The Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2014

Image via Complex Original

Director: Michaël R. Roskam

Stars: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenarts, Ann Dowd, John Ortiz

Release date: September 12

Whether Tony Soprano died or not, there’s one fact that shouldn’t be taken for granted—although he’s no longer with us, the late James Gandolfini’s extraordinary acting talents are here to stay. And in one final gift from the cinematic gods, Gandolfini’s final movie performance comes in a flick that, even without his presence, would be a must-see.

Starring Tom Hardy, my pick for the best all-around actor working today, The Drop is a Brooklyn-set descent into urban tough guys and gangsters that comes with a sterling behind-the-camera pedigree. Its director, Michaël R. Roskam, previously made the brutal, emotionally punishing Belgian drama Bullhead, while its writer, Dennis Lehane, is one of crime fiction’s greats, having penned numerous books that were later turned into strong films (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island) and several episodes of The Wire.

If the chance to see Tom Hardy (playing a bartender trying to look beyond crime) and James Gandolfini (as a crime boss) spar on screen doesn’t get you excited, you’d probably like Hardy’s rom-com This Means War. And, trust us, you don’t want to be the guy known for liking This Means War. —Matt Barone

Director: Ned Benson

Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Viola Davis, William Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, Jess Weixler, Bill Hader, Ciarin Hinds, Archie Panjabi, Katherine Waterston, Nina Arianda

Release date: September 12

A decade in the making, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is a passion project of director Ned Benson and his longtime friend Jessica Chastain, and it's evident in the glowing critical responses to the two-part film, respectively titled Him and Her. Each part examines a couple's tragic love story from both the male and female's point of view, a kind of study into the way we interpret and experience a relationship. It's an ambitious cinematic feat executed with so much care that it's bound to be unforgettable and deeply affecting. —Tara Aquino

Director: Adam Wingard

Stars: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Leland Orser, Sheila Kelley, Lance Reddick, Chase Williamson, Joel David Moore, Ethan Embry, A.J. Bowen

Release date: September 17

In a perfect world, Adam Wingard's The Guest would be opening in wide release, in just as many theaters as The November Man (which you've already forgotten about, no doubt). It demands to be seen by mass audiences in big theaters, not constricted to indie art-house venues and VOD platforms.

But, for now, just know that The Guest is about as much fun as you're going to have watching a movie all year. Made by the writer/director team responsible for last year's similarly awesome horror-comedy You're Next (director Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett), it's about a handsome, polite Army soldier named David, (Downton Abbey alum Dan Stevens) who, having been discharged, immediately visits the family of a fallen comrade. He starts off beneficial to them, helping the young son overcome bullies and the father deal with workplace neglect. Gradually, David starts revealing that he's not quite the wonderful houseguest everyone thinks he is, and that's when the bullets spray, bodies drop, and The Guest turns into something that resembles The Terminator without the science fiction trappings.

Like Drive, The Guest pumps on glossy, bouncy '80s-esque synth music, juxtaposing its moments of heightened carnage with a shrewd bubblegum soundtrack. In the middle of that contrast is Dan Stevens, exuding ample movie star presence and commanding every single frame he's in. In an even more perfect world, The Guest would elevate Stevens into being the new Ryan Gosling. —Matt Barone

Director: Wes Ball

Stars: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, Aml Ameen, Blake Cooper, Patricia Clarkson

Release date: September 19

The Maze Runner is the latest young adult novel to get the movie treatment, and with Teen Wolf funnyman Dylan O'Brien and Skins UK's biggest star Kaya Scodelario at the forefront, it's bound to be the most talked about film in high school hallways this fall (until Mockingjay comes out, obvi). Sure, skeptics, the plot's got Hunger Games elements to it: When Thomas (O'Brien) wakes up in a gigantic maze with a group of other boys with no memory of the outside world, he has to find clues within the trap to figure out his own fate and uncover the truth about his past and the mysterious forces that imprisoned him. Is the film set in a dystopia? Yep. Do they fight for their lives? Obviously. Is there a forbidden romance? Probably. But who cares? Everything's been done before. Just let this film take you for the wild ride it promises. (But maybe stay away if you're claustrophobic.) —​Tara Aquino

Director: Shawn Levy

Stars: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Kathryn Hahn, Timothy Olyphant, Corey Stoll, Connie Britton, Abigail Spencer, Jane Fonda, Ben Schwartz, Debra Monk, Dax Shepard

Release date: September 19

If you're a fan of understated comedies masked as dramas, then you're in luck this fall. This is Where I Leave You is gearing up to be the year's most heartfelt family comedy. Here, heavy-hitters like Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, and Adam Driver, amongst a plethora of other big-name actors, play the children and in-laws of a recently deceased father. His dying wish is that they spend time together in their childhood home, to sit Shiva, the week-long mourning period in Judaism. Count on this movie to make you laugh out loud while crying into your $11 popcorn. —Hope Schreiber

Director: Kevin Smith

Stars: Justin Long, Michael Parks, Genesis Rodriguez, Haley Joel Osment, Ralph Garman, Johnny Depp

Release date: September 19

If you’re like me, you think Kevin Smith’s brand of sophomoric, dick-joke-laden comedy is the anti-funny. And you also gave Smith’s first-ever horror movie, Red State, a chance but left it thinking he’d delivered a huge missed opportunity, one with some great acting and nice tension but awfully placed moments of his trademark sense of humor. You were ready to completely write him off, too, but then this happened. He made what could be the next Human Centipede, and it’s too insane-sounding to ignore.

