Fall previews. NYT, LAT, etc. November.

Release dates are not only subject to change, of course, they're also, admittedly, pretty New York-centric. But then, when they play in NYC, that's when you're going to be hearing all about them.

November 2:

• American Gangster. Ridley Scott directs Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. In his backgrounder for the LAT, John Horn writes that the film is "as much old-fashioned western as Scarface crime drama." Earlier: EW. Trailer.

• Bee Movie. Sheigh Crabtree gets the story on its making (LAT). Earlier: Daniel Fierman talks with Jerry Seinfeld (EW). Trailers and clips.

• A Broken Sole. Dave Kehr (NYT): "Human dramas from the transformative day of Sept 11, 2001, adapted from a play by Susan Charlotte and directed by Antony Marsellis. With Danny Aiello and Judith Light."

• Day Zero. "[O]pens with a text scroll about how the draft was instituted between World War I and Vietnam, and how it's since been suspended. Until now," writes Lexi Feinberg (Cinema Blend). "Three young men, who have been friends since childhood, have just been served: Feller (Elijah Wood), an eccentric novelist with a newly debilitating case of writer's block; Rifkin (Chris Klein), a married lawyer in slick suits who has just made partner; and Dixon (Jon Bernthal), a charming but reclusive cabbie with a loose-cannon temper.... This is not a watered-down, pandering take on what would happen if the young men we know were drafted - it aims right for the jugular. And hits it, hard." Trailer's at the site.

• Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. "Tales of meteoric rise, inevitable burnout and slow climb back to something resembling normalcy are familiar from the biographies of a thousand haunted artists, but Julien Temple's The Future is Unwritten stands out for its extraordinarily smooth filmmaking, which incorporates clips from contemporary films, photos, [Joe] Strummer's own artwork, and music from his BBC radio show to good effect," writes Jürgen Fauth. At Slant, Nick Schager finds it, "for the most part, some sort of incredible. In a fashion similar to his 2002 Sex Pistols portrait The Filth and the Fury, Temple confronts not only his legendary punk rock subject but also the cultural and political upheaval of the 70s and 80s British culture from which they emerged."

• The Kite Runner. "As director Marc Forster began the process of re-creating the world of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, he was committed to retaining the authenticity of the story that had so touched him when he first read the novel in 2003," writes Betsy Sharkey (LAT). Trailer.

• Sharkwater. "[Earns] every bit of its strong conservationist message and its string of festival awards," writes Andrew Dowler (Now Magazine). Trailer's at the site.

• War/Dance. "[F]ilmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine continue the Hollywood insult of looking at Africa as if it were a high-fashion runway," writes Ed Gonzalez (Slant). Even so, the doc won a Directing Award at Sundance. Trailer's at the site.

November 5:

• Glass Lips. Evidently all about Lech Majewski's video installation Blood of a Poet.

• Note By Note: The Making of Steinway L1037. An "engaging and instructive glimpse into a world of artisans and artists," writes Tim Page (Washington Post).

November 9:

• After Dark Horrorfest 2. "8 Films to Die For" in 500 theaters in 35 US cities, November 9 through 18. Trailers, info, etc at the site.

• Desert Bayou. Trailers and clips for this doc on the impact of Katrina are viewable at the site.

• Fred Claus. With Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Kevin Spacey, Kathy Bates, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz and, as the Angry Elf, Ludacris. Earlier: EW. Trailer.

• Holly. "A ne'er-do-well American drifter tries to save a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl sold as a Phnom Penh prostitute in capable social issue pic Holly, writes Eddie Cockrell (Variety). "Though treading a firm, clear-eyed line between education and exploitation, the well-acted and technically proficient drama - too chaste to scandalize, too dark for general audiences - works as a mobilizing tool for its cause."

• I Could Never Be Your Woman. Amy Heckerling directs Michelle Pfeiffer. "The movie mostly works for several reasons," and Critical Critics lists them.

• No Country For Old Men. "It's the emotional honesty of [Josh] Brolin's performance that makes it so compelling," writes Karen Durbin (NYT). Reviews from Cannes. Trailer.

• Lions for Lambs. Robert Redford's "most political movie since All the President's Men, and he's bracing for a backlash," writes David M Halbfinger (NYT). "The screenplay, by Matthew Michael Carnahan (who also wrote The Kingdom...), loosely ties together three taut confrontations: A rising Republican senator ([Tom] Cruise) tries to sell a new Afghan war strategy to a skeptical Washington reporter ([Meryl] Streep); a college professor (Mr Redford) tries to inspire a talented but tuned-out political science student (Andrew Garfield); and two Army rangers (Derek Luke and Michael Peña) try to survive a firefight on a snowy Afghan ridge." Trailer's at the site.

