The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Movies For September
It seems like only yesterday that I started my trailer breakdowns. This is now the fourth in my regular series of breakdowns of the most interesting looking movies for the coming month, which have had moderate success up to now in terms of me actually seeing the movies I think look interesting. So far, the record is:
June – seen 4 out of 6, two 8/10, one 7/10 and one 5/10
July – seen 4, two 10s, one 8 and one 7, although I am seeing a fifth this evening
August – seen 5, a 10, a 9, an 8 and two 6s
Maybe this month I can actually manage to get to everything? Anyway, here’s what I’ve come up with for this month.
Certified Copy
Juliette Binoche is one of the most capable actresses working today, and has shown a good touch with a wide range of material over the years. Here she’s in English mode again, but for something a little more off the beaten track. I’ve read in a few places that some hardcore Kiarostami followers (for he is the director) have felt this is a bit of a sell out – but if you can get your films out to a wider audience without compromising your artistic integrity, what’s wrong with that?
Cyrus
The mumblecore movement has so far given us… well, lots of mumbling movies and Greta Gerwig, about to be seen with Russell Brand in the Arthur remake. Now two of the movement’s key players, Mark and Jay Duplass, try their hand at directing something a little more conventional – at least, that’s how this trailer is selling it. Time will tell how much the marketing boys at Fox Searchlight have been true to their product. (I have already paid for a ticket for this, but at Movie-Con in August ended up in the pub instead of watching this. So it had better be good.)
Tamara Drewe
This year’s The Disappearance Of Alice Creed proved to anyone that doubted it that Gemma Arterton is a fine actress and not just fodder for the multiplexes. I can only hope the movie she’s in here is better than it’s trailer, though. To be honest, the component parts look interesting, but the American voiceover and the way that laughter clips are cut in after the jokes like some kind of canned laughter track gives this a very condescending feel. In Stephen Frears we trust, though.
The Other Guys
I’m a Will Ferrell fan, and have been since his appearances in the Austin Powers movies. So if you’re not, you may be asking the wrong person for an opinion. My only concern is that I didn’t really warm to Step Brothers at all, so I’m hoping this is more of a return to form than anything else.
The Town
Using material co-written by Academy Award-winning writer Ben Affleck, director Ben Affleck (the excellent “Gone Baby Gone”) has for some reason cast the middling actor Ben Affleck in this otherwise fantastically cast movie. Let’s hope that Affleck the director can get the most out of Affleck the actor.
Buried
I saw the first eight minutes of this at Movie-Con last month, and was already gripped. Director Rodrigo Cortes also turned up to do a Q & A, and was a complete delight, disarming and completely charming, but also very glad that the audience seemed to like what they see. Early word from Fright Fest, where this screened last weekend, has also been very positive.
Coming soon: a Cambridge Film Festival special, where I’ll be running through as many of the trailers as possible for the movies I’ll be seeing at that later this month.
The Movie Evangelist 