Some of the year’s most fascinating festival releases are finally arriving in a cinema near you…with a few mega-franchise blockbusters and family-friendly options available, as well.
David Michael Brown picks just 8 highlights available in cinemas across the UK this November.
Eternals (November 5)
With an Oscar on her mantlepiece and a stellar cast—including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie—at her disposal, director Chloé Zhao’s take on the MCU promises to be a more esoteric, meditative exercise in spandex-clad action. The third film in Marvel’s fourth phase, the titular Eternals are a race of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have been living secretly on Earth for thousands of years.
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants. After Cate Shortland’s success helming Black Widow, Marvel has once again handed the reigns of their cinematic juggernaut to a female arthouse director but with a less well-known Marvel masthead, it will be interesting to see if the Eternals have staying power.
The Card Counter (November 5)
Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader returns to familiar territory with this dark moody tale of redemption that echoes his own previous directorial efforts American Gigolo and First Reformed. Starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Willem Dafoe, The Card Counter follows a meticulous professional gambler William Tell. The poker player is good enough to count cards, but canny enough to keep his winnings modest so he remains under the radar.
That is, until he draws the attention of La Linda (Haddish) and romance leads to higher stakes. Haunted by his past when he was imprisoned for war crimes he committed as a soldier at Abu Ghraib, the damaged loner finds redemption in the form of young Cirk (Tye Sheridan) but will his plan help the card shark lay his ghosts to rest?
Spencer (November 5)
After the critically-lambasted 2013 biopic Diana almost derailed Naomi Watts’s career, the reign of the royal biopic was all but over. That is, until the Netflix show The Crown returned the pomp and pageantry to its rightful place. Now Twilight star Kristen Stewart will step into the ever-stylish shoes of Lady Diana Spencer in Jackie director Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, written by Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight with a soundtrack by Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood.
Also starring Timothy Spall, Sean Harris, and Sally Hawkins, Spencer follows Diana’s decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles (played by Jack Farthing) and leave the British royal family. Taking place during the Queen’s traditional yuletide sojourn to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, Spencer is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days when Diana changed the face of the British monarchy forever.
Cry Macho (November 12)
Clint Eastwood has never been afraid to show his age. Over the last decade, in films like Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, he has played the grizzled old-timer with aplomb, constantly referencing his illustrious past. Now, in Cry Macho, he revisits the genre that he has made his home on many occasions.
From his Spaghetti Westerns with Sergio Leone to classics like High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and his Oscar-winning Unforgiven, Eastwood has constantly reinvented the Western. Now he is looking back through the eyes of a world-weary rodeo star, who is hired to reunite a young boy (Eduardo Minett) in Mexico with his father (Dwight Yoakam) in the United States. Based on the 1975 novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash, Eastwood’s neo-western sees the 91-year-old actor director once again showing the kids how it should be done.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (November 19)
After the unfairly chastised female-driven Ghostbusters reboot failed to raise more than an ectoplasmic shrug at the box office, the franchise looked doomed. Until writer-director Jason Reitman stepped into his father Ivan’s shoes, charged up the proton pack, and got the gang back together one last time.
Steeped in the history of the 1984 comedy classic and its sequel, it looks like Reitman is ditching the zany slapstick humour and acerbic wisecracks we know and love, for a Spielbergian sense of wonder and Stranger Things-style teen antics. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts reprise their roles from the original films while Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace and Paul Rudd bring a fresh ghostbusting perspective.
Petite Maman (November 19)
Céline Sciamma’s follow-up to the stunning historical romantic drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Petite Maman sees the director ditching the emotive drama of her BAFTA winner for a childhood fantasy. Starring Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Stéphane Varupenne, Nina Meurisse and Margo Abascal, Sciamma conjured up the film’s simple premise during quarantine, restricted herself to a minimum of autumnal locations and shot the film in the same woods in which she played as a child.
The storyline follows a young girl who is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home after her grandmother dies. After her mother abruptly leaves, she heads out to explore the leafy surroundings and meets a strangely familiar girl, her age, building a treehouse.
Encanto (November 24)
Featuring songs from the talented Hamilton tunesmith Lin-Manuel Miranda and co-directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, the talented duo behind Zootopia and Charise Castro Smith, supervising producer on The Haunting of Hill House, Encanto is the latest animated family fantasy from the Mouse House. The all-singing, all-dancing action follows the Madrigal family, who live in an enchanted town in the mountains of Colombia.
All of the Madrigal children have been granted a unique ability such as strength or healing powers. Mirabel, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, is the most weird and quirky member the family—the only ordinary Madrigal. When she discovers that the magic is under threat, however, her lack of a magical power may be what saves the day. Expect eye-popping visuals, a vibrant colour palette, and earworms aplenty.
House of Gucci (November 26)
Ridley Scott’s second 2021 feature after The Last Duel, House of Gucci boasts an outrageous ensemble, including Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, and Al Pacino. The Blade Runner director adapts the 2001 book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden.
The film is set in 1995 and depicts the events and aftermath of the murder of Maurizio Gucci (Driver), Italian businessman and head of the fashion house Gucci, by his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani, played by the Poker Face singer. Scott already has form depicting the affluent lives of the rich and famous after All the Money in the World. The visual stylist will no doubt be in his element portraying the garish, glitzy world of the Gucci family.
