It’s a monster of a weekend for new releases, and not just because there’s a snazzy new Apple TV+ show about Godzilla, the King of the Monsters. (But, also, it’s a little bit because of that.) The kaiju’s joined by heavy hitters like a revival of The Hunger Games franchise, SNL’s new comedy trio making their very first movie, the countdown to Princess Diana’s tragic demise on The Crown, and a totally faithful adaptation of Scott Pilgrim with absolutely no differences from the source material whatsoever! (😉) If you’re looking for something to watch this weekend, let us volunteer these movies and shows as tribute. —James Grebey
Featured Presentations
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
The streamer gets in the IP game with this episodic expansion of the MonsterVerse franchise featuring Godzilla and other Titans. Set both in the 1950s and after the events of Godzilla, the 2014 reboot film, Monarch makes a couple of smart casting decisions (father and son Kurt and Wyatt Russell play the same character in different eras) and clearly sank money into its alternately gross and beautiful monster design. Plus, must I mention Godzilla again? Our favorite big boy is back! —Roxana Hadadi
➽ [Blue Öyster Cult voice] Go go Godzilla!
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesÂ
The last time I saw a Hunger Games movie in theaters, I was gearing up to graduate high school, so it’s been a while to say the least. In this prequel by veteran Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, we’re swept back to Panem — though 60 years before Katniss and Peeta’s games — as we follow a young Corionalus Snow (played here by Tom Blyth and echoing the malicious intrigue of Donald Sutherland’s original portrayal) who ends up mentoring a tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), in the tenth Hunger Games. In an entertainment landscape that milks franchises for the hell of it, Ballads sets itself apart by actually being good — great, even! Incredible performances from the whole cast (especially a deliciously evil Viola Davis and a quick-witted Jason Schwartzman) are the cherry on top of this stellar new entry in the Hunger Games world. Need a pre-watch refresher? Read this. —Savannah Salazar
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Murder at the End of the WorldÂ
A little bit murder mystery, a little bit social satire, a little bit whatever oddness gets infused from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij. Emma Corrin plays a Gen-Z Sherlock Holmes type, Clive Owen is a reclusive billionaire, and an icy, remote setting means everyone has to tramp around in the snow looking for clues while their eyes dart at one another with suspicion. —Kathryn VanArendonk
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May December
Julianne Moore is the woman who once seduced a seventh-grader and wound up marrying him; Natalie Portman is the famous actress who now wants to play her in a movie and whose arrival in town upends everyone’s lives. Todd Haynes’s wildly entertaining melodrama thrives on dissonance — it makes you reexamine your responses to everything. —Bilge Ebiri
➽ Saltburn, one of the wildest movies of the year, gets a limited release this weekend before going wide next week. We’ll remind you then, but in the meantime, enjoy the salty, sultry trailer.
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The Crown season six
The final season of The Crown is being split into two parts with four episodes debuting prior to Thanksgiving and the remaining six landing December 14. And, yes, those initial episodes will address the death of Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki. —Jen Chaney
Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain
Please Don’t Destroy, the comedy trio consisting of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, have made their feature-film debut, which also stars Vulture favorite Meg Stalter. Will these boys find a lost treasure and prove they’re not losers? How will this movie compare to other films in the Saturday Night Live family? Will Please Don’t Destroy ever get a write-up without a nepo baby joke? —J.G.
Rustin
Barack Obama, producer-in-chief, produced this biopic (along with Michelle!) about Bayard Rustin, the civil-rights leader whose status as a gay man kept him largely out of history … until this Oscar-hopeful movie starring Colman Domingo. —J.G.
Animation Station
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
The manga- and video-game-inspired sensibilities of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, and the live-action 2010 film inspired by them, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, are front and center in this series, which includes pretty much every actor from the Edgar Wright movie in the voice cast (Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Aubrey Plaza). There’s a new plot twist, but don’t worry: The music of Sex Bob-Omb is still featured prominently. —J.C.
Trolls Band TogetherÂ
If you have kids, we’re sure this is already top of mind for this weekend. It’s hard to describe what the hell is going on in Trolls anymore, but apparently Branch (Justin Timberlake) and his four brothers were a part of a boy band that Poppy (Anna Kendrick) loved. Naturally, they try to get the band back together, all while singing a plethora of earworm pop songs. Enjoy! —S.S.Â
Genre Fare
Thanksgiving
Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie just need to make full-length movies out of Don’t and Werewolf Women of the SS and all of the “fake†trailers from Grindhouse will have become real movies. Thanksgiving is Eli Roth’s feature take on his 2007 faux-trailer, and while the new movie drops most of the stylized exploitation vibes, it’s still a horrifying holiday slasher. A turkey, this ain’t. —JG.
Food O’Clock
Julia season two
As rich and indulgent and comforting and quaint as a Julia Child recipe, Julia returns for a second season absolutely swimming in cheesiness. It trends toward high-production-value Masterpiece Theater … but who’s complaining? —K.V.A.
Make It a Double Feature
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Without spoiling too much, let’s just say watching the live-action Scott Pilgrim and the animated Scott Pilgrim won’t be redundant even though they have the same voice cast. —J.G.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of November 10.