Weekend Watchlist, 11/7: Autumn
Bring in the season with this week's picks
Happy Friday, PV Guide readers! I hope the weather’s as nice where you are as it is here.
There’s quite a bit new on streaming this week: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein premieres on Netflix, Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives on Disney Plus, and the Celine Song romance Materialists lands on HBO Max. On the VOD side of things, titles newly available to rent include Dwayne Johnson’s Oscar hopeful The Smashing Machine, the animated darling Boys Go to Jupiter, Black Phone 2 , and Good Fortune. On the TV side, I'm also keeping an eye on the new Netflix series Death by Lightning, about the assassination of James Garfield. I hear it's good! (The show, not the assassination).
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Let’s get to this week’s picks!
Over the Garden Wall
If you like: Dark fairy tales, Adventure Time, Autumn vibes
Watch at: Hulu, or for digital purchase
Watch trailer here
Happy autumn, everyone. We do an annual rewatch of Over the Garden Wall in our house every time the season rolls around, and it’s a great way to get into the seasonal mood.
The dark fantasy coming-of-age show was the first ever miniseries on Cartoon Network, and comes from former Adventure Time creative director Patrick McHale. It follows two half-brothers (Elijah Wood and Collin Dean) lost in a dark and magical forest trying to find their way home. It’s moody, beautifully animated with touches of brunaille paintings and old Americana, has lovely accompanying music, and is delightfully funny.
A noir you haven’t seen
If you like: Crime movies, black-and-white movies, movies with ample mood
Watch at: Criterion Channel (or wherever you find your noirs)
I love the November tradition of Noirvember, using the month to watch some classic dark and moody movies. The Criterion Channel has a new collection called “Blackout Noir”, as well as a general collection of fantastic noir movies. In the Blackout collection, I highly recommend Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place, with Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. In the general noir group, I suggest High and Low, A Colt is My Passport, or the neo-noir The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, but it’s hard to go wrong.
Mississippi Masala
If you like: Romances, Denzel Washington, movies about culture clashes
Watch at: HBO Max, Criterion Channel
Watch trailer here
Zohran Mamdani is going to be the next mayor of New York City, after a historic election night this Tuesday. His mom, Mira Nair, is a celebrated independent filmmaker best known for her dramas and romance movies. Her son’s big win is a great excuse for me (and maybe you) to finally watch Mississippi Masala, generally considered her standout movie, and one that I’ve been meaning to watch for quite some time. It follows the romance between a Black man (Denzel Washington) and an Indian-American woman (Sarita Choudhury) in rural Mississippi. Fall is generally a great time to watch a romance, in my experience, and this fall is a great time to watch this specific romance.
