1 I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (Netflix, September 4) The most Charlie Kaufman of titles this week, even if an adaptation: the death-adjacent mordant comedy writer-director works with the bestseller by Iain Reid and the visual styling of cinematographer Lukasz Zal (“Ida,” “Cold War”).
2 Kajillionaire (Opens Friday, September 18) Piercing whimsitician Miranda July returns to feature filmmaking with a caper about a family of female bank robbers, featuring Evan Rachel Wood as “Old Dolio.”
3 Thirty-Sixth Chicago Latino Film Festival (September 18-27) While the group has been featuring work that’s played at CLFF over the past fifteen years online, the premiere event arrives this month in virtual form: “Arts are crucial to our lives,” founder Pepe Vargas says.
4 Greenland (Opens Friday, September 25) A comet races to destroy earth. Gerard Butler must save us all. Or not. The “countdown to global apocalypse approaches zero” as “I swear I’m gonna get mah family into that bunker!”
5 Tenet (Opens Friday, September 4) Fresh off roadshow debut engagements in Russia and countries that claim lower viral loads within their populace, Christopher Nolan’s quarter-billion-dollar mindscratcher about time “inversion” is scheduled, and may (or may not) play at drive-ins and reduced-capacity moviehouses in selected cities outside of pandemic hotspots over Labor Day weekend.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Film Top 5: September 2023 At press time, the studios had not yet made counter-offers to the demands of striking actors and writers; the fall movie season and beyond is more unpredictable than any time since the pandemic began.
Film 50 2020: Chicago’s Screen Gems There are old masters with decades of experience and upstarts, too. We don’t mark ages on the list, but the profiles and portraits offer clues.
