2014
2013
9/2
Working For It: Trios don't get much stronger than Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, and Rachel Weisz. It's about a couple who finds a baby and years later learns who the mother is. It's some high drama and sure to have a lot of emotions. Those three can surely pull it off. From the director of Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines.
Working Against It: It looks like this leans more into melodrama than I care for.
Verdict: I may see it if the options in theaters are slim enough.
Working For It: Kate Mara investigates a girl who was made in a lab and kept hidden there. It's essentially Ex Machina meets Lucy and that says all you need to know. Very strong cast, including Mara, Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), Paul Giamatti, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and others.
Working Against It: Who is Luke Scott? He's somehow related to Ridley and Tony. Probably the son of one of them. Anyway, this is his first feature and it looks just like something that Ridley Scott would do when he's bored. It's hard to see how this film isn't a retread of several other movies I've seen before.
Verdict: Doubtful in theaters. Too much that could go wrong.
Working For It: Right on cue, Morgan Saylor stars in a movie about young people that's made to scare the shit out of older people. This happens about once a decade (Kids in 1995, Thirteen in 2003). It looks visually very interesting and intense. I liked Saylor in Homeland (for a while), so that'll be enough for me to seek this out.
Working Against It: Elizabeth Wood (writer/director) is new to the scene. That's a little risky, I guess. Sometimes with films like these, the directors get more enamored with all the shocking things they can show than with telling a good story (A distant cousin to the "torture porn" genre). I'll proceed with caution.
Verdict: Too risky for theaters. Perfect for an evening of depravity at home.
Working For It: Is Kevin Smith a positive or a negative these days? I'm not sure. I do like that he makes whatever the hell he feels like making. Right now, that means giving his daughter and Johnny Depp's daughter a movie. It interesting seeing how Smith's regular actors have changed over time. People like Genesis Rodriguez, Justin Long, and Haley Joel Osment he's picked up in the last few movies. And Johnny Depp's here thanks to his and Smith's daughters' friendship, no doubt.
Working Against It: This looks [intentionally] like a straight-to-video release. Smith is really embracing the lunacy these days. That's not my preferred flavor of his work even though I dig how he's making whatever he feels like, as outside of the studio system as ever.
Verdict: Unless I get on a major Kevin Smith kick, it's a hard pass.
9/9
Working For It: Kate Beckinsale moves into an old house with a room that isn't on the blueprint. Creepy things happen.
Working Against It: I don't like movies, horror in particular, that have so much riding on a single reveal. There's nothing in the room that could live up to the mystery the movie will build for it. Director D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye) is moving more overtly into horror with this and that's not the direction I think he works best in.
Verdict: I'm not curious enough to find out.
Working For It: Tom Hanks is the airplane pilot who landed a passenger jet in the Hudson River. Clint Eastwood is directing what looks like Flight without the alcoholism. Other likable actors including Laura Linney, Anna Gunn, and Aaron Eckhart are there too.
Working Against It: I'm not a huge Clint Eastwood fan. American Sniper was the first movie of his I even saw in theaters. A Hologram for the King reminded me that there is a limit to what Tom Hanks movies I'll track down in theaters. It still seems awful unlikely that I'd miss this.
Verdict: I'm very likely to be there opening weekend.
Working For It: I love how these Screen Gems movies don't even care if you know the plot from the trailer. It makes the point pretty clearly though. It's essentially Obsessed, except switch out a women at the husband's work with the couple's surrogate.
Working Against It: This isn't my kind of movie and Screen Gems isn't concerned with making it transcend normal genre preferences.
Verdict: Nope
Working For It: It's an animated movie about Robinson Crusoe landing on an island run by the animals. I swear I've seen the trailer before. I don't remember if it's from an earlier edition of these Previews before it got delayed or if this trailer actually made it to a movie theater.
Working Against It: The trailer is built like it's from at least a decade ago. For obvious reasons, I'm not a fan of the animated movies that are only designed to be enjoyed by children. I need something that works for adults on some level, which this isn't concerned about. It will disappear quickly and quietly.
Verdict: Definte no.
Working For It: Remember JT LeRoy from back in the late 90s? Me neither, but I'm fascinated by the story of how she duped the literary and pop-culture world into believing the character existed.
Working Against It: The common pitfall of this kind of documentary is if it tries to overstate the importance of the story. Similar docs will get too concerned with proving how big a "con" this was rather than focusing on the interesting character.
