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      ‘Incredible but True’ Review: Track to the Future

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      A suburban couple makes a life-altering discovery in the basement of their new home in this delightfully odd comedy.However you respond to the wacky oeuvre of the French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux, its loopy originality is cheering. Through a string of out-there movies featuring killer tires, monstrous insects and cursed outerwear, he has remained committed to exposing the sadness behind much of human silliness. Whatever his subject, it’s never solely about the goof.He has also typically been blessed with actors skilled at selling dotty setups with deadpan ease. In “Incredible but True,” he has the stellar support of Alain Chabat and Léa Drucker (currently starring in the marvelous Epix series “War of the Worlds”), who play Alain and Marie, a fondly becalmed couple who impulsively purchase a suburban home. On the urging of their excitable real estate agent (Stéphane Pezerat), the couple investigates a trapdoor in the basement which conceals a strange tunnel. Where — and to when — the tunnel leads will upend their lives and rearrange their destinies.Coming in at a tight and talky 74 minutes, “Incredible but True” is a sweetly absurd time-travel comedy that coats its lunacy in a touching poignancy. While Alain, as unwavering as his puff of silvery hair, manages a stressful work client and the hypermasculine posturing of his boastful boss, Gérard (Benoît Magimel), Marie becomes dismayingly obsessed with the tunnel’s wonders. Her bizarre behavior — like the droll adventures of Gérard’s recently installed, Bluetooth-enabled electronic penis — has a desperate quality: In this movie, the diminutions of aging are rarely out of mind.For Alain, though, happiness means simply surviving middle age without the assistance of a temporal blip or an iPenis. Even one with three speeds.Incredible but TrueNot rated. In French and Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 14 minutes. Watch on Arrow. More

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      Mahler’s Having a Moment. He’s Got Lydia Tár to Thank for It.

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      The Austrian composer’s Symphony No. 5 is the obsession of the conductor played by Cate Blanchett — and of the fans of her latest film.For a 70-minute Austrian symphony first performed more than a century ago, Mahler’s Fifth makes a surprisingly strong case for itself as the song of the season.No, Gustav Mahler didn’t occupy the top 10 spots in the Billboard Hot 100, as Taylor Swift did last week, and the piece’s lush fourth movement has yet to be co-opted by the TikTok crowd. But the symphony, which plays a central role in the new Cate Blanchett drama, “Tár,” seems to have a way of sticking with audiences long after they’ve left the theater, finding its way onto the strolling, cleaning and cooking playlists of listeners who might otherwise be more inclined toward Adele, OneRepublic or Beyoncé.Enjoying a brisk autumn day walking around Manhattan listening to Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. I’ve been TÁR-pilled.— jeff becomes her 🔮 (@jheimbrock) October 19, 2022
      Dalton Glass, a tech worker in Lakeland, Fla., is not a total stranger to classical music: He listened to a lot of it as a child, and as an adult, he hears at least a bit whenever he has an incoming call. (His ringtone of several years is a snatch of Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”) Still, he has some blind spots.“I’d never heard Mahler before in my life until that movie,” said Mr. Glass, 30. Now, he said, the piece is in regular rotation.Cate Blanchett as the fictional conductor Lydia Tár on the cover of a new soundtrack album.Deutsche GrammophonThe model for the “Tár” soundtrack cover is a 1993 release featuring Claudio Abbado.Deutsche GrammophonMr. Glass’s fascination with the film — he and a friend talked about it for the entire hourlong drive home from Tampa, where he caught the first of the two screenings he has seen to date — echoes the fixation of the imperious heroine brought to life by Ms. Blanchett.‘Tár’: A Timely Backstage DramaCate Blanchett plays a world-famous conductor who is embroiled in a #MeToo drama in the latest film by the director Todd Field.Review: “We don’t care about Lydia Tár because she’s an artist; we care about her because she’s art,” our critic writes about the film’s protagonist.An Elusive Subject: Blanchett has stayed one step ahead of audiences by constantly staying in motion. In “Tár,” she is as inscrutable as ever.Back Into the Limelight: The film marks Field’s return to directing, 16 years after “In the Bedroom” and “Little Children” made waves.Learning to Act: Sophie Kauer, a cellist in real life and in the film, had zero acting experience when she auditioned. She learned the craft from Blanchett, and from Michael Caine videos.In “Tár,” Mahler’s Fifth is something of a white whale for the celebrated (fictional) maestro Lydia Tár, the only Mahler symphony she has yet to record with a major orchestra in order to complete what audiences are told is a kind of Grand Slam of conducting. Throughout the film’s two and a half hours, she pursues the live recording with single-minded intensity, even as her professional and personal lives begin to unravel amid the fallout from her abuses of the power of the podium.Gage Tarlton, a 24-year-old playwright who lives in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, saw the movie in large part because he is a huge fan of Cate Blanchett. “I’ve loved Cate Blanchett for a really long time,” he said. “If Cate Blanchett is in a movie, I’m going to see it.”Although many of Mr. Tarlton’s feelings about the film are proving to be a slow burn — he said he “docked half a star” from his initial appraisal of the movie on Letterboxd after taking some time to puzzle out the story’s lingering questions and ambiguities — he didn’t waste any time adding some Mahler to his life.“I looked it up as soon as I got home,” he said.Others seem to have had the same idea. In October, streams of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 on Apple Music were up 150 percent from the previous month, according to data provided by the platform. Compared with the same month last year, they had more than tripled.Of the many recordings of the symphony available for streaming, Mr. Tarlton’s go-to is a 1993 Deutsche Grammophon album featuring the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Claudio Abbado. In the movie, Ms. Blanchett’s Tár uses that album’s cover image, a photograph of Abbado marking up a score while seated in a concert hall, as a model for her own Deutsche Grammophon photo shoot.“I actually tried a couple different ones, and that is the one that I like the most,” Mr. Tarlton said.A deliciously — or perhaps deliriously — meta concept album issued by Deutsche Grammophon shows Ms. Blanchett in a similar pose. It features audio excerpts from the film, original compositions by the Oscar-winning composer Hildur Gudnadottir and Ms. Blanchett plunking out “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”So when the soundtrack slipped the notice of even some dedicated fans of the movie, it was very possibly a function of timing: It came out on Oct. 21, the very same day as a certain blockbuster album whose first-week sales obliterated expectations of what was possible in the streaming era.The entry of Mahler’s Fifth into pop culture echoes the resurgences of works by Beethoven and Pachelbel in the 1970s and 1980s.Photo illustration by Kyle Berger for The New York Times“I listened to Taylor’s album probably at 5 a.m. the day after it came out,” said Millie Sloan, 47, referring to Ms. Swift’s album “Midnights.” Ms. Sloan, an account manager at her family’s construction company in Atlanta, said she was not aware of the “Tár” tie-in album. She said on Twitter that she had been listening exclusively to Mahler and “Midnights” for a week — though not on the same playlist. (“It’s a different listen,” she explained.)Ms. Sloan maintains a playlist of instrumental music that she encounters in the wild on TV and in movies, so the symphony had an obvious home in her Spotify account. What was less clear was where it would fit into her life.