If there's one good thing about the nights closing in, it's that the quality of films on offer in cinema increases fourfold. Some of us would argue tenfold. So, we've much to look forward to in darkened rooms, and below you should find something to warm your heart between now and Christmas Eve. We'll see you in the queue.
The Martian
September 30
After pitching up in biblical times with last year's Exodus: Gods and Kings, it's back to the future for Ridley Scott for this adaptation of the acclaimed Andy Weir book of the same name. And advance word is that the legendary director is in the best of form here. Matt Damon plays the left-for-dead astronaut who has to survive on the red planet and find a way to tell NASA he's alive and kicking. Damon's ability to combine everyman charm with hero charisma means he's the perfect choice to be in a very sticky situation 50 million miles away from home. Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sean Bean are down below in a story where the human spirit is just as special as the effects, and where the personal and political collide. Future tense indeed.
Macbeth
October 2
It's going to be quite the end-of-year run-in for Michael Fassbender - first playing Shakespeare's doomed Scottish leader, and with another iconic role as late Apple boss Steve Jobs to come in November. In what feels like a marriage made in movie heaven, he's teamed up here to tackle 'the Scottish play' with Australian director Justin Kurzel, whose thoroughly disturbing debut Snowtown marked him out as a filmmaker of real power. If this video is anything to go by, we're in for one hell of a ride, with Marion Cotillard doing numbers on the head of the leading man as string-puller supreme Lady Macbeth. Need more persuasion? Well, their co-star Jack Reynor reckons that Fassbender is so good that he'll change the way people think of this story for ever. We haven't long to find out.
The Walk
October 2
Robert Zemeckis proved with the Denzel Washington-starring air accident drama Flight that, even in his 60s, he's a director who still has the bit between his teeth. For his follow-up, he's chosen - if you'll pardon the pun - a real high wire act, telling the story of acrobat Phillippe Petit's tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. That takes some guts, given that Petit's feat has already been brilliantly recounted in James Marsh's Oscar-winning 2008 documentary Man on Wire. Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays Petit here, and the teaser suggests that Zemeckis has got the ratio of tension to CGI to human drama just right, even if we're a bit unsure about his leading man's French accent. The director steered Washington to an Oscar nomination for Flight, so Levitt's name could well be on the shortlist come February.
Sicario
October 9
For many of us, Benicio Del Toro's best work to date was as good cop Javier Rodriguez in Steven Soderbergh's drug epic Traffic. Well, he's back on the border and battling the barons again in this thriller from Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve - and those who've seen it say it's a must. In what feels like inspired casting, Emily Blunt plays Kate Macer, an idealistic FBI agent who teams up with Del Toro's gun-for-hire Alejandro to bring a kingpin to justice. "Who do you work for now?" she asks him in one scene. "Well, I go where I'm sent" is the don't-ask-don't-tell reply. That's just the kind of hardboiled dialogue we like, and the casting of Josh Brolin and The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal have us even more excited.
The Lobster
October 16
As In Bruges, Horrible Bosses and almost every talk show appearance have shown, Colin Farrell is a man blessed with the genius of impeccable comic timing. He's at it again here. The Jury Prize-winner at Cannes this year, The Lobster is the first English-language film from Oscar-nominated Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps) and was filmed in Parknasilla, Co Kerry and Dublin. It's set in the near future, where single people's lives depend on finding a partner - and Farrell and Rachel Weisz's characters are among the desperate. There are more quality gags in the trailer than you'll get in many a Hollywood comedy, but something tells us The Lobster could do numbers on our heartstrings too. If Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are your kind of quirky, then you may be about to fall in love again.
Crimson Peak
October 16
Nights not chilly enough for you? Well, director Guillermo del Toro is here to help. And after disappointing robot-beat-'em-up Pacific Rim he looks to be back in top-notch Pan's Labyrinth territory here. Mia Wasikowska plays the young author who says "I do" to Tom Hiddleston's toff and then heads off to live with him and his spooky sis (Jessica Chastain) in their crumbling Cumbrian pile. In-law tension is the least of the new arrival's worries - Crimson Peak has secrets galore, and she'll be doing well if she gets to see her first wedding anniversary. As Chastain gravely intones in one delicious scene, "Parts of the house are unsafe" - just what we want to hear! If you're one of those people whose head is melted when those around you start talking during really scary scenes, then maybe it would be best to go see this by yourself on a Sunday morning.
The Program
October 16
The film event of the year for middle-aged men in lyrca as The Queen and Dirty Pretty Things director Stephen Frears tackles the Lance Armstrong scandal. Ben Foster has delivered more than his share of intense performances in the likes of Alpha Dog, 3:10 to Yuma and Lone Survivor, and his portrayal of Armstrong in sport's ultimate rise-and-fall story has been hailed as a masterclass in stone-faced intensity. He's squaring off against Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh, the Irish journalist who decided that things just didn't add up and embarked on a quest to prove it. As that great philosopher George Costanza once said: "It's not a lie if you believe it."
