Here Are All the Movies Opening Today, September 19th. What Will You See?
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, September 19th. (Synopses provided by distributor unless noted otherwise.)
20,000 Days on Earth
Director: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Cast: Nick Cave
Synopsis: “The 20,000th day in the life of Nick Cave – from the sound of his alarm clock in the morning to a nocturnal stroll along the beach after a gig – becomes an atmospheric and poetic portrait of restless creativity. In their carefully composed cinematic debut, artist duo Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth combine fiction and reality, private and public and, in one fictional day, capture the life story of this renowned musician. Dramatised scenes depict a conversation with a therapist about his childhood, or an archivist given an account of what’s going on in photographs of Cave’s wilder years with his bands. They alternate with documentary footage in rehearsal rooms and recording studios. Fellow musicians like Blixa Bargeld and Kylie Minogue reminisce with Cave about their collaborations. The narration, unmistakably written and spoken by Cave himself, explains his world view, his life and above all his philosophy when it comes to song writing.” [Berlinale]
Criticwire Grade Average: A- (15 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York (opens on September 26th in Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle; various cities throughout October)
The Guest
Director: Adam Wingard
Cast: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser, Lance Reddick, Chase Williamson
Synopsis: “Still struggling over the loss of their oldest son, Caleb, to the war in Afghanistan, the Peterson family finds some solace when an unexpected visitor knocks on their door. David, a steely eyed and charismatic soldier who was recently discharged, is welcomed into their home when he comes to fulfill a promise he made to his fallen comrade. Siblings Anna and Luke are at first reluctant to accept David’s presence, but he soon wins them over by scoring kegs for Anna’s friends and roughing up some bullies from Luke’s school. Though he appears to be the perfect houseguest, a mysterious and sinister chain of events causes Anna to question whether David is actually who he claims to be.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (20 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Seattle, Phoenix and San Antonio (expands nationwide October 3rd)
Art and Craft
Director: Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman & Mark Becker
Synopsis: “Mark Landis is one of the most prolific and notorious ‘artists’ of the century. An expert forger of masterpiece art, Landis has duped curators across the nation, further befuddling them by donating his imitations instead of selling them. Many have dedicated years tracking his escapades with one burning question: “Why?” Framed around a cat-and-mouse chase between Landis and those he has hoodwinked, Art and Craft paints a richly complicated portrait of mental illness, skewed philanthropy, and the desire to feel connected.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (6 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 26th and expands across the country throughout October)
Autumn Blood
Director: Markus Blunder
Cast: Peter Stormare, Sophie Lowe, Maximilian Harnisch, Gustaf Skarsgård, Samuel Vauramo, Tim Morten Uhlenbrock
Synopsis: “High in the mountains a widowed mother dies leaving her two children orphaned. Fearing being split up they keep their mother’s death a secret. They survive together until the mayor’s son and his friends brutally assault and rape the girl. A social worker from a distant city arrives to investigate, but ultimately it is the siblings who must protect each other and survive.”
Theatrical Release: Limited
Fort Bliss
Director: Claudia Myers
Cast: Michelle Monaghan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Pablo Schreiber, Ron Livingston, Freddy Rodríguez, Dash Mihok, Manolo Cardona, Gbenga Akinnagbe
Synopsis: “Decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother Maggie Swann (Michelle Monaghan) returns home from an extended tour of duty in Afghanistan to discover the bond with her five-year-old son has been broken. As she struggles to reclaim his affection, life after deployment is made more difficult by her persistent memories of Afghanistan. When news of another deployment threatens the fragile balance she has achieved, she must find a way to reconcile her duties as a mother and her obligations as a solider.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Hector and the Search for Happiness
Director: Peter Chelsom
Cast: Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Plummer, Jean Reno
Synopsis: “A dissatisfied London psychiatrist (Simon Pegg) embarks on a continent-crossing trip to discover the secret of happiness, in this globe-trotting comedy that also features Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgard, Jean Reno and Christopher Plummer.” [Toronto International Film Festival]
Theatrical Release: Limited
Hollidaysburg
Director: Anna Martemucci
Cast: Rachel Keller, Tobin Mitnick, Claire Chapelli, Tristan Erwin
Synopsis: “When former high school friends reunite over their first Thanksgiving break during college, they discover just how much they have changed while their town of Hollidaysburg has stayed the same. Within hours of his return, former prom king Scott is dumped by his miserable girlfriend, discovers his parents have sold his childhood home, and has to prepare to say goodbye to Hollidaysburg forever. Meanwhile Scott’s friend and quasi “kid sister” Tori is in agony after spending unending hours with her embarrassing family and a best friend she’s outgrown. When Scott and Tori reunite, a surprising and unlikely romance blossoms.”
