Fall Preview 2002:Gangs and Towers

Sasha Stone
Mirror film critic

   Now that the preteens have gone back to school, adults and other serious filmgoers ready themselves for the more contemplative season that ultimately will birth the Oscar contenders. That’s the theory, anyway.
   There are still enough young’ns out there to easily give Reese Witherspoon’s “Sweet Home Alabama” the highest September opening and the highest romantic comedy opening ever. The teens are still buying tickets and will continue to buy tickets in the coming months, particularly at Christmas-time.
   Nonetheless, there are a few highly anticipated films still to be released for the fall season — films that feature grand musical numbers, hobbits, and the Holocaust, with themes of loneliness, isolation, and even crumbling celebrity.
   It’s hard to imagine that studios can pack so many movies into a three-month period. And we moviegoers know that of those hundreds of films there will probably be five to ten keepers. As usual, the most anticipated films are crammed into Christmas week – because that’s when everyone is out spending money – but it is also the last week to qualify for the Academy Awards.
   The Christmas season is chock full of Big Movies that will duke it out come March for Best Picture. There are three that are ready-made Best Picture nominees, and they are led by Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited “Gangs of New York,” which will finally see theaters on Christmas Day — one year after its original release date. “Gangs” will compete with Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can.” Both films star box office king, Leonardo DiCaprio, though one suspects the Spielberg film will draw more teenyboppers than the Scorsese epic. The third major contender is Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” the follow-up to his wildly successful “Fellowship of the Ring” from last year. “Two Towers” is already so popular, the online premiere of its theatrical trailer was the biggest movie news on the web in weeks.
   The other Big Oscar Movies will be given limited release, for the lucky few who live in the Los Angeles and New York area – films like Miramax’s sultry musical, “Chicago,” which springs off the success of “Moulin Rouge,” and Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist,” which is supposed to be the director’s most personal film in years, maybe of his entire career.
   “The Hours” is another film that will be given a qualifying run on December 27, and appears to have Oscar written all over it – Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris (sure to gain a nod, perhaps even a win for his portrayal of an AIDS patient) and Julianne Moore. Virginia Woolf is the subject at hand as the story tells how the author impacts the lives of different women. “The Hours,” directed by Stephen Daldry, was unexpectedly pulled from competition at the Venice Film Fest earlier this year, causing some to speculate that there was trouble with the film. Consequently, its buzz had dampened somewhat.
   There are also several hotly buzzed documentaries coming out in the next few months, though none will likely see the light of Oscar, as the Academy’s documentary branch seems eternally dead set against the popular docs (like “Hoop Dreams,” and “Startup.com.”) Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine,” which takes on the powerful gun lobby and was the first doc in decades to participate as an “Official Selection” at Cannes will have its theatrical release October 11, and “Lost in La Mancha,” an “un-making of” documentary will be released some time this year or early 2003.
   October 11 is also crowded with Fall releases, like the Oprah book club favorite, “White Oleander,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger and Robin Wright Penn; and P.T. Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love,” which stars Adam Sandler in his first “serious” role.
   Madonna and Guy Ritchie are said to be releasing “Swept Away” that week, even though test screenings produced inappropriate laughter, and rumors of straight-to-video abound. Sadly, Madonna cannot catch a break when it comes to movies. Either she’s not as smart as she seems to be and can’t tell a good script from a bad one, or she just has really bad luck when it comes to choosing projects. (It could also be that she can’t act…)
   October 18 begins the biopics – starting with Paul Schrader’s very dark “Auto Focus,” about the sordid double life of “Hogan’s Heroes” star Bob Crane, and then a week later, “Frida,” with Salma Hayek growing a third eyebrow to play the complex Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Late December takes on “Antwone Fisher,” the directorial debut of Denzel Washington, and “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” about “The Gong Show” host Chuck Barris — George Clooney’s directorial debut.
   No doubt many will shell out hard earned dough to see “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” (Nov. 15), “Die Another Day,” the latest Bond pic (Nov. 22) and the Disney animated adventure, “Treasure Planet,” (Nov. 27).
   There are several films featuring what are supposed to be tour de force performances, like Julianne Moore in “Far From Heaven” (Nov. 8), Kevin Kline in “The Emperor’s Club,” Michael Caine in “The Quiet American,” (both on Nov. 22), Nicolas Cage in “Adaptation” (Dec. 6), and Jack Nicholson in “About Schmidt” (Dec. 13).
   This will likely be the last season of Oscar movies packed into the last three months of the year, since the Academy has decided to push the Oscars up a month in 2004, which will likely push Oscar season to late Summer.
   This year, the focus seems closely trained on how well Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” and Jackson’s “Two Towers” will fare. Both have something to prove, since many are wondering whether or not Jackson’s film can top his success last year, and for Scorsese, the stakes are high since “Gang” has been riddled with bad press — and talk of in-fighting and reshoots.
   Scorsese is the arguably the best American director working today and the Academy has yet to honor him with a statue. If “Gangs” lives up to the hype, he could be looking at recognition, finally, albeit by a peer group that seems to have continually missed the boat when it comes to honoring cinema’s best and most lasting directors. But that’s a different topic for a different day.
   For more on the 2002 Oscar race, visit Sasha Stone’s website: www.oscarwatch.com.