50 Movies You Need to See This Fall
Remember when we all assumed that things would be back to “normal” by the time the fall movie season rolled around this year? Let’s just say: Close, but no cigar. People are still reticent to fully go back to the movies, and multiplex chains aren’t quite ready to go back to full capacity. A few big-name titles got kicked down the road yet again (see you later, Top Gun: Maverick). While Netflix continues to signal its prestige entries by giving them brief theatrical runs, traditional movie studios are releasing their tentpole blockbusters simultaneously on their own streaming services. Things could change in an instant. The release dates on this list could be topsy-turvy by the time you finish reading this paragraph.
But we’re heading into the final third of the year with an abundance of faith, crossed fingers and assurances that yes, barring further catastrophes, we’ll finally be getting the new Bond movie, and the MCU epic Eternals, and the chance to see the highly anticipated new adaptation of Dune and the fourth Matrix movie the way they were meant to be seen, on the largest screens possible. We’ve broken down the 50 movies that you should being keeping an eye out through the end of 2021, now that Labor Day weekend (and the success of Marvel’s Shang-Chi film) have officially kicked off the fall movie season. From superhero and science-fiction epics to Broadway musicals, Oscar-courting movies to hot-buttered-popcorn cinema, rock docs to offbeat biopics — welcome to your moviegoing guide for the next four months.
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‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ (Sep. 3)
They called him the “Master of Kung Fu” — but his name was Shang-Chi, a 1970s comic-book character originally designed to cash in on the mania around martial arts and Bruce Lee. Now, however, this vintage (and somewhat controversial) Marvel superhero is being positioned as the latest hero of the MCU and a cornerstone of the cinematic universe’s future “Phase 4” storylines. Kim’s Convenience star Simu Liu plays title character, a San Francisco slacker who turns out to be someone whose fists and feet should be registered as deadly weapons; the legendary Tony Leung is his father, as well the mysterious figure behind the organization known as the Ten Rings; Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina and Meng’er Zhang show up to help generate laughs, kick ass and save the world, yadda yadda yadda. —D.F.
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‘The Year of the Everlasting Storm’ (Sep. 3)
This cinematic mixtape brings together some of the world’s finest filmmakers — from David Lowery (the man behind this year’s hypnotizing The Green Knight) to Apichatpong Weerasethakul — to contribute shorts to an omnibus project based loosely around the idea of how the pandemic has reshaped our lives. Granted, there’s been plenty of mediocre Covid-themed movies — does anyone remember Locked Down? — but there’s a good blend of a disturbing new documentary by Citizenfour‘s Laura Poitras and a humorous look at lockdown life from Iranian director Jafar Panahi (who, ironically, is currently under house arrest). —T.G.
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‘The Card Counter’ (Sep. 10)
When he isn’t penning spicy Facebook posts, legendary screenwriter and director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, First Reformed) is keeping the spirit of the moody, brooding New Hollywood antihero alive. His latest variation on the theme stars Oscar Isaac as William Tell, a gambler and ex-military interrogator running from the ghosts of his past and all the way to the World Series of Poker. That is, if he doesn’t get caught in a revenge plot first. The film co-stars Willem Dafoe, Tye Sheridan, and Tiffany Haddish. That cast in a Schrader joint? Tickets are already bought. —K.W.
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‘Cry Macho’ (Sep. 17)
Back in the 1980s, when Clint Eastwood was still a spry fifty-something, he abandoned a plan to star in an adaptation of N. Richard Nash’s novel Cry Macho. Now in his 90s — yes, his 90s — the venerable actor and director is taking care of some unfinished business and finally stepping into the role of Mike Milo, a broken-down former rodeo rider who goes to Mexico to help his boss retrieve a young kid and a fighting rooster. This new film looks a lot like Eastwood’s recent The Mule: a low-key and reflective drama, about a hard man trying to soften a bit before time runs out. —N.M.
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‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ (Sep. 17)
Jessica Chastain dons the falsies of famed televangelist and noted mascara enthusiast Tammy Faye Bakker, in this biopic-of-sorts based on the 2000 documentary by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) and written by Abe Silva (Nurse Jackie, Dead To Me), the movie follows the rise, fall, and redemption of the scandal-plagued yet deeply empathetic Tammy Faye, who later became a campy cult figure. Andrew Garfield costars as husband Jim Bakker; Vincent D’Onofrio plays Jerry Falwell. —K.W.
