This year only has two months left of films and November has a ton of them fit into a few weeks time. Of course, there’s a bunch of Thanksgiving weekend offerings along with a slew of Oscar contenders and fan anticipated movies.

NOVEMBER 2

  • Flight – While this seems to be overtly emotionally evocative in a way that could be hamfisted (which I had enough of in Trouble with the Curve), Flight could hit all the right emotional notes. Denzel Washington looks like he’s going to give an amazing performance and early reviews have been very positive.
  • The Man With The Iron Fists – I really hadn’t heard much about this in advance until trailers started popping up on TV recently. The more I read about it though I am getting kind of pumped for this movie. First of all, it’s the passion project of RZA who is obviously awesome. It boasts the pedigree of Quentin Tarantino (who RZA shadowed during the filming of Kill Bill) and Eli Roth (who co-wrote the script with RZA). It almost looks like an extended Crazy-88 film but with a lot of craziness going on beyond the fight sequences. I’m down.
  • Wreck-It Ralph  – I’m not one for kids movies but this looks fantastic. It has such an original concept that it’s hard not to to get excited for it. When you factor in the great voice cast, this might be the first animated film I’ll check out this year.
NOVEMBER 9
  • Skyfall – Confession time: among the numerous seemingly unforgivable movies series I’ve never seen, James Bond is on that list. I never grew up watching any Bond movies and somehow missed out on the first two Daniel Craig installments. However, the trailer for this looks spectacular. I may not go back and revisit any of the other Bond’s but I hope to see the first two Craig’s before seeing Skyfall.
NOVEMBER 16
  • Breaking Dawn Part 2 – The movie everyone has been waiting for – either you’re a die hard fan or you’re so ready for this pop culture phenomena to be over. This self-described saga starts up with Bella finally turning into a vampire and follows the misadventures of the Cullen clan and their wolf pals. I will be seeing this because everyone has their weaknesses.
  • Lincoln – Apparently this is the biggest Oscar contender of the year. People have been raving about how brilliant this will be and what a surefire Best Picture it will be. I’m reserving judgment until I see it for myself but I’m honestly not looking forward to it. Daniel Day Lewis looks fantastic in the makeup but the trailer makes the movie look boring. I could see this going the War Horse route and the overwhelming critical anticipation overshadowing how mediocre the film actually is.
NOVEMBER 21 (Wednesday)
  • Life of Pi – Ah, I hate to knock this but I just couldn’t really be less interested in this. I’m just not connecting with the story at all no matter heartwarming it seems or how beloved the novel is.
  • Red Dawn – I’ve heard such awful things but I don’t think it looks THAT bad. I also didn’t see the original so that’s no effecting my judgment at all. I’m not really drawn to this but I could certainly see myself catching this on cable.
  • Rise of the Guardians – Well, yeah, this is not for me at all. My critical film analysis is that this looks dumb and weird.
  • Silver Linings Playbook – This looks pretty great. I am loving just what I am seeing between Cooper and Lawrence in the trailer, so I’m looking forward to how it plays out in the film. It received extraordinary feedback out of TIFF that’s gotten my hopes high for this one.
NOVEMBER 30
  • Killing Them Softly – The cast alone has me pretty sold: Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, and Ray Liotta together should make for a great gangster film.

What are you looking forward to watching this month?