The Boy and the Heron
The prolific Japanese filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki, the genius animation master who threatened to retire, returns with The Boy and the Heron, which had opened to great acclaim in Japan earlier this summer.
Inspired by Genzaburo Yoshino’s novel How Do You Live?, The Boy and the Heron chronicles the adventures of a young bereft boy who discovers an abandoned tower and a persistent gray heron while exploring his new town.
Dicks: The Musical
In A24’s first musical feature, comedians Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp play two businessmen who find out they are twins and try to reunite their parents.
Directed by Borat’s Larry Charles, this raunchy film is based on Jackson and Sharp’s two-man stage show that ran at Upright Citizens Brigade in 2014.
Megan Thee Stallion makes her acting debut as a corporate boss and Bowen Yang plays God.
Dumb Money
Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money, based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Antisocial Network.
The I, Tonya and Cruella director has assembled an impressive cast led by Paul Dano as Keith Gill, whose posts on Reddit have been cited as a precipitating factor in the retail stock trading frenzy.
Pete Davidson plays his brother; Shailene Woodley, his wife; America Ferrera, a pseudo-disciple; and Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman, billionaire CEOs who are no good.
His Three Daughters
Azazel Jacobs gathers three talents in his latest film, His Three Daughters.
Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne play estranged sisters forced to reunite when their father becomes seriously ill.
Their distinctive personalities and approaches to palliative care bristle and clash as they cohabitate in the patriarch’s apartment.
Jacobs, a director of sincere features, here goes for an intimate family drama.
Les Indésirables
Ladj Ly’s latest film is a follow-up to his Cannes Jury Prize-winning debut Les Misérables, an explosive drama about tensions between a French anti-crime unit and the residents of their assigned district. I
n Les Indésirables, the Mali-French director culls lessons and imagery from Victor Hugo’s masterwork to bolster his drama about an interim mayor’s clashes with his working-class constituency.
The film is led by performances from Anta Diaw and Alexis Manenti as adversaries.
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
Lil Nas X dominated the scene with the infectious “Old Town Road” in 2019 and his meteoric rise has been the subject of intense fandom and scrutiny. The star has spent years in the spotlight, displaying the interface between his creativity and sexuality. C
Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel appear in Lil Nas X’s debut concert, contributing to a portrait of the Black queer pop star.
Next Goal Wins
Based on Mike Brett and Steve Jamison’s documentary of the same name, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins aims to dramatize the American Samoa national football team’s attempts to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2014.
Michael Fassbender stars as Thomas Rongen, the Dutch-American coach tasked with turning the losing team into winners.
Fa’afafine actor Kaimana plays Jaiyah Saelua, the first nonbinary player to compete in a men’s FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Quiz Lady
Jessica Yu won an Oscar in 1996 for her documentary short on Mark O’Brien. Since then, the director has experimented with feature-length documentaries, television, and narrative projects.
She returns to comedy (after helming the 2007 sports comedy Ping Pong Playa) with Quiz Lady, which boasts a cast of comics.
Sandra Oh and Awkwafina play sisters who plan to pay off their mother’s gambling debt by becoming game show champions.
They are joined by Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor, Will Ferrell and Tony Hale.
Silver Dollar Road
After a brief foray into television with the HBO miniseries Exterminate All the Brutes, Raoul Peck returns to film with documentary based on a joint ProPublica and The New Yorker investigation. ‘
In Silver Dollar Road, Peck chronicles the decades-long struggle faced by one Black family in North Carolina as they protect their land from greedy developers.
Peck’s study depicts how white supremacy shapes and infringes upon the lives of Black people.
We Grown Now
Minhal Baig proved her directorial power in her debut film Hala, which premiered at Sundance in 2019.
The coming-of-age story, We Grown Now, follows Malik and Eric, best friends played by newcomers Blake Cameron James and Gian Knight Ramirez, as they face changes to their community in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing complex.
S. Epatha Merkerson, Jurnee Smollett and Lil Rel Howery star alongside Cameron James and Ramirez in this 1992-set drama about a particular neighborhood.
