The Most Anticipated Films of the
Season
Commentary by Greg Dean Schmitz |
Red
Dragon (Opens October 4)
After Hannibal
made more in its first three weeks than The
Silence of the Lambs made in its entire theatrical run,
it became something of an accounting certainty that Universal
would quickly greenlight another Hannibal Lecter movie starring
Sir Anthony Hopkins as soon as possible. The two likely choices
were to make a Hannibal
sequel, which would have to be written as an original screenplay
as novelist Thomas Harris hasn't written a fourth Lecter book,
or to tackle the only other book in the trilogy in which Hopkins
didn't costar. "Red Dragon", the first Hannibal
Lecter book, was indeed the first movie to be adapted to the
big screen, but it was under the title of Manhunter,
directed by Michael Mann, with Brian Cox playing Lecter. Manhunter
was a great thriller, but Universal and producer Dino De Laurentis
see an opportunity to make a film that is more faithful to
the novel, with Hopkins going back to the origin of the character,
something he didn't get to quite do in The
Silence of the Lambs. The decision to hire Brett Ratner,
who's previously only directed films starring Chris Tucker
(Money
Talks, the Rush
Hour series), is curious, but there's nothing questionable
about the amazing cast Universal brought aboard to supplement
Hopkins: Edward Norton, Emily Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Mary-Louise
Parker, Harvey Keitel and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Read
Greg's Preview
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Bowling
for Columbine (Opens October 11)
Humorist, documentary filmmaker and
lifetime NRA member Michael Moore returns with this Cannes
Film Festival-award-winning look at the obsession that citizens
of the United States of America have with guns and the violent
use of them (that is, because many other countries with similar
gun ownership statistics, like Canada, have lower death-by-gun
rates). Moore's investigation includes actual footage from
the video cameras inside the Columbine High School, and interviews
with shock rocker Marilyn Manson, NRA President Charlton Heston,
and the brother of Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols.
Read
Greg's Preview
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Punch-Drunk
Love (Opens October 11)
Acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson
(Boogie
Nights, Magnolia)
returns with this romantic comedy starring an unlikely choice
for a film from such an eclectic auteur: funnyman Adam Sandler.
Like Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks before him, Sandler is apparently
ready to make the creative leap from comedian to dramatic
actor, so Anderson crafted this story of a phone-sex-addicted
man who obsessively collects pudding cups so he can earn frequent
flier miles to follow his dream girl to Hawaii to fit Sandler.
I'm not sure what Sandler's regular audience is going to think
of him going "deep", but the film has already won
the Cannes Best Director prize (tied), and P.T. Anderson movies
are always memorably, if nothing else (frog-filled rain, a
rollerskating Heather Graham, a very angry Tom Cruise, etc.)
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Greg's Preview
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Auto
Focus (Opens October 18)
Director Paul Schrader (American
Gigolo, Affliction)
had a critical dud with Forever
Mine (which ended up going direct-to-video), but now he's
returning with this sex-filled biopic about actor Bob Crane
(played by Greg Kinnear), who found fast fame as the star
of "Hogan's Heroes", but who also was soon introduced
into the dark world of sex addiction by a technician (Willem
Dafoe) with one of the first video cameras. Screened at the
selective Telluride Film Festival, the early word is that
Kinnear nails the quirky mannerisms of Bob Crane down cold,
making for an eerie and sympathetic antihero as he descends
down from stardom, eventually meeting his end in a mysterious
murder.
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Greg's Preview
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Frida
(Opens October 25)
Early 20th Century Mexican painter
Frida Kahlo has emerged over the last few decades as an icon
for women, artists, Latin culture, you name it, and so it's
no surprise that a feature film biopic about her has also
been a pet project of several actresses, as well, including
Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Laura San Giacomo. Salma Hayek,
whom I think does bear the strongest resemblance to Kahlo
of these actresses, persevered and made it to production first,
and so we have this film finally seeing the dark of night
(as it were). The director is Julie Taymor, whose feature
debut was the visual stunner, Titus,
and who also received accolades and success for her Broadway
version of The
Lion King. This film makes my short list because I'm very
interested to see what a director with such a keen eye for
art direction and design will do with the Mexico that Ms.
Kahlo inhabited and made her own, one filled with flowers,
color, and pain.
Read
Greg's Preview
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| All
October Movies |
| Opening
October 4, 2002 |
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| Opening
October 11, 2002 |
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| Opening
October 18, 2002 |
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| Opening
October 23, 2002 |
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| Opening
October 25, 2002 |
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