“Encanto”
The musical fingerprint of “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda continues with “Encanto,” an animated Disney fantasy Miranda wrote the original music. “Encanto” promises no shortage of visually sophisticated, kid-friendly magical realism and will tell of a family who lives in an enchanted village in the hills of Colombia. Byron Howard and Jared Bush, part of the writing-directing team behind “Zootopia,” are also behind this one which means the film should be in good hands. Voice cast includes Stephanie Beatriz, Wilmer Valderrama and more.
Release Date: November 24 via Disney.
“House Of Gucci”
Ridley Scott’s glitzy period crime saga “House Of Gucci” looks to be a riot of to-the-nines bad taste. Scott’s second 2021 film centered on the murder of the Gucci titan Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) at the hands of his former wife Patrizia (Lady Gaga) and how said tragedy struck an unfathomable blow to one of the world’s premier fashion houses. Co-starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, and Jared Leto underneath so much makeup and prosthetics he looks like Jeffrey Tambor. What’s not to love?
Release Date: November 24 via Universal and United Artists.
Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson film aka “Soggy Bottom”
Paul Thomas Anderson gets back to his roots with a seriocomic SoCal-set ensemble piece that includes Bradley Cooper looking like a member of the Bee Gees. The film also features “Uncut Gems” filmmaker Benny Safdie as a San Fernando Valley politician and Skyler Gisondo, Alana Haim, and Cooper Hoffman (Philip’s son) as a child actor filling out the cast. The film is rumored to be Robert Altman-esque, one of PTA’s earliest influences, so this could be something of a throwback film for the beloved director. We’re excited either way.
Release Date: November 24 via United Artists and MGM.
“Bruised”
Premiering only as a work-in-progress movie at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and not screened for film critics, Halle Berry’s MMA fighting drama still sold for a cool $20 million last year; not bad for your only directorial debut and effort. So, Berry stars and directs “Bruised,” which tells the tale of a washed-up MMA fighter struggling for redemption as both an athlete and a mother. The film also stars Shamier Anderson, Adan Canto, and Sheila Atim, with a score by the great Spike Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard. Berry broke her rib in the first week of filming, but the budget was so shoe-string, she knew the film would fall apart if she delayed production, so she soldiered on to fortune and TIFF acclaim.
Release Date. November 24 via Netflix.
“Zeros And Ones”
Following the 2021 release of Abel Ferrara’s feverish Jungian nightmare “Siberia,” the Bronx-born, Italy-living filmmaker returns with another study of a haunted man at the end of his rope. “Zeros And Ones” stars Ethan Hawke as a soldier navigating the paranoid, militarized shadow world of modern-day Rome in the wake of an extinction-level event whose origin remains vague. Expect another thematic continuation of Ferrara’s ongoing, COVID-appropriate exploration of debilitating human isolation (read our Locarno review here).
Release Date: November TBD, via Lionsgate.
November Honorable Mentions:
Book worms, particularly those partial to the irreverent deconstructionist literature of Kurt Vonnegut, are going to want to buy a ticket to check out “Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time,” which documents the author’s relationship with filmmaker Robert B. Weide. “Home Sweet Home Alone,” starring Ellie Kemper and Kenan Thompson, “Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City” (a franchise reboot not directed by junk maestro Paul W.S. Anderson, so take that knowledge with a grain of salt), and also “National Champions,” a sports drama that features Stephan James, Alexander Ludwig, J.K. Simmons, Lil Rel Howery and Kristin Chenoweth in its cast, and has been directed by Ric Roman Waugh, responsible for last year’s underrated “Greenland.” Also worth a look is Radu Jude’s “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” which debuted at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. While we’ve barely heard a peep from it yet, Netflix’s “The Unforgivable” with Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis could be pretty major too.
DECEMBER
“The Power Of The Dog”
Jane Campion is responsible for masterpieces like “The Piano” and “An Angel at My Table,” and she finally returns to the big screen (after a solid detour into prestige TV) with her first proper feature since 2009’s “Bright Star.” Bound for a Venice premiere before making its stateside debut on the fall film festival circuit, the drama stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemmons, Kirsten Dunst, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. The intense-looking ‘Dog’ tells the story of a rancher (Cumberbatch) and his brother (Plemmons); expect it to be rife with themes of repression, love, and family melodrama.
Release Date: December 1 via Netflix.
“Benedetta”
This year, Paul Verhoeven returned to Cannes and delivered a delicious tale of lust and obsession set amongst a convent of 17th-century nuns. Starring Virginie Efira, Lambert Wilson, Charlotte Rampling, and filled with blood, breasts, bird shit, and other forms of blasphemy, our Cannes critic called the “Showgirls” auteur’s outrageous latest a “hoot,” so expect a depraved return to form.
Release Date: December 3 via IFC.
“Flee”
With the Afghanistan crisis in global headlines, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” is a timely, urgent story of immigration. The animated film centers on an Afghan refugee living in Denmark who comes to terms with his past before it threatens to undo the life he’s worked so hard for. The film comes courtesy of executive producers Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and our Sundance review compared the film to “Waltz With Bashir” and called it a“stellar feat of cinema.”
Release Date: December 3 via Neon and Participant.
“Nightmare Alley”
Coming off the more whimsical Oscar Best Picture winner “The Shape Of Water,” filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro returns with the all-star psychological thriller “Nightmare Alley,” based on the 1946 novel of the same name, which also spawned the 1947 film by Edmund Goulding. The cast is arguably the best of the year. It includes Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Rooney Mara, Holt McCallany, Clifton Collins Jr., Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn. Cooper leads as a low-life grifter working the carnival scene and ruthlessly exploiting its bottom-feeder denizens, only to meet his match in the form of a cunning psychologist.
Release Date: December 3 via Searchlight Pictures.