The Most Anticipated Films of the
Season
Commentary by Greg Dean Schmitz |
| Featured December
Movies: |
Adaptation
(Opens December 6)
Video director veteran Spike Jonze
made his feature film debut with Being
John Malkovich, the quirky celebrity drama with an revolutionary
script by Charlie Kaufman, also making his debut. Now, the
two reunite again for Jonze's second feature, which is about...
Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage) trying to adapt a
book called "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean (played
by Meryl Streep), whose book was itself based upon a real
guy (played by Chris Cooper). If that's enough loops-within-loops
for you, Cage also costars as Kaufman's brother, with whom
he has back-and-forth conversations, except that Kaufman doesn't
have a brother. Featuring a sequence that takes place on the
set of Being
John Malkovich, and probably more twists that Sony isn't
letting out of the bag yet, this film is properly on many
people's short lists for the season.
Read
Greg's Preview
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About
Schmidt (Opens December 13)
This fall is seeing an unusual number
of films from directors whose last movie was a critical favorite
of 1999, 2000 or 2001, and that includes this film which is
Alexander Payne's latest film after Election.
Switching from the female-centric characters of his first
two films (his debut was Citizen
Ruth), the titular character is a recently-retired Nebraska
man played by Jack Nicholson who heads out on the road to
go to his daughter's wedding to a man of whom he doesn't approve.
About Schmidt had its world premiere at Cannes in May, and
although it didn't win any awards (many of the great films
premiered there don't), the praise was strong, especially
for Nicholson (as usual).
Read
Greg's Preview
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The
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Opens December
18)
New Zealander director Peter Jackson's
ambitious live-action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic
trilogy continues with what may have previously been considered
one of the most difficult books ever to adapt to a feature
film... the middle part of a trilogy which itself does not
have a traditional beginning or end. A few elements have reportedly
been moved from this film to The
Return of the King, and some subplots and characters expanded
(as was done with The
Fellowship of the Ring, which was essentially all exposition,
introducing the characters for the two films to follow), to
make it work better as a stand alone film. One thing that's
clear from the 4-minute preview that was on the end of Fellowship
(after it had been in theaters for a while) is that this film
focuses much more on epic battle scenes, and a bit less perhaps
on sorcery and fantasy, with many of the scenes looking like
something out of Gladiator
or Braveheart,
except even grander and of a more epic scale, if that's imaginable
without seeing what I'm talking about. Fans are also going
to be pleased, I think, to finally see Gollum in full action,
leading Frodo and Sam to the "darkest depths of Mordor",
as well as the appearance of Treebeard the Ent. Read
Greg's Preview
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Gangs
of New York (Opens December 20)
In development since before he directed
Raging
Bull and The
Last Temptation of Christ, this depiction of New York
City back in the 1840s-1860s, when the city's first of many
gang wars to come waged between the English and the Irish
immigrants, is reportedly something of a life's passion come
true for Martin Scorsese. If it is, then perhaps all the work
he's been putting into it, approaching Titanic
in the amount of production time and pre-release buzz it's
received or required. In the lead role is Leonardo DiCaprio,
all white and well-fed, which is a striking contrast to the
thinner, better-looking Leo that stars in Steven Spielberg's
movie opening on the very same day (see above). Originally
scheduled to open on this day a year earlier, and once also
scheduled to open against Road
to Perdition (also starring Catch
Me's Tom Hanks), this film is starting to enter that grey
zone where many people wonder if the delays and reshoots have
more to do with possible problems with the film than just
the regular finishing touches. Regardless of all that, this
is still a Martin Scorsese movie, and for me, that's pretty
much enough to guarantee that I'll be there on opening day
(though perhaps after the Spielberg film :), as I've routinely
found myself impressed and inspired by his films, even those
that others write off as failures (like Bringing
Out the Dead or New
York, New York). That, and I think Daniel Day-Lewis looks
groovy in a big top hat and handlebar mustache.