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 26th)
Keep On Keepin’ On
Director: Alan Hicks
Cast: Clark Terry, Justin Kauflin, Gwen Terry, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Phyllis Kauflin
Synopsis: “Eighty-nine year old trumpeting legend Clark Terry has mentored jazz wonders like Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, but Terry’s most unlikely friendship is with Justin Kauflin, a 23-year-old blind piano player with uncanny talent, but debilitating nerves. As Justin prepares for the most pivotal moment in his budding career, Terry’s ailing health threatens to end his own.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: A- (4 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles (opens in New York on October 3rd, Washington, DC on October 10th and various others in late October and November)
Life’s a Breeze
Director: Lance Daly
Cast: Kelly Thornton, Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt, Eva Birthistle, David Bendito
Synopsis: “A charming dramedy that follows a family struggling to stay afloat and together through hard times in Ireland. When the family makes a well-intentioned attempt to clean out their mother’s house, and accidentally trashes a mattress she has been stashing her life savings in, Nan (Fionnula Flanagan), her unemployed slacker son Colm (Pat Shortt), and his niece Emma (Kelly Thornton) must overcome their many differences to lead their family in a race against time to find a lost fortune.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
The Maze Runner
Director: Wes Ball
Cast: Will Poulter, Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Patricia Clarkson, Ki Hong Lee, Jacob Latimore, Aml Ameen, Chris Sheffield, Joe Adler, Don McManus, Dexter Darden
Synopsis: “Set in a post-apocalyptic world, young Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they’re all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow ‘runners’ for a shot at escape.”
Criticwire Grade Average: C+ (8 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Wide
Not Cool
Director: Shane Dawson
Cast: Shane Dawson, Cherami Leigh, Drew Monson, Lisa Schwartz, Michelle Veintimilla
Synopsis: “Former prom king and college freshman Scott (Shane Dawson) has just returned home for Thanksgiving break only to be dumped by his eccentric, long-term girlfriend. With his world turned upside down, Scott strikes an unlikely friendship with former classmate Tori (Cherami Leigh), an ugly duckling who blossomed in her first semester of college. Together, the two embark on an outrageous adventure through their hometown. But when Scott and Tori find their friendship turning into something deeper, they realize that a few months away may have changed them more than they realized.”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles (opens in New York on September 26th)
Reclaim
Director: Alan White
Cast: John Cusack, Ryan Phillippe, Rachelle Lefevre, Jacki Weaver, Luis Guzmán
Synopsis: “After their newly adopted daughter goes missing in a small town, Steven and Shannon will stop at nothing to uncover the truth behind her disappearance and the dangerous secret behind the adoption agency they trusted. Risking their own lives, they will discover just what being a parent means and how far they will go to get their child back.”
Theatrical Release: Limited
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies
Director: Wiktor Ericsson
Synopsis: “The film follows The Sarnos for a year, as 88-year old Joe is struggling to get a new film project off the ground, a female-centered softcore film in his old style. Following in Joe and Peggy’s footsteps we are taken on an exciting and often hilarious journey, between a wintery Manhattan and the couple’s summer retreat in Sweden. This is intercut with a look back on the dramatic events that shaped Joe and Peggy’s lives, and through their very personal story we chronicle how sexploitation evolved in to hardcore, and Joe’s significant place in this history as an erotic “auteur” whose ambitions as a filmmaker often surpassed the needs of the genre he was working in.”
Theatrical Release: New York
The Scribbler
Director: John Suits
Cast: Katie Cassidy, Eliza Dushku, Sasha Grey, Michelle Trachtenberg, Gina Gershon, Garret Dillahunt, Michael Imperioli, Billy Campbell
Synopsis: “Suki (Katie Cassidy) is a young woman confronting her destructive mental illness using ‘The Siamese Burn,’ an experimental machine designed to eliminate multiple personalities. The closer Suki comes to being ‘cured,’ she’s haunted by a thought… what if the last unwanted identity turns out to be her?”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles
Space Station 76
Director: Jack Plotnick
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler, Jerry O’Connell, Marisa Coughlan, Matt Bomer, Kali Rocha, Kylie Rogers, Keir Dullea
Synopsis: “Welcome to a 1970s’ version of the future, where the pants are wide, the music is groovy, and the new frontier is interplanetary. When a new assistant captain (Liv Tyler) arrives on the Omega 76, tensions spark, and more than asteroids collide.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (7 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Stop the Pounding Heart
Director: Roberto Minervini
Cast: Sara Carlson, Colby Trichell, Leeanne Carlson
Synopsis: “Sara, a girl being home-schooled on a goat farm alongside her 11 siblings, finds her devout values challenged after she meets Colby, an amateur bull rider.”
