“Christine”
Synopsis: The story of 1970s TV reporter Christine Chubbuck.
What You Need To Know: Director Antonio Campos and his fellow Borderline Films partners (Sean Durkin, Josh Mond) have quietly been making one great film after another, and yet, they still remain on the fringes of independent film. Certainly some critics have noticed, but audiences outside of film festivals are still lagging behind. With this latest effort from Campos (“Afterschool,” “Simon Killer“), we hope that a strong performance from lead Rebecca Hall and a chilling true life tale about a Florida TV reporter who shot herself on air in the ’70s will help shine some more light on his work and that of his Borderline crew in general. And our review from Sundance was certainly on board with the flick: “More importantly, thanks to Hall and Campos, the life and times of an unfortunately infamous person now comes into sharper focus. ‘Christine’ doesn’t glorify suicide, but it does explain what pushed one woman over the edge, and it honors who she was before it happened. If nothing else, just about anyone who makes it all the way to the end of this movie will know a lot more about Christine Chubbuck than the morbid facts of how she died.”
Release Date: October 14th (Limited)
“Certain Women”
Synopsis: The lives of three women intersect in small-town America, where each is imperfectly blazing a trail.
What You Need To Know: Writer/director Kelly Reichardt has been doing her thing for some time now, but this picture sees her move away from her Pacific Northwest comfort zone (her last four pictures were all set in Oregon) and into new geographic territory, and by all accounts she’s only gotten more confident in her particular, quiet and calm storytelling style. There’s just not many filmmakers like her working today. And that alone makes her latest worth seeking out, which features her starriest cast to date with regular Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart and more. When we saw it at Sundance earlier this year, we mentioned that for those “willing to trust that Reichardt is in full command of this material, ‘Certain Women’ is utterly enthralling. The glacial storytelling has a mesmerizing effect, and also gives audiences time to drink in the big skies — against which the humans look so insignificant — and to appreciate the careful way that Reichardt establishes what [the] heroines are up against. The cold, the distance, the arduous labor, the subtle class divisions, and the unwelcoming men… all of these help define why these certain women are the way they are.”
Release Date: October 14th (Limited)
“The Accountant”
Synopsis: An autistic accountant who helps launder money for some of the world’s most dangerous people, takes a job at a robotics company where not everything is as it seems.
What You Need To Know: The Ben Affleck comeback seems pretty bulletproof at this point: even the worst superhero movie of the year and that film where he tried to feed Justin Timberlake to alligators don’t appear to have harmed the star’s credibility. So we assume the rather silly premise of his latest thriller, “The Accountant,” won’t bring him down either, particularly with his latest directorial effort “Live By Night” looking to get a late December Oscar qualifying release (though nothing is quite official at the moment on that front). The autistic accountant/assassin idea never fails to make us laugh, and Affleck seems a bit miscast on the surface, but this attracted a pretty impressive cast, and we’ve heard some good buzz on it. It’s the kind of film that we’d like to see more of, so hopefully Gavin O’Connor (sure, he got “Jane Got A Gun” in the can and released earlier in the year to middling reviews and business, but was hardly entirely responsible for that one) has made this more than just a silly-sounding logline.
Release Date: October 14th
“Moonlight”
Synopsis: In Miami, a young man named Chiron must get through his rough upbringing and his dawning sexuality.
What You Need To Know: The film of the month, for many reasons. A24 has, in only a few short years, built up an impressive reputation as a true home for unconventional, interesting independent film, and have managed to make financial successes out of difficult-seeming movies like “Ex Machina,” “Swiss Army Man,” “The Witch” and “The Lobster.” Given their mostly excellent taste, that “Moonlight” is the first film they’ve actually backed from a script stage, and that they teamed up with Brad Pitt’s Plan B to do so, should put it on your radar even if you’re not familiar with the work of its director Barry Jenkins, whose excellent 2008 debut “Medicine For Melancholy” is criminally underseen. “Moonlight” is an adaptation of a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Jenkins has assembled a killer cast including Naomie Harris and “The Knick” breakout Andre Holland. When our writer caught the premiere at Telluride, all the confidence from A24 made sense, as he called the film “a piece of art that will transform lives long after it leaves theaters.”
Release Date: October 21st (Limited)
