Hey, it's Friday. Who feels like working? Let's all put on headphones and watch trailers for new movies being shown at the Hamptons International Film Festival next week. What looks good to you? We've been crazy about Alan Turing for 30 years, but then we love some Gyllenhaal.
As for the aforementioned Turing, Benedict Cumberbatch is British mathematician Alan Turing in Morten Tyldum's drama. The Imitation Game tells the story of Turing in the early days of World War II as he applies for a top-secret position tasked with decoding the "unbreakable" Nazi cipher machine called Enigma. His work was labeled by Churchill as "the greatest single contribution to victory," but after the war he suffered great personal and professional turmoil as he dealt with his homosexuality in a time when it was illegal.
In an effort to erase the shadow of his biggest on-screen role, the enormously popular Birdman, Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) heads to Broadway. He banks his artistic ambitions (and dormant talents) on his upcoming theatrical production of Raymond Carver short stories, but before the footlights shine he must deal with an erratic replacement (Edward Norton), his bitter daughter (Emma Stone), and Birdman himself.
Based on true events, Foxcatcher follows Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and his revered brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) as they fall into the orbit of an eccentric multi-millionaire, John du Pont (Steve Carell), with the ambiguous goal of launching Mark to fame and glory.
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize nominee Glendon Swarthout and follows the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) as she transports three "damaged" women by covered wagon to Iowa across the American frontier.
Laggies: Megan (Keira Knightley) is content to work as a sign flipper for her doting father's accounting company. When her high school boyfriend proposes at her friend's wedding, she panics. Pretending to go to a professional-development retreat, she befriends 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) and hides out in her house with her attractive single dad (Sam Rockwell).
Nightcrawler is a thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the world of L.A. crime journalism. Joining a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, murders, and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the dangerous realm of nightcrawling—where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents.