On the November Radar…

I feel like something important is happening tomorrow… I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, though. I mean, there must be some reason why the world’s coolest dankest meme king has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over just the last couple of weeks, right?

Ah well, I’ll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, the awards season is heating up and, amazingly, the most unexpected dark horse frontrunner imaginable has emerged. What is coming up soon that could challenge its buzz? Let’s take a look…

WILD HORSE NINE – In Theaters November 6

Directed by Martin McDonagh

Starring John Malkovich, with Sam Rockwell and Mariana di Girolamo

What is it about? Two veteran CIA agents face a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during the 1973 coup in Chile.

How am I feelin’ about this one? If you were a Latin American country during the Cold War, there was basically a 100% chance that you were subjected to a great deal of, shall we say, “pressure,” from the United States and the Soviet Union at some point. The Ruskies supplied arms to Peru, backed local communist parties throughout the continent, and provided support to anti-capitalist movements in countries like Nicaragua. Meanwhile, us Yankees pulled out all the stops to suppress leftist movements and back anti-communist military regimes in Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Central America, and… Chile. Which is where Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Martin McDonagh was inspired to make his next movie Wild Horse Nine, his first one set against the backdrop of a real historical event.

To say that I am apprehensive about this decision is putting it mildly. I, by and large, very much dislike McDonagh as both a writer and director. His dialogue is smug and self-satisfied without being clever and he covers deeply disturbing subject matter with a flippant attitude that suggests someone who sees things like rape and suicide as thin setups for his snide, empty punchlines. As a director, he coaches performances that are often loud and attention-grabbing but rarely interesting (with one, maybe two notable exceptions), his movies almost always look hideous, and his settings are ill-defined to a baffling degree (both Ebbing and the Isle of Inisherin never once feel like actual communities where anyone other than the main characters have any lives outside the frame of the shot). Call me a sourpuss, but a man who writes a scene where the protagonist kicks multiple children in their genitals and that has no effect on the rest of the story at all in his movie does not strike me as someone with the intellectual or ethical capacity to responsibly portray a very real event of human suffering within living memory.

But this opinion of mine is very much in the minority. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin were Best Picture nominees, and the critical consensus on his latest effort appears to be pointing at a third consecutive nod for the playwright-turned-filmmaker. At Telluride, Joey declared Wild Horse Nine McDonagh’s funniest and most emotionally powerful directorial effort yet, driven by what he cited as an especially outstanding performance from John Malkovich. In fact, he was so bowled over by Malkovich that, mere weeks after publishing his rave review, he updated his Best Lead Actor predictions to bump off prior frontrunner Tom Cruise and replace him with Malkovich as the one to beat for the award (disliking Digger also probably convinced him to dramatically reduce ole Maverick’s Oscar stock). Which, honestly? Even if I end up diverging from Joey again on a McDonagh film, the prospect of an actor like Malkovich attaining that kind of recognition would be really nice to see! I happen to believe he deserved a little gold man decades ago, so even a bad movie serving as a vehicle for an IOU award wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Speaking of Academy Award recognition IOUs… Steve Buscemi and Parker Posey apparently play substantial supporting roles in this movie. Just thought I’d mention that…

BEING HEUMANN – In Theaters November 6

Directed by Siân Heder

Starring Ruth Madeley, with Mark Ruffalo and Dylan O’Brien

What is it about? A biopic about the life and legacy of disability rights activist Judith Heumann.

How am I feelin’ about this one? Full disclosure: I am a sucker for uplifting movies about groups of people finding solidarity in political activism. I’ve already written about my adoration for Selma, but I also love movies like Pride, Milk, BPM (Beats per Minute)… I even have a soft spot for Made in Dagenham, flaws and all. The structure of narrative film and the business incentives of the industry are so biased in favor of One Lone Great Man (occasionally One Lone Great Woman) stories that anyone who is able to turn collective action – the thing that actually inspires real change – into compelling cinema achieves a Herculean feat in my eyes. So this trailer right here?

