Vogue’s Fall Movie Guide: 24 Movies You Should Watch This Season Inline
Photo: Everett Collection1/24Black Mass
It’s a law of nature that every great actor will eventually play a gangster. It’s Johnny Depp’s turn. In the latest from the director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), Depp disappears into the role of Whitey Bulger, the creepy-looking real-life Boston crime lord—and FBI informant!—whose brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), was president of the Massachusetts Senate. Here’s one Best Actor nomination slot now taken. September 18
Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate2/24Sicario
It’s another law of nature that every great actress will eventually star in an action movie. It’s Emily Blunt’s turn—yet again. This time she plays an honest FBI agent who gets involved in a secret operation against the Mexican drug cartels run by a shadowy government op (shifty-fun Josh Brolin) and a shadowy narco-whisperer (scary-fun Benicio Del Toro). Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners), it should leave your knuckles so cold and white you’ll think they’ve been snowed on. September 18
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures3/24The Intern
Whether it’s Jack Nicholson falling for Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give or Meryl Streep juggling Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in It’s Complicated, writer-director Nancy Meyers likes to brighten her heroines’ lives with fantasy-figure males. Here, Anne Hathaway plays an overwhelmed head of a fashion website whose senior citizen intern (Robert De Niro, not crabby for once) turns out to be a man’s man of the old school. September 25
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox4/24The Martian
For the past 300 years (actually 296, but who’s counting), people have doing versions of Robinson Crusoe. In this latest one by Ridley Scott—one of the few Hollywood directors capable of knocking your eyes out—Matt Damon plays a guy who gets stranded on Mars all by himself. You only hope the little green men give the poor guy a Wilson soccer ball to talk to. Just like Interstellar (and we hope it’s better than that), it leaves costar Jessica Chastain back on Earth. Maybe she doesn’t like flying. October 2
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures5/24Legend
It’s yet a third law of nature that every great actor will eventually play two gangsters. No wait. What we mean is that our reigning avatar of Marlon Brando, Tom Hardy, should knock our socks off playing both Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the legendary (hence the title) East End twins who became London’s pop-star hoodlums during the sixties. We bet it’ll be worth seeing for the nifty period details alone—those dudes liked to dress sharp. October 2
Photo: Courtesy of Phi Films6/24The Forbidden Room
If you had to name the most original filmmaker working anywhere, you might well choose Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg, Brand Upon the Brain!), the brilliant Canadian whose movies aren’t remotely like anybody else’s work. Or at least not like anybody else’s since movies started using sound. His new one, which he made with Evan Johnson, features a submarine crew, bandits in a forest, a renowned surgeon, and a group of child soldiers, all caught up in a world of “lost” old silent movies. There’s crazy bad and crazy good—Maddin’s one of the latter. October 7
Photo: Courtesy of Sony Pictures7/24The Walk
You saw the documentary Man on Wire, now see the uncommonly graceful Joseph Gordon-Levitt star as Philippe Petit, the French daredevil who high-wire-walked between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. It’s an exciting story and because it’s directed by one of the greatest Hollywood filmmakers of the past 30 years—who’s merely made Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Castaway, Flight, and many others—his movie’s bound to be about more than just tightropes. Expect it to land square in the middle of the Best Picture contest. October 9
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures8/24Pan
If you’re one of those people who’ve always wondered how Peter Pan became Peter Pan—surely there must be a few of you—Joe Wright tells you in this riff on J. M. Barrie’s classic tale of the boy who wouldn’t grow up. Young Levi Miller plays Peter, who discovers his destiny after encountering a slew of familiar faces—Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman), Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara), Hook (Garrett Hedlund), and a mermaid played by Cara Delevingne, which seems kind of like perfect casting. October 9
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures9/24Steve Jobs
