Attempting to discern which films released in the autumn months will be duking it out come awards season can feel like a scene ripped out of "Sophie’s Choice."
It can be difficult to determine what films to watch this fall, but, as always, certain films have more buzz and expectations than others.
The film receiving the most buzz and advance attention is far and away the Viola Davis-led "Widows."
The new film from "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen and "Gone Girl" writer Gillian Flynn centers on a group of four widows who, when their armed robber husbands are killed in a shootout with police, decide to finish their last job in order to square the debt owed to a pair of big-time gangsters.
Adding to the mix with Davis is a large ensemble cast that includes Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson. With that premise and that cast and crew, anything less than a masterpiece would be a disappointment.
Robert Redford will be taking his final bow this fall. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the American icon announced that "The Old Man and the Gun" would be his last acting role, saying “Well, that’s enough.”
Auburn University media studies professor Eleanor Patterson is taking this announcement with a grain of salt.
"I'll believe that Robert Redford has made his last film when he is dead and buried," she said.
Nevertheless, Patterson conceded that if Robert Redford were to go out in a swan song, it would be a film something like this, and that the "Jeremiah Johnson" and "All the President's Men" star is "going back to basics, even the Sissy Spacek character is reminiscent of the girlfriend from 'Butch and Sundance.'"
Taking a role that brings his career full circle from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Redford will play real-life bank robber and escape artist Forrest Tucker, who broke out of prison at the youthful age of 70 and went on an unprecedented series of heists.
The film’s trailer boasts 70s-style 16mm photography and follows a plot line reminiscent of the type of movies that made Redford the living legend that he is, even going so far as to use the famed "Butch and Sundance" font for the film’s poster. It is easy to see why Redford would choose this to be his last film at the age of 82.
Just as Ted Williams ended his career by homering in his last at-bat, it would be fitting if Redford, who has never won an acting Oscar, won the Best Actor Academy Award in his swan song.
Damien Chazelle might only be 33 years old, but he has already established himself as the cinematic voice of a generation. The "La La Land" director returns to theaters with a subject that appears tailor-made for Oscars glory: a biopic of Neil Armstrong.
Ryan Gosling will portray Armstrong in the film, titled "First Man," and a star-studded ensemble cast is along for the mission as well, including "The Crown’s" Claire Foy, and "Friday Night Lights’" Kyle Chandler.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chazelle mentioned that he wanted to tackle the issue of space flight in a way others perhaps had not, saying, “We don’t think about how dangerous that first era of space travel really was. … I wanted to unwind all of that and make it as scary and uncertain as it really was.”
Chazelle famously handled the 2017 Oscars envelope debacle well, and perhaps he will find his way to the stage to accept the Best Picture Oscar once more, this time for keeps.
Also receiving industry buzz prior to its release is director Drew Goddard’s salute to the classic film noirs of old: "Bad Times at the El Royale."
During one stormy night on the California-Nevada border, seven strangers — played by Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm and Nick Offerman — gather at the eponymous motel, all holding dark secrets.
Tension among the group rises and falls over the course of the night, as they dread the arrival of a Charles Manson-esque villain played by none other than Chris Hemsworth.
Goddard’s last film, "The Cabin in the Woods," delivered an adrenaline shot to the heart of the then-lagging horror genre, causing the industry to reinvent itself, paving the way for modern-day classics such as "It Follows" and "Get Out."
"I think that horror has always been a self-reflexive genre, even going back to films such as Scream," Patterson siad. "And 'The Cabin in the Woods' made horror films more self-aware and moved the genre away from the torture porn that defined much of the 2000s."
Goddard's follow-up promises to be a throwback to an earlier era of filmmaking, giving some of the most charismatic stars around meaty roles to chew on.
The increasingly political Adam McKay is set to release his most political film yet: a biopic of Dick Cheney, arguably the most unpopular vice president in American history.
The former SNL head writer and "Talladega Nights" director proved his dramatic chops with 2015 financial crisis docudrama "The Big Short" and will track Cheney’s, played by Christian Bale, rise to power and his involvement in the Iraq War in his new film, titled "Backseat."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be produced by McKay, his longtime buddy Will Ferrell and Kevin Messnick, the trio who, with their Gary Sanchez production label, produced hits such as "Stepbrothers" and "Talladega Nights." Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner will also produce for Plan B, which has produced films such as "The Departed," "12 Years a Slave" and McKay’s "The Big Short."
Amy Adams will portray Cheney’s wife Lynne, and Steve Carell is slated to play Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the film. "Gone Girl" star Tyler Perry will take on the role of Colin Powell, and Bill Pullman is on the ticket to play Nelson Rockefeller.
Perhaps most interestingly of all, former President George W. Bush will be played by none other than Sam Rockwell, fresh off winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." Rockwell has mentioned that playing the former president was “like playing Elvis” in an interview with the Frame for 89.3 KPCC, Southern California’s public radio channel.
In these toxic, divisive times, Americans will be receiving the purest and best gift of all: a surprise film from the Coen Brothers titled "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."
Originally intended to be an anthology Western TV series for Netflix, Variety reports that auteurs Joel and Ethan Coen decided somewhere along the way to make an anthology film instead, telling six connected stories over a span of 132 minutes.
The film will star Tim Blake Nelson as the titular character, in his first collaboration with the Coens since playing Delmar O’Donnell in "O Brother, Where Art Thou." Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, James Franco and Tom Waits are also along for the ride.
While Netflix’s first release was the critically acclaimed "Beasts of No Nation," the streaming giant’s output since has been, to say the least, rocky. The company has yet to break the glass ceiling of a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and this film represents their best chance yet.
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