Movies hoping to be in the run for Oscars and other major awards wait to be released until the end of the year so they’re still fresh on the minds of the public and industry voters when awards season begins. Some major awards hopefuls are coming out this month, aiming to rule the box office until Disney comes back with the one-two punch of Frozen 2 and Star Wars in November and December. Here are my five most anticipated movies for October 2019.
Joker (Oct. 4) Rating: R Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
A dark, psychological thriller with a new origin story about
Batman’s greatest villain. Joker
follows Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian, and his descent into a life
of crime.
Why I’m excited:
Oh boy, this movie is already causing controversy and getting tons of Oscar
buzz. It will certainly be a unique take on the character, and it could be a
major turning point for comic book and superhero movies. I’m interested to see
the response from comic book fans, the general audience, and the industry.
See this if you liked: The Dark Knight trilogy, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy
The Addams Family (Oct. 11) Rating: PG Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Bette Midler, Allison Janney
An updated tale of the creepy and kooky Addams family. After moving to New Jersey, the Addams family must face new neighbors that don’t see eye to eye with their way of life.
Why I’m excited: The 90s Addams Family movies are pretty iconic, but doing a new version as an animated movie should allow for some new and interesting ideas. Plus the voice cast is so impressive. As it’s the only family-friendly movie coming out in October, I assume it will do well at the box office, regardless of reviews.
See this if you liked:The Addams Family (1991), Addams Family Values, Sherlock Gnomes
Zombieland: Double Tap (Oct. 18) Rating: R Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Rosario Dawson
In the midst of a zombie apocalypse, a makeshift family
travels across the country fighting zombies and coming into contact with other
survivors.
Why I’m excited:
The original Zombieland is an incredibly fun movie. Ten years after the first
one was released, Double Tap looks
just as wild and unruly. The first trailer hilariously reminds you that these
four actors are incredibly talented and have all been nominated for or won
Oscars, and the fact that they all came back for this is a testament to the
first movie. Definitely one of my most anticipated movies of the rest of the
year.
See this if you liked:Zombieland
Jojo Rabbit (Oct. 18) Rating: PG-13 Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell
During World War II, a young Hitler Youth recruit comes to
terms with the Nazi regime surrounding him. With an imaginary Adolf Hitler as
his main companion, he learns his mother is secretly hiding Jews and his whole
world turns upside down.
Why I’m excited:
This is quite possibly one of the most bizarre ideas for a movie I’ve ever
heard. But with Taika Waititi directing and
playing an imaginary Hitler? That’s something I need to see. The movie won the
People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and is already
creating some controversy, so it should definitely generate some interesting
conversations.
See this if you liked:Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, What We Do in the Shadows
The Current War (Oct. 25) Rating: PG-13 Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland, Nicholas Hoult
Edison. Westinghouse. Tesla. Today we know them as icons of the electric age, but The Current War tells the story of their war to power the modern world. They put their competing systems to the test as they fight to power the Chicago World’s Fair.
Why I’m excited:
I’m not expecting spectacular things from this movie, but the cast is
fantastic. It’s based on real events, but time will tell if it’s enough to stay
engaging. It looks like it wants to be Oscar bait, but I would doubt it gets
the recognition it wants.
In early 2004, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King walked away from the Academy Awards with 11 Oscars, matching Ben-Hur and Titanic for the record of most awards won by any film. Return of the King also became the first fantasy film to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars. It was the culmination of one of the most successful and well-received trilogies of all time, and the impact of these movies in the industry can still be felt today.
Based off the iconic books by J.R.R. Tolkien, the Lord of the Rings trilogy – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King – were directed
by New Zealand director, writer and producer Peter Jackson and starred a truly
remarkable cast led by Elijah Wood (Frodo), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), and Viggo
Mortensen (Aragorn). The series was released in December 2001, 2002, and 2003.
All three entries of the trilogy are some of the highest-grossing
movies of all time. The trilogy’s financial success led to one of the most
obvious impacts on the industry. In the years after the trilogy ended, a number
of copycat films were released. Fantasy sections in bookstores across the world
were being pillaged for the next big thing.
Of course, another milestone series was already gaining
ground as Lord of the Rings ended. Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Fellowship
of the Ring were released just one month apart in 2001 and Chamber of Secrets and The Two Towers both came out the
following year. Harry took a year off in 2003 but dominated the remaining years
of the 2000s until his story came to an end in 2011. Hollywood is still reeling
from the impact these two series had. After the success of Lord of the Rings, a
number of high-fantasy movies were quickly ordered.