“I did put it on while I was cooking dinner the other day,” she said. But after gamely trying to soldier through the meal, she and her husband ultimately found the piece “a little too exuberant for a dinnertime listen.” She now listens to it mostly while walking and doing chores.The symphony (full title: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor) is regarded as one of Mahler’s greatest achievements. First performed in Cologne, Germany, in October 1904, the piece was once described by a New York Times critic as “the first of Mahler’s orchestral works in which the ensemble seems to embody a single mind: a churning, reflective and obsessive being. It is, to be sure, a neurotic mind, full of mercurial and unpredictable reactions.”It is far from the first classical composition to enjoy a moment of sudden pop cultural relevance. Particularly in the late 1970s and early 1980s, plum placements in popular films thrust masterworks into the mainstream. Among those to get a boost from Hollywood: Pachelbel’s Canon (“Ordinary People”), Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” (“Apocalypse Now”) and Beethoven’s Fifth, a cheekily reconfigured version of which — “A Fifth of Beethoven,” anyone? — figured in the disco-era bible that is the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.Mahler’s Fifth does seem to have achieved an unusual distinction: featuring prominently in two New York Film Festival darlings that opened in American movie theaters last month. In addition to its star turn in “Tár,” there is “Decision to Leave,” a fast-paced detective thriller by the South Korean director Park Chan-wook that makes defiant use of the symphony’s fourth movement. More

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      Jovan Adepo and Thundercat on Jazz, Superheroes and Ego Death

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      Two creative people in two different fields in one wide-ranging conversation. This time: the “Watchmen” actor and the musician.The anime-loving singer and jazz-trained bassist known as Thundercat occupies such a specific place in popular music, it’s easy to forget how ubiquitous he is: Apart from his own funk- and jazz-inflected R&B releases, the 38-year-old artist (born Stephen Bruner in Los Angeles) has collaborated over the years with everyone from Erykah Badu to Kendrick Lamar to the California crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies.The 34-year-old actor Jovan Adepo, born in England but raised mostly in Maryland, is also approaching his own left-of-mainstream breakout: He first gained notice in the 2016 film version of August Wilson’s “Fences” (1986), acting opposite Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, the latter of whom directed the movie and became something of a mentor. After appearing in HBO’s “Watchmen” in 2019 as the masked vigilante Hooded Justice, Adepo will next be seen in the director Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” (out Christmas Day), in which he plays the fictional jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer in a historical epic set in 1920s Hollywood, as it transitioned from silent films to talkies.Having just played a trumpeter — he first tried his hand at the instrument in middle school — Adepo’s been thinking a lot about musicians he admires, and Thundercat topped the list: Both have tattoos honoring the goofy 1980s cartoon that inspired the latter’s mononym, and they also have overlapping interests in jazz, superheroes and the power of faith in making art, all of which informed a conversation in October at a studio in Los Angeles, in the middle of the city they also share.Jovan Adepo: Thundercat, we’ve actually met before — we have a mutual friend, and you were playing in England and I came to see you, but we missed the set because my friend and I stopped for food.Thundercat: You can’t ever let him live that down.J.A.: We stayed and watched the rest of the show: The Red Hot Chili Peppers were performing, and then I had a couple of drinks and was like, “I may never meet this dude, so I’m going to say what’s up.” My dad told me, “Be cool about it. You’re a grown man. Shake his hand.” That’s exactly what I hope I did, but I was mad awkward.T.: I remember it, it’s cool. You should always say something, always give the person their flowers while they’re alive. But I’ve definitely been cussed out a couple of times for trying to say hi: once with Drake’s security team — nobody has put hands on me like that other than my dad.T Magazine: Does being in the business and knowing how it works make it harder to form close relationships with other artists?T.: You attract what you are, but Los Angeles is the epitome of turned-on-its-head: Whatever you thought, it can change at the drop of a hat. You can go from being poor to the richest man in the world. Your life can end within five minutes of you touching a substance. You meet a lot of fake people — a lot of people who can’t wait to project and let you know who they think they are. But when the real ones come around, it’s timeless.Adepo as Sidney Palmer in “Babylon” (2022), directed by Damien Chazelle.Scott Garfield/Paramount PicturesT Magazine: Jovan, when did you start following Thundercat’s work?J.A.: I first got introduced to his music in college — I was obsessed. And then I got this tattoo [inspired by the 1985-89 “ThunderCats” cartoon] in 2020. Mine was a gift from a tattoo artist in Los Angeles after my Emmy nomination [for “Watchmen”].I grew up with music: My dad was big on jazz, and that’s partly why I wanted this part in “Babylon.” One of my favorite songs is John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman’s “Lush Life” (1963). It’s incredibly depressing, but a beautiful song. I have it on vinyl, and that’s played in my house all the time.T Magazine: Thundercat, you were in a jazz band in high school. What’s your relationship to the genre now?T.: For me, it’s about composing and writing. The act of improvisation, it’s built into my DNA. That’s the only way I can describe it. Jazz can be a shade or hue of something — and it’s important to always express the jazz in the music, because that’s not only our history [as Black people and Americans] but it also represents the want for something different, the stab in different directions.But it’s always in relation to what’s going on in pop culture at the time. Everyone loves what Kendrick did [with 2015’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” to which Thundercat contributed]. That’s one of the highest points of jazz music, but it always takes something new to remind people what jazz is.T Magazine: It goes back to the fundamentals. Jovan, how did you develop yours with acting?J.A.: I was playing football in college, but I was trash. If you ever have a dream of going pro, you’re sometimes the last to realize if that’s not an attainable goal. I was also doing church plays, and there was a lady who came up to me and said, “You’re so good. You should get into acting. I have a sister in Los Angeles who’s doing her thing.” Fast-forward, I decide I want to come out to L.A. just to write screenplays, and her sister was Viola Davis. That’s how I met her, in 2013, and she told me, “You need to study everything. You didn’t go to Juilliard. So you need to go to every acting class. And if there’s anything that you can do better, make a living doing that.”My first job was “The Leftovers” [from 2015-17]. That was with no résumé, but the creator of the show, Damon Lindelof, saw my audition and was like, “That guy.” He took me out of Inglewood, working at Sunglass Hut.T.: Being a musician is also its own terror — there was never a point in my life where I wasn’t one, but there were a couple of summers that I worked at the comic store.J.A.: Being discovered doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a collection of small happenings. When I met with Viola and her husband [Julius Tennon], it wasn’t like, “We’re gonna put you in our next gig.” It