As we go deeper into the fall movie season, October often offers the cream of the cinematic crop. This year is no different: with this year’s top winners at Berlinale and Cannes, as well as the best film to debut at a fall festival, there’s plenty to enjoy. As many of these will begin in limited release, look for them to expand in the weeks to come.
11. Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito; Oct. 25)
A personal and harrowing exploration of sexual assault, Black Box Diaries was one of the best documentaries of Sundance this year. Lena Wilson said her review, “In the middle of Black Box Diaries, journalist Shiori Ito’s debut documentary, Ito grins at the camera as she strolls through downtown Tokyo on the day of her book launch. It’s October 18, 2017. The New York Times broke the Harvey Weinstein news two weeks ago. Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag #MeToo two days ago. Ito, fresh-faced and 28, happily recounts these events to the camera. The world may finally be ready to listen to her.”
10. La Cocina (Alonso Ruizpalacios; Oct. 25)
Alonso Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina, starring Rooney Mara and Raúl Briones, premiered at Berlinale earlier this year, followed by Tribeca, and will now arrive this month. Rory O’Connor said in his Berlinale review, “Egos are charred and tempers seared in La Cocina, a kitchen nightmare set in the engine rooms of a vast Times Square eatery where the staff have more pressing things to worry about than rising temperatures.”
9. Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick; Oct. 18 on Netflix)
The logline of a serial killer and rapist taking part in a television dating game show sounds like a high-concept pitch so fabricated it couldn’t possibly be founded in any veracity. Yet, in 1979, Rodney Alcala––whose victims are believed to be as many as 130––was a bachelor on The Dating Game. For her directorial debut, Anna Kendrick expands the 30 minutes of airtime into an inquiry of misogyny and the everyday silencing of women, exploring both Alcala’s shocking murders and the story of a fledging actress hoping for a big break. With a careful threading of humor and horror, it’s an ambitious, slightly strained gamble that Kendrick mostly manages with a formally precise vision and script that doesn’t rely on platitudes. Continue reading my review.
8. The Outrun (Nora Fingscheidt; Oct. 4)
After a relatively quiet few years, Saoirse Ronan is returning in a major way this fall, leading two new features: Nora Fingscheidt’s Sundance highlight The Outrun and Steve McQueen’s Blitz. The former is set for a release from Sony Pictures Classics this week. Dan Mecca said in his review, “Maybe the smartest decision made in The Outrun, directed by Nora Fingscheidt, is its fractured narrative device. Based on the 2016 memoir of the same name by Amy Liptrot (co-writing with Fingscheidt), the film offers a frank, unwavering look at addiction with the great Saoirse Ronan (who also produces) in the lead role. We move forward and backward in time, often relieved to be clear from horrible sins of the past only to be thrust back into them minutes later. In this way, the picture reflects its subject with painful precision.”
7. Union (Brett Story, Stephen Maing; Oct. 18)
Premiering earlier this year at Sundance, Union is the latest film from Brett Story (The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, The Hottest August) and Stephen Maing (Crime + Punishment), following the Amazon Labor Union’s historic fight for workplace rights. Edward Frumkin said in his review, “Amazon Labor Union (ALU) president Chris Smalls is not the star of the documentary Union. He is just one part of the congregation in Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s co-directed film. An early glimpse of Smalls finds him discreetly flipping burgers and hot dogs at a grill. It took an employee to ask Smalls if he’s the ‘low-key famous’ Smalls for the leader to list his media recognitions. He doesn’t want clout for his union organizing, but rather to be known for making laborers heard, enabling a better society for his children and comrades, and proving to white executives that he can manage a flock in his distinguished streetwear outfits.”
6. Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot; Oct. 25)
Memoir of a Snail marks the long-awaited return to feature filmmaking from Adam Elliot, director of 2009’s Mary & Max and Oscar winner for the short Harvie Krumpet. Featuring the voices of Sarah Snook, Eric Bana, Jacki Weaver, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, the film won the top prize at Annecy earlier this summer and will now be arriving in theaters. David Katz said in his review, “Memoir of a Snail’s director Adam Elliot (following-up his enduringly popular 2009 feature Mary and Max) prefers the term ‘clayography’––his own portmanteau of claymation and biography––which does someway capture the uniqueness of what he’s doing. He specializes in exhaustive stop-motion character studies. Which isn’t to say they lack storytelling escalation, but underlines how little we grasped about the likes of Wallace, Gromit, and Jack Skellington’s psychology or motivations. Elliot strongly favors voiceover as a primary tool for exposition––of course, a sin for various theorists of film storytelling––and Memoir of a Snail displays the limitations of combining this approach with his various still tableaux of clay, paint, and paper.”
