“Before We Vanish”
Cast: Masami Nagasawa, Ryûhei Matsuda, Hiroki Hasegawa
Synopsis: Three aliens travel to Earth in preparation for a mass invasion, taking possession of human bodies.
What You Need to Know: The director behind “Pulse,” and “Cure” to name just a small sampling, Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa made his name in the psychological horror genre, but in the aggregate, Kurosawa has had an incredibly eclectic career, dipping his toe into several genres while recently, taking a more measured and traditionally dramatic approach when applied to say, a ghost movie, or a sci-fi film. His latest, “Before We Vanish,” is another sci-fi film, but surely not one in the traditional sense—this is not a director big on grand VFX. What to expect? The unexpected and something likely existential and thought provoking.
“Lady Bird”
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges, Tracy Letts, Laurie Metcalf, Lois Smith
Synopsis: A year in the life of a Northern California high school girl (Ronan) who plans to escape her local friends and family in her small town by moving to New York for college.
What You Need to Know: Greta Gerwig! Directorial debut! What else could you possibly need to know? Even our critic, who was a bit of a buzzkill in his Telluride review, admits that “at a minimum, ‘Lady Bird’ informs us that Gerwig is a filmmaker that can’t be ignored, and we’re obviously dying to see what she does next.” So yeah, we’re there for this one.
“The Square”
Cast: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary
Synposis: Disaster strikes when a curator hires a public relations team to build some buzz for his renowned Swedish museum.
What You Need to Know: Ruben Östlund’s follow-up to the wildly acclaimed “Force Majeure” has garnered much praise over the course of its festival run thus far, going so far as to win the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes. Here at The Playlist, we described “The Square” as “Smart, Sharp, Deliciously Uncomfortable,” and “an excoriating razor-burn of a movie that deploys drollery like an instrument of torture,” which certainly fits Östlund’s social-satirist aesthetic. (Side note: what a year Elisabeth Moss is having: “Top of the Lake: China Girl,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” an Emmy win, and now a Palme d’Or-winning Swedish satire arthouse film. Good for Peggy Olson, I say.)
“Last Flag Flying”
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne
Synopsis: Thirty years after they served together in Vietnam, a former Navy Corpsman Larry “Doc” Shepherd re-unites with his old buddies, former Marines Sal Nealon and Reverend Richard Mueller, to bury his son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War.as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
What You Need to Know: First and foremost it’s a sequel to Hal Asbby’s seminal ‘70s marines-on-leave drama, “The Last Detail.” And now why in God’s name would you write a sequel to a legendary film without its iconic cast (Jack Nicholson), etc.? For one, it’s based on the novel by the same author, Darryl Ponicsan, who wrote ‘Detail’ and secondly because you’re director Richard Linklater and you want a new challenge. Linklater has tried on many hats in his career and his continues to defy expectations with this buddy road trip movie of aging, reflection and self-discovery.