Fall independent movie preview
For anyone who says there aren’t any good films intheatres this fall, you just aren’t looking hard enough.Compiled below is a list of the top independent films due out thissemester.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Harvey Pekar, JoyceBrabner
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life ofunderground comic book writer Harvey Pekar.
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS
Starring: Remy Girard, Stephane Rousseau, Dorothee Berryman,Louise Portal
Directed by: Denys Arcand
A man dying of cancer has a difficult time accepting the realityof death and begins feeling regretful of his past. In a struggle tofind peace, he is reunited with his ex-wife, estranged son,previous lovers and old friends.
BUS 174
Directed by: Felipe Lacerda and Jose Padilha
This documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June12th, 2000, when bus 174 was taken over by an armed man threateningto shoot all the passengers. The tragic event was transmitted liveon all Brazilian TV networks and instantly became one of the mostshocking portraits of violence and police incompetence.
THE COMPANY
Starring: Neve Campbell, James Franco, Malcolm McDowell
Directed by: Robert Altman
An inside look at the world of ballet. Altman had completecooperation of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago where he filmed thesestories of dancers whose personal and professional lives growtogether as they deal with the life of being in the ballet.
THE COOLER
Starring: William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, RonLivingston
Directed by: Wayne Kramer
A guy whose bad luck is contagious is used in Vegas by the mobin casinos to kill high rollers’ action. But things begin toreverse when he falls in love with a cocktail waitress. Tensionbuilds when the casino director tries to break up the romance.
DUMMY
Starring: Adrian Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana Douglas
Directed by: Greg Pritikin
Brody becomes a ventriloquist and uses the dummy to embody hisinner doubts. His only friend is an aspiring singer in adysfunctional household who tries to find her role in Yiddishmusic.
ELEPHANT
Starring: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, EliasMcConnell
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Winner of the Golden Palm at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, VanSant chooses unknown actors to tell the story of two boys who inthe course of twenty-four hours cause a violent incident at a highschool in Portland, Oregon.
THE HUMAN STAIN
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, GarySinise
Directed by: Robert Benton
A classics professor begins an affair with a troubled janitor.But when the romance is discovered, the professor’s terriblesecret past is in the midst of being revealed.
IN AMERICA
Starring: Samantha Morton, Paddy Considine, Djimon Hounsou
Directed by: Jim Sheridan
A semi autobiographical story about an Irish immigrant coupleand their daughters trying to begin a new life in New YorkCity.
IN THE CUT
Starring: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer JasonLeigh
Directed by: Jane Campion
Following the gruesome murder of a young woman in herneighborhood, a self-determined woman living in New York Citypropels herself into the murder case, which leads to a risky sexualliaison with the investigating detective.
LOST IN TRANSLATION
Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett, Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi,Anna Faris
Directed by: Sofia Coppola
Set in Tokyo, Bob Harris is a movie star who’s filming awhiskey commercial. Charlotte is a young woman tagging along withher workaholic photographer husband. Bob and Charlotte can’tsleep and eventually cross paths one night and develop a friendshipover a week, which involves humorous encounters with the city andits people.
MY LIFE WITHOUT ME
Starring: Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, Deborah Harry, MarkRuffalo
Directed by: Isabel Coixet
Twenty-three year old Anna lives a modest life with her two kidsand her husband in a trailer in her mother’s garden. Her lifetakes a dramatic turn, when her doctor tells her that she hascancer and only several months to live. Before she dies, shecompiles a list of things to do, arranges her family life and fallsin love to a lonely man she met in a laundromat.
PARTY MONSTER
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Chloe Sevigny, MarilynManson
Directed by: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
This is the true story of Club Kid party organizer Michael Aligwhose life was sent spiraling down when he bragged on televisionabout killing his drug dealer and roommate.
PIECES OF APRIL
Starring: Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt, DerekLuke
Directed by: Peter Hedges
Comedic errors continuously pop up for April Burns when sheinvites her family to Thanksgiving dinner at her New York apartmenton the Lower East Side.
SHATTERED GLASS
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, HankAzaria, Greg Kinnear
Directed by: Billy Ray
The true story of deceitful Washington, D.C. journalist StephenGlass, who rose to spectacular heights as a young writer in his20s, becoming a staff writer at “The New Republic”where 27 of his 41 published stories were either partially orcompletely fake.
THE SINGING DETECTIVE
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson,Katie Holmes, Adrian Brody
Directed by: Keith Gordon
Adapted from the BBC series about an ailing mystery writer whois concocting a murder-mystery musical all in his mind as heconfuses himself with his protagonist, a detective hot on the trailof some Nazis.
THE STATEMENT
Starring: Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Rampling,Jeremy Northam
Directed by: Norman Jewison
Based on Brian Moore’s novel about a former Naziexecutioner who finds himself on the run throughout France frompolice investigators and hitmen when his crimes surface.
THE STATION AGENT
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale,Michelle Williams
Directed by: Thomas McCarthy
When his only friend and co-worker dies, a young man born withdwarfism moves to an abandoned train depot in rural New Jersey.Though he tried to maintain a life of solitude, he is soonentangled with an artist and an overly-friendly Cuban hot dogvendor.
SYLVIA
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon, JaredHarris
Directed by: Christine Jeffs
Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and thetroubled Sylvia Plath.
THIRTEEN
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Holly Hunter, Nikki Reed, JeremySisto
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
Tracy is a straight-A student. But when she befriends Evie, themost popular and beautiful girl in school, Evie leads Tracy down apath of sex, drugs and self-mutilation resulting in conflictsbetween teachers, friends and family.
21 GRAMS
Starring: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts
Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
A grieving mother’s life intersects with a terminally illmathematician and a born again ex-con following a horrific tragedy.The title refers to the amount a body loses when it dies.
WONDERLAND
Starring: Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Tim BlakeNelson
Directed by: James Cox
Based on the quadruple homicide involving infamous porn starJohn Holmes that occurred on the afternoon of July 1, 1981 onWonderland Avenue.
Information about films courtesy of www.imdb.com.
