ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Hollywood spent this summer in recovery mode, recovering from COVID, strikes, even from hurricanes. Still, for the right film, like "Inside Out 2," audiences flocked to cinemas. So what will be the films that really hit as the weather turns chilly? Critic Bob Mondello makes some educated guesses in his fall movie preview.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Superhero fatigue is a thing - antihero fatigue, not so much. Everybody loves a villain, and the fall has plenty to choose from.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE")
WINONA RYDER: (As Lydia Deetz) I can't believe I'm doing this - Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
MICHAEL KEATON: (As Beetlejuice) The 'Juice is loose.
MONDELLO: Michael Keaton's trickster demon is back.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE")
RYDER: (As Lydia Deetz) I need you to help me save my daughter. But how do I know that you're going to keep your word?
MONDELLO: You won't.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE")
KEATON: (As Beetlejuice) I swear on my dead mother's soul. Bob...
MONDELLO: Me?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE")
KEATON: (As Beetlejuice) ...You and the boys stand guard. Nobody gets through.
MONDELLO: OK. But keeping out the other guys will take some doing. Joaquin Phoenix, say, has a fresh date with destiny in "Joker: Folie A Deux."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX")
LADY GAGA: (As Harley Quinn) You can do anything you want.
MONDELLO: The other half of deux...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX")
JOAQUIN PHOENIX: (As Arthur Fleck/Joker, laughing).
MONDELLO: ...Being Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX")
LADY GAGA: (As Harley Quinn) You're Joker.
MONDELLO: Spider-Man's nemesis is back, too, in "Venom: The Last Dance."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "VENOM: THE LAST DANCE")
TOM HARDY: (As Venom) We are fugitives.
MONDELLO: And pretty much everyone's a villain except hero Paul Mescal in "Gladiator II"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GLADIATOR II")
PEDRO PASCAL: (As Marcus Acacius) Rome has so many subjects. She must feed them.
FRED HECHINGER: (As Emperor Caracalla) They can eat war.
MONDELLO: ...Childish emperors, Denzel Washington as a powerbroker and Mescal bringing the whole Roman Empire crashing around his shoulders.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GLADIATOR II")
PAUL MESCAL: (As Lucius) This is about survival. Survive.
MONDELLO: On a smaller scale, there are rival mob fixers, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, forced to work together...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WOLFS")
BRAD PITT AND GEORGE CLOONEY: (As Pam's Man and Margaret's Man) No.
MONDELLO: ...In "Wolfs."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WOLFS")
GEORGE CLOONEY: (As Margaret's Man) It's not how I work.
BRAD PITT: (As Pam's Man) This is not how I work.
AUSTIN ABRAMS: (As Kid) You got, like, the same clothes, kind of talk the same. You're, like, basically the same guy.
CLOONEY: (As Margaret's Man) We're not partners.
ABRAMS: (As Kid) So you're secret partners?
PITT: (As Pam's Man) We're not secret partners.
MONDELLO: Paul Reiser and Colm Meaney are long-estranged Irish cousins in "The Problem With People."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE")
PAUL REISER: (As Barry) Bring it on.
COLM MEANEY: (As Ciaran) We'll see about that.
REISER: (As Barry) Oh, yeah. We will see about that.
MONDELLO: In "A Real Pain," Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin are differently neurotic cousins who go to Poland to get in touch with their pre-Holocaust roots.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A REAL PAIN")
KIERAN CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) The conductor's going to come through taking tickets. We tell him going to the bathroom.
JESSE EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) Bathroom. OK.
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) He gets to the back of the train. He's going to start heading towards the front looking for stragglers.
EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) Sorry, we're the stragglers?
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) Yeah.
EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) Tickets are probably, like, 12 bucks.
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) It's the principal of the thing. We shouldn't have to pay for train tickets in Poland. This is our country.
EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) No it's not. It was our country. They kicked us out 'cause they thought we were cheap.
MONDELLO: And as a reviewer, it pains me to say this, but the nastiest guy on screen this fall may just be the title character in "The Critic."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CRITIC")
GEMMA ARTERTON: (As Nina Land) You've compared me to livestock, creatures of the sea and an extinct bird. It's going to stop.
IAN MCKELLEN: (As Jimmy Erskine) Oh, are you retiring?
MARK STRONG: (As David Brooke) How on earth do you live with yourself?
MCKELLEN: (As Jimmy Erskine) Please, this is only the beginning.
