With a starry cast that includes Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johannsson, Rebel Wilson, and newcomer Roman Griffin Davis, Waititi’s “anti-hate satire” looks to be a big-hearted crowd-pleaser, and another notch on the belt of one today’s most singular cinematic storytellers.
Release Date: October 18 – NL
“The Lighthouse”
We live in an era of arthouse horror and critical hyperbole. It feels as though anytime A24 releases a new horror movie, the Twitter consensus can be overwhelming and wholly bereft of nuance. However, we feel confident that Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” – one of the creepiest film debuts in recent memory – is an example of this kind of movie that will stand the test of time. It’s the kind of gorgeously made occult chiller that rewards repeat viewings. “The Lighthouse” – Eggers’ follow-up to “The Witch,” a baroque maritime two-hander that curdles into nightmarish phantasmagoria – looks to be an even more stylish and audacious work than his previous film, if such a thing were possible. The trailer is a thing of unholy beauty, and lead actors Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe certainly resemble a briny pair of old sea dogs (Dafoe in particular looks like Popeye’s Gothic brother). That said, don’t expect traditional jump scares from Eggers’ latest: it’s been compared to Andrei Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr, meaning it’s probably heavier on atmosphere and dread than buckets of blood. After debuting to rapturous praise at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, A24 has opted to release “The Lighthouse” on October 18, making it ideal Halloween viewing for the arthouse aesthete in your life.
Release Date: October 18 – NL
“Zombieland: Double Tap”
Since the runaway success of his debut film, 2009’s “Zombieland,” director Ruben Fleischer has had a somewhat difficult time finding his footing in the world of feature films. His crime comedy “30 Minutes or Less” was a dark comedy that was neither dark enough nor funny enough to justify its premise. And while last year’s “Venom” did well enough at the box office to justify an Andy Serkis-directed sequel, it’s still an execrable piece of superhero sludge. With all that in mind, it makes sense that Fleischer would want to return to the franchise that made him a household name. “Zombieland: Double Tap” reunites some of the core cast from the original movie – Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, and Bill Murray – as the movie’s wisecracking makeshift family face off against a mounting zombie threat. The first trailer makes ‘Double Tap’ look dumb, noisy, and potentially kind of fun … which is precisely what some viewers will be looking for in an unusually high-minded awards movie season. Ten years seems like a substantial gap between films, but we doubt the movie’s core audience will care.
Release Date: October 18 – NL
Also in October
“The Current War” (Oct. 25), “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” (Oct. 15), “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” (Oct. 18), “Black and Blue” (Oct. 25), “The Kill Team” (Oct. 25), “Frankie” (October 25), “Greener Grass” (October 18),