Ever since Avatar hit theaters in 2009 and smashed box office records, the last few weeks of the year have become increasingly important to movie studios. Many of the year's biggest movies are now reserved for November and December--three of the last four Star Wars movies were released just before Christmas, and the Avatar sequels have all got December releases lined up over the next decade. The first of this year's big winter releases arrives this week, in the magical shape of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The first Fantastic Beasts made more than $814 million at the worldwide box office two years ago, and expect the sequel to perform just as well.
For those movie fans uninterested in warring wizards, this week also sees the US release of Widows, the highly acclaimed heist thriller from 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen. There's also the comedy Instant Family with Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne, while UK audiences can check out a couple of new horror movies-- the Dario Argento remake Suspiria and slasher movie Hell Fest.
The Coen brothers also make a return this week, with The Ballad of Buster Scruggs on Netflix. It's a western comedy that tells six different stories, and has a cast that includes Liam Neeson and James Franco. Also on Netflix is Cam, a dark horror movie about video cam girls and doppelgangers from Get Out producers Blumhouse. So here's the week's new releases in the both the US and UK, in both theaters and on streaming...
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
See it in US and UK theaters on November 16
The Harry Potter series finished in 2011, but the wider movie universe continues to thrive. The success of 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them led to the announcement of a further four movies, the first of which arrives this week. Eddie Redmayne returns as Newt Scamander, with Jude Law as the young Dumbledore, who enlists the help of Newt to help defeat the dark wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). David Yates directs once more, featuring a screenplay by Potter creator JK Rowling.
Widows
See it in US theaters on November 16
Ocean's Eight isn't the only female-led heist movie to come our way in 2018. Widows is the latest film from Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) and is written by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn. The movie focuses on four women whose husbands are killed in a failed heist, who then decide to finish the job themselves. It's based on a British TV show of the same name from the 1980s, and the star-studded cast includes Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, and Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya. Films like 12 Years and Shame showed that McQueen can deliver prestigious, acclaimed dramas, and Widows proves he's equally adept at edgy, commercial crime thrillers.
Instant Family
See it in US theaters on November 16
Mark Wahlberg was last seen running, jumping, and shooting people in the action thriller Mile 22, but his new movie is a lot more light-hearted. It's a comedy in which he and Bridesmaids' Rose Byrne play a married couple who decide to foster three siblings, with predictably chaotic results. The film reunites Wahlberg with his Transformers: The Last Knight co-star Isabela Moner, who will be seen playing Dora the Explorer next year.
Green Book
See it in US theaters on November 16
This period drama has been picking up plenty of buzz from recent festival screenings, and expect it to figure prominently around awards time early next year. It stars Moonlight's Mahershala Ali as a pianist who is booked for a tour of the racially-divided South in the 1960s, and hires a gruff New York bouncer (Lord of the Rings' Viggo Mortensen) to drive him between venues. The title come a real-life travel guide that was written to help African-Americans navigate the South in this era, and the movie is reportedly an insightful and powerful look at society in this era as well as a heartfelt drama. Most surprisingly, it's co-written and directed by Peter Farrelly, who is best known for making classic gross-out comedies There Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber with his brother Bobby.
Suspiria
See it in UK theaters on November 16
The recent Halloween reboot/sequel isn't the only late-70s horror classic to have received a remake from an acclaimed director in 2018. Dario Argento's supernatural masterpiece Suspiria has been updated by Luca Guadagnino, the Italian filmmaker behind last year's Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name. This is a tale of a ballet school run by ancient, evil witches, and it stars Dakota Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz as students who uncover the school's dark secrets, with Tilda Swinton as the school's sinister head dance teacher. Argento's original movie is noted for its incredible visual style and thunderous soundtrack; Guadagnino has taken his remake in a very different but equally stylish direction, while Radiohead's Thom Yorke provides the score.
Siberia
See it in UK theaters on November 16
Keanu Reeves has remained one of Hollywood's most prolific and popular stars for 30 years now, and with the third John Wick movie due for release next year, he shows little sign of slowing down. While we wait for that, we have Siberia, a crime thriller in which he plays a diamond merchant who finds himself in trouble with gangsters when a mission to Russia to sell some dubious rocks goes wrong. Reviews from its US release suggest it's more of a drama than the John Wick movies, but Keanu gets to flex his action muscles too.
Hell Fest
See it in UK theaters on November 16
The new horror movie Hell Fest combines two of our favorite things--slasher films and theme parks. It traps a bunch of unwitting visitors in a horror theme park, where a masked killed is erasing the boundary between haunted house fun and real-life terror. Hell Fest is produced by genre veteran Gale-Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead, Aliens, The Terminator) and while it's hardly a classic, undemanding gore fans will find enough to enjoy.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
See it on Netflix on November 16
The latest release from the Coen Brothers was originally announced in 2017 as a Netflix limited series, but somewhere along the line, it has turned into a movie. Its roots as a TV show remain however--this is an offbeat western anthology film, which presents six stories about life in the Old West. As usual with the Coens, the cast is hugely impressive--this time, we have Liam Neeson, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Tom Waits, and Tim Blake Nelson. Advance reviews suggest it’s a minor movie when compared to the likes of Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit. But even a lesser Coen film is a must-watch.
Cam
See it on Netflix on November 16
Over the course of a decade Blumhouse Films has become a hugely successful independent studio, with movies such as Get out, the Purge, and the recent Halloween making them a favorite among horror fans. Cam is their latest release, and it makes its debut on Netflix this Friday. The film focuses on the world of adult webcam girls, in particular one called Alice who is desperate to increase her audience. Unfortunately, she has a sinister doppelganger, who looks and sounds exactly like her, and starts to steal her fans. It's a dark and gripping experience, reminiscent of David Lynch’s movies at times, and one of the most intriguing horror releases for some time.
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