This weekend is an
explosion of potentially excellent movies. Three of our best working
filmmakers have movies out in the same weekend. There really are no
wrong choices – even the family CGI extravaganza is getting better
buzz than you might expect. Let's stop wasting time and see the
smorgasbord ahead of us.
Bridge of Spies
Director: Steven
Spielberg
Writers: Matt
Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Tom
Hanks, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Mark Rylance
It's been a long
three years since Lincoln, but Steven Spielberg is back with
another true-to-life American story. This time he covers the height
of the Cold War and specifically one American lawyer's (Tom Hanks)
attempts to release an American pilot shot down over Soviet airspace.
There is always the
possibility of a clunker, even from the man who is probably my
favorite living director, but everything is in place for this to be
wonderful. Spielberg gets to play with spy craft and sleight of hand
in visual ways, the Coen brothers are handling the dialogue in a
movie that will largely live and die on conversations, and America's
Most Likeable Person is the lead.
Crimson Peak
Director: Guillermo
del Toro
Writers: Guillermo
del Toro, Matthew Robbins
Starring: Mia
Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam
Guillermo del Toro
is back in his crazy, spookily designed glory here with a haunted
house love story. Del Toro is widely considered a master who could go
toe to toe with the man who directed the first movie on this list,
plus the overall cast here might be even more top heavy than Bridge
of Spies. The trio of Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, and Tom
Hiddleston is basically The Greatness of the 2010s: The Movie. But
again, this is del Toro's show. He gets to play with a fictionalized,
heightened version of the deterioration of Mary Shelley's England,
and he gets to throw in a bunch of ghosts. A double and/or triple
(see a couple spots below) feature may be on the agenda for this
weekend.
Goosebumps
Director: Rob
Letterman
Writers: Darren
Lemke, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Starring: Jack
Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee
The nightmares of
R.L. Stine's (Jack Black) Goosebumps get unleashed on the
“real” world in this Jumanji update for whatever we're
calling the generation after Millennials. It all seems very
straightforward, but there are a ton of good words being said about
it. It's little surprise that it's getting decent buzz, because Super
8 and the Trophy Wife's Ryan Lee (the kid Melissa McCarthy
said looked just like Tom Petty in This is 40) has a
significant part. That's all I need. The kid makes me laugh.
Steve Jobs
Director: Danny
Boyle
Writer: Aaron
Sorkin
Starring: Michael
Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels
The Apple founder
comes in for the Sorkin treatment, which has worked exceptionally
well for the stories of Mark Zuckerberg (The Social Network)
and Billy Beane (Moneyball) in recent years. This time around,
Sorkin's words get paired with the kinetic visual maestro Danny Boyle
(Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) to look at how Steve
Jobs changed and (hopefully) grew as a person over a couple decades.
Neatly, Sorkin and
Boyle chose to only highlight three specific moments in Jobs' life,
during the launches of three different Apple products. The cast
features the rest of the greatest performers of this decade, so you
probably can't go wrong with anything you see this weekend. Have at
it.
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