Your Ultimate Guide to the Movies Coming This Fall
Get the inside track on these critic-approved films coming to screens this season
Ilze Kitshoff/Sony Pictures Entertainment; Warner Bros. Pictures; 20th Century Studios
(Left to right) Viola Davis in "The Woman King," Dwayne Johnson in "Black Adam" and Robert De Niro in "Amsterdam."
COMING IN SEPTEMBER
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (Sept. 2, in theaters and on Peacock)
If you liked Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show, try this mockumentary about a pastor (Sterling K. Brown) fond of his Prada and Bugatti and his ambitious missus (Regina Hall) battling to save their scandal-plagued megachurch, Wander to Greater Paths.
Pinocchio (Sept. 8, Disney+)
In Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis’ live-action version of the tale, Tom Hanks is Pinocchio’s creator Geppetto, Keegan-Michael Key is bad guy Honest John, and Lorraine Bracco is a new character, Sofia the Seagull.
Don’t Worry Darling (Sept. 23, in theaters)
At last! a sexy movie that highlights female desire. But Florence Pugh wishes people would stop talking about her steamy scenes with Harry Styles — as a 1950s American couple in a sinister utopian community — and more about the film’s excellence. Since director Olivia Wilde’s last hit was Booksmart, it promises to be smart, anyhow.
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Sept. 30, Apple TV+)
Green Book director Peter Farrelly tells the bizarre true story of a guy who snuck beer to his drinking buddies in Vietnam in 1967. With Zac Efron, Bill Murray and Russell Crowe.
Moonage Daydream (Sept. 16, in theaters)
Brett Morgen’s Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck was inventively terrific, so expectations for this dreamy David Bowie doc are stardust-high.
Don’t miss this: David Bowie Was Also a Really Good Actor, and Here’s Proof
See How They Run (Sept. 16, in theaters)
Two 1950s London detectives (Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan) investigate murder on the set of the movie adaptation of a hit play. A comedy that just might appeal to fans of Knives Out.
The Woman King (Sept. 16, in theaters)
Viola Davis, 57, leads an all-female army defending 19th-century Dahomey against enslavers — a true story. “As an aging warrior, Viola offers the emotional intensity she brings to dramatic roles [The Help, Getting Away With Murder],” says director Gina Prince-Bythewood, who’s seen Braveheart a hundred times. A risky role, but Davis said, “The five words I don’t want to take to my grave would be, ‘I was not brave enough.’ ”
A Jazzman’s Blues (Sept. 23, Netflix)
Tyler Perry’s tale of forbidden love follows a 1940s singer who escapes the rural Deep South for fame. Starring Joshua Boone (Wheels) and Solea Pfeiffer (The Good Fight, Hamilton).
Blonde (Sept. 28, in theaters)
Joyce Carol Oates’ controversial novel about Marilyn Monroe becomes a rather graphic film starring Ana de Armas as the tragic star and Julianne Nicholson as her mentally ill mom.
The Good House (Sept. 30, in theaters)
Sigourney Weaver gets great reviews as an alcoholic New England real estate agent (and descendant of famous witches) who’s bewitched anew by her high-school boyfriend (Kevin Kline). The movie? Less good, they say — but she carries the day.
Hocus Pocus 2 (Sept. 30, Disney+)
Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker return as 17th-century sisters executed for witchcraft and now out for revenge — unless three high school kids can prevent them from spoiling Salem’s Halloween.
COMING IN OCTOBER
Amsterdam (Oct. 7, in theaters)
Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Robert De Niro and Taylor Swift star in David O. Russell’s flick about three pals who witness a 1930s murder and get accused of the crime.
TÁR (Oct. 7, in theaters)
Cate Blanchett plays famous conductor Lydia Tár, whose life implodes. It’s the first film in 15 years by director Todd Field (In the Bedroom, Little Children), so it’s hotly awaited.
Halloween Ends (Oct. 14, in theaters)
A former imperiled teenager (Jamie Lee Curtis) confronts Michael Myers, the serial killer in the white William Shatner mask, in what may be their last dramatic tango.