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‘Dear Evan Hansen’ (Sep. 24)
Preternaturally youthful-looking Ben Platt will reprise his Tony-winning role in what will be the kick off to a season of Broadway musical adaptations (seriously, we’re getting this, Tick, Tick…Boom and West Side Story all within three months of each other). Platt is the title character, a socially awkward teen who invents a series of letters between himself and an equally maladjusted teen who recently took his own life. If you think this act of deceit eventually makes the young Mr. Hansen both popular and, eventually, gets him in over his head, congratulations. Kaitlyn Dever is the sister of the deceased, who grows attached to Evan; Julianne Moore and Amy Adams’ play the boys’ respective moms. Expect a lot of singing, sniffling and star power. —D.F.
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‘The Many Saints of Newark’ (Oct. 1)
Travel back to the New Jersey of the late Sixties and early Seventies, when a family known as the Sopranos were protecting their turf and establishing themselves as a criminal presence to be feared and respected. Yes, we’re talking about those Sopranos. This prequel takes us back to the beginnings, when Giovanni “Johnny Boy” Soprano (Jon Bernthal), a.k.a. Tony’s pops, was running his own crew, alongside the mythical “Dickie” Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), a.k.a. Christopher’s dad. Expect to see a lot of baby-faced versions of your favorite Mobsters from the show, with the added poignancy of James Gandolfini’s son, Michael, playing the younger Tony. (Also: Whoever thought of casting Vera Farmiga as a thirtysomething Livia deserves a raise.) Series creator David Chase co-wrote the script and longtime series director Alan Taylor is calling the shots, so the pedigree is strong here. —D.F.
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‘Titane’ (Oct. 1)
A big prizewinner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the sophomore feature from French filmmaker Julia Ducournau (whose 2016 debut Raw is required viewing for those who have strong stomachs) follows a young woman named Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) who was in a horrible car accident as a child. She now dances at car shows; Alexia may also be the serial killer who’s been plaguing her town, which is why she has to go on the lam. To cover her tracks, she pretends to be the formerly missing-for-decades son of a firefighter (Vincent Lindon). He takes the fugitive in. And that’s when things get really fucking weird. The Cronenberg mojo is strong here, from some Videodrome new-flesh nods to an overall hold-my-beer-Crash vibe. But it’s also proof that Ducournau is most assuredly the real deal. —D.F.
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‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ (Oct. 1)
So, you remember that end credits sequence in the 2018 Venom movie about a symbiotic life form that turns poor Tom Hardy into something like a gravel-voiced, antihero version of Spider-Man? The one with Woody Harrelson saying “there’s going to be carnage” when he escapes prison? Comic book readers will tell you that he Carnage is the name of a villain who’s an offshoot of Venom, with a big jaw and huge teeth (the better to chew scenery, my dear), and because he attached himself to a serial killer he’s really evil, and guess who’s the bad guy in this sequel? Michell Williams, Stephen Graham, Naomi Harris and Veep‘s Reid Scott round out the cast, but really, you’re here for the Hardy vs. Harrelson showdown, or rather the CGI-heavy equivalent of it. —D.F.
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‘No Time to Die’ (Oct. 8)
The name’s Bond, etc., etc. Daniel Craig renews his license to kill one last time, with a few interesting wrinkles thrown into his spy-franchise swan song: Léa Seydoux reprises her Spectre role as Madeleine Swan, love interest and possible betrayer; there’s a new agent rocking the “007” handle, played by Lashana Lynch; Phoebe Waller-Bridge contributed to the script (cue James looking into the camera and raising his eyebrows); Ana de Armas is also onboard, which means we get a mini-Knives Out reunion as a bonus; and Rami Malek plays a bad guy who may or may not be a variation on a classic Bond villain. All this, plus Cary Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation, True Detective‘s first season) putting his own personal touch on the nearly 60-year-old series. You have what sounds like a perfect farewell to an iconic role. —D.F.
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‘Bergman Island’ (Oct. 15)
Fårö Island has become a pilgrimage site for cinephiles — it’s where Ingmar Bergman spent his final years, and the locals have fashioned a cottage industry devoted to the Bergmania of tourists and visitors. It’s also a site where creative types go for inspiration, which is why a married couple (Tim Roth and Phantom Thread‘s Vicky Krieps), both of whom are filmmakers, find themselves renting a house there for an extended summer stay. Soon, however, their relationship begins to take on the characteristics of the husbands and wives you’d fine in one of the Swedish master’s dramas, which becomes even more complicated when a story-within-the-story starts to blur the lines between real and fictional. Points to French director Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden) for blending the personal, the meta and the melancholy.
