1 Dekalog (Music Box, opens September 2) The only film Stanley Kubrick ever blurbed was Krzysztof Kieslowski’s glorious masterpiece, “Dekalog,” in the form of the published screenplay by Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz: “You never see the ideas coming and don’t realize until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart.” Once again, Stanley knows.
2 Hooligan Sparrow (Facets, opens September 2) Nanfu Wang’s urgent first feature takes on China’s government with only the recourse of guerrilla filmmaking to capture the journey of activist Ye Haiyan (known as “Hooligan Sparrow”) and others who travel to Hainan Province to protest the case of six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal.
3 Little Men (Landmark Century, opens September 2) Ira Sachs’ latest is a tender telling of the street- and apartment-level effects of gentrification in modern Brooklyn.
4 Mia Madre (Music Box, opens September 2) A director tries to keep control of her latest film, starring a hammy John Turturro, while juggling a romantic breakup, a troubled teen daughter and her elderly mother’s advancing illness. Understated, elegiac storytelling from Nanni Moretti (“The Son’s Room”) with the right dash of wit.
5 Nick Cave: One More Time With Feeling (Music Box, September 8) Documentary of the making of Cave’s newest album is directed by frequent collaborator Andrew Dominik (“Killing Them Softly,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”).
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
