Ahh November. You know it’s fall in Hollywood because the beaches empty out, the mountains light on fire, and people start to wear fashionable jackets that it’s entirely too warm for. But damn it, if we wish it hard enough, those leaves will change color and it will be perfect pumpkin-spice weather!

JUROR NO. 2

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited)

Creator/Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collete, J.K. Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland

Why We’re Excited: Recipient of the 2007 Spirit of Independent Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, director Clint Eastwood’s 40^th outing as a director is a harrowing legal thriller that puts a recovering alcoholic between a rock and a hard place. A journalist, Justin (Hoult, from Hulu’s period dramedy The Great) thinks that he ran over a deer on a rainy, dark night, after getting out of the car to make sure that nothing is under or near his vehicle. But a year later, he is called up for jury duty in a murder case, where he is horrified to learn that he may have been the one who accidentally ran over the deceased on the night in question. Premiering at AFI Fest last month, the Warner Bros film was initially intended for Max only. While the film received a wide release in the U.K., it will only be shown in 50 theaters Stateside.
 

BLITZ

When You Can Watch: Now (theaters)/November 22 (Apple TV+)

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Directors: Steve McQueen

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan, Benjamin Clémentine, Paul Weller

Why We’re Excited: Spirit Awards winner for 12 Years a Slave, writer-director McQueen’s WWII drama recreates the horrors of the blitzkrieg attacks on London. Concerned for the safety of her nine-year-old son, George (newcomer Heffernan), single mother Rita (Ronan, Spirit Awards nominee for Lady Bird) evacuates him to the countryside as bombings persists in their working-class neighborhood. However, George soon feels homesick and runs off to find his own way back to Rita, setting off a harrowing journey both. An Apple TV+ project, the historical drama was the opening film at the BFI London Film Festival last month.

DAHOMEY

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Directors: Mati Diop

Why We’re Excited: Writer-director Diop’s documentary is a dramatized account of the repatriation from France of royal treasures that belonged to the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Republic of Benin). During the French colonial period, the occupiers had taken 26 royal artworks to be displayed in Paris’ Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac for years. A MUBI release, the film premiered at the Berlin film festival earlier this year, where it won the Golden Bear. The film is Senegal’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards. Check out the Q&A with Diop after last month’s Film Independent Presents screening.

EMILIA PÉREZ

When You Can Watch: November 1

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited) and Netflix

Director: Jacques Audiard

Cast: Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Édgar Ramírez, Adriana Paz

Why We’re Excited: Selected as France’s entry for Best International Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, the Spanish-language crime musical is already generating significant awards buzz after scoring the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Spirit Awards alum Audiard, the film is based on the writer-director’s own opera libretto and Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Listen. Following four women’s narratives, the narrative’s anchor is on daunting cartel leader Emilia (transgender performer Gascón), who enlists downtrodden lawyer Rita’s (Saldana) help to fake her own death and evade capture, after undergoing gender-affirming surgery.

HERETIC

When You Can Watch: November 8

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods

Cast: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

Why We’re Excited: Viscerally described as Saw meets Silence in Brian Tallerico’s review for RogerEbert.com, this psychological horror gives fans a side of Hugh Grant (HBO’s The Undoing, Notting Hill) that we seldom see. Written and directed by the scribes from A Quiet Place – Beck and Woods – the film follows two young Mormon missionaries, Sisters Barnes (Thatcher) and Paxton (East). When they arrive at a seemingly idyllic cottage, reclusive Englishman Mr. Reed (Grant) invites them in for conversation about faith, luring the unsuspecting young women with drinks and promises of blueberry pie (he pretends that his wife is baking in the kitchen). Unfortunately, once they realize that the blueberry scent is coming from a candle and the front door is locked, it’s already too late.
 

