Fall Movie Preview: 45 Movies You Need to Know About
:extract_cover():upscale()/2017/11/20/982/n/1922283/b06be3a25a1358a3b9cf03.39620212_edit_img_cover_file_43964790_1511204166.jpg)
It's now officially Fall, and to make you feel better about the chilly temperatures, we've got plenty of reasons to go inside: movies! The season kicked off with some creepier fare like It and Mother!, while it's also the season where Oscar hopefuls emerge and huge flagship franchise movies come out. That means there is seriously something for everyone, so while you are dreaming of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas plans, take a look at the list ahead so you know what to pencil in to your calendar!
— Additional reporting by Quinn Keaney
It
- Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard
- The scoop: Stephen King's legendarily scary tome about fear is translated for the big screen. Hemlock Grove star Skarsgard is the man under the clown makeup, and he's already so frightening that we're pretty sure this might end up being the scariest horror film of the year.
- Release date: Sept. 8
- Watch the trailer.
Home Again
- Starring: Reese Witherspoon
- The scoop: Nancy Meyers's daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer wrote and directed this romantic comedy about a recent divorcee (Witherspoon) who has to come home again and finds herself surrounded by a few good men.
- Release date: Sept. 8
- Watch the trailer.
Rebel in the Rye
- Starring: Nicholas Hoult
- The scoop: Hoult plays famously reclusive Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger in this biopic from Mockingjay screenwriter (and former Gilmore Girls star!) Danny Strong.
- Release date: Sept. 8
- Watch the trailer.
Mother!
- Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem
- The scoop: Darren Aronofsky directs his real-life girlfriend Lawrence as a young, pregnant wife who's tormented by the idea of her husband (Bardem) inviting guests into their home at such an intimate time. Is it a thriller? A murder mystery? We can't wait to find out.
- Release date: Sept. 15
- Watch the trailer.
First They Killed My Father
- Starring: Sareum Srey Moch
- The scoop: Angelina Jolie directed this wartime drama about the life of Loung Ung, who grew up under the deadly reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The film festival entrant is getting the widest of releases when it comes straight to Netflix in September.
- Release date: Sept. 15
- Watch the trailer.
American Assassin
- Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton
- The scoop: O'Brien feels all grown up as a young assassin out for revenge, and Keaton plays the man who mentors him.
- Release date: Sept. 15
- Watch the trailer.
Battle of the Sexes
- Starring: Emma Roberts, Steve Carell
- The scoop: Stone and Carell inhabit the personas of legendary tennis pros Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs to portray their much-hyped head-to-head match, a female vs. male throwdown that spoke volumes about the gender landscape at the time.
- Release date: Sept. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Stronger
- Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany
- The scoop: Gyllenhaal stars in the true-life story about Jeff Bauman, a Boston Marathon bombing survivor who becomes a symbol of triumph, despite his own discomfort with the role.
- Release date: Sept. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry
- The scoop: In this follow-up to the manic, violent fun of Kingsman: The Secret Service, the boys end up stateside and meet their American counterparts, like Tatum's corn-fed assassin.
- Release date: Sept. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Victoria and Abdul
- Starring: Judi Dench, Ali Fazal
- The scoop: Dench once again returns to a British period film — but a pretty lighthearted one, to portray Queen Victoria's little-known friendship with an Indian clerk toward the end of her rule.
- Release date: Sept. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Flatliners
- Starring: Nina Dobrev, Ellen Page, Diego Luna
- The scoop: In this remake of the '90s thriller, the fresh-faced cast once again explores how almost dying affects the living. Naturally, things don't go well.
- Release date: Sept. 29
- Watch the trailer.
American Made
- Starring: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson
- The scoop: Cruise plays somewhat against type as a real-life pilot who's so good he gets himself a side job as a drug runner for the Medellin cartel.
- Release date: Sept. 29
- Watch the trailer.
Blade Runner: 2049
- Starring: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford
- The scoop: Thirty-five years later, Blade Runner gets a follow-up with a new blade runner played by Gosling — who is looking for one Rick Deckard (Ford), bringing the sequel full-circle.
- Release date: Oct. 6
- Watch the trailer.
