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Unlike last year, it was far from a cruel summer at the multiplex over the past three months. Between The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Toy Story 5 and Obsession, the box office reached record heights – and, hey, some of the movies themselves were pretty good, too.
The fall doesn’t have nearly as many potential blockbusters on offer, but it does have a ton of potential, at least when it comes to serving audiences who have had their fill of Imax-sized spectacle and are looking for something a little more intimate and provocative.
To that end, here are the 10 most intriguing titles coming to a theatre near you between now and U.S. Thanksgiving in November, when the bigger-than-big show-stoppers including Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three will begin to dominate the discourse, and your local theatre.
Primetime
You see how this looks, right? So went the typical opening vibe of Chris Hansen’s reality-television series To Catch a Predator, which orchestrated sting operations to catch adult men looking for sex with minors – a three-years-long stunt that ended after one subject fatally shot himself as an NBC camera crew entered his home. In director Lance Oppenheim’s docudrama exploring this lurid chapter in TV history, Robert Pattinson (who is easily the hardest-working actor of the year between this, The Odyssey, The Drama and this winter’s Dune: Part Three) plays Hansen with a seemingly slimy sheen, while various superb character actors (Merritt Wever, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine) populate the fringes of the story as cops, producers and victims. (Sept. 25)
Digger
Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell in a scene from 'Digger.'Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/The Associated Press
Tom Cruise goes full Les Tropic Thunder Grossman in this new epic-scaled black comedy from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Will Cruise, who packs on pounds of prosthetics to play an elderly oil baron who accidentally sets the Earth’s destruction in motion, get his long-deserved Best Actor Oscar for the trouble? Will Iñárritu, the mastermind behind Birdman and The Revenant, stage an awards-run comeback after turning everyone off with his self-indulgent 2022 misfire Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths? Grab your shovel and find out. (Oct. 2)
The Social Reckoning
Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, in 'The Social Reckoning.'Leah Gallo/The Associated Press
Watching the trailers for Aaron Sorkin’s semi-sequel to The Social Network – which he wrote, but David Fincher directed – you kind of want to make like Jesse Eisenberg-as-Mark Zuckerberg and growl, “If you were the inventor of The Social Network, you would’ve invented The Social Network.” The entire production, with Jeremy Strong in the Zuck role and no other veterans from the Fincher film involved (aside from Sorkin), seems like a pale imitation of the original masterpiece. But I’ll still click the “friend request” button on this movie faster than when my high-school girlfriend pops up in my Facebook feed as a suggested contact, if only out of morbid curiosity. (Oct. 9)
Street Fighter
Noah Centineo, left, and Andrew Koji star in 'Street Fighter.'Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Legendary Pictures/Supplied
This spring’s metaphorically if not literally bloodless Mortal Kombat sequel might have been more fatally uninteresting than intended, but I have strangely high hopes for Kitao Sakurai’s adaptation of the other big arcade game of my youth. For starters, Sakurai seems to understand that the whole enterprise is ridiculous, and crafted a distinctly tongue-in-cheek punch-’em-up flick that relies more on genuine style and an absurdist sensibility than mere intellectual property grave-digging. (Oct. 16)
Wildwood
Animator Amy Greenspan on the set of 'Wildwood.'Uncredited/The Associated Press
It’s redemption time for director Travis Knight. After delivering the sometimes inspired but mostly half-baked Masters of the Universe adaptation to theatres this summer, the filmmaker who is better known for Kubo and the Two Strings is back in his stop-motion-animation comfort zone with Wildwood. Although the plot sounds overly familiar – two friends are lost in a magical forest, facing dark-hearted enemies – the visuals unveiled so far are astounding, and the voice cast (Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Jake Johnson) is solid. Anything is better than Jared Leto as Skeletor. (Oct. 23)
I Play Rocky
Anthony Ippolito stars as Sylvester Stallone in 'I Play Rocky.'Claire Folger/Supplied
Action stars don’t die – they just get old enough that others make inspiring biopics about their earlier days. In this tale of the underdog to end all underdogs, director Peter Farrelly traces the struggle of a young Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) trying to get his vision of Rocky to the big screen against impossible odds. Yo, Adrian? Crack those raw eggs into a glass and get yourself in the ring. (Nov. 6)
Wild Horse Nine
Sam Rockwell, left, and John Malkovich in 'Wild Horse Nine.'Diego Araya Corvalán/The Associated Press
By this point in his career, writer-director Martin McDonagh knows what his audience desires: acclaimed character actors wryly killing time before they kill some people. And so we get this very In Bruges-esque comedy following two CIA agents played by Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich as they snipe and shoot their way across Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup. (Nov. 6)
Club Kid
After dazzling Cannes audiences with this tale of an over-the-hill Manhattan party promoter who is forced to take care of the son he never knew he had, writer-director-star Jordan Firstman is looking to charm the fall festival crowds. While the elevator pitch screams Big Daddy meets 24 Hour Party People, Firstman’s dramedy might just be the most surprisingly heartwarming film of the season. (November, exact date TBD)
Paper Tiger
Miles Teller in 'Paper Tiger.'The Associated Press
In this story of two Queens brothers in way over their heads with the local mob, writer-director James Gray returns to the New York crime theme that established his career. Starring Adam Driver and Miles Teller as the warring siblings, with Scarlett Johansson turning in a brilliantly unhinged performance as the world’s most beautifully frumpy housewife, Paper Tiger harks back to such classic NYC thrillers as Serpico and The French Connection, to say nothing of Gray’s own films The Yards and We Own the Night. (November, exact date TBD)
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth
While Quentin Tarantino hems and haws over what to make for his 10th and allegedly final film, he wrote a script for a semi-sequel to Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood for his buddy David Fincher to direct. Brad Pitt returns as Cliff Booth, the stuntman who may or may not have killed his wife with a harpoon gun, though reports suggest that his Once Upon a Time collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio is sitting this misadventure out. Pitt still has lots of company, though, including Elizabeth Debicki, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Timothy Olyphant (reprising his Once Upon a Time role) and Fincher favourite Holt McCallany. (Nov. 25)