Over the past few weeks, our Now Streaming features have been chronicling the rapidly blurred line between theatrical and streaming releases. The most high-profile example of this so far is Netflix’s upcoming release of Beasts of No Nation, directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Idris Elba. The first trailer for the film dropped yesterday, along with news the film will open in 19 Landmark Theaters simultaneously with its global launch on the streaming service (via Deadline).

We’ve seen a lot of deals where a film would first open in theaters, perhaps with a shortened release schedule, before becoming available to stream. And of course many small films are available on VOD the same day (or even before) as theaters. To see a film with this kind of profile opening in theaters and a subscription service together, as opposed to a pay-per-view platform, is something else entirely. It will be very interesting to see how the film performs in both arenas and what potential ripples that may have on film distribution. For now, check out these new-to-streaming movies that have already made their theatrical run, as well as a hotly anticipated original series.

Netflix

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (Season 1)

At long last, the prequel series of the cult comedy hits Netflix today, with all eight episodes of the first season available to stream. Creators David Wain and Michael Showalter were somehow able to get all of the film’s impressive (and now, in some cases, popular) cast back together, including Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, David Hyde Pierce, and newcomer Jason Schwartzman. The idea of revisiting Camp Firewood 14 years later as a prequel is wonderfully silly and ripe with possibilities of parody, potentially showcasing Wain and Showalter’s comedic strengths. We shall see if the lightning-in-the-bottle nature of Wet Hot American Summer, with its reputation growing over time, will be reignited or tarnished—in any case, it is an honorable experiment.

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
52 Tuesdays (Sophie Hyde, 2013)
Almost Mercy (Tom DeNucci, 2015)
Comet (Sam Esmail, 2014)
The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson, 2014)
The Wrecking Crew (Denny Tedesco, 2008)

Fandor

The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)

This week, Fandor is taking a sharp look at one of cinema’s greatest years: 1966. Maybe the best of the bunch is the vital and vibrant The Battle of Algiers. The film captures the violent Algerian rebellion against the colonial French in a documentary style that puts the viewer right into the conflict. Using coarse black-and-white photography, statistical information, and a full-scope narrative give The Battle of Algiers its unique presentation and tone—more like an educational video than the war/action film that it could suit. That doesn’t make the film any less thrilling, though, especially since it is just as biting and politically relevant today as it was in 1966. With all of Fandor’s Criterion Picks, you only have a short time to catch it, so make sure you watch The Battle of Algiers and their other selections from 1966 before they expire on August 9.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:.
Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel, 1966)
Daisies (Vera Chytilová, 1966)
Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982)
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
A Shock to the System (Jan Egleson, 1990)

MUBI

Too Much Johnson (Orson Welles, 1938)

I hadn’t realized that there was a Orson Welles film I never heard of, but then MUBI comes along with a 1938 short feature comedy from the great director. The oddly titled film involves a woman with two male lovers; when her husband discovers the other man, he goes on a wild chase to find him. The film had been thought lost until a print was discovered in an Italian warehouse in 2008—after a few years of restoration, it made it’s long-overdue premiere in 2013. This is a terrific example of what makes MUBI an excellent service, as they very personally curate their films, giving a spotlight to each one. This shows up in an eclectic group of films available at any given time, with many selections not easily accessed elsewhere.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
Ashes (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2012)
I Am Secretly an Important Man (Peter Sillen, 2010)
The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924)
The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield, 2012)
To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)

Video On-Demand

White God (Kornél Mundruczó, 2014)

A “Must See Indie” now available on VOD with its release on DVD and Blu-ray, White God is a shocking mash-up of genres with a very intriguing premise. The film follows Hagen, a mixed-breed dog who is abandoned by his young owner’s father onto the streets of Budapest. So Hagen does what any dog would do: recruit an army of canine followers to rise against the humans. It is a strange twist on the hero’s tale and an immensely enjoyable one at that. Not only did the film win the Certain Regard prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, but also the Palm Dog Award—and, no, I’m not making that up, that’s a real thing. In our review of the film, we said “White God is absolutely an insta-classic dog film, but it’s also superbly crafted genre cinema, and a canine fairytale that’s sure to sweep audiences off their feet.”

Other titles new to VOD this week:
Home (Tim Johnson, 2015)
A LEGO Brickumentary (Kief Davidson & Daniel Junge, 2014)
Unexpected (Kris Swanberg, 2015)
The Water Diviner (Russell Crowe, 2014)

You might be thinking “Already?!” but yes, award season is already starting. Today, New York’s Gotham Independent Film Awards put out their nominees, a list filled with pleasant surprises and some very obvious choices.

Let’s start with the obvious choice: Boyhood. Any indie award would be insane to deny Richard Linklater’s film, possibly the indie event of the year, some love, so Gotham understandably gave it four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ethan Hawke), Best Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Breakthrough Actor (Ellar Coltrane). Also unsurprising is Birdman nabbing three nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor (Michael Keaton). Expect to hear even more about Birdman in the months to come.