• P2. Bloody-Disgusting.com writes the IMDb plot outline: "The story centers on a corporate climber ([Rachel Nichols) who gets stuck working late on Christmas Eve and finds herself the target of an unhinged security guard ([Wes] Bentley). With no help in sight, the woman must overcome physical and psychological challenges to survive." Trailer's at the site.

• Southland Tales. Richard Kelly splits the critics; reviews from Cannes 06.

• Steal a Pencil For Me. "Israeli director [Michèle] Ohayon puts a unique spin on stories of the Holocaust," writes Melanie Haupt (Austin Chronicle). "Despite its somewhat muddled and confusing chronology, Steal a Pencil is the kind of story that makes one believe in soulmates."

• The Wedding Director. This one "follows the strikingly modernist vein of [Marco] Bellocchio's The Religion Hour (aka My Mother's Smile, 2002) and Good Morning, Night (2004), while failing to communicate the clear vision of those movies. Though it tosses out dozens of tantalizing leads, it lacks a central idea to tie them together - even in the loose style of the previous films," writes Deborah Young (Variety).

November 16:

• Beowulf. Written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, directed by Robert Zemeckis. Trailer.

• Elegy. Isabel Coixet adapts Philip Roth's The Dying Animal. With Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz, Dennis Hopper, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson and Deborah Harry.

• How to Cook Your Life. "Tasteful in more ways than one, mischievous and charming docu How to Cook Your Life serves up a heapin' helping of Zen priest, cook and bestselling food author Edward Espe Brown, steeped through the happy, healthy worldview of Teuton director Doris Dörrie (Enlightenment Guaranteed, Naked)," writes Eddie Cockrell (Variety). Trailer's at the site.

• Love in the Time of Cholera. Mike Newell directs an adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez's novel. With John Leguizamo, Liev Schreiber, Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt and Catalina Sandino Moreno.

• Margot at the Wedding. A "first impression" from Karina Longworth (SpoutBlog): "Noah Baumbach's follow-up to The Squid and the Whale is an intermittently fascinating exercise that barely holds together as a film." Trailer.

• Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. With Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman. Earlier: EW. Trailer's at the site.

November 21:

• August Rush. Kirsten Sheridan directs Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell. Trailer's at the site.

• Enchanted. A fairy tale spills into New York. Not a comment on the oft-bewailed Disneyfication of the city, evidently. With Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey. Earlier: Steve Daley (EW).Trailer.

• Hitman. Based on the video game franchise. Earlier: EW. Trailer.

• I'm Not There. Todd Haynes directs Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw as Dylanesque characters. Reviews from Venice, Telluride and Toronto. Also, Larry Gross (Film Comment). Trailer.

• The Mist. Frank Darabont directs Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden in a story by Stephen King. Trailer.

• This Christmas. Written and directed by writer-director Preston A Whitmore II. The word you'll find everywhere: "A Christmastime drama centred around the Whitfield family's first holiday together in four years."

November 23:

• Starting Out in the Evening. Andrew Wagner directs Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose in an adaptation of Brian Morton's novel. Reviews from Sundance.

November 28:

• Chronicle of an Escape. "A stark, brutally realistic slice of modern vérité, Buenos Aires 1977 [as it's also known, evidently] is based on the autobiography of Argentinian Claudio Tamburrini," writes Tom Huddleston (Not Coming to a Theater Near You). Trailer's at the site.

November 30:

• Aaja Nachle. As with other Bollywood movies, a trip to Wikipedia is recommended.

• Cassandra's Dream. With Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell and Tom Wilkinson. Reviews of Woody Allen's latest from Venice.

• The Christmas Cottage. Jared Padalecki plays painter Thomas Kinkade, and he's flanked by the likes of Peter O'Toole and Marcia Gay Harden.

• Flawless. Michael Radford directs Michael Caine and Demi Moore in a caper set in London in 1960. "He had a scheme. She had a motive." Trailer (in Spanish, which actually works pretty well with Moore's look here).

• Man in the Chair. Writer Michael Schroeder directs Christopher Plummer. The story: "Cameron, a troubled teenager, seeks out Flash, an 85-year-old retired gaffer from the Citizen Kane era, to help him make a student film." Trailer.

• Pathology. Plot outline at the IMDb: "A group of medical students devise a deadly game: to see which one of them can commit the perfect murder."

• Protagonist. A unique doc from Jessica Yu. Earlier: Brian Darr and reviews from Sundance.

See also: September, October and December.

Posted by dwhudson at September 9, 2007 4:04 PM