No one’s more ’80s than Steven Spielberg. The end of the year offers a double helping. Spielberg’s motion-capture version of the Tintin comic books opens three days before his “War Horse,’’ an epic about a boy’s thoroughbred conscripted into military service.
Glenn Close and Meryl Streep duke it out again for chief grande dame of cinema stardom. Close plays a 19th-century Irishwoman who, for a good job, disguises herself as a man in “Albert Nobbs.’’ So you’re probably thinking: “The Oscar is hers.’’ But now we have to tell you that in “The Iron Lady’’ Streep plays Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher, and it all brings us back to 1980-something when Close and Streep were perennial nominees and - in the minds of some moviegoers - rivals.
How ’80s is this season? There’s a remake of “Footloose.’’
If this all sounds safe, safety might be what we need in these times of crisis, uncertainty, and runaway partisanship. We could all use some help. Wait, that movie’s already come out, and it could use some help itself.
So here’s a list of titles scheduled to open in area theaters between now and the end of the year. Dates are subject to change.
SEPTEMBER 16
Drive “The Fast and the Furious’’ for espresso-sipping hipsters. Ryan Gosling, still glowing from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.’’ plays an unnamed stunt driver hired by a crime syndicate. Carey Mulligan - little Miss “Education’’ herself - is the single mother he aims to protect. Danish whiz-kid Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson,’’ the “Pusher’’ trilogy) directs at Mach 10.
Farmageddon - The War on American Family Farms Making her filmmaking debut, Concord resident Kristin Canty offers up this documentary on agribusiness’s assault on small farmers.
