October film preview: get ready for Joker and Donald Trump jump-scares

Cast: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbæk, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler

Director: Gary Dauberman

Like many of you, we’re very curious about this long-delayed adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. Seemingly packed in a crate, dumped with dirt, and sent by ship from a theatrical release date to a shrug on Max, the movie has lain dormant for two years since its original 2022 release date. The recently released trailer doubles as proof of life, but it seems like WBD hopes no one notices and goes to see Joker 2 instead.

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Zazie Beetz, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Steve Coogan

Director: Todd Phillips

The reason for the season. Five years after Todd Phillips’ Joker made a billion dollars, Phoenix and Phillips return to terrorize Gotham with another round of “Who’s the actual bad guy, me or society?” The bigger, badder, and battier sequel fancies itself a musical, and it’s got Lady Gaga and Alan Partridge to prove it. Will the Joker continue to prove that the people watching the movie are worse than the Joker? Or has Batman finally had the last laugh? Tune in on October 4. Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel*.

*Check your local theaters for showtimes.

Cast: Adam Brooks, Conor Sweeney, Kirsty Wordsworth, Meredith Sweeney, and Matthew Kennedy 

Director: Steven Kostanski

Based on the trailer, Frankie Freako is the greatest movie ever made. An homage to the little guy creature features of the 1980s (more in the Ghoulies and Garbage Pail Kids vein than Gremlins and Critters), Frankie Freako follows a go-nowhere yuppie whose girlfriend is going to leave him if he doesn’t learn how to party. After catching an ad on late-night TV for the original party animal, he calls Frankie Freako and watches his life turn upside down. Yeah, we’re ready to get Freako.

Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J. K. Simmons

Director: Jason Reitman

Who are we to resist? Jason Reitman’s love letter to Saturday Night Live takes a Steve Jobsian approach to the biopic. Following creator Lorne Michaels as he battles with NBC exec Dick Ebersol to get the first episode of Saturday Night Live on air sounds like a blast. Reitman cast the movie with many talented young actors doing what appears to be very fun impressions of several comedy legends. It has a made-for-TV charm, a tinge of Ryan Murphy in its artifice. But come on, Nicholas Braun is playing Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman? That’s worth the price alone.

Cast: Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, David Howard Thornton, Chris Jericho, Daniel Roebuck, Tom Savini, and Samantha Scaffidi

Director: Damien Leone

He’s ba-a-a-a-ck. Art the Clown (and his little hat) return for more bloodletting. But being the second sequel in the Terrifier trilogy, writer-director Damien Leone made the clever decision to switch it up. The Christmas setting allows Art to switch out the headgear. He does look good in a Santa stocking. We appreciate it because Halloween and Christmas are two great flavors that taste great together. The holidays start earlier every year.

Cast: Pharrell Williams, Morgan Neville, Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani, Timbaland, Snoop Dog, Justin Timberlake, Daft Punk, Busta Rhymes, and Pusha T

Director: Morgan Neville

We’ll say this about October 11, 2024: it’s got something weird for everyone. Joining Terrifjer and the Donald Trump movie is a LEGO documentary about the life of Pharrell. We wrote what we wrote. Piece By Piece is a documentary about Pharell’s life, except the interviews and stories were animated using LEGO for some reason. We don’t know why it exists in this form, but it is an original approach, even if it is to juice up a run-of-the-mill rock doc.

Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Charlie Carrick, Mark Rendall, and Joe Pingue

Director: Ali Abbasi

Iranian director Ali Abbasi certainly took a leap of faith when he began filming a movie based on the relationship between Donald Trump and lawyer Roy Cohn. Many predicted the film would struggle to find an American distribution deal due to its portrayal of the former president. Thankfully, it got one, and The Apprentice, equipped with Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong playing buffoonish caricatures of society’s worst guys, looks like a total blast in a dark Succession type of way.