Only a handful of businessmen have names that define an era, and Danny Boyle’s picture is about the one who defines ours. Working from a script by Aaron Sorkin (snappy dialogue alert!), it stars Michael Fassbender—that’s Best Actor slot number two filled—as the great visionary, perfectionist, and bully. With Kate Winslet and Seth Rogen as the poor souls who had to deal with a guy so famous, and famously difficult, that he even got trashed on Mr. Robot. October 9
Photo: Courtesy of Senator Film10/24Victoria
You know how your parents always warned you about getting caught up in bad company? In this multiple-prize winner from the Berlin Film Festival, Laia Costa plays the title heroine, a party girl who finds herself hanging out with a group of fun guys who turn out not to be so fun after all. What everybody’s talking about is that all 140 minutes are done in a continuous shot with no editing—you know, kind of like life, only scarier. October 9
Photo: Courtesy of A2411/24Room
We know it sounds ultra-grim, but if you’ve read the acclaimed best seller by Emma Donoghue, you know that it’s actually more upbeat than you fear it might be. Brie Larson stars as Ma, a young woman who’s been grabbed and held captive for years in a small room along with the son (supercute Jacob Tremblay) fathered by the kidnapper. Have we mentioned that this sounds ultra-grim? Directed by the Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson who did the way-cool Frank with Michael Fassbender, the movie is less about captivity than freedom. Don’t be surprised if Brie Larsen nabs an Oscar nomination. October 16
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox12/24Bridge of Spies
Is the Cold War back?—in pop culture, we mean. First, you had The Americans, then Deutschland 83. Now you’ve got the latest thriller from Steven Spielberg (you can fill in the titles here yourself), which stars Tom Hanks (ditto) as a lawyer the CIA enlists to help free a pilot nabbed by the Russkies. Even if the Iron Curtain isn’t your idea of elegant decor, it’s hard not to be attracted to sixties Berlin, especially when the original script is cowritten by the devoutly unsquare Coen Brothers (ditto ditto). October 16
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures13/24Crimson Peak
If you’re like us, you’re glad to see the terrific Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) walking away from the action hooey of Pacific Rim and back toward what he’s actually good at—horror for us grown-ups. In what sounds like a good old-fashioned tale—you’ve got your nineteenth-century mind-set, your isolated country house, et cetera—Mia Wasikowska plays a young writer who marries a charming aristo (Tom Hiddleston) then discovers (surely not!) that his house contains dark secrets. Also starring Charlie Hunnam as a local doctor and Jessica Chastain who’s in so many movies that she seems supernatural. October 16
Photo: Courtesy of Well Go USA14/24The Assassin
Aside from your odd Crouching Tiger, martial arts movies still tend to center on men. This meditative one stars Shu Qi, one of the world’s loveliest actresses, who plays a martial arts killer during the Tang Dynasty of the ninth century. When it played at Cannes, people had a bit of trouble with the plot but they didn’t care because it was so ravishing, like a martial arts scene painted by Vermeer. October 16
Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features15/24Suffragette
Continuing her grand tour of historical eras—the fifties of An Education, the roaring twenties of The Great Gatsby, the sixties Greenwich Village of Inside Llewyn Davis, the Victorian countryside of Far from the Madding Crowd—Carey Mulligan lands back in pre-WWI Britain for this new drama written by Abi Morgan (The Hour) and directed by Sarah Gavron. It also could be called An Education. She stars as a working-class woman who begins fighting for women’s rights under the guidance of Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep, much to the dismay of the madding male crowd, especially hubby, played by Ben Whishaw. October 23
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures16/24Spectre
Remember when James Bond movies used to be silly fun? Now, with Daniel Craig in the holstered tux and Sam Mendes behind the camera, the series is getting all weighty—last time out, they killed off M. Now Ralph Fiennes runs the secret service, which is having political problems, and 007 is trying to take down a sinister organization. It’s led by Christoph Waltz, who, if history is our guide, will really, really, really enjoy playing a Bond villain. Circling Craig are the usual international bevy of dangerous Bond Girls—Léa Seydoux (France), Monica Bellucci (Italy), and Stephanie Sigman (Mexico). November 6
Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate17/24Brooklyn
