November Movie Preview

Boys and girls, we're not messing around anymore. The past couple weeks have already been a blur of festival favorites expanding, wide releases hoping for Oscar love, and popcorn fun. Even still, November is set to top it. I mean, I may have more locks in this month that I have in the past four. And this list isn't even including movies playing on the coasts right now, waiting to expand like Whiplash, White Bird in a Blizzard, and Horns. It's going to be ridiculous and I can't wait!

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2013

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11/7

The Lock: Interstellar

Working For It: Absolutely everything. Cast, director, concept. I'm all in to the point of almost guaranteed disappointment.
Working Against It: Absolutely nothing. Christopher Nolan has been too impressive to doubt so far in his career. See you opening weekend.
Odds I'll See It: 100%

The Lock: Big Hero 6

Working For It: Marvel + Disney Animation = excitement. I don't know much about the plot, but Disney (Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph) and Marvel (Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier) have been on too much of a roll recently to doubt that this will be anything short of a good time.
Working Against It: We know Marvel can do live action. Animation is still a mystery. It's not a given that this will be a knock-out. Granted, it's Disney Animation using a Marvel property, not the other way around. Also, not having a clearer sense of the story by now is a little worrisome.
Odds I'll See It: 81%

The Lock: The Theory of Everything

Working For It: A biopic about Stephen Hawking and his wife. Since doing the festival circuit, Eddie Redmayne's performance has been praised as transformative and Felicity Jones (Go see her in Like Crazy. Thank me later). This is looking like the best kind of Oscar bait.
Working Against It: If it's more focused on Hawking's muscular-dystrophy than his career, that would be a turn-off. Thankfully, that's not the impression I get.
Odds I'll See It:72%

Other Options:
Open Windows

Working For It: Director Nacho Vigalondo is known in some circles for weird little indie movies Timecrimes and Extraterrestrial. He's also worked on a couple horror anthologies that I've heard good things about or seen and liked. I don't know much about the movie, but there's enough buzz to get my attention.
Working Against It: Elijah Wood plays a guy who wins a date with Sasha Grey, then weird stuff happens. Casting Grey is a high risk /high reward move. She's actually a decent actress, and if Vigalondo gets a good performance out of her, it could be a big surprise to people. Then again, she's not that polished of an actress. And, one has to wonder if she was sought out for this or was just the person who accepted the role when it got to her.
Odds I'll See It:18%

11/14

The Lock: Dumb and Dumber To

Working For It: Dumb & Dumber is the best Farrelly brothers movie. There. I said it. Granted, the only competition is There's Something About Mary. My point is, Harry and Lloyd are great characters and I have to believe that even a bad version of them [played by those actors] would be worth seeing. More importantly, neither Jim Carrey nor Jeff Daniels had to do this movie, so there's gotta be something about the script that has them excited.
Working Against It: It's hard to see how this is could match the alchemy of the first movie. You even get the feeling that the comedy landscape has moved past this.
Odds I'll See It: 78%

The Lock: Foxcatcher

Working For It: Starring Steve Carrell in a role that has people screaming "Oscar". Channing Tatum getting a rumbling of that too (Raise your hand if you thought in 2010 that Tatum had Oscar potential). Mark Rufalo is always good. The movie tells the story of Carrell as the sponsor of two Olympic wrestlers. It ends badly. Reviews sound positive, but mostly, I want to see Carrell.
Working Against It: Reviews haven't been universally kind. That's hardly enough to crush my interest. Even if this doesn't garner Best Picture attention, I'm still likely to track it down.
Odds I'll See It:76%

Other Options:
Rosewater

Working For It: Directed by and screenplay adapted by Jon Stewart. Most people know it best as "that movie that caused John Oliver to host The Daily Show for a couple months". It's actually the true story of a journalist who was imprisoned and tortured (or something like that) in Iran for over 100 days.
Working Against It: You may have a few questions right now. Has Jon Stewart ever directed anything before, even an episode of The Millers? Was the last movie he was even in Death to Smoochy? Who is Gael Garcia Bernal? Why isn't John Oliver on The Daily Show anymore? I wish I had answers to more of those questions. This movie is one big question mark. I do worry about a comedian coming out the gate with something this dramatic.
Odds I'll See It: 36%

