“Mortal Kombat II”
Director Simon McQuoid scales up the tournament carnage with Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage joining returning fighters Lewis Tan, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ludi Lin, and more, as Earthrealm finally collides with Outworld under Shao Kahn’s looming threat.
Release Date: October 24 via Warner Bros./New Line.
“Bugonia”
Yorgos Lanthimos remakes Korean satirical drama “Save the Green Planet!” as a chilly kidnapping satire: two conspiracists (Jesse Plemons and cohort Stavros Halkias) abduct a pharma CEO (Emma Stone) they’re convinced is an alien, where paranoia, power, and delusion blur. Alicia Silverstone co-stars.
Release Date: October 24 (limited); expands October 31 via Focus Features.
“A House of Dynamite”
Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow returns to real-time geopolitical pressure: hours after a mysterious missile launch toward the U.S., a crisis team scrambles to parse signal from noise. Rebecca Ferguson and Idris Elba lead a deep ensemble that includes Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, and Jason Clarke.
Release Date: October 24 via Netflix.
“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”
Scott Cooper dramatizes the stark conception of the seminal folk album “Nebraska,” with Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen searching for a new voice; Jeremy Strong plays manager Jon Landau, with Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, and Gaby Hoffmann in support.
Release Date: October 24 via 20th Century Studios.
“Last Days”
Justin Lin steps away from the world of “Fast & Furious” and dramatizes the John Allen Chau story as an idealistic missionary (Sky Yang) attempts forbidden contact with the Sentinelese, igniting a moral and geopolitical firestorm: Radhika Apte and Naveen Andrews co-star with Ken Leung, Toby Wallace, and Ciara Bravo in support.
Release Date: October 24 via Vertical.
“Ballad Of A Small Player”
Academy Award-winning director Edward Berger’s neon-noir adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s novel stars Colin Farrell as a disgraced British gambler laying low in Macau, whose brush with a mysterious croupier (Fala Chen) and a relentless investigator (Tilda Swinton) drags him back into danger.
Release Date: October 29 via Netflix.
“Nouvelle Vague”
Richard Linklater’s cine-romance restages the birth of the French New Wave, reimagining the guerrilla making of “Breathless” as a youthful, on-the-street love story. Guillaume Marbeck plays Jean-Luc Godard, with Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Release Date: October 31 (select theaters) via Netflix; streams November 14 on Netflix.
Honorable Mentions:
“The Man with the Bag” (October 3, Amazon MGM Studios — Alan Ritchson, Arnold Schwarzenegger); “Bone Lake” (October 3, Bleecker Street — Maddie Hasson, Alex Roe); “Coyotes” (October 3, Aura Entertainment — Justin Long, Kate Bosworth); “Fairyland” (October 10, Lionsgate/Willa — Emilia Jones, Scoot McNairy); “Vicious” (October 10, Paramount+ — Dakota Fanning); “The Twits” (October 17, Netflix — voices include Alan Tudyk, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan); “The Perfect Neighbor” (October 17, Netflix); “She Walks in Darkness” (October 17, Netflix — Susana Abaitua); “Regretting You” (October 24, Paramount — Allison Williams, McKenna Grace); “Anniversary” (October 29, Lionsgate — Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler).
NOVEMBER
“Predator: Badlands”
Dan Trachtenberg follows “Prey” with a stripped-down survival thriller set on the fringes of civilization, where a lone protagonist learns the rules of the hunt the hard way when a new Yautja arrives. Elle Fanning is reported to lead, with the franchise pivoting back to tactile, ground-level suspense.
Release Date: November TBD via 20th Century Studios.
“Die, My Love”
Lynne Ramsay adapts Ariana Harwicz’s feverish novel into a visceral portrait of postpartum isolation and psychic fracture in rural France. Jennifer Lawrence anchors as Grace opposite Robert Pattinson as her husband, with LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte circling the implosion; Gabrielle Rose and Sarah Lind appear among the supporting players. Co-written by Ramsay with Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, it’s a jagged love story about rage, desire, and a mind slipping its leash.
Release Date: November 7 via Mubi.
