10 Must-See Movies Hitting Cinemas This November – From ‘La Bola Negra’ to ‘The Hunger Games’

Spanish filmmaking duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi – aka ‘Los Javis’ – casually deliver one of the best films of the year, an era-spanning queer epic exploring love and art before, during and long after the Spanish Civil War. It’s one of those every-frame-is-a-painting joys that will make dance out of the cinema and tell your friends, probably using phrases like ‘mise-en-scène’ in the process. They will look at you funny but when they see it, they’ll understand why you suddenly went all Cahier du Cinéma on them. This one is a masterpiece. 

In cinemas November 6

Writer-director-special-effects-wiz Takashi Yamazaki follows up 2023's Godzilla Minus One with more monster madness (and the first Japanese movie filmed for IMAX, no less). Ryunosuke Kamiki (the hero in the first go-round), Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada and Kuranosuke Sasaki all return with their characters here, picking up the pieces two years after the end of the last film – and a whole lot of devastation and destruction.

In cinemas Nov 6

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell are a pair of CIA spooks kicking their heels on Easter island as the Agency prepares to help depose Chile’s President Allende. The fly in the ointment is that Malkovich’s spy ais increasingly forgetful and prone to expounding on previous coups and assassinations he’s been involved in. Loudly. In airport lounges. Steve Buscemi gets his juiciest role in years as their exasperated bureau chief. Writer-director Martin McDonagh picks up where he left off with The Banshees of Inisherin, crafting another genius-level black comedy that should be high on your November watchlist. 

In cinemas November 6

Now this is a voice cast. Bill Hader, Matt Berry (the best pipes in this or any other biz), Quinta Brunson and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, dive into the world of Dr. Seuss, with the Barry creator starring as the titular top-hat enthusiast. The project is helmed and written by Borat Subsequent Moviefilm co-scribe Erica Rivinoja and Kung Fu Panda 3 director Alessandro Carloni. Here’s hoping it pans out better than that 2003 live-action version with Mike Myers. 

In cinemas Nov 6

Anthony Ippolito is really into playing star-making ’70s turns, huh? After tackling Al Pacino  during the production of The Godfather in The Offer, he takes on Sylvester Stallone's breakout performance as Philly's lovably scrappy pugilist here. Peter Farrelly directs, reuniting with There's Something About Mary's Matt Dillon (who portrays Sly’s father), and the behind-the-scenes underdog story also features AnnaSophia Robb, PJ Byrne and Stephan James as the late, great Carl Weathers. 

In cinemas November 6

Yes, another one! Except this take on the festive classic is the handiwork of Ti West, the horror maven behind MaXXXine and Pearl, so it’s reasonable to expect more than the usual guts and gristle in what’s being billed as ‘a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London’. In more proof that you can’t keep a man down, Johnny Depp plays Ebenezer Scrooge, a heartless miser learning some scary life lessons. Ian McKellen, Andrea Riseborough and Severance’s Tramell Tillman co-star.

In cinemas November 13

A polarising Palme d’Or winner in every sense, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s culture war drama is a much blunter piece of work than his other Cannes winner, 2008’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. Then again, Mungiu’s first film set outside his native land is speaking to different times. He sets Sebastian Stan’s old-school Romanian patriarch and his Norwegian wife (Renate Reinsve) at odds with a progressive community in remote Norway. Loosely inspired by a true story, it’ll spark more post-film debate that any other movie this month. 

In cinemas November 13

The 50th Hunger Games are upon us, people. In another prequel to the OG phenom from 2012, the series brings Joseph Zada, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin and Ralph Fiennes (as Coriolanus Snow, the big bad played by the late Donald Sutherland in the 2010s) into the dystopian fold. Franchise veteran Francis Lawrence is back in the director's chair to capture all the kids-fighting-to-the-death, must-see-TV action. 

In cinemas November 20

In what sounds like something of a cineaste’s dream, David Fincher helms this follow-up to Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, which chronicles the high times of former stuntman and current studio fixer/bartender/movie-theater employee Cliff Booth (a returning Brad Pitt) in 1977 Los Angeles. Zodiac’s Fincher has a real knack for capturing this period, and Tarantino, a filmmaker who’s always been enamored with Hollywood in the ’70s, seems to be in a fun, loose mode as a writer here (at least judging by the trailer).  

In cinemas November 25

Just in time for the long, lazy winter weekend, Disney debuts a big family-friendly animated film about Billie Doe (Hailee Steinfeld), an outcast who, after learning she has magical powers, gets expelled from school and sucked into a witch-filled netherworld called Hexe. Rashida Jones voices her concerned mother in suburbia, while Jodie Foster, Walton Goggins, Tracey Ullman and Stephen Fry bring to life the supernatural beings on the other side. 

In cinemas November 27