The Mountain Between Us
- Starring: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet
- The scoop: Elba and Winslet play perfect strangers trapped together in the mountains when their charter plane goes down. We're hoping for more romantic vibes between these two, but the survival element seems to be stronger.
- Release date: Oct. 6
- Watch the trailer.
Goodbye Christopher Robin
- Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie
- The scoop: It's the story behind A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh and the beloved children's books, and the circumstances of his real family including his son, the familiarly named Christopher Robin.
- Release date: Oct. 13
- Watch the trailer.
Marshall
- Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens
- The scoop: A young Thurgood Marshall (Boseman), the first black Supreme Court justice, takes on a case that ends up being one of the biggest of his career.
- Release date: Oct. 13
- Watch the trailer.
The Snowman
- Starring: Michael Fassbender
- The scoop: Fassbender plays literary detective Harry Hole in this adaptation of Jo Nesbo's series, in which he has to hunt down a killer who leaves little snowmen to mark his kills.
- Release date: Oct. 20
- Watch the trailer.
Wonderstruck
- Starring: Julianne Moore
- The scoop: Moore again reunites with director Todd Haynes (they last worked together on Carol) in this drama that takes place in New York in two time periods: in the '20s, following a deaf little girl wandering the American Museum of Natural History, and in the '70s, following a little boy wandering the same museum.
- Release date: Oct. 20
- Watch the trailer.
Suburbicon
- Starring: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac
- The scoop: An insurance investigator comes out to a utopic American town and finds that everything's not as squeaky clean as it looks in George Clooney's directorial effort.
- Release date: Oct. 27
- Watch the trailer.
Thank You For Your Service
- Starring: Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Amy Schumer
- The scoop: American Sniper's screenwriter returns with another tale of modern military drama when a soldier comes home and tries to adjust to life with his family.
- Release date: Oct. 27
- Watch the trailer.
Jigsaw
- Starring: Tobin Bell
- The scoop: The Saw franchise returns with a vengeance when a copycat killer appears to reference Jigsaw . . . only Jigsaw is dead. Or is he?
- Release date: Oct. 27
- Watch the trailer.
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
- Starring: Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote
- The scoop: Go behind Wonder Woman to meet the man who created the character, and learn all about his love affair with his wife, his mistress, and their throuple.
- Release date: Oct. 27
- Watch the trailer.
Thor: Ragnarok
- Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum
- The scoop: It's short-haired Thor in the third follow-up for the buff Avenger, which looks to be a lot more fun and less morose than the last film. This time, Thor is joined by the Hulk, Loki, and new character Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to fight intergalactic baddie Hela (Cate Blanchett).
- Release date: Nov. 3
- Watch the trailer.
A Bad Moms Christmas
- Starring: Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn
- The scoop: The moms are badder than ever because it's a time of actual hell (you know, Christmas). Expect to see all three of these women on the naughty list.
- Release date: Nov. 3
- Watch the trailer.
My Friend Dahmer
- Starring: Ross Lynch, Vincent Kartheiser, Anne Heche
- The scoop: It's the true story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, particularly over his younger days in school.
- Release date: Nov. 3
- Watch the trailer.
Murder on the Orient Express
- Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Josh Gad, Daisy Ridley
- The scoop: Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery gets a stylish and sexy update from director Branagh, where anyone might be the killer.
- Release date: Nov. 10
- Watch the trailer.
Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
- Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson
- The scoop: McDormand is a mother who wants answers after her daughter is raped and murdered in their town — and when there's a lack of them, she challenges local police with a series of billboards putting them on blast.
- Release date: Nov. 10
- Watch the trailer.
Wonder
- Starring: Julia Roberts, Jacob Tremblay
- The scoop: Room standout Jacob Tremblay tackles another challenge as Auggie, a boy with Treacher Collins syndrome who's taking on mainstream school for the first time. Promisingly, Roberts plays his mom.
- Release date: Nov. 17
- Watch the trailer.
Justice League
- Starring: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa
- The scoop: Batman comes back with a whole new gang when DC's answer to the Avengers finally assembles in full. Previous WB installments have been a bit dour, but with Ezra Miller in the cast as The Flash, things are starting to look a lot funnier in Gotham.
