WHAT WE CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH
Rhythm + Flow
Shadily billed in a trailer as hip-hop’s first “legit TV competition” (Um… what about the The Road To Stardom With Missy Elliott!?), the three-week, 10-episode Rhythm + Flow sees judges Cardi B, Chance The Rapper and T.I. search for America’s next rap superstar, American Idol-style. It’s probably fair to say the series is the first “big-budget” hip-hop reality competition, which also happens to be Netflix’s first music talent show. The series will unfold in three phases, starting with a four-episode drop devoted to the audition process. Airs Wednesdays starting October 9
Big Mouth (season 3)
The new season finds the animated comedy’s hapless suburban seventh-graders – voiced by co-creator Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas and Jenny Slate – find their ongoing struggle with puberty further complicated by the arrival of a magnetic new classmate (Ali Wong). Meanwhile, Slate’s awkward Missy gets her very own Hormone Monstress (Thandie Newton) and Mulaney’s even more awkward Andrew tries to recover from his shocking heel turn in the Valentine’s Day special. That’ll be tricky. October 4
In The Tall Grass
Stephen King and Joe Hill’s 2012 novella has a very simple premise: adult siblings go into a field of grass in search of a lost child, and discover they can’t get out. The feature adaptation stars Patrick Wilson and Laysla de Oliveira, and is written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, the Toronto filmmaker who’s spent the last few years making gorgeous television like Hannibal, Lost In Space and Westworld – and who showed a facility for building whole worlds out of limiting premises in his early features Cube and Nothing. If anyone can make this work, it’s him. October 4
Raising Dion
Michael B. Jordan is finding fascinating ways into the superhero genre. In 2012’s found-footage thriller Chronicle, he played a teen goofing around with newfound superpowers. In Black Panther, Jordan found new emotional depths as a supervillain shouldering the weight of history. Now he’s exec-producing and starring in this series, playing the late father to a young child who could become the Black Superman… or something else. October 4
Jenny Slate: Stage Fright
If you’ve seen Obvious Child, you know Jenny Slate is pretty good at stand-up comedy… but the actor, writer and children’s book author almost never performs live, thanks to a very bad case of stage fright (which she discussed with NOW in this 2014 interview). Now, Slate mixes performance footage with documentary elements for a hybrid special that shows us how she managed to get comfortable in front of an audience. October 22
Living With Yourself
The latest surreal dark comedy series to hit Netflix stars Paul Rudd in a dual role: playing a depressed man who visits some sort of experimental spa to rejuvenate his stagnant life only to wind up confronted by his cranky old self. Created and written by Timothy Greenberg (The Daily Show) and directed by Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the eight-episode show feels like Rudd’s attempt to shake up his nice-guy image – by playing his evil twin. Art imitating life? October 18
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Did you ever wonder what happened to Jesse Pinkman after he drove off into the darkness at the end of Breaking Bad’s final episode? Vince Gilligan did, so he took some time off from the prequel series Better Call Saul to make a movie that shows us the rest of Jesse’s journey. Aaron Paul returns, obviously, along with nearly a dozen cast members from the original show… though Gilligan is keeping a pretty tight lid on who they are, for obvious reasons. October 11
The Forest Of Love
Cult Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono, who won the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at TIFF for 2013’s Why Don’t You Play In Hell?, directed this film, which was apparently inspired by real-life multiple murders. Judging from the trailer, it looks like a mix of serene visuals, horror and farce, though no one was laughing when the director suffered heart attack in February during post-production. “It was all my fault,” Sono told reporters, according to Variety. “I was really busy with editing. I feel I should pay Netflix compensation.” October 11
A 3 Minute Hug
Mexican filmmaker Everardo González’s short film, which screened at Hot Docs this year, focuses on Hugs Not Walls, a twice-annual initiative that reunites families separated U.S. deportations. Run by activist group Border Network for Human Rights, the emotionally charged events allow loved ones living on opposite sides of the U.S./Mexico border to meet and embrace without crossing over. October 28
Francois Duhamel
Eddie Murphy is hilarious as Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name.
