September film preview: Fall into back-to-school entertainment with Beetlejuice and Megalopolis

Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, and Willem Dafoe

Director: Tim Burton

While we keep the dream of Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian alive, Tim Burton returns to the ghost with the most in the director’s first sequel since  Batman Returns. Since directing Wednesday, Burton seems more energized, so he is bringing some Addamses with him for good luck. Written by  Wednesday scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and starring Jenna Ortega,  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice comes fully equipped with legacy necessities. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara all reprise their roles from the original as Burton does some unsolicited exposition regarding all the small details that made the original such a classic. Considering one of the best things about Beetlejuice is how sparingly the character appears, it’s hard to see how a movie about Beetlejuice in the afterlife will work. We hope for the best but fear the worst.

Cast: Brandy, Kathryn Hunter, and Andrew Burnap

Directors: The Eggers Brothers

Robert Eggers isn’t the only Eggers who can pick up a camera and film some truly fucked up shit. Max, who co-wrote The Lighthouse with Robert, and Sam, who directed the Olympia Dukakis documentary Olympia, make their A24 debut with The Front Room. In something of a cross between Get Out and Monster In Law, Brandy (yes, that Brandy) plays an expecting mother who has the unfortunate responsibility of housing her recently widowed mother-in-law (a Southern-fried Kathryn Hunter). As expected, she’s a raving racist who believes the spirit of Jesus Christ inhabits her body at night. It’s a hell of a premise with potential, but what exactly is happening in that Eggers household?

Cast: Juliette Gariépy, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Elisabeth Locas, and Laurie Babin

Director: Pascal Plante

In an age where yesterday’s creepypasta is today’s Slender Man, Red Rooms is a French Canadian psychological thriller about the Dark Web’s most depraved corner. Following a woman obsessed with a high-profile murder case, the film looks at the relationship between true crime fandom and the killers whose victims make up their entertainment. The woman spends days in the courtroom watching the killer, making friends with fellow obsessives, and fixating on the missing piece of evidence: A video of a 13-year-old girl’s murder. This one looks sufficiently creepy, scratching that Fincher itch with a movie that looks like Zodiac meets Anatomy Of A Fall.

Cast: Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, and Emory Cohen

Director: Jeremy Saulnier

It’s been a while since we saw a new film by Jeremy Saulnier. His last, Hold The Dark, is a quiet, snowy thriller that didn’t hit with the same gut-wrenching immediacy as his masterpiece Green Room. Returning to Netflix, Saulnier looks to be back in his siege-thriller special place with the civil forfeiture fight to the death America needs right now. Rebel Ridge stars Aaron “Mid-Sized Sedan” Pierre as a Marine karate expert going Rambo on a corrupt small-town sheriff’s department and Don Johnson as Chief Sandy Burnne, who doesn’t know what he’s up against. It’s time for your yearly Netflix subscription, churners, because this one looks good.

Cast: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough, and Scoot McNairy

Director: James Watkins

Two years after the original scared the silence out of Shudder subscribers, the English-language remake of Speak No Evil is finally here. In an ever-so-small but exciting Halt And Catch Fire reunion, Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy play a vacationing family who gets hooked up with a sadistic weirdo who’s always on the verge of tears named Paddy (James McAvoy). He has a son who opens his mouth really wide but doesn’t have a tongue. It’s a whole thing. We’ll be in good shape if the movie is half as creepy as the trailer. Or terrible shape, depending on how you deal with horror movies.

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm

Director: Josh Cooley

Bringing the Mutant Mayhem to the Autobots, Transformers One freshens up the robots-in-disguise series with humor and inventive animation. Taking some cues from Spider-Verse, the new Transformers film looks fun and original, which is no easy feat for a movie series well past its prime. With Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry bickering back and forth like the Lockhorns, the pair brings something we’ve long missed from Optimus Prime and Megatron: A loving rivalry. Maybe a return to animation is what the Transformers needed all along.

Cast: Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Pom Klementieff, and Ben Kingsley

Director: J. J. Perry

Dave Bautista stars in his very own John Wick. In The Killer’s Game, Bautista plays John Flood, a terminally ill hitman who puts out a hit on himself as a form of assisted suicide. But when the assassins target his ex-girlfriend, well, let the Killer’s Game begin. The movie looks like an archetypal Lionsgate action movie filled with blood, biceps, and incredible stunts holding together an implausible but delightfully ludicrous story. How else are we to describe a film starring Bautista, Terry Crews, and Scott Adkins?

Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan

Director: Jon Watts

You’d be forgiven for confusing Wolfs with fellow Apple TV+ Oceans reunion The Instigators. That’s the other one, with Casey Affleck and Matt Damon. Here, movie best friends George Clooney and Brad Pitt reunite for another crime caper in Wolfs. In his first directing gig since Spider-Man: No Way Home, Jon Watts brings some of that special effects wizardry to an action comedy already bursting with movie star charisma. Clooney and Pitt play the best and second-best fixers in town and arrive to clean up a body simultaneously, only to learn they’re expected to work together. The two have great chemistry, and we’d do just about anything to get those Oceans vibes in theaters again. But this landing on Apple TV+ drags our excitement down a bit. Based on the trailer, this one smells a little overseasoned and underdone.

Cast: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid

Director: Coralie Fargeat

In The Substance, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aerobics star having the unfortunate experience of turning 50. Fired because, well, 50, she starts taking an experimental new drug that allows her to turn into Margaret Qualley. Needless to say, the drug also has a few side effects, opening the door to the horror part of “body horror.” Sparkle’s reality starts slipping into a psychedelic nightmare that harbors Dennis Quaid eating some really greasy shrimp. Whatever The Substance is, we want it.

Cast: Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B. Jenkins, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Christin Park, and Stephanie Lavigne

Director: Alexandre Aja

Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go stars Halle Berry as a mother who lives in a cabin in the woods at the end of the world. She and her family are forbidden from leaving the house unless tied to it via a very long rope. From the outset, Never Let Go seems like A Quiet Place with an extra side of Bird Box. Thankfully, it does look like there are actual monsters in those woods, and the whole thing isn’t just some ghost story designed to keep her kids controlled.

Cast: Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, Noémie Merlant, Josh O’Connor, and Alexander Skarsgård

Director: Ellen Kuras

War photography is having the best year ever. A biopic about the legendary war photographer, Lee stars Kate Winslet as Lee Miller. If that name rings a bell, it’s because Cailee Spaney was constantly dropping it in Civil War. This is the real story as Lee tracks Miller’s career, going from model to photographer and shooting World War II for Vogue. The movie looks like standard WWII biopic stuff, but with a good cast led by Winslet, we expect to see some strong performances, filling out a subject that deserves a movie.

Cast: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D. B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

At long last, Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project will be a watchable movie. Based on early reviews and that trailer, Megalopolis delivers on the pure gonzo gusto of its creator, just as we hoped. But while he invited half of Hollywood to the party, Coppola and just about any idea he dreams up are the stars of this show. The 85-year-old director has made a career out of surprising people with new and challenging works that just as quickly bankrupt studios. This time, he’s betting on himself, selling his winery to make the movie possible. The least we can do is see the thing.

Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, and Catherine O’Hara

Director: Chris Sanders

Of all the movies coming out this month, The Wild Robot is the only one directly targeting the tear ducts. Lupita Nyong’o voices the titular robot in a new film from How To Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch director Chris Sanders. Sanders has found the exact midpoint between those movies with Wild Robot, which follows a shipwrecked automaton learning to care for a baby gosling on an abandoned planet. The robot identifies with the animals and fights its robot brethren to stay. God damn that robot. This movie is going to destroy us.