This Week In Movies… ‘Riddick,’ ‘Salinger,’ ‘Mission Park’

Sixteen movie releases. This is one of the rare weeks where half of the new Hollywood releases are documentaries and my most anticipated viewing is a documentary as well – Salinger. What is it? Perhaps it’s the Labor Day dates that aren’t too kind to studio pockets, perhaps it’s the public demand for more informative films and less escapism. “Why read a book when you can watch the documentary?” Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Whatever the principal reason is, blockbuster films are about to become persona non-grata in the next few months when Oscar season rears its head for the Fall. An interesting note is that after the success of the Latino movie “Instructions Not Included,” Hollywood will have their eyes wide open for Tio Papi and Mission Park‘s results.

Below is the list of all the movies coming out this weekend and I rank them in descending order of my interests.

11. Futuro (NR)
Director: Alicia Scherson
Cast: Luigi Ciardo, Manuela Martelli, Rutger Hauer
Synopsis: When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.

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10. Money For Nothing: Inside The Federal Reserve (Documentary)
Director: Jim Bruce
Cast: Liev Schreiber, Peter Atwater, Alan Blinder
Synopsis: Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the U.S. Federal Reserve has never been greater. Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed Chairman’s every word. Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful – and least understood – financial institution on earth. Narrated by Liev Schreiber, Money For Nothing is the first film to take viewers inside the Fed and reveal the impact of Fed policies – past, present, and future – on our lives. Join current and former Fed officials as they debate the critics, and each other, about the decisions that helped lead the global financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008. And why we might be headed there again.

9. Out Of The Clear Blue Sky (Documentary)
Director: Danielle Gardner
Cast: Michael Santosusso, Sandra Palmeri
Synopsis: A documentary that explores the effects of 9/11 on the firm Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices on the top five floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center were destroyed in the attacks, killing 658 out of their 960 employees.

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8. Touchy Feely (R) 
Director: Lynn Shelton
Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Ellen Page, Josh Pais, Scoot McNairy
Synopsis: A massage therapist is unable to do her job when stricken with a mysterious and sudden aversion to bodily contact. Meanwhile, her uptight brother’s floundering dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his healing touch.

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7. My Father And The Man In Black (Documentary)
Director: Jonathan Holiff
Cast: Johnny Cash, Saul Holiff, June Carter Cash
Synopsis: The untold story of ‘bad-boy’ Johnny Cash, his talented but troubled manager, Saul Holiff, and a son searching for his father in the shadow of a legend.

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6. La Maison De La Radio (Documentary)
Director: Nicolas Philibert
Cast: Jean-Francois Achilli, Evelyne Adam, Jean-Claude Ameisen
Synopsis: Twenty-four hours in the life of Radio France, from one dawn to another. Along its corridors, inside its recording studios, with its producers, presenters, journalists, and various guests. And outside on a motorbike in the wake of the Tour de France or in the company of a thunderstorm photographer.

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5. Riddick (R)
Director: David Twohy
Cast: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Mollá
Synopsis: Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick’s past.

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4. Populaire (R)
Director: Regis Roinsard
Cast: Romain Duris, Berenice Bejo
Synopsis: 1958. Rose is a terrible secretary but a demon typist. Her handsome boss resolves to turn her into the fastest girl in the world.

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3. Good Ol’ Freda (Documentary)
Director: Ryan White
Cast: Freda Kelly, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison
Synopsis: This a documentary in which Freda Kelly looks back at her career as a lifelong secretary for The Beatles.

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2. Mission Park (R)
Director: Bryan Ramirez
Cast: Jeremy Ray Valdez, Walter Perez, Fernanda Romero
Synopsis: Four friends from the rough side of town grow apart when two are consumed by a life of crime, and the other two become FBI agents sent deep undercover – to bring down those childhood friends.

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1. Salinger (Documentary)
Director: Shane Salerno
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, Judd Apatow, John Cusack
Synopsis: An unprecedented look inside the private world of J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.