Though fall is one of my favorite seasons, brining the return of cardigans, riding boots and the NFL, it’s not exactly known for phenomenal movies. Summer is a time for blockbusters, winter for Oscar bait. Spring and fall are where the “others” are dumped; some are good, some are bad. But here are the movies I’m hoping will fit in the former category.
Every Hoya must love Bradley Cooper (COL ’97), and I would hate to be the exception to that rule. I’m looking forward to his September release The Words, in which he plays a struggling author who steals another man’s story. From what I gathered through my multiple viewings of the trailer, Cooper’s character and his wife (Zoë Saldana) do a lot of fighting. Their story of love and passion is paralleled by that of either the original author of the stolen work or the characters in the plagiarized book. (No one can say that movie trailers provide a lot of clarity.) Anyway, I’m dying to see this when it’s released Sept. 7.
Speaking of movies with a literary twist, I can’t be the only Georgetown student who’s anxiously awaiting The Perks of Being a Wallflower, based on the book beloved by angst-ridden high school students everywhere. Book adaptations often fail to live up to the hype, but since this movie was written and directed by the book’s author, Stephen Chbosky, I have hope. I’m also excited to see Emma Watson in a role that’s pretty close to the exact opposite of Hermione. Check it out Sept. 21.
Released that same weekend is Trouble with the Curve, which looks like a uplifting baseball drama with Amy Adams, Clint Eastwood, John Goodman and Justin Timberlake. I want to see it for the cast alone.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was my favorite part of The Dark Knight Rises, has another action movie coming out, Looper. In it he plays a futuristic assassin who travels through time to kill his targets. Things take a surprising turn when his next target is himself but 30 years older, played by Bruce Willis. The trailer is full of awesome action sequences that seem worthy of a summer release. Instead, see it Sept. 28.
The weekend of Oct. 5 looks to be pretty promising. Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, the movie that originally got him fired from Disney before he was a household name, looks to be a heartwarming tale of a boy and his reanimated dog. The other release I’m anxiously awaiting is Pitch Perfect, which is about two rival college a cappella groups. The movie is full of actresses you’ll vaguely recognize from other films — Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow, for example — and my new hero, Rebel Wilson, who played Kristen Wiig’s British roommate with very questionable taste in tattoos in Bridesmaids. She’s the breakout star of the trailer and (probably) the movie.
Cloud Atlas, based on the phenomenal novel by David Mitchell, comes out Oct. 26. The cast includes Halle Berry, Hugh Grant and Tom Hanks starring in interweaving storylines. Hopefully, the book will translate well to screen.
The first half of November brings two very different movies that I cannot wait to see: Wreck-It Ralphand Skyfall. The former is about a Donkey Kong-esque video game character who’s tired of being the bad guy. The latter is a Bond movie about how M’s mysterious past causes trouble for 007.
I guess people will see the last installment of the Twilight series on Nov. 16. But those of us who aren’tTwi-hards — which is the worst fandom name ever — might want to check out Anna Karenina, based on the famous Tolstoy novel and starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law. Knightley’s past costume dramas have been exceptional, so this should be entertaining.
At the end of November, there’s Red Dawn, the remake of the Cold War classic in which high schoolers (including Patrick Swayze) saved America from the Russians. In this version, ChrisHemsworth and Josh Hutcherson save us from North Korea.
And that’s the fall movie season — literary adaptations, undead dogs and North Korean invasions.