Because the Gotham Awards are about independent film, that gives some great underrated films and performances the chance for some exposure through a nomination. The biggest surprise might be Under the Skin and Scarlett Johansson scoring nominations for Best Picture and Actress. It’ll be unlikely for Jonathan Glazer’s strange sci-fi to get much love outside of critics’ circles this year, so nominations like these are nice to see. Another great choice by Gotham: Giving Ira Sachs’ wonderful Love is Strange a Best Picture nomination. Sachs’ film, a quietly heartbreaking drama, seems bound to get left out this year once the awards race kicks into high gear (if Best Actor weren’t so competitive this year, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina would have been locks). Any recognition for Love is Strange is a huge plus.

Read on below for the full list of nominees, including the nominees for Breakthrough Director and Actor. For those more interested in the bigger awards, take note of Oscar Isaac’s nomination for A Most Violent Year. The film hasn’t come out yet (it opens AFI Fest next month), so this nomination might be a hint of another shake-up in the coming weeks. And if anyone’s wondering where current Best Actor frontrunner Steve Carrell is, Gotham decided to give Carrell and co-stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo a special award for their ensemble performances in Foxcatcher.

The Gotham Independent Film Awards will hold their awards ceremony on December 1st.

Best Feature

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Love Is Strange
Under the Skin

Best Actor

Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood
Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Miles Teller in Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Actress

Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights
Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
Mia Wasikowska in Tracks

Best Documentary

Actress
CITIZENFOUR
Life Itself
Manakamana
Point and Shoot

Breakthrough Actor

Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler
Macon Blair in Blue Ruin
Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood
Joey King in Wish I Was Here
Jenny Slate in Obvious Child
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
James Ward Byrkit for Coherence
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler
Eliza Hittman for It Felt Like Love
Justin Simien for Dear White People

There’s an indelible spark that exists between actors who trust each other fully. Through 9 years of making millions pop with laughter together on Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have developed a rare rapport few other on-screen pairings can touch. With the legendary variety show now in the rear view mirror, the duo hope to ditch the silly sketch costumes, expand their repertoire, and evolve as actors. Wiig’s already gotten a head-start with Hateship Loveship and Bridesmaids (to a lesser extent), but Hader is taking his first stab at dramatic acting with The Skeleton Twins. Lucky for him, he’s got his old partner-in-crime to ease him into the brave new world of the un-hammy.

Hader’s luck is doubled by the film’s writer-director, Craig Johnson, who sets he and the rest of the cast up for success. The smartly written material (co-penned by Mark Heyman) is optimized to challenge Wiig and Hader with emotionally charged dialogue while utilizing their comedic gifts whenever levity or tonal contrast is appropriate. Johnson creates the perfect environment for his actors to excel, and they do; Wiig steps up, Hader steps up, and the result is a fine picture that makes all parties involved look good.

Wiig plays Maggie, a dental assistant living in Nyack, N.Y. who’s so dissatisfied with her marriage to her husband (Luke Wilson) that when we meet her she’s in a bathroom with a fistful of pills, seconds away from ending it all. Suddenly, a phone call. Her twin brother Milo (Hader), a struggling actor in L.A. whom she hasn’t spoken to in 10 years, has narrowly survived his own suicide attempt, his slit wrists being mended by hospital staffers. Maggie insists her brother leave L.A. and stay with her in upstate New York where they grew up to rehabilitate and hopefully reconnect. Death and happenstance bring the estranged siblings together, and suddenly the film’s title clicks into place. Just in case we didn’t get the message, we’re shown a fuzzy flashback of their late father (he took his own life) dangling Mexican skeleton toys in front of them when they were kids. It’s straightforward symbolism for sure, but it does the job and the image sticks.

Aside from his sister and her bubbling marital anxiety, waiting for Milo back home is some serious baggage in the form of his old English teacher Rich (Ty Burrell), who seduced him back in high school. When Milo visits his former educator at the bookstore he works at now, Rich goes pale; his worst nightmare just walked through the door. He’s got a wife and a 16-year-old son now, but it’s clear he’s still got a deep affection for Milo. Hader and Burrell’s exchanges are at once tender and crushing, and it’s in these scenes that Hader reveals the depth of his abilities as an actor.

Meanwhile, Maggie’s got her own demons to reckon with. She begins to hate herself all over again as she gives in to the advances of her young diving instructor (Boyd Holbrook), her latest affair (of which there have been many). But the real romance here is between the siblings themselves, strange as it sounds. Incestuous the film is not, but when we see Maggie and Milo (dressed in drag for Halloween) slow dancing and holding each other in a deep embrace; or when we see them lock eyes blissfully as they lip-synch Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (they sing the entire song, and it’s hilarious and sweet); or when they get high on laughing gas together at the dentist’s office and lay on the floor, heads touching, it’s clear that this is a love story about soul mates, albeit an unconventional one. This peculiarity is to the film’s benefit.

Like in any good love story, Maggie and Milo go through periods of disdain for one another, exacerbated by the fact that they know precisely how to hurt each other worst (it’s a twin thing). These moments of conflict cut deep and, like Hader’s scenes with Burrell, are heartbreaking because they’re given time to breathe and bloom, to the credit of Johnson and his crew. If it was Wiig and Hader’s aim to show the breadth of their range, mission accomplished.

