The box office's summer slump is over. As awards season inches closer, a slew of Oscar hopefuls are hitting theaters. This month's new releases include a hotly anticipated DC Comics sequel, a comedy about the real-life premiere of 'SNL' and a possible first Oscar win for four-time nominee Saoirse Ronan.
The eagerly-awaited sequel to Todd Phillips' 2019 "Joker" is yet another intimate look at the DC Comics supervillain. The film's subtitle, "folie à deux," is French for "madness of two" and "used to refer to shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder," said Screen Rant. The phrase encapsulates the relationship between Joker/Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix, reprising his Oscar-winning role) and his toxic lady love Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga). When they meet as patients at Arkham State Hospital — Arthur will soon be on trial for his past crimes as Joker — they become partners in crime. Promising more painted smiles and apparently several sequences set to song, the sequel could almost be called a musical, if it were not for the director's protests. "Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue," Phillips said to Variety. "It's just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead."
'The Outrun' (Oct. 4)
THE OUTRUN - Official Trailer - Starring Saoirse Ronan and Paapa Essiedu - YouTube
30-year-old Irish actor Saoirse Ronan has already been nominated for four Oscars, but many critics are betting her turn in "The Outrun" will earn Ronan her first win. Based on a best-selling addiction memoir by Amy Liptrot and directed by Nora Fingscheidt, "The Outrun" stars Ronan as an alcoholic named Rona. After attending rehab, she leaves London and returns home to Orkney, an isolated and starkly beautiful archipelago. "With its angular, fractured structure, extended poetic longueurs and preoccupation with birdwatching," the movie "feels like a refreshingly unconventional spin on a familiar theme," said The Guardian.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
"Saturday Night Live" premiered on October 11, 1975, and as fast-paced and off-the-cuff as modern day episodes of the late-night sketch comedy show might seem, the first run was even more so. Based on the true story of the chaotic 90 minutes preceding the first 'SNL' broadcast and directed by comedy veteran Jason Reitman ("Juno"), "Saturday Night" features real-life TV pioneers like Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Lorne Michaels all portrayed by younger actors. "It's a thriller-comedy, if you can call that a genre," Reitman said to Vanity Fair. "I always describe this movie as a shuttle launch, and the question was, 'Would they break orbit?'"
Indie darling Sean Baker ("The Florida Project") is back with an addition to his string of raw, sympathetic sex worker stories. "Anora" follows Ani (Mikey Madison), a stripper who begins a whirlwind romance with a young client named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a powerful Russian oligarch. Following their shotgun wedding, goons sent by Ivan's father show up to pry the couple apart. "'Anora' has next to nothing to do with romance, and almost everything to do with the kind of working-class heartache that a modern Hollywood studio would never even try to get right," said IndieWire. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, the first American film to do so since Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" In 2011.
'Hard Truths' (Oct. 18)
HARD TRUTHS - Official Trailer - Directed by Mike Leigh and starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste - YouTube
Acclaimed English theater-director-turned-filmmaker Mike Leigh is known for making tough little films about working class people that employ lots of improv and allow actors to invent their own characters. The star of Leigh's "Secrets & Lies" (1996), Marianne Jean-Baptiste, is his muse once more in "Hard Truths," this time playing a misanthrope named Pansy who cannot seem to get along with anyone. "Leigh's films can feel shaggy and unstructured on first viewing, and 'Hard Truths' is no different," said Variety. "But there's profound poetry in every scene."
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
register for free
Already have an account? Sign in
Subscribe to The Week
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Subscribe & Save
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions. Create an accountwith the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Anya Jaremko-Greenwold has worked as a story editor at The Week since 2024. She previously worked at FLOOD Magazine, Woman's World, First for Women, DGO Magazine and BOMB Magazine. Anya's culture writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Jezebel, Vice and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.
The fishy diplomacy causing tensions between Bangladesh and India
Today's political cartoons - October 6, 2024
5 fact-checked cartoons about the VP debate