No, this isn’t another movie about hipsters with beards and jars of artisanal jam. Based on the hugely admired novel by Colm Tóibín, John Crowley’s film tells the story of a small town Irish girl (Saoirse Ronan, all grown up) who leaves behind her mother and sister to become an immigrant in fifties New York City. She winds up being torn between a handsome Italian-American (Emory Cohen) and a warm guy back home (Domhnall Gleeson). You wouldn’t be wrong to think that Ronan (at least) will be in the Oscar conversation. November 6
Photo: Courtesy of Open Road Films18/24Spotlight
If you’re like us, you don’t particularly want to dwell on the Catholic sex abuse scandal in Boston. But this movie takes a new angle, focusing on the reporters who broke the story, the way All the President’s Men handled Watergate. Because it’s awards season, you know that every scene is going to be bursting with top-drawer talent, including Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, and John Slattery. Here’s hoping it’s All the Pope’s Men. November 6
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures19/24By the Sea
We defer to nobody in our admiration of Angelina Jolie, but we sometimes think that even she would be happier if she lightened up a bit in the movies she chooses to direct. She may have done just that in her latest, which is set during the seventies. A retired dancer (Jolie) and her writer husband (Brad Pitt) take a trip to help rescue their marriage and wind up in small village, populated by crack French character actors like Niels Arestrup, Mélanie Laurent, and Melvil Poupaud. Maybe they'll teach this American couple something about enjoying life. November 13
Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate20/24Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2
After dragging things out in Part 1, which we will never believe was for commercial reasons, the series reaches the final showdown. Katniss Everdeen rises up against Voldemort, er, President Snow—with help from Team Edward and Team Jacob, I mean, Peeta and Gale—and leads a long overdue revolution against **Donald Sutherland’**s wolfish overacting and destroys the ring of power. We’re already taking bets on who’ll play Jennifer Lawrence’s daughter in the sequel, which is surely already being planned for 2019. November 20
Photo: Courtesy of STX Entertainment21/24The Secret in Their Eyes
If the title sounds familiar that’s because the Argentine version of this story won the 2010 Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. In this Americanized adaptation, Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor play FBI agents working for a DA (Nicole Kidman). Then one of their teenage daughters gets brutally murdered, and things are never the same. Even though it’s amusing to think of kinky-fun Kidman representing the power of the law, the cast is so strong that Billy Ray’s adaptation may very well have the same gripping power as the Spanish-language version. November 20
Photo: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company22/24Carol
With Cate Blanchett (as with Meryl Streep), merely to cast her is to be accused of serving up Oscar bait. Yet even though this movie is likely to nab a bunch of nominations, nobody would ever accuse Todd Haynes, that most independent of indie directors, of pandering. Adapting Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, he tells the story of the dawning love between a department store salesclerks, Therese (Rooney Mara, who tied for Best Actress at Cannes for this role), and the glamorous Carol (Blanchett), who’s unhappily married to a husband with the preposterous name of Harge Aird (Kyle Chandler). The two try to negotiate their way through a 1952 whose attitude toward same-sex romance wasn’t what anyone would call supportive. November 20
Photo: Courtesy of Cohen Media Group23/24Mustang
The first feature by a young Turkish woman, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, this story about five sisters was recognized by many to be the finest debut at Cannes this year. The plot is triggered when the sisters, maybe ten to sixteen years old, are seen horsing around with some boys on the beach. To straighten them out, their family basically imprisons them and starts trying to marry them off. The question is, will they dare rebel? November 20
Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features24/24The Danish Girl
Based on the novel by David Ebershoff, the movie’s a reimagining of the real-life love between artist Lili Elbe, née Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne), one of the first people to have a sexual reassignment operation, and his-then-her wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander). The movie has awards season written all over it, from its au courant theme to its respectable director—Tom Hooper won the Oscar for The King’s Speech—to its lead performers. One can easily see rising-star Vikander landing her first nomination, while the only thing that may stop Redmayne from snatching a bald-headed statuette is the fact that everyone knows he has last year’s one sitting on his mantle. November 27
