As the film industry awards season rapidly approaches, there’s always a handful of blockbusters and highly-anticipated flicks designed to capture our dinner-table and water-cooler conversations.
And what’s in store for November will give you plenty of hot topics.
Based on the New York Times bestseller, She Said is top of the list as potentially the most powerful biographical drama to see this year.
Two-time Oscar-nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman) stars as Megan Twohey and Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick) plays Jodi Kantor, and together the two Times reporters published a story that exposed sexual allegations about the now-disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein (played by Orange is the New Black‘s Mike Houston) is currently serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault in New York. (The state’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in that case).
He was subsequently brought to Los Angeles for a trial that began on Monday, five years after women’s testimony about him gave massive momentum to the 2017 #MeToo movement.
Valerie Complex for Deadline, said Kantor and Twohey “were the souls brave enough to track down evidence, corroborate it, get around NDAs, and travel the world to complete this story”.
“She Said isn’t just a film about building a case against Weinstein. It’s also about newsroom culture and the logistical steps needed to craft a game-changing investigative report,” she wrote.
If you’re not ready for this biopic, there’s also nostalgia aplenty coming up.
The major cinema chains are re-releasing Nicolas Cage’s iconic Con Air on its 25th anniversary, and the Whitney Houston-Kevin Costner love story, The Bodyguard, for its 30th anniversary.
Hot topics?: Should there be a Con Air 2? And let’s unpack the final kiss at the airport in The Bodyguard.
And while Florence Pugh is everyone’s darling at the moment after her persuasive, Oscar-worthy performance in Don’t Worry Darling, she’s returning in another psychological thriller set in the 1800s.
Special mention goes to the talented Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro whose version of the centuries-old fable, Pinocchio, remains very close to his heart.
He tells us the incarnation of his unique puppetry (known as stop-motion) on the big screen “is a particularly beautiful one”. What about the other 29 versions of the same story?
The Wonder: November 3
Set in 1862, Pugh (Lady Macbeth, Midsommar) plays an English Nightingale Nurse who is called to the Irish Midlands by a devout religious community to examine an 11-year-old girl who claims not to have eaten for four months.
As pilgrims and tourists flock to the family’s isolated village, Pugh’s Lib Wright is told Anna O’Donnell is surviving miraculously on “manna from heaven”.
An adaptation of Emma Donaghue’s acclaimed 2016 novel and featured at September’s Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, reviews all point to how “versatile and accomplished” Pugh is in what is a “monumental performance”
Armageddon Time: November 3
Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway is also on the radar for her performance playing a Jewish mother raising a family in Queens, New York, in the 1980s.
Starring Jessica Chastain and Anthony Hopkins, this period drama is written, directed and produced by James Gray, who was inspired to tell the story of his own childhood upbringing.
IndieWire says Hathaway “deserves your attention” and is back in the Oscars race: “[She] delivers a delicate, searing performance as Esther Graff, a beleaguered working wife … who loves her family, but – like most parents – does not always do the right thing”.
“A third Oscar – and a sequel, according to Gray – could be in the offing.”
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: November 10
After King T’Challa’s death in the 2018 Black Panther film, Marvel Studios gives you Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
This time, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers.
The official synopsis reads: “As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda”.
On the Line – November 17
Believe it or not ex-pat Aussie actor and original Mad Max star Mel Gibson, 66, continues to have a career in Hollywood, this time playing Elvis.
No, not the singer, but a late night low-rating radio show host who has been giving sage advice to live callers for the past 25 years. He can solve any problem of any listener, and has loads of charisma and experience.
Until Gary calls. And then Elvis’ family is threatened.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: November 23
Daniel Craig will never play James Bond again, OK?
But, welcome to the next instalment of the follow-up to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, where the alluring Craig returns again as Detective Benoit Blanc.
With a decent sequel cast including Edward Norton, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista, this time Craig travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a fresh whodunit mystery involving a new cast of colourful suspects.
Bones and All: November 24
If the trailer is anything to go by, Dune‘s Timothee Chalamet plays a very different character in this romantic horror film, so be prepared.
Warnings on its MA15 classification say there’s “strong blood and gore, violence, sex and coarse language”.
However, the official synopsis from United Artists says its first of all a road trip love story set in Ronald Reagan’s America between Maren, a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee, an intense and disenfranchised drifter (Chalamet).
Seriously Red: November 24
Here’s a change of pace – a musical dramedy about a Dolly Parton impersonator. The storyline goes that Red (Krew Boylan) is at a crossroads in her life and after misreading her work party’s dress code, she trades her 9-to-5 job in real estate for a new career as a Dolly impersonator.
Directed by Australian Gracie Otto, stars include the fabulous Rose Byrne (Physical) and Celeste Barber (everything fabulous).
Screen Australia says the film was made with the full support of Parton and features a catalogue of her greatest hits. As she says: “Be Yourself Because Everyone is taken’.”
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Guillermo del Torro’s Pinocchio: November 24
Oscar-winner del Toro and award-winning stop-motion legend Mark Gustafson reimagine this classic Carlo Collodi tale as only they know how.
Walt Disney first brought the little wooden boy to life in a 1940 film, and his legacy has endured over the decades, featuring now in 30 animated film and TV series productions including a live-action Tom Hanks movie (released on Apple TV+ in September).
This is del Toro’s directorial debut of an animated feature film.
Strange World: November 24
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain) is back, voicing the lead character in this fantasy, sci-fi animated comedy.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Strange World “journeys deep into an uncharted and treacherous land” where fantastical creatures await the legendary Clades, a family of explorers on a mission.
The Menu: November 24
A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travel to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish $1250 a head menu, with some shocking surprises.
It’s a black horror comedy, and the chef is no Masterchef, he’s more the sinister chef who apparently likes to serve eye-watering, no-turning-back delicacies.