Verdict: Maybe on Netflix.
Working For It: A kid from the streets gets his new shoes stolen and goes on a journey of self-discovery to get them back. It's well established that I'm a sucker for coming-of-age stories, so this on my radar. I believe this is also a Sundance movie: another of my favorite things.
Working Against It: The trailer hints at some visual flair that could get annoying. I don't want to pre-judge, but I can see how that could rub me the wrong way.
Verdict: Eventually, I assume I'll see it. Too much working in its favor.
Working For It: Jesse Plemons is a big city boy who returns to the small town that he grew up in after his mother gets sick. Molly Shannon, as his mother, is supposed to be great in it. Others like Bradley Whitford, June Squibb, Rhetta, and Zach Woods are reliable actors. The continued growth of Maude Apatow is also worth tracking.
Working Against It: "Big city person returning to childhood home" is one of the most pervasive indie movie setups there is. At some point, there needs to be something new about it to still be worth watching. Is Jesse Plemons in a lead role or Molly Shannon in a dramatic role going to be enough?
Verdict: Probably no. It's forgetably similar to too much.
9/16
Working For It: This is a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Project, about a guy who is searching for his sister who went missing during the events of the original movie. The writer and director don't have a connection to the 1999 movie, but they both worked on segments for V/H/S and V/H/S 2. The easiest way to may heart with a horror movie is to be tied to those two anthologies.
Working Against It: It's more traditionally shot than the original and will lack the surprise factor. I'm rooting for the movie, but I'm not sure what the "special sauce" is going to be this time around. That said, just by not being Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, this it will be an improvement.
Verdict: If I saw The Visit and Unfriended in theaters, I'm seeing this in theaters.
Working For It: Renee Zellwegger is back as Bridget Jones. This time, she's pregnant and it's either Colin Firth or Patrick Dempsey's baby. I was originally going to complain about how Dempsey is too young for the role, but I didn't realize that he's 50. The dude looks good for 50. The tone of the movie seems to be right and it has Emma Thompson, who is one of my favorite people.
Working Against It: This movie came too late in a lot of ways. It's been 12 years since the last movie and the cast just looks too old for a pregnancy story. And, while I like Patrick Dempsey, he isn't a great substitute for Hugh Grant.
Verdict: The lack of Hugh Grant kills my interest too much.
Working For It: It a concert movie for an Australian Christian rock band. I like concert movies as a whole. The Justin Beiber and Katy Perry movies were better than I expected. You can learn some things you didn't know.
Working Against It: Hillsong is a little too far from mainstream for me to get value out of learning about them. One problem that a lot of concert movies have is that they try to edit together some dramatic story out of whenever the camera crew happens to be recording. That almost always feels forced and that seems to be the case with this.
Verdict: Not a chance.
Working For It: Joseph Gordon Levitt is Edward Snowden. It's the kind of topic that Oliver Stone can excel at (Somewhat-to-very fictionalized character studies of actual people) and it has an Oliver Stone-level cast (large and very recognizable). Not enough people know about what Snowden actually did, so this could be enlightening to many [including myself].
Working Against It: Is a weird vocal performance going to tank another JGL movie? The silliness of Levitt's french accent no doubt hurt The Walk last year. It's hard to not snicker similarly at his Edward Snowden voice. I hope that isn't a big part of the response to the movie, but I doubt it will be ignored.
Verdict: It's very probable unless reviews are savage.
Working For It: I love The Beatles and it's certain to have a good sound track.
Working Against It: How many times do we need to hear the Beatles' British Invasion story? Enough already. There's no worthwhile new footage being found by anyone.
Verdict: In a way, haven't I already seen it?
Working For It: Two friends do an experiment on a neighbor (James Caan). They want to see if they can convince him that his house is haunted. They end up discovering that he may be up to something much darker. Everything about this interests me. The trailer looks great, as does Caan. I might even be brave enough to track this down in theaters if I can.
Working Against It: First time directors always worry and excite me in equal measure. Similar to The Disappointments Room, it looks like this is setting up for some big reveal or twist, and those tend to be underwhelming.
Verdict: I'll start looking for it immediately.
9/23
Working For It: Anthony Fuqua reunites with Denzel Washington after the brutal and fun The Equalizer for a remake of a classic western. Add in Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, and others and that's a movie I'd like to see.