was like, Get to work. And maybe we’ll run into each other in line.T.: In the great words of Floyd Mayweather: “Hard work.”J.A.: Heart first.T.: For me, I look at my albums more like snapshots or photos of where I am. I don’t like talking about this, but I spent many years as an alcoholic. There were different degrees, but it was very cloudy for me for a long time. Even with the album “Drunk” (2017), there came a moment where I had to be honest with myself about what that was. It served a purpose. If I was still dealing with those things, I would probably be dead.T Magazine: How do you get around your ego when first collaborating with folks like Washington and Lamar, and still make great art?J.A.: My ego was nonexistent.T.: Ego death is a real thing.J.A.: It behooves you to come in with your palms open and be able to learn. And that’s served me well. I’ve always been good at confiding in older actors, and I just like hanging around older people better. They make fun of you: Denzel called me “peanut head.”T.: I toured with Erykah Badu for many years, recording on the [2000s “New Amerykah”] albums. Once, we were in prayer before going onstage. And she had this moment where she was like [to the rest of the band], “I don’t know if any of y’all knew, Thundercat is an artist. I just want you to understand he’s different.” She used to put me right up front with her and we would dance. That woman changed my life. She showed me what it means to be an artist.T Magazine: You both have a deep fondness for comics. There’s an argument that, in a more secular world, superheroes act as our gods. Do you think of them like that?J.A.: That’s a hard question to answer —T.: Superheroes have attributes that are otherworldly for sure. Art is meant to inspire, and you’ve got different generations when it comes to comics: “Superman” was [originally] important [in the 1930s] because it made kids’ minds wander. A lot of times — even when you read things like the Bible — you hear these stories, but you’re wanting to touch and feel them. Comics create a tangibility.This is not me saying God is or isn’t real. I grew up Christian. You get different versions and different iterations, but those connections create respect at a young age. It stays with you.J.A.: That’s also my upbringing. My mom was a missionary in our church, and my dad is a deacon. They would always call when I was going in for little roles and I’d say, “I don’t know why I’m an actor, I’m not that great,” to which they responded, “When was the last time you prayed?” That question makes you feel awkward, like, you know you’re gonna lie. But then they’re always like, “I’m praying for you, a lot of hands are praying for you.” You gotta have something like that to keep you centered.T.: Oh, yeah. This world will kill you.T Magazine: How do you define success?J.A.: It’s funny because I feel like a lot of actors, when they get questions like that, say that they do this solely for the art. But if that were the consensus for all actors, we could just do monologues in our basement, you know? I want people to see me.T.: It’s multifaceted.J.A.: You want to be able to vibe with your music, but then you also want to be able to feed your family and see the fruits of your labor. But I think, for me, it just starts with wanting to be remembered.This interview has been edited and condensed.Grooming: Simone at Exclusive Artists Management. Photo assistant: Jerald Flowers More

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      Who Are All Those Celebrities at the Weird Al Pool Party? A Guide

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      We break down that star-studded scene from “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” the sorta kinda true portrait of the pop star’s life, now on the Roku Channel.Here’s how Weird Al Yankovic, the accordian-playing king of parody, would like you to think “Another One Rides the Bus” was written: At a pool party, the radio personality Wolfman Jack challenged him to devise a sendup of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” on the spot.In a scene from “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” the true-except-when-it’s-not biopic now streaming on the Roku Channel, the title character (played by Daniel Radcliffe in a big curly wig) proceeds to knock out Jack’s challenge swiftly, then grabs his accordion to serenade 1970s and ’80s counterculture names like Andy Warhol (Conan O’Brien) and Divine (Nina West) with a fully formed rendition of the tune. (Probably the real story of the comedian carrying around a big, blue loose-leaf notebook to write down ideas, followed by hourslong trips to the library to research topics like ducks, wasn’t quite as exciting.)How did all those starry cameos came together? Yankovic revealed at a New York Comic Con panel in October that he extended invitations to celebrities on his “holiday card mailing list.”“I went through my address book, emailed a bunch of my friends, and said, ‘Hey, we’re shooting this crazy pool party in the Valley. Do you want to come out and spend half a day doing it?’” he said. “Thankfully a bunch of people showed up and we were able to pull it off!”You probably spotted Jack Black’s Wolfman Jack at the front of the crowd — he’s hard to miss in a neon-pink-and-cheetah-print scarf and lusciously thick beard — and Salvador Dalí (that mustache!), but did you catch Pee-wee Herman and Tiny Tim?Here’s a guide to nine of the famous faces at the fictional party, held by Yankovic’s real mentor, the radio host Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson).Wolfman JackPlayed by Jack BlackThe Weird World of Weird AlThe musician has cracked the Top 40 for decades with his song parodies. With the sham biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” he makes a joke of his own life.Review: “Like Yankovic’s music, ‘Weird’ is a note-for-note parody of a genre,” our critic writes of the movie. “Here, the target is the prestige biography.”Face to Face: The actor Daniel Radcliffe, an enthusiastic Yankovic fan, plays Weird Al in the film, while Yankovic himself is a co-writer. When the two met, they found themselves on the same wavelength.Getting Weird: The director Eric Appel discussed a scene in the movie featuring a college-age Yankovic as he comes up with his first parody.A Weirdly Enduring Appeal: National economies collapse, species go extinct, political movements rise and fizzle. But somehow, Weird Al keeps rocking.The rock ’n’ roll DJ was known for his gravelly radio voice and wolf howls. He was part of a group of disc jockeys in the early 1960s who pioneered the genre known as border radio, because it was broadcast from just over the border in Mexico. (He died in 1995.)This isn’t the first time Jack Black has shown up flamboyantly attired in close proximity to Yankovic. The actor previously appeared in the 2014 music video for Weird Al’s “Tacky,” a parody of Pharrell Williams’s smash “Happy” (in a tie-dye pants-and-sequin-fanny-pack ensemble that makes his Wolfman Jack garb look tame).John DeaconPlayed by David DastmalchianIt’s OK, we didn’t recognize his name, either. But his work speaks for itself: Deacon was the original bassist for Queen, seeing the British rock band through No. 1 singles like “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust” before leaving in 1997, six years after the death of the group’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury. Now retired, the 71-year-old, who has often been described as the quiet member of the band, has lived a low-key life out of the public eye, raising six children in the London home he bought with his first Queen paycheck.Andy WarholPlayed by Conan O’BrienIt wouldn’t be a party without the king of Pop Art, whose works featuring presidents, movie stars, soup cans and other cultural icons are themselves iconic. He died in 1987.It’s no surprise that Conan O’Brien, who portrays Warhol in a black turtleneck and white wig, is on Yankovic’s holiday card list — the two have been friends for years. Yankovic appeared during O’Brien’s weeklong Comic Con celebration in 2016 and was a guest on his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in 2021.)Salvador