I did something similar with a summer forecast back in late April and it's interesting to look back through that anticipatory write-up and see how the line up fared. I would say that Prometheus has ended up being my favorite film of the summer for it's grandeur, technical brilliance and visceral melding of religious philosophical questions with revolting genetic science. Battleship is easily the most reprehensible movie I watched. A cinematic experience so tepid and crass, I've done my utmost to blot it from memory. Who could have foreseen the tragedy that unexpectedly accompanied The Dark Knight Rises and how it would so negatively affect the films reception? I'll have to wait a while and give that film some distance from the unconscionable actions of a crazed gunman and the predatory vitriol from short sighted critics before I close the book on my feelings toward it.
September and October have had their share of highs and lows as well, with The Master emerging as one for the ages, a crude, heartfelt gem from a visionary film maker exploring new ground. Looper on the other hand is a plate of re-heated shit. A shallow, hipsters daydream of what things like love and responsibility mean filtered through a hodgepodge of pilfered aesthetic choices. Battleship is garbage, but at least everybody can agree on that. Looper is the most inexplicably celebrated film I've seen in my lifetime. I just can not understand the reception it has had among otherwise sane film scribes. Oh well, perhaps a year from now, I'll begrudgingly revisit it and decide it's a masterpiece. I'm pretty stupid like that. Let's begin, bearing in mind I'm only discussing the films I intend to see, not every title on the release docket.
OCTOBER
Rounding out the last week of October, we have Silent Hill Revelations 3D and Cloud Atlas. To be honest, despite the involvement of the Wachowski's and Tom Tykwer (whose Perfume I consider a masterpiece) and a slew of actors I enjoy, I am not looking forward to Cloud Atlas. It looks windy and pretentious and overwrought beyond belief. It appears to be boring as well, and with a 2 and a half hour run time, could turn into a real Bataan death march of a theatrical experience. After the triumph of Speed Racer, I should have learned to implicitly trust the Wachowski's, but something about this whole venture seems off to me. We shall see. Silent Hill Revelations looks like crazy horror fun just in time to salvage an anemic Halloween season. An over-designed nightmare of hellscapes and gimicky 3D could be just the thing to sate my cheesy impulses before awards season kicks into high gear.
NOVEMBER
The Man With The Iron Fists could be amusing, but I'm betting it turns out to be a self indulgent train wreck. I think it will be robbed of most of its impact by the cheap CGI and fakey blood flying all over the place. Still, Russel Crowe camping it up should be a treat and it will likely not be boring. Based on the absolutely stunning imagery in the trailer, Skyfall is my most anticipated film of the month. I'm sold on the Deakins cinematography alone, but Mendes behind the camera is an intriguing prospect and Craig's craggy visage should be a marvel to stare at on the IMAX screen. The trailers for Lincoln have intrigued me with their unashamedly old fashioned appearance and somber, elegiac tone. That cast is remarkable as well, even though goddamn JGL just had to slip in there. After being introduced to Joe Wright with Hannah, I'm dying to see Anna Karenina. Although my total disinterest in the cast and story could find me regretting that enthusiasm.
What can I say, I can't help but want to catch the last Twilight film in the theaters. The last entry was unforgivably awful, but so was the second to last Potter film. By that template, they should be throwing all the action in the last film and it will be a hoot. These brain dead, leaden melodramas have their place in both film and pop culture history and I strangely find it necessary to be there for the finale. Life of Pi will be interesting and gorgeous to look at, but Killing Them Softly is so firmly entrenched in my wheelhouse it's ridiculous. Dominik's Chopper and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford are two magnificently masculine pieces of art and KTS promises to more of the same. Stylish, brutal and full of trenchant political commentary, exactly the kind of film that I can't get enough of. Plus, Pitt looks painfully cool and Gandolfini is bringing the heavy breathing menace, so what more do you need to know?
DECEMBER
I mean, of course we'll all go see The Hobbit, but are any of us honestly looking forward to it? It looks silly and superfluous to me. A victory lap cash grab and most depressingly, a waste of Jackson's time. I'd much rather see him bring us the splatter film to end all splatter films, not a bunch of goofy-ass dwarves breaking wind and bonking their heads. I always enjoy Cruise's intensity in a tough guy role, so Jack Reacher will likely deliver, although the dialogue in the trailer is laughingly pedestrian. So much so it feels more like a spoof of an action movie more than the real deal. Zero Dark Thirty should be a wonderfully ghoulish time at the theaters, callously exploiting our state sanctioned revenge murder of Osama Bin Laden. I'm not a fan of Bigelow whatsoever, so I'm strictly showing up to satisfy my morbid rubbernecker impulses.
Christmas Day brings us my two most anticipated films left in the year, Django Unchained and Les Miserables. After spectacularly rebounding from Death Proof with Inglorious Basterds, I've learned to never count QT out. I'm a little leery of Django's subject matter, fearing it may bring out some of Tarantino's nasty-for-nastiness'-sake tendencies. Hopefully he finds a way to make the material sing without it being a miserable wallow in rape scenes and N-words. I saw Les Miserables on the stage last year and found it to be a gorgeous production with beautiful melodies supporting the heartbreaking narrative. This is sure to be an emotional powerhouse of a film and if the trailer is any indication, Hooper has captured the tone perfectly in the translation from the stage. I suspect Jackman will devastate audiences as Valjean. It's the role he was born to play in my humble opinion. I believe Hathaway and Crowe will manage not to embarrass themselves as well, so suffice to say, this will be an excellent holiday season at the theater.
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