Plus, it stars Red State M.V.P. Michael Parks, this time playing an eccentric old coot who lures a thrill-seeking podcast host (Justin Long) into his sinister plan to create something that’s half man and half walrus. His past cinematic transgressions aside, Smith’s current M.O. seems dedicated to redirecting his career’s arc and establishing himself as a purveyor of WTF genre cinema—see his recently announced Tusk follow-up, an action-adventure film titled Yoga Hosers and starring Johnny Depp as a “legendary man-hunter” fighting an “ancient evil.” Which, yes, sounds totally ridiculous, but if Tusk is as good as its ‘TIFF Midnight Madness premiere’ status suggests, we might not be able to so easily dismiss a Kevin Smith project ever again. —Matt Barone

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Stars: Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Haley Bennett, David Harbour, Marton Csokas

Release date: September 26

It's about time Antoine Fuqua made another classic. If Training Day was Fuqua's Reasonable Doubt, he&'s produced a string of Blueprint IIIs ever since, save Brooklyn's Finest—maybe. His new movie, The Equalizer has all the ingredients to power his comeback. Returning to his roots if you will, the director reunites with Denzel Washington and Training Day cinematographer Mauro Fiore. Filling out the roster are some little known indie talents like Chloe Grace-Moretz and Melissa Leo. Based on an '80s television show about a grizzled, retired intelligence operative that renders his services to people in need (here, a young prostitute named Teri played by Ms. Moretz), Fuqua's film is destined to be a tense thriller rife with Denzel killing dudes in all kinds of new and clever ways.

If Fuqua can even draw a tenth of the monumental performance he got from Mr. Washington the last time they collaborated, and steers the narrative away from the Steven-Segal-Saturday-Movie-of-The-Night atmosphere, we can see a movie that Fuqua had fun making. —Frantz Rocher

Director: David Fincher

Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Coon, Patrick Fugit, Tyler Perry, Casey Wilson, Kim Dickens, Sela Ward, Missi Pyle, Emily Ratajkowski, Lisa Banes, Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy

Release date: October 3

“Anticipated” is maybe not the right word to use when really what you’re doing is waiting for a director to prove you wrong. Unlike the millions of presumably satisfied readers who kept Gillian Flynn’s Laci Peterson remix on the New York Times Best Seller list for months and months, I did not like Gone Girl. (Count me as a member of Team Gaitskill.) But I do think that David Fincher is a gifted director, and if someone wants to try and wrestle Flynn’s toxic thriller into something great, why not him.

Fincher's done his best work in the crime genre (see: Zodiac) and so hopefully he has something inventive cooked up to work out the dueling unreliable voices that drive Flynn’s novel. One thing that's already correct: Ben Affleck will make for a perfect smug-douche husband. Fingers crossed on delivering the rest. —Ross Scarano

Director: John R. Leonetti

Stars: Alfre Woodard, Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Eric Ladin, Brian Howe, Tony Amendola

Release date: October 3

Last October, I wrote about how Hollywood had essentially given up on releasing new horror movies during the Halloween month, initially backing down from the Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises’ box office muscle but gradually packing it in altogether. Well, that’s definitely not the case this year. In fact, October 2014 is very, very crowded. Think dozens-of-zombies-trapped-inside-an-overpriced-Manhattan-studio-apartment crowded.

First out the gate will be Annabelle, which will launch a series of The Conjuring spin-offs for Warner Bros. Pictures. It’s based around the creepy doll seen in The Conjuring’s opening sequence, here given an origin story of sorts about a husband who buys the doll for his pregnant wife. Unlike director James Wan’s ‘70s-set haunted house hit from last summer, Annabelle will focus more on the occult, specifically with a group of Satanists obsessed with the eponymous doll.

Sounds…a bit derivative, no? There are some notable positives, though. For one, James Wan, who’s on-board here as a producer, handed over the directing reins to his The Conjuring cinematographer John R. Leonetti, and even the biggest horror hater can’t deny how striking The Conjuring looks. And two, at least the Annabelle doll won’t be walking around, talking like Andrew Dice Clay, and unconvincingly overpowering fully grown humans like a certain horror icon. —Matt Barone

Director: Jason Reitman

Stars: Ansel Elgort, Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Emma Thompson, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Dennis Haysbert, Kaitlyn Dever

Release date: October 3

Just in case you weren't aware, the Internet is a pretty big deal these days—and now there's yet another big-screen drama to show us all just how big of an impact the World Wide Web has on our everyday lives (see: last year's indie drama Disconnect). This one, though, comes from Oscar-nominated director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), and co-stars Adam Sandler in a role that doesn't require any cross-dressing or kicks to the groin from animals. That's a plus.

Based on a novel by author Chad Kultgen, Men, Women & Children follows an ensemble of small-town characters whose lives are individually altered by too much Internet usage. Sandler and Rosemare DeWitt play a married couple whose flat-lined sexual chemistry inspires them to seek physical intimacy through shady cyber hook-up sites; Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars), meanwhile, becomes addicted to online porn. As ripe for uncomfortable comedy as those scenarios seem, don't expect too many chuckles here. Men, Women & Children's first teaser trailer unsubtly goes for all the heavy feels, none of which is laughter. —Matt Barone

Director: David Dobkin

Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, David Krumholtz, Dax Shepard

Release date: October 10

When you earned more money within a June 2012 through June 2013 time-frame than most people do in their entire lives, why even bother working again? As a recent Forbes report confirmed, Robert Downey, Jr. made a staggering $75 million last year, because, yes, of that fat Iron Man/Marvel contract and all of its residuals (specifically, The Avengers and Iron Man 3). It's easy to forget, however, that before he became the lucrative Tony Stark, Downey was one of Hollywood's best and most respected actors, and it seems he's ready to remind folks about that in something sans super-heroics.

In the CGI-free character drama The Judge, Downey comes back down to Earth to play a confident, big-city defense attorney who undergoes a serious gut-check when he's called back to his humble Indiana hometown to represent his father (Robert Duvall) in a murder case. It's small-scale family drama, a courtroom procedural, and an actor's showcase all rolled into one—that's right, for the first time in years, Downey is looking for Oscar's attention, not Nick Fury's. —Matt Barone

Director: Michael Cuesta

Stars: Jeremy Renner, Barry Pepper, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Liotta, Paz Vega, Oliver Platt, Michael Sheen, Andy Garcia, Robert Patrick, Michael K. Williams, Joshua Close

Release date: October 10

On the surface, Kill the Messenger seems like another CIA whistleblowing thriller with the potential to momentarily thrill but ultimately do little differently from classics like, say, Three Days of the Condor. Based on the true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb, it stars Jeremy Renner and follows Webb’s investigation into the CIA’s awareness of cocaine being smuggled into the U.S. in the 1980s. The deeper Webb got into his reporting, the more dangerous his job became, to the point where death threats were made and his professional credibility was manipulated beyond his control.

