Illinois Entertainer November 2014 | Page 16

A VERY GOOD YEAR By Rob Fagin Al Pacino in The Godfather, Part II N ovember is generally loaded with quality movie releases as we begin gearing up for both the holidays and awards season, the culmination being the Academy Awards ("Oscars") in February. It’s also an ideal time for broody popcorn fare as people begin looking for indoor activities away from the cold. After a dismal domestic summer box office season, we’re already seeing a rebound thanks to a bunch of diverse, more adult-oriented fall releases, including David Fincher’s Gone Girl, David Ayer’s Fury, and Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer. This year’s November new release schedule has a good, if not compulsory, blend of offerings: November 7 brings us the poignant story of the brilliant physicist/cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, and his devastating diagnosis with motor neuron disease (ALS) in The Theory of Everything. Directed by James Marsh and featuring Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and Felicity Jones as his first wife, Jane, the film has garnered festival raves and 16 illinoisentertainer.com november 2014 Oscar buzz for both Redmayne and Jones. We’ll also see Big Hero 6, the latest animated, comic book adventure tale from the reinvigorated Disney Animation Studios. Steve Carell’s first aggressive bid for a Best Actor Oscar, Foxcatcher (directed by Bennett Miller), pits him again Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, who both, after 20 years of trying for their own dramatic statuettes, finally said "screw it," and went ahead and made Dumb and Dumber To. Both films bow on November 14. November 21 sees the highly-anticipated release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (directed by Francis Lawrence), while Sherlock Holmes, er, Benedict Cumberbatch takes a big, grand-slam swing at the ultimate male thespian award with The Imitation Game, Morten Tyldum’s riveting look at the Brit mathematician that helped crack the German Enigma code during WWII. Undoubtedly, one of the year’s most anticipated releases is Christopher Nolan’s epic sci-fi space drama, Interstellar, out November 5. The closely guarded story and lack of trailers (until recently) have kept most of us in the dark about the storyline, but if the recent hype is half as good as the movie (some who have seen it compare its "epic-ness" to Nolan’s beloved 2001: A Space Odyssey), this film may help redeem the entire year based on early buzz. Nolan, whose projects are always shrouded in secrecy, has pulled some sort of impossible hat trick by positioning himself as one of the most thrilling directors of highly anticipated "event" movies. From the enigmatic gimmick of Memento, to the somber refreshment of Batman Begins; the wildly profitable terror of The Dark Knight, to the cathartic head-games of Inception; all of which allowed him to make his strangest movie yet, The Dark Knight Rises. He is somehow able to tap into a populist sense of our collective dread and excitement for danger. Most crucially, Nolan is capable of spinning a heady yarn with exquisite urgency and walloping emotion. He’s bought himself the clout that allows him to paint intimately singular tales onto a behemoth canvas. Unlikely partners Paramount, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures all co-financed the film, inspired by the works of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne. Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway provide the human heart to a story about wormholes, environmental disasters and hope. This could be something huge, and, whether or not it lives up to the hype, a film that could hopefully serve as a sweeping reminder of the monumental rush a true "epic" can deliver. Speaking of epic, Francis Ford Coppola had a banner year in 1974, with two Best Picture Oscar nominations for two very different films. Back then, there were only 5 nominated films per year (the Academy increased the nomination field to 10 in 2009), which is even more impressive. He was not only up against his own film, but also some of the world’s biggest, most epic films in history: Chinatown (Roman Polanski); Lenny (Bob Fosse) and The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin)… First up: The Godfather Part II (200 min) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974 Availability: DVD/Blu-ray The first feature film to ever use the now ubiquitous numbering of sequels, The Godfather Part II certainly is a continuation (even a prequel) to the original film about the Corleone crime family - but, above all, it Continued on page 52