The first movie to follow the Lord of the Rings style was The
Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. While based on
a children’s book, the movie was bursting with influences from Lord of the Rings. The most direct
influence came from Narnia’s use of
Weta Workshop, the same team that made armor, swords and other weapons for Lord of the Rings. More drama was added
to the story and the final battle, which takes place mostly “off-screen” in the
book, is center stage in the finale of the movie, much like the battles in
Middle-Earth.
Dozens of similar movies came out in the following years,
each trying to build off Lord of the
Rings’ success and become the next big franchise: The Golden Compass, Eragon, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, 300,
Stardust, City of Ember, and others.
Lord of the Rings’ influence even made waves in television.
George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and
Fire series was already successful as a book series and was adapted into
the game-changing HBO series Game of
Thrones. There are many similarities (and even more differences) between A Song of Ice and Fire and Lord of the Rings, from the fantastical
elements (dragons, etc.) to the visuals and the costumes. Without the success
of Lord of the Rings a decade
earlier, a show like Game of Thrones
would arguably never have been made.
Lord of the Rings as we know it almost wasn’t even made. The original pitch was to condense the three books into two movies. Through negotiations, three movies were eventually green lit – one for each book of the trilogy. To tell the story correctly and faithfully, the filmmakers argued, three movies needed to be made instead of two. In a way, this set the precedent for dozens of blockbuster franchises that followed.
Many franchises later argued that they needed more time to
faithfully complete their story. This led to many final franchise installments being
split into two movies – Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows, Twilight’s Breaking
Dawn, The Hunger Games’ Mockingjay,
and the disaster that was supposed to end the Divergent series. None of these
series had quite the amount of material to cover in two movies, but to give
fans a complete and satisfying end, the filmmakers followed Jackson’s
precedent.
Jackson even fell victim to this trend himself when he
returned to Middle-Earth to make the Hobbit
series. Once again, two movies were originally planned for the adaptation. This
time though, the team was adapting one 300-page book instead of three 300-page
books. Jackson and his team continued building on the novel’s story and ultimately
three movies were released – to much less acclaim than the original trilogy.
Jackson’s filmmaking process on Lord of the Rings also popularized the idea of filming multiple
movies at the same time. This process allowed for a greater cohesion throughout
the trilogy and for locations that appeared in multiple movies to be filmed at
once and not rebuilt each time. Studios had filmed movies back-to-back before,
like the second and third Back to the
Future movies, but never on the scale as the Lord of the Rings.
The success Jackson had filming multiple movies back-to-back
was copied by most series that split their final book into two movies –Deathly Hallows, Breaking Dawn, Mockingjay,
and even the final two Fifty Shades
movies. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Man’s Chest and At World’s End and
Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy were also
filmed simultaneously. Marvel Studios even used this method when filming mega-blockbusters
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Of all the iconic moments to come out of the Lord of the Rings, none may be as iconic
as Andy Serkis’ portrayal of Gollum. This strange creature could have derailed
the entire series, but the work by Serkis and the visual effects team created
an unforgettable character and built the template for hundreds of
computer-generated characters to come.
Three years before Gollum made his debut, Jar Jar Binks
became the first completely computer animated major character in a live-action
movie for The Phantom Menace. But Jar
Jar actor Ahmed Best was more of a stand-in for the character on set and acted
his voice in a studio. The “real” Jar Jar was added and animated by the visual
effects team later.
For Gollum, though, Serkis physically acted each scene with
Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, running around in a spandex onesie. He would then
go into a studio and recreate certain scenes in a motion capture stage, and his
physical performance was heavily used when digitally creating Gollum. The Two Towers was one of the first
movies to use motion capture in such a major way.
The success of Gollum launched Andy Serkis into the
spotlight as the leading expert on motion capture technology – he would later
be the model for King Kong in Jackson’s 2005 film and Caesar the ape in the
recent Planet of the Apes prequel
trilogy.
Gollum also paved the way for the onslaught of CG characters
(most using motion capture technology) that have become commonplace over the
last decade – Rocket and Groot in Guardians
of the Galaxy, the Na’vi of Avatar,
Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean.
