The 20 movies we’re most excited about this fall
As we head into fall’s smart season, things are noticeably quieter: a sad circumstance of the actors’ strike. But there’s a kind of unspoken grandeur to the slate of movies in store, even if the stars and writers can’t promote it. Summation works from heavy hitters like Martin Scorsese and Hayao Miyazaki jockey with titles from well-heeled upstarts like Sofia Coppola and Yorgos Lanthimos.
It will be a season to remember, with twice the Michael Fassbender our doctors recommend. Don’t expect another “Barbenheimer,” just plenty of the films that sustain us through the leaner months. Here, our film writers offer their personal picks.
‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ (Sept. 20; on Netflix Sept. 27)
So much is usually made of Wes Anderson’s hyper-elaborate visual style as to almost obscure the fact that his approach to story structure — the anthological magazine-issue format of “The French Dispatch,” the nesting of narratives within narratives in “Asteroid City” — has become nearly as dizzying. All of which generates curiosity and raises expectations for this short adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1977 short-story collection, with a cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. It surely doesn’t hurt that Anderson’s previous Dahl adaptation, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” is one of his best-loved movies. Or that “Henry Sugar” — due to be released by Netflix, which now owns the Roald Dahl Story Company — runs a mere 37 minutes, shorter than many TV episodes, and is thus unlikely to overstay its welcome. — Justin Chang
‘Expend4bles’ (Sept. 22)
In the near-decade that humanity and cinema have gone without a new “Expendables” movie, conversations around masculinity have evolved, which should make things interesting when “The Family Stallone” reality TV patriarch Sylvester Stallone returns in the R-rated fourth entry in Lionsgate’s brawny action franchise. Jason Statham steps up to lead the titular band of alpha male mercenaries recruited from your fave ’80s and ’90s
