Despite the minimal releases in October to get excited about, November looks prised to be full of quality cinema, fingers crossed…
The Light Between Oceans (01/11)
Directed By: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown, Emily Barclay
Plot: Tom (Fassbender) and his wife Isabel (Vikander) live in and maintain a lighthouse off the coast off Australia, although they desperately want a child, it simply won’t happen until an infant washes ashore in a boat. The two of them raise the child for several years but one day meet the woman who is the biological mother of the child, still reeling from the loss of her family, they must decide whether to keep their daughter or return her to her real mother.
Why Should You See it: It’s fairly self-explanatory, two excellent actors together on screen, a performance which lead to them beginning a relationship in real life. It’s heavyweight emotion and should be very memorable performances.
Nocturnal Animals (04/11)
Directed By: Tom Ford
Starring: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, Armie Hammer, Isla Fisher, Laura Linney, Michael Sheen, Andrea Riseborough
Plot: An art gallery owner (Adams) receives a manuscript from her ex-husband of a violent novel which she interprets as a threat and symbolic revenge tale.
Why Should You See it: Again, fairly self-explanatory: Adams, Gyllenhaal, Taylor-Johnson and Shannon, those are four names that on one cast list should bring happiness to film lovers, it should be a fantastic mix. Watch the trailer and you can see how much this should have to offer, a dark and mysterious thriller which is something that cinema doesn’t have enough of recently.
Arrival (10/11)
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma
Plot: A linguistics professor (Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when a number of spaceships appear around the world to assist in communicating with their extraterrestrial visitors.
Why Should You See it: Villeneuve is hot property right now in Hollywood, on a hot streak for the last few years from Prisoners to Enemy to Sicario and even earlier than that, added to the fact there’s hugely positive buzz from the early reviews, this is definitely one to watch out for.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (18/11)
Directed By: David Yates
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katharine Waterson, Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight and Alison Sudol
Plot: Set in 1926, a prequel to the Harry Potter series following New Scamander (Redmayne) as he arrives in New York and promptly misplaces some of his fantastic beasts and must track them down.
Why Should You See it: This one needs no explanation, anyone who is a fan of Harry Potter should be excited for this one and for anyone who inexplicably has never watched or read any of them, can still enjoy what should be a fun film for all ages.
A United Kingdom (25/11)
Directed By: Amma Asante
Starring: Rosamund Pike, David Oyelowo, Tom Felton, Laura Carmichael, Jack Davenport, Charlotte Hope, Jack Lowden
Plot: Based on the true story Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana causes an international stir when he marries a white woman from London in the late 1940s.
Why Should You See it: Asante is following up her last directorial feature of Belle with yet another film with a strong message, there are not nearly enough female directors getting their projects onto the big screen but Asante has shown she has huge potential to become a fantastic British film-maker. As well as being a great story of strength and will throughout, this could be the kind of role Pike needs having only appeared in the regrettable Return to Sender since her unforgettable role as Amy in Gone Girl.
Allied (25/11)
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Simon McBurney, Marion Bailey, Lizzy Caplan, Matthew Goode
Plot: In 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines, they later become husband and wife and when her loyalty is questioned, he is ordered to assassinate her, so sets out to clear her name.
Why Should You See it: Although sadly the film did become slightly tainted by Pitt’s marriage ending and the accusations of an affair with Cotillard, on its own merit this does look like an interesting film. The combination of Pitt and Cotillard on screen should make for something to remember and the war setting pushes the intrigue even further.
Also Out:
04/11: From the Land of the Moon, A Street Cat Named Bob, Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny, Rupture
11/11: The CEO, 100 Streets, Francofonia, Kevin Hart: What Now?, Napoleon, The Innocents
18/11: Dog Eat Dog, Gimme Danger, Indignation, We are the Flesh, Your Name
25/11: Almost Christmas, Bad Santa 2, Paterson
28/11: I Am Bolt
30/11: The Edge of Seventeen
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