August is actually Women’s Month but looking at the streaming releases for the first week of November you would think somebody read the calendar wrong. With highlights including Enola Holmes 2, Jennifer Lawrence’s Causeway, the return of Warrior Nun, the latest season of The Crown, a new Selena Gomez doc, and more, there’s a lot of great female-led fare to enjoy.
MOVIES
Enola Holmes 2
Netflix – 4 November 2022
Following the events of 2020’s original film adaption, Millie Bobby Brown’s titular heroine is now a professional detective herself with her own (admittedly fledgling) agency, just like her famous older brother Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill). And for her first case, the talented young sleuth needs to track down a missing girl. That sounds simple enough, but turns out to be everything but in this sequel that has been getting pretty solid reviews from critics.
Causeway
Apple TV+ – 4 November 2022
While many people may associate her mostly with the Hunger Games and X-Men franchises, Jennifer Lawrence started off her career with an Oscar-nominated dramatic performance in Winter’s Bone. Causeway, the upcoming Apple TV+ original that sees Lawrence as a U.S. Marine forced struggling to reintegrate with society in her old hometown after a traumatic brain ends short her tour of Afghanistan, has very little in common with Winter’s Bone narratively. However, according to some who saw it on the festival circuit, this is the young actress’ best performance since that iconic breakthrough and could see Lawrence’s name pop up on the Oscars nomination ballot next year.
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me
Apple TV+ – 4 November 2022
A singer, songwriter, actress, and producer, who boats several awards (including 15 Guinness World Records and Billboard’s Woman of the Year) and has the largest following for any actress or musician on Instagram, Selena Gomez has not only grown up in the spotlight, but she has reached unimaginable heights while doing so. That level of fame and success comes at a cost though. In this intimate and raw documentary, filmmaker Alek Keshishian tracked Gomez in a six-year period of her life from 2015 to 2021 as she unexpectedly crashed down from the highest-of-highs in her career to a very dark place and had to build herself up, mentally and physically, all over again.
My Policeman
Amazon Prime Video – 4 November 2022
Erstwhile British boyband member Harry Styles has been stretching his acting muscles quite a bit lately, and his latest thespian challenge is My Policeman. Adapted from Bethan Robert’s novel of the same name, this decades-spanning romantic drama sees Styles as 1950s policeman Linus Roache, who falls in love with and marries Emma Corrin’s young schoolteacher Marion Taylor. However, Linus has also started a same-sex relationship with David Dawson’s museum curator Patrick Hazelwood despite homosexuality being illegal in 1950s England. As the film hops between that conservative time period and the 1990s, we learn just how these relationships spun out over the years.
Falling For Christmas
Netflix – 10 November 2022
Much like how shopping malls already started cranking out the Mariah Carey and Boney M the moment the clock chimed midnight on 1 November, Netflix is also getting into the Christmas spirit early. And the streamer is decking the halls with Lindsay Lohan in Falling for Christmas, a new festive season romantic comedy the story of which I’m sure you can predict from the title alone. But Christmas movies have always been about familiar fond comfort, so I’m sure this one will find an audience.
SERIES
The Man Who Fell to Earth S1
Showmax – 7 November 2022
Walter Trevis’ 1965 sci-fi novel about a humanoid alien who crash lands on Earth while trying to find the means of saving his home planet, was famously adapted into a 1976 feature film starring an otherworldly David Bowie as the titular extraterrestrial (with the very normal name of Thomas Jerome Newton). Now a brand-new sequel series co-created by Alex Kurtzman picks up that story many years later. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Faraday, a new alien who arrives on Earth on a pivotal mission to save a planet, while Bill Nighy takes over Bowie’s original role of Thomas.
The Crown S5
Netflix – 9 November 2022
The Crown, despite the controversy surround the accuracy of some of events depicted, has always been one of Netflix’s *ahem* crown jewels. With the historic passing of Queen Elizabeth II two months ago though, I predict a massive upswing in interest for the already hugely popular show with its fifth season introducing us to Imelda Staunton’s version of the dramatized monarch. This new season will be set in the 1990s, in the midst of several international events all presenting political challenges for the Queen as she approaches the 40th anniversary of her ascension. More than this though, a lot more intimate and scandalous sort of trouble was brewing much closer to home as the marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana fell apart in the public spotlight. Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki step into the shoes of the doomed royal couple, for whom unexpected tragedy awaited.
Harry Palmer: The Ipcress File S1
Showmax – 9 November 2022
The name Harry Palmer is probably familiar to the older – much, much older – readers out there. The anti-hero secret agent protagonist of a series of spy novels by British author Len Deighton, the character was brought to life on-screen a number of times, with a young Michael Caine most famously portraying Palmer in three films in the 1960s (Palmer was said to be a big influence for the creation of Austin Powers, hence why Caine was cast in the role of the shagadelic spy’s father, parodying his own performances in the 60s). Well, now it’s time for a new modern take on arguably Britain’s third most famous made-up spy. The six-episode The Ipcress File, a loose adaptation of the very first Palmer novel by none other than acclaimed writer John Hodge (Trainspotting, The Beach), sees Gangs of London’s Joe Cole donning Palmer’s iconic horn-rimmed glasses as we get the origin story how the character went from small-time crook to dashing spy, along the way trying to stop a Russian nuclear threat.
Warrior Nun
Netflix – 10 November 2022
After a wait of more than two years, Warrior Nun is back! After having discovered the truth about the “angel” Adriel and the true origins of the halo that gives her her powers, Alba Baptista’s Ava now has to try and fix the mess she inadvertently helped to create. She won’t be alone though, her nun sisters – including Kristina Tonteri-Young’s breakout fan-favourite ass-kicker Sister Beatrice – will be helping her alongside a new secret order (can never have enough of those) which knows a lot more about the threate Ava faces.