The Dark Knight
Opening July 18, 2008
There's something about superhero films, especially this particular franchise, that bug-lamps first-class talent. Director Christopher Nolan (Memento) is back and the roster of actors in his follow-up to Batman Begins reads like an Academy Awards retrospective. Christian Bale, who never falters, returns as the insomniac hero. Also back are Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman, while new additions include Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Regardless of that absurd well of talent, the film will belong to the late Heath Ledger. Even before the actor's passing fervid fans raved about his performance in leaked clips. Stripping off Jack Nicholson's ebullience, Ledger plays the demonic clown with a shambolic, psychopathic mania, reportedly inspired by A Clockwork Orange. He will be an early awards-season favourite. As for the film itself, early glances look like Heat with latex meets the The Crow. This one will be massive. -S.T.



X-Files: I Want to Believe
Opening July 25, 2008
David Duchovny is the king of butter-soft art porn. Star of Red Shoes Diaries and Showtime's breast and lite-literature hit, Californication, he's well known to surreptitious adolescent television watchers everywhere. Now comes this, a very high class porno about religion - oh, wait, no, sorry, it's actually a follow-up to some sort of television show; my mistake. Chris Carter's geek fantasy gets a second celluloid remount. Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (the underrated Gillian Anderson (see The House of Mirth)) again battle sci-fi villains. Thankfully Amanda Peet, Xzibit, Callum Keith Rennie, and the funniest man in the world, Billy Connolly, are also featured. -S.T.



Pineapple Express
Opening August 8, 2008
If Mumblecore can churn out a horror film (see Baghead), then a Criterion-friendly auteur can release a genre(s) flick. Transposing a stoner buddy comedy onto an action paradigm, Pineapple Express has an alluring mixed-bag pedigree. Reuniting Freaks and Geeks alumni Seth Rogen and James Franco, this will-be hit has the still-cachet-heavy Apatow stamp of approval. A screenplay from Rogen and his Superbad writing partner, Evan Goldberg, is auspicious, but the unheralded draw is director David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls). This marks the first time that Green has filmed a script that isn't his own. Though a buddy farce seems an odd choice from the Malick-loving visualist, this respite from his typical thematic gravitas could cull a new audience for the under-seen filmmaker. Bonus: Gary Cole, Craig Robinson, and Bill Hader are in the strong supporting cast.



Choke
Opening August 8, 2008
Like Choke director and long-time character player, Clark Gregg, Sam Rockwell is one of those actors that no one knows what to do with. His standout performance in George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind should have made him a star, but instead, he has languished in memorable supporting turns (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). In this adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's bleak comedic novel of the same name, Rockwell stars as a conman/Civil War re-enactor. With support from the revered Anjelica Houston and my future wife, Kelly Macdonald (she's been having a good run as of late (see No Country for Old Men)), Choke should be quirky gold. -S.T.

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