MONDELLO: Fall is the time when awards contenders gather - this year, including Kate Winslet in the biopic "Lee" about groundbreaking World War II photographer Lee Miller...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LEE")
JAMES MURRAY: (As Colonel Spencer) We don't send women to combat.
KATE WINSLET: (As Lee Miller) Well, that's a problem because I'm here.
MONDELLO: ...Also "Blitz," a war story from "12 Years A Slave" director Steve McQueen. There's a passion project by "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola called "Megalopolis"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MEGALOPOLIS")
LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As Fundi Romaine) When does an empire die?
MONDELLO: ...The Palme d'Or winner from Cannes about a sex worker named Anora and the wayward son of a Russian oligarch.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ANORA")
MARK EIDELSHTEIN: (As Ivan) If I get married to an American, I wouldn't have to go back to Russia.
MIKEY MADISON: (As Ani) So who'd you marry?
MONDELLO: And the film "Here" reunites director Robert Zemeckis with his "Forrest Gump" stars, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, de-aged by AI for a story that takes them from 18...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HERE")
TOM HANKS: (As Richard) Hey, Dad. I'd like you to meet Margaret.
ROBIN WRIGHT: (As Margaret) Nice to meet you, Mr. Young.
MONDELLO: ...All the way to 80.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HERE")
HANKS: (As Richard) Time sure does fly, doesn't it?
WRIGHT: (As Margaret) Sure does.
MONDELLO: Also time-traveling, the teenager in "My Old A**" who's tripping on mushrooms when she meets her older self...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MY OLD A**")
AUBREY PLAZA: (As Older Elliott) Dude, I'm you.
MAISY STELLA: (As Elliott) You're me?
MONDELLO: ...And gets a lot of unwanted advice.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MY OLD A**")
PLAZA: (As Older Elliott) Can you avoid anyone named Chad?
MARIA DIZZIA: (As Kathy) Good morning, Elliot. Have you met Chad?
MONDELLO: And filmmaker Jason Reitman jumps back 49 years to tell the story of some pals of his director dad, Ivan Reitman.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SATURDAY NIGHT")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Dan Aika (ph) - how the [expletive] do you pronounce this?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Akroyd.
MONDELLO: It's a tale of the very first broadcast of a little late-night comedy show they'd come up with...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SATURDAY NIGHT")
GABRIEL LABELLE: (As Lorne Michaels) My name is Lorne Michaels. I'm the producer of "Saturday Night."
STEPHEN BADALAMENTI: (As Lobby Security Guard) The whole night?
LABELLE: (As Lorne Michaels) Yeah, the whole night.
MONDELLO: ...Specifically the hours leading up to the words - live from New York - on October 11, 1975.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SATURDAY NIGHT")
COOPER HOFFMAN: (As Dick Ebersol) We're just not ready.
LABELLE: (As Lorne Michaels) It doesn't matter that we're ready. It matters that it's 11:30. That's when we go on.
MONDELLO: Showbiz also figures in a seriously offbeat documentary about singer Pharrell Williams.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "PIECE BY PIECE")
PHARRELL WILLIAMS: You know what'd be cool is if we told my story with Lego pieces.
MORGAN NEVILLE: (Laughter) Seriously?
WILLIAMS: Yes.
NEVILLE: Lego?
MONDELLO: The documentary is called "Piece By Piece." Other intriguing animated films include "Abruptio," a stop-action horror comedy...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ABRUPTIO")
JAMES MARSTERS: (As Les Hackel) My name is Les Hackel, and I have a bomb in my neck.
MONDELLO: ...Also stop-action, "Memoir Of A Snail," about an odd Australian family. And there's the computer-animated "Wild Robot," about an android marooned on an island.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE WILD ROBOT")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) You are defective.
LUPITA NYONG'O: (As Roz) I feel fine.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) You should not feel anything at all.
MONDELLO: But the season's biggest fish-out-of-water tale is live action, a classic musical based on a classic movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WICKED")
CYNTHIA ERIVO: (As Elphaba) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz summons you to the Emerald City.
MONDELLO: It features two witches, one popular, played by Ariana Grande.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WICKED")
ARIANA GRANDE: (As Glinda) I couldn't possibly. This is your moment. I'm coming.
MONDELLO: The other, green, played by Cynthia Erivo and a wizard with a dastardly plan you'd pretty much have to call wicked.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WICKED")
JEFF GOLDBLUM: (As Wizard) The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.
MONDELLO: Like I said back at the beginning - yes? - a whole season's worth. I'm Bob Mondello. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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