Wildly entertaining as they are, the incidental bursts of sibling bonding (Starship, laughing gas) feel somewhat obligatory considering the leads’ reputations as broad comics, though “shoehorned” is a word that never comes to mind. The true value of the film exists in the subtle push-and-pull dynamics of the more restrained, weightier exchanges. Structurally, Johnson and Heyman lean on rom-com conventions too often, with plot developments feeling too orderly and neat. It’s a little too easy to stay one step ahead of the story, which doesn’t reflect the spontaneity of the performances.

It’ll be interesting to see if Hader and Wiig continue to team up for movies, if only to see their partnership blossom and mature over the years. Perhaps one day they’ll be two of the industries premiere dramatic actors, collecting Oscars left and right, and we’ll look back on The Skeleton Twins as a watershed moment in their careers. They show enough potential here that the idea isn’t entirely wacky. But for now, the film is just fine as an amusing, unexpectedly poignant take on the inextricable link shared by twins (miserable ones, to be exact).

The Skeleton Twins trailer

Taking the electric chemistry they had on Saturday Night Live and exercising it in a more dramatic arena, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader reunite in The Skeleton Twins, in which they play estranged twins brought together by tragedy who are forced to reckon with their dark past, where it’s led them, and try to keep each other laughing before they mope themselves to death. The film, directed by Craig Johnson, also stars Luke Wilson and Ty Burrell.

In a roundtable interview with other journalists, we spoke to Wiig, Hader, and Johnson about the script taking eight years to complete, Hader tackling his first dramatic role, the importance of the film’s unique tone, Wiig and Hader’s “Starship” duet, and more. The Skeleton Twins hits select theaters this Friday, with a wider release to follow.

You’ve been working on the script with Mark Heyman for around eight years. How did the final film differentiate from the initial script?
Craig: We had a couple versions of it where we hadn’t figured out the tone yet. There were versions where Milo was a drag queen and some were over-the-top. There was a road trip element…

Kristen: Maggie was a cat…

Bill: But they were still twins! [laughs]

Craig: They’re joking, but it was not too far off. [laughs] Mark and I just said, “What kind of movie do we want to make?” We wanted to do something that was tonally down-to-earth, bittersweet, funny, sad, reflective…We’re fans of Alexander Payne’s movies. We went back into it, and that draft was much more similar to how the final movie ended up. The eight years in between wasn’t consistent. There were two-and-a-half years where the script sat in a drawer.

Kristen: Then you heard [in a nasal-y voice], “Ooooh let me out! Remember me!” from the drawer.

Bill: “You submitted me to the WGA in 2003! My tummy hurts…”

Craig: [laughs] Does that answer your question?

Bill and Kristen, you’ve established a strong comedic chemistry over many years at SNL. Doing these more emotionally intense scenes, does the dynamic feel different?
Kristen: No, it doesn’t.

Bill: Yeah, not really. We’ve worked with each other for so long. Acting is acting, and I feel very lucky and privileged to come up with Kristen and do Saturday Night Live. You fail together and you learn from each other. Any time Kristen would do something we would go out on the floor to watch it because she’s such a good live performer. You learn from her. When you do something like this, it’s a different style of acting, but it’s the same thing of, you’re thinking about your character, you have ideas, you show up having done your homework…

Kristen: The outcome is different, but you still want to get to the best place. [At] SNL, yes we would be in crazy wigs and characters and stuff, but we knew the job was to make the characters funny and make it work. This [film] was like, who are these two people? We have to make them believable and real.

Bill: You’re going over your material…It’s like homework for me. You go over it so that you’re confident when you show up on the day.

Was it hard for you to keep everything in check tonally? The subject matter can be pretty touchy at times.
Bill: We were all over the place. The tone of the movie is really hard to achieve. Craig and the editor, Jenny, did an amazing job, because they’re very disciplined. There was a lot of stuff that we did that was really, really funny, and some things that were incredibly bleak and more hard to watch. Craig was disciplined enough to say, “This is what’s right for the movie.”

Craig: Getting the tone right to a movie like this was critical. It was everything. We knew that that was marching order number 1. There are so many things that factor into that: How comedic do we go? How dark do we go? Music is huge for that. Music is really important to me, so finding the right music for the score and source music was critical. It’s intuitive. It’s hard to say when you know you’ve got it, but there’s this feeling of, “This is starting to feel right.” We’d screen rough cuts of it to get feedback. It has so much to do with gut-checking yourself and being honest. “Am I leaving this in because it makes me laugh, when it doesn’t feel like what the characters would do?”

Kristen: It’s so interesting that people say that it’s a different tone and doesn’t fall into total comedy or total drama. It’s funny, because that’s what life is. We watch these stories of these people’s lives, and it’s not all just one thing.

Craig: Movies are ruled by genres so often, and things go binary and go black & white pretty quickly. Many movies don’t; there’s a whole tradition of wonderful movies that are similar in tone to this one. I just watched The Ice Storm by Ang Lee, and that’s in a similar world.

