Here Are All the Movies Opening Today, September 12th. What Will You See?
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, September 12th. (Synopses provided by distributor unless noted otherwise.)
Born to Fly
Director: Catherine Gund
Cast: Elizabeth Streb, Fabio Tavares, Sarah Callan, Jaclyn Carlson, Leonardo Giron, Felix Hess, Samantha Jakus, Cassandre Joseph, John Kasten, Daniel Rysak
Synopsis: “Elizabeth Streb is not just a choreographer; she is an extreme action architect. “Born to Fly” traces the evolution of Streb’s movement philosophy – she pushes herself and her company from the ground, to the wall, to the sky. The film asks: Why is one person’s circus another person’s dance? One dancer’s gorgeous flight another dancer’s stunt work? Why call it art? Why choreograph it? Why have a role in performing it? How might a film inspire a broad audience, hungry for a more tactile and fierce existence in the world?” [SXSW Film Festival]
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 26th)
My Old Lady
Director: Israel Horovitz
Cast: Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas
Synopsis: “Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline) is a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment from his estranged father. But when he arrives in France to sell the vast domicile, he’s shocked to discover a live-in tenant who is not prepared to budge. His apartment is a viager – an ancient French real estate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale – and the feisty Englishwoman Mathilde Girard (Maggie Smith), who has lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas) for many years, can by contract collect monthly payments from Mathias until her death. With no place to go, Mathias strikes a tentative lodging arrangement with Mathilde, instantly clashing with suspicious, lovelorn Chloé over his private dealings with a rapacious property developer, who wants to purchase the apartment. An uneasy détente settles in as the quarreling Mathias and Chloé come to discover a common ground of childhood pain and neglect. As they draw increasingly closer, Mathilde unveils a complex labyrinth of secrets that unites the trio in unexpected ways.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B (6 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York
Altina
Director: Peter Sanders
Synopsis: “Altina Schinasi, (1907 – 1999), was a paradox. Simultaneously seductive and reserved, her sheltered upbringing was in sharp contrast to the bold sexuality of her artwork, and she created a fashion sensation in the 1930s with her design for Harlequin eyeglasses. Altina is an affecting, provocative, and richly informative documentary about an American trendsetter–a woman before her time. Free of academic constraints and confident in her keen intellect, she crafted fragments of her life into sculptures that defined her surreal and original world. Her whimsical art was also anchored in social issues: her film on George Grosz took on the Holocaust, earning her an Oscar nomination and winning her the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. She befriended Martin Luther King Jr. and supported his struggle. And during the Red Scare, she did not hesitate to hide John Berry–who was blacklisted for having directed a documentary on the Hollywood Ten–in her Beverly Hills home. As a sculptor, her most original creations were called ‘chairacters.’ Exuding Altina’s unencumbered feminist sexuality, these large, almost life-size chairs and benches depicted lovers in passionate embrace or turning away from each other to express the absence of love.”
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 19th)
At the Devil’s Door
Director: Nicholas McCarthy
Cast: Naya Rivera, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ashley Rickards, Wyatt Russell, Ava Acres
Synopsis: “When ambitious young real estate agent Leigh is asked to sell a house with a checkered past, she crosses paths with a disturbed girl whom she learns is the runaway daughter of the couple selling the property. When Leigh tries to intervene and help her, she becomes entangled with a supernatural force that soon pulls Leigh’s artist sister Vera into its web — and has sinister plans for both of them.” [SXSW Film Festival]
Theatrical Release: New York (expands to Los Angeles and various other cities on September 19th)
Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?
Director: James Manera
Cast: Eric Allan Kramer, Rob Morrow, Stephen Tobolowsky, Kristoffer Polaha, Lew Temple, Mark Moses, Laura Regan, Joaquim de Almeida, Louis Herthum, Greg Germann, Tony Denison, Ned Vaughn, Jeff Yagher, Brent Briscoe
Synopsis: “The global economy is on the brink of collapse. Unemployment has risen to 24%. Gas is now $42 per gallon. Brilliant creators, from artists to industrialists, continue to mysteriously disappear at the hands of the unknown. Dagny Taggart, Vice President in Charge of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental, has discovered what may very well be the answer to a mounting energy crisis – found abandoned amongst the ruins of a once productive factory, a revolutionary motor that could seemingly power the World. But, the motor is dead… there is no one left to decipher its secret… and, someone is watching. It’s a race against the clock to find the inventor before the motor of the World is stopped for good. Who is John Galt?”
