The Big Picture

Charlie's Angels

Here at the Chronicle, we're great anticipators. You know, we anticipate weekends and parties and vacations and generally ruin all the fun by building them up too much. We're working on this. One of the things we anticipate most frequently is upcoming movies. It's so hard not to. Trailers, billboards, early buzz, and roundups like this one make it nigh impossible to snuggle up in a dark movie theatre without a bundle of expectations. And there's no buzzkill like too much hype. So in the following pages, we will discuss, we will tell stories, we will point out -- but we will not hype (much). See, we want you to be excited about the great films coming out this fall (see related feature on Almost Famous), but we don't want your anticipation spiking to unattainable levels -- somewhere between what you felt for The Blair Witch Project and Body Shots is a good goal. So it is with understanding and trepidation and a dose of humility that we present to you the fall movie preview -- highlighting some of the most interesting work coming out this fall, from high-stakes sequels to experimental musicals. And we hope that reading them builds excitement rather than spoiling all the fun.