DalíPlayed by Emo PhillipsThe pioneering Spanish surrealist who explored subconscious imagery was the creator of the much-parodied 1931 painting “The Persistence of Memory” (think melting watches and swarming ants). By the time he died in 1989, he had become known as “an inveterate irritant, a tease who never gave up teasing and a prankster who made headlines for decades,” as his New York Times obituary characterized him.The standup Emo Phillips has been opening for Yankovic on his tour this year.DivinePlayed by Nina WestThe drag queen Divine became a cult favorite as the longtime muse of John Waters, who cast the star in “Pink Flamingos,” “Hairspray” and other films. Divine appears in “Weird” in — what else? — the red dress made famous in “Pink Flamingos.” (Divine died in 1988 at 42.)For Nina West, a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” queen, Divine is her first film role, and it’s a fitting choice: She grew up a Weird Al fan and has become known for performing as Edna Turnblad, the “Hairspray” character Divine originated in Waters’s 1988 film.Pee-wee HermanPlayed by Jorma TacconeThe ’80s-greats party wouldn’t be complete without Pee-wee Herman, lounging poolside in his too-small suit. He’s the comedic alter ego of the actor and comedian Paul Reubens, who started out with the Los Angeles improv troupe the Groundlings in the 1970s and made a career out of playing the man-child character, most notably in the hit 1985 comedy “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” More recently, Reubens, now 70, starred in “The Pee-wee Herman Show” on Broadway in 2010, as well as in the 2016 Netflix film “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,” which he co-wrote.Alice CooperPlayed by Akiva SchafferEven though he’s at the back of the gaggle, we’d know those dripping, sad-panda eyes a mile away. Cooper, the godfather of shock rock who at 74 is still touring and regularly donning a full face of goth makeup, is known for his raspy voice and illusion-filled stage shows packed with pyrotechnics, fake blood, baby dolls, guillotines and reptiles.Cooper and Yankvoic have met in real life — they wound up singing a rendition of the Beatles’s “Come Together” with Steven Tyler in 2012 when the trio found themselves together in Hawaii on New Year’s Eve. (While Yankovic and Tyler held their own, Cooper had to read the lyrics off a cheat sheet.)Tiny TimPlayed by Demetri MartinYankovic has long been among the biggest fans of Tiny Tim, the falsetto-voice ukulele whiz whose “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” became a novelty hit in 1968. Yankovic even read aloud Tiny Tim’s letters and diary entries for a 2021 documentary about his life, “Tiny Tim: King for a Day.” (The musician died in 1996 at 64.)GallagherPlayed by Paul F. TompkinsIf there were a Guinness world record for the most times a human has smashed a watermelon, the comedian Gallagher — and his oversize Sledge-O-Matic mallet — would certainly be the person to beat. The standup, known for his prop comedy, has starred in more than a dozen specials, occasionally mixing up the melon-murdering by subbing apples or oranges but always promising a smashing ending. More

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      Winter Movies 2022: Here’s What’s Coming Soon to Streaming and Theaters

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      The season’s gifts include long-awaited sequels to “Black Panther” and “Knives Out” and intriguing originals like “Women Talking” and “The Fabelmans.”This is a select list of films opening by the end of the year. Release dates are subject to change and reflect the latest information as of deadline.FALLING FOR CHRISTMAS A skiing accident results in amnesia (and, presumably, the possibility of a fresh start) for a vain hotel heiress (Lindsay Lohan). (Nov. 10 on Netflix)BAR FIGHT! Following a breakup, a couple (Melissa Fumero and Luka Jones) have to decide which one will be allowed to drink in their favorite bar. With Rachel Bloom. (Nov. 11 in theaters and on demand)BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER After Chadwick Boseman’s death in 2020, Marvel Studios opted not to recast his role, King T’Challa, in this sequel to “Black Panther.” The character is dead in the new film, which concerns how Wakanda moves forward without him. It also stars Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong’o. Ryan Coogler returns as director. (Nov. 11 in theaters)A COUPLE In a career that includes more than 40 documentaries, Frederick Wiseman has seldom made features that could qualify as dramatized. But in “A Couple,” the actress Nathalie Boutefeu, who shares screenplay credit with the director, plays Sophia Tolstoy, wife of Leo Tolstoy. The film draws on Sophia’s writings to explore a famous marriage. (Nov. 11 in theaters)THE FABELMANS Through the character of Sammy Fabelman, Steven Spielberg revisits his childhood, his relationship with his mother and father, and the origins of his love of filmmaking in an openly personal feature that was ecstatically received at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Gabriel LaBelle plays the budding director in his teenage years; Michelle Williams and Paul Dano play his complicated parents. Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay with Spielberg. (Nov. 11 in theaters)From left, Keeley Karsten, Sophia Kopera, Michelle Williams and Gabriel LaBelle are stand-ins for Steven Spielberg’s family in “The Fabelmans.”Universal Pictures and Amblin EntertainmentIN HER HANDS The documentarians Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen assemble a portrait of Zarifa Ghafari, the mayor of the Afghan city of Maidan Shahr at the time of filming — and, not incidentally, in her 20s and a woman in a country without many women in power. The documentary follows her through American forces’ withdrawal from the country last year. (Nov. 11 in theaters, Nov. 16 on Netflix)IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!? Making his documentary-feature directing debut, the former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell looks at the revolution in — and legacy of — Black-centered American filmmaking in the late 1960s and ’70s. The interviewees include Harry Belafonte, Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg. (Nov. 11 on Netflix)MY FATHER’S DRAGON Ruth Stiles Gannett’s 1948 children’s book — about a boy who ventures off to rescue a baby dragon — becomes an animated film directed by Nora Twomey, of the Oscar-nominated “The Breadwinner.” (Nov. 11 on Netflix)NOTHING LASTS FOREVER The documentarian Jason Kohn (“Manda Bala”) presents an exposé of how synthetic diamonds have infiltrated the market for gems, and how the concept of authenticity may be losing whatever meaning it had. (Nov. 11 in theaters)RETROGRADE Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land”) directed this documentary on the end of the war in Afghanistan. Events are seen from the vantage points of American and Afghan soldiers and through the eyes of civilians. (Nov. 11 in theaters)SAM & KATE The real-life father and son Dustin Hoffman and Jake Hoffman and the real-life mother and daughter Sissy Spacek and Schuyler Fisk play father and son and mother and daughter onscreen. The son and the daughter — the titular Sam and Kate — fall for each other. So do the parents. (Nov. 11 in theaters)SPIRITED Sure, “A Christmas Carol” might seem like a timeless story. But what if it wasn’t? What if Charles Dickens made a mistake by focusing on Scrooge, instead of the ghosts who visit him? The “Greatest Showman” songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul rectify that error in this new musical comedy. Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present and Ryan Reynolds the movie’s Scrooge surrogate, Clint Briggs. Sean Anders directed. (Nov. 11 in theaters, Nov. 18 on Apple TV+)Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell give Dickens a twist in “Spirited.”AppleMEMORIES OF MY FATHER Fernando Trueba directed this adaptation of a book by the Colombian novelist Héctor Abad Faciolince, about the author’s father (played by Javier Cámara), a doctor engaged in political activism in the 1970s. (Nov. 16 in theaters)Javier Cámara in “Memories of My Father.”via Cohen Media Group POKER FACE Russell Crowe directs himself as a tech titan who seeks revenge on some old friends he invites to the card table. Liam Hemsworth, RZA and Elsa Pataky also star. (Nov. 16 in theaters, Nov. 22 on demand)THE WONDER When an 11-year-old girl in the Irish Midlands seems to live for months without eating food, a British nurse (Florence Pugh) investigates. Sebastián Lelio (“A Fantastic Woman”) directed this adaptation, set in the 19th century, of a novel by the “Room” author Emma Donoghue. (Nov. 16 on Netflix)BANTÚ MAMA A Frenchwoman becomes a surrogate parent to children in the Dominican Republic after escaping arrest. Ivan Herrera directed. (Nov. 17 in theaters and on Netflix)A CHRISTMAS STORY CHRISTMAS Nearly four decades after “A Christmas Story,” Peter Billingsley reprises his role as Ralphie. The boy who wanted an air rifle for the holiday is now a father himself in this sequel. (Nov. 17 on HBO Max)CHRISTMAS WITH YOU Aimee Garcia plays a pop singer who ends up stranded in a snowstorm at the house of a fan and her single father (Freddie Prinze Jr.). (Nov. 17 on Netflix)BAD AXE That’s Bad Axe, Mich., where the documentarian David Siev’s parents, one a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, own a restaurant and must grapple with the economic realities of the pandemic and the protests that convulse the city in the wake of the George Floyd killing. (Nov. 18 in theaters and on demand)A scene from “Bad Axe,” centered on the title Michigan city amid the pandemic and racial justice protests.IFC FilmsBONES AND ALL If you enjoyed the picturesque alfresco dining in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” you might want to excuse yourself from his gory latest film, based on the novel by Camille DeAngelis. Taylor Russell plays a teenage cannibal abandoned by her father (André Holland); Timothée Chalamet is a fellow brooding people-eater who catches her scent. On the road, they navigate a cruel world that spits out people who eat people. With Mark Rylance and a barely recognizable Michael Stuhlbarg. (Nov. 18 in theaters)DISENCHANTED After Giselle (Amy Adams) finds a storybook life in New York in “Enchanted,” many years later the bloom is off the rose. So she and her husband (Patrick Dempsey) move to the suburbs. With Maya Rudolph. Adam Shankman directed. (Nov. 18 on Disney+)In “Disenchanted,” Amy Adams returns as Giselle, the animated heroine trying to navigate live action.DisneyEO The Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski riffs, with a bit of a hallucinatory spin, on Robert Bresson’s French classic “Au Hasard Balthazar” with the tale of an itinerant donkey who along its journeys becomes a passive witness to human cruelty. When Skolimowski shared the jury prize at Cannes, he thanked all six donkeys who played the role. (Nov. 18 in theaters)FLAMING EARS This underground sci-feature feature, receiving a belated release three decades after its completion, takes place in the year 2700 in a city entirely populated by lesbians. There are three directors: Ursula Pürrer, A. Hans Scheirl and Dietmar Schipek. (Nov. 18 in theaters)THE INSPECTION For his first dramatic feature, Elegance Bratton, who has worked as a documentarian and street photographer, wrote and directed this autobiographically inspired film about a gay Black man’s time in basic training in the Marines, and the homophobia in an environment where enlistees expect to be terrorized. Jeremy Pope plays Bratton’s alter ego, with Raúl Castillo as a sympathetic superior, Bokeem Woodbine as a sergeant and Gabrielle Union as the protagonist’s mother. (Nov. 18 in theaters)LOVE, CHARLIE Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and Grant Achatz are among the chefs who discuss the influential Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter in this documentary. (Nov. 18 in theaters and on demand)Alex Bakri and Juna Suleiman in “Let it Be Morning.”Cohen Media GroupTHE MENU Mark Mylod, a regular director on “Succession,” is at the helm of this class satire, in which a supercilious gourmand (Nicholas Hoult) and his date (Anya Taylor-Joy) travel to an island for an evening of rarefied cuisine. But the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has a gruesome concept in store. (Nov. 18 in theaters)200 METERS A Palestinian construction worker trying to visit his son at an Israeli hospital is refused exit from the West Bank. He resorts to great lengths to go 200 meters. Ameen Nayfeh wrote and directed. (Nov. 18 in theaters, Dec. 6 on demand)THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING Nuptials become the occasion for an airing of intrafamilial loathing and reconciliation in a comedy that stars Kristen Bell and Ben Platt as siblings and Allison Janney as the matriarch. (Nov. 18 on Amazon)SCROOGE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL This animated musical version of Dickens’s book features the voices of Luke Evans, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. The music and lyrics are by Leslie Bricusse (“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”), who died last year. (Nov. 18 in theaters, Dec. 2 on Netflix)SHE SAID The New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book on how they reported their landmark article about sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein gets a film adaptation. Zoe Kazan plays Kantor and Carey Mulligan plays Twohey as they try to convince women to talk on the record. Maria Schrader directed. (Nov. 18 in theaters)SLUMBERLAND The “Red Sparrow” filmmaker Francis Lawrence directs Jason Momoa as an outlaw in a fairy tale of sorts in which he assists a girl navigating a dream world. (Nov. 18 on Netflix)SR. Robert Downey Jr. pays tribute to his father, the underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. (“Putney Swope”), in a candid and personal documentary. Chris Smith directed. (Nov. 18 in theaters, Dec. 2 on Netflix)TAURUS Tim Sutton directs Colson Baker, the rapper better known as Machine Gun Kelly, as a musical artist seeking inspiration and facing problems. Megan Fox also stars. (Nov. 18 in theaters and on demand)THERE THERE Working under pandemic restrictions, Andrew Bujalski (“Support the Girls”) makes a film that consists entirely of conversations; it’s best not to say any more. Lili Taylor and Lennie James play a couple whose post-one-night-stand discourse kicks off the movie; Molly Gordon and Jason Schwartzman appear elsewhere. (Nov. 18 in theaters and on demand)ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for “Citizenfour”) directed this look at the career of the photographer Nan Goldin, with an emphasis on Goldin’s recent work as an activist to hold the Sackler family, longtime owners of Purdue Pharma, to account for the opioid epidemic. The documentary won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival in September. (Nov. 23 in theaters)Nan Goldin with a roommate in a scene from “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”Nan GoldinDEVOTION Jonathan Majors stars as Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first Black aviator in the United States Navy, and Glen Powell — barely out of the skies since “Top Gun: Maverick” — plays Lt. Thomas J. Hudner Jr., his partner on a dangerous mission during the Korean War. J.D. Dillard directed. (Nov. 23 in theaters)GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY The detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) receives an invitation to the private island of an eccentric billionaire (Edward Norton), who wants the guests to solve his own murder. And that’s just the start of the writer-director Rian Johnson’s vertiginously clever sequel to “Knives Out” (2019). Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista also star. (Nov. 23 in theaters, Dec. 23 on Netflix)It’s another star-studded “Knives Out” mystery, this time with, from left, Edward Norton, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe and Daniel Craig.Netflix, via Associated PressLADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER This time, Emma Corrin embodies D.H. Lawrence’s unfulfilled British noblewoman. Jack O’Connell plays the gamekeeper she takes up with. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre directed. (Nov. 23 in theaters, Dec. 2 on Netflix)NANNY Nikyatu Jusu’s debut feature, the winner of this year’s United States dramatic competition at Sundance, concerns a Senegalese immigrant (Anna Diop) who takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy white family. During the festival, Manohla Dargis wrote that the film kept her “rapt from the start with its visuals and mysteries, its emotional depths and the tight control” maintained by Jusu. (Nov. 23 in theaters, Dec. 16 on Amazon)Anna Diop plays a Senegalese immigrant struggling to adjust to working for a wealthy white American family in “Nanny.”Blumhouse ProductionsSTRANGE WORLD Disney pays tribute to 1950s science fiction movies with an animated feature about the Clade family, a clan of explorers investigating an uncharted region. Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid and Gabrielle Union provide some of the Clades’ voices. (Nov. 23 in theaters)THE SWIMMERS Sally El Hosaini directed the opening-night film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, a dramatization of the story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini, two sisters from Syria who used their skills as swimmers to help lead a boat filled with fellow refugees to safety during their flight from the country. Yusra competed on the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Olympics. (Nov. 23 on Netflix)THE CHRISTMAS CLAPBACK Robin Givens directed this story of three sisters facing a challenge from an influencer in a holiday church cook-off. Nadine Ellis, Porscha Coleman and Candace Maxwell star. (Nov. 24 on BET+)THE NOEL DIARY The diary in question belongs to the dead mother of a successful author (Justin Hartley). But it might also help a stranger (Barrett Doss) he meets. Charles Shyer directed. (Nov. 24 on Netflix)GHISLAINE MAXWELL: FILTHY RICH Picking up from the Netflix documentary series “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich,” this documentary turns to Maxwell, his convicted co-conspirator, who was found guilty last year of sex trafficking minors. (Nov. 25 on Netflix)GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO The “Nightmare Alley” filmmaker, who shares directing credit (if not the title) with the animation director Mark Gustafson, mounts a stop-motion version of the story of the puppet who became a boy. Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton are in the vocal cast. (Nov. 25 in theaters, Dec. 9 on Netflix)LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE A.O. Scott called this reality-blurring Filipino feature — centered on a retired screenwriter (Sheila Francisco) of action movies — “wonderfully unclassifiable” when it played at the Sundance Film Festival. Martika Ramirez Escobar directed. (Nov. 25 in theaters)Rocky Salumbides in “Leonor Will Never Die,” about a retired Filipino screenwriter who specialized in action movies.Carlos Mauricio/Music Box FilmsTHE SON If the playwright Florian Zeller’s first feature, “The Father,” which won Anthony Hopkins an Oscar, dealt with dementia, the ailment driving the drama in his latest film is depression — specifically, that of a teenager (Zen McGrath), whose condition vexes his father (Hugh Jackman), his father’s partner (Vanessa Kirby) and his mother (Laura Dern). (Nov. 25 in theaters)WHITE NOISE When Noah Baumbach’s screen version of Don DeLillo’s 1985 postmodern novel opened the New York Film Festival in September, A.O. Scott called it a “faithful and energetic adaptation.” Adam Driver plays a pathbreaking professor in the field of “Hitler studies”; Greta Gerwig is his wife, who may be experiencing strange memory lapses. Together with children from other marriages and one from their own, they confront environmental disaster and their fear of mortality against a colorful backdrop of ’80s logos. (Nov. 25 in theaters, Dec. 30 on Netflix)From left, the “White Noise” clan includes Sam Nivola, Adam Driver, May Nivola, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy, and the youngest, played by Dean and Henry Moore.Wilson Webb/NetflixA HOLLYWOOD CHRISTMAS A director (Jessika Van) realizes her life has turned into a Christmas movie and that she will be forced to run a gantlet of clichés. (Dec. 1 on HBO Max)ROLLING INTO CHRISTMAS The holiday brings together two people who 15 years earlier had a thing for each other and for roller skating. Rhyon Nicole Brown and Donny Carrington star. (Dec. 1 on BET+)CHRISTMAS WITH THE CAMPBELLS Vince Vaughn is among the screenwriters of this comedy, in which a recently dumped girlfriend is pressed into spending the holiday with her ex’s family anyway. Brittany Snow and Justin Long star. (Dec. 2 in theaters and on AMC+)DARBY AND THE DEAD A teenager (Riele Downs) who can communicate with the dead is pressured by a recently departed mean girl (Auli’i Cravalho of “Moana”) to make sure that the dead girl’s 17th-birthday party proceeds, despite her lack of a pulse. (Dec. 2 on Hulu)DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES Already adapted into a live-action feature in 2011, the second book in Jeff Kinney’s “Wimpy Kid” franchise gets an animated version. (Dec. 2 on Disney+)EMANCIPATION Will Smith, in a movie filmed before his Oscar win (and that other incident), plays an enslaved man who escapes and has to avoid capture on treacherous Louisiana terrain en route to freedom. Historic photographs of a man known as Whipped Peter, who made it to Baton Rouge and joined the Union Army, inspired the film. (Dec. 2 in theaters, Dec. 9 on Apple TV+)THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER In a loose spinoff of her films “The Souvenir” and “The Souvenir Part II,” Joanna Hogg casts Tilda Swinton in dual roles: as Hogg’s alter ego, the filmmaker Julie (played in the “Souvenir” movies by Swinton’s daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne), and as Julie’s mother (whom Swinton played in the earlier films). Julie struggles to write a screenplay about her mother while they spend time at a vaguely haunted hotel. (Dec. 2 in theaters)FOUR SAMOSAS The comedian Venk Potula plays a jilted boyfriend who tries to purloin his ex’s dowry to foil her wedding. (Dec. 2 in theaters and on demand)FRAMING AGNES Using the story of Agnes, a transgender woman who took part in studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the 1960s, as a jumping-off point, this combination of documentary and dramatization examines how trans history is written. (Dec. 2 in theaters)HUNT The “Squid Game” actor Lee Jung-jae directed this thriller and stars in it as the head of a government agency who, along with the head of another agency (Jung Woo-sung), has to ferret out a mole. (Dec. 2 in theaters and on demand)LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER The documentarians Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) and Geeta Gandbhir revisit the work done by activists in Lowndes County, Ala., in the 1960s to ensure that the county’s majority-Black population wasn’t denied the right to vote. (Dec. 2 in theaters)2ND CHANCE Turning to documentaries, Ramin Bahrani — nominated for an adapted screenplay Oscar for “The White Tiger” — examines the legacy of Richard Davis, who devised the contemporary version of the bulletproof vest. (Dec. 2 in theaters)SPOILER ALERT Michael Showalter, who mined thematically similar territory in “The Big Sick,” directed this adaptation of Michael Ausiello’s memoir of a longtime relationship altered by a terminal illness. Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge and Sally Field star. (Dec. 2 in theaters)TANTURA This documentary from Alon Schwartz has been the subject of controversy in Israel. Taking the graduate thesis of an Israeli named Teddy Katz as a jumping-off point, it amasses evidence of a massacre by Israeli soldiers at what was then the Palestinian village of Tantura in 1948. (Dec. 2 in theaters)VIOLENT NIGHT David Harbour stars as Santa Claus, who is fortunately making his rounds when mercenaries attempt a home invasion. (Dec. 2 in theaters)David Harbour is a Santa with skills and John Leguizamo is among his adversaries in “Violent Night.”Universal PicturesWOMEN TALKING While most of the men of a religious colony are briefly away, the women, including many who have been sexually assaulted by the men, debate whether to leave or stay and try to fight. Sarah Polley directed and wrote the screenplay for this starkly shot, ultra-widescreen adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel. The formidable cast includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand and Ben Whishaw. (Dec. 2 in theaters)In “Women Talking,” the debaters include, from left, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod and Jessie Buckley. Michael Gibson/Orion ReleasingBROADWAY RISING This documentary from Amy Rice follows the efforts it took to reopen Broadway theaters in September 2021 after they went dark for a year and a half because of the pandemic. (Dec. 5 in theaters)LOUDMOUTH The life and activism of the Rev. Al Sharpton are explored in a documentary that examines his decades of influence in New York and beyond. (Dec. 9 in theaters)ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL The stage musical version of Dahl’s novel gets the screen treatment (with the same director, Matthew Warchus). Alisha Weir plays the title character and Lashana Lynch the warmhearted Miss Honey. Emma Thompson — whose fat suit has already prompted chatter over questions of representation — plays the gorgonlike Miss Trunchbull. (Dec. 9 in theaters, Dec. 25 on Netflix)Emma Thompson takes over as Miss Trunchbull in the film adaptation of the “Matilda” Broadway musical.Dan Smith/NetflixSOMETHING FROM TIFFANY’S “And I said, ‘What about ‘Something From Tiffany’s’?” Zoey Deutch stars in a comedy about an errant engagement ring. Daryl Wein directed. (Dec. 9 on Amazon)THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI Rory Kennedy, the documentarian who earlier this year made a case (or, rather, a movie) against Boeing, memorializes a deadly volcanic eruption that occurred in New Zealand in 2019. (Dec. 9 in theaters, Dec. 16 on Netflix)THE WHALE Brendan Fraser stars in this comeback role as a grieving, shut-in English teacher whose immense weight and refusal to seek medical treatment ensure that he won’t have long to live. But he tries to mend things with his daughter (Sadie Sink) when she unexpectedly turns up. Hong Chau also stars. Darren Aronofsky directed; Samuel D. Hunter wrote the script, based on his play. (Dec. 9 in theaters)THE ALMOND AND THE SEAHORSE The directors Tom Stern and Celyn Jones’s drama follows two couples — one played by Trine Dyrholm and Charlotte Gainsbourg, the other by Jones and Rebel Wilson. One member of each pair has a traumatic brain injury that affects the memory. (Dec. 16 in theaters and on demand)THE APOLOGY Anna Gunn of “Breaking Bad” plays an alcoholic stranded by a winter storm with a former brother-in-law (Linus Roache). (Dec. 16 in theaters, on AMC+ and on Shudder)AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER James Cameron, who tends to do pretty well when he makes sequels (“Aliens,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), returns to Pandora. (Dec. 16 in theaters)I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY Naomi Ackie stars as Whitney Houston in this biopic of the soaring-voiced pop star. Stanley Tucci plays the architect of her career Clive Davis, who is one of the movie’s producers. Kasi Lemmons directed, from a screenplay by Mr. Biopic, Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Darkest Hour,” “The Theory of Everything”). (Dec. 21 in theaters)Whitney Houston gets the biopic treatment in “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” starring Naomi Ackie.Sony PicturesPUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH Antonio Banderas once again lends his voice to the footwear’d feline — not the fairy-tale character, exactly, but a part of the extended “Shrek” cinematic universe. Olivia Colman and Salma Hayek purr alongside him. (Dec. 21 in theaters)BABYLON The writer-director Damien Chazelle returns to Hollywood to imagine various dramas that might have unfolded during the transition to sound. Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva are among the stars vamping through it. (Dec. 23 in theaters)CORSAGE Technically, in 1878, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) could not have heard “As Tears Go By” with a harp as instrumentation — or, for that matter, been photographed as a movie subject on flexible film. (This was still the era of plates.) But these sorts of anachronisms crop up periodically throughout the director Marie Kreutzer’s interpretation of Elisabeth’s life. (Dec. 23 in theaters)LET IT BE MORNING A Palestinian man returns to the village of his upbringing for a wedding, and he is trapped there, with the rest of the residents, when Israeli forces blockade the area. Eran Kolirin directed this adaptation of a novel by Sayed Kashua. (Dec. 23 in theaters)LIVING The director Oliver Hermanus and the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, serving here as the screenwriter, remake Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” in an idiom not wildly removed from that of Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day.” Bill Nighy plays a postwar civil servant in London whose great ambition, after receiving a terminal diagnosis, is to build a playground. Aimee Lou Wood and Tom Burke co-star. (Dec. 23 in theaters)NO BEARS In July, the filmmaker Jafar Panahi was detained by Iranian authorities and ordered to serve a six-year prison sentence after he sought information about the arrest of another filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof. Panahi had already been forbidden to leave the country, and in “No Bears,” he plays on that idea, starring as a version of himself: a filmmaker who has traveled to a tight-knit town near the Turkish border so that he can remotely direct a feature being shot in Turkey. (Dec. 23 in theaters)THE PALE BLUE EYE Adapted from the novel by Louis Bayard and set against the backdrop of Edgar Allan Poe’s formative years at West Point, “The Pale Blue Eye” finds the future “Raven” poet in the middle of a mystery. Harry Melling plays Poe, Christian Bale is a detective, and Gillian Anderson and Lucy Boynton co-star. Scott Cooper (“Black Mass”) directed. (Dec. 23 in theaters)A MAN CALLED OTTO Tom Hanks plays a curmudgeon who thaws a bit when he meets a new neighbor. Mariana Treviño also stars. Marc Forster directed this adaptation of the novel “A Man Called Ove.” (Dec. 25 in theaters)BROKER The Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won the Palme d’Or for “Shoplifters” (2018), went to South Korea to make his latest feature. It follows two traffickers who steal infants from safe-haven drop spots and sell them to couples struggling with the official adoption process. But one mother comes back. Song Kang Ho won best actor at Cannes for his portrayal of a trafficker. (Dec. 26 in theaters)ALICE, DARLING Anna Kendrick plays a woman who, during a getaway with friends, realizes to what extent her boyfriend has psychologically abused and restricted her. Mary Nighy directed. (Dec. 30 in theaters)TURN EVERY PAGE Don’t ask Robert A. Caro when he’s going to finish the fifth volume of his Lyndon Johnson biography. Everyone wants to know, including his longtime editor, Robert Gottlieb. The men’s work together from “The Power Broker” on is the subject of this documentary, directed by Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie. (Dec. 30 in theaters)Compiled with the assistance of Shivani Gonzalez.The literary lions Robert A. Caro, left, and Robert Gottlieb share the screen in “Turn Every Page.”Sony More

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      Douglas McGrath, Playwright, Filmmaker and Actor, Dies at 64