As handled by multiple Homeland episode director Michael Cuesta, though, Kill the Messenger isn’t your standard ‘one man vs. the CIA’ movie. Having seen the film, though also uninterested in spoiling anything right now, I can say that the film's tone and narrative focus dramatically shift gears midway into it. Kill the Messenger is a sneaky film that left me rattled. —Matt Barone

Director: Damien Chazelle

Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Austin Stowell, Jayson Blair, Paul Reiser

Release date: October 10

Do yourself a favor and keep this in mind: Miles Teller is one of the best young actors in the game right now. That is, if the fact that he's the Jessica Chastain of actors (you know, he's in everything) hasn't already registered with you. Up next, he's starring in Whiplash. In the film, Teller plays Andrew, a jazz prodigy at an elite music school whose starving to become one of the greatest drummers in the nation. Desperate for anything to take him to the top, Andrew allows himself to lose his sanity completely under the guidance of his obsessive and abusive instructor, Terence Fletcher, (J.K. Simmons), a man who will literally watch his student's hands bleed until his timing is on point.

A testament to its greatness, Whiplash earned won the Audience and Grand Jury awards at Sundance. So about keeping that Teller fact in mind—​it'll be a nice icebreaker to bring up when you're at an Oscar party a couple years from now and dude's up with his first nomination. You can say you were a fan from the start. —​Tara Aquino

Director: Jorge Gutierrez

Stars: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Christina Applegate, Ron Perlman, Cheech Marin, Ana de la Reguera, Hector Elizondo, Gabriel Iglesias, Danny Trejo, Placido Domingo

Release date: October 17

The story, with a star-studded cast, is about love, loss, and the journey to find one another again. Set in a spirit world, our hero Manolo (Diego Luna), after he was wrongfully killed for a bet, is armed with only his guitar, two swords, and his sharp wits to defend himself as he travels through three beautiful worlds to return to the woman who stole his heart. A film with visually striking animation that matches its engaging story, Book of Life will be the most romantic tale you could behold all year. —​Hope Schreiber

Director: Gary Shore

Stars: Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Samantha Banks, Charles Dance, Charlie Cox, Will Houston, Art Parkinson

Release date: October 17

We’ll say this much about Dracula Untold—it can’t be as bad as I, Frankenstein… Can it?

God help us if it is. For now, reserved optimism surrounds this origin story about Count Dracula (Luke Evans, a.k.a. the bad guy in Fast and Furious 7), showing his pre-vampire days as a wartime badass. How much actual bloodsucking Dracula Untold has, or even horror whatsoever, is, at this point, a mystery, but the film’s trailer sells it as more a Kate-Beckinsale-free Underworld copycat (yeah, the worst kind of Underworld copycat) than the next 30 Days of Night (Hollywood’s best vampire movie in recent years). So, yes, proceed with caution. —Matt Barone

Director: David Ayer

Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Scott Eastwood, Brad William Henke, Xavier Samuel

Release date: October 17

The last time Brad Pitt played a World War II commander, the result was Inglourious Basterds, arguably the best movie Quentin Tarantino has ever made. But can Pitt go two-for-two in the WWII department?

At the very least, the battle scenes in Fury should be exceedingly badass. It’s directed by David Ayer, who earlier this year made the ridiculously violent Arnold Schwarzenegger flop Sabotage and also staged some top-notch and visceral gunfights in the Jake Gyllenhaal cop flick End of Watch. Ayer will have plenty of opportunities to top End of Watch’s mayhem here, in this prestigious action movie with Pitt playing an Army sergeant named Wardaddy whose five-man tank operation gets stuck and outnumbered in Nazi Germany. —Matt Barone

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Merritt Weaver, Naomi Watts

Release date: October 17

For people who love insane, award-worthy movies, there’s no question about it—director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s (21 Grams, Babel) Birdman > Bryan “Birdman” Williams.

Hell, even the hip-hop mogul formerly known as Baby might agree with that greater-than equation after seeing this wonderfully batshit comeback vehicle for ‘80s A-lister Michael Keaton. Slyly poking fun at himself, the star of 1989’s Batman plays Riggan Thomson, an aging actor best known for portraying a superhero named Birdman, and who’s hoping to re-ignite his career by leading a stage rendition of Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Thomson’s self-produced play turns into a comedy of errors thanks to his oddball castmates and Thomson’s own deteriorating sanity, which Inarritu brings to demented life through long one-take sequences and live-wire camerawork.

And, best of all, Birdman is a comedy. Expect this one to make ample noise all throughout the rest of 2014 and straight into awards season. —Matt Barone

Director: Justin Simien

Stars: Tessa Thompson, Tyler James Williams, Dennis Haysbert, Kyle Gallner, Brittany Curran, Teyonah Parris, Brandon P. Bell, Justin Dobies

Release date: October 17

Dear White People heralds itself as a "satire about being a black face in a white place," taking a provocative, witty, and timely approach to comment on contemporary issues black students experience in what some people would call a supposedly "post-racial" world. Focusing on a group of black students at a predominantly white university, Dear White People takes a hilarious and controversial look at the students' reactions to a racist themed party thrown on campus one weekend at the fictional Winchester College. 

This provocative satire premiered at Sundance in January, after an Indiegogo campaign raised over $40,000 to fund the project in 2012. With its sharp dialog and tongue-in-cheek social commentary, Dear White People has the power to reinvent the landscape of "black movies" currently premiering in Hollywood. —​Brooke Marine

Director: Alex Ross Perry

Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter, Jess Weixler, Kate Lyn Sheil, Dree Hemingway, Daniel London

Release date: October 17

One of the biggest hits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the independent dramedy Listen Up Philip has been riding a strong wave of critics’ superlatives since January. One critic went so far as to call it “the major work of the modern American low-budget indie scene.”

