November's most anticipated films: Napoleon invades, The Marvels takes flight, and more

Cast: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Dagmara Domińczyk, Raine Monroe Boland, Emily Mitchell, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Luke Humphrey, Jorja Cadence

Director: Sofia Coppola

Leave it to Sofia Coppola to offer deliverance from the tiresome conversation around Austin Butler’s performance in Elvis—which, more than a year later, still has not died down—by turning her camera to the love of The King’s life instead. Priscilla focuses on Priscilla Presley’s life between the ages of 15 and 27, from the time she first met Elvis in West Germany to their divorce in 1973. The film even has Priscilla Presley’s stamp of approval. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she said of Coppola, “I just got who she was and I felt that she could get me.” [Jen Lennon]

Cast: Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson, Zaw Ashton, Park Seo-joon, Mckenna Grace

Director: Nia DaCosta

Ever since the season finale of Ms. Marvel, when Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) burst through Kamala Khan’s (Iman Vellani) closet door and found herself in the bedroom of her number one fan, we’ve been looking forward to seeing the two of them meeting face to face. Throw in Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who got a light-based power-up of her own in WandaVision, Nicholas J. Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and Goose, our favorite ginger-furred flerken, and you’ve got a solid crew heading into The Marvels. It’s been a minute since we’ve gotten a good MCU team up, and thanks to Marvel’s schedule shuffling we’ve had to wait a lot longer for this one than anticipated, so here’s hoping it’ll be worth the wait. [Cindy White]

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, Dylan Baker.

Director: Kristoffer Borgli

Nicolas Cage’s batting average seems to be improving as of late. Cage, the king of tax burden cinema, has mostly righted the ship by starring in post-modern comedies like The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent and stumbling into the occasional bad-ass horror film like Mandy. His latest, Dream Scenario, looks to be both of those things, a sly and bonkers meta ride into the unforgiving bowels of celebrity culture, which is often the first stop on the way to cancel culture. Cage plays a schlubby university professor of no great distinction who suddenly starts appearing in everybody’s dreams and achieving an unwanted amount of fame. Dream Scenario was well received at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, where fans marveled at how the twisted Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick Of Myself) pulled off such a high concept premise. Look for Dream Scenario to be one more step towards the inevitable—stand back, we’re coining a phrase—Cageissance! [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Francis Lawrence

After author Suzanne Collins released a prequel to the original Hunger Games trilogy in 2020, it was only a matter of time before The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes became the next installment in the popular film franchise. Set 64 years before the original Hunger Games film, this is the story of young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who will one day transform into the authoritarian president portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the trilogy (we’re counting Mockingjay as one film). But he’s not quite there yet. He’s assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from District 12 in the 10th annual Hunger Games. Fans can expect the usual romantic liaisons, plotting, and political maneuvering of the other installments, but if the trailer is any indication, Jason Schwartzman’s performance channeling Stanley Tucci as the host of the first televised Hunger Games will be a bonus treat. [Cindy White]

Cast: Addison Rae, Patrick Dempsey, Gina Gershon

Director: Eli Roth

Despite the release of its full-length trailer (finally!) we still don’t know much about the upcoming horror thriller Thanksgiving and yet, at the same time, we kinda do. Thanksgiving is director Eli Roth’s long-awaited feature length movie based on the fake trailer in Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse, his 2007 homage to the violent low-budget exploitation films of the 1960s and ’70s. Talk of a full-length version of Thanksgiving began the moment audiences saw the trailer, but it took years for Roth to land on a script he liked (Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts even took a crack at it). What gets us excited is not necessarily the cast—a fine if unspectacular collection that features Addison Rae, Patrick Dempsey, and Gina Gershon—but our firm belief that Roth is gonna bring the horrific hammer down big time, sparing no severed head or fountain of blood. We’ve waited over 15 years for this movie and we expect some serious exploitation-era violence! [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Anderson .Paak, Ron Funches, Kenan Thompson, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Daveed Diggs, Camila Cabello, Amy Schumer, RuPaul, Zosia Mamet

Director: Walt Dohrn

Because Universal is no fool, in 2020’s Trolls World Tour Poppy and Branch discovered six troll kingdoms, each dedicated to one genre of music—country, techno, funk, classical, pop, and rock—allowing every possible ticket buyer in every corner of the world to find a song to purchase via download. In case you thought that musical well had run dry for Trolls Band Together, fear not. In the new film, Poppy discovers that Branch has a secret past as part of a boy band. One cringes at the BTS, New Kids on the Block, and Big Time Rush-style songs that will lay siege to our brains in Dolby Atmos. But one also rejoices because the Trolls series is surprisingly warm, funny, and infectiously optimistic. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake return for the threequel and they’re joined by Kenan Thompson, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Daveed Diggs, Camila Cabello, and Amy Schumer, among others. Since the release of Trolls World Tour was compromised by the pandemic, we owe it to the Movie Gods to see Trolls Band Together in a big-ass movie palace. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, Carey Mulligan, Paul Rhys, Lolly Adefope