Theatrical Release: Wide
Bird People
Director: Pascale Ferran
Cast: Josh Charles, Radha Mitchell, Mathieu Amalric, Clark Johnson, Anaïs Demoustier, Roschdy Zem, Geoffrey Cantor, Hippolyte Girardot, Camélia Jordana, Taklyt Vongdara
Synopsis: “In the Paris airport zone, two strangers are trying to make sense out of their lives: an American engineer under professional and emotional pressure who decides to radically change the course of his life, and a young hotel chambermaid who faces a life-altering supernatural experience.” [Cannes Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B (10 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
Director: Ned Benson
Cast: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Ciarán Hinds, William Hurt, Bill Hader, Viola Davis, Nina Arianda, Isabelle Huppert, Jess Weixler
Synopsis: “James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain star as an enviable couple seemingly so in love until their marriage is shaken to the core when life throws them a devastating curve. Now this New York couple must try to understand each other as they cope with loss and attempt to reclaim the life and love they once had. Co-starring Viola Davis, Bill Hader, William Hurt, and Isabelle Huppert, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is a story that reveals both perspectives on a couple finding their own paths to rebuild their lives and their love.” [Cannes Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (12 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles (expands nationwide September 19th)
Dolphin Tale 2
Director: Charles Martin Smith
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr., Kris Kristofferson, Nathan Gamble, Austin Stowell, Bethany Hamilton, Carlos Gómez, Austin Highsmith, Juliana Harkavy
Synopsis: “It has been several years since young Sawyer Nelson (Gamble) and the dedicated team at the Clearwater Marine Hospital, headed by Dr. Clay Haskett (Connick, Jr.), rescued Winter. With the help of Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Freeman), who developed a unique prosthetic tail for the injured dolphin, they were able to save her life. Yet their fight is not over. Winter’s surrogate mother, the very elderly dolphin Panama, has passed away, leaving Winter without the only poolmate she has ever known. However, the loss of Panama may have even greater repercussions for Winter, who, according to USDA regulations, cannot be housed alone, as dolphins’ social behavior requires them to be paired with other dolphins. Time is running out to find a companion for her before the team at Clearwater loses their beloved Winter to another aquarium.”
Theatrical Release: Wide
The Drop
Director: Michael Roskam
Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz, Ann Dowd, James Frecheville
Synopsis: “The Drop follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski through a covert scheme of funneling cash to local gangsters in the underworld of Brooklyn bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv, Bob finds himself at the centre of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood’s past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living – no matter the cost.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (12 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Wide
The Frontier
Director: Matt Rabinowitz
Cast: Max Gail, Anastassia Sendyk, Coleman Kelly, Katherine Cortez, Oliver Seitz
Synopsis: “Sean (Max Gail), a retired literature professor and civic activist, writes a letter to his estranged son, Tennessee (Coleman Kelly), a ranch hand. Tennessee is uncertain how to respond, but knowing he should see his aging father, he decides to go home. He arrives just as Nina (Anastassia Sendyk), Sean’s personal trainer fresh off a bad breakup, accepts Sean’s offer to move in and help him write his memoirs. The tension between father and son is ever-present. As Sean and Nina work, Tennessee avoids his overbearing father with fix-up projects around the house. One evening after Nina has gone out, Sean and Tennessee find themselves alone in the house for the first time.”
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 19th)
The Green Prince
Director: Nadav Schirman
Synopsis: “The Green Prince is such an extraordinary story that one is tempted to think it is fiction, if only somebody had the audacity to invent it. A Palestinian in Ramallah, Mosab Hassan Yousef grows up angry and ready to fight Israel. Arrested for smuggling guns at the age of 17, he’s interrogated by the Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, and sent to prison. But shocked by Hamas’s ruthless tactics in the prison and the organization’s escalating campaign of suicide bombings outside, Mosab agrees to spy for Israel. For him, there is no greater shame. For his Shin Bet handler, Gonen, there is no greater prize: “operating” the oldest son of a founding member of Hamas.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (7 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Honeymoon
Director: Leigh Janiak
Cast: Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway, Ben Huber, Hanna Brown
Synopsis: “Young newlyweds Paul (Harry Treadaway) and Bea (Rose Leslie) travel to remote lake country for their honeymoon where the promise of private romance awaits them. Shortly after arriving, Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of the night. As she becomes more distant and her behavior increasingly peculiar, Paul begins to suspect something more sinister than sleepwalking took place in the woods.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B (8 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles (expands to Kansas City, Atlanta, Albuquerque and Gainesville)
I Am Eleven
Director: Genevieve Bailey
Synopsis: “Do you remember when you were 11? Australian filmmaker Genevieve Bailey travelled the world for six years talking with 11-year-olds to compose this insightful, funny and moving portrait of childhood. From an orphanage in India to a single-parent household in inner-city Melbourne, to bathing with elephants in Thailand, I AM ELEVEN explores the lives and thoughts of children from all around the world. It weaves together deeply personal and at times hilarious portraits of what it means to stand on the cusp between childhood and adolescence, that fleeting moment when childish naiveté has faded, yet teenaged self-consciousness has not yet taken hold.”
