Eight films to have on your radar this November

November may be grey and rain-soaked. Your mood doesn't have to follow suit.

A good dose of art can take the edge off miserable weather, and this month we're heading straight for the cinema. From performances with awards-season potential to familiar faces and another trip to Panem, these are the films on our radar. Most arrive in November; Cliff Booth's Netflix debut follows in December.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth

Cliff Booth was the laid-back stuntman Brad Pitt played in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). The role earned Pitt a supporting-actor Oscar, and Tarantino has now written a comedy thriller that gives Cliff another outing.

A sequel is an intriguing move for Tarantino.

The bigger surprise is who's directing: David Fincher, of Fight Club and The Social Network fame. It's an unusual handover for a Tarantino screenplay, recalling From Dusk Till Dawn back in 1996. The story moves to 1977, with Cliff working as a Hollywood fixer. The fairy-tale mood gives way to a Los Angeles crime story fuelled by violence, ambition and desire. Netflix has announced an international IMAX run from 25 November, followed by streaming on 23 December. Bulgarian cinema dates are still to be confirmed.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

It's been more than a decade since Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen reached the end of her story in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, but the appetite for Panem hasn't gone anywhere. The first prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, arrived in 2023.

Now comes a follow-up to that prequel,

set 40 years after The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and 24 years before Katniss's story. Keeping up? Fans of Suzanne Collins's dystopian novels will have a head start.

Bulgarian release: 20 November. Cinema City lists an earlier opening on 18 November; check the individual screening when booking.

Club Kid

Jordan Firstman, the comedian and actor known for playing Charlie in HBO's I Love LA, brings his writing and directing talents to Club Kid, which joins this year's Kinomania programme.

He also takes the lead.

A fading underground club promoter finds his life turned upside down when he's suddenly left caring for a son he didn't know existed. It's the kind of unexpected encounter that demands more than a change of plans: he has to leave his old life behind and finally grow up.

Kinomania screenings: from 14 November at Lumiere, with further dates including 29 November at Cinema City Paradise. These are festival screenings, not a general-release date.

Hexed

After sequels and prequels including Moana 2, Mufasa and Zootopia 2, Disney turns to an original story. Its spirited heroine is Billie, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld:

a suburban teenager who discovers she was born with magical powers.

Her journey takes her through a portal into Hexe, a mysterious realm of witches and magical creatures. Rashida Jones voices Billie's cautious mother, Alice, with Tracey Ullman and Stephen Fry also joining the cast.

Bulgarian release: 27 November.

Focker-in-Law

With The Devil Wears Prada 2 bringing another familiar comedy back this year, there's clearly room for a reunion. Sixteen years after Little Fockers and 26 after Meet the Parents,

Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro are back

as anxious Greg Focker and his hard-to-impress father-in-law, Jack. Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo return too, though Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman, who played Greg's parents in the previous two films, are absent from the announced cast. New arrivals include Beanie Feldstein as Greg and Pam's daughter, Skyler Gisondo as their son and, crucially, Ariana Grande as his fiancée. The twist? Jack welcomes her into his circle of trust. This time, Greg is the one with doubts.

Bulgarian release: 27 November.

Wild Horse Nine

Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin picked up nine Oscar nominations. Expectations for his next film are understandably high, and John Malkovich is

one of the performances we're particularly curious to see.

Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play CIA agents sent from Santiago to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 coup in Chile. Think the barbed exchanges of In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin, now with an explicitly political backdrop. This is an assignment, not a holiday.

Bulgarian release: 13 November. The US release is 6 November.

Paper Tiger

Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller lead another tough New York crime drama from James Gray, the director of Little Odessa, The Yards and We Own the Night. The film

draws on the writer-director's own childhood

and takes us to Queens in 1986. Johansson and Teller play a successful married couple with two sons. Driver is Teller's brother, a former cop with political connections and charisma to spare. He draws his brother into a deal with Russian immigrants that looks too good to go wrong. Naturally, it can go very wrong indeed, especially when the people across the table turn out to be ruthless gangsters.

Kinomania: 19 November, 7.30pm at Vlaikova Cinema, followed by further festival screenings.

Ebenezer

More than 180 years after its publication, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol still has a firm grip on our festive imagination. It helped popularise the greeting 'Merry Christmas' and has inspired generations of screen adaptations. This November, director Ti West brings a dark fantasy sensibility to the story, with

Johnny Depp stepping into Ebenezer Scrooge's shoes.

Scrooge despises Christmas, keeps his family at arm's length and has little time for kindness, generosity or sympathy. On Christmas Eve, the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, arrives with a warning about the fate that awaits him unless he changes. A journey through past, present and future forces Scrooge to confront the consequences of his choices, offering one last chance at redemption.

Bulgarian release: 13 November.

Six films we can’t wait to see (in Bulgarian)

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