Potential for overhyping, much? Perhaps, but everything about writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s Sundance breakout suggests it’s the real deal. Jason Schwartzman, no stranger to impressive indie comedies, plays a self-obsessed novelist who, in an effort to rekindle his excitement for life, checks into a friend’s isolated cottage on the eve of his second novel’s publication. Shades of Schwartzman’s recent HBO comedy series Bored to Death are undeniable. But the fact that the always brilliant Elisabeth Moss also stars in it? Highly reassuring. —Matt Barone

Director: Peter Sattler

Stars: Kristen Stewart, Peyman Moaadi, Julia Duffy, John Carroll Lynch, Lane Garrison, Tara Holt

Release date: October 17

Gone are the days of saying Kristen Stewart is emotionless, right? Because, she's fully proven herself in multiple works beyond Twilight. See: the reviews for Cannes-festival-favorite Clouds of Sils Maria and her next title, Camp X-Ray. In the latter film, which earned rave reviews at Sundance 2014, Stewart plays a military recruit assigned to Guantanamo Bay, where she develops a deep bond with a suspected terrorist who's been detained at the dehumanizing detention camp for eight years. If she doesn't move you in this role, then maybe you're the one with empathy issues this time. Just give her a chance to thaw your icy, cynical heart. —Tara Aquino

Director: Lynn Shelton

Stars: Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell, Ellie Kemper, Mark Webber, Kaitlyn Dever, Tiya Sircar

Release date: October 24

Watch the trailer and be prepared to not only be taken away with Knightley's American accent, but how hilarious (and how hilariously true) this coming-of-age movie promises to be. The movie is basically a glimpse into the messed up, narcissistic mind of every other twentysomething. The questions it poses include: What the hell do you do with your degree? What the hell do you do when your parents aren't 100% supportive of you anymore and all your friends seem to be moving on to the next stage of their life? What exactly is the freaking step between being a teenager and being an adult? Did we miss that somewhere? 

Laggies is so much more than a "chick flick." It's an existential life crisis. And since you're probably an adult child reading this, too, you'll enjoy the catharsis. —Tara Aquino

Director: Theodore Melfi

Stars: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O'Dowd, Scott Adsit, Terrence Howard, Kimberly Quinn, Jaeden Lieberher

Release date: October 24

You love Bill Murray, whether it’s because he’s the comedy legend who’ll forever be the man (thanks to Stripes, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, and so forth) or because of his recent transformation into a party-crashing, fun-loving man of mystery outside of movies. But you haven’t necessarily cared about any of Murray’s recent movies that haven’t involved his frequent collaborator Wes Anderson. Until now.

What makes St. Vincent any different from Murray’s ho-hum indie projects like Hyde Park on Hudson, Passion Play, or Get Low? Because in this one, he plays an ill-tempered Vietnam vet “with a taste for liquor, loose women, and laying bets at the local horse track,” who, when he’s not indulging in all of that wonderful-sounding debauchery, becomes a mentor for a 12-year-old boy (first-time actor Jaeden Lieberher). Basically, Bill Murray plays the drunk uncle you wish you had as a kid. —Matt Barone

Director: Gregg Araki

Stars: Shailene Woodley, Christopher Meloni, Eva Green, Shiloh Fernandez, Jacob Artist, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Dale Dickey

Release date: October 24

If there's one thing fans have learned about Shailene Woodley's film choices, it's that she never picks the wrong one. However, while she's trying to figure out a dystopian life in Divergent, White Bird in a Blizzard feels a lot more terrifying because of how solidly it is based in reality. The trippy Gregg Araki thriller follows Woodley's character, Kat, as she navigates normal teenage things like first loves and friendships. However, when her mother (Eva Green), whom she was deeply attached to, goes missing, her entire life is turned upside down. She discovers a darkness within everyone she loves and trusts, including her own father, and searches for answers while every bit of her heart is breaking. —Hope Schreiber

Director: Zachary Wigon

Stars: Kate Lyn Sheil, John Gallagher Jr., David Cail, Louisa Krause

Release date: October 24

Maybe it makes you more comfortable, or maybe it makes you feel more removed, but the fact remains, technology dictates our lives. Every day people have more open conversations through text messages and Tinder than they would face to face at a bar or a coffee shop. Films are just beginning to explore that dynamic, and director Zachary Wigon is leading that charge. The Heart Machine tells the story of a man (John Gallagher Jr.) who begins to suspect his long distance girlfriend (Kate Lyn Sheil), whom he met online, may have been living in the same city as him all along. Is she even real? Does she have some horrible deformity she's embarrassed about? Is she just bored IRL? Is she part of a gang that won't let her associate with outside members? Okay, I'm going to stop planting ideas in your mind—you should just go find out yourself. It stars Kate Lyn Sheil and John Gallagher Jr., so by default it's already good. —Tara Aquino

Director: Rodney Ascher, Kristina Buozyte, Alexandre Bustillo, Larry Fessenden, Julian Gibney, Spencer Hawken, Jim Hosking, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, E.L. Katz, Aharon Keshales, Steven Kostanski, Marvin Kren, Erik Matti, Julien Maury, Robert Morgan, Vincenzo Natali, Navot Papushado, Bill Plympton, Dennison Ramalho, Jerome Sable, Bruno Samper, Sion Sono, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

Stars: Various

Release date: October 2 (VOD); October 31 (theatrical)

There are two types of movie lovers out there: Those who want to watch a movie called The ABCs of Death, and those who can't be bothered by such high-concept insanity.

For the former group, last year's far-reaching horror anthology, the brainchild of Drafthouse Films, was a two-hour blast of gleeful nihilism, giving 26 genre directors $5,000, one letter of the alphabet, and around five minutes of screen time each to make a short film revolving around some kind of death. The results, unsurprisingly, were batshit crazy, including a deadly masturbation contest ("L is for Libido"), an overweight woman getting skinny by cutting all of her skin off ("X is for XXL"), a fight club pitting men against canines ("D is for Dogfight"), and a girl committing suicide by sniffing another girl's bodily omissions ("F is for Fart").

