In a few months it will be award season, so I am hoping for dear life that some better movies than The Hangover II and The Smurfs. There are only a few months left for this year’s Black Swan and The Social Network to appear, so let’s pray that at least one of these next five is worth it.
Moneyball – Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill star in this adaptation of Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book from 2003. The film tells the story of the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) and his struggle to bring glory back to his cash-poor baseball team. Although it may sound like just “a sports movie,” the actors themselves see it as much more. Jonah Hill has said “It’s about thinking differently,” which coincides with Beane’s idea of reinventing the team – going against some of baseball’s most basic assumptions. Check out this uplifting story when it comes to theaters September 23.
50/50 – Based on the true friendship of William Resier and himself, Seth Rogen tells the tale of two buddies when one gets diagnosed with spinal cancer at 25. Rogen came up with the idea as a buddy comedy and then got Resier to actually write the script, as he’s fortunately been in remission for years. While the film is meant to be funny it cannot of course ignore the darkest features of its subject, like chemotherapy and hair loss. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Resier’s counterpart against Rogen in the film which hits theaters September 30.
The Ides of March – A serious Oscar contender on paper, this story adapted by George Clooney is about the inner-workings of a modern political campaign. Clooney plays a governor looking for a primary win and Ryan Gosling plays his media strategist. The Julius Caesar reference in the title is not lost on the script. Gosling’s character soon learns a secret that would destroy the governor’s campaign and is forced to choose between his morals and his lust for victory, a possible hamartia indeed. Also starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, this film is sure to get the people’s vote on October 7.
Like Crazy – This love story of sorts is about what happens when two people who want to be together cannot be together, and why love so easily is created and falls apart. Anton Yelchin of Star Trek and Fright Night plays an LA boy who falls for a London girl while away at college. After school the couple finds it hard to keep such a long distance relationship together across seas and across many of life’s usual difficulties. Writer Drake Doremus based the movie on his own experiences in faraway love which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Follow the tale on October 28.
J. Edgar – Nothing says “Oscar winner” like Leo DiCaprio starring, Clint Eastwood directing, and a biopic. DiCaprio plays the infamous J. Edgar Hoover in the grandiose story of his life – from his adolescence all the way to his death in the early 1970s. Hoover was a man who, through his creation and domination of the FBI, was able to investigate “enemies” to the state like Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Hoover did oversee the extensive use of forensic evidence that seems so common today in his 50 year control of the bureau, but not without making a few real enemies along the way. Find out more about him on November 9.