Bill: [In old news reporter voice] “Craig Johnson compares himself to Ang Lee! What do you think?”

Kristen: “He implies he’s even better!”

Bill: “Ang Lee angry! Craig Johnson’s body found eaten by a tiger! Probably Ang Lee!”

When you two do the sing-along to Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”, I was surprised you ended up doing the whole song. It was stuck in my head for five days.
Craig: You’re welcome!

Bill: It’s still in our heads…

Craig: [To Bill] When you first saw that cut, I remember you saying, “You really go punk rock on that Starship scene!”

Bill: Yeah, ’cause you keep going!

Craig: It was never written in my head to actually be that song, but when we found it and it was a duet with Milo trying to get Maggie to sing, it just naturally turned into a little more of a showpiece.

Having just gone through a debate of, “Which is more craptastic, Starship or Steve Miller Band?”, how did you arrive at that particular song?
Craig: “We Built This City” is often on the top of lists of worst songs of all time, but it’s of an era.

Kristen: We all know it.

Bill: Whether you like it or not, that’s what they’re saying! They’re sitting on a big pile of money like, “Craptastic paid for all of this!”

Craig: I knew that I wanted a song from the ’80s, a song that they probably grooved on as little kids, and they probably did that routine as little kids. I listened to a ton of different ’80s hook-y ballads and lip-synced them to see what worked. That duet just worked. It had the right amount of uplift and back-and-forth.

Bill, being that this is your first dramatic role, what made Milo stand out?
Bill: I’d always wanted to do something like this. Avy Kaufman, the casting director, saw me do a table read for a drama and she thought it was really good and recommended me to Craig. I read the script, and it was the first script I’d ever received that was like this. Every script before it was very much in tone like either SNL stuff or Judd Apatow stuff, which isn’t bad, but I like a lot of different types of movies. It was cool. Craig had a lot of faith in me, and it was great when Kristen got brought on. I was a little anxious doing this, so having Kristen there…She’s such an amazing actor, and there’s a security to that. Working together feels very effortless. That’s what I needed to do my job.

Your scenes with Ty Burrell are really heavy and intense. What was your chemistry like with him?
Bill: The first three days of shooting was with Ty. It was great because he totally set the tone for the movie. I was a huge fan of his. He was so nice. Having him there going, “This is really cool what you’re doing,” meant the world to me. Those scenes were some of the toughest scenes subject-wise. Everything about those scenes was pretty tough.

Craig: It was the first three days, so we were all finding our footing. At the end of those three days I was breathing a sigh of relief, because everything felt right. The tone felt right, Ty and Bill had chemistry…

Bill: The last scene we shot was the scene where Ty’s talking to me on the couch, and he improvised the line…

Craig: When Bill says, “What am I to you? Am I just a blowup doll?”, Ty says, “I treated you terribly, but it’s not because I don’t care about you, or don’t respect you, or don’t love you.” The “don’t love you” wasn’t in the script. I could see the heartbeat of the movie at that point. I like working with actors that are willing to improvise. I’m very specific when I write the script, but I always like it when there is a bit of wiggle room.

Bill: He felt something, and in the moment he just said it. He did that, and it sparked a reaction in me.

What are your favorite comedian-turned-dramatic-actors?
Craig: I like what Adam Sandler does in Punch Drunk Love.

Kristen: Peter Sellers is up there.

Bill: I don’t really think in those terms. I think it puts you in a box, in a way. I like people who swerve. I always like Jeff Bridges, because you never knew what you were going to get from him.

I think it’s inspiring for audiences to see actors branch out.
Bill: That is true. That’s 100% true. I guess I always lose sight of that because you sit at home going, “I can do all these things! I can do anything!” But those are the actors I like. Lately, I’ve liked what Bryan Cranston did in Breaking Bad and knowing him from Malcolm in the Middle.

We were just talking about Bill’s relationship with Ty, but now Kristen I want to talk to you about your relationship with Luke Wilson. At the beginning of the movie I thought we would end up disliking Lance, but that never happened.
Kristen: Just because something’s good on paper doesn’t mean it’s right for you, and I think that’s one of the reasons why she and people stay with people who may not be the best thing for them. It’s hard to talk yourself out of it. “What’s my problem?” I think she thought something was wrong with her because she wasn’t fulfilled by this seemingly great person. I think that added to her depression a bit. When you wake up every day and ask, “What’s wrong with me?”, it’ get’s a little tiring. She and hopefully the audience realize that sometimes it’s not a fit, and that’s okay. When you release someone you’re actually doing them a favor, because he needs to be with someone who thinks he’s really great and loves his weird shoes.

Craig: It was really important for us when we were writing that relationship that, because Lance is an innocent in it, we saw her racked with guilt and pain about her behavior. It’s killing her. That put it more on a balanced level.

Kristen: It’s hard not to immediately take sides. “He’s so great! What’s her problem?” I think you do feel that way at times in the movie.

Craig: We tried to make it harder to judge each character, which I think is what life is like.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen that shows how family dysfunction is a generational thing. You see the mother, and there are hints about what the father is about. Did you have a backstory for what the dynamic was within the family?
Craig: I certainly do.

