Beyond Iraq, Dark Fictions Prevail

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Even beyond the Iraq titles, this autumn is stuffed with stories of man’s sinister side — a mix that may make this fall one of Hollywood’s darkest seasons to date. Two of the year’s most anticipated films, the Ridley Scott-directed Denzel Washington vehicle “American Gangster” (November 2) and the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” both spotlight violent men in violent worlds. The former tells the story of a heroin kingpin in 1970s Harlem who smuggles drugs inside the coffins of Vietnam War corpses; the latter evokes the desolation of rural West Texas as a terrified stranger tries to make off with the loot following a botched robbery.

Meanwhile, the new Paul Thomas Anderson film, “There Will Be Blood” (December 26), stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a ruthless Texas prospector in the earliest days of the 20th century’s oil rush. And forget “Chicago” or “Dreamgirls” — this autumn’s big musical is helmed by Tim Burton, who, moving beyond Chistmas nightmares and chocolate factories, will team up with Johnny Depp to tackle “Sweeney Todd.”

Revenge is the name of the game in both “Reservation Road” (October 19), about a mourning father (Joaquin Phoenix) hunting down the hit-and-run driver (Mark Ruffalo) who killed his child, and “Gone Baby Gone” (October 19), Ben Affleck’s directorial debut about a private investigator’s (Casey Affleck) race to beat the cops in locating an abducted child. The release as been delayed in Britain due to similarities to the ongoing Madeleine McCann abduction case.

And you heard it here first: One of the year’s most electric films is Sidney Lumet’s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” (October 26). Set to make its New York premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 12, “Devil” stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as two down-and-out brothers who desperately plan to rob a jewelry store. When the simple robbery goes oh-so-wrong, it becomes a classic character study of two decent men forced to prove just how bad they can be.

All things considered, you know it’s a dark season at the movies when a film like “Wristcutters: A Love Story” (October 19), a quirky and moving fantasy about suicide victims in the afterlife, is one of the more optimistic titles on the horizon.


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