NYT: A Glut of Cinema This October

Did somebody blow a whistle and decide that mid-October should be some kind of ad hoc, free-floating film fest? Not really. Current movie-business dynamics are at work, along with some long-held superstitions.

By DAVID CARR
In certain circles of New York life, cultural cachet does not hinge on possession of the latest gadget or juicy piece of gossip. Instead, when the Saturday dinner party in Williamsburg or on the Upper West Side turns to films, the dedicated savant who has managed to see the just-opened movie gem owns the conversation.

“Control,” at Film Forum, is just one of many fall options for the dedicated cinephile.
This weekend, if you are one of those people — there are worse vices — you will simply have to go see “Lars and the Real Girl,” the comedy starring Ryan Gosling and a blowup doll that was the talk of the Toronto International Film Festival. And then you better drink a few lattes, because “Control,” the black-and-white biopic about the leader of the rock group Joy Division, also opened this week. And start early, because “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” is taking a bow, with Cate Blanchett under all the ferocious makeup again.

Don’t make plans for Saturday, because you’ll need that matinee time to take in Kenneth Branagh’s remake of “Sleuth,” featuring the acting chops of Michael Caine and Jude Law and a screenplay by Harold Pinter. And even after all those wind sprints between theaters, you’ll need a clone to take in James Gray’s New York narco-drama “We Own the Night,” or any of the other 10 new movies that open this week in the city.

Maybe you can bluff your way through the “Have you seen ‘X’?” conversation this weekend and catch a few films in the days following, but next week the onslaught continues. “Gone Baby Gone,” Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, based on a Dennis Lehane novel, piles in. So do “Rendition,” “Reservation Road,” “Things We Lost in the Fire” and “Wristcutters: A Love Story,” all must-sees for dedicated consumers of specialty film. And that’s not even including smaller but still notable projects that will have been released in little more than a week, like “Out of the Blue,” “Terror’s Advocate,” “Black White + Gray” and “King Corn.”

Did somebody blow a whistle and decide that mid-October should be some kind of ad hoc, free-floating film fest? Not really. Current movie-business dynamics are at work, along with some long-held superstitions.

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