Fall is no longer the official start of the television season, but the season still provides a plenty of entertainment to consume. So, pick up a pumpkin spiced-whatever and curl up on the couch and watch some October 2019’s best titles.
Netflix
1.) Girls Trip (2017) – October 1st
Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish play four best friends reconnecting on a girls weekend at the Essence Festival in New Orleans. The ladies put the Sex and the City quartet to shame with their comedy, frank talk and take-no-prisoners loyalty to each other, with the film launching Haddish into the stratosphere as the latest up-and-coming comedy star.
2.) Elizabeth (1998) – October 2nd
In one of her most memorable roles, Cate Blanchett plays the young Queen Elizabeth I, who ascends to the English throne after the death of her sister. As a young regent, Elizabeth must choose between her duty to her country and her love for Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love).
3.) Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) – October 2nd
Unhappy Birmingham housewife Evelyn (Kathy Bates, Primary Colors) becomes friends with the elderly Ninny (Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy), whose friendship parallels the power of female friendship that echo throughout the tales Ninny shares about the abandoned town of Whistle Stop.
4.) Kim’s Convenience (Season 3) (2016) – October 2nd
The slice-of-life saga of the Kim family in downtown Toronto continues in the series’ third season. Janet’s (Andrea Bang) frustration with her parents reaches a boiling point while Jung (Simu Liu) and Mr. Kim (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) try to move on from their attempted reconciliation, much to Mrs. Kim’s (Jean Yoon) chagrin.
5.) El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) – October 11th
In the immediate aftermath of the Breaking Bad finale, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) races to evade capture by law-enforcement after being freed from his white supremacist captors.
6.) Citizen Kane (1941) – October 15th
Considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time (and one of the most spoiled) Orson Welles directs and stars as Charles Foster Kane, a proto-Murdoch media mogul, whose last words become a sensational event. As reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) interviews people from Kane’s life, it appears as though the mystery of his final words will never be solved – or will it?
7.) The Laundromat (2019) – October 18th
Based on the 2015 Panama Papers scandal, Stephen Soderbergh gleefully untangles a tangled web of greed and power centered around a Panama City law firm, controlled by the one-percent and their lawyers (Gary Oldman, Antonia Banderas). The intricate, delicate web of deceit soon unravels due to Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep), a widow doggedly determined to make sense of a personal tragedy.
8.) Living With Yourself (2019) – October 18th
In Netflix’s newest comedy series Paul Rudd pulls double duty as Miles Elliot, who after undergoing a mysterious spa treatment discovers he has been replaced by a charming doppleganger. Miles and his clone must learn to share one life, while keeping the people in Miles’ life, including wife Kate (Aisling Bea, Trollied), none the wiser.
9.) Jenny Slate: Stage Fright (2019) – October 22nd
Comedian-actress Jenny Slate (Obvious Child) steps on stage and opens up about her life to the audience in her part stand-up, part documentary special, with family and friends contributing with their own stories about Slate.
10.) Dolemite Is My Name (2019) – October 25th
Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls) embodies the multi-hyphenate filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore, and his creation and portrayal of the infamous articulate pimp Dolemite, whose character had an enormous impact on the blaxploitation genre.
Going, Going, Gone! – Titles Leaving Netflix
October 1st
Midsomer Murders: series 1-19 (1997-)
October 15th
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
October 20th
Halloween (1978)
Scream (1996)
Scream 2 (1997)
Scream 3 (2000)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
October 29th
Wonder Woman (2017)
Crave TV
1.) Slumdog Millionaire (2007) – October 4th (Crave+Movies+HBO)
After being accused of cheating on India’s equivalent of “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” Mumbai teenager Jamal (Dev Patel, Lion) shares with the police how the events of his life, from growing up in the slums to his star-crossed love with fellow street kid Latika (Frieda Pinto, Knight of Cups), led him to knowing the correct answers. The film was a humongous sleeper hit, and won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Yesterday).
2.) Letterkenny (season 7) (2016-) – October 11th
Letterkenny, with all its rural Ontario, small town drama, returns with its bizarre, yet intricate and quippy humor. From the hicks to the townies to the skids, the people of Letterkenny are back to their old tricks, the most recent being the farmers putting on an agricultural call-in show.
3.) Pleasantville (1998) – October 11th (Starz Programming)
Nineties siblings David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) find themselves trapped inside a Midwest, Leave It to Beaver-esque Fifties television show. The pair proceed turn the town upside down with their contemporary attitudes, literally and figuratively bringing color to the town and its inhabitants (Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Paul Walker).
4.) Easy Rider (1969) – October 11th (Starz Programming)
Peter Fonda (The Rounders) and Dennis Hopper (Apocalypse Now) play two freewheeling bikers traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans while transporting the proceeds of an enormous cocaine deal. The film became a touchstone film for the counterculture and helped to establish the New Hollywood, director-focused era of film-making of the 1970s.
5.) Watchmen (2019-) – October 20th
Thirty-four years after the events of Watchmen masked vigilantes, aka. superheroes, have been outlawed. However, after a white supremacy group launch a coordinated attack on the homes of police officers, the police start wearing masks. Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) gives Alan Moore’s legendary graphic novel the platinum television treatment, with a cast including Oscar-winner Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), Don Johnson (Miami Vice), Tim Blake Nelson (Lincoln), Adelaide Clemens (Rectify), Jeremy Irons (The Borgias), Jean Smart (Fargo) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Greatest Showman).
6.) Catherine the Great (2019) – October 21st
Helen Mirren has long proven she was born to play to play monarchs, and her performance as the legendary Russian Tsarina, Catherine the Great is no exception. At the height of her power, the Empress navigates immense political conflict, courtly intrigue and personal scandal while establishing the foundation of modern-day Russian with military commander and lover Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke, Zero Dark Thirty)
7.) Castle Rock (2018-) – October 23rd
In the second season of the psychological horror anthology mashup of Stephen King’s characters, settings and themes set the fictional town of Castle Rock, a pre-Misery Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex) becomes stranded in the Maine town. This season’s ensemble also stars Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire) and Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips).
8.) Poltergeist (1982) – October 25th (Starz Programming)
Horror maestro Tobe Hooper’s supernatural classic about a suburban family whose youngest daughter is abducted by malevolent spirits is still as terrifying as it was over forty years ago – a perfect choice for Halloween. They’re heeeeeeeere…
9.) Edward Scissorhands (1990) – October 25th (Starz Programming)
Johnny Depp’s performance as the sweet, gentle and uniquely handi-capable Edward Scissorhands who falls in love with Kim (Winona Ryder), the daughter of the California suburban family who take him in, rocketed him to movie stardom and cemented a long and fruitful partnership with director Tim Burton.
10.) Mrs. Fletcher (2019-) – October 27th
In Tom Perrotta’s (The Leftovers) comedy series, Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms) plays newly empty nester and single mother Eve Fletcher, who undergoes a sexual coming-of-age once her son Brendan (Jackson White, The Middle) goes off to college.
