Saturday, August 10, 2013

Movies: A Fall, 2013 Preview

August has arrived and, for those in higher ed, that means work. Over the summer, I reached my goal of an insane amount of media intake - 14 seasons of various tv shows, 27 movies, 9 books. So there was a lot of catching up on shows/movies/books and discovering new ones happening. My one downer with summer is the low amount of quality movies that are released. There's always a few exceptions but nothing I was able to get to blew me away this summer. Perhaps Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, or the latest "before" installment, Before Midnight, would have proved me wrong.

With the onset of the fall comes a new school year and all that it entails (full schedule, new students, etc.). As for movie releases, this means some award-seeking movies are headed our way. I'm intrigued by Neil Blomkamp's Elysium (out this weekend) though it still falls squarely in the summer blockbuster genre. And the holiday season promises at least a few more great action blockbusters such as Ender's Game, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

As I troll the internet for exciting new releases, the following are a few that have my particular attention. I have the movies' websites hyperlinked and a quick rationale for my excitement. Do you have other movies' that you're particularly excited about?



The Counselor
Director: Ridley Scott
Written by: Cormac McCarthy
Starring: Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz
Release date: October 25
Why I'm excited: Cormac McCarthy is a masterful story-teller. Add Ridley Scott and a stacked cast, something decent has to emerge, right?


Her
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson
Release date: November 20
Why I'm excited: Spike Jonze never fails to bring an insane idea to magical life on the big screen.




Inside Llewyn Davis
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Justin Timberlake.
Release date: December 20
Why I'm excited: It's a new Coen brothers movie.





The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Director: Ben Stiller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig
Release date: Christmas
Why I'm excited: The visuals in the trailer are just fantastic.