This November feels tame because there's two
monoliths in December sucking up all my excitement. When I look at it though,
November has the kind of releases that could break some records. Marvel, DC,
and Pixar all have movies. Awards players really start ramping up. Comedies are
getting a head start on Christmas. There's going to be a lot to see this month.
2017
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2016
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
2015
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sep | Oct
2016
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
2015
2014
2013
11/3
The Bad Moms are back, this time for Christmas and
their moms are all visiting.
Working For It: They are beating Daddy's Home 2 by a week with a
similar idea. I really like Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Kathryn Hahn and I
really like Cheryl Hines, Christine Baranski, and Susan Sarandon as their moms.
It's easy to win me over with a Christmas movie and it's nice to see that they are
sticking with the R rating. They kept the same writer/director duo, so there's
no reason to expect a quality drop off.
Working Against It: I'm a little thrown off by the quick turnaround time. It
went from sleeper hit late last summer to having a sequel ready a year later.
It's a malleable idea, I suppose, but still. That's fast.
My Position: I still need to see the first movie. The franchise still
strikes me as being pretty generic (kind of like Office Christmas Party
last year). As much as I love the mini-Forgetting Sarah Marshall
reunion, I feel no urgency.
Asgard is taken down by the Goddess of Death. Thor
puts together a team to save it.
Working For It: They are doing just about everything right for the ad
campaign for this movie. The trailers look either really cool or really
fun/funny. Chris Hemsworth gets a phenomenal cast around him. Cate Blanchett as
a marvel villain is over-casting in a great way. Since seeing director Taika
Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows, I'm really curious to see how his
sense of humor translates in the marvel machine.
Working Against It: The Thor movies have been weak points in the MCU
for me so far, especially the second one. And, I'm very aware of the
possibility that Marvel could be masking a mediocre movie with a stellar ad
campaign.
My Position: Marvel has fully embraced that they are making action
comedies, not action movies with some comedy. Some people get annoyed by that.
Personally, I'm fine with it. I'm unreasonably excited for this movie.
A documentary about people on election day 2016 from
all over the country.
Working For It: Sometimes, it's just about having a camera on at the
right time. I'm pretty sure when this was being filmed, the filmmakers expected
it to be a very different movie. Because of that, I imagine they captured a lot
of very raw emotions.
Working Against It: It's not that the wound is too fresh. There just hasn't
been enough time for perspective. It's not like the election was poorly
publicized.
My Position: Maybe as a time capsule in a decade. Certainly not now.
A high school girl tries to get out of her boring
Northern California life with her sanity in tact.
Working For It: Greta Gerwig wrote and directed (!!!) this somewhat
autobiographical movie. Saoirse Ronan is the lead. Ronan made a believer out of
me with 2015's Brooklyn. The movie is being presented as a slightly more
humanist Juno (sans pregnancy).
Working Against It: Movies like this can be a tricky balance. They work best
when they are light on story, but they also have to be careful about being
stagnant and dull. I think this will pull it off, but it's a possibility it
could falter there.
My Position: I'm seeing this no matter what. I like too much about it
not to.
Three Vietnam veterans reunite to bury one of
their sons who was killed in the Iraq
War.
Working For It: The three veterans are played by Steve Carrell, Bryan
Cranston, and Lawrence Fishburne. It's a Richard Linklater film. That's enough
to pique my interest. It's supposed to be a spiritual sequel to the 1973 Jack
Nicholson movie The Last Detail, and if their's anyone I trust to make a
good spiritual sequel, it's Linklater (See: Everybody Wants Some!!).
Working Against It: I suppose there's potential for this to lean into an
overtly political territory that would be annoying. I trust Linklater to handle
that though.
My Position: I didn't see Everybody Wants Some!! in theaters,
so apparently I don't feel that much urgency to see Linklater's movies in
theaters. This looks like a juicy awards player though, so it feels like a
lock, just so I can stay in the discussion.
Jeffret Dahmer, the teen years.
