By Susan Granger

With Spider-Man, Odyssey and Coyote vs Acme still strong at the box-office . . . here comes the Fall season.

Practical Magic opened last Friday, Sept. 11:

We’ve been waiting 10 years for this sequel, reuniting Sandra Bullock & Nicole Kidman. This time they’re joined by Joey King as Bullock’s daughter who begins developing her own magical powers as an old family secret surfaces. Based on Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic, it reunites most of the original cast, including Stockard Channing & Dianne Wiest.

Heart of the Beast opens on Sept. 25:

In a tense survival story, Brad Pitt plays a Special Forces Officer who must make his way through the Alaskan wilderness with his retired combat dog Odin after a plane crash. 

Verity opens October 2:

Colleen Hoover’s thriller introduces Dakota Johnson as a struggling novelist who accepts a job from Josh Hartnett, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) to be her ghostwriter and complete the remaining books in a successful series that his Verity is unable to finish after a mysterious accident.

Digger opens on October 2:

Directed by Alejandro Inarritu, it’s touted as a comedy of catastrophic proportions.  Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a bloated, delusional oil tycoon who causes an apocalyptic disaster and then is summoned by the President (John Goodman) to fix it.

The Social Reckoning on October 9:

16 years after The Social Network, writer/director Aaron Sorkin focuses on an older Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong). Mikey Madison (Anora) plays a Facebook whistleblower who teams up with Jeremy Allen White as a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Whalefall on October 16:

Austin Abrams stars in an adaptation of Daniel Kraus’ book about a scuba diver trapped in a whale’s stomach while searching for the remains of his father (Josh Brolin).

Fatherland on October 23:

Director Pawel Pawlikowski created this tight 82-minute, black-and-white film about the relationship of Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika on a 1949 road trip across Germany at the height of the Cold War. Returning home after 16 years of exile in the United States, Mann faces a divided fatherland and a deep fracture within his own family.

Godzilla Minus Zero on November 6:

Since Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar in 2023 for its visual effects and became a global hit – rare for a foreign-language kaiju film – director Takashi Yamazaki revisits the Shikishima family in the first Japanese production ever filmed for IMAX.

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol Movie on November 13:

Johnny Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, along with Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley & Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on November 20:

Based on Suzanne Collins’ best-sellers, this prequel has every district in Panem sending double the usual tributes for the 50th Hunger Games.  Ralph Fiennes joins the franchise as President Snow with Elle Fanning, Maya Hawke, Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close & Jesse Plemons.

Catch up on Susan’s recent reviews:

Susan Granger

Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.