Three inventive and engaging biopics are leaving Netflix in the United States this month, along with a scorching stage adaptation, a thrilling Tom Cruise vehicle and an animated comedy that is decidedly not for the kiddies. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)
‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (Nov. 6)
If James Cameron remade “Groundhog Day,” it might come out looking like this fast, funny and thrilling Tom Cruise vehicle from the director Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity”). Cruise stars as a military public relations man with a cowardly streak who is reluctantly thrown onto the front lines, where he discovers he is trapped in a time loop: When he is killed, he jolts awake back at the beginning of his adventure, forced to keep doing it until he gets it right. Emily Blunt is dynamite as the heroic soldier who shows him the ropes (and has a fair number of laughs at his expense), while Liman orchestrates the comic and action beats with equal grace and skill.
‘First Man’ (Nov. 14)
A common thread of this month’s titles are unconventional biopics — stories about important historical figures that mostly manage to eschew the cradle-to-grave framing, on-the-nose dialogue and shallow insights of too many screen biographies. Take this portrait of Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, which is less interested in telling a broad historical story than an intensely personal one. As played by Ryan Gosling, Armstrong is a modest man, one who takes that “one giant leap” more from a sense of duty and service than from ambition or ego. It’s a character study; the character just so happens to be the first man to walk on the moon. The director Damien Chazelle, re-teaming with his “La La Land” leading man, is as aware of the biopic clichés as you are, and he smoothly sidesteps most of them to make a picture that is surprisingly urgent and emotional.
‘Harriet’ (Nov. 15)
The “Eve’s Bayou” director Kasi Lemmons directs this similarly outside-the-lines dramatization of the life of Harriet Tubman, brought to scorching life by the gifted Cynthia Erivo (on the big screen this fall in “Wicked”). The telling is fairly direct: Working from a script written with Gregory Allen Howard, Lemmons hits the biographical milestones in Tubman’s journey from slave to runaway to guide for those who wished to do the same. But Lemmons’s direction is artful and lyrical, taking its cues from the visions that Tubman said guided her, which gives the enterprise an almost otherworldly quality. Erivo’s performance is powerful and textured; she is supported by an excellent cast, including Joe Alwyn, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr. and Clarke Peters.
‘Sausage Party’ (Nov. 22)
Parents who aren’t quite paying full attention might assume that this animated feature about anthropomorphic supermarket foods is typical kiddie fare — and boy, oh boy, would they be in for a surprise. This is very much an R-rated, adults-only venture, the brainchild of the actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg. As with their previous films “Superbad,” “Pineapple Express” and “This Is the End,” the jokes are rude and crude, and the cast is stuffed with comic stars. But the nicest surprise of “Sausage Party” is its thoughtfulness; in the end, it’s a pointed examination of conventional wisdom surrounding religion and death, which is not quite what you might expect from a film that culminates in a food orgy.
‘Ali’ (Nov. 30)
Muhammad Ali lived a full enough life to fill multiple movies, so the director Michael Mann faced a real challenge in bringing his story to the screen. He wisely chose not to squeeze Ali’s entire life into 165 minutes, focusing instead on the period from 1964 (and his first fight with Sonny Liston) to 1974 (the famed “Rumble in the Jungle” with George Foreman). It was an eventful decade, in which Ali won the heavyweight championship; converted to Islam and changed his name; had his title stripped from him over his refusal to comply with the Vietnam draft; and subsequently, spectacularly, won it back. The film runs over two and half hours, but Mann still manages to render all this with precision, balancing the personal and political with passion. Will Smith proved his mettle as a dramatic actor in the title role, while Jamie Foxx similarly showed his impressive range as Ali’s trainer and friend Drew Brown.
‘The Devil’s Own’ (Nov. 30)
This political thriller was mostly shrugged off when it hit theaters in spring of 1997; the notion of putting Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt together presumably led audiences to expect two hours of fireworks rather than a brooding, modest, character piece. But revisited today, free of those expectations, one discovers a compelling and workmanlike picture, directed with confidence and intelligence by Alan J. Pakula (“All the President’s Men,” “Three Days of the Condor”) and shot with autumnal richness by his regular cinematographer Gordon Willis. “The Devil’s Own” is the kind of adult-oriented, mid-budget studio drama that doesn’t really get made any more, which is all the more reason to appreciate it in retrospect.
‘Frances Ha’ (Nov. 30)
After directing her to an acclaimed performance in his film “Greenberg,” the director Noah Baumbach approached the actor Greta Gerwig with a closer collaboration in mind, inviting her to co-write a film in which she would star. The result was this fleet-footed, joyful exercise, which delightfully combines his European influences and classical style with her youth and indie sensibility. Gerwig plays the title character, a young New Yorker trying to pay the rent and retain some semblance of authenticity in an increasingly difficult economic landscape; Mickey Sumner is her best friend, Sophie, who seemingly abandons Frances for the “real world” of marriage and steady work, resulting in an honest (yet frequently hilarious) identity crisis.
‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ (Nov. 30)
David Mamet’s Broadway sensation “Glengarry Glen Ross” was adapted brilliantly to the big screen by the director James Foley and an all-M.V.P. cast, playing the various burnouts and misanthropes who populate a low-level real estate office. Al Pacino has the showiest role as Ricky Roma, the hotshot salesman who is the envy of the office; Jack Lemmon is heartbreaking as his counterpoint, the Willy Loman-like old-timer who can’t make a sale to save his life (and his stakes are, increasingly, that high); while Ed Harris is electrifying as the bitter loudmouth who might just break the law to change his luck. Foley’s direction is occasionally flashy, but he mostly (wisely) steps back and lets the sparks fly, while Mamet’s screenplay adaptation is expert, intermingling scenes and losing excess fat. Best of all, is adds a powerhouse opening monologue for Alec Baldwin that, though clocking in at under 10 minutes, remains his finest screen work to date.
‘Pain & Gain’ (Nov. 30)
Michael Bay, the director best known for big, dumb, loud action movies like “Armageddon” and “Transformers,” showed off his keen sense of humor with this wildly funny and occasionally self-effacing crime comedy, based on the true story of a crew of gym rats who attempted to extort the wealthy client of an ambitious personal trainer (Mark Wahlberg). The cast, which includes Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Tony Shalhoub, is deliciously game, and Bay seems to have a great time sending up his own image — and, in many ways, his own audience.
Also leaving: “Night School” (Nov. 10); “Evil Dead Rise” (Nov. 22); “It: Chapter Two,” “The Little Things,” “Troy” (Nov. 30).
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