The Playlist’s Fall Film Preview – Part 1, Sept-October, Let’s Do This!

SEPTEMBER 6

“Mister Foe“
It’s like a Scottish “Catcher in The Rye” with an oedipal twist! Jamie Bell plays a troubled young man whose knack for voyeurism paradoxically reveals his darkest fears, and his most peculiar desires. The 17-year-old misfit spends his days spying on people from a tree house on the grounds of his father’s (the excellent Ciarán Hinds) house in the Scottish Highlands. His paranoia makes him suspect that his beautiful and bewitching step mother (Claire Forlani) may have played a hand in his mothers death, but he’s also strangely attracted to her. Sophia Myles plays another object of his affection – that umm, looks like his dead mom. The soundtrack feature Franz Ferdinand and other Scottish indie-rockers.

SEPTEMBER 12

“Burn After Reading”
After their tremendous Oscar success with “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen Brothers return; this time, it’s a little more screwball ‘Ladykillers’ and a little less ‘Country.’ ‘Burn’ centers on two doofus gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who discover a crabby CIA agent’s memoirs (John Malkovich) and use the document filled disc to blackmail him. George Clooney plays the stooge hired to track the disc and its new owners down and Tilda Swinton plays his accomplice. The film, scored by Carter Burwell, is apparently so confusing, even, Clooney apparently doesn’t understand the plot. What does that mean for us film geeks? People keep insisting this looks as good as “The Big Lebowski,” but we’d like to remind everyone despite all the Academy Awards, the last time the Coens did a comedy as good as ‘Lebowski’ was 1998 (the year ‘Lebowski’ came out).

“Towelhead“
Alan Ball’s adaptation of the Gulf-War novel is so Alan Ball – full of unlikable, unsympathetic characters who do vile and immoral shit in the middle of the suburbs. This time it’s pedophilia and some light racism thrown in for good measure. Is this good enough to say we hated it and don’t need to write a full review? That said, newcomer Summer Bishil is a fresh new find and Toni Collette’s effecting empathetic mom performance brought some redemption to an otherwise inutile film. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Maria Bello, Aaron Eckhardt and Peter Macdissi, who plays the most unlikable Arab father – as an effeminately sneering, but masculine twit?? We seriously didn’t get that performance at all.

“Righteous Kill”
It has been 13 years since Michael Mann’s crime epic “Heat,” and Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino have been on screen together. And maybe it should have been left to that one and only time, because this pathetic attempt to infuse life into an otherwise formulaic cop film looks like lazy diarrhea. Even the films synopsis sounds like it could belong to any episode of any TV cop show: “Two veteran New York City detectives work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?” We’re going to take a guess that John Leguizamo, another detective working with the veteran actors, turns out to be the real killer. But then again, who really gives a shit? Oh yeah, 50 Cent c0-stars as something or other. [trailer]

SEPTEMBER 19

“Elite Squad”
Brazilian director José Padilha’s brutal look at the shady workings of Rio’s Special Operations Police Battalion won the top honor at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival and is supposed to be riveting and terrific. His feature-film debut, Padilha previously directed the acclaimed documentary, “Bus 174,” and ‘Squad’ is supposedly shot in such a docu-style that many have thought what they were watching was real at first. Set in 1997 during a 1997 visit by the Pope the film presents an intimate look at the city’s vast and intricate web of corruption via the police, the drug trafficking militias. We seriously have no clue who’s working this film and we’re super interested. Sinceriously. Someone hook us up, we’re dying to see this. [trailer]

“Battle In Seattle“
Hippies, radicals and anarchists in the Northwest Pacific band together to destroy their own city when the World Trade Organization hits Seattle as directed by actor Stuart Townsend. It’s evidently as much about riots gone awry as it is about poor city planning and crowd control response and stars Charlize Theron and Andre 3000 as an animal rights protester in a turtle suit. Yeah, it’s going to need all the help it can get.

SEPTEMBER 26

“Miracle at St. Anna”
It’s two pictures in a row now in which director Spike Lee tries to justify committing crimes in the 21st century in order to make up for wrongs committed during WWII. The first was 06’s “Inside Man,” but ‘Miracle’ is a little bit more overt. Told through flashback during an interview with the only survivor of a group of four soldiers who made it their duty to protect a small Italian child during the Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre, the pic unfortunately resembles an extended episode of the CBS police drama “Cold Case.” But let’s hope that’s just the trailer. The survivor, played by Laz Alonso, shoots an Italian man at the beginning of the story, but this murder leads to police searching his home to find the severed head of a statue which has a mysterious tie-in to the WWII event. The film also stars Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, and Omar Benson Miller as the other three brothers in arms. Earlier this year, Lee got in to feud with fellow director, Clint Eastwood over his lack of Black Americans in either of Eastwood’s recent WWII films. Is Lee just blowing smoke out of his ass to drum up word about his own film, or did making ‘Miracle’ get him all fired up?

“Choke“
Transgressive author extraordinaire, Chuck Palahniuk’s “Choke,” is being adapted this fall by actor Clark Gregg making his feature directorial debut. Sam Rockwell stars a sex-addicted con-man who pays for his mother’s hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him when pretending to choke to death. The film also features Anjelica Huston as Rockwell’s hospitalized and senile mother, Kelly Macdonald plays the batshit crazy love interest and Brad William Henke, an odd, but inspired choice, plays Rockwell’s best friend – a chronic masturbator who can’t go an hour without buttering his popcorn. In the novel of the same name, Denny was nearly identical to “Arrested Development” star David Cross, so it’s slightly weird that they’d hire someone who looks totally different, but Rockwell and Henke definitely have chemistry on screen in this dark and mostly amusing indie flick. The picture also boats a soundtrack featuring Ben Kweller, Radiohead, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but despite the rumor, Radiohead did not compose the score.

“Blindness“

Directed by Academy award winner Fernando Meirelles (“City of God”), this 1995 novel adaptation (authored by Jose Saramago) focuses on a doctor (Mark Ruffalo), who becomes infected with an epidemic which causes blindness along with the rest of the unnamed city. Miraculously, his wife (Julianne Moore) is the only one unaffected and must attempt to function among the crazed masses, which function as a representation of the fragility of modern society. Good book, good director, it sounds promising but we won’t really know until we see the finished project. But the weak of stomach beware, Saramago fought an option for years because he felt the book might not be ready for a mass audience on screen, “It is a violent book about social degradation, rape and I didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands,” he once said. Sounds like the feel-good flick of the fall.

OCTOBER 3

“How to Lose Friends & Alienate People“
Toby Young’s brilliant memoir – about himself: a jackass British scribe trying to make it in New York at Vanity Fair – is a delightfully wry and self-effacing piece of writing and an cutting look into the asshat ways of the Condé Nasty culture – it’s kind of the “Devil Wears Prada” for men. It’s one of our favorite books of recent years and so we have high expectations. Or we did until we saw the buffoonish trailer for this thing that makes it look like a crass perversion of a super sharp book. We can’t tell you how much of a assclown Simon Pegg looks like in the title role. The rest of the cartoonish cast is rounded out by Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox and Jeff Bridges (doing a terrible Graydon Carter impression), but it seriously physically pains us to watch the trailer. The tenor of the book is scathing, clever and hilarious and the movie looks like a goofy and sanitized caricature that looks like it’s been eaten by Hollywood and shit out the other end all shiny and new.

“Rachel Getting Married”
Bland Hathaway, taking a break from playing anodynic characters and from displaying her saucy mammaries, stars as Rachel’s drug-recovering sister in the new dark comedy from director Jonathan Demme. The film also stars Rosemarie DeWitt, from the short-lived television series “Standoff” on Fox, as Rachel, and three time Oscar nominee Debra Winger who seems to take a liking to playing foul mouth bitches in dark comedies about family troubles. (See “Eulogy” 2004) The soundtrack details still haven’t come in yet, but Tunde Adebimpe front man for TV on the Radio plays Rachel’s fiancee and producer Fab 5 Freddy plays himself in the movie. We’re on the fence and not convinced.

“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”
The teen movie that isn’t as edgy as the group of people it is trying to portray, ‘Nick and Norah,’ will most likely find an audience of teenage girls (Pitchfork interns) who don’t feel understood by the people around them. Luckily for them, ‘Infinite Playlist’ is about an unattractive girl, Kat Dennings, who is actually pretty cute who pretends to be the girlfriend of the lovable awkward teenage prince, Michael Cera, who is actually pretty cute and then they spend the night running around Manhattan getting into all sorts of shenanigans and fall in love. We’ve seen it; it’s cute, light, fluffy and ultimately disposable. The soundtrack includes Devandra Banhart, Modest Mouse, We Are Scientists, and many more artists who are sure to fulfill your melodramatic suburban hipster lifestyle.

“Religulous“
Oh, smarmy fuck Bill Maher. Does his smug self-satisfaction run on never ending Duracell batteries? The oleaginous asswipe teams up this time with Larry Charles (director of ‘Borat’ and expert in making plebeian Americans look stupid) to skewer and send-up the religious right in a similar gonzo and deceivingly manipulative style, but its’ supposed to deliver laughs, so who cares, right? The film is receiving accolades from the liberal media, but we remain unconvinced that the Ayatollah of TV arrogance can win us over. Anything’s possible though.

“What Just Happened?“

Robert Deniro might not be making a full-on comeback this winter with Barry Levison’s (“Good Morning Vietnam,” “Rain Man”) satirical comedy, but he may just be delivering a performance that doesn’t have us cringing in embarrassment for once and these days, we’ll take what we can get. The film also stars Bruce Willis and Sean Penn as distorted versions of themselves, John Turturro as their ineffectual, terrified agent and Stanley Tucci and “Twilight” gem Kristen Stewart. Based off Art Linson’s book about his stress filled career as a Hollywood producer, the film might not be the skewering Hollywood satire that was Robert Altman’s “The Player,” as long as it’s not a “Meet the Fockers” film we’re pretty much happy.

