An existential thriller set in the middle of the Moroccan desert, a whodunit doubling as a crisis of faith, a musical about the founder of the Shaker movement—this year’s Toronto International Film Festival not only screened some of this fall’s biggest movies, but it also offered attendees a rich array of stories to indulge in. My schedule was so full that when Nomadland director Chloé Zhao guided the audience through a breathing exercise before the premiere of her latest film, Hamnet, I noticed how fast my heart was beating—a result of all the caffeine I’d ingested to stay awake. But the upside of long days spent going from screening to screening means a fresh watchlist for the season. Below are 14 of my favorite movies, most of which will arrive in theaters before the end of the year.
The Smashing Machine (in theaters October 3)
If The Smashing Machine had followed the conventional outlines of a sports biopic, it’d look something like this: The protagonist, the wrestler Mark Kerr (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), would be shown discovering his passion for fighting. There’d be scenes of Kerr making unlikely comebacks, of his coach delivering big speeches, of an obvious villain becoming his rival. But the film, written and directed by Benny Safdie, is a sensitive, even melancholy look at how an aging athlete comes to accept defeat with the help of those around him. The Smashing Machine traces three years in Kerr’s career, when his talents had begun to wane but his instincts still pushed him to focus on numbing the pain of his wounds. Johnson’s performance is raw and tender; it’s a revelation for the former wrestler, best known for playing near-invincible lawmen, superheroes, and demigods.
Orwell: 2+2=5 (in theaters October 3)
With his previous documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, the filmmaker Raoul Peck dissected James Baldwin’s works, producing a sobering portrait of anti-Black sentiment in America. His new film, which probes George Orwell’s writings, is just as blistering. Peck uses Orwell’s own words (voiced by the actor Damian Lewis) to illustrate how the author’s vision of a totalitarian future, as articulated in his seminal novel 1984, can be glimpsed around the world. It’s an incendiary watch that presents Orwell’s other works—including his novels, essays, and letters sent to loved ones during his final years—alongside clips from adaptations of his stories and footage of current events. The result makes clear just how prescient the writer was about an emerging political climate.
Roofman (in theaters October 10)
The writer-director Derek Cianfrance doesn’t usually make comedies. His best-known features, such as Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, study doomed romances. But Roofman is an exercise in tragicomic whimsy, dramatizing the true story of Jeffrey Manchester, an unexpectedly polite fugitive who robbed fast-food joints and hid in a Toys “R” Us store after escaping prison. Played by a winsome Channing Tatum, a newly free Jeffrey now intends to reunite with his family, but his absurd plan quickly goes outrageously wrong. As Jeffrey waits for the right moment to rejoin society, his uncertainty grows, as does his need for connection with the outside world, however risky that may be. Roofman is by turns ludicrous and sincere, proof that Cianfrance can expand beyond straightforward melodramas without sacrificing intimacy.
Blue Moon (in theaters October 17)
Unlike the decades-spanning, city-hopping scope of the Before trilogy or Boyhood, the latest collaboration between the director Richard Linklater and the actor Ethan Hawke is small by design. The tale is contained to a single restaurant, and much of the drama emerges from the monologues Hawke delivers as Lorenz Hart, the booze-soaked lyricist whom the composer Richard Rodgers left in favor of working with a different writer, Oscar Hammerstein. The film—set over the course of one evening, following the premiere of Oklahoma!—portrays Hart’s loneliness with an almost uncomfortable earnestness. But it works because of Hawke, who is mesmerizing to watch: He embodies a man endeavoring, as Hart watches his ex-partner land a career-defining success, to bury his insecurities underneath rat-a-tat jokes, toothy smiles, and gossip sessions with a new muse. Although the story is fit for the stage, its protagonist’s larger-than-life personality demands the kinds of close-ups afforded by a big screen.
Sentimental Value (in theaters November 7)
For Nora (Renate Reinsve), her childhood home is a monument to memories she’d rather forget: It’s where her celebrated film-director father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), abandoned his children; where recollections of her parents arguing seep from every corner; and where a crack along the wall provides an all-too-literal reminder of their fracture. But when Nora’s mother dies, Gustav returns for his ex-wife’s funeral with a new idea for a film in which he’d like to cast Nora, now an accomplished stage actor. The dynamic between them begins to shift—imperceptibly, naturally, painfully. The Norwegian director Joachim Trier, best known for his Oslo trilogy (including the Oscar-nominated The Worst Person in the World, also starring Reinsve), is remarkably adept at unearthing universal truths from hyperspecific characters. Sentimental Value won the Grand Prix at Cannes in May, and may be Trier’s most insightful work yet.
Christy (in theaters November 7)
David Michôd’s biopic of the boxer Christy Martin, who broke ground for the sport in the 1990s, is full of harrowing and crowd-pleasing moments, enough to make the row of people behind me at the screening audibly sob. Sydney Sweeney stars as Martin, nimbly conveying Christy’s fear and resilience—as well as confusion over her sexuality—while in an abusive marriage to her coach, Jim (Ben Foster), a man almost twice her age. Aspects of Christy will feel familiar to anyone who has ever watched a boxing film, but it stands out for its careful depiction of the psychological toll of being an elite athlete who’s also expected to be an unassailable female role model. The film makes clear that, for Christy, the ring was the one place where she felt any sense of ownership over her body and her thoughts. It’s a story that, in other words, punches above its weight.
