Star-crossed lovers meet in ecstasy and agony in two steamy gay features — Plainclothes and The History of Sound — leading off what might turn out to be a fall crop full of unforgettable films. That is, if we’re to believe the hype preceding several releases, from Chloe Zhao’s heartbreaking historical drama Hamnet, to Paul Thomas Anderson’s rollicking action thriller One Battle After Another, already being hailed a masterpiece by film insiders.

This year — which will be memorable for far more than what movies we saw — has already provided powerful jolts of cinematic satisfaction with Sinners and Weapons, films we’ll surely still be thinking about into next year. They’ll be joined by some of the titles listed here perhaps as the movies you won’t soon forget.

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SEPTEMBER

Plainclothes — A scintillating ’90s-set gay romantic thriller from debut director Carmen Emmi, starring Tom Blyth as a Syracuse cop assigned to an undercover sting operation entrapping men into lewd acts in a mall restroom. Struggling with his own sexuality, the officer slides into a spiral of anxiety after he falls for one of his targets, played with sensitivity and sex appeal by Russell Tovey. (Now Playing)

The History of Sound — Touching notes of Brokeback Mountain resonate through this tender period love story between a pair of music scholars, portrayed by earthy heartthrobs Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, traveling rural WWI-era America collecting folk tunes and making beautiful music together. Award-winning Moffie filmmaker Oliver Hermanus directs from a script by author Ben Shattuck, based on his short story. (Now Playing)

Him — A bizarre psychological horror from producer Jordan Peele and director Justin Tipping, Him stars Tyriq Withers as a college football phenom bound for the pros, taken under wing by his aging pro idol (an intense Marlon Wayans). The mentor offers his protégé the keys to paradise as long as the upstart is willing to make certain sacrifices. Gruesomely over-the-top, the film brandishes a devilish wit in its takedown of self-mythologizing pro athletes, cold-blooded team owners, money-grubbing agents, and obsessive fans. (Now Playing)

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey — Why is no one really talking about this romantic fantasy starring A-listers Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, from After Yang auteur Kogonada? Visually inviting, the introspective journey tracing the eventful pasts of two strangers who meet at a wedding and hit it off, also features Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and a possibly magical door in a forest that could lead to the couple’s future together. Okay, maybe that’s why. (Now Playing)

Eleanor the Great — One of our must-sees of the season, not because the movie marks Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut, but for the great June Squibb, in only her second leading film role (including her dynamite turn in last year’s charming Thelma), portraying a Holocaust survivor who impulsively uproots her sedate life in Florida to move to Manhattan at 94 years old. (9/26)

The Strangers: Chapter 2 — This second installment of Renny Harlin’s trilogy rebooting the horror franchise about masked home invaders picks up where 2024’s Chapter 1 left off, following survivor Maya (Madelaine Petsch) into a new day still being stalked by killers. Harlin and company shot all three chapters consecutively, so know that whatever fate befalls poor Maya here, Chapter 3 is already in the can promising an end, eventually, to her torment, at some unspecified future release date. (9/26)

One Battle After Another — Rapturous pre-release praise for Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic isn’t coming just from usual suspects like the PTA-loving press and ovation-crazed festival crowds, but from no less than Steven Spielberg, who reportedly has seen the sprawling, action-packed crime drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, and Regina Hall at least three times, declaring to Anderson during a post-screening discussion in L.A., “What an insane movie, oh my God!” We’ll take Spielberg’s word for it, and be sure not to miss this thriller, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland. (9/26)

OCTOBER

Fairyland — Based on the memoir by Alysia Abbott, and produced by Sofia Coppola, writer-director Andrew Durham’s coming-of-age dramedy follows precocious young girl Alysia (Nessa Dougherty) being raised by her single gay dad (Scott McNairy) in San Francisco through the swinging ’70s and into the heartbreaking era of the AIDS Crisis. (10/3)

Good Boy — A hit in its premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, where it snagged the Howl of Fame Award, this eagerly-awaited horror flick from filmmaker Ben Leonberg, about a supernatural presence terrorizing the new owner of an old country house, is told from the perspective of the owner’s dog Indy. Leonberg’s own adorable Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Indy plays the protective pooch who must fight to save his master, and he’s already being praised for giving one of the all-time great canine performances on film. (10/3)

The Smashing Machine — We smell Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson cooking up a rebrand as a serious thespian, starring as real-life mixed-martial arts champ Mark Kerr opposite Emily Blunt as wife Dawn Staples in this biopic from writer-director Benny Safdie (flying solo for his first feature without his Uncut Gems filmmaking brother Josh). The Rock’s makeup transformation into Kerr appears impressive, but the fact that Blunt’s character calls to mind Heidi Gardner’s SNL parody of “Every Boxer’s Girlfriend from Every Movie About Boxing Ever” might not bode so well. (10/3)

