“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”
Synopsis: Returning home after a tour of duty in Iraq, Billy Lynn and the other surviving members of his squad are invited to a halftime show at a Dallas Cowboys football game.
What You Need To Know: Ang Lee has never been one to shrink from a challenge: he made an awards-friendly martial arts movie with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” he brought gay romance into the mainstream with “Brokeback Mountain,” and he turned an unadaptable novel into a triumph with “Life Of Pi.” But “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” might be his toughest task yet. First, it attempts to make a big mainstream studio film about the war in Iraq, which audiences have resoundingly fled from in the past, and second, it attempts to make the 3D, HFR technology that everyone hated so much with “The Hobbit” connect with audiences (beware, though, the frame rate is even higher with ‘Billy’ at 120 fps). And it’s doing all this with one of the year’s most eccentric casts, with a complete newcomer headlining an ensemble that includes Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin and Chris Tucker. Nine times out of ten, Lee’s gambles pay off, but critics who’ve seen it already (including our own at NYFF) have mostly rejected it. Nevertheless, it’s certainly a film that will get people talking.
Release Date: November 11th
“Manchester By The Sea”
Synopsis: After his brother’s sudden death, Lee returns to his hometown to help raise his nephew.
What You Need To Know: We worried that the extended nightmare around his second film as director, “Margaret,” might have put Kenneth Lonergan off making another movie. After all, he’s an enormously successful and acclaimed playwright, a medium that actually seems to appreciate his brilliance, and making a film might just seem like too much trouble. But fortunately, Lonergan stuck at it, and “Manchester By The Sea” looks likely to have a much greater response than his poorly-treated previous pic. Something of a return to the feel of his debut “You Can Count On Me,” it’s as “shaggy” as “Margaret,” according to our review from Sundance, but pleasingly unconventional, with a series of scenes that are “each more tear-jerking than the last,” and becoming “more fraught with meaning” as it goes on. With a big Oscar push planned, particularly for star Casey Affleck, this could finally see Lonergan get the respect he’s long been due from the film world.
Release Date: November 18th (Limited)
“Nocturnal Animals”
Synopsis: A woman receives a book from her ex-husband about a family under siege, and tries to discern the meaning of the gesture.
What You Need To Know: Fashion designer Tom Ford showed he could do more than turn out terrific clothes, making his debut feature film with “A Single Man.” Seven years on, he’s back, with an adaptation of Austin Wright’s novel “Tony And Susan,” and it seems like a fairly major kind of departure in an exciting way, a meta-narrative that promises something between Charlie Kaufman and Michael Haneke. It’s ambitious stuff for sure, but Ford attracted a stellar cast, including top-billed Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon (whose getting some serious awards heat for his supporting turn), to help him tell the tale. While it seems Ford has evaded the dreaded sophomore slump, as it went on to win a major prize at Venice, our review made it clear that “it’s also highly enjoyable, when it’s not trying to be serious and make heavy points about the interrelation of art and life.”
Release Date: November 18th (Limited)
“Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them”
Synopsis: In New York in 1926, Newt Scamander accidentally unleashes a suitcase full of magical creatures, threatening to cause a war between the magic and muggle communities.
What You Need To Know: Will the sequel fatigue that’s been sweeping Hollywood extend to the continuation of one of the biggest franchises in film history? That’s the question that Warner Bros will be nervously pondering even as the release date nears, because it feels like anticipation for Harry Potter prequel “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them” has been on the muted side for the most part. Written by J.K. Rowling herself (her first screenwriting credit), and intended to launch a new five-film franchise, this looks at the wizarding world in the U.S. in the 1920s, with some gorgeous Jazz Age production design at work, and an intriguing cast to tell the tale. But we’ll see if magic can happen twice at the box office.
Release Date: November 18th