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‘Halloween Kills’ (Oct. 15)
We know it’s hard to keep track of all the Halloween movies, so here’s a refresher: This is the one from the writer-director team of Danny McBride and David Gordon Green; and it’s a direct sequel to the 2018 Halloween, which erased 40 years of confusing continuity, returning to the characters and setting of John Carpenter’s 1978 original. Jamie Lee Curtis is back on board as the fierce Laurie Strode, still determined the end the threat of the supernatural serial killer Michael Myers once and for all, with the help of her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). The previous film was genuinely terrifying, and the trailer for this one looks even scarier. Horror fans, prepare to spend October jumping at every shadow. —N.M.
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‘The Last Duel’ (Oct. 15)
Nearly 25 years after winning a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting, longtime buddies Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have collaborated on another screenplay (along with Nicole Holofcener), telling the story of Jean de Carrouges (Damon), a 14th-century knight who vows vengeance after his wife (Jodie Comer) claims she was raped by his friend (Adam Driver). The catch: We get to see the events from all three of their differing perspectives. This historical drama also reunites Damon with director Ridley Scott (The Martian), who no doubt will bring style and electricity to both the competing narratives and what should be the film’s stunning centerpiece: a duel to the death between the two men to resolve their bitter conflict. —T.G.
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‘The Velvet Underground’ (Oct. 15)
Who better to take on the legacy of the band that fused the NYC avant-garde, the Sixties downtown underground and Warhol’s Factory freak-flag-flying than Todd Haynes? The I’m Not There director’s first documentary recounts the story of how Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker turned a droning, dirge-like sound into a rock ‘n’ revolution, from their early days to the Nico era to their eventual dissolution. The fact that Haynes mixes his new interviews with those who were there and vintage clips in the manner of vintage experimental films — dig those Chelsea Girls split screens! — only sweetens the deal. The perfect mix of subject and shot caller. —D.F.
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‘Dune’ (Oct. 22)
He who controls the spice controls the universe! Denis Villenueve (Blade Runner 2049) goes after the great white whale of cult sci-fi epics: Frank Herbert’s award-winning 1965 tome about interplanetary warfare, giant sandworms, a mind-expanding drug, and a messiah-like hero. Luckily for us, he’s enlisted an insane amount of screen talent to help him out: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård (as Baron Harkonnen!), Charlotte Rampling, Dave Bautista and more. This chapter — yes, it’s Part 1 out of 2 — covers the initial half of Herbert’s first book. Fingers crossed we get a whole trilogy out of this. —D.F.
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‘The French Dispatch’ (Oct. 22)
Welcome back, Wes Anderson! The fastidious filmmaker returns with an anthology film of sorts, set in a fictional French town and revolving around a New Yorker-ish magazine run by gruff American expatriate Bill Murray. A convict sends the art world into a tizzy, a young man has a relationship with an older woman while May ’68 rages, a travel columnist offers droll (naturally) commentary, a food writer suddenly finds himself in the center of a crime — it all sounds tres beaucoup in terms of the filmmaker’s signature quirk and cultural obsessiveness. Check out this cast: Murray, Benicio Del Toro, Timothée Chalamet, Saiorse Ronan, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Elisabeth Moss, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Owen Wilson, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schrieber … I mean, come on! —D.F.
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‘The Harder They Fall’ (Oct. 22)
Once upon a time in the west, a notorious gunfighter (Idris Elba) murdered a young boy’s parents in cold blood. That kid grew up to be an outlaw named Nat Love (Lovecraft Country‘s Jonathan Majors), who’s got one thing on his mind: revenge. And considering that the man who did him dirty has just been sprung from prison, courtesy of his gang of no-good varmints, Nat may finally get his day of vengeance. Hot lead is gonna fly, courtesy of these two leading men and Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Zazie Beetz and Lakeith Stanfield, all of whom are strapping on the six-shooters and chaps for this old-school Western from the British renaissance man known as Jeymes Samuel, a.k.a. the Bullitts. (It gets a theatrical run starting on Oct. 22nd before dropping on Netflix Nov. 3rd.) —D.F.