Anemone — Ronan Day-Lewis coaxed his three-time Oscar-winning actor father, Daniel Day-Lewis, back in front of the camera for the first time since the 2017 drama The Phantom Thread for a film that father and son co-wrote, starring the elder Day-Lewis alongside Sean Bean and Samantha Morton in a tense examination of family ties, a likely subject, to be sure. (10/10)

Tron: Ares — By far, the most memorable things about the 2010 franchise reboot Tron: Legacy are its dreamy electro Daft Punk score, which still pops up on our playlists, and the uncannily de-aged double of original Tron star Jeff Bridges. Daft Punk doesn’t return for this delayed sequel, directed by Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), following a super-intelligent AI program, Ares (Jared Leto, of all people), who enters the real world. But the soundtrack still promises to kick ass now that Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) are on the job. Bridges returns, and maybe his de-aged double does, too. (10/10)

Kiss of the Spider Woman — According to Jennifer Lopez, she has auditioned for movie musicals Evita, Nine, and Chicago, and not gotten her shot at some of the biggest Broadway-to-screen roles to come along in her career. Until now, as the performer takes on the role of Aurora, originated on Broadway by Tony-winner Chita Rivera, in Bill Condon’s adaptation of the stage musical about two cellmates in an Argentinian prison (portrayed by newcomer Tonatiuh and Diego Luna) whose fantasies of film goddess Aurora sustain them through suffering, as they fall in love. (10/10)

After the Hunt — Challengers filmmaker Luca Guadagnino enters Tár territory with Julia Roberts leading a chic ensemble (Ayo Edibiri, Andrew Garfield, Chloë Sevigny, Michael Stuhlbarg) as an esteemed college professor dragged into scandal when a serious accusation against colleague Garfield stirs up her own hidden past. Sounds juicy. Response was mixed following the film’s Venice Film Festival debut, but we’re always down for Luca. (10/17)

The Mastermind — The season’s second lauded release featuring Josh O’Connor, but not the last, this crime caper from First Cow filmmaker Kelly Reichardt follows O’Connor’s ’70s slacker Mooney, who finds his calling planning a brazen museum art heist. Do Mooney and his cronies pull off their crime of the century? Who knows, but we’re sure charmer O’Connor will steal more moviegoers’ hearts. (10/17)

Frankenstein — An irresistible marriage of filmmaker and material, Guillermo Del Toro’s vision of Mary Shelley’s classic, starring Oscar Isaac as the mad doctor and Jacob Elordi as his creation, bears the hallmarks of the director’s lushly atmospheric style with hints of Grand Guignol, Hammer Studios horror. Also starring Mia Goth as Elizabeth, potential future Bride to the Creature. (10/17)

Bugonia — We are very ready to absorb the latest dry-humored, fish-eyed fable from Yorgos Lanthimos, starring the filmmaker’s Poor Things and The Favourite leading lady, two-time Oscar-winner Emma Stone, already garnering more awards buzz for her steely turn as a high-profile corporate CEO kidnapped by kooks (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) who believe she’s one of the aliens taking over the world. (10/24)

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere — The Bear Emmy-winner Jeremy Allen White. Is. The Boss. Or so we’re hearing of the actor’s said-to-be transcendent take on Bruuuuuce in this biopic directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), based on Warren Zanes’ book. Similar praise greeted the star’s turn as a real-life wrestler in The Iron Claw, and we weren’t totally convinced then, but look forward to seeing White do his rock star thing, singing and playing harmonica throughout the movie, which co-stars Adolescence Emmy-winner Stephen Graham as Bruce’s dad, and Succession Emmy-winner Jeremy Strong as his stalwart manager/producer Jon Landau. (10/24)

Queens of the Dead — Drag queens, that is, who team up with a crew of club kids to battle zombies, fabulously, no doubt, in a horror-comedy directed by Tina Romero, with a quirky cast of queer talent, including Jacquel Spivey (Mean Girls), Tomas Matos (Fire Island), Katy O’Brian, Cheyenne Jackson, Margaret Cho, Karan Brar, Nina West, and Dominique Jackson. (10/24)

NOVEMBER

Predator: Badlands — A young Predator (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, embarks on an adventure with human ally Thia, played by Elle Fanning, in the first film of this long-running franchise to center the Predator and his journey. Dan Trachtenberg also helmed the terrific previous Predator entry, 2022’s Prey, set in the Comanche Nation, so seems an apt choice to steer this encouraging sign of progress between our two species. (11/7)

