The 10 Best Movies to Watch in Fall 2018

Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and screenwriter Jessica Sharzer (American Horror Story) bring Darcy Bell’s riveting thriller to the big screen. Fans of Gone Girl or TBS series Search Party will be drawn into this film’s web of intrigue. Anna Kendrick plays a mommy blogger whose best friend, played by Blake Lively, vanishes. The disappearance launches a series of twists, turns, and betrayals that, judging from the film’s sultry, stylish trailer, will have all the intrigue and verve of the best thrillers.

RED ALERT! Keira Knightley in a period piece! RED ALERT! The star of such classics as Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, and Anna Karenina is back at it again, this time trying the Belle Epoque on for size. In this joyful, fiercely feminist biopic of Nobel Prize–nominated author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Gigi), Knightley plays the titular role with her usual aplomb, tracing the journey of a writer who must fight for visibility when her work is unduly credited to her husband. A hit at the Sundance Film Festival, this will be one of the bright spots of the fall.

Buy stock in Kleenex because this fall is hitting heavy with the tear-jerkers. Not least among them is this true story of a Baptist preacher’s son (played by Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges), who is outed and must choose between submitting to gay conversion therapy or being exiled from his family and faith community. Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman play his parents in a film directed by Joel Edgerton, who also wrote the screenplay. Look for this one to linger all the way through Oscar season.

What’s not to freak out about here? Lady Gaga literally stars as a preternaturally talented singer-songwriter whose rise to fame coincides with the fall from grace of her lover and mentor, played by Bradley Cooper. Cooper directed the flick and also sings in it. This is the third remake of a Janet Graynor film from 1937; Gaga steps into shoes that have previously been fitted for none other than Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. If anyone is up to it, it’s her.

Welcome to the season of Cynthia! Emmy-, Grammy-, and Tony-award winning triple threat Cynthia Erivo bounds from the Broadway stage to the big screen this fall in the Viola Davis–starrer Widows and at the center of Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale. A twisty-turny, psychedelic crime thriller, Bad Times brings seven strangers together at a motel in the 1960s—where guns, money, ominous rainstorms, and a shirtless Chris Hemsworth all come out to play. Co-starring Dakota Johnson, Jeff Bridges, and Jon Hamm, it may be a bad night but it sure looks like a good time.

Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet join Oscar-winner Amy Ryan and Emmy-winner Maura Tierney to tell the heartbreaking true story of a father’s fight to save his son from a crippling addition to meth. The film is based on two memoirs, one by dad David Sheff and one by son Nic Sheff. Amazon Studios is sure to make a big play for this one come awards time.

Based on Angie Thomas’ bestselling YA novel, The Hate U Give explodes into theaters this autumn with an timely and incisive exploration of race, class, and opportunity. Starr (Amandla Stenberg) is a black girl living in two worlds: the mostly black, lower-class neighborhood in which she lives, and the mostly white, upper-class prep school she attends. But then she witnesses her cousin’s murder at the hands of a police officer, and is drawn into activism as the lines between her worlds crumble. Thomas’ book has been perched atop the New York Times bestseller list for over a year, so expect audiences to show up big time for this adaptation.

Mimi Leder directs Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic and it’s time to get pumped. Jones plays the jurist as a young lawyer bringing a gender discrimination case before the Supreme Court. Hammer plays her legal partner and husband, Marty. It’s a long-overdue film tribute to an icon and also a portrait of a struggle that, sadly, is still timely.

What a treat when our funniest performers give wonderful dramatic performances. Think Jim Carrey in The Truman Show or Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People. Add to that list Melissa McCarthy, who’s shown dramatic chops before and gets to be front and center of this crime caper tragedy. McCarthy plays celebrity profiler Lee Israel, who has seen her fortunes fall and her paychecks dry up. While trying to make money selling rare books, she stumbles into letter forgery and quickly gets caught up doctoring missives from famous people with her own poison pen. Co-starring fellow funny people Richard E. Grant and Jane Curtain, this forgery flick is the real deal.

Interstellar co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway re-team for another mind-bender, this one set on earth—or water, to be exact. Hathaway leads this neo-noir playing a woman who makes a dangerous request of her fishing boat captain ex-husband, played by McConaughey. She wants him to take her current husband, Jason Clarke, out on the boat and leave him for the fishes. Of course, everything turns sinister very fast.