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‘Antlers’ (Oct. 29)
Set in a tiny Oregon town, this Guillermo del Toro-produced and Scott Cooper-directed supernatural thriller is a little like a Stephen King version of E.T. — with a very different take on what might happen if a little boy sheltered a freaky-looking beastie. Keri Russell is an elementary school teacher who takes a personal interest in one of her students, a boy (Jeremy T. Thomas) who’s been sketching some fantastical drawings of weird animals. Jesse Plemons plays her brother, a local lawman who helps her investigate the kid’s family. It’s a disturbing tale of secrets maybe better left undiscovered. —N.M.
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‘Last Night in Soho’ (Oct. 29)
Edgar Wright — he of Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead, and numerous other movies you watch over and over again — has said that his latest, a psychological thriller partially set in Swinging Sixties London, was heavily inspired by vintage nervous-breakdown horror like Don’t Look Now and Repulsion. As if that was not enough to get cinephiles salivating, his tale of a modern young woman (Jojo Rabbit‘s Thomasin McKenzie) — who is somehow connected to a Mod-ish Carnaby Street hipster (The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy) from the past — is dotted with iconic actors from the era: Terence Stamp, the great Rita Tushingham, the late Diana Rigg. Prepare to enter a gleeful state of genre-nerd bliss. —D.F.
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‘C’mon, C’mon’ (2021)
It’s been five years since Mike Mills’ lovely 20th Century Women, and his latest looks to be equally touching. Joaquin Phoenix plays a journalist asked to look after his sister’s son (Woody Norman), setting in motion a cross-country saga as he takes his nephew along during a reporting trip. It’s Phoenix’s first film since winning the Oscar for Joker, so anticipation will be high to see what one of our finest actors does for a follow-up. More than likely, we’ll get the more tender, introspective Phoenix — the one who was so radiant in indie dramas like Her and Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. —T.G.
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‘Eternals’ (Nov. 5)
How will the Disney/Marvel juggernaut further its multiplex-driven quest for world domination, you ask? Easy: The company will make an MCU entry focusing on the semi-obscure Jack Kirby comic about a group of superheroes created centuries ago by aliens to protect Earth. It’s an odd choice for the company in terms of a property to exploit — but listen, no one expected much from a Guardians of the Galaxy movie either, so who knows. The cast is stacked: Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kit Harington, a newly jacked-up Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry, Gemma Chan, and Barry Keoghan don costumes and fight evil. Nomadland‘s Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao — dear god, it feels great to wrote that — is behind the camera for this one, which gives us hope. —D.F.
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‘Finch’ (Nov. 5)
The title has changed (it was originally called BIOS) and it’s now going to be an Apple release instead of a Universal joint, but the song remains the same: The world has suffered through a massive cataclysmic event — because of course it has! — and for almost a decade, a robotics expert (Tom Hanks) has lived in a bunker underground, with only his faithful dog by his side. Our hero is dying, however, so he constructs a mechanical companion (Caleb Landry Jones), then takes his newfound friend and his pet on a journey through the postapocalyptic wasteland to teach the android how to be nurturing. We’ve learned not to bet against Hanks when it comes to this kind of tearjerking odes to humanity, genre elements or not. —D.F.
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‘Spencer’ (Nov. 5)
Princess Di is back in the zeitgeist, thanks in large part to Netflix’s The Crown, and Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín (who stunned with his intimate 2016 first-lady portrait, Jackie) will deliver another look at a beloved, complicated woman. In what we deem to be the casting coup of the century, Kristen Stewart stars as the People’s Princess, at one of the most significant moments of her life: deciding to leave her marriage to Prince Charles while spending the holidays with the royal family at Sandringham. That swoon of a poster featuring Diana’s iconic wedding gown already has Twitter properly salivating. —K.W.
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‘Belfast’ (Nov. 10)
Word on the street is that Kenneth Branagh’s latest film — about a young man growing up in Sixties Northern Ireland, while the Troubles rage on around him — is the sort of semiautobiographical drama that is likely to leave audiences floored, and is one of the best things the actor-writer-director has done in years. (We’re hearing a lot of comparisons to Roma, though that may be because it’s shot in black-and-white.) Jude Hill is the working-class hero who’s trying to figure out what to do with his life (that’d be the Branagh avatar). Jamie Dornan and Outlander‘s Caitríona Balfe are his parents, Ciarán Hinds and Dame Judi Dench are his grandparents. The buzz is building on this one. —D.F.