- Release date: Nov. 17
- Watch the trailer.
Mudbound
- Starring: Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund
- The scoop: Dee Rees's meditation on racism and poverty after WWII has been getting raves on the film festival circuit since Sundance and will be ready to wow you right at home when it comes to Netflix in November.
- Release date: Nov. 17
- Watch the trailer.
Molly's Game
- Starring: Jessica Chastain
- The scoop: Iconic screenwriter Aaron Sorkin goes behind the camera to direct his first feature, which features Chastain as an ex Olympic hopeful who turns to running a high-stakes poker game.
- Release date: Nov. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Coco
- Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Gael Garcia Bernal
- The scoop: Disney/Pixar utilizes an all-Latinx voice cast to show the journey of a young boy who gets accidentally stuck in the Land of the Dead.
- Release date: Nov. 22
- Watch the trailer.
The Man Who Invented Christmas
- Starring: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer
- The scoop: A charming look at how Charles Dickens first got the idea for his iconic book A Christmas Carol back in 1843.
- Release date: Nov. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Darkest Hour
- Starring: Gary Oldman
- The scoop: Oldman is the latest to fill the shoes of Winston Churchill, in this period drama that portrays his resistance to Hitler and his terrifying reign.
- Release date: Nov. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Call Me by Your Name
- Starring: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet
- The scoop: The buzz has been building since Sundance for this dreamy romance between a young man (Chalamet) and his father's assistant in the Italian countryside.
- Release date: Nov. 24
- Watch the trailer.
The Current War
- Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon
- The scoop: Cumberbatch plays Thomas Edison during the time of his life when he raced George Westinghouse (Shannon) to discover a sustainable electricity system.
- Release date: Nov. 24
- Watch the trailer.
The Disaster Artist
- Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen
- The scoop: A comedy about "the true story of one movie so bad it became infamous," aka Tommy Wiseau's 2003 cult drama, The Room.
- Release date: Dec. 1
- Watch the trailer.
The Shape of Water
- Starring: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon
- The scoop: Guillermo del Toro returns with a film that is the requisite amount of creepy but also has some otherwordly romance happening too when Cold War-era lab worker Elisa (Hawkins) discovers something truly extraordinary in the water at the government lab where she works.
- Release date: Dec. 8
- Watch the trailer.
I, Tonya
- Starring: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney
- The scoop: Robbie got raves (as did her costars) at the Toronto Film Festival for her portrayal of Tonya Harding in the black comedy retelling of the biggest Olympic scandal of the '90s.
- Release date: Dec. 8
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hamill
- The scoop: We finally get to see what Rey confronts Luke about, see Carrie Fisher's final scenes in the franchise, and learn who exactly the last Jedi is supposed to be.
- Release date: Dec. 15
- Watch the trailer.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
- Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black
- The scoop: The sequel follows four high school students who stumble upon an old video game console, which promptly sucks them inside the game's jungle setting and literally transforms them into the adult avatars they initially chose.
- Release date: Dec. 20
- Watch the trailer.
Bright
- Starring: Will Smith, Joel Edgerton
- The scoop: Netflix's gritty cop flick follows two very different police officers who live in an alternate reality where orcs, fairies, and elves live alongside humans. The two unlikely partners have to overcome their differences to save the world (no big deal, right?).
- Release date: Dec. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Pitch Perfect 3
- Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld
- The scoop: The Barden Bellas have now all graduated college and realize just how much the real world sucks, but when an opportunity to reunite and avoid adulting comes along, the Bellas head to Europe to perform on the USO tour.
- Release date: Dec. 22
- Watch the trailer.
Downsizing
- Starring: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig
- The scoop: Alexander Payne brings comedy to a realistic issue — overpopulating of the earth — by having its main characters pay to shrink themselves down. Yes, really, and it's supposed to be incredible.
- Release date: Dec. 22
- Watch the trailer.
The Greatest Showman
- Starring: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya
- The scoop: The circus-musical biopic offers a magical take on P.T. Barnum's origin story, from his days as a pencil-pushing businessman to how he got the idea for the Barnum Museum and beyond.
- Release date: Dec. 25
- Watch the trailer.