Fall Movie Preview 2023

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.

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 Orleans’ CCH 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).