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Demi Moore stars in "The Substance."
Universal/Everett Collection
Hollywood is bouncing back from the pandemic slump, and the fall film season is shaping up beautifully. Here’s the lowdown on the 20 most promising probable hits and Oscar contenders. Put them on your calendar, and don’t forget to pass the popcorn!
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Coming in September
Will and Harper (in select theaters Sept. 13, on Netflix Sept. 27)
Will Ferrell, 57, and former Saturday Night Live head writer Harper Steele, 63, were friends from Ferrell’s first day on the show in 1995. When Steele, a father of two, came out as trans at 61 in a moving email to Ferrell, the pair decided to take a trip together. Heading west from New York, they stop at the Grand Canyon, a dusty Oklahoma dive bar, a pro basketball game and a hostile Texas steakhouse. Along the way, they reconnect after long absence in the pandemic, with Steele giving Ferrell a free pass to ask any question he wants about the transition of his friend. With cameos from Will Forte, 54, Molly Shannon, 59, Seth Meyers, 50, Fred Armisen, 57, Tina Fey, 54, and more, the road documentary has many surprises. Ferrell is truly openhearted, and Steele’s greatest transformation is one from self-hate to acceptance. Funny, heartfelt and unexpected, this film is a journey into understanding.
The Substance (in theaters Sept. 20)
After its buzzy 2024 Cannes Film Festival debut, The Substance is a triumphant comeback for Demi Moore. Moore, 61, plays a popular TV fitness instructor pushed out of her job when she turns 50. Then she discovers an experimental drug that will turn her into a better and more youthful version of herself. Horrific complications ensue. French writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s gonzo import is a hot-button meditation on aging and self-improvement. Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, 71, costar. In this cross between a David Cronenberg body-horror flick and Sunset Boulevard, Moore leaps into the Oscar conversation for a performance that is literally naked and operatically dark.
Wolfs (in theaters Sept. 20)
For the first time in 16 years, George Clooney, 63, reunites with Brad Pitt, 60, in this action romp about a lone-wolf fixer (Clooney) hired to cover up a crime scene. “There’s nobody who can do what I do,” he boasts. But he’s dismayed to encounter a second lone wolf (Pitt) hired to do the same job.
Never Let Go (in theaters Sept. 20)
Sometimes the scariest things are the ones you can’t see. In veteran French horror director Alexandre Aja’s postapolcalyptic terror workout, Halle Berry, 57, stars as a mother who lives in a remote cabin with her two young sons and a very strict set of rules. The main one involves being secured by a rope line whenever they step outside, as protection from an evil spirit that surrounds and stalks them. But is this dark force for real or merely the creation of an unraveling, overprotective mother?
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (in limited theaters Sept. 21 and 25)
Nobody expected the unknown Christopher Reeve to be so superb as Superman in a 1978 movie that nobody expected to be so terrific, at a time when superhero movies were not a thing. He didn’t expect the horse he was expertly riding in 1995 to inexplicably stop, hurling him, snapping his spine, and making him quadriplegic — had he landed one inch in the other direction, he’d have died; one inch the other way and he would’ve walked away. Yet he made the most of the rest of his life, defying despair. Critics gave this documentary about his tumultuous, fascinatingly troubled, tragic, yet ultimately heroic life a perfect 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, hailing it as a heartrending, inspiring film brilliantly made.
Apartment 7A (on Paramount+, Sept. 27)
Julia Garner stars in this Rosemary’s Baby prequel, a psychological thriller about a dancer who accepts an elderly, eccentric couple’s offer to move into their stately old New York apartment building and soon finds herself selling her soul for a shot at fame. Dianne Wiest, 76, and Kevin McNally, 68, play the nosy, nefarious neighbors.
Note: Paramount+ provides a discount to AARP members and pays AARP a royalty for the use of its intellectual property.
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