Read
Greg's Preview
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Catch
Me If You Can (Opens December 25)
Given the usual scope of his films,
it's rare that Steven Spielberg is able to release two in
the same year, but just a handful of months after Minority
Report, we're going to be treated to this latest film,
which puts a biopic-style spotlight on one of the most clever
criminal minds of the 20th century. If you think Spielberg
is making a fast transition, that's nothing compared to Leonardo
DiCaprio, who is faced with the odd situation of starring
in two ambitious Oscar-wannabe movies opening on the very
same day (see below). DiCaprio plays Frank W. Abagnale, a
master-of-disguise and mimicry who posed as a wide range of
professional occupations, including surgeon and pilot, while
being chased by an FBI agent (Tom Hanks) who would eventually
help Abagnale turn his talents towards being used for good,
rather than evil, as a sort of surrogate father (because his
real father, played by Christopher Walken, wasn't a great
role model). People seem to be distracted by the publicity
that Miramax is generating for Gangs
of New York, but I'm equally excited (and possibly a bit
more so... advance images from the film show Hanks' character
holding a great "Flash" comic) about this film.
The mid 1960s is a time that I know Spielberg is enamored
of, even if we haven't seen it portrayed in his films much,
so it should be interesting to see how he portrays that unique
time in our history between the 1950s and the counterculture
1960s/1970s.
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Greg's Preview
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Confessions
of a Dangerous Mind (Opens December 27)
In his first autobiography, upon
which this film is based, TV producer and "Gong Show"
host Chuck Barris claims many things, but most questionable
is his assertion that he was approached by a CIA agent (played
by George Clooney, who also makes his directorial debut with
this project), to use his status as a game show producer to
carry out assassinations in distant lands (where he could
claim to be accompanying winning contestants) without suspicion.
Who, for example, would believe that Chuck Barris, that goofy
guy from "The Gong Show" (played by Sam Rockwell)
is a CIA assassin? That, at least, is what Barris says, and
it's not like the CIA is ever going to admit it one way or
another. Which, if it's just a fabrication by Barris to add
intrigue to his autobiography (it probably is), is why it's
such a great fabrication. With supporting roles for Drew Barrymore
and Julia Roberts, and cameo appearances by Matt Damon and
Brad Pitt as wacky Gong Show contestants, this movie appears
to be a prime candidate for strangest feature film of the
season, which is exaclty what entices me about it. Some of
my favorite films of the 1990s were the oddball celebrity
biopics (The
People Vs Larry Flynt, Ed
Wood, and to a lesser degree, oddball-wise, The
Doors). This movie and Auto
Focus, presuming both films do well, give me hope that
we'll see more like them again soon.
Read
Greg's Preview
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The
Hours (Opens December 27)
Taking place across three different
settings, in different eras, this film tells the parallel
stories of a woman in modern New York City (Meryl Streep)
whose story resembles the novel, Mrs.
Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, a pregant woman (Julianne
Moore) in late 1940s American suburbia reading Mrs.
Dalloway, and back in 1920s England, Ms. Woolf herself
(Nicole Kidman), actually writing the novel. In a way, this
film resembles Adaptation (also starring Meryl Streep), as
both deal with the ways a writer can weave fiction, and its
influence on reality, and vice versa, together in a cohesive
literary quilt. This film also has ties to several other competing
Oscar-wannabe films. Its director Stephen Daldry, is opening
this film up against Nicholas
Nickleby, which costars his Billy
Elliot lead, Jamie Bell. Funnve. John C. Reilly, who plays
Julianne Moore's husband, is also costarring as Boss Tweedy
in Gangs
of New York. Finally, Moore herself stars in another drama
hoping for Academy consideration, Far
From Heaven.
Read
Greg's Preview
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| All
December Movies |
| Opening
December 6, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 13, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 18, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 19, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 20, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 25, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 27, 2002 |
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| Opening
December 30, 2002 |
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