Good Riddance to 2006's Summer Movie Season

I haven't written in a while, but yesterday I got some inspiration in the mail. My favorite Entertainment Weekly issue of the year arrived, the Fall Movie Preview. Unlike last year's underwhelming crop of Oscar contenders, this year there are a surpising number of upcoming films that have my interest piqued. The caveat is that at this time of year, it's easy to be seduced by movies that look prestigious on paper but end up disappointing once you get into the theater (see Munich, Cold Mountain, Ali). Let's call it the Jude Law Factor, named for the actor who always seems prestigious, but doesn't actually have any real substance. So taking the JLF into account, here are the twelve I'm most looking forward to:

12. Deja Vu. Denzel Washington plays--get this--a cop. Solving a crime using deja vu is highly questionable in the era of CSI, but what the heck, I'll go along for the ride.

11. This Film is Not Yet Rated. An indie documentary about the mysterious cabal that is the MPAA ratings board. This is too inside-Hollywood for the mainstream masses, but I always like a good expose.

10. Stranger than Fiction. There are shades of Charlie Kaufman here, as Will Ferrell plays a mild-mannered man who discovers he's the main character in a work-in-progress novel. If done right, this is the kind of high-concept movie that I really appreciate.

9. The Good German. Five years ago I would have easily picked Steven Soderbergh as my favorite director. He had just come off of an astoundingly prolific run of five terrific movies between 1998 and 2001. Then things started turning sour, bottoming out with the self-indulgent Ocean's Twelve. I'm hoping that The Good German is a return to the good Clooney collaboration (Out of Sight) rather than the bad Clooney collaboration (Solaris).

8. Little Children. I loved this novel about seedy suburban parents, so I'll go see the film version despite the fact that they chose no-name Patrick Wilson to play the lead.

7. The Good Shepherd. Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie star in Robert DeNiro's second directorial effort, a sprawling saga tracing the history of the CIA. Matt Damon sure to garner a massive campaign for Best Actor with this movie. This would be higher on my list, but Jude Law Factor knocks it down a few pegs.

6. Dreamgirls. I know the soundtrack well from my childhood, so there's a special attachment to this long-gestating project from Bill Condon, who wrote Chicago. There's perfect casting here too, with Jamie Foxx, Beyonce and Eddie Murphy.

5. Babel. From the director of Amores Perros and 21 Grams comes yet another split-narrative, time-shifting emotionally wrenching sprawl of a movie. It's time to take a deep breath and head straight to the theater.

4. Fast Food Nation. I really like Richard Linklater's films and I love the decision to fictionalize this non-fiction book that served as an indictment of the fast food industry. I'm hoping it will be like Traffic, but with comedy in place of drama and McDonalds in place of cocaine.

3. The Departed. It's got a desperate-for-an-Oscar Martin Scorsese directing. It's got a killer cast headlined by Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. It's got a juicy plot in which a policeman infiltrates the mob while a mobster infiltrates the police. So why isn't this number one on my list? Simple- it's got JLF written all over it in bold black letters. So instead of expecting this to be an instant classic, I'm merely hoping that it'll be a serviceable way to pass time on a Saturday night.

2. Flags of our Fathers. The first of a two-part war epic about the soldiers who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Barry Pepper's in the cast, hopefully reprising his sniper role from Saving Private Ryan. In any case, you simply cannot bet against Clint Eastwood and Paul Haggis right now.

1. For Your Consideration. Another mockumentary from Christopher Guest, this time a send up of awards-season hype. The usual cast is here, with Parker Posey as a snooty actress, Eugene Levy as a Hollywood agent, Fred Willard playing the host of an Access Hollywood-like show. But the cherry on top is that Ricky Gervais is on board, playing the head of the studio. I'm smiling already.