CG characters are all over the place, and it’s because of Gollum’s success that
fantastic characters and creatures can become real on the silver screen.
The other special effects in the Lord of the Rings are just as impressive as Gollum and still hold
up more than 15 years later. Jackson famously used massive miniatures for
locations throughout the series. The detail in these miniatures are meticulous
and they really add to the realism of the series.
The CGI that was used in the trilogy still looks fantastic.
The Watcher and the Balrog from Fellowship
are still terrifying and beautiful to look at, Treebeard is an impressive mix
of practical sets and CG, and the mumakil charge during Return of the King is one of my favorite moments in the whole
movie. The visual effects team even created new programs and techniques to
create the massive armies needed for the biggest battles. Without these
effects, bringing a story like the Lord of the Rings to life in live-action
would not have been possible. And it’s even more impressive that they still
look so good when they were made in the early 2000s.
This has already gone on much longer than I expected, so I’ll
end by saying the Lord of the Rings trilogy
is one of the most influential series in Hollywood since the original Star Wars. The detail and thought that
went into these movies set the bar for fantasy and science-fiction that are still
seen today, and it gave studios the proof that high fantasy movies could be
successful with a wide audience. So the next time you watch an episode of Game of Thrones, see the latest Marvel
movie, or give the latest “franchise-launcher” a shot, thank the Lord of the Rings.
“That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind”
First Man (2018)
tells the story of Neil Armstrong and his journey to becoming the first man to
step foot on the moon. Directed by Damien Chazelle, the film stars Ryan Gosling
as Armstrong and Claire Foy as his wife Janet. The movie balances the chaos and
danger of the space program with the quiet tension of the Armstrongs’ home
life.
I’ve found that I love this movie more and more each time I watch it. Gosling and Foy are phenomenal in their performances and really anchor the entire movie. Ryan Gosling has been around for a long time, but the more of his movies I watch, the more he becomes one of my favorite actors. He can say so much with only his facial expressions – Neil is not a talker, but you always know what he’s thinking or feeling because of Gosling. And Claire Foy is phenomenal as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown and does an incredible job here of making you understand the pressure the wife of an astronaut experienced. She’s trying to raise two sons and maintain a sense of normalcy in their lives with the ever-looming threat that her husband may go out on a mission and never come home again. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the fact that Gosling and Foy were not even nominated for Oscars for their performances.
I love the way the flight sequences were shot in this movie. Damien Chazelle places the camera so that the audience gets a first-person view, almost like virtual reality goggles or a video game. The behind-the-scenes features show that the special effects team used a massive LED screen to show the earth and moon in real-time so the actors could react to the actual visuals and it all looks amazing. And I can’t talk enough about the entire moon landing sequence. You know they’re going to make the landing, but there is still so much tension in the descent that you almost forget they were successful.
The journey to the moon contains my two favorite shots in the entire movie. The first is on the way to the moon – it’s an extreme wide shot and you just see the command module as this tiny dot flying straight across the screen. It gives the journey a magnitude and perspective on just how far they had to go. After Neil and Buzz land on the moon and have suited up to go outside, they open the lander door to see the moon for the first time. As the camera tracks out the door and enters space, the sound is sucked out along with the atmosphere – and it’s incredible. And – I missed this the first time I saw the movie – the transition to IMAX aspect ratio in that shot blows my mind at how genius it is.
I can’t talk about how much I love this movie without mentioning the amazing score. Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz are quickly becoming one of my favorite director-composer duos. I’m obsessed with the music for La La Land and the Whiplash soundtrack is great as well. The music in First Man is exciting, energetic and emotional. I especially love the intense descending motif and the love theme. I’ll keep going back to the moon landing sequence, but the music for the launch and for the descent to the lunar surface gives me chills every single time.
Neil Armstrong was not your typical hero. He was humble, thoughtful, and focused on completing the task he was assigned to do. For one of the most iconic moments in human history, it’s wild that this movie hasn’t been made already. It’s an important story to tell that reminds people just how crazy, brave, and innovative the astronauts and engineers at NASA had to be to get us to the moon. This movie is also even more fascinating when you watch the recent Apollo 11 documentary and see just how accurate the filmmakers were with these historical moments. First Man is a fascinating look at one of history’s greatest heroes – showing us who he was as a person and humanizing the man who took humanity’s greatest leap.
Movies with Mitchell 