Spectre
October 26
It's reported to be the longest Bond movie yet, and after a fairly agonising three-year wait for the follow-up to Skyfall we say rightly so. After his glorious 007 debut in 2012, Sam Mendes was finally persuaded that never-say-never really is the best policy and is back in the director's chair. His logic for his volte face is as impeccable as his work - what's the point in returning, he asked, if you're not going to make a movie that's even better than the one that went before? Daniel Craig's fourth outing as the man with the PPK sees him going rogue and travelling to Mexico City, the Alps and Rome with Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista and Irish actor Andrew Scott all mixed up in the mayhem. Best of all, and in proof that dreams really do come true, Christoph Waltz is the main villain. If we had a white cat we'd be stroking it right now.
Brooklyn
November 6
How's this for a good omen: the big screen take on the much-loved Colm Tóibín book was the subject of a bidding war for the distribution rights when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at the start of the year. $9m is the figure that's been reported, and the film is receiving a US release in the run-up to awards season too. Intermission director John Crowley is behind the lens, with Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson and Emory Cohen in front of it, as the story of Eilis Lacey's 1950s journey from Ireland to New York and back again is brought to hankies-at-the-ready life. Crowley, however, has said that audiences should expect some laughter along with the tears and that the film is "very Irish" in its tone. That doesn't sound like blarney to us.
Steve Jobs
November 13
Word is Michael Fassbender should start getting measured for the Oscars tux already, and for some, this film has long been earmarked as their winter treat. Danny Boyle directs a script from The West Wing and The Social Network's Aaron Sorkin about how one man led the charge to change the world, including how you may be reading this. It's split into three lengthy scenes and is set backstage at three Apple product launches, culminating with the launch of the iMac in 1998. Co-star Kate Winslet has said the character demands placed on Fassbender were "like Hamlet, times two"; Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said he actually felt like he was watching his late colleague on screen and if lines like "Artists lead and hacks ask for a show of hands" are anything to go by, we'll be quoting the results for weeks.
Black Mass
November 27
After the disastrous triple whammy of The Lone Ranger, Transcendence and Mordecai, Johnny Depp was really starting to look like yesterday's leading man. How wrong we were. Gangster biopic Black Mass has been hailed as the performance of his career - some going when you consider Donnie Brasco and Ed Wood are on the CV too. Depp plays Whitey Bulger, the Boston criminal whose reign of terror in the city lasted decades before he went on the run in 1994 and was finally caught in 2011. Check out the company Depp is keeping here: Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson, Corey Stoll, Peter Sarsgaard and Juno Temple. Sienna Miller's performance as Bulger's longtime girlfriend didn't make the final cut, which gives some indication of the filmmakers' confidence about the story they had already.
Bridge of Spies
November 27
It says something about the bumper few months ahead when a Steven Spielberg film has largely gone under the radar thus far, but get ready to hear plenty more about this real-life spy thriller in the weeks ahead. For the 1960-set Bridge of Spies, Spielberg has reunited with his Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can star Tom Hanks to tell the story of what happened when CIA attorney James Donovan (Hanks) was sent to negotiate the release of American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers after he was shot down over Soviet airspace. The Coen brothers are among the scriptwriters and the cast also includes Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan and Alan Alda. The Berlin Wall, gloomy streets, a serious dent in the world's tobacco supply, lots of people looking over their shoulders, and hopefully, frayed armrests while watching.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
December 18
When we talked to Mike McPadden, author of the brilliant film-nut book Heavy Metal Movies earlier this year, we asked him whether he was excited about seeing Episode VII or Mad Max: Fury Road. We weren't expecting his reply. "The thought of sitting through either of them sounds like an unbearable chore," he said. "CGI and online editing have ruined Hollywood movies for me." 'Round here, though, there's no looking on the, ahem, dark side. Or watching of the trailer - just to heighten the experience on opening night. The fussiest of pals tell us the teaser is quality, and if the movie even manages to give us back a fraction of the great memories from December '77 and May 1980, it'll be time and money well spent. Grown men crying in cinemas is never a good thing, but either way, it'll be justified here.
Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
December 21
And if the Force Awakens does turn out to be pants, well, at least there'll be warm and fuzzies aplenty to be had three days later. It's the gang's first time on the big screen, and from the bits we've seen, all that hanging around has been well worth it. Snoopy, we're told, is about to take on his "greatest mission" and do battle with arch-enemy The Red Baron, while his follicularly-challenged buddy has an epic quest of his own to contend with, involving matters of the heart. Let's face it: you're never too old to learn, and there'll be wisdom galore here, with the message as gorgeous as the visuals - perfect for the most wonderful time of the year.
