Words: Josh Lee
October, rather appropriately, saw Netflix introduce titles largely from the horror genre – notably the docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, Guillermo del Toro’s eight terror tales in Cabinet of Curiosities, and the seminal Sleepy Hollow. But, even though the furore around Halloween is now winding down, the mystical and the spooky will still remain in the coming weeks, with mysteries to be solved in Enola Holmes 2 and in Wednesday, which follows the Addams family, the world’s most celebrated macabre cadre.
Elsewhere, there are the returns of low-key classics – Still Alice, Moneyball – high-octane heart-pumpers – Captain Phillips, Southpaw – and the much anticipated fifth season of one of Netflix’s most successful series to date.
Still Alice, 1 November
Distinguished linguistics professor Dr Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) leads a seemingly normal, accomplished life – but her world is instantly upended when she receives a diagnosis for familial Alzheimer’s disease. The film is a levelling watch, as it follows how Howland and her family (Alec Baldwin as her husband; Hunter Parrish, Kristen Stewart and Kate Bosworth as her children) figure out how to navigate the slow unravelling of her identity. Moore received the award for Best Actress, at the 2015 Oscars, for her remarkable portrayal.
Moneyball, 1 November
Co-written by Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball chronicles former baseball wunderkind and now Oakland Athletics’ GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), as he tries to piece together a team for the 2002 season. With the departure of key players, and with a limited transfer kitty, Beane hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an economics graduate, to come up with a new data-driven recruitment strategy to acquire seemingly undervalued talent. It is a modern classic, based on the 2003 book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.
Enola Holmes 2, 4 November
The game is afoot! Following the 2020 success of Enola Holmes, the sequel follows its titular character (Millie Bobby Brown), as she, like her renowned older sibling Sherlock (Henry Cavill), launches her own agency, but is soon faced with the unforgiving, unjust public attitude towards female detectives. When on the brink of shuttering, a new client walks in, with the hope that Enola can solve the case of her missing sister – indeed, the younger Holmes willingly accepts, but soon finds her work tangled up with that of her brother’s.
Captain Phillips, 6 November
Depicting the Maersk Alabama hijacking, in 2009, Paul Greengrass’s thriller showcases Tom Hanks at his very best as he guides his crew through the murky waters of dealing with the Somali pirates that have boarded their ship. Perhaps equal to Hank’s tour de force portrayal is Barkhad Abdi’s acting debut, as pirate leader Abduwali Muse, which garnered him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, at the 2014 Oscars.
The Crown, 9 November
Perhaps the most anticipated season of The Crown, owing to its release just two months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the fifth instalment will star Imelda Staunton as the third and final iteration of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, following depictions by Claire Foy and Olivia Colman. The original series will cover the early- to mid-1990s, a volatile period for the Royal Family that saw fire and fury, including Windsor Castle going up in smoke, and the breakdown of three royal marriages, most notable of which was the eruption of Prince Charles’s (Dominic West) relationship with Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki).
Southpaw, 24 November
Orthodox fighter Billy “The Great” Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), a light-heavyweight boxing champion, takes a heavy blow when he loses his wife, his daughter to social services, their house and his manager (50 Cent). Only when an encounter with Titus “Tick” Wills (Forest Whitaker), a former fighter that now coaches the city’s gritty amateurs, does Hope find a path to salvation.
I Wish You Would, 22 November
Not since his 2018 Son of Patricia has Trevor Noah released a stand-up special. His third Netflix feature, I Wish You Would, comes after his announcement to step away from his work on The Daily Show – a move that, he says, will allow him more room and freedom to do stand-up. Moving slightly away from the news topics he usually covers, the show will instead, according to the streaming giant, cover Noah’s struggles with “learning to speak German, modern communication, and his love for curry.”
Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?, 17 November
This four-part series will cover the “Cola Wars” of the 1990s, a time in which Pepsi, looking for novel ways to outdo its main competitor Coca-Cola, marketed the “Pepsi Stuff” loyalty programme in which fans of the soft-drink could gather points from purchases in order to claim a whole range of prizes. In one instance, the company advertised that seven million points could be redeemed for a fighter jet, leading one college student to take on the challenge… and a subsequent lawsuit.
Slumberland, 18 November
Young Nemo (Marlow Barkley) comes across a map that takes her to Slumberland, a technicolour world of dreams and nightmares. Guided by a horned nine-foot-tall monster-human outlaw called Flip (Jason Mamoa), both traverse the dreamland in hope of finding Nemo’s late father.
Wednesday, 23 November
Developed by Tim Burton, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar, this eight-part coming-of-age series revolves around the youngest Addams (Jenna Ortega) as she goes through student life at Nevermore Academy while trying to get control of her rapidly developing psychic abilities. The cast is further padded out by Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays mother Morticia, and Luis Guzmán as the family patriarch. Game of Thrones’s Gwendoline Christie will also appear as the principal of the school, Larissa Weems, who so happens to have an axe to grind with Morticia.
Want more Netflix recommendations? Here’s the best new titles to land on the streaming service in October 2022…
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