After a relatively light movie year, Hollywood has prepared a cornucopia of new releases for both streaming and theaters during the harvest season. With two new releases from Richard Linklater, the first Shane Black and Kathryn Bigelow movies in nearly a decade, the return of Daniel Day-Lewis, and another game of Tron, October promises one of the most densely packed movie months of the year. Those are the treats, but the trick? A distinct lack of horror movies! Guillermo del Toro\u2019s Frankenstein is arguably the only creature feature hitting screens this month, and that\u2019s being folded into Netflix\u2019s auteur-packed Oscar package. Regardless, there are still plenty of exciting new releases this month, including new works from Kelly Reichardt, Nia DaCosta, and Jafar Panahi, whose Palme d\u2019Or winner It Was Just An Accident bows this month. Grab your pumpkin-shaped popcorn bucket and get ready to hit the movies with our October film preview.<\/p>\n
Shane Black\u2019s long-awaited follow-up to The Nice Guys (we\u2019ll just politely forget about The Predator), his Donald E. Westlake adaptation Play Dirty teams Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield for a Big Apple pirate ship heist. Wahlberg leads a team of thieves, including a treacherous ex-lover (Rosa Salazar), on a caper to steal from the mafia, a billionaire, and an army. The trailer promises plenty of action and laughs, but points must be deducted for being a Prime Video streaming-only release.<\/p>\n
Dwayne Johnson\u2019s entire Oscar campaign rests upon whether audiences believe him as MMA legend Mark Kerr. Credit where it\u2019s due: He looks more refrigerator than Rock in the trailer. Johnson is aiming for dramatic highs in Benny Safdie\u2019s sports biopic about the rise and fall of a champion, with heavy prosthetics, a soft, high-pitched voice, and relationship troubles with Emily Blunt.<\/p>\n
Returning to the big screen for the first time since 2017, Daniel Day-Lewis stars in a psychological drama directed by his son, Ronan. If anything\u2019s going to bring him back to film, it might as well be a movie he co-wrote with his kid. Daniel Day-Lewis plays a hermit living in Northern England who gets an unexpected visit from his estranged brother (Sean Bean)\u2014and the trailer teases the Daniel Plainview intensity that audiences crave from the actor.<\/p>\n
Luca Guadagnino is back to his provocative ways with After The Hunt, a star-studded movie that dares to ask: Has #MeToo gone too far? A Yale professor (Julia Roberts) finds herself in a thorny scandal after a close friend and colleague (Andrew Garfield) is accused of assault by her star pupil (Ayo Edebiri).<\/p>\n
A House Of Dynamite (October 10)<\/p>\n
\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s first movie since 2017\u2019s Detroit, A House Of Dynamite follows Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) as she works with President Idris Elba to formulate a plan to stop an unknown foreign power from firing a nuke at Chicago. This governmental competence drama boasts an impressive ensemble that also includes Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Moses Ingram, Gabriel Basso, Kaitlyn Dever, Greta Lee, and Jason Clarke.<\/p>\n
Roofman (October 10)<\/p>\n
\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
Wrapping its action-comedy thrills in Toys \u201cR\u201d Us nostalgia, Derek Cianfrance\u2019s Roofman stars Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, a charismatic, ex-military thief hiding out from the cops in the wall of one of the chain toy stores. After he falls in love with an employee (Kirsten Dunst), Jeffrey compromises his safe space to be with her, creating chaos for all involved.<\/p>\n
Tron: Ares (October 10)<\/p>\n
\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
Tron is finally escaping its video game prison and invading reality in Tron: Ares, bringing lightcycles to our world with a flashy red color scheme. The first Tron movie in 15 years stars Jared Leto as Ares, a rebellious, malfunctioning AI that breaks free from its creator\u2019s programming and begins to feel.<\/p>\n
Kiss Of The Spider Woman (October 10)<\/p>\n
\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
Bill Condon\u2019s latest musical, Kiss Of The Spider Woman<\/a> is the most intriguing role for Jennifer Lopez in some time. Based on the Tony-winning Broadway hit, Spider Woman follows a political prisoner (Diego Luna) and an incarcerated window dresser (Tonatiuh), as they escape into fantasy, dreaming up a glossy fantasia starring their favorite screen queen (Lopez).<\/p>\n If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You (October 10)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n Rose Byrne is a mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the buzzy second feature from Mary Bronstein, If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You. When her ceiling collapses, Linda (Byrne) struggles to keep it together while dealing with a sick kid, an absentee spouse, a motel mystery man (A$AP Rocky), and an antagonistic therapist (Conan O\u2019Brien).<\/p>\n It Was Just An Accident (October 10)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n Director Jafar Panahi\u2019s It Was Just An Accident<\/a> follows Vahid, a former political prisoner (Vahid Mobasseri), who believes he\u2019s stumbled upon his jailhouse torturer, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi). After kidnapping Eghbal, Vahid plans to bury his former antagonist alive, but begins to doubt whether he has the right guy and enlists other ex-victims to help him determine Eghbal\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n Ballad Of A Small Player (October 15)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n After a brief sojourn to the Vatican, Conclave and All Quiet On The Western Front director Edward Berger returns to Netflix for Ballad Of A Small Player. While lying low in Macau, a broke Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) racks up gambling debts before a mysterious casino employee (Fala Chen) and a private eye (Tilda Swinton) join the game.<\/p>\n The Mastermind (October 17)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n A Kelly Reichardt-directed heist movie<\/a> starring Josh O\u2019Connor? Say no more. The director might not be the first name you think of when you think of capers, but O\u2019Connor leads a team of offbeat art thieves who find getting away with the crime more difficult than committing it. Reichardt brings along Alana Haim, Bill Camp, Hope Davis, John Magaro, and Gaby Hoffmann for the job.<\/p>\n Frankenstein (October 17)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n The movie Guillermo del Toro has been building toward his whole career, Frankenstein<\/a> is now\u2026alive! Starring Oscar Isaac as the doctor, Jacob Elordi as his Creature, and Mia Goth as Elizabeth, del Toro\u2019s adaptation applies his gothic mastery to Mary Shelley\u2019s masterpiece for one of the most lavish movies to hit streaming this year.<\/p>\n Hedda (October 22)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n Writer-director Nia DaCosta steps away from the franchises for an update of Henrik Ibsen\u2019s <\/a>Hedda Gabler<\/a>. After marrying for money, Hedda (Tessa Thompson) returns from her honeymoon and finds herself hosting an old flame (Nina Hoss) at a raucous party. Hedda co-stars Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock, and Kathryn Hunter.<\/p>\n Bugonia (October 31)<\/p>\n \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n