Working For It: I do have a Dahmer curiosity. And, thanks to Mindhunter,
I am curious about the Muppet Babies years of serial killers.
Working Against It: While I do find movies and shows about serial killers
interesting, I am bored with "awesome serial killer" stories. That
leaves a narrow space for this film to work in before I find it tedious.
My Position: I'll let someone else watch it and recommend it first.
11/10
Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell's dads show up to
reignite their feud,
Working For It: The first movie was fine, although I had some trouble
figuring out its target audience. Wahlberg and Ferrell are good together. Mel
Gibson and John Lithgow are fun choices for their dads. Linda Cardellini is
back and John Cena might have more of a role. The creative team behind the
movie is in tact as well.
Working Against It: The first movie was only OK and the sequel is pulling
heavily from the sequel playbook. I'm not expecting a lot.
My Position: I'm happy to wait on this.
Detective Hercule Poirot investigates a murder of a
fancy train.
Working For It: I haven't read the book or seen any film treatments of
the story, so I'll get to view it as a mystery. That'll be fun. Director/star
Kenneth Brannagh has assembled a terrific cast, including Johnny Depp, Daisy
Ridley, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Willem
Dafoe.
Working Against It: Maybe if the mystery is spoiled for me the rest of the
movie won't hold up. That seems doubtful though. Brannagh isn't a director
without blemishes either. However, I did like Cinderella.
My Position: I'll be honest, I was committed to seeing this ever
since Josh Gad posted those videos on Instagram trying to get Daisy Ridley to
tell him secrets about The Last Jedi.
Denzel Washington plays an idealistic lawyer who
gets caught up on the wrong side of the law.
Working For It: It's from writer/director Dan Gilroy who made Nightcrawler,
one of my favorite movies in 2014. This looks like a slight change in tone, but
if he can get the same caliber of performance out of Denzel that he got from
Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, then this is priority viewing.
Working Against It: Part of what made Nightcrawler so engaging was
that it was a perspective I hadn't seen before. "Lawyer on the wrong side
of the law" is pretty familiar (unless I'm misunderstanding something
about this movie).
My Position: Gilroy earned my trust with Nightcrawler, and when
was the last time Denzel made an unwatchable movie?
A mother uses three billboards to shame her local
police department into solving her daughter's murder.
Working For It: This looks darkly, darkly comedic in a good way.
Writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) is
right in his comfort zone. A cast including Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell,
and Woody Harrelson looks perfect to execute this type of story.
Working Against It: I like McDonagh more in theory than in execution, if
that makes any sense. His first two films had all the right pieces, but I
didn't care for either when I first saw them. (For the record, I did appreciate
In Bruges more the second time I saw it, so maybe there's something to
that).
My Position: Frances McDormand looks sufficiently brash to make even
the worst version of this movie good enough to see in theaters.
11/17
Wonder Woman and Batman assemble a team to defeat a
powerful villain.
Working For It: Wonder Woman definitely increased my interest in
this after a series of DC misses the last few years. I quite like the Justice
League team (Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Jason Mamoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher).
I'm wondering how the inevitable reintroduction of Superman will be handled.
It looks like it'll be fun.
Working Against It: Like Batman vs. Superman and Suicide Squad,
I'm worried that they are trying to bring on too many characters all at once.
My Position: I wouldn't miss it, but, if I could only see this or Ragnorak,
Ragnorak would win. It's a moot point though.
An animated movie about the animals in the manger on
the first Christmas.
Working For It: Animated movies are fun, I guess. I like Christmas
movies in general. It's not a top tier voice cast (either for A-list celebs or
the best voice-acting talent), but I appreciate the likes of Gina Rodriguez,
Zachary Levi, Kristin Chenoweth, and Patricia Heaton.
Working Against It: I'm not exactly sure what the studio animation tiers are
(Pixar is in the top. Blue Sky is probably 2nd tier, for example), but Sony
Pictures Animation is still hanging out in the third tier, and this doesn't
even look like their best effort.
My Position: Just as soon as I get to Rock Dog and Underdogs.