So what's in store for the upcoming sequel, The ABCs of Death 2? Who the hell knows, but expect the demented ante to be upped considerably. Rest assured, though, it won't disappoint. Just look at the directors involved this time: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside), Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary), Rodney Ascher (Room 237), Sion Sono (Why Don't You Play in Hell?), and Vincenzo Natali (Splice), to name a few. —Matt Barone

Director: Dan Gilroy

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Paxton, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Kevin Rahm, Eric Lange, Jonny Coyne

Release date: October 31

Here it is, my most anticipated movie of the fall 2014 season. And if you think Jake Gyllenhaal’s presence means Nightcrawler won’t be as darkly bonkers as those trailers have suggested, know this—it’s been selected as the closing night film of Fantastic Fest, the same Austin, Tex., event that will host screenings of movies with titles like ABCs of Death 2, Necrophobia 3D, and Dead Snow II: Red vs. Dead.

Continuing his streak of highbrow genre flicks, Gyllenhaal stars in first-time director Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler as Lou Bloom, a low-level crook who catches wind of Los Angeles’ “nightcrawler” community, the circle of wannabe journalists known for capturing crimes on camera and selling them to TV producers. Already mentally unstable, Bloom sinks deeper into insanity the further involved he gets with night-crawling, eventually, per the Toronto International Film Festival’s official synopsis, doing whatever he can to “enhance” his videos whenever the crimes are too tame.

That same TIFF page compares Nightcrawler to the voyeuristic horror classic Peeping Tom, but its plot also brings to mind the disturbing French film Man Bites Dog (1992). Again, I need this movie in my life, like, yesterday. —Matt Barone

Director: Alexandre Aja

Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, James Remar, Joe Anderson, Kelli Garner, Heather Graham

Release date: October 31

If nothing else, use this Horns placement as motivation to spend multiple hours reading through author Joe Hill's entire bibliography. The son of Stephen King, he's a first-class writer of superb genre fiction, and the 2010 horror-fantasy novel Horns is his best work yet. Again, he's Stephen King's kid, so it's to be expected that Hill's stories would eventually be adapted into movies. Here's the first, and it has a solid pedigree.

Directed by Alexandre Aja (the French horror favorite behind High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, and Piranha 3D), Horns follows the troubled protagonist Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe), a young man who's mourning the rape and murder of his girlfriend (Juno Temple). He wakes up one day, after one hell of a drunken bender, with pointy protrusions sticking out of his head that make people tell him their nasty secrets and give him the ability to internalize their experiences upon touching them.

Combining crime drama, supernatural scares, and a tragic romance, Hill's novel is a unique, imaginative, and unpredictable character study. On the big screen, it'll give you the chance to watch Harry Potter slowly transform into what's possibly the Devil himself. —Matt Barone

Director: Christopher Nolan

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Ellen Burstyn, Topher Grace, John Lithgow, Bill Irwin, Wes Bentley, Mackenzie Foy, David Oyelowo

Release date: November 7

Christopher Nolan has reached that very rare auteur-level where plot doesn't even matter. At this point, both cinephile and casual moviegoer alike spend the two-year interim between Nolan projects to see what the man who delivered three of the most transcendent superhero flicks of all time —and some of Hollywood's most engaging blockbusters of the last decade in-between them—does next. So what comes after villainous Robin Williams, Gotham City, magic, and dream warfare? Space, of course, and starring the It-Guy of 2014 no less, Matt McConz. There's been rumblings about teaser trailers that have so far been light on story, but hasn't Chris earned our trust? Do you even really need to see a typically over-sharing trailer that gives half of the good stuff in a jumbled context to be convinced that this is must-see. There's space travel, the survival of the human race is at stake, and McConaughey is a cool Dad* who would lowkey rather hang with his kids than save the world, but duty calls. Reigning member of the Christopher Nolan Actors Troupe Michael Caine is right where he belongs and will probably give sage advice. We'll be there. You'll be there. Mentally, we all bought the ticket as soon as it was announced.

*The eagle-eyed viewer will note that there are several plot clues in the trailers, most notably that Jessica Chastain appears to be playing McConaughey's daughter all grown up. Interstellar space-travel and implied time-jumps? This movie's going to be amazing. —Frazier Tharpe

Director: James Marsh

Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Charlie Cox, Harry Lloyd

Release date: November 7

It’s movie awards season, so you know what that means—it’s also biopic season. This one, at least, has the intriguing distinction of being the great documentarian James Marsh’s (Man on Wire, Project Nim) narrative film debut. It’s also home to two of the best young actors most people probably can’t cite by name, although that should change once The Theory of Everything opens.

Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables) goes total Daniel-Day-Lewis-in-My-Left-Foot as Stephen Hawking, playing the brilliant physicist before he succumbed to the motor neurons disease that confined him to a wheelchair and made him talk through an electronic device. While studying at Cambridge as a grad student, Hawking met the love of his life, Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones, from Like Crazy and The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and focusing on that relationship, The Theory of Everything is said to be more of a romance than a by-the-numbers biography.

Don’t feel bad, though, if you’d rather watch those Stephen Hawking gags on Family Guy. They really are hilarious. —Matt Barone

Director: Jon Stewart

Stars: Gael Garcia Bernal, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Kim Bodnia

Release date: November 7

Jon Stewart really couldn’t have found material for his directorial debut. The Daily Show host’s first time behind the camera, Rosewater is a reality-based look at the dangers of journalism whose origins trace right back to, yes, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The excellent Gael García Bernal stars as Iranian/Canadian BBC journalist Maziar Bahari, who, in 2009, was based in Iran and agreed to do an on-camera interview with Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones. Since it was The Daily Show, after all, the supposed-to-be satirical conversation didn’t exactly cast the Iranian government in the best of lights, and the Tehran authorities weren’t pleased—because of that interview, Bahari was sent to prison.

