“The Handmaiden”
Synopsis: A con man hires a young pickpocket to help him swindle a wealthy heiress, only for the thief and the aristocrat to fall in love.
What You Need To Know: While he always retains a certain Park-ish quality to his work, it’s always hard to predict what Park Chan-Wook is going to do next: he’s gone from demented revenge actioner with a side of Greek tragedy, to quirky sci-fi, to Hitchcockian melodrama. His latest is another curve, while still feeling like a good fit: an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ Victorian erotic lesbian literary potboiler “Fingersmith,” with the setting moved to Japanese-occupied Korea. And as our Cannes review revealed, while there are a few “missed opportunities,” it’s mostly a triumph, with a “visceral filmmaking glee on display throughout,” and the film ultimately proving to be “deliriously fun and terminally silly” (that’s very much a compliment). If you love cinema, you should love Park Chan-Wook, and with his latest in his top tier, it should be high on your list to see this month.
Release Date: October 21st (Limited)
“In A Valley Of Violence”
Synopsis: A mysterious stranger and a random act of violence drag a town of misfits and nitwits into the bloody crosshairs of revenge.
What You Need To Know: While it’s not quite the return of a full blown trend, westerns are back in action, both at the major studios, and in the indie world. And it’s on a smaller level where arguably some of the most interesting stuff is being made. S. Craig Zahler broke out last fall with his vicious “Bone Tomahawk” and now Ti West, no stranger to making audiences spines tingle, is tackling the genre with “In A Valley Of Violence.” The director behind “The House Of The Devil,” “The Innkeepers” and “The Sacrament” lines up his starriest cast yet — Ethan Hawke, Taissa Farmiga, James Ransone, Karen Gillan, and John Travolta — in a film that centers around a mining town, a drifter and revenge, with a whole lot of bullets set to fly. Our review from SXSW liked it overall, adding, “with an enjoyable atmosphere, solid performances from Hawke, Travolta, Farmiga, and one gifted canine, ‘In A Valley of Violence’ ends up a solid entry in a genre gradually fading from mainstream cinema.”
Release Date: October 21st (Limited)
“Gimme Danger”
Synopsis: An in-depth look at the legendary punk band, The Stooges.
What You Need To Know: Jim Jarmusch fans are in a nice treat, with the director dropping two movies in theaters before the year is out. In December we’ll be getting “Paterson” starring Adam Driver, but first out of the gate is “Gimme Danger,” the filmmaker’s look at the iconic, electric and hugely influential Iggy And The Stooges. And fans of the director and band simply won’t want to miss it. You might not know the story about how four guys came together to create one of the most inimitable, vibrant, ground-breaking and dangerous sounds rock ‘n roll has ever seen, and few know the band better than Jarmusch who gets up close and personal with Iggy Pop and the rest of the band to tell their tale. The doc was a favorite at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where our critic admitted that “even if you don’t agree with Jarmusch’s introductory claim that The Stooges are the greatest rock and roll band ever, there’s still a lot of pleasure to be gleaned from ‘Gimme Danger’, most of it coming from Iggy’s love of the band, the music, and inability to be anyone but his incomparable and uncompromising self.”
Release Date: October 28th (Limited)
Honorable Mentions:
Continuing with the heartening trend of restorations for classic films from across the globe, “The Battle of Algiers” gets the treatment and a small theatrical release in major cities with, you know, a cool theater around to show it. Don’t miss your chance if you have it to see it on the big screen.
Midwestern indie auteur Joel Potrykus (“Ape,” “Buzzard“) is back with“The Alchemist Cookbook,” about an isolated man in Grand Rapids, Michigan who summons an ancient demon and must deal with it. Potrykus is going for a pay what you want model on VOD that should be interesting to see how it pans out.
On the genre front, there’s “Shin Godzilla” which sees apparently the biggest creature yet attacking Tokyo, with “Neon Genesis Evangelion” creator Hideaki Anno as co-director. It proved to be a box office hit this summer in Japan, becoming the biggest live-action movie of the year so far there.
There’s of course the mainstream releases that could be worth your time as well. “Keeping Up With Joneses,” a comedy about a suburban couple who become embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies. Tom Cruise reprises the titular role for “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.” “American Pastoral” is Ewan McGregor‘s directorial debut, and even though it was beat up at TIFF, who knows, may be worth seeking out. “Inferno” is the latest Dan Brown adaptation with Tom Hanks playing the lead one more time.
And even though there’s probably even more worth mentioning, we have to at least give a shout out to “Miss Hokusai” (animated film from Japan), “We Are X” (new doc about a legendary Japanese band from Drafthouse Films), “Desierto” (revenge film with Gael Garcia Bernal), wonderfully titled “The Greasy Strangler” sounds weirdly awesome, and “Blue Jay” is the latest Mark Duplass affiliated joint.