Bill: When we finally got Kristen on and we had a start date, Craig and I walked around my neighborhood, and he just told me the whole backstory. It was helpful.

Craig: I kind of want to leave it up to the audience. I think if you go back to it and start thinking about timelines and when the mother left in relation to when the father died, you can start piecing together dynamics.

Bill: Okay, now I’m backtracking on by big, righteous thing. John Candy in Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. He breaks my heart in that movie, and he’s really funny.

With the Oscars looming on the horizon, it’s time for filmmakers, actors, and studios to bring out the big guns and fight to nab one of those wee golden fellows. For cinema-goers, the fall season is the best time of year: With the summer blockbuster melee out of the way, our focus is shifted to the foreign dramas, auteur showcases, and breakout performances that will populate theaters through to the winter. It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty, and with so many excellent films to look forward to in the next few months, we’ve compiled our list of 20 must-see films of the fall. Some we’ve seen, and some we haven’t, but all in all, this fall season is shaping up to be one to remember.

20 Essential Fall Films

#20 – Force Majeure

Ruben Östlund made a splash at Cannes back in 2011 with Play, a controversial film based on real-life incidents of a group of children elaborately mugging other kids their age. This year, Östlund returned to Cannes with a different kind of film. A family vacationing at a ski resort in the Alps has a close call with an avalanche, and an impulsive fight-or-flight action by the father causes the family unit to break down. Like it or hate it, Play showed that Östlund has remarkable directorial skills, and the praise from Cannes only has us more excited for his follow-up. After a bow at TIFF, Magnolia will release Force Majeure in October. Keep your eyes on this one, as it’s been one of the more buzzed about foreign films this year. [C.J.]

#19 – Tusk

In 2011, when Kevin Smith released his last feature film, Red State, he announced (with his usual long-windedness) that he’d be retiring from film directing after completing one more film. Since then he seems to have calmed down. At Comic-Con Smith did his usual “Evening with Kevin Smith” where he spent a lot of time talking about the new Star Wars film, before revealing the first trailer for his upcoming film Tusk. Based on a conversation Smith had on his podcast discussing a craigslist ad a man posted offering a free place to live to someone willing to dress as a walrus while there, Smith’s always-buzzing brain of course ran free with the very dark way such a scenario could play out. And the trailer indicates the film is just as creepy, dark, and (because it’s Smith) funny as his imagination could make it. Starring Justin Long as a podcast host investigating a reclusive old mariner in Canada, and playing up Smith’s offbeat sense of humor in lieu of Red State’s politically-charged tension, it seems like Smith may finally have found his perfect style of horror. Release date is September 19th, just in time for some pre-Halloween fun. [Ananda]

#18 – The Two Faces of January

A throwback to ‘60s romance thrillers (and appropriately set in the ‘60s itself), Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces of January throws three excellent actors—Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, and Kirsten Dunst—into a dizzying, dangerous love triangle set in sun-drenched Greece. An adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, the film is rife with deception, jealousy, and murder, a treat for those of us with a taste for such noir-ish goodies. The film has gotten some decent buzz on the festival circuit, though it’ll likelier to please retro lovers than the mainstream masses when it hits in early October. [Bernard]

#17 – The Theory of Everything

I’m pretty much a sucker for anything involving Stephen Hawking. While he is most known for his brilliant advancements in physics, The Theory of Everything appears to center more around his personal life. Before being diagnosed with a fatal illness at 21 years old, he fell in love with his first wife while studying at Cambridge. Dealing with this tragedy, the film aims to be both heartbreaking and inspirational. Based on the trailer and the award season release date of November 7th, it seems that Eddie Redmayne (who plays Hawking) could be in early contention for an Oscar nomination. We hope to catch its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, so stay tuned for our coverage. [Dustin]

#16 – The Interview

The Interview received a good amount of unexpected publicity thanks to North Korea’s decision to file a complaint with the United Nations over the movie’s plot; TV personality Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) become involved in a secret CIA plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). This film, the 2nd from Rogen & his writing partner Evan Goldberg as directors following This Is The End, finds the Pineapple Express duo partying hard, rescuing puppies and manning DPRK tanks. Despite Sony’s decision to digitally alter aspects of the movie and (supposed) cutting of a rumored “face melting” scene, reuniting Rogen with Franco in this premise seems absurdly promising. [Zach]

#15 – Listen Up Philip

Because Alex Ross Perry had already mesmerized us with his previous no-budget film The Color Wheel, his newest film Listen Up Philip has been on our radar since its announcement. Then overwhelmingly positive reviews flew in from its Sundance premiere. Combine all of this with the fact Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss star in the film and you’ve got our full attention. Schwartzman playing an arrogant novelist seems like a perfect role considering his character from HBO’s Bored to Death. Perry is quickly becoming an independent director to keep an eye on, so mark your calendars for when Listen Up Philip opens in theaters on October 17th—we already have. [Dustin]