Although our critic out at Telluride didn't quite love it, Rosewater remains one of the fall season’s most intriguing prospects. Besides, if it’s a huge disappointment, Stewart always has that acclaimed day job to fall back on. —Matt Barone

Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Stars: Jim Carrey, Jeff Bridges, Laurie Holden, Kathleen Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, Brady Bluhm, Steve Tom, Rob Riggle

Release date: November 14

If I were Harry Dunne or Lloyd Christmas, I’d look at Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’s recent box office disintegration and say to myself, “Shit, that could happen to us, to!” (Yes, spelled “to,” not “too,” because lowbrow comedy.)

Like co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s nine-years-too-late Sin City, which epically tanked last month, Dumb and Dumber To feels a bit behind its own curve. Ten years is like an eternity for Hollywood follow-ups, and in the decade since Dumb and Dumber started its path to comedy classic status, the laugh genre has undergone numerous chances, via the Judd Apatow movie machine and Lena Dunham’s girl-centric brand of self-deprecation and angst. Are audiences ready to turn their brains off again and appreciate Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels’ on-the-nose depictions of walking, talking stupidity?

Anyone who’s suffered through Dumb and Dumber To’s trailer will tell you—it might not even be a matter of timing so much as an issue of quality, in general. With hardly a single genuine laugh in said trailer, Dumb and Dumber To, which finds the two morons traveling across country to meet Harry’s estranged daughter, isn’t off to a promising start. You aren’t going to win too many people over with gags about Lloyd inadvertently fingering an old woman. —Matt Barone

Director: Bennett Miller

Stars: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall

Release date: November 14

Ready to fear Steve Carell? Don't laugh, that's really about to happen.

With odd-looking facial prosthetics and a creepy, far-away-from-Michael-Scott voice, the funnyman has gone full dark in Foxcatcher, the new based-on-real-events drama from director Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball). Carell plays millionaire John du Pont, a self-absorbed, mentally unstable gun nut who used his riches to fund the 1984 Olympic dreams of two sibling wrestlers, Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo). Mark, specifically, moved into du Pont's massive estate, a change of locale and lifestyle that deeply fractured his already shattered mind-state and led to tragedy.

For a sampling of just how intense Foxcatcher is going to be, give any of its early teaser trailers a look. Word is that Carell and Tatum are both en route to Oscar nominations, with the former set to blow viewers' expectations to smithereens in a terrifying and complicated performance. —Matt Barone

Director: Francis Lawrence

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland, Natalie Dormer, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Robert Knepper, Stanley Tucci, Gwendoline Christie, Evan Ross, Jeffrey Wright, Willow Shields

Release date: November 21

What is there to say about The Hunger Games that hasn’t already been said? It’s a cultural behemoth, the primary vehicle through which we got to know J-Law. To say that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 isn’t one of the most highly anticipated films would be a blatant lie. After all, the words “highly” and “anticipated” follow its title in every press mention like terriers chasing a gilded mail truck. But even if Mockingjay's inclusion here is perfunctory, there’s still some legitimate stuff here to get excited about. For one, the movie has one the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last performances. For another, Catching Fire was a critical hit, far greater than it's predecessor, and it looks like this one will continue the trend of self-improvement and help the series end on a high note. —Nathan Reese

Director: Morten Tyldum

Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Rory Kinnear, Tuppence Middleton

Release date: November 21

With the Venice and Telluride film festivals having kicked off the awards season chatter this past weekend, there's already a clear frontrunner for a Best Actor nomination: the oddly named Internet darling himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. The movie is The Imitation Game, and everything about it screams "Give us all the Academy Awards, stodgy AMPAS voters."

Set in and around World War II, and based on a true story, The Imitation Game finds Cumberbatch playing Cambridge mathematician Alan Turing, who was hired by by the British military to help them crack the Nazis' code known as "Enigma." To break the Nazi numerical mystery, Turing pulled together a misfit crew of British nerds and helped his country defeat Hitler's regime. He didn't do so, however, without losing much of his mind and alienating people with his antisocial demeanor and humorless, literal-mindedness.

It's a plum role for Cumberbatch, and all of the reviews out of Telluride suggest that he's brilliant in Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's sprawling drama. All the "Cumberbitches" out there aren't going to know what hit them. —Matt Barone

Director: Sean Anders

Stars: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Christoph Waltz, Chris Pine, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Banks, Jamie Foxx

Release date: November 26

Horrible Bosses, B-movie concept comedy as it stands, calls for a sequel even less so than The Hangover did. When is Hollywood going to let a good one-off idea remain just that? But alas, $200 million off of a $40 mil budget can't go ignored, so here we are. Cautionary comedy sequel tales notwithstanding though, there's reason to remain optimistic. Sudeikis, Day and Bateman made for a grade-A trio, underrated, one might even say. Returning cameos from scenery-chewers Jennifer Aniston (reprising her most memorable role in years), Kevin Spacey and even Jamie Foxx are all good signs. Throw in the always great Christoph Waltz as the new white-collar criminal that needs taking down and it's very possible that lightning will strike twice. Either way, you can't say the franchise hasn't earned some benefit of the doubt. —Frazier Tharpe

Director: Andrea Di Stefano

Stars: Benicio del Toro, Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisac, Brady Corbet, Ana Girardot, Carlos Bardem

Release date: November 26

You know that major Pablo Escobar biopic you’ve been waiting for? This isn’t that. The first clue: it stars Josh Hutcherson, a.k.a. the kid from the Hunger Games movies who's basically a LEGO come to life.

Fortunately, Hutcherson isn’t playing Escobar—this isn’t a Funny or Die skit, after all. That role goes to the well-cast Benicio del Toro, though Escobar: Paradise Lost isn’t Pablo’s story. It’s seen through the POV of a young Canadian surfer named Nick (Hutcherson), who falls in love with the beautiful Maria (Claudia Traisac) while on a surfing retreat not far from Medellin. As it turns out, Maria is Pablo Escobar’s beloved niece, and once he learns about her uncle’s cocaine-trafficking empire, Nick gets in too deep and trades his surfboard in for an automatic weapon, so to speak.

