Fall previews. NYT, LAT, etc. December.

Well before the last of these are screened, we'll start seeing the first awards and top tens. So it goes.

December 5:

• The Violin. Finally, after two years on the festival circuit, "Francisco Vargas Quevedo's first feature about the toll that military reprisals in a guerrilla war take on a family in the 1970s. I had been told by people who saw El Violin at Cannes and Toronto that its filmmaking was as strong as its politics," wrote David D'Arcy from Santo Domingo a year ago. Earlier: Reviews from Cannes. Trailer.

December 7:

• Atonement. Screenwriter Christopher Hampton and director Joe Wright adapt Ian McEwan's novel. With Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Reviews from Venice and the UK.

• The Band's Visit. An Egyptian band gets lost in Israel. Raves from Cannes.

• The Golden Compass. Earlier: Michael Cieply (NYT) on what all's at stake for New Line and director Chris Weitz as they adapt the first volume in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. With Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Eva Green and so on. Trailer.

• The Holy Modal Rounders: Born to Lose. "Charged with alternating currents of affection, exuberance and ineffable melancholy, [the film] offers an intriguing overview of the cult-fave combo that improbably evolved from an acoustic duo to a psychedelic country-folk-rock band," writes Joe Leydon (Variety).

• Leatherheads. George Clooney co-writes, directs and stars as an owner of a professional football team in the 20s in this romantic comedy. Earlier: EW.

• Look. Dave Kehr: "Adam Rifkin's film about the estimated 30 million surveillance cameras at work in the United States, supposedly photographing each and every one of us 200 times a day."

• No Regret. Earlier: Leesong Hee-il's debut feature "shouldn't just be on the radar for Queer film festivals, it should be on the shortlist for every festival," wrote Adam Hartzell nearly a year ago. And now, it'll see at least a limited release in the US.

• 'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris. "Uncovering why a great be-bop jazz singer fell into near-total obscurity is only one accomplishment of Raymond De Felitta's magnificent and moving [film]," writes Robert Koehler (Variety). "Taking a time-out from his feature directing (Two Family House, The Thing About My Folks), De Felitta seems a born documaker. He brilliantly constructs a tale born of a genuine love of jazz and a need to understand how Paris went from sensation to footnote in a generation."

• The Walker. Paul Schrader directs Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Moritz Bleibtreu, Mary Beth Hurt, Lily Tomlin... Earlier:Berlinale reviews. Currently playing in the UK: Xan Brooks in the Guardian and Philip French in the Observer. Trailer.

December 12:

• Nanking. Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's doc inspired by Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. Earlier: Reviews from Sundance.

December 14:

• Alvin and the Chipmunks. Trailer's at the site.

• I Am Legend. Earlier: Jeff Jensen talks with Will Smith (EW). Trailer.

• Juno. The big happy surprise at Telluride, evidently. Jason Reitman directs Ellen Page and Michael Cera. Earlier: Karina Longworth (SpoutBlog) and Kim Voynar (Cinematical).

• Redacted. Brian De Palma's won the Silver Lion for Best Director in Venice for his partially improvised cut-n-paste drama based on the incident in Haditha. Reviews from Venice and Telluride, where they loved it or hated it.

• Youth Without Youth. "[Francis Ford] Coppola's movie is a complex, symbol-laden meditation on the nature of chronology, language and human identity - but it also speaks to a familiar and widespread longing," writes AO Scott (NYT). "What if, without losing the hard-won wisdom of age, you could go back and start again? What if you could reverse and arrest the process of growing old, securing the double blessing of a full past and a limitless future?" The film "bristles with restless, perhaps overreaching intellectual ambition, and without being overtly autobiographical, it feels intensely and earnestly personal." Also, an audio slide show. Earlier: EW

December 19:

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Julian Schnabel directs Mathieu Amalric in the story of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, whose paralysis left him the use of only one eye. Reviews from Cannes. Trailer's at the site (in French).

December 21:

• Be Kind Rewind. Never mind the why, it's all about the how. Jack Black and Mos Def remake a slew of movies we all know, whether we love 'em or not. Michel Gondry directs his own screenplay. Trailer.

• National Treasure: The Book of Secrets. With Jon Voight and Helen Mirren. Earlier: EW. Trailer.

• PS, I Love You. "Sometimes there's only one thing left to say." With Hilary Swank.

• Steep. The doc's IMDb plot outline: "Steep traces the legacy of extreme skiing from its early pioneers to the daredevils of today."

• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The character, dating back to the mid-19th century, has a Wikipedia entry. Tim Burton's movie, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, is based on Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical. Earlier: EW.

• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. John C Reilly stars in a send-up of the recent slew of musician biopics. Casting seems to have been half the fun; e.g., Jack White as Elvis. Trailer.

December 25:

• Aliens vs Predator: Requiem. Merry Christmas. Trailer's at the site.

• The Bucket List. Rob Reiner directs Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as terminally ill men who escape a cancer ward to do what they've always wanted to do. Earlier: EW.

• Charlie Wilson's War. Mike Nichols directs Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Based on George Crile's book. Earlier: EW.

• The Great Debaters. Denzel Washington directs himself as an inspirational professor. Earlier: EW.

• Persepolis. With the help of Vincent Paronnaud and a cadre of traditional animators in France, Marjane Satrapi adapts her widely admired graphic memoir of her childhood in post-revolutionary Iran. "Persepolis feels ripped straight from its creator's heart, a sore, scathing, warts-and-all account of her formative years bolstered by its formidable aesthetic inventiveness, and elevated to the near-apex of its art form by its unguarded sincerity," writes Nick Schager (Slant). Earlier: EW. Reviews from Cannes. Trailer's at the site.

• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The Loch Ness Monster with Shrekish ears. Earlier: EW. Trailer.

December 26:

• Chuck Close. Marion Cajori's feature-length follow-up to her award-winning PBS doc, Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress. She completed this one before she died last August (Roberta Smith, NYT).

• There Will Be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson directs Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano in a story based on Upton Sinclair's Oil!. Earlier: Karina Longworth saw the 17 minutes presented in Telluride (SpoutBlog). Trailer.

December 28:

• Honeydripper. John Sayles directs Danny Glover. Alabama, 1950. Trailer.

• Mongol. "[T]his is one massive, impressive piece of work - an epic in every sense," writes Todd Brown (Twitch). Trailer (in Russian).

• The Orphanage. "Bolstered by a flawless lead performance by Belen Rueda, The Orphanage is out to chill your bones, to be sure, but there's also a great air of mystery (and a wonderfully welcome sense of poignancy) that elevates the film beyond that of a simple thriller," writes James Rocchi (Cinematical). "And while some of the themes and ideas may feel familiar to those who follow the 'south of the border' horror exports, there's more than enough originality and freshness to satisfy those fans... Half-drama and half-horror, The Orphanage is entirely captivating from start to finish." Earlier: Reviews from Cannes. Trailer.

Also: Michael Ordoña in the LAT: "[F]ilmmakers are responding to America's various fronts in the 'war on terror' while the bullets are still flying and bombs exploding. Many of these stories are anything but black and white, with their murky moralities, shattered families and questioning of US policy."

Charles Taylor and Stephanie Zacharek look ahead to the season's DVD releases for the NYT.

See also: September, October and November.

Posted by dwhudson at September 9, 2007 3:58 PM