Catnip to me. Especially in this day and age of venal politicians and mealy-mouthed pundits insisting that everyone should react to the injustices of the world by meekly accepting the terms of Polite, Respectful Debate™. We absolutely need movies like this to remind people that actually getting things to change requires you to get loud, get mean, hold the line, and be prepared to have elites clutch their pearls over your actions. Such a message breaking through is far more important to me than how many awards it could potentially win. Though, obviously, winning major awards will help Being Heumann spread such a message.

Joey caught up with the film in Toronto and found it a lively, humorous, and deeply moving biopic. Which is encouraging. He also described it as similar to CODA, which… isn’t encouraging to me as someone who did not like that movie very much. Look, Siân Heder seems like a nice person (unlike another director we’ll be discussing shortly) and I don’t wish her ill. But a lot of CODA’s shortcomings as a movie can be blamed on her, and no, she was absolutely not “snubbed” for a Best Director nomination. You can count the number of scenes on one hand that appreciably used any kind of active visual shaping to guide its mood or tone or emotions. Its script was a hash of incoherent characterizations, disingenuous feints at unearned emotional pathos, and contradictory character decisions that happened solely because the screenplay wanted them to happen at that moment. Of all the films in this decade that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture so far, CODA is the only one I actively dislike. But… filmmakers have followed up movies I’ve disliked with movies I’ve outright loved in the very recent past. This could be the same situation. I hope it is.

MADDEN – In Theaters November 11, On Prime Video November 18

Directed by David O. Russell

Starring Nicolas Cage, with Christian Bale and Kathryn Hahn

What is it about? A biopic about the legendary professional football coach, iconic sports commentator, and influential video game producer John Madden.

How am I feelin’ about this one? Isn’t it great how David O. Please Forget About That Time I Admitted I Sexually Assaulted My Own Niece Russell has been afforded such a plumb opportunity to direct a star-studded motion picture from a major studio? His last directorial effort, Amsterdam, was a catastrophic box office bomb, losing its studio over $100 million, but now, just four years later, he’s back with a biopic that might even score some Academy Award nominations! How cool! Remember when Kathryn Bigelow’s career was derailed for over a decade after Strange Days underperformed and how Mira Nair hasn’t directed a feature film since Queen of Katwe lost about 5% of what Amsterdam did (though her stepson, at least, is doing quite well for himself)?

But Russell? He just effortlessly enjoys big projects handed to him even after losing nine figures! What a lucky guy! He must be so personable and likeable to everyone in the industry to get so many second chances, right? Actually, no, he’s notoriously abusive and volatile to his cast and crew. But hey, we shouldn’t let someone’s long history of past foibles continue to negatively affect their careers in the entertainment industry. It’s not like he’s keeping up his abysmal on-set behavior with Madden, right? Oh wait, he still is? Awesome.

What’s especially frustrating is that, if you set aside his scumbaggery, David O. Russell is a pretty good choice to direct a movie about the career of John Madden. He is, demonstrably, not disciplined or well-prepared in the formal construction of his films, but he does have a knack for setting up watchable characters with big personalities and then slamming them into one another for us to enjoy the emotional fireworks. So it makes sense that he would eventually find himself collaborating with Nicolas Cage, and, in fact, was his first choice for the lead role in Three Kings. Combine that with one of his most frequent collaborators doing a spot-on Al Davis impersonation, and you have a recipe for what will likely be a fun two-hander.

Just sucks that such a jerkoff is helming the production…

EBENEZER – In Theaters November 13

Directed by Ti West

Starring Johnny Depp, with Rupert Grint and Andrea Riseborough

What is it about? Another fucking adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with apparently even more time spent on our eponymous misanthropic businessman’s past. Just shoot me…

How am I feelin’ about this one? I want you to think of the most unappealing actor imaginable to take on the lead role of an overproduced, “hip” new update to the classic Charles Dickens short story in the Year Of Our Lord 2026… okay, fine, the correct answer to this question is Jared Leto. But Johnny Depp is a close second, right? With no due respect to his rabid fans, the dude has become unwatchable in his old age, and I cannot imagine sitting down to watch his insufferable cartoon mugging here without feeling visceral agony doing so.

