3 Movies Opening in October That Should Be On Your Radar

Director: Kelly Reichardt
Screenplay: Kelly Reichart (adaptation of three short stories by Maile Meloy)
U.S. release date: October 14, 2016.
U.K. release date: TBD, but it is screening at the London Film Festival on October 9, 2016.
Reichardt is a master of the minimal, the observant, the quiet. Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, and Kristen Stewart – all three heavy-hitting names – wander through this movie giving absolutely non-star performances. Riveting, though. And newcomer Lily Gladstone gives such a memorable performance that she was all I could think about afterwards. No major catharsis here. Fragments and snapshots of the lives of three (really, four) women living in the same small town in Montana.

Director: Barry Jenkins
Screenplay: Barry Jenkins
U.S. release date: October 21, 2016
U.K. release date: TBD, but it is screening at the London Film Festival on October 6, 2016.
One of the best films of the year. And for me, along with Krisha Fairchild (who has almost no professional credits outside of voiceover work before playing the lead in Krisha – my review of Krisha here), Trevante Rhodes – the actor on the far right of the poster – gives the performance of the year. Do not miss.

Director: Ken Loach
Screenplay: Paul Laverty
U.K. release date: October 21, 2016
U.S. release date: TBD. Doing the festival rounds now.
I was unable to shake the power of this movie for 24 hours. It still haunts me. I must point out – yet again – that the two leads – Dave Johns and Hayley Squires – have minimal credits to their names. They give two of the best performances I’ve seen in 2016 thus far. Shattering. To call this movie “angry” is far too tepid. I, Daniel Blake positively shimmers with rage.

All of these films are an indictment of those who judge the “health” of the movie industry by how well summer blockbusters do. All of these films are a reminder that art is still personal, that directors have personal visions, are drawn to material for personal reasons, that the industry is not just a cash-grab. The Oscars may be entertaining but they are rarely a portrait of what actually happened in film during the year. Films are not successful because of how much money they make. All of these films are a reminder that while the “star system” is of course alive and with us, and I have no problem with that – I’ve got my favorites, you’ve got yours – actors – like Kristen Stewart, like Michelle Williams – are still drawn to challenging weird little projects, where they probably work for scale, because they believe in the director, the story. They are not careerists. They are artists. And all of these films are a reminder that there are so many actors out there – brilliant and emotionally sensitive and intelligent – who rarely get cast in stuff where they can really show us what they have. Who are taking big BIG risks. Like Gillian Welch wrote of Elvis: when he went out on stage he did so “with his soul at stake.” With the acting in these films – the two leads in I, Daniel Blake and Trevante Rhodes in Moonlight in particular – you can FEEL that people’s SOULS are at stake.