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Fall Movie Preview 2023

Get the ultimate guide to the best of what’s coming to screens this season


spinner image leonardo dicaprio sitting at a table in the film killers of the flower moon denzel washington sits in a chair looking straight ahead in the film the equalizer three and tommy lee jones sitting with his hands together in a scene from the movie the burial
(Left to right) Leonardo DiCaprio in "Killers of the Flower Moon," Denzel Washington in "The Equalizer 3" and Tommy Lee Jones in "The Burial."
Apple TV+; Stefano Montesi/Sony Pictures Entertainment; Skip Bolen/Prime Video

With plenty of help from grownup viewers, movies are coming back to life lately, and the fall film season is shaping up to be a winner, despite the Hollywood strike and lingering COVID woes. Check this page regularly, since some movies could get bumped to next year, and other good ones may be added to the schedule. Put these on your calendar, and don’t forget to pass the popcorn!

Coming in September

The Equalizer 3 (in theaters Sept. 1)

Just when Robert McCall (Denzel Washington, 68) thought he was out of the killing business, they drag him back! The defender of the oppressed feels compelled to protect his new pals in Southern Italy from the local Mafia. Washington fans feel compelled to see it.

Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind (in theaters and on Prime Video and Apple TV+ Sept. 8)

If you liked 2022’s fictionalized Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, an adaptation of the novel by five-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated American novelist Oates, 85, you’ll be fascinated by this documentary narrated by Laura Dern, 56.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (in theaters Sept. 8)

Party at the Acropolis with the Portokalos clan (Nia Vardalos, 60, John Corbett, 62 and Andrea Martin, 76) on a family reunion that likely does not go quite as planned.

A Haunting in Venice (in theaters Sept. 15)

Sleuth Poirot (Kenneth Branagh, 62) comes out of retirement when somebody dies at a Halloween séance in Venice. As a woman who hears the dead, Everything Everywhere All at Once best actress Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, 61, lends gravitas to a film that’s more darkly supernatural than Branagh’s prior Agatha Christie romps. Tina Fey, 53, plays the Agatha Christie-like writer Ariadne Oliver, and Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly joins in the spooky fun.

The Expend4bles (in theaters Sept. 22)

In the final film of the jokey action franchise about mercenaries righting wrongs and whomping rumps, Sylvester Stallone, 77, yields the star part to Jason Statham, 56 (Fast X).

She Came to Me (in theaters Sept. 29)

A New York opera composer with writer’s block (Peter Dinklage, 54) and his wife (Anne Hathaway, 40), a therapist with obsessive-compulsive disorder, get mixed up with a “romance addict” and tugboat captain (Marisa Tomei, 58) who has a taste for men — and kills them. Not your run of the mill rom-com!

Coming in October

The Exorcist: Believer (in theaters Oct. 6)

Ellen Burstyn, 90, was seriously injured making 1974’s The Exorcist scarily authentic, but she’s back to relaunch America’s favorite demon-possession franchise, with costars Leslie Odom Jr., 42, and Ann Dowd, 67.

The Burial (in theaters Oct. 6, on Prime Video Oct. 13)

Pulitzer, Tony and Golden Globe-winning writer Doug Wright, 60, and director Maggie Betts present the fact-based case of charismatic lawyer Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx, 55), who tries to save the funeral-home business of Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones, 76) in a half-billion-dollar case against a giant corporation. Lots of Oscar buzz for this one.

What Happens Later (in theaters Oct. 13)

Welcome back, rom-com queen! Meg Ryan, 61, has been AWOL from screens since 2015, but she returns to costar with X-Files hunk David Duchovny, 63, in this tale of long-ago lovers who bump into each other in an airport during a snowstorm. She’s happily single; he’s separated from his wife and child. Will they or won’t they? Ryan also directs, in the vein of her Sleepless in Seattle director Nora Ephron.