PAPER TIGER – In Theaters November 13

Directed by James Gray

Starring Adam Driver, with Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller

What is it about? Two brothers pursuing a business opportunity in Queens find themselves caught up in a scheme involving the Russian mafia.

How am I feelin’ about this one? It is no secret on this website that Joey and I are fans of James Gray. He is that rare breed of filmmaker who explores masculine subjects and characters through the medium of melodrama. He consistently finds ways to touch on the small, mundane tragedies that eat away at his characters. He has directed some of the most emotionally genuine acting of Joaquin Phoenix’s career and is responsible for my absolute favorite performance from Marion Cotillard ever. Who else can you name with the courage to portray his own self-insert child protagonist as lazy and unmotivated? Who else from the last ten years has forced an audience for a science fiction film to confront the possibility that we really are alone in the universe?

And yet, despite this, he has been perpetually underappreciated. Not only has he never been individually nominated for an Academy Award, but only one film of his has ever been nominated for an Oscar at all: Ad Astra. For Best Sound Mixing. Ad Astra is also one of the only movies of his that made a decent profit at the box office, along with Two Lovers and We Own the Night. The rest of his directorial efforts have all bombed. I have no idea who has been keeping James Gray out of Director Jail over the last twenty years and funding his mid-budgeted adult dramas that usually lose money, but I am very grateful for their deep-pocketed commitment to him.

But that might change with his latest period crime drama Paper Tiger. After teasing a potential follow-up to Armageddon Time from the perspective of the mother, Gray is instead returning to family bonds being tested through the trials of the criminal underworld. Two brothers decide to pursue a business opportunity in Ronald Reagan’s America but accidentally find themselves entangled with the Russian mafia, putting both of their families in jeopardy. So how does this film compare to the rest of his impressive and undervalued body of work? Well, according to Joey, Paper Tiger is James Gray’s best. Not one of the best. Not among his best. But Joey is calling this his #1. That is a big claim, and though it did not win any Main Competition awards at Cannes, Paper Tiger has been enjoying some of the best reviews of the director’s career. The principal cast members have also been across-the-board praised, especially Adam Driver, who is being campaigned for Best… ergh, Supporting Actor. That already doesn’t pass the “vibe check” based on the trailer alone, and Joey has, sadly, confirmed my suspicions that this is just an attempt from NEON to steal away recognition from a genuine supporting actor this season. Bummer.

THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING – In Theaters November 20

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Starring Joseph Zada, with Mckenna Grace and Ben Wang

What is it about? The origin story of Haymitch Abernathy, that guy who later went on to mentor Katniss Everdeen in the mainline series. Yeah, this is the movie depicting when he was selected to compete in the Hunger Games. You know, that battle royale tournament where young teens fight to the death and only one contestant lives? We’re getting a movie about when he was in the tournament. The character who later becomes a middle-aged man mentoring young contestants in the future.

How am I feelin’ about this one? When I read the premise of this movie, I turn into Jacobim Mugatu from Zoolander:

Why does anyone want to watch this movie? Even if you are a fan of The Hunger Games? We already know the ending! There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that Haymitch is going to die! “But Robert, this movie will show us how Haymitch became a bitter alcoholic!” Really? You need it explained to you how someone who was raised in one of the poorest districts and survived a child death tournament put on by a fascist government grew up to develop substance abuse problems and an overwhelmingly cynical attitude? You’re a bit confused on that point? Hand-on-heart, you don’t really mean that. This isn’t something you were ever genuinely curious about.

Is there even an audience for this? I thought the YA dystopia fad fell out of favor in the 2020s because we all realized that actual apocalyptic scenarios aren’t exciting, romantic adventures of Good Versus Evil; they’re just stressful and depressing. The adolescents who grew up watching the original trilogy tetralogy are now fully-grown adults with kids of their own. Are they going to keep turning out for these movies that spoke to them during dramatically different phases in their lives?