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‘Passing’ (Oct. 27)
Actor-turned-director Rebecca Hall adapts Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance novel about racial passing in 1920s New York, a story she felt suited to tell due to her own family makeup. (Her mother, the American opera singer Maria Ewing, is of African American, Native American, and Dutch ancestry). Tessa Thompson is Irene, a middle-class Black woman living uptown; Ruth Negga is Clare, a childhood friend who Irene runs into one day, and who is now passing for white. It caused a minor sensation when it premiered at Sundance back in Januray and was picked up by Netflix for a cool $16 million. André Holland, Alexander Skarsgard, and Bill Camp costar. (It gets a theatrical run starting on Nov. 10th before dropping on Netflix Nov. 10th.) —K.W.
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‘Red Notice’ (Nov. 12)
Should you happen to be an international criminal, you’d better hope you don’t get tagged with a “red notice” — that would put you on the intelligence community’s special most-wanted list and get the FBI’s resident badass (Dwayne Johnson, because who else?) on your trail. It just so happens that two art thieves (Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot) have joined this elite club of villains, and our man with a badge has to partner with the smart-ass male one to catch the mysterious, more dangerous female one. There’s a lotta star power in this Netflix-produced blockbuster, and likely a lot of things that go boom. We’re pretty sure that, like your own streaming-service queue, this was designed by an algorithm as well. —D.F.
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‘Tick, Tick…Boom!’ (Nov. 12)
Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his directorial debut by bringing Jonathan Larson’s early, pre-Rent solo musical — about a playwright in the middle of a creative lull and personal crisis — to Netflix. Andrew Garfield plays Larson’s screen counterpart, who’s struggling to balance his musical-theater ambitions, his doubts about his talent, his day job as a waiter, his friendships and a rocky love life. Alexandra Shipp is his long-suffering girlfriend, and Robin De Jesus is his long-suffering best friend who’s given up the creative life for the corporate world; Vanessa Hudgens, Bradley Whitford (playing Stephen Sondheim!), and Judith Light round out the cast. The Hamilton creator has gone on record about the huge influence that the late, great Larson’s work has had on his own career, which makes this labor of love feel like it will be that much more personal. (It gets a theatrical run starting on Nov. 12th before dropping on Netflix Nov. 19th.) —D.F.
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‘Bruised’ (Nov. 17)
For her directorial debut, Halle Berry casts herself as a semi-retired MMA fighter named Jackie Justice, who gets back into the ring because money is tight and she has a kid to care of — also, maybe she has something to prove to a world that gave up on her. This triumph-of-the-underdog tale had been in development before Berry came aboard, but the Oscar-winning actress has admitted to pouring a lot of herself into this picture, turning a lifetime of being underestimated into a stirring, Rocky-like story. She also logged a lot of hours at the gym, bringing her own blood and sweat to the role of a middle-aged warrior. —N.M.
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‘The Power of the Dog’ (Nov. 17)
Filmmaker Jane Campion returns with her first movie in 12 years (Bright Star was 2009, folks), an adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel about two brothers — one smart and cruel (Benedict Cumberbatch), the other dim but kind (Jesse Plemons) — living alone for decades on a ranch in Montana. Then a widow (Kirsten Dunst) enters the picture, and her marriage to the gentler of the two sparks a war between the siblings. (It gets a theatrical run starting on Nov. 17th before dropping on Netflix Dec. 1st.) —D.F.
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‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ (Nov. 19)
Sure, the title might sound like a video you’d find on Pornhub, but Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude isn’t necessarily a dirty movie — although, judging by its reception at the Berlin Film Festival (where it won the top prize), sex is definitely on his mind. Told in three distinct segments, the filmmaker’s latest provocation spends two of those sequences focusing on Emi (Katia Pascariu), a teacher in Bucharest who’s mortified when a sex tape that she made with her husband leaks on the internet. But before you start thinking this is an arthouse redo of that one Cameron Diaz/Jason Segel clunker, just know that Jude is more interested in dissecting the hypocrisy of what society considers pornographic than in delivering a raucous comedic romp. —T.G.
