Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of Fall 2016

The summer season officially concluded this past weekend with an unusual amount of fanfare as Fede Alvarez's horror/thriller Don't Breathe received stellar reviews and made $26.1 million in its first three days of release, which was a record-high August opener for Sony's Screen Gems label. The surprise success of Don't Breathe marked a rare triumph in what was one of the most bitched-about and bomb-filled summer movie slates in recent memory. A majority of the sequels on the slate grossed merely a fraction of what the original did (Alice Through the Looking Glass, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows) while other tentpole titles were widely trashed by audiences and critics alike (Suicide Squad, Independence Day: Resurgence, Ice Age: Collision Course), regardless of box success.Fall, with its onslaught of awards-bait and highly-anticipated reboots, spin-offs and sequels, represents a much-needed clean slate for the industry as the major studios (save for Disney, who escaped this nighmarish summer with a pair of universally-beloved, smash hits in Finding Dory and Captain America: Civil War) recoup the financial damage and tidal waves of critical/audience scorn they've taken over the past four months.
 
I'm in the complete opposite camp as the studios and a large number of moviegoers as I was highly satisfied with this summer's offerings on the whole and am currently looking at the fall slate with a lot of indifference outside of a dozen or so titles. Hopefully September-December will produce some surprises because as of right now, the prospects for the final stretch of 2016 in film is murky at best and depressing at worst. Without any further aimless rambling, here are the 10 films I'm most excited to see this fall.

10.Patriots Day (12/21): As someone who is from the Boston-area, Patriots Day-the dramatization of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing-is a film that hits very close to home. I'm very interested to see what angle director Peter Berg (Lone Survivor, Friday Night Lights) takes in telling this very complex story and if the cast led by Mark Whalberg, John Goodman and J.K. Simmons can accurately capture the relentless spirit and bravery of the key players that were involved with the bombing itself as well as the harrowing aftermath.

9.Nocturnal Animals (11/11): Nocturnal Animals is a film that I don't know much about as there is no trailer out right now and the plot details that are available are pretty vague. However, the prospect of seeing a film features two of my favorite actors (Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams) in the lead roles makes me absolutely giddy.

8.The Birth of a Nation (10/7): While the saga surrounding writer/director/star Nate Parker's sexual assault case from 1999 is awful and a completely valid reason to not support his work, I'm not going to let it effect my anticipation level for The Birth of a Nation. Nat Turner is one of the most fascinating figures in all of American history and if his story is told correctly, it has the potential to be the potent, no-holds-barred look at the atrocities of slavery that Hollywood has needed to release for quite some time.
 

7.Arrival (11/11): The trailer wasn't as impressive I had hoped it would be given its unique concept (a linguist is brought in by the United States military to try and communicate with aliens that have just landed on Earth), but the pairing of elite actors in Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker with a director in Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) that's currently on a hot streak is more than enough to get me in the theater opening weekend.

6.Bleed for This (11/4): Has Hollywood put out an oddly high number of boxing films over the past couple of yes? Yes. Is that fact going to stop me from getting excited about Bleed for This? Absolutely not. With an unbelievable, fact-based story to work with and an incredible actor in Miles Teller in the lead role, Bleed for This could very well end up being the undisputed champion among the sea of recently-released boxing films.
  

5.Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16): The only reason this isn't higher is because I don't like director Gareth Edwards's past work and I wouldn't be shocked if he found a way to botch this. Both trailers that have been released so far have been excellent, the cast is great and as a longtime Star Wars fan, it should be cool to see a film dedicated to the origins of the Rebel Alliance.

4.Snowden (9/16): Co-writer/director Oliver Stone's inconsistent track record and the film's multiple release date shifts (it was originally supposed to be released on Christmas Day last year) makes be a bit nervous about its quality, but Edward Snowden's fascinating backstory and the insane amount of talent in this ensemble cast gives me faith that this will be one of Stone's hits on the dartboard.

3.Passengers (12/23): Passengers boasts an original concept, two of the most likable, talented actors on the planet right now in Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in the leading roles and a writer/director pairing (Jon Spaihts and Morten Tyldum) with a solid track record of producing quality films. In other words, I'm sold.
 

2.The Girl on the Train (10/7): The novel version of The Girl on the Train has been widely (and favorably) compared to Gone Girl. As Gone Girl was my favorite film of 2014, that fact alone has sold me on seeing The Girl on the Train. While it would be unfair to expect it to match the quality of David Fincher and Gillian Flynn's film, the excellent trailers and strong cast including Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux and Allison Janney certainly make it seem like a real possibility.

1.The Magnificent Seven (9/23): Antonie Fuqua's (Training Day, Southpaw) reboot of The Magnificent Seven looks like the type of grand-scale, ultra-fun affair the western genre hasn't seen since the Coen Brothers' True Grit reboot back in 2010. Throw in an amazing ensemble cast headlined by the always great Denzel Washington and a script co-written by True Detective showrunner Nic Pizzolatto and veteran action movie scribe Richard Wenk (The Expendables 2, The Mechanic), and you have a recipe for this fall's most promising film.   

Films I'm also interested in:

The Light Between Oceans (9/2)

Morgan (9/2)

Yoga Hosers (9/2)

Sully (9/9)

Blair Witch (9/16)

Storks (9/23)
Goat (9/23)

Deepwater Horizon (9/30)

Masterminds (9/30)
The Greasy Strangler (10/7)

The Accountant (10/14)

Kevin Hart: What Now? (10/14)

A Monster Calls (10/21)

American Pastoral (10/21)

In a Valley of Violence (10/21)

Keeping Up with the Joneses (10/21)

Doctor Strange (11/4)

Hacksaw Ridge (11/4)

Loving (11/4)

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (11/11)

The Edge of Seventeen (11/18)

Manchester by the Sea (11/18)

Allied (11/23)

Bad Santa 2 (11/23)

Rules Don't Apply (11/23)

La La Land (12/2)

Office Christmas Party (12/9)

Fences (12/16)

The Founder (12/16)

Gold (12/25)

Why Him? (12/25)