The 15 best films coming to Netflix in November 2022

Based on the outstanding book of the same name by Michael Lewis, Moneyball tells the story of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team, who found a way to succeed even though Major League Baseball’s set up virtually ensures small market teams will fail. The book was stat-heavy and very “inside baseball” (in the most literal way possible), but to make this a cinematic event, the producers hired Grade-A screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian to adapt, humanistic director Bennett Miller, and Brad Pitt to star as Beane. Now, none of this meant would be guaranteed to work, but it hit a grand slam (sorry, not sorry), both critically and with audiences. The film even snagged a Best Picture nomination in 2012, but was totally robbed by that year’s winner, The Artist. Yeah. In his review of the film for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobias said “Miller , though not flair, but the script makes up for any flagging energy with crackling Sorkin dialogue and performances that sing with revolutionary fervor.”

The young cast of Netflix’s smash show Stranger Things has a pretty big task ahead of them in showing they’re more than child stars, but clearly the biggest breakout star of the show has been Millie Bobbie Brown as Eleven. She’s made all the right moves to solidify herself financially with forays into music, makeup, and fashion, but she’s yet to fully prove her versatility as an actor. The first Enola Holmes (2020) was fun, and gave Brown a chance to be a little more fun as the little sister of her famous sleuth brother, Sherlock (Henry Cavill). In a bit of real-life bleeding over into fiction, Enola is a budding detective herself forever in the shadow of Sherlock. Apparently, that film did well enough to merit a sequel, , and that’s great news as the first was a bit of an action/adventure/mystery which was suitable for the whole family. In his review for The A.V. Club, Matthew Huff enjoyed the film, saying, “The true joy of both Enola Holmes films is in the actors’ performances, and .”

Based on the true story of Somali pirates who highjacked a container ship in 2009, Paul Greengrass’ surprised audiences by taking a taut look at that event. The film digs in on Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) as he tries to protect his crew, himself, and his cargo from Somali pirate leader Muse, played by Barkhad Abdi—who managed to upstage Hanks and earn an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actor. The nail-biter succeeds due to the onscreen relationship between Hanks and Abdi, but also because of the stellar direction of Greengrass, who utilizes handheld shots and claustrophobic stagings to ratchet up the tension. A.A. Dowd gave the film a solid “B” rating in his review for The A.V. Club, saying, “More often than not, however, Captain Phillips is riveting. Though he remains unfortunately convinced that violently shaking his camera is the best way to achieve visual urgency, Greengrass nevertheless .”

Antoine Fuqua is an excellent director who honed his skills making music videos before getting big screen recognition in 2001 via the Denzel Washington-Ethan Hawke crime drama . The excellent film sees Washington finally turn nasty onscreen after decades of more positive imaging. The result? An Oscar win, his second, for his downright scary turn as LAPD officer Alonzo Harris, who takes out new recruit Jake Hoyt (Hawke) for a 24-hour ride-along to get him acquainted with the “real world”—which flies directly in the face of what the newbie cop has been taught. Much has been made of Washington’s seemingly telegraphed decision to play an evil character, but he’s simply terrifying as Harris. Washington chews the scenery with a ferocity that another actor would simply make seem silly, an easy thing to do given the film was written by David Ayer—. But during a fresh look at the film in 2010, Mike D’Angelo emphasizes that “the grotesque smile that crawls over Washington’s face just before he launches into his fake news report ranks among .”

The cinematic world is abuzz with the return of Julia Roberts in a big-screen romcom for the first time since 2016’s Mother’s Day (which was an ensemble so maybe it doesn’t even count) alongside George Clooney in Ticket To Paradise. While Roberts is the queen of the romcom, this current outpouring of love for her is a nice surprise, and likely due in part to excellent marketing. Nonetheless, when it comes to Julia Roberts, one can scarcely do better than 1999’s adorable . Roberts stars as a famous American actress named Anna Scott, who meets cute with mumbly yet charming bookstore owner William Thacker, played by Hugh Grant. As is the case for many of the best romcoms, the two begin to fall for one another, but their polar opposite lifestyles get in the way. Roberts has played opposite so many male stars who are deemed sexy for myriad reasons, as well as diverse directors, which clearly goes to show she’s the one making these movies classic. In an A.V. Club review, Keith Phipps said it’s “. Literate, witty, and allowing for the possibility of real unhappiness, [screenwriter Richard] Curtis’ romantic comedies have invented a better formula.”