Working Against It: A September release is curious for what looks like a pretty major movie. I'm not sure if the studio is trying to bury it or trying to break into new territory like what's been happening the last few Februaries in the box office.
Verdict: Yes.
Working For It: It's an animated movie about storks. They no longer deliver babies. Now they work for some sort of "Amazon" delivery company. Andy Samberg works with a human (Jennifer Aniston) to deliver one last baby, brought to them by mistake. It's from the Warner Brother's Animation studio, which has only done The Lego Movie so far in the CGI branch.
Working Against It: I could confuse this with a dozen forgettable Dreamworks Animation or Blue Sky or Illumination movies. It doesn't stand out at this point.
Verdict: I can't formulate the circumstance in which I'd see this.
Working For It: It's a documentary about a South Korean actress and director who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-Il back in the 70s. It looks to use the story of their abduction and, I assume, escape to tell a larger story about the Korean film industry and the rule of Kim Jong-Il. Fascinating stuff.
Working Against It: This will be such a low profile release that the biggest thing working against it is that I'll forget about it.
Verdict: Eventually I'll see it, if I remember it.
Working For It: Based on the true story of a Ugandan girl who becomes a world Chess champion. It has Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo. I like that. Disney knows how to do an inspirational sports movie (even if the movie isn't about a sport). That it's starting with a limited release is odd for a Disney movie. I wonder if that means they think this has awards buzz.
Working Against It: It's fascinating tracking the evolution of this niche of Disney movie. It's been a while since one looked interesting enough for me to actually watch it though. I passed on Mcfarland USA and Million Dollar Arm. I'm not feeling great about this either.
Verdict: Unlikely to ever see it.
9/30
Working For It: Remember the BP Oil Spill? That's an action movie now. Just imagine The Perfect Storm but on an oil rig. It's a Peter Berg movie. Yes, that's a filmography that includes Battleship and Hancock. It also includes The Rundown and Lone Survivor. This can go a lot of ways. Mark Wahlberg, Kate Hudson, Kurt Russell, Gina Rodriguez, and John Malkovich is a good, if not completely expected cast.
Working Against It: You know, this doesn't have to be based on a true story. Just make a disaster movie on an oil rig. I hate playing the guessing game of what's actually true about a story when it's clearly been given a Hollywood facelift.
Verdict: It's possible that I see it, not probable.
Working For It: It's a Zach Galifianakis bank robbery movie that's been in release hell for a while. I vaguely remember it originally being slated for Winter 2015 and here it is, finally showing up September 2016. Except for Galifianakis, who I've never been able to connect with, I love the cast, including Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones (I swear this isn't Ghostbusters), Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and others.
Working Against It: Jared Hess hasn't had a movie that's worked since he debuted with Napoleon Dynamite (a movie that hasn't aged well). Even though the trailer got me to laugh a couple times, it looks like the type of movie that spends too much time annoying me for me to be able to appreciates the jokes that work.
Verdict: I don't see it happening.
Working For It: Based on a popular children's book, this is essentially "Tim Burton presents Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters". There's no Johnny Depp, which, sadly, at this point is a blessing for a Tim Burton movie. Eva Green is quickly becoming Helena Bohnam Carter 2.0. I haven't been this genuinely interested in a Tim Burton movie in several years.
Working Against It: Between A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Spiderwick Chronicles, there's not a long history of having reasons to expect this to be very good. "Enjoyable" is probably the ceiling for it.
Verdict: Maybe, leaning toward no.
Working For It: Young people, uh, go on a road trip, or something. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and could mark a "return" for Shia LaBeouf. And, Riley Keough. She's showing up everywhere these days.
Working Against It: The trailer I saw was awful and may have killed my excitement for the film. The pull-quotes are probably overselling the importance of the film, so I need to make sure to lower my expectations going it.
Verdict: I don't have enough of an idea about what it is to figure out if I want to see it.
Working For It: Rachel Weisz plays Deborah Lipstadt, who was sued for libel after denouncing a prominent Holocaust denier. It's crazy to think that the burden of proof was on her.
Working Against It: The trailer tries to build it as some kind of thriller. I figure the actual movie will be more subdued. At they end of the day, this may be better served as a Wikipedia read.
Verdict: I think I got everything I needed from the trailer.
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