“Green Book”
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
Synopsis: When Tony Lip, a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on the titular Green Book to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans.
What You Need to Know: There’s something so blatantly old school about this narrative that we can’t muster up a ton of surprise that it won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival with its broad dramatic strokes. It also had the added power of hot off his Oscar win Mahershala Ali getting a deserved leading role and Viggo Mortensen playing it lighter than he ever has in a role that plays to his effortless charm. Our critic said, “’Green Book‘ is an on-the-nose social commentary that is told with such craftsmanship, earnestness, and comedic expertise that you’re still excited to go along for the ride.”
Release Date: November 21
“Shoplifters”
Cast: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Mayu Matsuoka
Synopsis: A family of small-time crooks takes in a child they find on the street.
What You Need to Know: Only one thing really – that Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of our finest directors working today who in a single scene possesses more humanistic empathy for his characters than many do in their entire film. An intimate and emotionally stirring storyteller who has an innate ability to make us weep at the smallest of moments, “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or at this years Cannes Film Festival and fans of his films won’t be surprised. Use the time in between now and its release to catch up on the filmmakers equally beautiful work including “Still Walking,” “After the Storm,” “Our Little Sister,” “Like Father, Like Son” and more. Our critic called it “technically impeccable,” saying “Trying to pick apart his native country’s struggles between tradition and modernity, legality and crime, Kore-eda takes the time to affectionately dissect the way family functions, before carefully deconstructing it and revealing the contoured complexities that live within.
Release Date: November 23
“The Favourite”
Cast: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz
Synopsis: Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.
What You Need to Know: Following “The Lobster,” a romance about individuals who needed to couple up, lest they be turned into an animal (of their choice of course) and the bleak revenge flick “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” there’s something darkly hilarious that Yorgos Lanthimos most mainstream film is his upcoming “The Favourite.” Olivia Colman gets her well deserved leading role that utilizes her wildly versatile list of talents while Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz provide instrumental support in this female drive of want, desperation, and ego. Our critic adored it, saying “Colman’s choleric Queen is the showstopper, with her stumping, gouty gait, her toddler’s tantrums and rare but self-lacerating moments of insight, and there are scenes in which she dashes mad-eyed, lost and terrified down the football pitch-sized corridors of her own palace/prison screaming ‘Where am I?’ at dumbstruck footmen that deserve to be placed in the same pantheon as Daniel Day-Lewis drinking Paul Dano’s milkshake.”
Release Date: November 23
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
Cast: Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Brian Tyree Henry
Synopsis: Set in early-1970s Harlem, “If Beale Street Could Talk” is a timeless and moving love story of both a couple’s unbreakable bond and the African-American family’s empowering embrace, as told through the eyes of 19-year-old Tish Rivers. A daughter and wife-to-be, Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect, and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny.
What You Need to Know: To say we were eagerly awaiting Barry Jenkins “Moonlight” follow-up “If Beale Street Could Talk” would be an understatement. A remarkably faithful adaptation of the famous James Baldwin novel, Jenkins once again infuses warmth and humanity to the screen with eye-popping color and a methodical pace of storytelling that invites the viewer to embed themselves in his and Baldwins world. Our critic called it sublime, saying, “’If Beale Street Could Talk’ is a movie about the struggle not to succumb to that despair — to find those moments in this life that let you float above it all, even if just for a moment, and to hold on to those moments for as long as it takes.”
Release Date: November 30
Other films you’ll want to keep an eye out for include the J.J. Abrams‘ produced WWII horror “Overlord, “The New Romantic,” “The Long Dumb Road,” “Mobile Homes,” with Imogen Poots, Disney‘s “Ralph Breaks The Internet,” a sure big hit for kids, the umpteenth “Robin Hood” remake, the lo-fi sci-fi film “Prospect,” the rap-battle movie “Bodied,” “A Private War” with Rosamund Pike, “Unlovable,” the doc “Searching For Ingmar Bergman” and lots more.