#14 – The Skeleton Twins

If someone wanted to convince me to watch Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins and began the sentence with “Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play twins,” I will most likely tune out anything else after that. Deep down I know my mind would already be made up: there’s no way I’m not watching this movie. Hader and Wiig have both grown out of their SNL multi-personas and transitioned into film; Wiig has been the more successful of the two thanks to Bridesmaids, but Hader’s small charming role in The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby hints at his untapped dramatic talent. In any case, The Skeleton Twins looks like a perfect showcase for both actors to show they have what it takes to be both funny and serious. Unveiled at Sundance to very positive response (it’s currently 100% fresh on the Tomatometer) the story deals with the reconnection of twins Milo and Maggie after they both manage to cheat death on the same day. [Nik]

#13 – Big Hero 6

Over the past two decades, Pixar Studios has taken most of the shine away from Disney Animation, and rightfully so. Toy Story is coming up on 20-years-old. Think about that for a second. Disney has had its share of recent hits with Tangled and Frozen, but those are films that aren’t really catered to me. What about a super-hero film about a boy and his robot companion with flavors of Japanese anime? Yeah, that sounds pretty good to me. Big Hero 6 has a lot of potential as a unique entry in the overpopulated super-hero genre. It doesn’t hurt that Baymax looks to be an impossibly cute robot character, on the level of Wall-E and the Iron Giant. I don’t know if the film will be as good as those films, but if it can deliver on the fun premise, it has a chance to be one of the most satisfying films of the year. [Aaron]

#12 – The Overnighters

Earlier this year at Hot Docs I called The Overnighters “a roller coaster” that’s bound to be one of 2014’s best documentaries. My feelings haven’t changed since. Jesse Moss’ remarkable film follows a small town in North Dakota going through an oil boom. As people across the country flock to the town looking for work, a local pastor’s decision to let new arrivals sleep in his church (housing is next to impossible to find) triggers a surprising chain of events. With a narrative so cinematic the doc could easily be adapted into a drama, The Overnighters starts out riveting and never stops. Drafthouse will release the film on October 24th, and don’t be surprised if this one ends up becoming an Oscar nominee. [C.J.]

#11 – White Bird in a Blizzard

This novel adaptation looks to be a stylized coming-of-age story about a teenager (played by Shailene Woodley) whose mother (Eva Green) suddenly disappears one day. The early buzz from its Sundance premiere had people praising Woodley’s brave performance as she swears up a storm and spends a fair amount of time undressed. Perhaps her acting career is evolving from Young Adult hits like Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars to more serious and adult roles. Although Green doesn’t have as much screen time as Woodley because of her character’s mysterious disappearance, it’s been said she makes every minute count. White Bird in a Blizzard will be available on VOD September 25th and in theaters October 24th. [Dustin]

#10 – The Guest

Adam Wingard is proving to be one of the most formidable directors in modern horror, with 2013’s excellent You’re Next infusing the tried-and-true slasher genre with a quirky style that’s both primal and electro-cool. The Guest, his latest offering, again takes an old-school set-up and kicks it in the teeth, straight into the new millennium. Dan Stevens plays a soldier who visits the Peterson family, claiming to have been a close friend of their son, who was killed in action. The family invites him to stay, but as random acts of violence begin to pop up throughout town, young Anna (Maika Monroe) suspects they may stem from their mysterious visitor. I’ve just come from a press screening of the film as I write this, and let me tell you—The Guest is bloody freakin’ brilliant. Go see it when it’s released on September 17th. [Bernard]

#9 – Nightcrawler

Dan Gilroy’s debut feature as a director burst onto the scene with a trailer full of frantic energy. Led by what looks like a batshit performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, he continually reiterates the motto, “If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket.” The actor looks increasingly unhinged as freelance crime journalist Lou Bloom, pursuing cop cars and moving bodies to get the perfect crime scene shot before that chill-inducing shot where he screams while grasping at the bathroom mirror. The director, Gilroy, has written several films including Tarsem’s The Fall; however, worthy of note he is the brother of Tony Gilroy (also a producer on Nightcrawler), whose debut as a director (Michael Clayton) became one of the most compelling adult dramas of the last decade. Nightcrawler debuts at TIFF in September before its October 31st U.S. release. [Zach]

#8 – The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

Most years when I sit down and think about the best films of the year, there is usually one or two picks near the top of my list that are unquestionably flawed, but incredibly daring in its writing and structure — last year’s The Place Beyond the Pines, for example. I don’t know a lot about The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, but the thought of one film basically splitting into two different films from the differing perspectives of a failed relationship has me beyond intrigued. The studios recent decision to theatrically release the film in three different version (labelled Them, Him, and Her) has me wondering if this is going to be cinema gold or a complete train wreck, but it definitely has my attention. [Aaron]

#7 – Stray Dogs

I caught Ming-liang Tsai’s movie at last year’s TIFF, and was floored by its audacious nature and relentless control. It’s a very particular wheelhouse that Tsai’s movies play in, but if it happens to be yours then Stray Dogs will not disappoint. The central narrative storyline deals with a small impoverished family unity (a father and his two children,) as they move around the outskirts of Taipei and try to survive. Those familiar with Tsai’s won’t be surprised to hear about incredibly long takes of actors staring off into oblivion, or a slightly grotesque scene featuring cabbage, but Stray Dogs is nothing if not one of the year’s greatest examples of transcendental and deeply captivating works of cinematic art. The film is finally getting a theatrical release on September 12th courtesy of Cinema Guild. [Nik]