A boy with facial - uh - differences, enters a
mainstream school for the first time.
Working For It: The kid is played by Jacob Tremblay. After Room,
I have no concerns about if the young lead can pull off the role. Owen Wilson
and Julia Roberts are his parents. Daveed Diggs is a teacher. I think Mandy
Patinkin is too. It's a nice cast.
Working Against It: Even in the trailer this movie is going too hard for the
emotional gut punch.
My Position: I'm in no hurry.
A successful TV writer becomes worried when his
teenage daughter starts dating a much, much older filmmaker.
Working For It: This movie is almost reverse engineered for me. Louis CK
wrote, directs, and stars in the movie (yay!). His daughter is played by Chloe
Grace Moretz (yay!). His girlfriend is played by Rose Byne (yay!). John
Malkovich is the filmmaker dating CK's daughter. Apparently it also has Pamela
Adlon, Charlie Day, Edie Falco, and Helen Hunt. I'm really on board for this.
Working Against It: As much as I love a lot of CK's work, I'm not blind
enough to say he's always brilliant (He wrote I Think I Love My Wife,
after alll). Part of what made his FX show great was that he was normally
telling short stories. When he moved to longer story arcs, I wasn't as
impressed, which then makes me worry about how a whole movie will play.
My Position: I've tempered my expectations a lot, but CK's highs are
high enough that this is worth giving a chance.
11/22 & 11/24
The story of the night that doomed Ted Kennedy's
chances of ever becoming president.
Working For It: This is a rarity. It's a movie that's getting a
nationwide release that I can't find a trailer for when it's less than a month
away. That leads me to suspect that it's going to be moved. If that doesn't
happen, I'm slightly curious to see Jason Clarke as Kennedy and Kate Mara as
Mary Jo Kopechne.
Working Against It: It's really odd that I can't even find a trailer for it.
That makes me think I'm doing something wrong.
My Position: I'm happy to skip this, although it's weird how few
nationwide releases there are this weekend.
A boy accidentally travels to the land of the dead.
Working For It: It's Pixar, so that's about all I need to know.
Working Against It: If I wanted to be picky, I'd point out that the last
Pixar Thanksgiving release was The Good Dinosaur, which was pretty
underwhelming.
My Position: Outside of the Cars franchise, I don't miss Pixar
movies.
Winston Churchill in the early days of WWII.
Working For It: Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill is enough to cover the
cost of the ticket. The movie is on the very long shortlist of possible Oscar
players. The rest of the cast (Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn, Kristin Scott
Thomas) is very British. Joe Wright is hit or miss as a director (AnnaKarenina, Hanna, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice).
Working Against It: Is there room for another WWII movie from the British
perspective in the same year? Or will this come down to being lesser-Dunkirk?
My Position: It's got enough prestige to it that I'll track it down.
Charles Dickens as her writes A Christmas Carol.
Working For It: It's got an Alex & Emma vibe to it, which is
a bad movie that I really love. The Christmas spin is nice too. I really liked
Dan Stevens in Legion earlier this year. And, as a film distributor,
Bleecker Street has been quite reliable the last couple years.
Working Against It: The trailer makes this look like a slightly more
polished made-for-TV movie.
My Position: I won't be tracking this down until next December when
it shows up on Amazon Prime.
Edison and Westinghouse battle for electricity
supremacy.
Working For It: I think I've been set to see this movie even since I saw
an "On this day"on Wikipedia several years ago that said "Thomas
Edison electrocutes an elephant". I love the idea of how dirty Edison and
the others played in those days. So, the battle royale between Thomas Edison
(Benedict Cumberbatch), George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), and Nikola Tesla
(Nicholas Hoult) sounds like great fun. Oh, and this is from the director of Me& Earl & the Dying Girl, so I have a lot of goodwill to spend.
Working Against It: Reviews were pretty mixed coming out of the fall
festivals.
My Position: There's no urgency to see this, so I could see it getting
lost in the December shuffle.
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