The Perks Of Being a Wallflower
Release Date: September 21st (Limited)
Directed by Stephen Chbosky; Starring Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Logan Lerman, Nina Dobrev, and Paul Rudd
While the trailer makes this look like a fairly dull, calm little coming-of-age tale, I understand that the original novel – written by director Stephen Chbosky – is a fairly frank and inventive account of teenage life. If Chbosky can translate that to screen, we may have the first interesting entry in this sub-genre in a long while.
The cast is certainly impressive. I’ve liked Logan Lerman a lot in the past, Ezra Miller was fantastic in last year’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Emma Watson was, of course, the most talented young actor in the Harry Potter franchise. It will be especially interesting to see what she does with a role that is decidedly not Hermione Granger. Color me cautiously optimistic about this one.
End of Watch
Release Date: September 21st
Directed by David Ayer; Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick, Natalie Martinez, and America Ferrera
Open Road has been running their trailer for this one all summer, and it’s a fairly compelling piece of marketing. We’ve seen the story of two best-friend cops going after the big drug cartel plenty of times before, but End of Watch seems like it truly means business, and may have a lot of heart to boot.
Gyllenhaal and Peña are a clever pairing, and they’re surrounded be a quality cast (though that could be colored by my undying love for Anna Kendrick). I don’t know if the film has what it takes to truly reinvigorate the police drama formula, but it appears to be a noble effort, and I’m looking forward to checking it out.
Continue the Preview on the next page…