Actually, I think they will. I am predicting that this will be a gargantuan hit. And it’s for the same reason why David Ellison is trying to resurrect the Transformers movie franchise, why we’re getting a revival of Girls and a reboot of Glee, and why Avengers: Doomsday is poised to become one of the biggest movies ever: Hollywood is, correctly in my view, betting on Millennial nostalgia for the early-to-mid 2010s as the next big moneymaker. Over the next few years, all the cynical leveraging of Baby Boomer nostalgia and Generation X nostalgia that I’ve been bitching about for years will come for my people. That’s gonna feel really uncomfortable, because while I do believe this is just as corrosive to our culture as past examples of keeping previous generations culturally ossified, I have to be honest… I miss the 2010s, too. I’m sure a lot of people my age are, which is ironic, considering how many of us complained that progress wasn’t being made fast enough back then. We all just naïvely assumed that things could never backslide.

Hmm… maybe a prequel to this series being released this year is more timely than I gave it credit for…

THE ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH THE FURTHER MIS-ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH – In IMAX Theaters November 25, On Netflix December 23

Directed by David Fincher

Starring Brad Pitt, with Timothy Olyphant and Elizabeth Debicki

What is it about? A sequel to Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, focusing on stuntman Cliff Booth and his antics through the entertainment industry in the 1970s.

How am I feelin’ about this one? I still can’t believe this movie was even made, let alone the form it eventually took. Quentin Tarantino, as per his usual habit of running his mouth every chance he gets, has teased follow-ups to Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction in the past, but only now are we getting the first (though not the last, apparently) proper sequel to one of his movies. And it wasn’t directed by him. He has promised repeatedly over the years that he will direct ten and only ten movies in his career, and then he will retire from the film industry for good. And because he wants his final feature to be something novel and unprecedented among his oeuvre (and it will not be a Star Trek installment or The Movie Critic), he finished his screenplay set after the events of Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, centering the stuntman who totally beat up Bruce Lee one time and definitely didn’t kill his wife, before handing it off to his old pal and frequent Brad Pitt collaborator David Fincher to direct in his stead.

Setting aside everything else, I think a cross-collaboration gambit like this is, in general, pretty neat. It reminds me a little of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and the fascinating results from combining the cold-blooded exactitude of Stanley Kubrick with the populist sentiment of Steven Spielberg. I would be just as piqued to see Christopher Nolan direct a movie written by someone like Mike Mills, or the Daniels direct something written by Lee Daniels. One distinctive auteur having their words interpreted by another distinctive auteur provides an artistic “tension” that makes the finished work undeniably compelling to watch even if it’s not wholly successful. We have already seen this tension between the competing visions of Fincher and Tarantino throughout the promotional circuit, which will almost certainly show up on the screen in interesting ways. The only problem I have with this particular collaboration is that I just don’t care about Cliff Booth all that much, nor am I especially curious about further exploring an alternate history speculating on what American pop culture would have looked like if the Tate-LaBianca murders never happened. Who is? Honestly, was there some kind of lingering demand for more Cliff Booth stories over the last seven years that I was not aware of? How many people in the general public would be able to see the name “Cliff Booth” and recall him as a character from a 2019 Tarantino film?

Someone at Netflix seems to have realized this, because, just three months before this movie’s theatrical premiere, they re-titled it from The Adventures of Cliff Booth to The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth. Just so it is clear as mud to us that this is an installment in the Cliff Booth Cinematic Universe. Honestly, I don’t fault the Netflix executives for this clear panic move. I would also be panicking if I spent $200 million total on a project with such a niche selling point, especially after another nine-figure-budgeted movie helmed by a big-name director headlining a sexagenarian movie star became a record-setting box office bomb earlier this year. I think a lot of studios are starting to realize just a little too late that the entertainment industry shocks of 2020 were not, in fact, a lasting paradigm realignment. On the other hand, these wild risky bets on auteur-driven projects are likely going to die off soon. Might as well enjoy even the foolhardy ones while we can.

So what do you think, readers? Will James Gray ever enjoy the public recognition he deserves? Why does David O. Russell keep getting second chances? Do you think Haymitch will *gasp* survive The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping? Let us know in the comments.