Fall movies include Oscar hopefuls, prestige pics, more
Fall.
It’s long been considered the Jan Brady of movie seasons.
The classic middle child, Fall isn’t as much silly fun as its sibling Summer nor as admired as the elegant Holiday.
But that’s been changing over the past few years, especially considering the sheer tonnage of awards collected by October releases “Argo” and “Gravity.”
Now, with their kids back in school, grown-ups can come out and play with new releases starring Matthew McConaughey, Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., Ben Affleck and Bill Murray.
Fall isn’t just about prestige pics and Oscar hopefuls, though. It still manages to embrace the likes of “Dumb and Dumber To,” a movie about a Ouija board and “Tusk,” a Kevin Smith horror-comedy in which Justin Long is turned into a walrus.
Here’s a look at what to expect between now and mid-November. And, as always, dates are subject to change.
SEPT. 5
Twin brothers separated at birth find success in the music world — one as a rock star, the other as a tribute artist to his twin — in “The Identical,” co-starring Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta.
A 16-year-old (Sophie Curtis) thinks her prep school is run by a coven whose members drink the blood of virgins in “Innocence.”
SEPT. 12
When her surrogate mother passes away, Winter must accept another companion or she’ll be taken away from her aquarium in “A Dolphin Tale 2.”
A mother (Taraji P. Henson) is terrorized by an escaped convict (Idris Elba) in “No Good Deed.”
Tom Hardy and the late James Gandolfini funnel money to local gangsters through a Brooklyn bar in “The Drop.”
SEPT. 19
Boys with no memories of their previous lives are kept in a massive labyrinth in “The Maze Runner,” based on the young adult novel.
When their father dies, four siblings (Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Corey Stoll) spend a week with their mother (Jane Fonda) in the dramatic comedy “This Is Where I Leave You.”
An unlicensed private investigator (Liam Neeson) helps a heroin trafficker (“Downton Abbey’s” Dan Stevens) find the men who kidnapped his wife in “A Walk Among the Tombstones.”
A podcaster (Justin Long) is held captive by one of his interview subjects and slowly, surgically transformed into a walrus in writer-director Kevin Smith’s horror tale “Tusk.”
SEPT. 26
A vigilante (Denzel Washington) tries to help a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) escape from the Russian mob in a reimagining of the 1980s TV drama “The Equalizer.”
A young orphan sets out to save the underground creatures that raised him in “The Boxtrolls,” the latest stop-motion-animated offering from the makers of “Coraline” and “Paranorman.”
Feeling like a fraud, a psychiatrist (Simon Pegg) travels the globe looking for the source of pure bliss in the comedy “Hector and the Search for Happiness.”
After cheating death, estranged twins (Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader) work to repair their relationship in “The Skeleton Twins.”
When their tenant dies of an overdose, a cash-strapped couple (James Franco, Kate Hudson) living in London finds 200,000 pounds in his room, and all the assorted problems that come with keeping that money, in the thriller “Good People.”
After four decades together, newlyweds (John Lithgow, Alfred Molina) are forced to live apart in “Love Is Strange.”
Faced with a surprise tuition bill, a college senior (Alex Russell) and his roommates start a fake charity and travel the country seeking donations in “Believe Me.”
OCT. 3
When he reports his wife (Rosamund Pike) missing on their fifth anniversary, a husband (Ben Affleck) comes under suspicion in director David Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” based on the best-selling novel.
The creepy doll from “The Conjuring” gets its own prequel/spinoff in “Annabelle.”
Nicolas Cage steps into the non-Raptured shoes of Kirk Cameron as the star of the “Left Behind” reboot.
OCT. 10
An attorney (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his small hometown when his estranged father (Robert Duvall) is accused of murder in “The Judge.”
An 11-year-old boy (Ed Oxenbould) experiences a disastrous 24 hours in the children’s book adaptation “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” co-starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner.
Android intelligence reaches a tipping point in 2044 in “Automata,” starring Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith and Dylan McDermott.
The original bloodsucker is brought to life, so to speak, by Luke Evans in the origin story “Dracula Untold.”
OCT. 17
An Army sergeant known as Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) leads his five-man crew into Nazi Germany in “Fury.”
High school sweethearts (Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden) are reunited after 20 years in “The Best of Me,” based on the Nicholas Sparks novel.
A dreamer named Manolo (voiced by Diego Luna) travels through magical worlds to rescue the woman he loves in the animated “The Book of Life,” featuring the voices of Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Ice Cube and Placido Domingo.
OCT. 24
A cranky loner (Bill Murray) strikes up a friendship with his new 12-year-old neighbor (Jaeden Lieberher), taking him to the track, a strip club and his favorite bar, in the comedy “St. Vincent.”
A Kansas employment counselor (Reese Witherspoon) looks after three Sudanese refugees in “The Good Lie.”
When her boyfriend proposes, a slacker (Keira Knightley) has a late-20s crisis and hides out with a 16-year-old friend (Chloe Grace Moretz) and that friend’s single dad (Sam Rockwell) in “Laggies.”
Things go bump in the night in “Stonehearst Asylum,” based on an Edgar Allan Poe story and starring Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess and Ben Kingsley.
A spirit board runs amok in “Ouija.”
A former hit man (Keanu Reeves) comes out of retirement in the thriller “John Wick.”
OCT. 31
Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo star in “Nightcrawler,” a drama about the seedy underworld of freelance crime reporting in L.A.
As the result of an accident, a woman (Nicole Kidman) awakens every day with no memories in the thriller “Before I Go to Sleep.”
NOV. 7
Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain star in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” which follows a group of space explorers who travel through a wormhole in hopes of saving humanity.
A robotics prodigy and his robot friend lead a group of high-tech heroes hoping to save their hometown of San Fransokyo in Disney’s animated “Big Hero 6.”
NOV. 14
Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) hit the road to look for the child Harry never knew he had in “Dumb and Dumber To.”
A young music superstar (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) falls for a cop (Nate Parker) who’s part of her security detail in “Beyond the Lights.”
TO BE ANNOUNCED
Writer-director Jason Reitman looks at tech-obsessed society through the eyes of high-schoolers and their parents in “Men, Women & Children,” starring Jennifer Garner, Adam Sandler, Kaitlyn Dever and Ansel Elgort.
An actor (Michael Keaton) famous for having portrayed a beloved superhero tries to mount a Broadway play in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Birdman.”
A couple (James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain) tries to reconnect following a tragedy in “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.”
A journalist (Jeremy Renner) investigates the growing crack epidemic in inner-city neighborhoods, and its ties to the CIA, in the real-life story “Kill the Messenger.”
A young woman (Mia Wasikowksa) on a solo trek across 2,000 miles of Australian desert meets up with a National Geographic photographer (Adam Driver) in “Tracks.”
Amateur opera singer Paul Potts (James Corden) goes from a shy shop assistant to “Britain’s Got Talent” winner in the true story “One Chance.”
And African-American students try to find their way at a predominantly white college in the satiric “Dear White People.”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.