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Roy Dupuis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Takehiro Hiroa, Denis Ménochet, Rolando Ravellop, Zlatko Burić, and Charles Dance as the President of the United States

Directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson

The latest whatsit from the ongoing concern of Maddin, Johnson & Johnson follows a disastrous G7 summit in the middle of a global crisis. Suddenly, amid the negotiations and glad-handing, a giant brain sends a horde of ghouls after the attendees. Yeah, we’ll have to see this one to understand it. And even then, there are no guarantees.

Cast: Peter Dinklage, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, and Brendan Fraser

Director: Max Barbakow

We’ve waited forever for director Max Barbakow’s follow-up to Palm Springs. That time-loop wonder was a rejuvenating little comedy released in the darkest days of the pandemic. Now, four years later, he returns with a scumbag crime comedy called Brothers that, ironically, feels like a mix of two other brothers: Coen and Farrelly. The trailer doesn’t instill much confidence, and Josh Brolin looks too much like John Cena, which gives Brothers a Last Action Hero, fake-movie vibe.

Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Ani Nelson, Sophia Brown, Jonathan Livingstone, and Samantha Spiro

Director: Mike Leigh

The prolific Mike Leigh reunites with his Secret And Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste for the first time in 30 years on Hard Truths. Jean-Baptiste plays a surly, cynical Scrooge who has rejected everyone in her life. Her sister (Michele Austin), though, is the opposite. Together, they’ll work through the hard truths of life, so to speak, in a humanistic, funny, and bittersweet way. Any new film by Mike Leigh is a cause for celebration. We can’t wait to see what he and Baptiste have in store for this reunion.

Cast: Parker Finn

Director: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson, and Kyle Gallner

Even though Parker Finn’s Smile was rated R, it felt like a PG-13 It Follows. Hitting all the “elevated horror” hallmarks of grief cleverly disguised as supernatural terror, Smile also made a truckload of money. Smile 2 continues the story of the smile that makes you dead, this time latching itself onto a depressed pop singer (Naomi Scott). Pop stars, they’re just like us. Smile 2 does feel like less of a direct sequel because the only returning cast member is Kyle Gallner as Joel.

Cast: Sean Baker

Director: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora is one of the fall’s most anticipated films. The film stars Mikey Madison as a take-no-bullshit stripper who hooks up with and marries the son of a Russian oligarch on a whim. The situation spirals out of control as she meets his family, who aren’t exactly pleased with their boy’s choice of bride. The trailer promises Mike Madison screaming at many guys in ugly suits. We couldn’t be more excited.

Cast: Michael Keaton, Mila Kunis, Andie MacDowell, and Kevin Pollak

Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer

The latest dramedy from Hallie Meyers-Shyer stars Michael Keaton as Andy Goodrich, the 70-year-old father of 9-year-old twins. That would be complicated enough, but when his wife leaves him and enters a 90-day rehab program, he’s left playing babysitter. Calling his daughter (Mila Kunis) for reinforcements, Andy recalibrates his life, expectations, and future in a movie that looks like stepping into a warm bath.

Cast: André Holland, Andra Day, John Earl Jelks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Director: Titus Kaphar

Sundance breakout Exhibiting Forgiveness offers an intimate drama as a painter named Tarrell (Holland) and his family return to his childhood home to meet Tarrell’s estranged father. Having spent his career channeling the rage and anguish of his childhood into artwork, Tarrell must learn, as the title implies, to exhibit forgiveness to move to the next step. Tender, human, and full of great actors, we look forward to crying our eyes out at this one.

Cast: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, and Stephen Graham

Director: Kelly Marcel

For Tom Hardy’s third Venom, which teases some finality with the Last Dance subtitle, Sony is letting him go as wild as he wants. Directed by Kelly Marcel, who co-wrote the whacky supervillain series in all its “I’m sorry about Venom” glory, Last Dance has jokes in the trailer, a Venom horse, and some classic Venom-Eddie bickering. What more could we ask for?

Cast: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Director: RaMell Ross

In this unique adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Oscar-nominated director RaMell Ross literally goes inside the head of the main characters. From star Ethan Herisse’s first-person perspective, Nickle Boys is a tour of Jim Crow-era Florida as Elwood survives a segregated reform school, the Nickel Academy. It’s the second family drama starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in two weeks, and we’re not complaining.