Jay Kelly — The unlikely duo of George Clooney and Adam Sandler, portraying an A-list movie star and his devoted manager on a whirlwind European tour together, delighted audiences at the Venice premiere of this seriocomic character study from Noah Baumbach, co-written by Emily Mortimer, who appears in a supporting role (as do Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Jim Broadbent, and Baumbach’s wife Greta Gerwig). Buzz is building around previous Oscar-winner Clooney’s performance, but could this actually be the film that lands Sandler his first-ever Academy Award nomination? (11/12)

The Running Man — Edgar Wright (Last Night in Soho) directs freshly minted movie star Glen Powell in this second adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, about a downtrodden everyman competing for his life on a live TV game show, hosted by Colman Domingo’s fierce divo Bobby Thompson, that exemplifies the bloodthirsty amorality of the film’s future dystopian America. Hopefully, the savage every-man-for-himself ethos doesn’t hit too close to home. (11/14)

Wicked: For Good — Part 2 in the continuing saga of the witches of Oz promises to keep defying gravity at the box office in the wake of Part 1’s $756 million worldwide haul. The ancillary entertainment of another viral Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande press cycle should help, along with the allure of two new songs, one for Elphaba and one for Glinda, written expressly for the film by the musical’s composer Stephen Schwartz. Director Jon M. Chu remains at the helm for the second act, when the land’s most famous visitor comes blowing into Oz. (11/21)

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery — Daniel Craig’s dapper gay detective Benoit Blanc is in the house, so somebody’s getting murdered, and this time Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny, Thomas Haden Church, and Jeremy Renner number among the suspects — or victims. The mystery, set largely inside a church, is sure to twist in myriad directions under the steady hand of Rian Johnson, who keeps hitting the target with these clever ensemble puzzles. (11/26)

DECEMBER/JANUARY

Hamnet — This emotional peek into the lives and marriage of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley), following the tragic death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet, had viewers at the film’s Telluride Film Festival premiere weeping in their seats. Adapting the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, Nomadland Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao wrote and directed, finally making the long trip back from the Marvel universe and the under-performing but loved-by-some Eternals. (12/12)

Avatar: Fire and Ash — James Cameron and 20th Century Studios plan a global October re-release of 2022 blockbuster sequel Avatar: The Way of Water to prime the audience for this third installment, and frankly, to refresh our collective memories since that last visit to spectacular Pandora, and the adventures of Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña) and their growing family, also was the last time many of us gave this saga any thought. We’ve all lived decades since then. (12/19)

The Housemaid — Paul Feig directs this thriller, based on the first book of a series by Freida McFadden, with Amanda Seyfried as a well-to-do woman who hires Sydney Sweeney’s troubled Millie to be her family’s live-in housemaid. Just on the surface, that seems like a bad idea for Seyfried’s wife and mom, though the film’s trailer hints that Sweeney’s housemaid might be the party who’s in for the bigger surprise. (12/19)

Anaconda (2025) — Jack Black and Paul Rudd, joined by Thandie Newton and Steve Zahn, play childhood pals following their dream to remake ’90s hit Anaconda in the real jungle with a real snake in this ridiculous-looking action-comedy reboot. The friends’ low-budget shoot hits a real snag when they turn up another giant, man-eating monster. This probably wasn’t the dumbest idea for a reboot that studio execs considered, but maybe it was. Folks slept on writer-director Tom Gormican’s meta Nic Cage-Pedro Pascal comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and that was hysterical, so there’s hope. (12/19)

Song Sung Blue — Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, both triple-threat show ponies who know how to give it that old razzle-dazzle, seem perfectly cast in this musical drama, written and directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow), based on the true story of a pair of starry-eyed performers who start a Neil Diamond tribute act that changes their lives. (12/25)

Marty Supreme — Filmmaker Josh Safdie, working for the first time without Smashing Machine-directing bro Benny, assembles the season’s most eclectic cast, with Gwyneth Paltrow, newbie Odessa A’zion, Fran Drescher, Tyler Okonma (a.k.a. rapper Tyler the Creator), Kevin O’Leary (Shark Tank‘s Mr. Wonderful), Sandra Bernhard, Penn Jillette, and indie film auteur Abel Ferrara supporting Timothée Chalamet portraying a charismatic adventurer with dreams of being a ping-pong champion. Loosely based on the life of pro table tennis player Marty Reisman, the film looks like a good time based on the trailer. (12/25)

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