It’s always been odd the way pop culture ephemera embraces characters like Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers. Sure, Darth eventually did the right thing, but not before he blew up his daughter’s adopted home planet right in front of her. Same for Kylo Ren. None of these characters should be costume options for kids. Alas, the point here is, Dreamworks Animation decided to give a shot in their animated heist film in which a bunch of, you guessed it, bad guys get together to pull off a crime. Should kids be taught these things? Who are we to judge? Dreamworks Animation often leans heavily on star casting, but here the cast is actually a very cool and diverse one for a big-budget animated film, and it includes Sam Rockwell as charming pickpocket Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron as safecracking Mr. Snake, Awkwafina as hacker Ms. Tarantula (a spider in case you’re not following along here) and Craig Robinson as master of disguise Mr. Shark. The film is actually still holding on in theaters but bringing the whole family out can be expensive, so it’s a savvy move for Netflix to bring The Bad Guys to their November lineup. The A.V. Club’s Luke Y. Thompson enjoyed the film, saying that while it “, it makes up for it in a grand finale that involves both clever narrative back-tracking and hordes of possessed guinea pigs.”

was a massive hit in 1992 due to a solid, tearjerker storyline (written by Lawrence Kasdan) and excellent casting in the form of Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, buoyed by a massive hit song in Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” That perfect storm elevated a good film into a hugely popular one. The plot involves Frank Farmer (Costner) a former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard who is hired to protect superstar actor and performer Rachel Marron (Houston) from a stalker. In a clever turn on the romcom formula, Frank thinks Rachel is a spoiled megalomaniac while she thinks he’s an uptight, paranoid jerk. Because as Paula Abdul told us in 1988, opposites attract, the two soon hook up, which concerns Frank because his personal involvement may conflict with his job. Thus, the stage is set for drama, and the film delivers as Rachel soon finds herself in more trouble than she thought. The film was critically maligned but became one of the biggest box office hits of all time, at the time. Roger Ebert , and praised Houston’s onscreen debut and Costner’s subtle acting in support of her.

The Addams Family is a great intellectual property that was completely nailed in two films by Barry Sonnenfeld, (1991) and (1993), both on Netflix in November. The films were perfectly cast and were huge hits that maintain cult-like popularity to this day. A forgotten 1998 reboot, Addams Family Reunion, failed to earn any traction, as did a strangely bad 1999 animated film which actually did okay at the box office. All this said, fans of the original show and movies (as well as those who like the wonderful original comic strip from Charles Addams) are all aflutter with the new Netflix show Wednesday, which focuses on the Addams’ famously dark and witty daughter Wednesday Addams. Perhaps folks need a quick refresher on what Wednesday and her family are all about? The A.V. Club’s Tatiana Tenreyro has you covered in this great piece detailing why Wednesday Addams (in this case, played by Christina Ricci) is such a great character, saying, “it’s rare for a sequel to be more memorable than the first movie, but Addams Family Values .”

Following the incredible success of Avatar in 2009, studios were still trying to pin part of the success of that film on its star, Sam Worthington. The problem is, what made Avatar such a smash was James Cameron. However, Worthington was a minor hit as former cop Nick Cassidy, playing a literal in this nerve-jangling 2012 film. Not only is Cassidy no longer a cop, he’s been disgraced and has recently escaped from prison, but things may not be as cut and dried as they seem. As negotiator Lydia Spencer (Elizabeth Banks) tries to talk him off the ledge, the plot thickens. Is Cassidy merely a suicidal nutjob or is his threat a gambit to bring shady issues to light? The film does a good job slowly adding depth, and if nothing else is a nice trifle for a cold November night.

Director Peter Berg makes some pretty intriguing action films that definitely skew right, which isn’t necessarily all that different in terms of cinematic expression from the venerated classics that preceded his work. But many consider Berg’s 2003 feature debut The Rundown an unheralded classic, and Berg also piqued interest with his intriguing 2013 film Lone Survivor, also starring Mark Wahlberg. The plot for is a simple one. An elite team called “Overwatch,” led of course by Wahlberg, must infiltrate a South Asian city to rescue a police officer who possesses information of major interest to the United States. Another way to look at this film is through the lens of its immense popularity via home entertainment, where it’s found a second life amongst the first-person shooter video game crowd. A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club was lukewarm on the film, but said, “Berg’s rah-rah spectacles can usually be counted on, at least, for some .”

Tom Cruise Cruise’d it up for 2013’s sci-fi hit , but the real story here is that it paired him with Joseph Kosinski, who directed Oblivion from a graphic novel he wrote that never got published. This Cruise and Kosinski teaming marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship culminating, thus far, with Top Gun: Maverick. In Oblivion, Cruise plays Jack, one of the last drone repairmen still on Earth after a war with an alien species. As part of his work order to stay on Earth, Jack’s memory was erased, which comes into play as he’s sent to investigate a signal and uncovers a mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko). From there, Jack starts to unravel a mystery that brings everything he thought he knew into conflict with itself. In an A.V. Club review, Tasha Robison gave the film a solid “B,” saying, “Kosinski also handles his action well, with .”

Looking to win some movie trivia at your local watering hole? We’re here to help as we remind you that the great Julianne Moore won a Best Actress Oscar for in 2014 for her portrayal of young-ish Alice Howland who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Based on a 2007 novel of the same name by Lias Genova, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland teamed up to adapt the book and direct the film. Look, it’s a challenging watch and you can guess what happens as Moore’s Howland begins to physically and mentally deteriorate. As she does, her family members face difficult choices, including her husband John (Alec Baldwin), and her children played by Kate Bosworth, Kristen Stewart, and Hunter Parrish. Depending on if you’re a glass-half-full or half-empty person, the film is either depressing or uplifting. In his review for The A.V. Club, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky said, “Still Alice is , in part because its sense of progression and scale offers such a distinctively unsentimental take on the terminal-countdown tearjerker.”

R.L. Stine started changing the face of YA fiction in all the best ways when his Goosebumps series of books began populating shelves and freaking out kids the world over in 1992. It took until 2015 for some iteration of the books to hit the big screen after oodles of TV versions of his stories. But rather than adapt a certain Goosebumps story, screenwriter Darren Lemke (working off story ideas from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszeski) decided to make Stine himself the lead in the film, where multiple monsters from his books escape and wreak havoc on the author’s small town. Stine is played by Jack Black, who must recapture the creatures with the help of his daughter and their new neighbor. is a fun film with one glaring issue—it was way too scary for kids but too silly for adults. While the same could be said for the novels, the film failed to really take off. A.A. Dowd, a big fan of the book series, was so-so on the film in his review for The A.V. Club, but added, “The film’s , with Stine written as an eccentric wordsmith who hates being compared to Stephen King, routinely forgets the plots of the books he’s churned out, and eventually explains that every story contains three parts: “the beginning, the middle, and the twist.”

There was quite a buzz ahead of 2022’s , and results for the Southern gothic-lite drama/mystery/thriller were generally positive, including for Taylor Swift’s song over the closing credits. The film centers on Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a woman who was abandoned as a child in the swamps of North Carolina. Locals soon cleverly assign her the nickname “Marsh Girl” and through a series of events, she is accused of murdering a local big shot with whom she had an illicit affair. From there, the film becomes a bit of a courtroom drama-slash-romance film with a murder mystery hovering over the whole affair. The A.V. Club’s Leigh Monson dug Crawdads and said, “[director Olivia] Newman’s film is a success: it’s , warts and all. But beyond the baseline proficiency in its filmmaking, the warts feel most worthy of discussion, even if they don’t diminish the original qualities that made Owens’ source material a best seller.”

Even as the popularity of boxing continues to decline, movies about boxing never seem to get old, since the sheer power of two people going at it in a ring is incredibly cinematic. , another Antoine Fuqua film plopping onto Netflix this month (like Training Day), stars Jake Gyllenhaal as boxer Billy Hope, who heads down a path of self-destruction after the devastating loss of his wife (Rachel McAdams) at the hands of a rival boxer. Hope soon loses everything, including his 12-year-old daughter, as his life spirals out of control. At the end of his rope, Billy takes a job at a local gym whose owner, Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker), was himself a formerly great fighter who fell from grace. The two form an uneasy alliance to get Billy back into the ring. Gyllenhaal got ripped for the role, but the film did just okay at the box office. In a review for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico granted the film three stars, saying “Gyllenhaal makes daring, confident decisions. He has quietly turned into .”