Well, that was an interesting summer. If someone had told me that Barbie and Oppenheimer would be the clear winners of the season, I would have been surprised and worried about what the hell happened to all the other huge movies. The answer was that most of them were just okay. Except for the excellent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, (and the unfortunately timed release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One), all the other major tentpole releases were average to flat-out awful in some cases.
Make no mistake though, Barbenheimer was a fantastic movie event that will be remembered for years to come. There was also the hidden gem A24’s horror movie Talk to Me which was a pleasant surprise. In the rich people still screwing over the worker class news, the writer’s strike is still ongoing, and now actors have joined in. Movie and TV productions have shut down and we are already starting to feel the effects of this. Sony delayed plenty of movies, many streamers are cutting bait on new seasons of shows, and rumors of more delays have been rampant. In fact! As I was writing this post Warner Bros. really rubbed more salt into the wound by delaying Dune: Part Two into 2024. Spoiler, that was THE movie I was most looking forward to for this fall sooooo screw you movie production leadership. Make no mistake, this is on the bosses not wanting to share a fraction of their massive wealth, and it’s getting pretty infuriating they are allowing this to continue. Okay, rant over.
Even with some delays (and seriously, that Dune delay really bums me out), the fall still has some movies I’m excited about! Time to dig in, before more delays…
A Haunting in Venice – Sept 15th
So far, the Agatha Christie, Kenneth Branagh-directed Detective Hercule Poirot movies have been a decent to good time. They don’t reach the heights of the fun Knives Out, but they are better than a lot of the modern whodunnit mystery movies. A Haunting in Venice looks like it is going to add a layer of horror to the mix and I’m all for shaking things up. With another interesting ensemble, I look forward to seeing if I can pick out the murderer before the movie reveals it to me.
The Creator – September 29th
With Dune: Part Two leaving 2023 behind, The Creator has moved up to the top of my list of movies I’m looking forward to for the rest of the year. Love the concept, love the director (Gareth Edwards), love the cast (more John David Washington and Gemma Chan please), it just looks like my kind of movie. I can’t wait to take in this original idea from Edwards.
Dumb Money – October 6th
I still can’t believe this happened, I will also forever kick myself for not jumping on this before it got crazy. Anywhoo, a movie making fun of regular people attempting to screw over the rich? Yeah, I’m in. Come on Riddler, take all their money.
Killers of the Flower Moon – October 20th
Who would have guessed that Apple out of all companies is going to save the fall season from feeling super empty? This fall looks to be the time that the iPhone makers are really trying to kick the doors down on getting audiences to pay attention that Apple makes good movies (and TV, seriously Apple TV+ has a lot of excellent shows worth checking out). Killers of the Flower Moon is up first, the next Martin Scorsese film that has Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone leading. This one looks big, tense, and likely very depressing by the end. The talent involved has Oscar nominations written all over it, so let’s see if this extra-long (almost 3 and half hours!) movie from Apple is up to those expectations.
Napoleon – November 22nd
Part two of Apple trying to convince you that it should be taken more seriously is Ridley Scott’s Napoleon. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, this movie follows the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and his adversarial relationship with his wife Josephine. The pairing of Scott and Phoenix is always interesting, but the thing that has me more interested is to see Vanessa Kirby’s performance. I have always enjoyed her supporting roles in the past but this movie looks to be a much more meaty of a role.
There it is! Now please please please, movie producers get this strike out of the way and don’t delay any more of these movies!
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