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      His one-man Off Broadway show, “Everything’s Fine,” directed by John Lithgow, had opened just weeks ago.Douglas McGrath, a playwright, screenwriter, director and actor who was nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award, and whose one-man Off Broadway show, “Everything’s Fine,” opened just weeks ago, died on Thursday at his office in Manhattan. He was 64.His death was announced by the show’s producers, Daryl Roth, Tom Werner and John Lithgow. Their representative said the cause was a heart attack.Mr. Lithgow also directed the show, a childhood recollection of Mr. McGrath’s about a middle-school teacher in Texas who gave him an inappropriate amount of attention.“He was a dream to direct,” Mr. Lithgow said on Friday. “None of us had ever worked with someone who was so happy, proud and grateful to be performing his own writing.”Mr. McGrath in his one-man play “Everything’s Fine,” which opened Off Broadway last month to good reviews.Jeremy DanielMr. McGrath had a wide-ranging if under-the-radar career in television, film and theater. In the 1980-81 season, just out of Princeton and still in his early 20s, he was a writer for “Saturday Night Live.” Over the next decade he wrote humor pieces for The New Republic, The New York Times and other publications.By the 1990s he was making inroads in Hollywood. He wrote the screenplay for the 1993 remake of the 1950 romantic comedy “Born Yesterday,” and the next year he and Woody Allen collaborated on the script for Mr. Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway.” The two shared an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.In 1996 he adapted the Jane Austen novel “Emma” for the big screen and also directed the film, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2000 he and Peter Askin shared directing and screenwriting duties on the comedy “Company Man,” in which he also starred, as a schoolteacher who stumbles into a career as a C.I.A. officer.That movie drew some unflattering reviews. But his next, “Nicholas Nickleby” (2002), an adaptation of the Dickens story that he both wrote and directed, was well received. In The Times, A.O. Scott said that Mr. McGrath’s adaptation was rendered “with a scholar’s ear and a showman’s flair.”“The director has produced a colorful, affecting collage of Dickensian moods and motifs,” Mr. Scott wrote, “a movie that elicits an overwhelming desire to plunge into 900 pages of 19th-century prose.”Mr. McGrath, center, on the set of his film “Nicholas Nickleby” (2002), with the cast members Barry Humphries, left, and Alan Cumming.United Artists, via AlamyIn addition to his screenwriting and directing credits (which also included “Infamous,” a 2006 film starring Toby Jones as Truman Capote), Mr. McGrath occasionally took small acting roles in other people’s projects, including several of Mr. Allen’s films. In 2016 he directed “Becoming Mike Nichols,” an HBO documentary about the film director, on which he was also an executive producer. He shared an Emmy nomination with the other producers for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special.Throughout, he continued to work in the theater. In 1996 he wrote and starred in “Political Animal,” a one-man comedy that played at the McGinn/Cazale Theater in Manhattan, in which he played a right-wing presidential candidate.“Beyond the stand-up parody,” Ben Brantley wrote in his review in The Times, “the larger point of ‘Political Animal’ is that it takes a hollow, desperate man to run for president these days.”In 2012 his play “Checkers” — the title refers to a famous 1952 speech by Richard M. Nixon — was seen at the Vineyard Theater in Manhattan, with Anthony LaPaglia as Nixon and Kathryn Erbe as his wife, Pat.Then came Broadway: Mr. McGrath wrote the book for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which opened in January 2014 and ran for more than five years. His book was nominated for a Tony Award.Last month Mr. Lithgow told The Daily News of New York that Mr. McGrath had sent him “Everything’s Fine” unsolicited, and that he had no intention of directing a play until he read the piece.“It was so play-able,” he said, “I could simply imagine an audience being completely captivated by it.”The show opened in mid-October to good reviews.“It is impossible to overstate Doug’s pure likability,” Mr. Lithgow said on Friday. “In his solo show, he told a long story about his 14th year, and it worked so well because he had retained so much of his sense of boyish discovery.”Ms. Roth, another of the show’s producers, said that Mr. McGrath had been thoroughly enjoying the way audiences were reacting as he unspooled the tale.“The wonderful response from the audience was cathartic, meaningful and joyful to him,” she said by email. “He often told me he was in his ‘happy place’ onstage telling his story.”Mr. McGrath on the set of “Infamous,” his 2006 film about Truman Capote.Van Redin/Warner Independent, via Kobal, via ShutterstockDouglas Geoffrey McGrath was born on Feb. 2, 1958, in Midland, Texas. His father, Raynsford, was an independent oil producer, and his mother, Beatrice (Burchenal) McGrath, worked at Harper’s Bazaar before her marriage.“People often ask me what growing up in West Texas was like,” Mr. McGrath said in “Everything’s Fine.” “I think this sums it up: It’s very hot, it’s very dusty, and it’s very, very windy. It’s like growing up inside a blow dryer full of dirt.”He graduated from Princeton in 1980.“Planning my future,” he wrote in a 2001 essay in The Times, “I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do, but a very blurry one of how to do it. I knew I wanted to write and perform in my own films in the manner of my idol, Woody Allen. But when I went, that once, to the Career Counseling Center and faced the bulletin board, none of the cards said, ‘Needed: writer-actor-director for major feature, no experience required, must be willing to earn high salary.’”Yet when a friend told him “S.N.L.” was hiring writers, he sent in some sketches and landed an $850-a-week job.“It seemed too good to be true,” he wrote. “It was. My year, 1980, was viewed then and still as the worst year in the show’s history, which is no small achievement when you think of some of the other years.”In a 2016 interview, Mr. McGrath said his disappointment with the way his screenplay for “Born Yesterday” was handled changed the direction of his career.“I remember thinking, well, if I don’t want to spend the rest of my life doing this, meaning watching someone else muck up what I did, there’s only one way around that,” he said. “I have to become a director.”Mr. McGrath, who lived in Manhattan, married Jane Reed Martin in 1995. She survives him, as do a son, Henry; a sister, Mary McGrath Abrams; and a brother, Alexander. More

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      How Daniel Radcliffe Gets ‘Weird’ in ‘The Al Yankovic Story’

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      The director Eric Appel narrates a scene from the film.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.You know that moment in biopics when artists find inspiration for the songs that will go on to become giant hits? You might see just a little bit of it in a movie like “Respect,” or in a scene from “Ray” that may lead one to hit the road.The makers of the new (mostly faux) biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” play off those moments with this scene, featuring Daniel Radcliffe as a college-age Al Yankovic who just wants to fulfill his dream of making up lyrics to a song that already exists.He finds inspiration in a package of bologna, as the song “My Sharona” by the Knack plays on the radio. (In this film, like in Weird Al’s song, bologna is pronounced in the way that rhymes with Sharona).Narrating the scene, the director Eric Appel (who co-wrote the screenplay with Yankovic), discussed how he wanted to capture the comedy of the moment.“All of our actors, we had this conversation with them,” Appel said: “Don’t try to go for jokes. The straighter you play it, the funnier it’s going to be.”Appel incorporated big-swing movie moments like slow zooms and a sweeping score to create this a-ha moment where Weird Al comes up with his first parody hit, “My Bologna.”“Where the comedy comes from in a moment like this,” Appel said, “is pushing it past what you’re expecting to see and going into this really bizarre, unexpected heightened emotional version.”Read the “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More