Posted by Sean van der Heijden
We still don't have a movie theater here in Saratoga Springs, but some pretty good movies are being released over the next couple of months and hopefully construction will soon finish on the theater that is being built right off Broadway. On that note, here are a few movies that I'm most looking forward to:
1. Prisoners: dir. Dennis Villenueve, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Currently making its way around a few international film festivals, Prisoners is an intense thriller about a man (Jackman) who tests the limits of morality to help the police find his missing daughter and her friend. It's getting fantastic reviews so far, with much praise for Jackman's emotional performance and its twisted, violent script. Prisoners hits theaters on Sept. 20.
2. Gravity: dir. Alfonso Cuar??n, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
I should preface my excitement for this film by stating that Alfonso Cuar??n (of all people) is my absolute favorite director. That being said, he hasn't released a full-length film since 2006's haunting Children of Men, but word is Gravity does not disappoint. The movie essentially deals with Sandra Bullock being stranded in space after a terrible accident, and is supposed to be an incredibly visceral and powerful experience. Gravity will be released into theaters on Oct. 4.
3. 12 Years a Slave: dir. Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Brad Pitt.
Based on Solomon Northrup's real-life memoir, this film follows a free African-American man (Ejiofor) living, coincidentally, in Saratoga Springs, who gets captured and sold into slavery in Louisiana. Harsh and unrelenting, it's been getting rave reviews at every film festival, especially for Ejiofor and Fassbender's intense performances. 12 Years a Slave opens in theaters on Oct. 18.
Later in the fall, we also have Ridley Scott's The Counselor-with a screenplay by the legendary Cormac McCarthy-sci-fi action film Ender's Game, Thor: the Dark World, and Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Coming up on Thanksgiving (which will be here sooner than you know it), there's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Spike Lee's Oldboy remake starring Josh Brolin, and Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom with Idris Elba and Naomi Harris. As I said, there's a lot to look forward to in the coming months.