A beloved biopic, three action classics and a pedigreed adaptation of a literary sensation are among the titles departing Netflix in the United States in November. (Dates indicate the first day titles are unavailable and are subject to change.)
‘La Bamba’ (Nov. 1)
The rock biopic was still in its infancy when the filmmaker Luis Valdez (subject of the recent documentary “American Pachuco”) wrote and directed this musical drama based on the life of Ritchie Valens, who died alongside Buddy Holly — himself the subject of a 1978 biopic — and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) on what came to be known as “the day the music died.” Valens, here played by Lou Diamond Phillips in his breakthrough role, was only 17 at the time, leaving the director with rather a short life to dramatize. But he uses that to the picture’s advantage, focusing on Valens’s complicated relationship with his troubled older brother (Esai Morales, excellent) and filling in the margins with richly textured details of Latino life in the late 1950s. The performances are strong across the board, and the music, performed primarily by Los Lobos, is unsurprisingly spectacular.
‘Speed’ (Nov. 1)
Sometimes a film’s central concept is so clever that it almost can’t help but become a hit. Such was the case with this 1994 action smash, in which a mad bomber (Dennis Hopper at his twitchiest) wires a Los Angeles city bus with a bomb that will explode if the bus drops under 50 miles per hour. But an ingenious idea alone does not a classic action movie make. The director Jan de Bont gives the picture enough breathless energy and claustrophobia to earn its comparisons to “Die Hard” (on which he was cinematographer), Keanu Reeves confirms the Everyman action hero brand he established with “Point Break,” and then-newcomer Sandra Bullock delights in what would prove to be a star-making performance.
‘The Warriors’ (Nov. 1)
Walter Hill’s New York gang movie became something of a cause célèbre upon its initial release in early 1979, when conflicts near screenings resulted in gang violence and even some deaths. The usual questions were raised about the correlation between on- and offscreen brutality, but they’re tricky with a picture like “The Warriors,” which makes no attempt to reflect reality. Hill tinkers and toys with myths, and his film takes as much inspiration from “The Odyssey” as the Sol Yurick novel it’s officially based on. His gangs wear elaborate, theatrical costumes and engage in epic battles, as the titular group, accused of assassinating a charismatic leader, attempts to traverse the city in the dead of night from the Bronx to the safety of their Coney Island home base. Simultaneously slick and grimy, meditative and fast-paced, “The Warriors” has become a classic slice of Gotham cinema.
‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ (Nov. 14)
Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy had already been successfully adapted for the screen in his native Sweden when this American adaptation was announced, so it needed something special to justify its making. That certain something was the director David Fincher, who brought his sleek aesthetic, narrative precision and unflinching eye (honed and perfected in films like “Seven” and “Zodiac”) to Larsson’s story of an investigative journalist (Daniel Craig) and a brilliant computer hacker (Rooney Mara) who team up to look into a cold case at the prodding of a wealthy industrialist (Christopher Plummer). Fincher has always been a master of mood, and he creates a chilly, chilling world here, aided by Jeff Cronenweth’s Oscar-nominated cinematography and the menacing musical score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
‘True Romance’ (Nov. 19)
This 1993 action extravaganza from the director Tony Scott was the second screenwriting credit for an ambitious up-and-comer named Quentin Tarantino, who sold the script before making his breakthrough indie hit “Reservoir Dogs.” The stacked cast includes Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as young lovers on the run, and Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Bronson Pinchot, Michael Rapaport and Christopher Walken as their various pals and pursuers. Throw in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance by future Tarantino muse Samuel L. Jackson and the first major film role for James Gandolfini and you’ve got a certified ’90s crime classic.
‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ (Nov. 25)
It may come as a shock to see such a high-profile Netflix original show disappear from the service, but the logistics of licensing are a tangle few of us are equipped to unravel. The disappearance of this revival series is a loss for fans of the original seven-season comedy-drama about three generations of women grappling with the complexities of their lives, loves and familial dynamic. The trademark rapid-fire repartee is wielded adroitly by the stars Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel and Kelly Bishop, and the passing of Edward Herrmann, who played the Gilmore paterfamilias, is handled with warmth and grace. The series is not flawless — the brevity of Melissa McCarthy’s appearance, for example, is understandable but disappointing — but it is an uncommonly satisfying epilogue from a service that hasn’t always provided them. (But enough about those later seasons of “Arrested Development” …)
ALSO LEAVING: Nov. 1: “13 Going on 30,” “42,” “About Last Night…,” “American Sniper,” “Broadchurch,” “Catch & Release,” “Happy Death Day 2U,” “Hitch,” “Jumanji,” “Jumping the Broom,” “Moonage Daydream,” “Nightcrawler,” “Starship Troopers,” “Steel Magnolias,” “The Grey,” “The Night Before,” “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” “Under the Skin”; Nov. 4: ‘Minx’; Nov. 9: “The Lost City”; Nov. 11: “Slow West”; Nov. 14: “The Big C,” “Killer Joe”; Nov. 15: “Paddington in Peru,” “The Shallows”; Nov. 17: “I’m Still Here.”
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