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‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ (Nov. 19)
Who ya gonna call, etc. — take three! Jason “Son of Ivan” Reitman picks up the comedy-horror-action franchise and runs with it, as the grandkids of one of the original ghostbusters comes across some of his relative’s old paranormal paraphernalia. And just in time, given that something wicked, and likely highly protoplasmic, this way comes. It/Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard and I, Tonya’s Mckenna Grace are the next generation of ‘busters; Paul Rudd is a local science teacher who helps the kids battle whatever supernatural force it is threatening everyone in town. We’re assuming some of the Eighties film’s cast will stop by for cameos. And if this is another bit of “corrective” fan service, we’re going to throw a proton pack through a plate-glass window. —D.F.
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‘King Richard’ (Nov. 19)
No, not the Shakespearean regent of yore — that’d be Richard Williams (Will Smith), the driven, loving Compton tennis coach who helped make his daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) world champions. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (Joe Bell) and opening in the thick of awards season, this sports drama has the potential to be a crowd-pleaser that also touches on racial and economic inequality in America. Those factors should only add urgency and dramatic heft to an underdog story that will tap into Smith’s effortless movie-star charisma. He hasn’t had a role this potentially meaty in years. —T.G.
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‘Mothering Sunday’ (Nov. 19)
Based on a Graham Swift novel, this Cannes-approved melodrama stars Odessa Young (Assassination Nation) as Jane Fairchild, a maid whose risky affair with her employers’ wealthy neighbor is set against the backdrop of 1920s England — as anyone who’s seen Downton Abbey can tell you, it’s a moment when the old class structure is breaking down, but perhaps not fast enough. Swift is the master of the interior monologue, which he’s frequently used in his books to turn the tiniest fragments of people’s everyday experiences into mini-epics. Here, director Eva Husson (Girls of the Sun) and screenwriter Alice Birch aim to capture the scope of a story where the events of one day echo throughout the characters’ lives. —N.M.
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‘Zeros and Ones’ (Nov. 19)
From the mind of maverick filmmaker Abel Ferrara comes this feverish depiction of life in a quarantined Rome, starring Ethan Hawke as a shadowy military man trying to track down his insurrectionist twin brother in a locked-down city, where a mysterious recent incident has reduced the nearby Vatican to rubble. That plot may make this sound like a conventional revenge thriller — a COVID-era John Wick, only with a sibling instead of a dog. But Ferrara doesn’t do “conventional,” which makes us extremely curious as to what he’s got in store for us here. —N.M.
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‘The Beatles: Get Back’ (Nov. 24)
For decades, our view of the Beatles’ album Let It Be was colored by the 1970 doc of the same name, which portrayed a dour, very dysfunctional Fab Four on the verge of falling apart. Now, armed with 56 hours of never-before-seen footage that is unspooling over three nights, Peter Jackson returns to the moment of those fateful recording sessions, and tries to recast the narrative somewhat. Judging from the sneak peek he gave of the project this past December, his portrait captures John, Paul, Ringo, and George goofing around in the studio, trading banter and getting along a lot better than you’d have thought. (And in the end, your view of these takes are equal to the edits Peter makes.) A fascinating, deep-dive look into a key part of the band’s legacy, and a virtual dream come true for Beatles completists. —D.F.
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‘Encanto’ (Nov. 24)
Disney’s Thanksgiving animated feature comes to us from Jared Bush and Byron Howard (the team behind Zootopia and Moana), along with co-director Charise Castro Smith (The Haunting of Hill House); no less than Lin-Manuel Miranda contributed to the screenplay and composed a song or three. A cast of Latinx voices including Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz, Wilmer Valderrama and Rhenzy Feliz bring to life the story of a Colombian girl named Mirabel, who has the hard luck of being the only person in the Madrigal family without magical powers. We bet she’s going to discover something special about herself before this colorful and lively family friendly fantasy is over. —K.W.
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‘House of Gucci’ (Nov. 24)
It’s the other Ridley Scott movie of the season — see also: The Last Duel — and the only one starring Lady Gaga as a socialite-slash-felon. (Unless there turns out to be a Gaga cameo as a homicidal 14th-century elite in Scott’s historical drama, in which case you may strike that last bit from the record.) The singer-actress plays Patrizia Reggiani, the former wife of Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver); she was later convicted of hiring a hitman to murder the head of the Gucci fashion house. There’s a who’s who of acting talent on board to support these two as well: Al Pacino, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, Jeremy Huston, and a literally unrecognizable Jared Leto. —D.F.