#6 – Foxcatcher

Capote and Moneyball director Bennett Miller returns with what many have described as his passion project, a film about the late John du Pont, whose attempt to support the US wrestling program in spite of declining mental health. The unlikely actor portraying du Pont is comedian Steve Carell in a part tailored for Oscars consideration, flanked by both Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo in strong roles. While the film was among our writer Nik’s Cannes disappointments this year, there are many touting not only the highly anticipated performances. After stops at TIFF and NYFF in September and October, Foxcatcher opens everywhere on November 14th. [Zach]

#5 – Dear White People

It’s about time a filmmaker set their sights on race in America, especially with people claiming the country is now living in a “post-racial” society. Justin Simien’s debut feature Dear White People is an ensemble following several black students at an Ivy League school, a premise Simien uses to open up a funny and probing insight into what race and identity means today. Back at the LA Film Festival, our writer Ananda said Dear White People is “sharply written” and “progressive and humorous”, and we can’t wait to see it once it comes out on October 17. [C.J.]

#4 – Whiplash

Whipping up a mighty buzz-storm at Sundance, Damien Chazelle’s drummer drama Whiplash stars Miles Teller as a young percussionist pushed to the breaking point by his vicious drum instructor, played by JK Simmons. Teller has been living up to expectations with each role he tackles, proving to be one of the most promising new faces in movies, and combined with Simmons’ veteran savvy, sparks should fly as their combative mentor-pupil story unfolds. Since Sundance in January, the excitement surrounding the film hasn’t fizzled in the slightest, a strong indicator that we’re in for a treat when it drops in October. [Bernard]

#3 – Interstellar

I’m partly tempted to explain Interstellar’s placement toward the top of our most anticipated Fall films list by simply stating “Because Chris Nolan” and “Because Matthew McConaughey”, but if you need qualifiers, I bet I can think of a few. For starters, the ambiguity surrounding the film for so long indicates (and it would be par for the course with Nolan) that Interstellar might be more than we yet know. The latest trailer gives us plenty to stew over. Dirt storms show a water shortage on Earth and Matthew McConaughey’s character, Cooper, is a father faced with the difficult decision of leaving his children to travel through a wormhole to find a new planet for humans to survive on. Along with fellow spacetraveler, Brand (Anne Hathaway), and a few others, Cooper and the small team travels through some gorgeously crafted foreign galaxies. Further motivation to see the film in IMAX. But knowing Nolan, who loves his late reveals and complicated relationships, we can almost guarantee that Interstellar will, ahem, take us further into space and story than we can even imagine. The film releases on Nov. 7th, which seems like forever. [Ananda]

#2 – Birdman

Despite some slight foreboding after watching the trailer for Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film is still one of my personal must-see films of the year, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, Iñárritu has yet to truly disappoint me (yes, I even liked Babel) and perhaps I’m even more inclined towards his new film because his last one, Biutiful, was so undeservedly neglected by many. Secondly, this is cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s first post-Gravity project to see release and he’s a guy who knows how to make pretty pictures, plus there’s reports of more long take wizardry in Birdman. Add to that the ensemble cast of Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis and Naomi Watts all lead by a resurgent Michael Keaton, and there’s really no need to go any further. The film will open the Venice Film festival, play the New York Film Festival, and then unspool for the public on October 17th. [Nik]

#1 – Gone Girl

Top of the list is the latest from a perennial favorite, David Fincher. Not only is he master of the book to film adaptation, but he excels when working with crooked characters. And Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel Gone Girl is a character-study in marital crookedness. In the film, Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, a man whose wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), goes missing on their 5th wedding anniversary. When her disappearance goes public, Nick finds himself the primary suspect and the most hated man in the country, and as detectives uncover more around the case, Nick begins to question just how well he knew his own wife. I predict the sort of character mastery we’ve seen in House of Cards and Social Network combined with the nerve-fraying plot development of Se7en and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rumor has it the ending is slightly different than the book, co-written by Flynn and thus having her blessing, so even those of us familiar with the novel should be in for some new twists come October 3 when the film is released. It’s going to be a dark and twisty fall, and we can’t wait. [Ananda]

Craig Johnson is now getting some artwork for his Sundance hit The Skeleton Twins, a film that stars Saturday Night Live alums Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as estranged twins who reunite after reaching rock bottom. The film also stars Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, and Boyd Holbrook and hits theaters on September 19th. The official movie poster for The Skeleton Twins first premiered on EW.com, check out the image below.

Official Movie poster of The Skeleton Twins

SNL-alums Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader confront harsh realities in the upcoming release from Roadside Attractions The Skeleton Twins. Writer/director Craig Johnson (previously of True Adolescents) won the Walt Salt Screenwriting Award along with his co-writer Mark Heyman (Black Swan) at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for The Skeleton Twins, which received many positive notices including one here at Way Too Indie.