Ordinary Angels (in theaters Oct. 13)

A recovering alcoholic hairdresser in Kentucky (Hilary Swank, 49) rallied her townsfolk to get a widower and his toddler daughter to Omaha for a liver transplant on the coldest day in Louisville history. The historic 1994 snowstorm shut down travel for weeks — and the little girl only had hours to get to the liver to save her life.

Killers of the Flower Moon (in theaters Oct. 20)

In the 1920s, the world’s wealthiest people per capita were Oklahoma’s oil-rich Osage Native Americans — but cattle baron and philanthropist William “King” Hale (played by Robert De Niro, 80) had a plan to murder and rob them, and perhaps his dimwit nephew (Leonardo DiCaprio, 48) was mixed up in it. It was the first big case for FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and now it’s a 3½-hour prestige movie by Martin Scorsese, 80.

Priscilla (in theaters Oct. 27)

Over-50 viewers made Elvis a $288 million hit. Now his widow Priscilla Presley, 78, and cowriter-director Sofia Coppola, 52, tell her side of the legendary love story, with Cailee Spaeny and Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi as the Presleys.

Sight (in theaters Oct. 27)

Ming Wang, M.D., 63, escaped from Mao’s China to America with $50 in his pocket, got degrees from Harvard and MIT, and devised inventions that improved or restored sight to thousands, including Charlie Daniels, Naomi Judd and Nicole Kidman. He’s played by Terry Chen, 48 (Almost Famous), with Little Miss Sunshine’s Greg Kinnear, 60, as his friend and mentor Misha Bartnovsky.

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Pain Hustlers (on Netflix Oct. 27)

If you liked The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street, try this flick about high-stakes crime and ghastly greed. Oppenheimer star Emily Blunt, 40, plays a desperately unemployed single mom recruited by a pharmaceutical firm to hawk deadly drugs in a racketeering scheme. Costars include Catherine O’Hara, 69 (Schitt’s Creek) and Andy Garcia, 67 (Book Club: The Next Chapter). Though it’s directed by Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts auteur David Yates, 59, it’s not entirely fantasy: It’s loosely inspired by the 2019 Insys Therapeutics scandal.

Coming in November

Rustin (in theaters Nov. 3, on Netflix Nov. 17)

Producers Barack Obama, 62, and Michelle Obama, 59, present the story of civil rights giant Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo, 53), whose expert organizing made Rosa Parks famous. Remember Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech? Rustin made that historic demonstration a reality. But Rustin was gay, attacked by pro- and anti-segregationists alike, and died largely forgotten. The all-star cast includes Jeffrey Wright, 57, as Rustin’s nemesis Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Chris Rock, 58, as Roy Wilkins, Audra McDonald, 53, as Ella Baker, and NCIS: New OrleansCCH Pounder, 70, as Anna Hedgeman.

The Holdovers (in theaters Nov. 3)

Director Alexander Payne, 62, made star Paul Giamatti, 56, famous in their 2005 wine-country comedy Sideways. They reunite in a record-setting Toronto Film Festival hit about a curmudgeon (Giamatti’s specialty) who teaches at a New England prep school and is stuck on campus to babysit a few students over Christmas break.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (in theaters Nov. 17)

The prequel to the 2012 film about youngsters forced to battle each other to the death in a totalitarian future will be a hit with kids, but it also boasts great grownup stars: Peter Dinklage, 54, as the Games’ inadvertent inventor Casca Highbottom and The Woman King’s Viola Davis, 58, as the cruel head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul.

Napoleon (in theaters Nov. 22, on Apple TV+ later)

Remember how good Joaquin Phoenix, 48, was in Ridley Scott’s 2000 Gladiator? They reunite in Scott’s passion project, a biopic about the pint-size French military giant. Besides epic battle scenes, it’s also about his skirmishes with his big-spending, unfaithful wife Josephine (Mission: Impossible star Vanessa Kirby, 35).

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