Till (Oct. 14, in theaters)
Whoopi Goldberg, 66, plays the grandmother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago boy murdered in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi. Goldberg produced the movie with James Bond film producer Barbara Broccoli, 62, and its director, Clemency auteur Chinonye Chukwu. Danielle Deadwyler (Watchmen) plays his mom, Mamie Till-Mobley, who publicized the crime and ignited the Civil Rights Movement.
The Banshees of Inisherin (Oct. 21, in theaters)
In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reunite with director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) for a drama about a tortured friendship during the 1923 Irish Civil War.
Black Adam (Oct. 21, in theaters)
In what may be the first blockbuster since Top Gun: Maverick, Dwayne Johnson plays a man with superpowers but no conscience. Can Pierce Brosnan’s Dr. Fate stop him?
My Policeman (Oct. 21, in theaters, Nov. 4 on Prime Video)
A 1950s British cop (Harry Styles) falls for both a teacher (The Crown’s Emma Corrin) and a curator (David Dawson). Rupert Everett, 63, plays the curator in the 1990s, when he’s had a stroke. “Rupert did research, and found subtle ways of expressing himself through his eyes and body,” says director Michael Grandage. “We are able to see what so many people learn to live with, how language can sometimes transcend words.”
Ticket to Paradise (Oct. 21, in theaters)
Divorced parents (George Clooney, 61, and Julia Roberts, 54) jet to Bali to prevent their lovestruck daughter (Justified’s Kaitlyn Dever) from making the mistake they made: getting married. Since Clooney and Roberts are friends in real life, and this is their fifth movie together, their bickering is apt to be masterfully amusing.
Armageddon Time (Oct. 28, in theaters)
A grade school kid (Banks Repeta) who wants to be an artist gets grief from his folks (Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway) but bonds with his grandpa (Anthony Hopkins).
COMING IN NOVEMBER
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Nov. 4, Roku)
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe plays a young Yankovic, pop’s top parodist. Rainn Wilson plays his mentor Dr. Demento; Evan Rachel Wood plays Madonna. “Madonna is seeing that it’s very profitable for an artist if Weird Al Yankovic covers one of their songs, so she concocts this whole plan to show up at his house and seduce him,” explains Wood. “She is trying to win over Al’s heart so she can manipulate him into writing parodies of her songs. Essentially, she is just exploiting him, but he is none the wiser and thinks that Madonna is just madly in love with him … which she may be on some level.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Nov. 11, in theaters)
In the sequel to the best superhero movie ever made, Angela Bassett, 64, plays the grieving mother of King T’Challa aka Black Panther (the late Chadwick Boseman). She cries, “I am queen of the most powerful nation in the world, and my entire family is gone!” But with a little help from CIA man Everett Ross (The Hobbit’s Martin Freeman, 50), Wakanda just might be saved.
The Son (Nov. 11, in theaters)
Few movies boast this many Oscar-magnet actors. Hugh Jackman and Vanessa Kirby play a couple troubled when his messed-up son (Zen McGrath) and bitter ex (Laura Dern) invade their lives. Since Anthony Hopkins also stars, and it’s written by Christopher Hampton and directed by Florian Zeller, who made the 2020 masterpiece The Father, this one is a good bet.
She Said (Nov. 18, in theaters)
If you liked Spotlight, the hit about The Boston Globe uncovering the priest abuse scandal, try this drama about the relentless New York Times reporters (played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) who exposed rapist and film mogul Harvey Weinstein’s crimes and got him sent to prison.
The Fabelmans (Nov. 23, in theaters)
Steven Spielberg tells his own life story (somewhat fictionalized) in a film about a kid obsessed and possessed by film. With Paul Dano, Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen.
Tim Appelo covers entertainment and is the film and TV critic for AARP. Previously, he was the entertainment editor at Amazon, video critic at Entertainment Weekly, and a critic and writer for The Hollywood Reporter, People, MTV, The Village Voice and LA Weekly.