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Monday, September 23, 2024 10:52:53 AM
Fall movie preview: Let's spend our nights with gladiators, witches and a young Donald Trump
Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant and Lady Gaga are among the stars of our 10 most anticipated films of the season.
By Richard Roeper Sept 20, 2024, 1:00pm CDT
https://chicago.suntimes.com/movies-and-tv/2024/09/20/fall-movie-preview-lets-spend-our-nights-with-gladiators-witches-and-a-young-donald-trump
We have reached that point in September when there are fewer days between today and Thanksgiving than between now and the last Fourth of July, and let’s pause for ... just ... a ... moment ... to let that sink in.
Here at Popcorn Central Headquarters, that can mean only one thing: It’s Fall Preview time!
Our list of 10 promising titles is quite disparate, from a new film by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola to a sequel almost guaranteed to be polarizing to a couple of highly anticipated stage adaptations to the latest exercise in digital transformation. Let’s dive in.
‘Megalopolis’ (Sept. 26)
The 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola spent an estimated $120 million of his own money to finance this decades-in-the-planning fable that was marred by allegations of misconduct by Coppola on set (denied by the director) and received mixed reactions from critics at film festivals.
What we know for certain is this is a wildly ambitious epic starring Adam Driver as an architect named Cesar in a fictional American city called New Rome, and he can freeze the moment by proclaiming, “Time, stop!” With a cast that includes Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza. Giancarlo Esposito, Dustin Hoffman, Talia Shire and Laurence Fishburne, “Megalopolis” might not be great, but it’s almost sure to be interesting.
‘The Apprentice’ (Oct. 11)
One million years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times address was a charmingly squat building at 401 N. Wabash, which was razed to make room for the Trump International Hotel & Tower. When I’m on Wacker Drive and I look across the river, I can almost see the ghost of the newsroom in what is now an upscale hair salon — and I can remember a time when Donald Trump was most famous for being the host of the popular reality competition show “The Apprentice.”
Decades before that, Trump was an ambitious and conniving businessman in New York City, and this fictionalized biopic focuses on the relationship between young Trump (Sebastian Stan) and his mentor, the notorious and vile Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Let the record show that Sebastian Stan has now played Donald Trump, Jeff Gillooly and Tommy Lee. He’s his own documentary about the crazy 1980s and 1990s.
‘Saturday Night’ (Oct. 11)
It takes a certain level of artistic courage to make a film about the debut of “Saturday Night” aka “Saturday Night Live,” but director/co-writer Jason Reitman (“Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air”) might be just the filmmaker to do it.
Gabriel LaBelle plays Lorne Michaels, Cory Michael Smith is Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt portrays Gilda Radner, and how about J.K. Simmons as ... Milton Berle!? Oh, and Nicholas Braun aka Greg on “Succession,” plays Andy Kaufman and also Jim Henson, because why not.
‘Here’ (Nov. 1)
“This was our home,” says the elderly man to his wife, as they stand in an empty house. “We lived here.” The trailer for “Here” is beautiful — and a little unsettling. This reunion of “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis, writer Eric Roth and stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright makes use of what Zemeckis calls “digital makeup” to “de-age” Hanks and Wright so they can play teenagers and to take the characters through the decades.
Based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, “Here” keeps the camera fixed on a single spot of land, from the very distant past to the extreme future, with the primary story focused on the couple played by Hanks and Wright. I’m not sure I’ve been more excited to see a movie all year.
‘Gladiator II’ (Nov. 22)
Nearly a quarter-century after Russell Crowe took home the best actor Oscar for one of the all-time best warrior performances in “Gladiator,” which won a total of five Academy Awards including best picture, there’s been talk of a second chapter. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t go with the title of “Gladiators” instead of the pedestrian “Gladiator II,” but that quibble aside, expectations are through the roof for this sequel.
The great lion Ridley Scott, now 86, returns to direct, with a cast led by some of the most in-demand actors working today, including Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, not to mention legends Denzel Washington and Derek Jacobi. As an added bonus, Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Lucilla from the original film.
Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant and Lady Gaga are among the stars of our 10 most anticipated films of the season.
By Richard Roeper Sept 20, 2024, 1:00pm CDT
https://chicago.suntimes.com/movies-and-tv/2024/09/20/fall-movie-preview-lets-spend-our-nights-with-gladiators-witches-and-a-young-donald-trump
We have reached that point in September when there are fewer days between today and Thanksgiving than between now and the last Fourth of July, and let’s pause for ... just ... a ... moment ... to let that sink in.
Here at Popcorn Central Headquarters, that can mean only one thing: It’s Fall Preview time!
Our list of 10 promising titles is quite disparate, from a new film by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola to a sequel almost guaranteed to be polarizing to a couple of highly anticipated stage adaptations to the latest exercise in digital transformation. Let’s dive in.
‘Megalopolis’ (Sept. 26)
The 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola spent an estimated $120 million of his own money to finance this decades-in-the-planning fable that was marred by allegations of misconduct by Coppola on set (denied by the director) and received mixed reactions from critics at film festivals.
What we know for certain is this is a wildly ambitious epic starring Adam Driver as an architect named Cesar in a fictional American city called New Rome, and he can freeze the moment by proclaiming, “Time, stop!” With a cast that includes Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza. Giancarlo Esposito, Dustin Hoffman, Talia Shire and Laurence Fishburne, “Megalopolis” might not be great, but it’s almost sure to be interesting.
‘The Apprentice’ (Oct. 11)
One million years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times address was a charmingly squat building at 401 N. Wabash, which was razed to make room for the Trump International Hotel & Tower. When I’m on Wacker Drive and I look across the river, I can almost see the ghost of the newsroom in what is now an upscale hair salon — and I can remember a time when Donald Trump was most famous for being the host of the popular reality competition show “The Apprentice.”
Decades before that, Trump was an ambitious and conniving businessman in New York City, and this fictionalized biopic focuses on the relationship between young Trump (Sebastian Stan) and his mentor, the notorious and vile Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Let the record show that Sebastian Stan has now played Donald Trump, Jeff Gillooly and Tommy Lee. He’s his own documentary about the crazy 1980s and 1990s.
‘Saturday Night’ (Oct. 11)
It takes a certain level of artistic courage to make a film about the debut of “Saturday Night” aka “Saturday Night Live,” but director/co-writer Jason Reitman (“Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air”) might be just the filmmaker to do it.
Gabriel LaBelle plays Lorne Michaels, Cory Michael Smith is Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt portrays Gilda Radner, and how about J.K. Simmons as ... Milton Berle!? Oh, and Nicholas Braun aka Greg on “Succession,” plays Andy Kaufman and also Jim Henson, because why not.
‘Here’ (Nov. 1)
“This was our home,” says the elderly man to his wife, as they stand in an empty house. “We lived here.” The trailer for “Here” is beautiful — and a little unsettling. This reunion of “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis, writer Eric Roth and stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright makes use of what Zemeckis calls “digital makeup” to “de-age” Hanks and Wright so they can play teenagers and to take the characters through the decades.
Based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, “Here” keeps the camera fixed on a single spot of land, from the very distant past to the extreme future, with the primary story focused on the couple played by Hanks and Wright. I’m not sure I’ve been more excited to see a movie all year.
‘Gladiator II’ (Nov. 22)
Nearly a quarter-century after Russell Crowe took home the best actor Oscar for one of the all-time best warrior performances in “Gladiator,” which won a total of five Academy Awards including best picture, there’s been talk of a second chapter. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t go with the title of “Gladiators” instead of the pedestrian “Gladiator II,” but that quibble aside, expectations are through the roof for this sequel.
The great lion Ridley Scott, now 86, returns to direct, with a cast led by some of the most in-demand actors working today, including Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, not to mention legends Denzel Washington and Derek Jacobi. As an added bonus, Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Lucilla from the original film.
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