SOLID BETS
Dolemite Is My Name
One icon plays another in this comedy that just screened at TIFF. Eddie Murphy is hilarious as Rudy Ray Moore, the singer and comedian who adopted the super-pimp persona Dolemite on both comedy albums and later a Blaxploitation feature film. Director Craig Brewer shapes Moore’s story in conventional biopic terms, but wisely lets his talented and hilarious cast (Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, Tituss Burgess and more) do what they do. The recreation of the behind-the-scenes drama on the set of the Dolemite movie plays like the Black Disaster Artist. October 25
The Laundromat
Another film fresh from its TIFF premiere, Steven Soderbergh’s metafictional guide to global finance – with Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Nonso Anozie, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Jessica Allain, Rosalind Chao, Matthias Schoenaerts and Meryl Streep teaching us all about the moral hazards of tax avoidance – is kind of a mess, but it’s a well-intentioned one, and it fills in a couple of shell-game data points The Big Short didn’t cover. October 18
Contagion
Before releasing Soderbergh’s Panama Papers comedy The Laundromat, Netflix is dropping the director’s taut 2011 thriller, another global-in-scope investigation into geopolitics that makes a newsy subject entertaining. Contagion imagines the real-world response to an apocalyptic viral outbreak. Matt Damon and Kate Winslet lead this complex and propulsive ensemble piece that also features Marion Cotillard as a sleuthing scientist and Jude Law as a fear-mongerer in the media. October 1
Pride & Prejudice
Atonement filmmaker Joe Wright cut his teeth with this pleasurable Jane Austen adaptation. His take on the bumpy courtship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy captures Austen’s modern sensibility while adding his own flair for sweeping romance and gracefully swooping visuals. Keira Knightley always seems right at home in any period piece, which makes it too easy to dismiss how wonderful she is as Elizabeth Bennet. And she finds a wonderful romantic foil in Matthew Macfadyen, who is currently tearing it up on HBO’s Succession. October 2
Citizen Kane
Finally, Orson Welles’s 1941 masterwork – which, with its elaborate flashback structure, impressionistic cinematography and vivid performances, expanded the art of cinema and influenced generations of filmmakers – can be watched on your phone on your way to work. Still a great movie, though. October 15
List of new titles available in October by date:
TV SHOWS
Coming Soon
My Next Guest With David Letterman and Shah Rukh Khan
October 1
Agent (season 1)
Carmen Sandiego (season 2)
Find Yourself (season 1)
Nikki Glaser: Bangin’
October 2
Kim’s Convenience (season 3)
Living Undocumented
Rotten (season 2)
October 3
Seis Manos
October 4
Big Mouth (season 3)
El Dragón: Return Of A Warrior
Outlander (season 4)
Peaky Blinders (season 5)
Raising Dion
Super Monsters (season 3)
Super Monsters: Vida’s First Halloween
October 5
Legend Quest: Masters Of Myth
October 7
Heartland (season 12)
Match! Tennis Juniors
October 8
Deon Cole: Cole Hearted
October 9
Rhythm + Flow
Schitt’s Creek (season 5)
October 10
Riverdale (season 4, weekly episodes)
Ultramarine Magmell
October 11
Haunted (season 2)
Insatiable (season 2)
Plan Coeur (season 2)
YooHoo To The Rescue (season 2)
October 17
The Unlisted
October 18
The Yard (Avlu)
Baby (season 2)
Interior Design Masters
The House Of Flowers (season 2)
Living With Yourself
MeatEater (season 8)
Mighty Little Bheem: Diwali
Spirit Riding Free: Pony Tales Collection 2
Suits (season 8)
Tell Me Who I Am
Toon (seasons 1-2)
Unnatural Selection
October 22
Jenny Slate: Stage Fright
October 23
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Dancing With The Birds
October 24
Daybreak
October 25
Brigada Costa Del Sol
Brotherhood
Greenhouse Academy (season 3)
The Kominsky Method (season 2)
Nailed It! France (C’est Du Gâteau!)
Nailed It! Spain (Niquelao!)
Prank Encounters
Workin’ Moms (season 3)
October 28
Shine On With Reese (season 1)
October 29
Arsenio Hall: Smart & Classy
October 30
Flavorful Origins: Yunnan Cuisine
October 31
Creeped Out (season 1)
The Deep (season 3)
Kengan Ashura: Part ll
Nowhere Man
Wentworth (season 7)
MOVIES
October 1
A.M.I.
Amityville: The Awakening
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
Contagion
I Spit On Your Grave
I Spit On Your Grave 2
The Rolling Stones: Olé Olé Olé! A Trip Across Latin America
Seven
Sinister Circle
The Swan Princess
October 2
Batteries Not Included
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Elizabeth
Fried Green Tomatoes
Liar Liar
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Ready To Mingle (Solteras)
October 4
In The Tall Grass
October 5
October 7
October 8
The Spooky Tale Of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween
October 11
The Awakenings Of Motti Wolenbruch
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
The Forest Of Love
Fractured
La Influencia
October 12
Banlieusards
October 15
Citizen Kane
Dennis The Menace
October 16
Ghosts Of Sugar Land
October 18
Eli
Seventeen
Tell Me Who I Am
Upstarts
October 21
Echo In The Canyon
October 23
Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy
October 24
Revenge Of Pontianak
October 25
Assimilate
Dolemite Is My Name
Rattlesnake
It Takes A Lunatic
October 28
A 3 Minute Hug
Little Miss Sumo
LAST CALL
TV series and movies leaving Netflix this month.
October 1
Midsomer Murders (series 1-19)
October 15
Reservoir Dogs
October 20
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
October 29
Wonder Woman
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