The cineplex will be run over this year with quality movies, both big and small. This year, each member of Limité‘s film staff presents his or her top 10 picks. What movies are you most looking forward to? Comment below.
Note: Since many of these films are currently in various stages of production, the release dates are subject to change. All loglines are courtesy of IMDb.com, unless otherwise noted.
Dan’s Picks
GRAVITY
by Daniel Quitério
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Screenwriters: Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón, Rodrigo Garcia
Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Genres: Sci-fi, Thriller
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release Date: October 18
It’s been six years since Mexican writer/director Alfonso Cuarón took a seat in the director’s chair. And now, following his heralded 2006 release Children of Men, the filmmaker is primed to launch his much-anticipated sci-fi thriller Gravity. The $80 million space odyssey tale focuses on a pair of astronauts who are stranded beyond Earth after debris smashes into their shuttle during a routine spacewalk. Characters played by Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are tethered together as they spiral into negative space, hoping to find a way home.
The director partnered with his son Jonás Cuarón and filmmaker Rodrigo García (Albert Nobbs, 2011) on the script, which will be realized on screen in 3D and IMAX 3D. Prior to Bullock’s and Clooney’s attachment to the film, the two crucial roles had names like Angelina Jolie and Robert Downey Jr. attached to them. Several other notable Hollywood elites were also considered for the weighty female lead, including Marion Cotillard, Scarlett Johansson, and Natalie Portman, among others. Cuarón proves himself an auteur of the highest caliber with this and other films which he wrote, directed, produced, and edited. His three previous Oscar nominations came in the categories of Best Original Screenplay (Y tu mamá también, 2001), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing (Children of Men, 2006). Gravity will be photographed by past Cuarón collaborator, the 5-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer and fellow Mexico native Emmanuel Lubezki, who likely employs a similar sense of vast space and wonder in this film as he displayed in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011).
Austrian auteur Michael Haneke’s new film opens with a single-take shot of police breaking down the doors of an elegant Parisian apartment, only to find a macabre tableaux composed of a corpse of an elderly woman laid to rest on a bed. Immediately after comes the title card: Amour. This juxtaposition of love and death is given a rigorous exploration as Haneke unsparingly portrays one of life’s cruelest aspects: watching a loved one die. The inevitably of death is an experience that everyone must confront, and indeed it is part of Haneke’s grand design that the audience identifies with the on-screen couple and recognizes within them their own elderly loved ones. The fact that the director is able to depict this story as stark and uncompromising as he did should come as no surprise to those familiar with his ouevre. What is surprising is the unexpectedly tender hand he uses to fashion his latest work.
“1989 the number, another summer / Sound of the funky drummer”
These are the opening lyrics to Public Enemy’s song “Fight the Power.” In 1989, this song helped usher in Spike Lee’s signature movie Do the Right Thing, which centers on how different races in a three-to-five block radius in a Brooklyn neighborhood react to each other on the hottest day of the year. Off screen, the same year was a hotbed of unrest in New York City following a wave of race-based violence in the preceding decade, culminating with arguably the most racially biased and divisive incident.
On the night of April 18, 1989 in New York’s Central Park, Trisha Meili, a white, female jogger was beaten and raped, leading to the arrests of five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem. This horrific crime and its mind-bending circumstances form the setting of this year’s most powerful documentary, The Central Park Five.
Otelo Burning arrives following acclaimed screenings at such prestigious film festivals at the BFI London International Film Festival and the Busan International Festival in Korea. At the Durban International Film Festival, Otelo Burning was chosen as the Opening Night selection, and at the Seattle International Film Festival, it was nominated for the Golden Needle Award. The film was further honored at the 2012 African Movie Academy Awards, where it won two of 13 total nominations, including the prize for Best Cinematography and Best Child Actor (Tshepang Mohlomi). Otelo Burning also won the Golden Owl Audience Award for Best Film at Cinerama BC Brazil and Best South African Film at the Cape Winelands Film Festival.
Based on true events, the story unfolds as three teenage friends – Otelo, New Year, and Mandla – look for an escape through a time of turmoil in the township of Lamontville, South Africa and discover freedom through the joy of surfing. Shot in picturesque Durban, Otelo Burning is a strikingly dynamic portrait of hope and growth for a group of proud adolescents and a nation itself.
Sara Blecher is an award winning documentary director and producer with numerous projects under her belt including “Bay of Plenty,” an award-winning 26-part drama series chronicling the lives of a group of Zulu lifeguards on the Durban beachfront. In 2011, she released “Surfing Soweto,” a documentary following the lives (and deaths) of a group of so-called ‘train surfers’ in South Africa. And in 2009, she produced and directed the South African version of the popular television reality series “Who Do You Think You Are?” Otelo Burning is Blecher’s first feature film. Kevin Fleischer is the film’s Executive Producer with credits including White Wedding (Stepping Stone 2009) and Paradise Stop (Stepping Stone 2011), with White Wedding being the South African entry to the Foreign Language category of the 2010 Academy Awards.