5. It’s What’s Inside (Greg Jardin; Oct. 4 on Netflix)
One of this year’s Sundance breakouts was Greg Jardin’s directorial debut It’s What’s Inside, which finally comes to Netflix on Friday. Dan Mecca said in his Sundance review, “There are few things better than when a good idea blossoms into a great movie. It’s What’s Inside, written and directed by Greg Jardin, achieves this rare feat. DIY in both aesthetic and narrative build, it suggests a labor of love. The premise is simple: a group of old college friends party at a big house the night before one of them gets married. Things seem sinister before anything bad has even happened. Or maybe the bad things already happened a long time ago.”
4. Rumours (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson; Oct. 18)
While Guy Maddin and Evan & Galen Johnson’s latest endeavor brings the most star power they’ve had in a film thus far (Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander among them), Rumours loses none of the trio’s singular sense of humor. Following political leaders who become stranded as the apocalypse may be underway, it’s a wacky yet grounded look at the crumbling veneer of power and influence when there’s no one left to lead. Luke Hicks said in his review, “If you do know the longtime Canadian experimentalist’s filmography, then you know nothing seems less likely than Rumours, his grand, Cannes competition-grade entrance into (supposedly) normcore feature filmmaking which, when discussing Maddin, encompasses everything inside and most things outside Schrader’s Tarkovsky Ring. Even less likely is the idea that Maddin would take on modern, real-world events, the film opening on the press podium of the G7 summit, albeit one led by slightly fictionalized, more blatantly vapid versions of the leaders they represent.”
3. Dahomey (Mati Diop; Oct. 25)
Following her stellar feature debut Atlantics, Mati Diop has finally returned with the Golden Bear-winning documentary Dahomey. As Leonardo Goi said in his Berlinale review, “Toward the discussion’s end, a young woman says it’s insulting that one should think 90 percent of Benin’s cultural heritage is still abroad. ‘Our immaterial heritage’––the traditions, stories, and customs that keep the country together––’are still here.’ It’s a lesson powering the whole film. As reimagined by Dahomey and the passionate voices echoing throughout, a nation’s heritage can’t be reduced to material riches. It’s a breathing, malleable realm, far harder to describe but no less concrete for that. ‘An object dies when the living glance trained upon it disappears.’ Dahomey begins where Statues Also Die ended, wondering what remains of our identities when the things those cling onto suddenly disappear––then resurface from oblivion. To this, Diop offers no clear answers. But in the heart-shaking passion of that university debate, in those students’ resolute commitment to reappropriate their own narratives, she finds something rarer still: a snapshot of a generation for whom this isn’t just the story of a restitution. It’s a resurrection.”
2. Anora (Sean Baker; Oct. 18)
Sean Baker’s radiant rom-com / rollicking thriller Anora is one of the most acclaimed films of the year for good reason. The Palme d’Or winner is finally arriving in theaters this month, giving audiences a chance to witness Mikey Madison’s captivating performance. Luke Hicks said in his review, “Anora is a devastating, gut-busting beauty––regular cinematographer Drew Daniels lending his brilliance to yet another Baker triumph––the kind that hurts your heart and holds you tight to recover at the same time, tears of laughter streaming down your face.”
1. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross; Oct. 25)
RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening was revelatory in capturing a community, yet the director has one-upped himself again with a narrative feature debut employing another artistic swing that, against all odds, feels like it is reinventing the language of cinematography, courtesy of Jomo Fray (All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt). In adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel about leaders of a Florida boy’s school inflicting violence and abuse, Ross puts the viewer in the eyes of those experiencing the trauma, creating a transportive, empathetic experience unlike anything else in the medium.
More Films to See
Food and Country (Oct. 2)
Intercepted (Oct. 4)
Daaaaaalí! (Oct. 4)
Daytime Revolution (Oct. 9)
We Live in Time (Oct. 11)
The Apprentice (Oct. 11)
Nocturnes (Oct. 18)
Exhibiting Forgiveness (Oct. 18)
Bookworm (Oct. 18)
Your Monster (Oct. 25)
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Oct. 25 on Netflix)
Conclave (Oct. 25)
The post 11 Films to See in October first appeared on The Film Stage.
