7. Still Alice (dir.: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland): Julianne Moore plays an Ivy League professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, and her performance is one we're going to be hearing about a lot throughout the rest of the year. Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart are both impressive as well, as Alice's husband and youngest daughter, respectively. Release date: Nothing yet, but Sony Pictures Classics just picked up the film, so expect something before the year is out.
8. Foxcatcher (dir.: Bennett Miller): A slower and chiller movie than you're perhaps expecting. Steve Carell plays eccentric American billionaire John DuPont, whose obsession with American greatness as funneled through Olympic wrestlers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) turns deadly. As an acting showcase, it's aces for Tatum and Ruffalo (and maybe a bit less so for Carell). Release date: November 14th.
9. It Follows (dir.: David Robert Mitchell): Teen sex and horror have always gone hand-in-hand, and especially so in the latest from Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover). A demon (or something) is inflicted upon teens after they have sex with someone similarly afflicted, and it won't stop until they pass it on. Inventive and sadistically aware of your poor jangled nerves, starring Maika Monroe and Keir Gilchrist, who you might (should) remember from The United States of Tara. Release date: TBA 2015.
10. 99 Homes (dir.: Ramin Bahrani): Andrew Garfield plays a family man forcibly evicted from his home, only to reluctantly take a job with the opportunist realtor who did the evicting (an unusually subdued, relatively speaking, Michael Shannon). The acting is aces, even if the film can sometimes be blunt in its themes (have you heard about how we bail out bankers and not construction workers?). Release date: TBA.
11. Bird People (dir.: Pascale Ferran): An American businessman (Josh Charles) staying in a Paris hotel makes a life-changing decision. A chamber maid at that same hotel (Anaïs Demoustier) feels similarly restless, ultimately undergoing a transformative experience of her own. The film achieves an interesting, chunky balance between both stories, which intersect at odd moments, and between tones both earnest and whimsical. Release date: September 12th.
12. The Imitation Game (dir.: Morten Tyldum): This biopic of British genius and WWII codebreaker Alan Turing doesn't feature a whole lot of filmmaking style. And the complicating factor of Turing's homosexuality, which leads to his persecution by the British government, is handled perfunctorily and uncourageously. But while the team-of-codebreakers story is chugging along, it's quite an engaging and exciting film, with a strong ensemble including Benedict Cumberbatch (a contender for a Best Actor nomination), Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong. Release date: November 21st.