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE

When You Can Watch: November 8

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Tim Mielants

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Emily Watson

Why We’re Excited: Adapted from Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel, Cillian Murphy returns to the screen after last year’s critical and commercial smash hit, Oppenheimer, with Mielants’ historical drama about the Magdalene Laundries/asylums scandal in 1980s Ireland. A coal merchant and father of five, Bill (Murphy), inadvertently discovers a young girl who is held captive by the nuns at a local convent simply because she is pregnant and unmarried. At a time when the Catholic Church rules over every facet of life in the country, does he risk his standing in the community and his own family to help the girl? Spirit Awards alum Watson (King Lear, Gosford Park) plays the menacing Mother superior of the convent, Sister Mary. Check out our virtual Q&A here.
 

MARIA

When You Can Watch: November 27 (Theaters)/December 11 (Netflix)

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Aggelina Papadopoulou, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Why We’re Excited: Chronicling the last week in famed American-born Greek diva Maria Callas’ life, director Larraín’s biopic is the last entry in his trilogy about some of the most iconic women in the 20^th century (after Spirit Awards nominee Jackie and 2021’s Spencer). With Spirit Awards alum Angelina Jolie giving a masterful performance as the titular opera singer, the film takes us through hallucinations and reality alike as Maria meanders about Paris while reminiscing about the highs and lows in her storied life. Thanks to the exquisite production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas and the more than 60 stunning replicas of Callas’ dresses by costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini, the biography is one of the most visually lavish film this year. The sonically heart-wrenching narrative is a mesmerizing exploration of fame, love, guilt, and mental health. Check back later for the Q&A with Jolie, Larraín, cinematographer Ed Lachman, and Dyas after last month’s Film Independent Presents screening.

QUEER

When You Can Watch: November 27

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman

Why We’re Excited: Based on William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novella of the same name, this period romantic drama is set in 1950s Mexico, where outcast American expat William Lee’s (Craig of James Bond fame and Spirit Awards alum for 2006’s biography Infamous) hides in Mexico City after fleeing a drug charge in New Orleans. His quiet days are upended when a young drug addict and former U.S. Navy sailor, Allerton (Starkey) arrives in town. Directed by Spirit Awards alum Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All, Suspiria), this A24 film was shot in Rome and premiered in Venice two months ago. Executive Producer Peter Spears is a Film Independent Member.

SEPTEMBER 5

When You Can Watch: November 29

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Tim Fehlbaum

Cast: John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin

Why We’re Excited: One of last month’s Film Independent Presents series, this historical drama leverages extensive use of archival footage from ABC’s coverage of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, when the sports coverage team suddenly found itself pivoting to cover a hostage crisis. An estimated one billion viewers around the world were tuning in for the games when the Israeli athletes were taken hostage. Recent Robert Altman Award winner for Showing Up, Magaro plays Geoff, the young and ambitious producer who suddenly has to take the helm of live news coverage in a moment of crisis.  Here’s the post-screening Q&A with Spirit Awards alum Peter Sarsgaard (who plays legendary TV exec Roone Arledge in the film) and producer John Palmer. Casting director Nancy Foy is a Film Independent Member.

*PROGRAMMER’S PICK* A REAL PAIN

When You Can Watch: 

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Jesse Eisenberg

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Jennifer Grey, Will Sharpe

Why We’re Excited: From Jenn Wilson, Film Independent Senior Programmer: Jesse Eisenberg’s second feature film as writer/director focuses on two American Jewish cousins (Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) joining a tour group through Poland where the cousins have journeyed to honor their late grandmother.  The tone of the trip is already sad and tense because the two will be visiting the Nazi concentration camp, Majdanek, where their grandmother was in Lublin, Poland. Things grow even more tense as Culkin’s character, Benji, who came off at first as slightly annoying but still likeable, suddenly seems to begin alienating the tour group with his odd behavior.  Eisenberg’s character, David, becomes so frustrated with Benji that he reveals a terrible secret of Benji’s to the rest of the tour group.  The new information reveals that Benji has had a long history of the being the ‘troubled one’ in his family and that David has tried to understand him but has felt powerless to help.  Eisenberg proves himself very adept as both writer and director in one of this year’s most understated but powerful films, and both he and Culkin’s performances are masterful as well. Film Independent members on the project includes Executive Producers Michael Bloom and Ryan Heller, and Producer Jennifer Semler.

Feature Image: EMILIA PÉREZ

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