By Sean van der Heijden, Staff writerThere are a ridiculous amount of good movies coming out for Oscar seasons this year, but a few stand out form all the rest. If you love going to the movies as much as I do, try checking out these films this fall:
5. The Imitation Game: dir. Morten Tyldum, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, and Matthew Goode. Cumberbatch—who recently won an Emmy for his work on Sherlock—has been on a roll lately, and this movie looks to be no different. Focusing on the live of controversial mathematician Alan Turing, the film tracks his life as her works to solve Enigma code during WWII. If all of that sounds too technical, Turing was also shunned for being a homosexual and (spoiler alert) nobody really knows how he died. The Imitation Game opens in theaters on Nov. 21.
4. Gone Girl: dir. David Fincher, starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry. Adapted by Gillian Flynn from her own novel, Gone Girl tells the story of a man who becomes a media sensation after his wife disappears and he is blamed for the murder. The whole cast is controversial—with Affleck and Perry standing out the most—but early reviews have been incredible and Rosmund Pike is supposed to give a chilling performance. Another team up with experimental composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross can’t hurt, either. Gone Girl arrives into theaters on Oct. 3.
3. Birdman: dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Amy Ryan, and Zach Galifianakis. After opening to rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival recently, Birdman is becoming the most hyped-about movie thus far this season. For those unaware with Iñárritu’s work (Babel, Amores Perros), he is a very experimental director, and the film is supposedly shot all in one take. Keaton’s performance, as well, is supposed to be just about the best thing he’s done. Birdman opens in limited release on Oct. 17.
2. Nightcrawler: dir. Dan Gilroy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, and Bill Paxton. A really edgy looking film (with an amazing trailer, by the way), this debut by Dan Gilroy is about a man who gets caught up in underground crime journalism in L.A. That is to say, he does some messed up stuff that’s questionably illegal and definitely immoral in order to get good news footage on breaking crimes. Gyllenhaal, who lost 20 lbs. for the role, looks fantastic, as does the film itself, which opens on Halloween night.
1. Interstellar: dir. Christopher Nolan, starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, and everybody else ever. Nolan’s first film since The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar is loaded with a bunch of new people Nolan has never worked with (plus Michael Caine), and looks spectacular. Based on the works of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, Interstellar tells the story of a group of scientists who travel via wormhole throughout our universe in order to find another habitable planet for our race. This film seems a lot deeper and more thought-out than much of Nolan’s preceding work, and all the footage released so far suggests just that. Interstallar makes it’s way into theaters on Nov. 10.
While these five films happen to be the ones I am most looking forward to, there are plenty of others throughout the season. The Liam Neeson thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones comes out on Sept. 19, the Brad Pitt-starring WWII movie Fury comes out on Oct. 17, and the Bill Murray comedy St. Vincent comes out on Oct. 25. Later in the fall, there’s the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything on Nov. 7, as well as Foxcatcher, which sees Steve Carrell (of all people) playing a creepy, schizophrenic wrestling coach and is supposed to be, well, creepy. That, along with Dumb and Dumber To, comes out on Nov. 14, with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 closing the season on Nov. 21.