Director: Emerald Fennell

Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell—last seen as poor, pregnant Midge in Barbie—returns with her first project since 2021’s critically acclaimed Promising Young Woman. Saltburn, which Fennell wrote, directed, and executive produced with an assist from Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment, is a story of privilege and desire set at a sprawling English estate in the mid-2000s. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, an Oxford University student who is invited by his aristocratic classmate Felix (Jacob Elordi) to spend the summer with his eccentric family. Sounds simple enough, but we know better. Two words from the official description especially caught our eye: “beautifully wicked.” [Cindy White]

Cast: Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Charles Melton

Director: Todd Haynes

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in the same film should be reason enough for moviegoers to check out May December. But, even better, the film is directed by Todd Haynes, the iconoclastic L.A. native whose icy yet piercingly observant films favor subjects like fame (Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There) and sexuality (Carol, Far From Heaven). In May December, Moore plays a Southern housewife whose long-ago affair with a 13-year-old boy earned her the ire of the tabloid world (think Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau). Portman plays the actress shadowing Moore after being cast to play her in a prestige picture. May December premiered in competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival where it received excellent reviews on the basis of the Moore/Portman pairing and the humor not usually associated with Haynes. Look for a certain amount of campiness but also the typical Haynesian intellectual detachment that should make the film a fascinating watch. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Elisabeth Moss, Will Arnett, Oscar Kightley, Amgus Sampson, Rhys Darby, Beulah Koale

Director: Taika Waititi

We have no doubt that the general contours of the inspirational, based on a true story Next Goal Wins will follow those of every other underdog sports movie; ragtag team signs new coach, new coach hates assignment, team hates coach, they eventually learn to love each other, and overcome a major obstacle. We also have no doubt the film is going to be a blast because it’s directed by the mischievous and creatively peripatetic Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit). The movie is based on the 2014 documentary of the same name, which charts the fortunes of an American Samoa football team so bad they once lost a World Cup qualifying match 31-0. In Waititi’s fictionalized take, Michael Fassbender stars as the Dutch-American coach who reluctantly decamps to Oceania to turn around his new squad of no-talent misfits. The Oscar-winning Waititi excels at subverting genre material and making it feel fresh and unexpected. Look for Next Goal Wins to do the same for the underdog sports movie. [Mark Keizer]

Release Date: November 22 (in theaters), Apple TV+ (to be announced)

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim

Director: Ridley Scott

Any new filmic take on the life of military leader and French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte will inevitably be compared to the version that the late director Stanley Kubrick spent years preparing in the 1960s (with Jack Nicholson reportedly onboard as Napoleon), only to abandon it due to cost concerns and the box office failure of director Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1970 biopic, Waterloo. Now it’s Ridley Scott’s turn to tell the Emperor’s story, and even though Scott’s recent output has been spotty, we’re still excited about it. Joaquin Phoenix feels like the perfect choice to play Napoleon (he’s kinda the perfect choice to play anyone, actually) and, as Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, Vanessa Kirby is a great replacement for the terrific Jodie Comer, Scott’s original choice who left the project when Covid messed with her schedule. Just the thought of huge battle scenes with hundreds of (hopefully non-CGI) soldiers and a story that combines French history with Napoleon and Josephine’s relationship has us ready to enlist when it’s released in late November. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman

Director: Bradley Cooper

Well you can’t say Bradley Cooper lacks ambition. After shocking the moviegoing world by starring in and directing a fantastic new take on A Star Is Born, Bradley is back, starring in and directing Maestro, a biopic about iconic conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. While the film looks to be a wide-ranging examination of Bernstein’s often controversial life, if reports are to be believed it’s Carey Mulligan who steals the show (she steals every show, really) as Bernstein’s wife, whom he married following his previous relationship with a man, played by Matt Bomer. As a director, Cooper is pulling out all the stylistic stops, shooting in color and in black and white, and switching between widescreen and TV aspect ratios. As the title character, the Actors Studio alum is doing similar, including wearing a prosthetic nose which briefly ignited the ire of the internet. Had it been released during the first 100 years of cinema, this intimate epic about love and music would have enjoyed a healthy run at only the biggest movie palaces. However, now it’s on Netflix which thankfully still has no trouble writing big checks for prestige directors to pursue their dream projects. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk

Director: Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn

Wish’s opening day of November 22, 2023 arrives not long after the 100th anniversary of the day that Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (for the record, that would be October 16, 1923). So maybe it’s no coincidence that for this centennial birthday release, Wish features Asha, a plucky 17-year-old girl who wishes upon a star (sound familiar, Pinocchio fans?) and is then visited by an actual star or, according to Disney, “a little ball of boundless energy called Star.” Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose stars as Asha, while Chris Pine provides the voice of the villainous King Magnifico. The trailer doesn’t necessarily get our Disney juices flowing, especially since the Mouse House animation formula is starting to look a bit dated given the success of TMNT: Mutant Mayhem and the Spider-Verse films. But with its exalted release date, we’re hoping that Wish harkens back to Disney’s timeless classics while also appealing to modern sensibilities. Is that really too much to wish for? [Mark Keizer]