Theatrical Release: New York (expands to Los Angeles on September 19th and in various cities through the beginning of December)
No Good Deed
Director: Sam Miller
Cast: Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson, Mark Rhino Smith, Frank Brennan, Kate Del Castillo, Henry Simmons, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Alan D. Purwin, Kenny Alfonso, Serrell K. Rollins, Walter Hendrix, Dolan Wilson, Mirage Moonschein, Gregory Marshall Smith, Tatom Pender, Yamanee Coleman, Gregory Cook, Ron Goss, Kelly O’Neal
Synopsis: “Terri (Taraji P. Henson), a devoted wife and mother of two, lives an ideal life that takes a dramatic turn when her home and children are threatened by Colin (Idris Elba), a charming stranger who smooth-talks his way into her house, claiming car trouble. The unexpected invitation leaves her and her family terrorized and fighting for survival.”
Theatrical Release: Wide
A Picture of You
Director: J.P. Chan
Cast: Lucas Dixon, Jodi Long, Jo Mei, Andrew Pang, Teyonah Parris
Synopsis: “Following their mother’s death, siblings Kyle (Andrew Pang) and Jen (co-writer Jo Mei) drive from New York City to their mom’s home in rural, eastern Pennsylvania to pack up her belongings and prepare the house for sale. Long estranged, their sibling rivalry and tension is apparent from the opening scene. Kyle, frustrated, wants to get the packing done as soon as possible. He is also resentful of his sister’s obvious absence during their mother’s illness before her death. Jen, annoyed by her brother’s foul mood, seems equally bothered with the obligatory ritual of packing, but soon becomes nostalgic about their mother as she reads through books to be packed and documents to be shredded or kept. As the film unfolds, the focus becomes less about the rivalry between brother and sister and more about their mother’s life in the lakeside community. In going through her belongings and talking to neighbors, the siblings reconstruct their mom’s late life persona through reflections on the neighbors’ stories, their mom’s notes in books and pictures of her. Over the course of an eventful weekend, both Kyle and Jen learn about the generous, independent, intellectual, free-spirited, sexual woman beyond the person they knew as simply ‘Mom.'” [LA Asian Pacific Film Festival]
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles and Honolulu (expands to Baton Rouge, LA on October 5th)
Pump
Director: Joshua & Rebecca Harrell Tickell
Cast: John Hofmeister, Elon Musk, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Jason Bateman
Synopsis: “Today oil is our only option of transportation fuel at the pump. Our exclusive use of it has drained our wallets, increased air pollution and sent our sons and daughters to war in faraway lands. PUMP shows us how through the use of a variety of replacement fuels, we will be able to fill up our cars – cheaper, cleaner and American-made – and in the process, create more jobs for a stronger, healthier economy.”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles
The Quitter
Director: Matthew Bonifacio
Cast: Matthew Bonifacio, Julianna Gelinas Bonifacio, Destiny Monet Cruz, Neil Jain, Deirdre O’Connell, Dan Grimaldi, Jack O’Connell, Erin Darke, Henry Vick, Joshua Rivera, Natasha Lyonne
Synopsis: “When a failed baseball player’s (Matthew Bonifacio) ex-girlfriend (Julianna Gelinas Bonifacio) moves back to the neighborhood with her seven-year-old daughter (Destiny Monet Cruz), he realizes he carries more regrets than how he handled his baseball career. What follows is his earnest, awkward, and at times hilarious fight to become the father he never was.”
Theatrical Release: New York
The Skeleton Twins
Director: Craig Johnson
Cast: Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, Boyd Holbrook, Joanna Gleason, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Ian Hyland
Synopsis: “Estranged twins Maggie and Milo coincidentally cheat death on the same day, prompting them to reunite and confront the reasons their lives went so wrong. As the twins’ reunion reinvigorates them, they realize the key to fixing their lives may just lie in repairing their relationship.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (24 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC; expands nationwide September 26th)
Something Wicked
Director: Darin Scott
Cast: Shantel VanSanten, John Robinson, James Patrick Stuart, Brittany Murphy, Robert Blanche, Betty Moyer, Broderick Boyd, John Breen, Jerry L. Buxbaum, Joe Feeney, Jeff Hunter, Megan Lee Joy, Patricia Malley Thacher, Gilberto Martin del Campo
Synopsis: “A young couple embark upon their honeymoon against the chilling landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. But when tragedy strikes, gruesome secrets from their past collide with sinister forces of the present.”
Theatrical Release: Wide
Stray Dogs
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Cast: Kang-sheng Lee, Yi-Ching Lu, Shiang-chyi Chen, Chao-rong Chen
Synopsis: “A father and his two children wander the margins of modern day Taipei, from the woods and rivers of the outskirts to the rain streaked streets of the city. By day the father scrapes out a meager income as a human billboard for luxury apartments, while his young son and daughter roam the supermarkets and malls surviving off free food samples. Each night the family takes shelter in an abandoned building. The father is strangely affected by a hypnotic mural adorning the wall of this makeshift home. On the day of the father’s birthday the family is joined by a woman – might she be the key to unlocking the buried emotions that linger from the past?”
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (23 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York