Sirāt (in theaters November 14)
The only way I can think to describe Sirāt is to call it “challenging”—and I mean that as a compliment. The film follows a father and his son looking for a missing relative in the Moroccan desert; they’d heard that she had been going to raves there, and after failing to find her, they decide to tag along with a group of dancers who suggest heading to yet another party even deeper in the desert. What follows are some of the most shocking, yet somehow poignant, moments I’ve ever seen on-screen. Directed by Oliver Laxe, who’s been making waves at Cannes for years, the movie is funny and warm in parts, cruel and cold in others. Most of all, it’s an impressively confident look at the futility of hope, the stubbornness of humanity, and the inescapability of the world’s horrors. It’s uncategorizable, and unforgettable.
Left-Handed Girl (in theaters November 14, streaming on Netflix November 28)
In the solo debut for the writer-director Shih-Ching Tsou, a mother and her two daughters—one a surly teenager, the other a curious child—build a home in Taipei. Adherents of Tsou’s editor and longtime collaborator, Sean Baker (Anora), will recognize the latter’s hallmarks: The movie uses iPhone footage in the same fashion as Tangerine, follows a child’s perspective the way The Florida Project did, and focuses on working-class characters, echoing Baker and Tsou’s co-directed Take Out. But Tsou makes Left-Handed Girl all her own. Through her lens, she illustrates how expectations—societal, familial, personal—can make life inside a cramped apartment in a stifling city feel even more suffocating. The film is a moving watch, but it’s an adorable one, too.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (in theaters November 26, streaming on Netflix December 12)
Sequels to successful franchises tend to up the ante: more spectacle, more locations, more twists. But Rian Johnson’s latest whodunit doesn’t try to shake things up. The newest Knives Out once again features the southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) tackling a complicated case; an ensemble of “Hey, it’s that guy!” actors; and a story that’s an homage to Johnson’s favorite mystery novels and to Edgar Allan Poe. If anything, the biggest surprise is how much of a back seat Blanc takes to Josh O’Connor’s tortured reverend, Jud, who must untangle the reasons why the most devout denizens of a small town would become mired in a bloody mystery. Wake Up Dead Man isn’t quite as funny as Glass Onion or as urgent as Knives Out, but it’s a sufficiently engrossing installment of a film series that has set a high bar for humor and thrills. For now, I’m keeping the faith.
Hamnet (in theaters November 27)
Since Hamnet began making its rounds at film festivals, the audience consensus has been that it’s the tearjerker of the season; the movie won the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, a coveted prize voted on by attendees. The director Chloé Zhao has created a gorgeous and shattering adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, which imagines how a personal tragedy led William Shakespeare to write Hamlet. As with her previous films, Zhao indulges in natural imagery while evoking the humanity of her protagonists, played by Paul Mescal and an especially good Jessie Buckley. Hamnet is a sterling work about the limits of language when it comes to love, family, and grief, even for one of history’s most celebrated wordsmiths.
No Other Choice (in theaters December 25)
When Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun) loses his job of 25 years at a paper company, he assumes that he’ll find another one before long; he won’t need to lose his treasured childhood home, disappoint his two cute children, or face the scorn of his beautiful wife. But this being the latest film from Park Chan-wook, the director of movies such as Decision to Leave, The Handmaiden, and Oldboy, Man-soo’s vision of perfection curdles quickly. His only option, he comes to believe, is eliminating his competition on the paper-related job market. Loosely based on Donald E. Westlake’s novel The Ax, No Other Choice is bleakly funny, and Lee’s excellent performance reveals the cost of being a company man.
Bad Apples (release date TBD)
Films about teachers—whether dramas such as Stand and Deliver or comedies such as School of Rock—tend to show their protagonists overcoming personal challenges as they inspire their students. Bad Apples seems like another entry into that canon, until Maria (Saoirse Ronan), a primary-school instructor reeling after a painful breakup, goes too far while disciplining a particularly disruptive pupil. Or maybe, the film suggests, not far enough: Directed by the up-and-coming Swedish filmmaker Jonatan Etzler, the black comedy—Etzler’s first English-language film—gleefully skewers the image of teachers as superheroes. The material can be discomfiting to take in, but Ronan anchors Maria’s every move in the character’s stubborn belief that her actions are well intentioned.
Maddie’s Secret (release date TBD)
John Early has been many things in his career: stand-up comic, voice actor, supporting player in a Taylor Swift music video. For his directorial debut, Early has created an irreverent comedy specific to his sensibilities. Maddie’s Secret follows Maddie (played by Early), a sweet, people-pleasing chef who wants to be the perfect wife, friend, and culinary influencer. But when stressors pile up in Maddie’s life, a buried habit resurfaces, threatening her plans. The film plays like the 2025 version of But I’m a Cheerleader, a heightened after-school special packed with memorable characters. (Many of them are played by Early’s peers, such as Kate Berlant, Vanessa Bayer, and Conner O’Malley.) Like Maddie, the movie is warm, funny, and sincere—and maybe a little disturbed.
The Testament of Ann Lee (release date TBD)
The best parts of the writer-director Mona Fastvold’s musical biopic about Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), the founder of the Shaker movement, emerge when it leans into the strangeness of its premise. The sequences of Ann and her acolytes singing and dancing to remixed Shaker hymns are transcendent, capturing the completeness of their devotion. But Fastvold, the partner and creative collaborator of The Brutalist director Brady Corbet—she co-wrote both that film and Corbet’s previous movie, Vox Lux—also interrogates the idea of spirituality as a lifeline. Ann, after losing four children in infancy, commits herself to celibacy, creating a religion that takes her far from home and from the burdens she had as a wife. Ann Lee isn’t just about its titular character; as a study of how faith forms, it’s familiar and profound in equal measure.
The post The 14 Movies to Watch Out for This Fall appeared first on The Atlantic.