BAD25 chronicles the making of Michael Jackson’s iconic, record-breaking Bad album and Michael’s first world tour as a solo artist. With BAD25, Spike Lee examines Michael Jackson’s creative vision for the album that ended up defining an era. Michael’s lasting artistic legacy comes to life thanks to rare and never before seen footage and the vivid recollections of Michael’s collaborators and confidants, such as Martin Scorsese who directed the 18-minute short film for the single Bad.
OCT. 19TH to 26TH – AMC Loews Theater, 66 Third Ave, New York City
OCT. 26TH to NOV 2ND. – Chinese 6 Theaters, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood CA
Out of all the advantages that movies have over other media (i.e., literature and theater), none is more potent than the ability to create a fully immersive dreamscape. To leave audiences in a hypnotic trance makes movie-going one of the more sensual experiences of all of the arts. This notion of film as only a mere storytelling vehicle, moving the plot from point A to point B, woefully under utilizes the full potential of the art form. Film transports the viewer to different planes of consciousness. In Holy Motors, French director Leos Carax takes this theme and runs with it. His latest offering serves a double function: a meta-commentary on the act of filmmaking, as well as a reverie to the cinema.
In The Gatekeepers, documentarian Dror Moreh does something unprecedented by interviewing six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel’s Secret Service. Individually, the “gatekeepers” reflect on their successes and failures during the ongoing struggles between Israel and Palestine and the mission for peace. In what is surely considered a strong contender for a Best Documentary Oscar nomination, this film is among the most astonishing documentaries of the year. (Moreh sites 2004 Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War as an inspiration.) The level of access Moreh achieves is remarkable, offering a point of view never previously heard in such a medium. The film is ripe with strong narratives as told by each of the six men, as well as varied “textures” that are achieved through sit-down interviews, revealing archival footage, well-composed graphics, and a score that underlines the visuals in a subtle-yet-impactful manner. The narrative can be a bit cumbersome to follow for those not familiar with the political and social struggles between Israel and Palestine, but even still one would be hard-pressed not to appreciate the film’s obvious achievements.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Dror Moreh
Genre: Documentary
Countries: Israel, France, Germany, Belgium
Language: Hebrew with English subtitles
Runtime: 97 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
Follow Limité Executive Editor/Film Editor Daniel Quitério on Twitter (@suddenlydog) and check out his film blog, the170.com.
Winner of this year’s prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, legendary filmmaker Michael Haneke’s Amour tells the story of an octogenarian couple living in France. After Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) suffers multiple strokes, her devoted husband Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) loyally stays by her side, caring for her throughout the duration of her deteriorating health. Amourtells a simple, truthful, emotional, tragic, haunting, and beautiful story—one that is likely to remain with the viewer long after the end credits roll. Both veteran French actors Riva and Trintignant offer exceptionally brave performances, only achieved by baring every bit of themselves to each other and on screen. Though the film’s pacing is slow, it reflects a feeling of quiet sadness that hangs heavily over the couple’s Parisian apartment. Amour is Austria’s official 2012 Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film and is considered an easy favorite for a nomination.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Michael Haneke
Genres: Narrative, Drama
Country: Austria
Language: French with English subtitles
Runtime: 127 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
Follow Limité Executive Editor/Film Editor Daniel Quitério on Twitter (@suddenlydog) and check out his film blog, the170.com.
Suburban New Jersey. Mid 1960s. A group of teens form a band in the shadow of some of the biggest names of the time—Rolling Stones, The Beatles. In his film directorial debut, Sopranos creator David Chase crafts a film that’s as much a love letter to the 1960s as it is to the classic tunes of his youth. Joining forces with an ideal music supervisor, the legendary Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and himself a patron saint of New Jersey, the duo captures the essence of the era in great detail, though at times the constant in-your-face references breach on annoying. Not Fade Awayfeels a bit disjointed at times and is not as strong as Cameron Crowe’s 2000 Oscar-winning Almost Famous (an easy comparison), but the film does manage to stand on its own two feet and will surely be enjoyed by any child of the ’60s with a garage band. Above all else, the soundtrack is pretty boss.
Limité Rating: 3/5
Director: David Chase
Genres: Narrative, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 112 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
Follow Limité Executive Editor/Film Editor Daniel Quitério on Twitter (@suddenlydog) and check out his film blog, the170.com.
Screening: Wednesday, October 3, 8:30pm (opens in limited release on Friday, October 5)
Venue: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC
Series: NYFF50: Main Slate
Set in 1960s racially charged southern Florida, two journalists (Matthew McConaughey and David Oyelowo) attempt to exonerate a convicted man (John Cusack) for the murder of a despicable sheriff. Meanwhile, the younger brother (Zac Efron) of one of the journalists falls for the woman (Nicole Kidman) who is romantically linked to the accused man.
