One could reasonably argue that the last quarter of the year is the best time for cinema releases. We have got the noisier summer smashes out of the way (well, apart from Top Gun: Maverick, which seems indestructible). The Venice and Toronto film festivals have premiered many of the titles challenging for Oscars. Those movies are now moving before a grateful public.
This year’s closing act looks as tantalising as ever. There are new films from Martin McDonagh, David O Russell and Luca Guadagnino. At the commercial end of the spectrum, we find a big Marvel film, a potentially buzzy family musical and sequel to the highest grossing film of all time.
The question is whether audiences will turn up. As the pandemic finally faded away, it became clear that shifts in moviegoing already under way before Covid-19 struck were building pace. Punters are happy to visit cinemas for a few of the hugest films. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick have proved that. But the habit of turning out for less flashy entertainments is wavering.
Maybe this promising slate will bring back the boomtimes. After all, it saves on heating to be out of the house for a few hours.
Flux Gourmet
Directed by Peter Strickland
Strickland’s ghost-boxy retro-macabre is not for everyone, but those who enjoyed his Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy really, really enjoyed them. The English director’s latest stars Gwendoline Christie and Asa Butterfield in a tale of performance artists perfecting the medium of “sonic catering”. From Berlin, the Hollywood Reporter talked of “a crazy maelstrom of quirk”.
Opens September 30th
The Woman King
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
Viola Davis plays a West African warrior who trains her people to resist invaders during the 19th century. The rollicking adventure — apparently in the style of Braveheart and Last of the Mohicans — had them whooping in the aisles at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. “It’s a lush, prime piece of entertainment,” the Hollywood Reporter raved.
Opens October 7th
Vicky
Directed by Sasha King
King’s documentary on Vicky Phelan, the woman who helped uncover the cervical cancer screening scandal, is necessarily harrowing. But it is also an inspiring piece of work. Phelan, who was herself diagnosed with the disease, emerges as courageous, intelligent and level-headed. Awarded best Irish documentary by the Dublin Film Critics Circle at this year’s Dublin International Film Festival.
Opens October 7th
Amsterdam
Directed by David O Russell
You never know what to expect with Russell. The director follows up Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Joy with a murder mystery set in the 1930s. As ever, he attracts a starry cast. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro and Anya Taylor-Joy are on board for a film that, unusually for apparent Oscar bait, is steering wide of the big festivals.
Opens October 7th
The Lost King
Directed by Stephen Frears
When word got out that a film was bring planned on the discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park there was understandable scepticism. Well, here it is and the personnel is top-notch. Stephen Frears directs. Steve Coogan stars and co-writes with long-time collaborator Jeff Pope. Sally Hawkins appears as archaeologist Philippa Langley. Has to be worth a look.
Opens October 7th
Halloween Ends
Directed by David Gordon Green
Yes, yes, the last one was unforgivably dreadful. But Green’s previous disinterment, first in a trilogy, was the best Halloween flick for decades. So we must allow the possibility that the third wing of the diptych will offer a return to bloody form. Apparently it begins with Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie writing her memoirs in isolation. Yeah, I’m sure that will work out fine.
Opens October 14th
Emily
Directed by Frances O’Connor
Word is excellent on this biopic of Emily Brontë starring the charismatic Emma Mackey in the title role and featuring Alexandra Dowling as Charlotte and Amelia Gething as Anne. The respected actor Frances O’Connor makes her directorial debut with a film largely shot in the Brontës’ native Yorkshire. Expect wild and windy moors.
Opens October 14th
The Banshees of Inisherin
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Even those weary of McDonagh’s style were won over by his latest slab of Connaught Gothic when it premiered to massive acclaim at the Venice Film Festival. Colin Farrell — winner of best actor at that event — and Brendan Gleeson play two chums who fall out for no obvious reason while the Civil War rumbles in the distance.
Opens October 21st
Black Adam
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
We are digging deep into the comic-book underworld here. In a spin-off from to Shazam!, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays an angry bruiser released from prison after 5,000 years. You’d be angry too. Collet-Serra, who has recently helmed a string of Liam Neeson vehicles, directs a film that also finds time for Pierce Brosnan to play “Doctor Fate”.
