Late July is traditionally regarded as the beginning of Dump Season. I don’t know if that applies to the next six weeks the way it has in years past. There are many films coming out between now and Labor Day that I’ve seen and know are good, or that at least have me going — Goya’s Ghosts, The Devil Came on Horseback, Moliere, No End in Sight, This Is England, Blame it on Fidel, The Bourne Ultimatum (obviously), Charlie Bartlett, 2 Days in Paris, The 11th Hour, Superbad (obviously), Resurrecting the Champ, Right at Your Door, etc.
But for the least two or three weeks most of the excitement on the screening circuit has been about the fall films, which is to say Toronto Film Festival films, which it say the first wave of Oscar maybes. Into The Wild, In The Valley of Elah, The Brave One, No Country For Old Men, In The Shadow of the Moon, Michael Clayton, The Golden Age, Lake of Fire, Things We Lost in the Fire, Gone Baby Gone (which publicists don’t want to show me just yet), Reservation Road, Margot at the Wedding, etc.
In effect, the ’07 Oscar season is here and happening right now. The four-and-a-half to five-month vacation period (from early March to late July) is over, and it’s time to get back on the hog.