Yesterday, we highlighted nine comedies, musicals, and animated movies to keep in your rear view as we plunge into the best time of the year for movies. Now it's time to shed light on dramas -- you do want some drama, yes, yes, yes, yes drama.
We've narrowed it down to five films that we believe will have the best chance to make it all the way to the Kodak Theater come award season next year.
See also: Fall Movie Preview: Nine Best Comedies, Musicals, and Animated Flicks
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them, September 12
With a title like The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, there's no way it wouldn't be on our radar. The film was actually split into two parts -- The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her -- in which each piece is told from the perspective of the male and female. Them is the combination of the two for your complete viewing pleasure. The always-glowing Jessica Chastain and devilishly handsome James McAvoy star as two lovers who fall in love, grow up, and fall out of love. It's a raw love story with more elements of reality than fanciful narrative. Him and Her will be released separately in select art house theaters on October 10.
The Drop, September 12
The Drop is yet another fall flick that was adapted from a novel. Whereas Nicholas Sparks poops out romance stories, Dennis Lehane composes dark, thoughtful, and sometimes thought-bending, novels like Mystic River, Shutter Island, and Gone Baby Gone. This time around, Lehane adapted his own short story, "Animal Rescue," into the screenplay for The Drop, starring Tom Hardy and a posthumous James Gandolfini. Your typical tale about a guy who owns a bar but owes some money to some people and when those people come to collect bullets start flying and blood flows. It's a story about crime, corruption, love, and, above all, family.
The Zero Theorem, September 26
Big heads do equal big brains, as Christoph Waltz proves in The Zero Theorem. It's eons into the future and Qohen Leth (Waltz) is a brilliant hacker who gets hired to work on the zero theorem. What he keeps discovering is how "everything adds up to nothing," so what's the point? The point here is that Waltz is always an actor that delivers powerful performances and Terry Gilliam directs the shit out of films. The Zero Theorem will be one of those movies that leave you scratching your head and feeling significantly smaller when you walk out of theater. But that feeling will all be worth it.
Fury, October 17
Brad Pitt apparently likes his history; wartime history, to be exact. In Fury, Pitt commands a five-man tank team as they embark on a mission to cross enemy lines and attack Nazi Germany in 1945. The film's slogan is "War never ends quietly" and a picturesque Pitt hangs his heavy head against a metal rail. The film was penned and directed by David Ayer, who is known for such action flicks as Training Day, The Fast and the Furious, and the most recent Schwarzeneger action, Sabotage .
Birdman, October 17
Michael Keaton often doesn't get enough credit for his brilliance, but we have a feeling that's all going to change after Birdman. In this drama, he plays an out-of-work actor who still lives in the past and longs for the glory days of when he played Birdman in a successful movie series. His adult life is a bit of mess and he doesn't really get along with his daughter (played by another brilliant actor, Emma Stone). Things start to turn around for Keaton's character, Riggan Thomson, when he decides to put on a Broadway show based on his famous persona and ambitiously writes the script, directs himself, and stars in his own adaptation. He does all of this while he battles his inner demons, which happen to have the deep, raspy voice of Birdman.
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