Fall film guide: six can’t-miss flicks

Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro’s chilling, dystopic teen novel takes place in a near future both recognizable and unimaginable. In the film adaptation, ittest it girl Carey Mulligan is Kathy H., an apparent orphan raised at the idyllic Hailshom boarding school. It’s a poetic commentary on science gone mad, and a tale of the vicissitudes of an aging three-way friendship (with Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield).
Sept. 15.

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Buried
Many people would pay to watch Ryan “Abs of Steel” Reynolds sit on a box for 90 minutes, but will they pay to watch him lie in one? They should, considering the gushing notices he received at Sundance for this political thriller directed by Rodrigo Cortés about an American contractor kidnapped in Iraq who wakes up in a coffin beneath the desert armed with a lighter, a cellphone, a knife and his wits.
Sept. 24.

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Freakonomics
The unlikely mega-seller Freakonomics—a book about one economist’s counter­intuitive explanations for the way we live—has become an unlikely movie: an omnibus documentary by six directors tackling such head scratchers as, How can you tell when a sumo wrestler is cheating? If there’s such a thing as celebrity doc filmmakers, this release is driven by most of them, including Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight).
Oct. 1.

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The Social Network
Facebook founder and boy billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, the reason why you don’t watch TV anymore, has distanced himself from this flick about the creation of the mammoth social networking site. Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timber­lake, the story of explosive genius and infighting among a group of Harvard kids is directed by Fight Club’s David Fincher, promising a stylish, cerebral take on a game-changing invention.
Oct. 1.

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Nowhere Boy
British superstar artist Sam Taylor-Wood has made a film that miraculously finds something new to say about John Lennon. This portrait of the musician as an angry young man is set during his Liverpudlian teens, when he is caught in the middle of a push-pull between two matriarchs: his flighty birth mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), and his stern Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott-Thomas), who raised him to be a gentleman, not a rock star.
Oct. 8.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
The seventh outing for Harry is the first instalment in a two-part finale of an epic that has already raked in billions. Expect record returns for this penultimate 3-D farewell. The teen wizards must round up the Horcruxes to rescue their beloved Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic from Voldemort, finally propelling Harry toward his destiny. Game on, Death Eaters!
Nov. 19.

(Photographs: The Social Network courtesy of Sony Pictures; Freakonomics courtesy of Magnolia Pictures; Never Let Me Go courtesy of Fox Searchlight; Buried courtesy of Lionsgate Entertainment; Harry Potter courtesy of Warner Brothers; Nowhere Boy courtesy of TWC)