Choke
Opening September 26, 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.



Fireflies in the Garden
Opening September 26, 2008
The roster of talent behind Fireflies in the Garden renders the Robert Frost reference joyously fitting and playfully ironic (look it up). Julia Roberts heads the cast as the beleaguered Lisa Waechter, the pregnant wife of Willem Defoe’s pedantic cad, Charles. A drama with a semi-sylvan setting, expect droves of familial strife and award-grabbing turns. Ryan Reynolds – in what could be a career changing performance – Carrie-Anne Moss, Ioan Gruffud, and Emily Watson round out the stellar players in this Dennis Lee helmed/scripted picture. –S.T.



What Just Happened?
Opening October 3, 2008
Barry Levinson hasn't had a hit, critically or financially, in a long while. Perhaps he's due. The same can be said for What Just Happened? star, Robert De Niro (Stardust?). Based on Art Linson's memoir, What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, WJH follows a faltering producer (De Niro) as he struggles with celluloid-related strife and a shot of romantic dishevelment. Hollywood loves films about Hollywood (The Player, um, Jimmy Hollywood), so this could do well. Look for cameos aplenty, including Bruce Willis and Sean Penn as themselves. Strangely, Robin Wright Penn plays a character, rather than Mrs. Penn. Oh, and I was just joking about Jimmy Hollywood (sorry, Barry Levinson). -S.T.



How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Opening October 3, 2008
Spend two seasons starring in and co-writing Spaced and you get my allegiance forever. Therefore, Simon Pegg gets a pass for starring in a couple of stepping stone flicks (i.e. Run Fatboy Run and this forthcoming adaptation of Toby Young's memoir of the same name). This conceit has been trodden more than the path to Mecca: outside struggles to make it in a superficial world, getting charmed by fruit-baring beauties in the process. Here, Pegg's Sidney Young is an alt UK writer imported into the mainstream magazine world of New York. Hopefully hilarity ensues. The supporting cast is strong, with the always reliable Jeff Bridges and a pair of underrated actors in Gillian Anderson and Danny Huston. Kirsten Dunst shows up as the love interest and Megan Fox is appositely the it-girl. -S.T.