EW critics' fall movie picks
September
Owen Gleiberman
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro had only two scenes together in Heat, but
they sizzled like a '70s dream. That's enough to prime me for Righteous
Kill, in which the two legends team up as New York cops on the trail of
a serial killer....Now that the Coen brothers have climbed the Hollywood
awards beanpole, I can't wait to see what they'll do in Burn After
Reading (starring George Clooney), which sounds like the
light-comedy version of No Country for Old Men.... And Elite Squad, an underworld drama about the Rio de Janeiro military police, entices me
because it's the first fiction feature from José Padilha, whose
documentary Bus 174 was as riveting as any thriller.
October
Lisa Schwarzbaum
I'm cheating when I say I'm looking forward to Happy-Go-Lucky: Truth is,
I'm eager to see it again, since I already know the title emotion is
contagious in Mike Leigh's buoyant comedy about an upbeat young
woman.... Religulous (10/3) could be hilarious (from director Larry
Charles, who wrestled Borat into feature-length anarchy) or aggravating
(er, it's Bill Maher's thoughts on religion), but either way I'm ready
for the sermon.... After seeing the excellent work he did directing
episodes of HBO's great shrink series In Treatment, I'm curious to see
how Rodrigo Garcia steers Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson
through the horror-thriller Passengers.
November
Owen
Two years ago, Casino Royale was the BBME (Best. Bond. Movie. Ever.), so
the stakes are high indeed for Quantum of Solace. Will Daniel Craig and
the series' new director, Marc Forster, once again make 007 a man whose
depth rivals his danger?... Gus Van Sant tries to find the shades of
gray in Milk, an enticing-sounding biopic in which Sean Penn stars as
the pioneering gay pol Harvey Milk.... And I know I'm not alone in my
eagerness to see if Hollywood can do justice to The Road, Cormac
McCarthy's great postapocalyptic father-son saga, with a cast that
features Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.
December
Lisa
What happens when an award-winning play with a memorable cast is adapted
for the screen with a different, movie-starry cast? With Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman playing nun and priest in John
Patrick Shanley's Doubt, I'm willing to temper my own qualms.... I have
little doubt, though, that after his superb Zodiac, director David
Fincher will astonish me — his specialty — with The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button, starring Brad Pitt.... Finally, I've been hearing such raves
about the French film The Secret of the Grain that this Brad Pitt-free
story about an immigrant Arab family in France is high on my must-see
list.