Opens October 21st
Triangle of Sadness
Directed by Ruben Östlund
This year’s Palme d’Or winner from Cannes has the potential for crossover into mainstream success. Harris Dickinson and Woody Harrelson star in a riotous — and often broad — satire set among super-rich on a luxury yacht. The release has gained poignancy with the death of its young woman lead Charlbi Dean.
Opens October 28th
Living
Directed by Oliver Hermanus
In a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru, Bill Nighy plays a British civil servant facing up to a fatal illness in the early 1950s. The picture received rave reviews at Sundance, and Nighy has been more or less inked in for an Oscar nomination. We are told the sobbing reached cyclonic proportions before the final credits rolled.
Opens November 4th
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Directed by Ryan Coogler
You know what this is. Black Panther was a genuine groundbreaker for African-American talent in Hollywood. Following the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, the original Black Panther, Coogler and his team had been forced to think hard about his legacy. It seems likely woman cast members such as Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong’o will be nudged into the foreground.
Opens November 11th
Aftersun
Directed by Charlotte Wells
Arguably the most acclaimed film of this year’s Cannes film festival, Wells’s feature debut stars Paul Mescal as an amiable, if troubled, Scottish man holidaying with his daughter in Turkey during the 1990s. The Irish actor is enormously touching. Francesca Corio is next-level as his thoughtful child. Not much happens, but this remains a quietly devastating memory play.
Opens November 18th
Armageddon Time
Directed by James Gray
The director of The Yards and Ad Astra returns to Queens, New York for the tale of a Jewish youth navigating race and low-key privilege during the 1980s. Features a touching turn by Anthony Hopkins and a sinister one by John Diehl as Donald Trump’s dad. Manages to summon up the director’s youth without giving in to cheap nostalgia.
Opens November 18th
Strange World
Directed by Don Hall
The 61st animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures concerns a family of explorers navigating strange beings while visiting a distant planet. Director Don Hall, veteran of fine cartoons such as Big Hero 6 and Raya and the Last Dragon, drew on pulp magazines of the early 20th century for his bold visual aesthetic. Voice talent includes Jake Gyllenhaal and Lucy Liu.
Opens November 23rd
Bones & All
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Winner of best director and, for Taylor Russell, best newcomer at Venice, this adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’s popular novel kicks off like a young adult drama before sliding into surprisingly graphic cannibalistic bloodletting. Timothée Chalamet is convincing as a young man who shares the heroine’s blood lust. Mark Rylance offers creepy support. Strong 1980s soundtrack.
Opens November 25th
She Said
Directed by Maria Schrader
Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as, respectively, Meghan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, the New York Times reporters whose story on Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct helped kick off the #MeToo movement. Patricia Clarkson and Samantha Morton also appear. The trailer promises reminders of All the President’s Men and Spotlight.
Opens November 25th
Matilda
Directed by Matthew Warchus
Promising film version of Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly’s hit musical take of the eponymous Roald Dahl novel. Emma Thompson is the fearsome Miss Trunchbull. Andrea Riseborough and Stephen Graham seem equally appropriate as the protagonist’s parents. Young Alisha Weir was cast as Matilda herself after, according to the director, “an unforgettable audition”. See it in cinemas before its arrival on Netflix at Christmas.
Opens November 25th
Avatar: The Way of Water
Directed by James Cameron
You may scoff. But it has always proved unwise to underestimate James Cameron. The Canadian cash-generator has taken well over a decade to follow up the highest grossing film ever. This is — would you believe? — the first of four planned sequels. “That will be determined by factors beyond my control,” he realistically told this writer. Kate Winslet and Michelle Yeoh join the cast.
Opens December 16th
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Directed by Kasi Lemmons
Yes, the inevitable biopic of Whitney Houston is here. Naomi Ackie, the British actor who broke through on The End of the F***ing World, has the challenging task of inhabiting a singer whose wholesome public image ultimately failed to conceal fatal vulnerabilities. It will be interesting to see if it can escape the increasingly common clichés of the music flick.
Opens December 26th
