VIDEO: The trailer for Milk
NOVEMBER
Well, the election is over — thank goodness! Instead of campaign ads on TV, we can look forward to commercials for Marc Forster’s 007 film QUANTUM OF SOLACE (November 7), which takes up the Bond saga moments after where 2006’s Casino Royale left off. Daniel Craig is back as James Bond, and out for revenge after his betrayal by Vesper Lynd; Mathieu Amalric is the bad guy; Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko are the potential Bond Girls.
Bond films tend to climax in cataclysms, but if Quantum doesn’t follow suit, there’s always Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning THE ROAD (November 14). It’s been adapted for the screen by John Hillcoat (The Proposition); Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, and Guy Pearce are among the survivors of a future apocalypse.
Sometimes hard times can turn people into ROLE MODELS (November 14), but I doubt that’s the case in this raunchy comedy about two energy-drink salesman who get in trouble and must do community service as youth mentors. David Wain (The Ten) writes and directs; co-writer Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star. A better role model might be the title indigent of THE SOLOIST (November 21), a violin prodigy played by Jamie Foxx discovered on the streets by a journalist played by Robert Downey Jr. in what is represented as a true story. Joe Wright (Atonement) directs.
Expect more bad behavior in TWILIGHT (November 21), an adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s popular young-adult vampire novel starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison. And in Baz Luhrmann’s AUSTRALIA (November 26), which takes place on the eve of World War II as an aristocratic British woman (Nicole Kidman) drives a herd of cattle across the Outback to save her ranch. On the way she observes the Japanese bombing of Darwin. Damn him and his theory of evolution! Hugh Jackman also stars; does that mean he’s Darwin? More real-life tragedy darkens MILK (November 26), Gus Van Sant’s film about the 1978 assassination of the openly gay San Francisco politician of the title; he’s played by Sean Penn, with Josh Brolin as assassin Dan White and James Franco as Milk’s lover.
But just when you thought there was nothing to be thankful for, Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, and Jon Favreau star in the comedy FOUR CHRISTMASES (November 26). Seth Gordon (The King of Kong) directs, and I don’t care what it’s about as long as it makes us laugh again.
After the Phoenix went to press, Summit Entertainment, the distributors of The Brothers Bloom, announced that the opening date for that film has been moved to January 16, 2009.
