Daily Monotony's Fall/Winter Picks
It’s fall again, and besides getting wetter and colder here in Seattle and gradually less sweltering in College Station, this season's supply of oscar-bait critic tempters and AAA game contenders will soon be dropping a like a multicolored pile of maple leaves on to your once well manicured yard. But which leaves do you press beneath clear plastic in your autumnal scrapbook and which do you hastily blow into your neighbor’s driveway? Never fear, here’s our pick of the fall fare worthy of a little extra preparatory pocket padding:
DUSTIN’s five unbe-leaf-ably exciting fall pics:
Changeling – Can Jolie’s post-partem performance propel this period piece? A darling on the indie circuit, this Eastwood-helmed flick is full of the proper pedigree, but enough grab Oscar gold?
Synechdoche, New York – Charlie Kaufman, known for his surrealistic and quirky dramas like “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” and "Being John Malkovich", plays up the existential vibe with Philip Seymour Hoffman at the reigns. Approach this one with caution as this film is likely to please only the worst cases of cinemaddiction.
RockNRolla – Remember that movie Snatch? Same dude. But will Ritchie’s new gangster flick have a bad case of Revolver-itis, or will it be the new most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub?
The Brothers Bloom – Adrien Brody and Mark Rufallo star in what looks to be a spiritual successor to Ocean’s Eleven that doesn’t suck. Let’s just hope director Rian Johnson manages keep to the con on the screen and out of the ticket price.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – It’s the Fitzgerald book you didn’t read in high school, but with Pitt and Blanchett costarring in this story of the incredible backward aging man, you’ll be happy that you joined the rest of us beating on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Now if I could only get that Camille Saint-Saëns out of my head.
But where’s Quantum of Solace, Max Payne, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Soloist, Milk, et al? You already knew about those…right? Right!?!
DUSTIN’s five paycheck robbing must plays:
Dead Space – Winner of the E3 critics choice award, this spacey third person survival shooter promises to mix an ample dose of fright with a suitable chunk of fight, and with a feature called “strategic dismemberment,” how can you not want to play this?
Little Big Planet – Winner of the “most girlish giggles from nerdy guys at PAX” award, this ragdoll platformer is sopping with charm. Add on the what will probably be the end-all of level editors, and this might actually be the first reason to buy a PS3 other than for “teh blurayz”.
Fable 2 – Peter Molyneux is make or break with this puppy (pun intended), but with this game’s promise of mixing fantasy RPG with online coop and a playful pooch sidekick, he may actually forgo the usual post-release apology.
Mirror’s Edge – People seem to finally be coming around to this first person parkour sim. Everyone’s saying this is a winner, but will that little dot in the center of screen keep your from losing your lunch over this title?
Fallout 3 – Having only played ten minutes of it at PAX, I feel confident in staking my reputation as a reviewer in saying GAME OF THE YEAR. That’s going to come back to bite me…isn’t it?
Also, be sure to look out for Gears of Wars 2, Left 4 Dead, Red Alert 3, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Tom Clancy’s End War, and I'm broke...
SCOTT'S TAKE: Mr. Anglin is rightly savvy, but at least a few distinct nuggets of cinematic and gamey goodness escaped his notice. My palate is also trends toward the more complicated and more flawed pieces of art that get offered up at this time of year. Anything harder to swallow is easier to watch. I might phrase my picks like this:
- Guerilla (working title was Che) – Steven Soderberg's complex and lengthy biopic of the revolutionary Argentine, this title promises to be harder to digest than the bezoar on the last episode of House. And I consider that a very good thing.
- W – The cloud of controversy surrounding this pic is thicker than original printings of Karl Rove's masterplans. Oliver Stone, who is furiously filling his spare time with protestations of "completely apolitical" motivation, bumped the release date up to 17 Oct, to precede the '08 election. Business savvy or politico genius? Probably both.
- Milk – This at least got a mention from Dustin. This biopic of the first openly gay politician is almost guaranteed a near-perfect presentation by openly gay director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester), whose cinematic portfolio shows an understanding of human relations by any creed.
- Defiance – Dropping at the last possible moment of Oscar cycle eligibility, this gritty flix looks like Atonement meets Private Ryan meets Fiddler on the Roof. But Daniel Craig already proved he can be an angry Jew with a gun in Munich. Now he's got an even cooler accent. So this promises to be good.
- Rachel Getting Married – This tale of the prodigal-daughter-returns is the Juno/Little Miss Sunshine pedigree for the year. Who doesn’t like the little indie films that could? Furthermore, who doesn’t like Anne Hathaway?
- Dustin already promo'ed Synchedoche, New York and RockNRolla, which are also high on my list of coolness.
I profess no especial insight into games, but on cursory inspection, these jumped to mind:
- Gears of War 2 – It’s been at least a week since I last stomped on a grub my comrade failed to chainsawgunify. This title should fully remedy that situation for a while.
- Guitar Hero World Tour – You’ve already been playing Rock Band 2 for a few weeks, so you’ll want a new set of songs. Go spend another $200.