Cinema lovers, October is for you. From Julia Roberts starring in After The Hunt to the Jeremy Allen White throwing his hand at being The Boss in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere your weekend plans are sorted. Meanwhile season two of Nobody Wants This comes to Netflix.
October 1
Abbott Elementary, Disney+
Season 5 of the hit comedy Abbott Elementary is here, and some changes are underway for our favourite group of teachers. Janine (Quinta Brunson) now finds herself leading a packed class of 40 second graders with Ava (Janelle James) remarking that she’s eager to see if it “breaks her.” Meanwhile, Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) is taking on the challenge of middle schoolers, and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) has a different kind of lesson plan: teaching Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) how to ride a bike. Oh, and the teachers’ lounge ceiling looks ready to collapse. Expect laughs galore.
October 3
Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Netflix
The third instalment in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime Monsters anthology shifts its focus from Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers to the real-life inspiration behind Norman Bates in Psycho. This season tells the story of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin killer whose grisly obsession with corpses and unsettling fixation on his mother shocked the 1950s. Charlie Hunnam underwent a dramatic transformation, shedding nearly 30 pounds (13kg) to embody the gaunt and terrifying Gein.
The Smashing Machine, cinemas nationwide
Starring an unrecognisable Dwayne Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, this biographical sports drama film follows Kerr as he reaches the peak of his career but faces personal hardships along the way. Also stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s then-wife, Dawn Staples.
October 10
The Last Frontier, Apple TV
Jason Clarke leads this high-stakes action drama as U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick, stationed in a remote corner of Alaska. When a transport plane carrying 50 convicts crashes in the wilderness, the prisoners scatter into the tundra, and Remnick is tasked with hunting them down. But as he digs deeper, he begins to suspect the crash wasn’t an accident at all. With the CIA curiously entangled, Remnick becomes determined to uncover the truth.
October 16
The Diplomat, Netflix
The third season of this brilliant political drama returns and is high-stakes as ever. Grace Penn (Allison Janney) has ascended to the U.S. presidency, while Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) remains in power as Britain’s Prime Minister. This sets up a battle of wills to see which leader can outmanoeuvre the other. Caught in the crossfire is Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., who continues to operate with the instincts of the CIA agent she once was.
October 17
Mr Scorsese, Apple TV
For this five-part documentary series, director Rebecca Miller (Personal Velocity, Maggie’s Plan) was granted rare access to legendary director Martin Scorsese and his private archives, crafting an intimate portrait of one of cinema’s greatest living filmmakers. Alongside extensive on-camera conversations with Scorsese, Miller speaks with many of his most vital collaborators, including Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Roofman, cinemas nationwide
After escaping from prison, former soldier and professional thief Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) finds a hideout inside a Toys “R” Us, surviving undetected for months while planning his next move. However, when Jeffrey falls for a divorced mom (Kirsten Dunst), his double life starts to unravel, setting off a compelling and suspenseful game of cat and mouse as his past closes in.
Good Fortune, cinemas nationwide
Good Fortune follows an angel named Gabriel (Reeves), whose failed attempt to show Arj (Ansari), a struggling man, that money doesn’t solve one’s problems – by body swapping him with his wealthy employer Jeff (Rogen) – results in Gabriel losing his wings, while the work he did as an angel begins to unravel around them.
After the Hunt, cinemas nationwide
A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroad when a star student levels an accusation against one of her colleagues, threatening to expose a dark secret from her own past. Starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny and directed by Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name fame.
October 22
Lazarus, Amazon Prime
Author Harlan Coben is once again teaming up with longtime collaborator Danny Brocklehurst (Fool Me Once, Stay Close) to create an entirely original story. At the centre of it is Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones & The Six) as Laz, a forensic psychologist who specialises in cold case murders. His life takes a darker turn when his father, Dr Lazarus (Bill Nighy), dies, stirring up haunting memories of Laz’s sister, who was killed 25 years earlier. Soon, unsettling and inexplicable experiences leave Laz questioning not only the past but his own sanity.
Riot Women, BBC1
From Sally Wainwright, the acclaimed creator, writer and director of Happy Valley, comes a fresh, irreverent comedy about friendship, music and midlife reinvention. Five menopausal women – a teacher, a police officer, a pub landlady, a midwife and a shoplifting freeloader – form a punk rock band to compete in a local talent contest, only to discover they have a lot more to shout about than they ever imagined. As the band grows closer, unexpected personal revelations emerge, including a surprising and heartbreaking connection between Beth, the teacher and Kitty, the freeloader.
October 23
Nobody Wants This, Netflix
This romantic comedy was a runaway hit last year and tells the story of Joanne (Kristen Bell), an agnostic podcaster who covers sex and dating, and Noah (Adam Brody), a rabbi who find themselves in a relationship that, uh, nobody wants. Last season ended with a major dilemma: Noah was offered the role of head rabbi at a congregation, a position that would disappear if he were to marry a non-Jewish woman. Joanne isn’t ready to convert, setting up a season of choices that could redefine their relationship and provide plenty of comic tension. Justine Lupe returns as Joanne’s sister and podcast co-host, while Timothy Simons plays Noah’s brother, both with relationship arcs of their own. Guest stars this season include Seth Rogen and Brody’s wife, Leighton Meester.
October 24
Regretting You, cinemas nationwide
When a devastating accident reveals a shocking betrayal, Morgan Grant and her daughter, Clara, explore what’s left behind as they confront family secrets, redefine love, and rediscover each other. Based on the novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, cinemas nationwide
On the cusp of global superstardom, New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past as he records the album “Nebraska” in the early 1980s. Starring Jeremy Allen White as ‘The Boss’ and Stephen Graham as his distant father.
October 27
It: Welcome to Derry, Sky Atlantic
Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, the malevolent clown from It (2017) and It: Chapter Two (2019), in this prequel series inspired by the “interlude” chapters of King’s 1986 novel. Set in 1962 Derry, Maine, US, the story follows a couple who have just moved to town with their young son, only to discover that another boy has recently gone missing. And yes, Pennywise is very likely behind it.
October 29
Down Cemetery Road, Apple TV
Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson join forces in this gripping suspense series, adapted from one of Mick Herron’s non-Slow Horses novels, the first of his four Zoë Boehm books. Thompson stars as Zoë, sporting a leather jacket and punk-white hair, who runs a struggling detective agency with her mild-mannered husband. Wilson plays Sarah Tucker, an Oxford-based art restorer whose life is upended when an explosion rocks her suburban neighbourhood. Obsessed with locating a little girl injured in the blast and subsequently disappeared from the hospital, Sarah turns to Zoë’s agency for help. As violent incidents escalate, viewers quickly realise – long before Zoë and Sarah do – that MI5 is somehow entangled in the chaos.
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