The downside: the potential for Escobar: Paradise Lost to be the watered-down, teenybopper version of the Colombian drug lord’s life is uncomfortably high. The upside? The last time del Toro played a notorious real-life figure, he killed it as Che Guevara in Steven Soderbergh’s two-parter Che. That, however, wasn’t a drug movie starring Josh Hutcherson. —Matt Barone

Director: Jennifer Kent

Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney

Release date: November 28

When you’ve dedicated (probably too) much of both your professional and free time to watching horror movies, there comes a point where it’s difficult for something to truly linger. In the moment, sure, an effective scare or disturbing visual can unsettle, but by the time I get home, it’s become “that cool thing I just saw,” not something that keeps me up at night.

What I saw in The Babadook, however, is still creeping me out nearly seven months after seeing the movie. Aussie writer-director Jennifer Kent’s masterfully executed creepshow has plenty of memorable scenes, but it’s Mister Babadook himself (or itself?) that’s been clouding my thoughts in frightening darkness. An original creation from Kent’s shrewd and twisted mind, Mister Babadook is a shadowy, demonic character from a children’s book that pops up on little 6-year-old Samuel’s (Noah Wiseman) shelf one night, when it’s his turn to pick which book his mother, Amelia (Essie Davis), will read to him before bed. The gist of the fictional Mister Babadook is that when children are asleep at night, a scary-as-fuck apparition dressed like Jack the Ripper with a mug like an undead, vampiric mime will float above the kid’s bed and cause harm.

Excellently acted by David and young Wiseman, Kent’s film works even better as a domestic drama, showing how a mother’s grief can disable her from nurturing a son whose a budding social outcast. Like so many of the best horror films, The Babadook pulls its scariest concepts from a real place: the difficulties of motherhood. —Matt Barone

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Michiel Huisman, Gaby Hoffmann, Charles Baker, Thomas Sadoski, Kevin Rankin

Release date: December 5

There once was a time when Reese Witherspoon was one of the best actresses in the game. That time was 2005, the year she co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in the excellent Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line—that feels like a century ago now. Since then, Witherspoon has floundered in embarrassing rom-coms like How Do You Know and This Means War and played second-fiddle to Robert Pattinson in the sleepy period romance Water for Elephants. But it’s time for a Reese Witherspoon resurgence.

This awards season, her return to prominence will be a two-hander—she’ll play a key role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s guaranteed-to-be-amazing Inherent Vice (more on that to come), and she’s front and center in Wild, the new film from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée. And by “front and center,” we’re talking ‘Tom Hanks in Castaway’ front and center.

An adaptation of High Fidelity/About a Boy author Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name, Wild finds Witherspoon playing a depressed woman who, four years after her mother’s death by cancer, heads off into the wilderness alone, Into the Wild style. The folks at the Toronto International Film Festival claim she gives “one of the year’s best performances.” If Vallée’s able to rekindle some of that Dallas Buyers Club critical magic, you can pretty much consider Witherspoon a lock for a Best Actress nomination. —Matt Barone

Director: Ridley Scott

Stars: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, Maria Valverde, Indira Varma, Ben Mendelsohn

Release date: December 12

The cast for Ridley Scott's remake of The Ten Commandments is technically good, albeit not historically accurate. If this is a deal-breaker for you, I understand. If Ridley Scott's track record in the last 10 years is a deal-breaker, I understand. But if you're excited to see Christian Bale use his Batman voice as Moses, well, who can blame you? Glam-rock Joel Edgerton as Pharaoh? Sounds insane, let's do it.

Scott can do spectacle well, and there are few stories more spectacular than this bit of the Old Testament. Time to get this sea parted—in slow motion and with a tasteful rock-meets-classical edge. —Ross Scarano

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, Josh Brolin, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Benicio del Toro, Martin Short, Maya Rudolph, Eric Roberts, Michael K. Williams, Sasha Pieterse, Serena Scott Thomas, Timothy Simons, Joanna Newsom

Release date: December 12

For a cadre of serious film geeks, the news that Paul Thomas Anderson was set to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s psychedelic-noir Inherent Vice was more exciting than any Marvel sequel or Star Wars spinoff could ever hope to be. Here was a director—if not the greatest working, then certainly top five—given personal permission to adapt the work of America’s most secretive author. Couple that with a cast including Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Jena Malone, and, alt-folk harpist Joanna Newsom (hey, why not?), and you have the potential for a true cinematic masterpiece. (Also rumored: Pynchon himself in a cameo as a giant bong. Kidding.) If the prospect of the first ensemble P.T. Anderson film since Magnolia doesn’t get your dirk diggling, there’s not much else I can do for you. —Nathan Reese

Director: Will Gluck

Stars: Quvenzhane Wallis, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Release date: December 19

Attention, gingers—“America's Favorite Red Head” is now accepting applications. Annie has officially retired her title and is no longer defining herself by her hair.

In this contemparized Annie, Quvenzhané Wallis takes on the spirited little orphan Annie, who is perhaps the most iconic child role in the history of American theater. Joining her are Jamie Foxx, as Benjamin Stacks (Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks sounds rather antiquated, no?), Rose Byrne as Grace, and Cameron Diaz as the hot mess, Miss Hannigan.

Director Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with Benefits) reimagines the the classic, whose screenplay was written by Nanny McPhee herself, Emma Thompson, in modern New York.With talent like Jay-Z on board (he has a producer credit alongside Will Smith and the rest of the Smith clan), we're most looking forward to the score. After Mr. Shawn Carter's reinterpretation of the swinging '20s in Baz Luhrmann's 2013 remake of The Great Gatsby, we're excited to see how the Broadway classics get revamped. —Arianna Friedman

Director: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg

Stars: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Timothy Simons, Charles Rahi Chun

Release date: December 25

Call it Seth Rogen and James Franco’s very own modern-day Inglourious Basterds. And, fortunately, the first trailer promises a movie that’ll be as fuck-yes as that sounds.

Back behind the camera again with writing partner/lifelong BFF Evan Goldberg, following the hilarious and impressively genre-savvy This is the End, Rogen reconnects with Franco to recapture some of that Pineapple Express chemistry. Here, though, they’ve dropped the Holy Cross blunts and picked up microphones and cameras, playing two celeb journalists who head out to North Korea for an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime interview with Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) only to find out that they’re also expected to assassinate Jong-un.

