What to watch this fall: NPR

Having stockpiled films for more than 16 months, Hollywood is practically brimming with prestigious attractions ready for premieres.

Summer popcorn pictures have warmed up to the pump, as nearly 90% of North American movie theaters have opened. Now, with so many audiences impregnated—particularly older audiences who tend to patronize the genre of films that open in the fall—the influx is finally back to something approaching normal.

Yes, things are still in flux, and we have to do it Wait a little longer for some other highly anticipated movies. But with Hollywood in the enviable position of keeping its biggest guns, fall appears to be filled with potential award contenders (Dear Evan Hansen,And Gucci House), the amazing Indies (passAnd language lessons), and clearly satisfy the masses (No time to die) He would have broken the blocks in the middle of summer.

With the caveat that some of those release dates could still be changed, here’s some crystal ball gazing at what looks most promising.

Dear Evan Hansen,

September 24 in theaters

The 2015 Tony Award-winning musical hits theaters two months before it returns to Broadway, and the film version boasts original star Ben Platt reprising his performance as a socially anxious teen tasked by his therapist to write letters to himself. When a character goes astray, Hansen falls into a web of well-meaning lies that are out of his control.

Many Saints in Newark

October 1 in theaters and on HBO Max

prequel to sopranos, With James Gandolfini’s son Michael portraying Tony Soprano as a high school student. Alessandro Nivola plays his uncle, Dicky Moltisanti, and father of Christopher Multisanti (played by Michael Imperioli in the TV series). It should attract a real crowd of soprano fans.

The hardest they fell

October 6 in theaters

About 25% of the cowboys were black, but there were a few Westerns who remotely looked like the fiery revenge story director James Samuel cooked up, with Idris Elba, Regina King, Zazie Beetz, Jonathan Majors, Delroy Lindo, and Lakeith Stanfield.

No time to die

October 8 in theaters

Daniel Craig’s final crack at 007 was among the first films to have its opening delayed due to the pandemic. It was originally scheduled to open in April last year, then in April this year, and now it’s finally coming to a date that looks set to last. Director Kari Joji Fukunaga (Monsters without a nation) will affect him facing the demonic Rami Malek (just check the name) Lyutsifer Safin.

The last duel

October 15 in theaters

One of two plots from Ridley Scott’s tenure this fall to star Adam Driver, this 14th-century saga finds Driver accused of raping Matt Damon’s wife, leaving the husband with only one choice – a duel to the death. Conceived by Damon and Ben Affleck (who plays the Count), and co-written by Nicole Holofcener, the story is the story of the last duel approved by France’s royal family.

Dune

October 22 in theaters and live on HBO Max

Timothée Chalamet is King Apprentice Paul Atreides in Denis Villanov’s film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel (a bestseller in the history of science fiction). The spice trade is booming, the planet Arrakis is a death trap, and supporting actors include Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Charlotte Rampling and Javier Bardem. No wonder there is talk of a whole world of Denvers coming up.

French Dispatch

October 22 in theaters

Wes Anderson’s Tribute to Old School Journalism Although set in a French town among American expatriate writers, it draws its inspiration from the rare magazine culture of New Yorker. Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand and Owen Wilson are ready to help and abet Anderson’s distinctive witch’s weirdness.

tick tick boom

November 12 in theaters and November 19 on Netflix

A musical autobiography written by Jonathan Larson before he wrote Leasing It is the composition that Lin-Manuel Miranda chose for the first time to direct. The Hamilton The creator has often cited Larson as his inspiration. He was cast as Andrew Garfield as Larson, and Bradley Whitford as Stephen Sondheim (who was Larson’s inspiration). Quite proportions.

King Richard

November 19 In theaters and on HBO Max

Will Smith is Richard Williams, a stubborn father who is convinced, despite what everyone constantly tells him, that his daughters would be great at tennis. their names? Venus and Serena.

Other movies to watch

language lessons (September 10) – Covid restrictions have turned into an asset in a bittersweet clever script starring Natalie Morales as a Spanish teacher and Marc Duplass as her reluctant student.

card counter (September 10) – Director Paul Schrader’s revenge thriller stars Oscar Isaac as a poker player and Tiffany Haddish as his betting client.

macho cry (September 17) – Clint Eastwood and his co-stars direct in The New West to bring a baby back to life again about a man who realizes that a macho isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.

the duke (September 17) – Jim Broadbent plays a retiree who swiped a painting from London’s National Gallery in the 1960s and became a folk hero when he offered to return it if the government invested in better healthcare.

Tami Faye eyes (September 17) – With Jessica Chastain as TV advocate, and Andrew Garfield as her husband and fellow evangelist Jim Packer.

old henry (October 1) – Tim Blake Nelson stars in Patsy Ponseroli’s Western “The Rising” about a farmer whose past as a gunslinger unfolds when his son finds a stranger with a bullet in his gut.

Bergmann Island (October 18) — A married couple stays at the house where Ingmar Bergman wrote many of his classics — Imagine Sleeping in Bed from Scenes from a Marriage — into a movie that verifies the name of most of his films.

pass (October 27) – Rebecca Hall’s black and white adaptation of Nella Larsen’s novel about 20s Harlem residents passing for whites. It stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

eternity (November 5) – Marvel superheroes have been waiting for perverts for 7,000 years. Now they have seven days to stop them (time management is clearly not their forte).

Spencer (November 5) – Kristen Stewart plays Princess Diana…’ said Nouf.

Belfast (November 12) – Kenneth Branagh has called this tale of a young working-class Irish boy in the troubled 1960s his most personal movie.

Gucci House (November 24) – Starring as Adam Driver, Ridley Scott directed the true story of the fall. Driver plays the fashion designer whose wife Patrizia (Lady Gaga) was murdered.

Charm (November 24) — Disney’s animated story of Mirabel, the only untalented member of a family with magical powers, has earned a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda.