Ammonite《菊石》

 

Kate Winslet plays Mary Anning, the Victorian fossil hunter whose discoveries on the Dorset coast made her a heroine to palaeontologists, but who was never quite accepted by male scientists in her lifetime. Saoirse Ronan plays Charlotte Murchison, an aspiring geologist who visits Anning's home in Lyme Regis. BBC Culture's Caryn James says that Francis Lee's "exquisite" period romance is "visually stunning, emotionally enduring [and] brutally honest".

 

Released on 13 November in the US

 

The Comeback Trail 《回归之路》

 

This retro Hollywood caper probably won't rank as the best film ever made by its three venerable stars, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones, but it does look fun. Besides, the last time its writer-director, George Gallo, wrote a screenplay for De Niro, it was Midnight Run, and that does rank as one of his best. A remake of a little-seen comedy set in 1974, The Comeback Trail features De Niro and Zach Braff as a pair of low-rent producers who owe a fortune to a homicidal gangster (Morgan Freeman). Their solution: hire a washed-up western star (Jones), encourage him to do his own dangerous stunts in a cowboy movie, and collect the insurance cheque if, and when, he is killed.

 

Released on 12 November in the Netherlands and 20 November in Iceland and Sweden

 

Come Away《远走高飞》

 

Earlier this year, Wendy retold the story of Peter Pan as an American fantasy drama. Next year, there's Peter Pan and Wendy, with Jude Law as Captain Hook. And in the meantime, we've got Come Away, a prequel to both Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. The first live-action film to be directed by Brenda Chapman (Brave), Come Away reimagines Peter and Alice as a brother and sister who live in Victorian England with their loving parents (Angelina Jolie and David Oyelowo). A family tragedy prompts them to retreat into fantasy worlds populated by strange caricatures of the people they know. Lorry Kikta of Film Threat calls Come Away "pure magic... a heart-rending, joyful, and gorgeous movie for kids [that] doesn't hesitate to dazzle even the most jaded of adults".

 

Released on 13 November in the US, Canada and Spain

 

Hillbilly Elegy 《乡下人的悲歌》

 

JD Vance's fraught account of his poverty-stricken Appalachian upbringing in Ohio was a New York Times bestseller in 2016, when it was viewed by some commentators as a window into the soul of US white working-class. The film of Hillbilly Elegy is directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) and written by Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water). Both writer and director have worked on Oscar-winning hits, but awards-watchers have their eyes on its two female stars: Amy Adams plays Vance's unstable, drug-addicted mother, and Glenn Close is the tough grandmother who raised him. "Between them," notes Yohana Desta in Vanity Fair, "the pair have 13 total Oscar nominations but zero wins – making Hillbilly one of the more intriguing titles on this year's awards circuit. Will one of them finally break their Oscar spell next year and land an acting statuette? Will both of them win? It's possible!"

 

On Netflix from 24 November

 

The Croods: A New Age 《疯狂原始人2：新纪元》

 

The prehistoric family from 2013's hugely enjoyable cartoon, The Croods, makes a welcome return, so we can expect more frenetic adventures, bizarre hybrid animals, and endearing vocal work by such well-cast actors as Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds. In the much-delayed sequel, they meet another family, the Bettermans (voiced by Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann and Kelly Marie Tran), whose advanced lifestyle and technology makes the Croods look even more primitive than they did already. "The Croods lead with their heart, and the Bettermans lead with their brain," says Joel Crawford, the film's director. "Of course, there's conflict, they face challenges, but they learn to appreciate each other's differences. There's a lot of wonderful, powerful themes. But it's a ridiculous comedy too."

 

Released on 25 November in the US and 26 November in Singapore