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‘Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Movie, a.k.a. Licorice Pizza’ (Nov. 26)
We weren’t sure what the name of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie officially was for a while — it was simply “Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Movie,” and then we’d heard it might be named Soggy Bottom, a cryptic phrase which we assume will have a deeper meaning than, say, someone just sitting on a wet bench. We’re now hearing it’s been blessed with the handle Licorice Pizza, which was the name of a chain of SoCal record stores back in the 1970s. Here’s what we do know: It takes place during the Me Decade, around the general area of where Anderson grew up in Los Angeles; and we know that Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son) is a high school student who wants to be an actor, Bradley Cooper is a film director and our man Benny Safdie is a politician. After that, it’s just a bunch of question marks, including the title. Who cares. It’s the new PTA film, his first since 2017’s Phantom Thread. What are we gonna do, not go see it? Forget that. —D.F.
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‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ (2021)
Guy meets some witches, they give him a cryptic prophecy, he murders his king and ascends to the throne, only to find that he’s plagued by guilt, while his wife is going mad and can’t get that damned blood off her hands — you know the story. This particular screen take on the oft-produced Scottish play is extremely notable for the fact that it stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, is directed by none other than Joel Coen, and shot in haunting black and white by noted cinematogarpher Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis). What’s done by talent of this level cannot be undone, folks. —D.F.
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‘Flee’ (Dec. 3)
A young boy growing up in Afghanistan in the 1980s watches as his older brother goes AWOL after being forcibly recruited by the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets. Years later, this nameless, now-grown protagonist is a successful academic who’s settled down with a supportive boyfriend. When the Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen asks him to recount his story for the camera, however, you can see how being uprooted from his home has never quite been resolved. A sleeper hit at this year’s Sundance, this intimate exploration of trauma doubles as a chronicle of the universal 20th-century refugee experience, in which that word in the title is a constant way of life. The fact that Rasmussen animates this immigrant’s tale somehow makes it even more graceful and gutting. —D.F.
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‘The Hand of God’ (Dec. 3)
In the 1980s, a young soccer fanatic named Fabietto (Filippo Scotti) finds out that Argentine legend Diego Maradona, a.k.a. the “Hand of God,” will be playing for Napoli. It’s a dream come true for him and his equally football-obsessed dad (Toni Servillo), and he may finally see his beloved home team win a championship. Then a tragedy — and a film shoot that suddenly breezes into town — throws two major curveballs into his life. The latest from filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) takes a tender, surreal, semi-autobiograhical look back at his own youth, from the dynamics of his extended family to his own budding interest in cinema. “It’s a film based on the perception of pain and joy of a boy, and it’s narrated through the eyes of the grownup man he’s become,” the director has said about this coming-of-age drama. “That is to say, me.” (It gets a theatrical run starting on Dec. 3rd before dropping on Netflix Dec. 15th.) —D.F.
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‘The Souvenir: Part II’ (2021)
Even if you were familiar with British filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s earlier work, you were likely knocked for a loop by her semi-autobiographical 2019 drama about a film student in the mid 1980s who gets involved with a charismatic, self-destructive older gent. This sequel deals with the aftermath of that relationship, as Hogg’s screen counterpart Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) works her way through grief, sorrow and some creative growing pains by turning that story…into an autofictional movie. Tilda Swinton, a.k.a. Honor’s mum, is back as Julie’s mum. Joe Alwyn, Harris Dickinson and Stranger Things‘ Charlie Heaton add some fresh blood. And yes, the brilliant Richard Aayode reprises his role as the world’s most louche would-be auteur. —D.F.
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‘Nightmare Alley’ (Dec. 3)
Guillermo del Toro’s official follow-up to his Oscar winner The Shape of Water (his upcoming adaptation of Pinocchio is a co-directing joint) is an adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham‘s novel about a sleazy carny magician (Bradley Cooper) who develops a side act as a “psychic.” Enter a young woman (Rooney Mara), who teams up with him — and a psychologist (Cate Blanchett) who begins to play puppetmaster with our hapless dope of an antihero. Fans of the 1947 movie know where this noirish nugget ends up, and it ain’t pretty; we’re very curious to see what del Toro does with such perverse, pulpy material. —D.F.