Unsurprisingly, the actual Kim Jong-un and all of North Korea hate that concept, and hate The Interview’s existence even more. For Rogen, Goldberg, and Franco, though, the fact remains that you can’t buy the kind of worldwide publicity that comes from having one of the world’s most notorious leaders publicly attacking your movie. —Matt Barone

Director: Rob Marshall

Stars: Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Johnny Depp, Lila Crawford, James Corden, Daniel Huttlestone, Christine Baranski, Tammy Blanchard

Release date: December 25

Walt Disney Pictures doesn't just have a great cast to boast about (and there is some perfect casting, like Johnny Depp as The Wolf and Chris Pine as the quintessential Prince Charming,) it's also got the director of Chicago and the producer of Wicked attached to Into the Woods. The visually stunning fantasy film, Disney's first adaptation of a Broadway musical, is set in an alternate world of Grimm's fairytales, twined together by a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who've been cursed childless by an evil witch (played by perfection personified, Meryl Streep). As the couple try to reverse the curse, they encounter more beloved storybook characters, including Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lila Crawford), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone), and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy). 

If the cast isn't confirmation enough, then its Christmas Day release date should reassure you that Into the Woods will at least be satisfying, if not pretty incredible. In any case, if you plan on watching this, apologize to your friends and family now for how much you'll annoy them singing back the movie's songs. —Tara Aquino

Director: Angelina Jolie

Stars: Jack O'Connell, Garrett Hedlund, Miyavi, Jai Courtney, Domhnall Gleeson, Alex Russell, Finn Wittrock, Harry Treadaway, C.J. Valleroy, John Magaro

Release date: December 25

Hope you're not precious, Skins fans, because your boy Jack O'Connell is about to be the most in-demand young actor in Hollywood. Already gaining steam for his impressive performance in prison drama Starred Up, O'Connell's adding fuel to the fire with his first major U.S. release, Unbroken. The film chronicles O'Connell as Olympic track star Louie Zamperini as he fights to survive his two-and-a-half spent years at a Japanese POW camp. Not only is the film poised for Oscar gold with a prime release date, it's also garnering widespread attention based on the fact that's directed by Angelina Jolie alone. If O'Connell's feeling any pressure, he certainly doesn't show it. —​Tara Aquino

Director: Clint Eastwood

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Max Charles, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Sam Jaeger

Release date: December 25

Hey, remember Clint Eastwood’s stage-to-screen adaptation Jersey Boys that opened a couple months back? You don’t? Well, that means you have something in common with damn near everyone else who’ll read this list. A total non-factor in theaters, Jersey Boys was a strange case of an acclaimed, legendary filmmaker watching his latest project get ignored and/or quickly dismissed. For someone whose movies usually garner Oscar attention, that must’ve stung.

Eastwood will have a second chance at releasing something of note in 2014 with American Sniper, another based-on-real-events drama, but one that’s far more intriguing than his Franke Valli biopic. Looking for another Academy Award nomination, or at least more prestige, Bradley Cooper plays real-life Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, who holds the record for the most confirmed kills in United States military history. In addition to mimicking Kyle’s untouchable marksmanship, Cooper will certainly look the part— as in, he got seriously buff for the role. Which makes it tough to crack on him for also dressing like this, because, you know, he’d pound me into the ground. —Matt Barone

Director: Tim Burton

Stars: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Krysten Ritter, Danny Huston, Terence Stamp, Jason Schwartzman, Jon Polito

Release date: December 25

Aside from the lovably weird 2012 animated movie Frankenweenie, Tim Burton has been in a creative rut since 2007’s Sweenie Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The singular eccentric who once made left-field classics like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Ed Wood struck out twice with Johnny Depp via the painful Alice in Wonderland (2010) and the all-too-familiar Dark Shadows (2012), the latter seeming as if Burton was spoofing his own arsenal of Hot-Topic-friendly sensibilities, which, sadly, wasn’t actually the case. He really tried to make a good movie, and he failed miserably.

Something tells us that he’ll fare much better with Big Eyes, the most promising new Tim Burton movie since 2003’s Big Fish. Oscar darling Amy Adams stars as real-life artist Margaret Keane, who, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, worked on paintings praised for their weird bug-eye designs while her husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz), received all the credit. With its based-on-real-people angle, Big Eyes has the potential to be Burton’s next Ed Wood. Even better, Johnny Depp is nowhere to be seen. That, in and of itself, is progress. —Matt Barone

Director: Ava DuVernay

Stars: David Oyelowo, Tim Roth, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Common, Oprah Winfrey, Lorraine Toussaint, Niecy Nash, Giovanni Ribisi, Alessandro Nivola, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Keith Stanfield, Colman Domingo

Release date: December 25

The fall’s most exciting biopic should also body the competition come Oscar nomination day, barring any disasters—namely, that this movie doesn’t live up to its sky-high potential.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. film we’ve all been waiting for, Selma puts underrated character actor David Oyelowo front and center as MLK; the film itself, meanwhile, foregoes the tired old from-rags-to-riches arc that turned last year’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom into a bigger snooze than Clint Eastwood’s sleepy Invictus. Selma focuses on MLK’s involvement in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches that led to the Voting Rights Act’s passing. To carry that through, King worked alongside Civil Rights leaders James Bevel and Hosea Williams, played here by Common and Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme), respectively.

The rest of Selma’s stacked cast is worth mentioning, from Oprah Winfrey to Tim Roth and Cuba Gooding, Jr., but its the movie’s director who should really be its headlining attraction. Already hugely respected within critics’ circles for her wonderful 2012 flick Middle of Nowhere (which also starred David Oyelowo), Ava DuVernay has been on the verge of next-big-thing status for two years now, and with Selma, she could very well join 12 Years a Slave helmer Steve McQueen as another Hollywood anomaly: a black filmmaker who owns an Academy Award statue for Best Director. —Matt Barone