The Homesman

Working For It: It's a Western, written by, directed by, and starring Tommy Lee Jones. That level of involvement from a single person at least gets my attention.
Working Against It: Also starring Hilary Swank, who I really don't prefer. To be frank, unless this is a big awards player, I have no intention to see this any time soon.
Odds I'll See It: 7%

Beyond the Lights

Working For It: People in Hollywood keep waiting for Gugu Mbatha-Raw to hit it big and this could be her big break.
Working Against It: It's about a superstar woman dating a regular guy or something like that. That doesn't really sound up my alley.
Odds I'll See It: 2%

Saving Christmas 

Working For It: Kirk Cameron saves Christmas.
Working Against It: Kirk Cameron saves Christmas.
Odds I'll See It: 1%

11/21

The Lock: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1

Working For It: Let's see. Guaranteed $300 million. Nearly a can't miss star in Jennifer Lawrence. One of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's final screen appearances. This is a perfect storm of reasons for me to see this.
Working Against It: I mean, one does wonder how a Hunger Games movie will do without any Hunger Games in it. I've not heard the best of things about the last book and splitting it into two movies is undoubtedly a financial movie, not one to service the story.
Odds I'll See It: 90%

The Lock: The Imitation Game

Working For It: Benedict Cumberbatch is going to have an Oscar nomination for playing famous code-breaker Alan Turing. Kiera Knightley looks solid too as his right-hand woman. This is a vintage prestige drama. The word "crowd-pleaser" has been thrown around more that a few times as well. As far as I'm concerned though, they had me at Benedict.
Working Against It: The only trailer I've seen for this makes it look like a pretty straightforward movie and I could see it ending up like a duller The Good Shepherd. I doubt that, but it's a possibility.
Odds I'll See It: 70%

The Lock: V/H/S: Viral

Working For It: I LOVE the first two V/H/S movies. It's a horror anthology series that gets different directors to tell short, distinct, scary stories all shot as found footage. While I would miss my tradition of finding a V/H/S at 1am by myself and watching it, then not falling asleep for a while after, I'd love to see one of these in a theater.
Working Against It: The first two movies didn't make $200,000 combined or reach more than a handful of theaters. They follow the VOD model and there's almost no chance it's expanding within 200 miles of me.
Odds I'll See It: 57%

Other Options: None

11/28

The Lock: Horrible Bosses 2

Working For It: I'm on record as being underwhelmed by the first Horrible Bosses. I think it's a fine comedy and the trio of Charlie Day, Jason Bateman, and Jason Sudeikis make it. Bringing them back is a great start no matter what the plot is. Jennifer Aniston, Jaimie Foxx, and Kevin Spacey are back in some capacity and Chris Pine comes in as the new antagonist. The casting couldn't be stronger.
Working Against It: The cast was never my issue with the first movie and this sequel is looking more similar to the strategy of The Hangover Part II than 22 Jump Street (i.e. more of the same and escalate, but don't enhance).
Odds I'll See It: 69%

Other Options: 
Penguins of Madagascar

 

Working For It: A movie about everyone's favorite part of the Madagascar movies.
Working Against It: The better this movie does, the better the chances are that there will be a minions movie from Despicable Me and I cannot condone that.
Odds I'll See It: 16%

Before I Disappear

Working For It: All I know about this movie is that Emmy Rossum is in it. A lead? Supporting character? Cameo? I don't know. I'm a season behind on Shameless and I could need an Emmy Rossum fix. Who knows if that will overtake me on opening weekend.
Working Against It: The possibility of a good dose of Emmy Rossum is not a great convincing point. It looks like this is some sort of indie drama and I'm not in the mood for what's certain to be a downer.
Odds I'll See It: 3%

Escobar: Paradise Lost

Working For It: Josh Hutcherson plays a surfer who falls for Pablo Escobar's niece. At best, this could be a nifty movie that starts with an odd culture clash. At worst, it's a complete mess of a movie with tones that are all over the place. Both could be priority viewing.
Working Against It:The phrase "calamity of errors" comes to mind. This could easily be bad in all the worst ways.
Odds I'll See It: 1%