Theatrical Release: New York
Swim Little Fish Swim
Director: Ruben Amar & Lola Bessis
Cast: Dustin Guy Defa, Lola Bessis, Brooke Bloom, Anne Consigny, Olivia Durling Costello
Synopsis: “Maggie? Rainbow? Leeward and Mary cannot even agree on their three year old daughter’s name anymore. Mary is a hardworking nurse who dreams of only one thing: changing her life around. She resents her husband for being an irresponsible, overgrown adolescent incapable of holding down a job. Leeward is an atypical, idealistic musician who fancies himself a misunderstood artist and a New Age visionary. Enter Lilas, a 19 year old French artist and daughter of a world famous painter, who’s trying to make it in New York and get away from her overbearing mother. When the bubbly young woman moves into the couple’s tiny Chinatown apartment, their already fragile balance is upset even further.” [SXSW Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B (4 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles and Chicago on September 26th and Seattle on October 24th)
This is Where I Leave You
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Jason Bateman, Rose Byrne, Jane Fonda, Kathryn Hahn, Corey Stoll, Abigail Spencer, Adam Driver, Tina Fey, Timothy Olyphant
Synopsis: “When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide— driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (15 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Wide
Tracks
Director: John Curran
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver
Synopsis: “Tracks is the true story of Robyn Davidson who trekked from Alice Springs in Central Australia through almost 2,000 miles of sprawling desert to the Indian Ocean, accompanied only by her loyal dog and four unpredictable camels. This epic and remarkable journey into Australia’s last great frontier was captured by charismatic National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan. These challenging and emotional nine months in the desert marked a new beginning for Robyn that would change the rest of her life.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (16 grades)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Tusk
Director: Kevin Smith
Cast: Justin Long, Genesis Rodriguez, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment, Ralph Garman
Synopsis: “An irreverent American podcaster interviews a Canadian adventurer whose wild tale of survival at sea masks sinister intentions in this twisted horror comedy from writer/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Red State). Wallace (Justin Long) and Teddy (Haley Joel Osment) are the wisecracking co-hosts of ‘The Not-See Party,’ a popular podcast focused on bizarre viral videos and humorous interviews with the internet-famous. The concept is simple – Wallace travels the country conducting outlandish videos, and returns to their make-shift studio to share his stories with Teddy and the listeners. When Wallace ventures to Canada for an interview that falls through at the last minute, he stops at a local bar for a drink and finds a flyer posted by an old adventurer (Michael Parks) who seeks to share his stories with anyone who will listen. Arriving at the old man’s secluded estate under the shroud of darkness, Wallace is promptly treated to a hot cup of tea, and a strange tale of being rescued by a walrus following a shipwreck at sea. It all seems like the perfect fodder for an unforgettable podcast — that is until Wallace blacks out and regains consciousness bound to a wheelchair. Meanwhile, as Teddy and Wallace’s girlfriend venture north to investigate his sudden disappearance, the old man subjects his terrified guest to a bizarre medical procedure that will transform more than just his perception of one of the sea’s most majestic creatures.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (14 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Wide
A Walk Among the Tombstones
Director: Scott Frank
Cast: Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Marina Squerciati, Sebastian Roché, Mark Consuelos, Whitney Able, Maurice Compte, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Marielle Heller, Toshiko Onizawa, Annika Peterson, Astro, Frank De Julio
Synopsis: “Based on Lawrence Block’s bestselling series of mystery novels, A Walk among the Tombstones stars Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law. When Scudder reluctantly agrees to help a heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife, the PI learns that this is not the first time these men have committed this sort of twisted crime…nor will it be the last. Blurring the lines between right and wrong, Scudder races to track the deviants through the backstreets of New York City before they kill again.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (9 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Wide
Wheels
Director: Tim Gagliardo & Donavon Thomas
Cast: Donavon Thomas, Patrick Hume, Diana Gettinger, Kevin McCorkle, Will Jennings
Synopsis: “Two suicidal paraplegic junkies hustle their way through the city streets trying to find a reason to live.”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles
The Zero Theorem
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton, Matt Damon, Lucas Hedges
Synopsis: “Qohen Leth is an eccentric and reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst. Living in isolation in a burnt-out church, Qohen is obsessively working on a mysterious project personally delegated to him by Management (Matt Damon) aimed at discovering the meaning of life – or the lack thereof – once and for all. Increasingly disturbed by unwanted visits from people he doesn’t fully trust, including the flirtatious Bainsley (Mélanie Thierry), Management’s wunderkind son Bob (Lucas Hedges), his unpredictable colleague Joby (David Thewlis), and would-be digital therapist Dr. Shrink-Rom (Tilda Swinton), it’s only when he experiences the power of love and desire that he’s able to understand his own reason for being.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (13 grades)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Portland, San Diego and Vancouver)
Missed last week? Here are all the releases from the weekend of September 12th.