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‘Red Rocket’ (2021)
Who’s ready for the Rex-naissance? In the late Nineties and early Aughts, Simon Rex was an MTV VJ and a fixture of the Scary Movie franchise. But in 2021, he’s the unlikely star of the latest intimate character study from acclaimed indie auteur Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project). Set in small-town Texas, the film follows a washed-up porn star who’s returned home after his career flamed out in Los Angeles. Rex will probably be the subject of a thousand “don’t call it a comeback” profiles this fall, and judging from the reception Red Rocket got at the Cannes, he deserves all the attention he’ll get for this seriocomic portrait of a fast-talking scam artist. —T.G.
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‘Don’t Look Up’ (Dec. 10)
There’s a comet heading toward Earth, and only Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence can save humanity! Writer-director Adam McKay’s satire casts the two stars as astronomers trying to warn the planet’s population about the danger we face. Given how hard it is just to get people to wear masks to curb a pandemic, well — you see what this duo is up against. And guess who else decided to join in on the fun? Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry, Arianna Grande, Jonah Hill, Chris Evans, Timothée Chalamet.… (It gets a theatrical run starting on Dec. 10th before dropping on Netflix Dec. 24th.) —D.F.
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‘Journal for Jordan’ (Dec. 10)
This will be a busy awards season for Denzel Washington: He’s in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, and he’s also got his fourth film as a director on deck. Based on a true story, the movie recounts the life of First Sgt. Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan). While stationed in Iraq in the mid-2000s, King wrote a journal for his infant son back home, offering him advice on life and love. This romantic drama, co-starring Chanté Adams as his fiancée (whose memoir inspired the film), seeks to be a heartwarming, bittersweet bit of counterprogramming against the more challenging and artsy Oscar-bait offerings. —T.G.
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‘West Side Story’ (Dec. 10)
Start snapping your fingers, Sharks- and Jets-style. No less than Steven Spielberg and Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner bring the Broadway classic back for a 21st-century cinematic coat of paint, though they’ve kept the period aspects (1950s New York), the general conceit (Romeo & Juliet, but street gangs), and those songs you’ve been singing since your middle-school theater department’s production. Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler are the star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria; Ariana DeBose and David Alavarez lend them support as Anita and Bernardo; Rita Moreno, Cory Stoll, and Brian d’Arcy James provide adult supervision. We’re crossing our fingers that the movie will leave us set/with a capital J/which we’ll never forget/’til they cart us away. —D.F.
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‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (Dec. 17)
Oh, Spidey … you just can’t catch a break, can you? The latest in the Tom Holland era of your-friendly-neighborhood-Spider-Man movies picks up where 2019’s Far From Home left off, with Peter Parker being outed as the guy behind the mask. Naturally, he seeks out Doctor Strange — as one does in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and asks him to cast a spell that would make everyone forget his secret identity. The Sorcerer Supreme does, which ends up causing a whole bunch of multiverse-related problems. Yes, that’s Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, a villain from the Tobey Maguire years, who shows up in the trailer; we’re guessing he’s not the only crossover from the numerous Spidey franchises who’ll be dropping by. —D.F.
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‘The Humans’ (2021)
Director Stephan Karam adapts his own Tony-winning play for the screen, just in time for the holidays, i.e. when you need the escapism of watching a dysfunctional family that isn’t yours tear each other apart over a big meal! Having just bought a downtown New York apartment, a young couple — Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and Richard (Steven Yeun) — invite her family over for Thanksgiving dinner. Spoiler alert for those who didn’t catch this drama during its Broadway run: It does not go smoothly. Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer, June Squibb and Jayne Houdyshell costar. —D.F.
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‘The Matrix 4’ (Dec. 21)
Because you can’t keep a good franchise down; because Keanu Reeves already brought back William S. Preston Esq.; because we have time to kill before the next John Wick movie drops; and because, in an age of deep fakes and conspiracy-theory hangovers and online culture becoming a cornerstone of mainstream culture, there’s never been a better time to resurrect the Wachowskis’ cyberpunk-as-fuck vision. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the plot of the new Matrix is (for now). But Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss return as Neo and Trinity, with Priyanka Chopra, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, and Neil Patrick Harris (!) joining the cast. Lana Wachowski goes solo as a director this time; the fact that Cloud Atlas novelist David Mitchell co-wrote the script (!!!) has us especially intrigued. —D.F.