6 Degrees: Friday Flix for September

Greetings film fans! Here are a few bullets from the last week.

*The Telluride Film Festival has debuted First Man and the last Robert Redford film, The Old Man & the Gun, both opening to generally good reviews.

*There’s been talk of the idea that the next James Bond could be a black man-Idris Elba to be specific. It seems to have been just that, an idea, but the notion of shaking up and stirring the formulaic approach to the Bond film series is a good thing.

At the movies: We have seen some bad reviews for Peppermint, the female vigilante film starring Jennifer Garner and good reviews for the modern remake of A Star is Born, with special kudos going to Lady Gaga for her acting debut.

From TCM: This week, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is recommended for kids who have never seen this. For adult viewing, there is The Year of Living Dangerously with Mel Gibson and directed by Australian Peter Weir and The Man Who Would be King with Sean Connery and Michael Caine-set your machines to record

And finally, the Oscars rolled out an ill-designed and poorly devised new “Popular Film” category that they have decided to roll back. It’s always best to seek out and explore and then expand the categories using the creative thought process rather than simply throwing something together after seeing the first highlight reel from Access Hollywood. 6 Degrees has written about and recommended some new categories, with definitely more thought given than the Academy of Motion Pictures seems to have given the matter.

Finally, from our Fall Film News, here’s the recommended films for the month of September: Till next time, see you at the movies!

Films opening in September:

• Lizzie with Chloe Sevigny is the adaptation of the true story of the accused axe murderess Lizzie Borden. This film is described as a ‘speculative lesbian love story’ that is spun to explain the real-life murders of which Borden was accused in 1892.

• Colette with Keira Knightley is a period piece that follows the writer Colette from her youth through marriage and touches on her private life that included numerous affairs with women.
• The House with a Clock in its Walls featuring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black in this fantasy adapted from John Bellairs’ book about an orphan who, with his uncle, explores a magical manor that holds a mystical clock.

• The Sisters Brothers is a Western with John C Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix cast as the two brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters. The film is an adaptation of a novel about the Sisters Brothers, contract killers who worked at the height of the Gold Rush in the 1850’s.

• Robert Redford is starring in what he has announced will be his last film: The Old Man & the Gun; a movie billed as a mix of ‘drama, comedy and romance’ and is loosely based on the true story of a career criminal, Forrest Tucker. Redford says of Tucker: “He robbed 17 banks, and he got caught 17 times. But he also escaped 17 times.”
• Smallfoot is a children’s animated film starring Channing Tatum. It’s about an abominable bigfoot who discovers proof there are humans-A.K.A…Smallfoots.