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      New Movies and Shows Coming to Netflix in November: ’Emilia Pérez’ and More

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      A parade of notable new titles are coming for U.S. subscribers all month. Here’s a roundup of the most promising.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of November’s most promising new titles for U.S. subscribers. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘Emilia Pérez’Starts streaming: Nov. 13A winner of multiple prizes at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, this genre-bending, gender-bending movie has Zoe Saldaña playing Rita, a lawyer enlisted to help a cartel boss formerly known as Juan begin her new life as Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón), while also helping Emilia’s wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), adjust to the change. Written and directed by the accomplished French filmmaker Jacques Audiard — and featuring songs by the composer Clément Ducol and the singer Camille — “Emilia Pérez” is at once a comedy, a musical and a crime drama, shifting approaches freely as it tells the story of a woman aiming for a profound transformation of a messy life.‘The Piano Lesson’Starts streaming: Nov. 22Following “Fences” (2016) and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020), Denzel Washington’s latest film adaptation of the plays in August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” tackles one of the playwright’s most popular works. Produced by Washington (with Todd Black) and directed by Washington’s son Malcolm, “The Piano Lesson” has John David Washington (another son) as Boy Willie, who hatches a plan to buy some land by selling his family’s hand-carved piano, currently in the possession of his Uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson) but held dear by Willie’s sister, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler). Set in the 1930s, the film is a lively and complex drama about a Black family debating the best way to honor its enslaved ancestors — either by preserving their history as-is or by using their legacy as a way to get ahead.‘Spellbound’Starts streaming: Nov. 22One of the first feature film projects announced by Skydance Animation (way back in 2017) finally makes it to the screen after a production complicated by Covid and distribution difficulties. Rachel Zegler voices Ellian, a princess of the kingdom of Lumbria, which is being torn apart after a spell transformed the king (Javier Bardem) and queen (Nicole Kidman) into monsters. Featuring songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, and direction by Vicky Jenson (best-known for her work on “Shrek”), “Spellbound” follows Ellian’s multi-step quest to save her family and her people.‘Our Little Secret’Starts streaming: Nov. 27The 2022 Netflix movie “Falling for Christmas” saw the return of Lindsay Lohan as a leading lady in a film for the first time in nearly a decade; and the movie went on to become one of the streamer’s biggest hits that holiday season. Two years later, Lohan is once again surrounded by wreaths, ribbons and twinkling lights for the romantic comedy “Our Little Secret.” She play Avery, who gets stuck at a holiday gathering with her boyfriend’s family, where she discovers that her man’s sister is dating Logan (Ian Harding), with whom Avery had a messy breakup 10 years earlier. Since the exes both want to make a good impression for their new significant others’ fussy mother (Kristin Chenoweth), they decide to pretend they don’t know each other — which becomes increasingly complicated as the Christmas togetherness rolls on, day after day.‘Senna’Starts streaming: Nov. 29This flashy Brazilian mini-series dramatizes the too-brief career of the Formula 1 champion Ayrton Senna. Gabriel Leone plays Senna, who took the F1 circuit by storm in the late 1980s and early ’90s before dying at 34 from injuries sustained during a race. “Senna” is packed with fast-paced racing scenes, but the show’s creator, Vicente Amorim, is just as interested in the backroom politicking that sprung up once Senna’s more aggressive racing style put him in the winner’s circle ahead of the more established (and more conservative) European stars. While getting into Senna’s family and personal life, the series also documents how one of Brazil’s national heroes argued that the sport’s financiers and governing bodies too often kept the drivers from competing at their best.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Watch Mikey Madison Take a Mansion Tour in ‘Anora’

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      The writer, director and editor Sean Baker narrates an early sequence from his film, which also features Mark Eydelshteyn.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.When Ani (Mikey Madison) agrees to meet one of her young strip-club clients, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), at his home, she is taken aback by just how lavish that home is. That’s the setup for this scene from “Anora,” which follows the budding relationship, both transactional and emotional, between the title character, Ani, and Ivan.This sequence takes place before Ani learns that Ivan is the son of a Russian oligarch, and it is crafted to give both Ani and the audience an eye-opening look at the outsize abundance of Ivan’s space.Narrating the scene, the film’s writer, director and editor, Sean Baker, said, “I wanted the camera to essentially be following Ani, but also be seeing the world through Ani’s eyes.” He achieved this by keeping the cuts to a minimum. After Ani rings the doorbell and Ivan answers, the bulk of the sequence unfolds in one shot, following her with a hand-held camera (operated by the cinematographer Drew Daniels) as she marvels over the mansion.“It really sets up the geography,” Baker said, “because the geography is going to be extremely important later on in the film.”Read the “Anora” review.Learn more about Mikey Madison.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      Netflix and Lifetime Christmas Movies Strip Down With ‘Hot Frosty’ and More

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      With “Hot Frosty,” “The Merry Gentlemen” and “A Carpenter Christmas Romance,” holiday fare is headed in a shirtless new direction.Fans of Christmas romance usually know exactly what to expect when tuning in to any of the dozens of new movies on cable and streaming platforms each year.For 90 minutes or so, they’ll see a city slicker return to her immaculately decorated small hometown for the holidays. A local guy will sweep her off her feet. The scenery will be snow-covered. The music will be merry. And a quick peck on the lips will reliably signify the lovers’ happy ending.This year, however, some holiday films are stripping down. Literally.“Hot Frosty” and “The Merry Gentlemen” on Netflix and “A Carpenter Christmas Romance” on Lifetime employ many of the usual tropes, but they’ve ditched the sweaters and fleeting embraces for steamier visuals. Here, in a move seemingly born of the realization that women are a key viewing demographic of the genre, the men are often shirtless and on display to be ogled by the female townsfolk. The kisses are passionate. And, in at least one instance, the lead characters have s-e-x.Judging by the moans and longing gazes, these fictional women have been deprived of carnal fulfillment during holidays past. Modern Christmas movie viewers have been left wanting, too.“Way back before Lifetime and Netflix, the old idea of a merry Christmas was filled with mistletoe, which invited transgressional romantic and sexual activity,” said Robert J. Thompson, the director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. He also noted the presence of sexual undertones in everything from Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” (a party scene where blindfolded revelers identify one another by touch) to songs like “Santa Baby” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”Chad Michael Murray, left, and Hector David Jr. are part of a male revue in “The Merry Gentlemen.”Katrina Marcinowski/NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Faced a Pitiless Terrain: Adapting Anything ‘Dune’

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      The novels were famously tough to adapt until Denis Villeneuve came along. Can an HBO prequel about the origins of the Bene Gesserit follow suit?For over 50 years, Frank Herbert’s best-selling science-fiction novel “Dune” was a puzzle no one in show business seemed able to solve. Published in 1965, the book had inspired a shelf full of sequels and prequels — along with scores of imitators — yet it defied every attempt to turn it into a blockbuster film or TV series.In the 1970s, the beloved avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky spent two years and millions of dollars developing a movie and never shot a single frame. David Lynch tried next, but the resulting film, released in 1984, was a personal and box-office catastrophe. The story’s vastness and exoticism proved as perilous to storytellers as the fictional planet Arrakis, whose hostile deserts inspired the franchise’s name.When the HBO series “Dune: Prophecy” was announced, in 2019, its prospects seemed just as murky. Indeed the production struggled to find its footing. By the premiere, it will have seen four showrunners, three lead directors and high-level cast changes — not to mention a pandemic and two crippling industry strikes.But then in 2021, the French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who was set to direct the pilot, released Part 1 of his two-part adaptation of “Dune.” Critics were ecstatic, and the film grossed over $400 million worldwide. Suddenly a “Dune” franchise looked viable. Villeneuve’s team had offered a blueprint for other creators to work from, tonally, aesthetically and narratively. (The studios behind the film, Legendary and Warner, which owns HBO, are also behind the series.)Perhaps more important, there was now a huge audience that had never read Herbert’s famously dense novels but had become invested in the story and characters. The resounding critical and financial success of “Dune: Part Two,” released in February, indicates viewers are still invested in the franchise.“I think Denis really unlocked this universe for people in a way that was relatable,” said Alison Schapker, a “Westworld” veteran who took over as the sole showrunner of “Dune: Prophecy” in 2022. “He grounded it. We wanted to tell a story that takes place in that universe.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Clint Eastwood and the Power of a Squint

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      Shape-shifters by design, actors have their methods but many also have distinguishing features — sunburst smiles, rolling walks — that become their signatures. Memorable performers, after all, don’t simply catch our gaze, they seize it, holding and keeping it tight. And few performers have held us as powerfully as Clint Eastwood, who has cemented himself […] More

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      ‘The Last Rifleman’ Review: A World War II Veteran Hits the Road

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      Pierce Brosnan plays a man who sneaks out of his retirement home to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in this charming, but corny drama.“The Last Rifleman” is a sporadically affecting drama that stars Pierce Brosnan as a World War II veteran who sneaks out of his retirement home in Belfast to attend the 75th anniversary of D-Day in France. At 16, Artie (Brosnan) was petrified to be in Normandy; now 92 and three-quarters (he insists on the fraction), he’s hellbent on confronting his metaphorical ghosts.The story is lifted from the true adventures of an octogenarian British soldier in 2014, a caper also captured in the 2023 film “The Great Escaper” starring Michael Caine. This take by the director Terry Loane and the screenwriter Kevin Fitzpatrick is equal parts tenderhearted and heavy-handed. Artie absconds in a laundry truck to the ballad “Don’t Fence Me In” and, while on the lam, confesses his decades-old anguish to an American corporal audaciously named Lincoln Jefferson Adams (a touching John Amos in one of his final roles). Most strangers are kind, even a former member of the Hitler Youth (Jürgen Prochnow). For balance, in one scene some nasty teenagers play soccer with Artie’s underwear.Corny, yes. But charming, too, like when a nurse (Tara Lynne O’Neill) delivers a mini-monologue of reasons Artie’s too ill to travel that plays out like a clown car of ailments. Loane can also be cynical as he pans across a glut of tacky victory souvenirs. Brosnan, who is 71, gamely ages himself up and has fun rapping on cellphones with a cane and punctuating moments with a pained “Ooh! Ahh!” Yet, a climax where the humble survivor reels with emotions he’s never allowed himself to feel is truly sniffle-worthy.The Last RiflemanRated PG-13 for language and rather chintzy battle scenes. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Meanwhile on Earth’ Review: Outer Space and Inner Turmoil

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      A bereaved young woman faces terrible choices in this dreamily uncertain blend of science fiction and moral philosophy.The French filmmaker Jérémy Clapin seems drawn to stories of loss. His animated feature debut, “I Lost My Body” (2019), followed the vivid, sometimes gruesome journey of a severed hand seeking to reconnect with its owner. And though his new film is called “Meanwhile on Earth,” it might well be titled “I Lost My Brother,” the movie’s sense of dislocation and desire for reconnection so reminiscent of its predecessor.The brother in question is Franck (voiced by Sébastien Pouderoux), an astronaut who disappeared while on a mission three years earlier. Since then, his younger sister, Elsa (Megan Northam), has been frozen in place. A talented artist, she exists in a daze of bereavement, unable to move on from her temporary job as a caregiver at a retirement facility. At home with her parents and younger brother, she sketches the daydreams that consume her until, one day, she hears Franck’s distressed voice emanating from a hilltop antenna.Part science-fiction drama, part morality tale, “Meanwhile on Earth” works best as an offbeat scrutiny of the intersection of extreme grief and mental health. When an extraterrestrial (voiced by Dimitri Doré) telepathically informs Elsa that her brother can be returned to Earth only in exchange for five of her fellow humans, the movie shifts from feelings to philosophy. Whom should she sacrifice? Whose life has value?Small and strange, “Meanwhile on Earth” seduces with its soft, barren beauty (the chilled cinematography is by Robrecht Heyvaert) and Dan Levy’s surreal score. Wobbling uncertainly between the inside of Elsa’s head and Earth’s outer limits, the movie demurs. Are we experiencing Elsa’s breakdown, or an alien invasion? Even the director appears unsure.Meanwhile on EarthRated R for abduction by aliens and mutilation by chain saw. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters. More