“Body of Lies“

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are back again to bring us a cat and mouse thriller which some will claim to be the best drama gets. But to us, this whole rinse and repeat shit is getting old. Based on novel by David Ignatius about a CIA operative (to be played by Leonardo Dicaprio) who goes to Jordon to track a high profile terrorist but his manipulative and overbearing boss, Crowe, begins to wear on him. As tired as this shit is, Scott’s previous projects such as “Gladiator” and “American Gangster” should give him the necessary clout to draw mainstream viewers and Academy Award consideration. The script, which as first written by “The Departed” author, William Monahan was revised by Steven Ziallian, who wrote last years requisite and overblown Scott/Crowe team-up, “American Gangster.” File under been there done that.

“City of Ember”
Based on the “Books of Ember” series by Jeanne Duprau, ‘Ember’ is about an underground city that runs on electricity, but the generator was only built to last 200 years. It’s now ‘Ember’s’ 241st year, and the lights are beginning to flicker and the food supply is dwindling. Now it is up to two young adventurous kids (Marianne Jean-Baptiste and that brat Saoirse Ronan from “Atonement”) to fix the generator and save the city from a permanent midnight. Another ‘Harry Potter success’ fantasy novel project that’s too rushed to gain a respectable fan base (‘The Seeker,’ “The Golden Compass,” ‘Spiderwick’ etc.) so they end up doing poorly at the box office and then ruin the hopes of continuing the film series? It’s odd that a project as dim as ‘Ember’ can recruit the talents of Oscar winners Tom Hanks, Martin Landau and Tim Robbins and nominee Bill Murray. But then again, far harsher crimes have been committed in the name of cinema. Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark provides the songs. [trailer]

“Happy-Go-Lucky“
Mike Leigh takes a break from making us want to slit our wrists with dour kitchen-sink dramas, to make an effervescent romantic comedy that’s been getting rave reviews. Leigh is pretty much tops whatever genre he tackles, but this one, seemingly full of genuine spark and vitality, looks fab.

OCTOBER 17

“W“

OCTOBER 24

“Synecdoche, New York“
There’s a point in ‘Synecdoche,’ near the end where the film goes off the rails, it’s like, ‘wait, we’re floating in space,’ the acute sense of levitation overcomes you like you’re disembodied. So yeah, it’s a bit unnerving and confusing as to what’s going on, but when was the last time a film charged you with that kind of magnetic currency through your body? The Charlie Kaufman mindbender stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a dying theater director who attempts to put on the most ambitious play of his life, about loss, love and fear of death starring the women of his life Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Hope Davis and Emily Watson. A surreal trip not for the faint of heart.

“Changeling”

Clint Eastwood’s latest period piece, starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, is loosely based on the Wineville Chicken Murders in 1920’s Los Angeles. A mother (Jolie) has her kidnapped son returned to her, but as soon as he’s back she begins to suspect that it actually may not be her son. The script was penned by J. Michael Straczynski, who is has written quality work in just about every modern day medium, but his screenwriting so far has been delegated to studio commissioned projects (see: “Fantastic 4”), so it will be interesting to see what this talented writer can do when turned loose on a real script. We assume with Eastwood in charge of the music it will be a deep, somber, emotional yet understated score. [trailer]

OCTOBER 31

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno“
Prepare the fart, dick, hairy balls and vagina jokes, we’re going in! The opportunistic Kevin Smith jacks the Judd Apatow cast and formula and puts his infantile spin on the whole thing. Two best friends (Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen) are dead-ass broke so they try and make a pornographic film to make cash. The film is apparently as disgusting, sophomoric as anything he’s ever done, but also apparently showcases a tender side first evinced in cringefully bad, “Jersey Girl.” ”It’s a very sweet movie. ”I’m telling you, people cry at the end. It’s really adorable. The title’s misleading,” Banks told EW. But Smith assures us, hey it’s as crass and stupid as all my past work, don’t worry. “You’re not going to walk in and be like, ‘There ain’t no porn in this movie.”’ Charming.

The first half of the fall also contains “The Women” (aka Vagina Town) with America’s former Sweetheart Meg Ryan; Ed Harris’ “Appaloosa,” with Viggo Mortensen; “Hound Dog” (aka “The Dakota Fanning gets raped to the sounds of Elvis Presley” film; no joke), “Humboldt County” with the return of Fairuza Balk and Peter Bogdanovich; Wong Kar-Wai’s “Ashes of Time Redux,” “Max Payne” (meh), the Southern tea-cup drama “The Secret Life of Bees” (Dakota Fanning plays with black people, doesn’t get raped this time), Rian Johnson’s silly-looking caper “The Brothers Bloom” and “Pride and Glory” starring Ed Norton and Colin Farrell as NYPD brother-in-laws involved in a scandal that threatens to unravel their family.