“Eternals”
Earlier this year, Chloe Zhao won most of the major Oscars for “Nomadland” (Best Picture included), and six months later, she’s releasing a Marvel movie which is pretty incredible. Zhao brings her recognizably lyrical sensibility to “Eternals,” which tells the origin story of a clan of ageless super-beings tasked with defending the earth and its people. The cast is impressive and features Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Barry Keoghan, and many more.
Release Date: November 5 via Marvel and Disney.
“Finch”
Once a Sony film, and once titled “Bios,” the Tom Hanks film “Finch” has been delayed for some time now and was sold off during the pandemic. That does smell like trouble, but the movie’s premise is so relatably human with a genre twist on top. What if a dying scientist did all he could to ensure someone would take care of his beloved dog after he dies? How about creating a super-intelligent robot to take care of him? That’s the idea of Finch, which sees Hanks’ scientist create the robot Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) to look after his pooch. It’s a three-hander between Hanks, a mo-capped Landry Jones performance (think “Chappie”), and a real dog. Miguel Sapochnik, a “Game Of Thrones” veteran, directs.
Release Date: November 5, via Apple TV+.
“Spencer”
Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín has had a busy 2021. “Ema” received a proper U.S. theatrical, and Appe TV+’s “Lisey’s Story,” which he directed, came out in the summer. Now he’s got another unconventional-looking biopic in the cards centering on a particularly fateful family Christmas in the early ‘90s where Diana almost chose to break off her marriage with Prince Charles. Kristen Stewart stars as Princess Di in what already looks like an Oscar-worthy turn, and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood has written the score. Debuting at the Venice Film Festival in September, this one has awards contender written all over it.
Release Date: November 5 via Neon.
“Passing”
Rebecca Hall is already one of the best actresses working today, and she is currently poised to make the same name for herself behind the camera with “Passing,” a simmering melodrama about friendship and race shot in stark monochrome. Hall directs one hell of a cast that includes stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Andre Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp, and “The Wire” star Gbenga Akinnagbe. Our Sundance review praised the movie’s “brilliant” craft and sense of technique, and it was definitely one of the titles with the most amount of anticipation and buzz.
Release Date: November 10 via Netflix.
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”
“Juno” director Jason Reitman is staring down nothing less than the considerable legacy of his own family name with “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” a blockbuster course-correction from Paul Feig’s well-intentioned re-imagining that attempts to do right by the classic 1984 original, helmed by Jason’s dad, Ivan. Early accounts call it Spielberg-ian, not exactly what the original films are, but maybe a sense of awe and wonder can breathe new life into the series. Stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Paul Rudd, while Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts reprise their roles from the original films.
Release Date: November 11 via Sony.
“Red Notice”
Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot, three of the world’s biggest stars, together, and what else do you need? Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Central Intelligence”), Johnson stars as an Interpol agent billed as “the world’s greatest tracker,” who teams up with an art thief and a cunning con artist to execute a heist. The film is one of Netflix’s most expensive undertakings to date, but with a cast and tentpole patina like this, the streaming service would have to work hard to bungle what sounds, on paper, like a winning formula.
Release Date: November 12 via Netflix.
“tick, tick… BOOM!”
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s magic touch comes to the test this fall. After helping “Moana,” “Hamilton,” and other films soar to massive success, Miranda’s Midas touch finally underwhelmed this summer with “In The Heights.” He’ll be looking for redemption in his directorial debut “tick, tick… BOOM!,” an adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s semi-autobiographical stage musical of the same name. The film is a tale of an ambitious young theater composer that stars Andrew Garfield, Vanessa Hudgens, Judith Light, Bradley Whitford, and a host of others.
Release Date: November 12 via Netflix.
“Belfast”
Following the mainstream success of “Murder on the Orient Express,” actor-director Kenneth Branagh returns for something more intimate and personal. Starring Caitriona Balfe (known for “Outlander”), Academy Award winner Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds, and introducing 10-year-old Jude Hill, “Belfast” is a drama a coming of age tale set across the backdrop of working-class familial struggle and the social tumult of the late 1960s. Shot in black and white, “Belfast” will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Release Date: November 12 via Focus Features.
“King Richard”
“Monsters and Men” filmmaker Reinaldo Marcus Green may have stumbled a little with this summer’s Mark Wahlberg-led anti-homophobia message drama “Joe Bell,” but the talented young director’s second offering of 2021, “King Richard,” should put him back in everyone’s good graces. Will Smith stars as famed tennis coach Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena. Smith hasn’t enjoyed a dramatic lead role this meaty in some time, and he could take home his first Academy Award after two nominations (“Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness”).
Release Date: November 19 via Warner Bros.
“Top Gun: Maverick”
Tom Cruise is one of the last honest-to-goodness movie stars we have left, and after several years of trying with original director Tony Scott (R.I.P.), a “Top Gun” sequel is finally hitting the screen. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Tom Cruise’s “Oblivion”), ‘Maverick’ features Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer, and centers on a new cadre of fresh-faced new pilot recruits. Danger zone, here we come.
Release Date: November 19 via Paramount.