In this dramatic comedy, Hader and Wiig play siblings living with one another after failed suicide attempts. Wiig shows anxiety as the wife of Luke Wilson, who happily announces to her brother that, “We’re trying to get pregnant,” because ‘phrasing it with “we” makes it not sexist.’ Hader, an unsuccessful gay actor, struggles with living in a small town and lip-synchs with his sister to Starship’s “Nothing Going to Stop Us Now.”

The Skeleton Twins will be in theaters on September 19th, watch the trailer below:

The Skeleton Twins trailer

A 3rd generation filmmaker of one of cinema’s most lauded families, Gia Coppola impresses in her debut feature, Palo Alto, an adaptation of a book by James Franco (who’s also in the movie) that captures the listless, limbo-like haze of high school through interweaving stories of several troubled teens. While the film technically falls into the “teen drama” column, its authentic, unapologetically filthy depiction of adolescence sets it apart.

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Photos Courtesy Adam Clay

Much of Palo Alto‘s authenticity stems from its cast, all appropriately aged (this is important) and all quite…normal looking. It’s a good thing, as most teen movies’ stars are too prettied up to be relatable. Jack Kilmer, son of Val (who makes a brief, comical appearance), and Emma Roberts lead the brilliant cast, who all convince as conflicted, bored, lustful youths partying, getting in trouble, and goofing around in parking lots. Coppola, a photographer whose work impressed Franco enough to entrust the stories of his hometown to her, has a natural eye for composition and color, capturing the intensity and urgency of teen life with her luscious, moody imagery. Each character is chaotically emotional and has a unique set of inner conflicts to reckon with. This is the best representation of modern teens in memory.

SFIFF57 offered up another debut feature, this time from co-directors Tom Dolby and Tom Williams with the world premier of the Lake Tahoe-set Last Weekend. A family drama about an affluent couple (Patricia Clarkson and Chris Mulkey) hosting their spoiled adult children and their significant others for a weekend in their home on the sparkling lake, the film has its moments but is hampered by a script that needs more sharpening. Watching entitled rich folk complain about everything while feasting in paradise is a joke that gets old quick.

Click to view slideshow.
Photos Courtesy Adam Clay

The film, which has almost zero plot to speak of (not a knock), is completely fueled by the contentious family dynamics. The savvy young cast, which includes Zachary Booth, Alexia Rasmussen (Proxy), Joseph Cross (Milk), Devon Graye (Dexter), and Jayma Mays (Glee), all approaching their prime, embody their bratty roles tastefully, never going overboard or outshining each other. Clarkson and Mulkey guide them along, and the fresh faces keep up without a stutter. Cross and Clarkson share some particularly venomous scenes together, epic mother-son spats that steal the show. Fran Kranz (Cabin in the Woods) and Rutina Wesley (True Blood) play nothing roles that amount to a well-acted waste of time.

Tsai Ming-Liang made a Miyazaki-like announcement at the premiere of his new film Stray Dogs in Venice that the stunning film about an impoverished family would be his last, to the sadness of many arthouse aficionados. The lauded auteur is leaving the cinema world on a high note, however, as Stray Dogs is as gorgeous, boundary-pushing, and incomparable as his previous work (What Time is it There?, The Hole).

As has become his signature style, Tsai presents his tale in a series of fixed, ultra-long shots whose uncompromisingly elongated form reveals intricacies and shifting emotion unseeable by way of conventional quick cuts or even shots like Scorsese’s Copacabana classic. Spectacle is not the objective here, with the shot lengths surpassing the ten minute mark in some cases. Tsai paints a dark, stark portrait of a family living in squalor on the streets of Taipei. We see the children bathe in a dingy public restroom, the father hold up advertising signs at a busy intersection in the pouring rain. It’s a haunting, gut-wrenching film, and one whose beauty lies not just in Tsai’s immaculately composed shots, but in the 4th dimension of time itself. And you don’t even have to shell out an extra ten bucks for 4-D glasses!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the festival so far has been Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins, which from movie stills ostensibly appears to be a star vehicle for SNL all-stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, but actually turns out to be an unexpectedly affecting sibling drama peppered with funny moments for the comedians to please loyalists. Hader and Wiig play the titular troubled siblings Milo and Maggie, each with self-destructive tendencies.

Click to view slideshow.
After ten years of not speaking, Maggie invites her brother to stay with her after a suicide attempt. She’s in denial about her dissatisfaction with her marriage to the cheerful Lance (Luke Wilson) while Milo, an emotional wreck more aware of his fatal flaws, struggles to tie up loose ends in his past life while trying desperately to keep Maggie afloat in her failing marriage. It would be fair to categorize The Skeleton Twins as a dramedy, though the dramatic element is more intensified here than your average Apatow effort. It’s a dark movie, and Hader and Wiig’s comedic chops translate well to the emotional spectrum of acting (Wiig’s already proven this, but this is Hader’s first dramatic leading role). In fact, the laughs sometimes outstay their welcome, as the comedic scenes are egregiously tailored to the actors’ signature personas and distract from their better, dramatic character moments. This one’s definitely worth keeping on your radar.