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Here are 25 movies we can't wait to watch this fall

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Here are 25 movies we can't wait to watch this fall

Clockwise from left: Wicked, Here, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, Piece by Piece and Blitz.

Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Shanna Besson/Pathé, Searchlight Pictures and Apple TV+


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Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Shanna Besson/Pathé, Searchlight Pictures and Apple TV+

School’s back in session, election season’s heating up, the leaves need raking, and you just want to get out of the house and escape, right?

We’ve got you covered. Everything from award contenders to goofy comedies, a smattering of romance, plenty of anti-heroes, even an animated musical documentary constructed entirely of LEGOs — all curated by NPR critics.

We’ll see you at the movies.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in theaters Sept. 6
Look, who knows if this is gonna work? Plenty of directors have returned to their early films to see what, if any, gold remains to be mined. Sometimes they hit the motherlode (Mad Max: Fury Road), other times the result is a cinematic cave-in (The Matrix Resurrections). Director Tim Burton’s recent films have all displayed his trademark darkness, but it’s been years since we glimpsed the transgressive, anarchic humor he made his bones on. I’m pulling for him. It’s showtime. — Glen Weldon

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His Three Daughters, in theaters Sept. 6, on Netflix Sept. 20
The cast sells this one: Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne are each often the best thing about the projects they’re in. And here they are together, playing sisters who gather when their father is dying. It might not seem obvious to cast such different performers as family, but there is something about three singular women in the same film that makes a kind of sense. — Linda Holmes

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Meanwhile on Earth, in theaters Sept. 13
In this moody, surreal French sci-fi film, a young woman grieves her beloved brother, who disappeared on a space mission three years prior. One night, she receives a message: a mysterious presence says it can return him to Earth… if she does it a small favor. It’s the latest from director Jeremy Clapin, whose unforgettable I Lost my Body, about a severed hand’s quest to be reunited with its original owner, was nominated for an Oscar in 2020. Nous allons! — Glen Weldon

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My Old Ass, in theaters Sept. 13
While hallucinating on mushrooms in her last summer before college, Elliott (Maisy Stella) is visited by her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza), blithely offering unsolicited advice: “I know mom can be annoying but be nice to her; hang out with your brothers; and avoid anyone named Chad.” That’s a cue for Percy Hynes White’s endearingly dorky Chad to make his appearance in Megan Park’s coming-of-age charmer. — Bob Mondello

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All Shall Be Well, in theaters Sept. 20
A darling of the festival circuit, this Hong Kong drama follows Angie and Pat, a lesbian couple in their 60s who’ve been together for decades. When Pat suddenly dies, her family treats Angie with compassion — at first. Soon, questions over Pat’s estate cause a rift that endangers Angie’s ability to stay in the apartment they shared. Films tackling the intersection of queerness and aging aren’t exactly thick on the ground; early reviews say this one manages to be both sad and life-affirming. — Glen Weldon

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A Different Man, in theaters Sept. 20
This brutal psychological drama stars Sebastian Stan as an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic mutation. To widen his casting opportunities, he undergoes facial reconstructive surgery – but when he encounters a fellow performer with the same medical condition (Adam Pearson), he’s forced to reckon with the choice he made. This may be one of the strangest and most challenging things you’ll watch all year, and it’s worth it. — Aisha Harris

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The Substance, in theaters Sept. 20
The body horror, the body horror! Coralie Fargeat’s latest film kind of sounds like a mad twist on Severance: Demi Moore is an aerobics star who’s fired from her show for turning 50. She’s offered the chance to inject a substance that will transform her into a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley). She must “switch” between her younger and older self every seven days, but – surprise, surprise! – things don’t go exactly as planned. — Aisha Harris

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WOLFS, in theaters Sept. 20, on Apple TV+ Sept. 27
George Clooney and Brad Pitt have been making capers together since Ocean’s Eleven in 2001. Now, they join up for an action comedy about two sketchy but efficient fixers. The only hangup is that they both work alone, but now they’re forced to work together. It’s a well-worn setup, and the result will depend on whether they can recapture the affectionate repartee one more time. — Linda Holmes

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Megalopolis, in theaters Sept. 27
Look, reportedly this whole production is deeply fraught – you can Google the many reasons yourself. But the mere existence of a brand-new Francis Ford Coppola film in 2024 still has people talking. It’s a decades-long passion project with a stacked cast that includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Talia Shire, and Laurence Fishburne. And its CGI-heavy, time-traveling story looks truly out-there: Coppola reimagines the fall of Rome through the lens of a modern-day New York. — Aisha Harris

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The Wild Robot, in theaters Sept. 27
Filmmaker Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) has been telling interviewers that the computer-generated visuals in this tale of a shipwrecked robot named Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) who befriends an island’s critters and adopts an orphaned gosling, were inspired by the watercolor backgrounds in Bambi, and by the lush hand-drawn forests of Hayao Miyazaki. The idea was to place the high-tech protagonist of this ecological fable in an emotionally resonant wilderness. — Bob Mondello

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Joker: Folie a Deux, in theaters Oct. 4
The original Joker was supposed to be a standalone film, but when it made a billion dollars, and Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix started dreaming about his deranged Arthur Fleck telling jokes and singing onstage, what’s a poor movie studio to do? Phoenix and director Todd Phillips conjured a story involving Fleck’s music therapist, Harley Quinn; Lady Gaga signed on to play her, and here we are. — Bob Mondello

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The Platform 2, on Netflix Oct. 4
The Platform, Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s 2019 feature debut, was a nasty piece of work — an grisly anti-capitalist screed in sci-fi/horror clothing. In a tower prison, the residents of the top floors enjoy sumptuous meals served on a vast slab. But as that platform descends at designated intervals down through the tower, the lower residents fight over leftovers. No, it’s not subtle, as metaphors go, but I’m eager to see where a sequel takes us. — Glen Weldon

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Piece by Piece, in theaters Oct. 11
“Y’know what’d be cool?” asks Pharrell Williams, channeling his “It might seem crazy what I’m ‘bout to say” opening lyric to “Happy” – “is if we told my story with LEGO pieces.” As he is LEGO-ized while saying this in Morgan Neville’s computer-animated documentary and is joined on several new songs by LEGO-ized Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, it’s hard to disagree.
— Bob Mondello

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Saturday Night, in theaters Oct. 11
Jason Reitman jumps back 49 years to revel in the nervous energy of Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Jane Curtin on the eve of the very first broadcast of a little late-night comedy show they’d come up with. Interviews with the surviving principals inform the dramedy’s portrait of the hours leading up to those fateful words “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” on Oct. 11, 1975. — Bob Mondello

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Anora, in theaters Oct. 18
The first American film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 13 years, Sean Baker’s comic drama follows New York sex worker Anora (Mikey Madison) as she impulsively elopes with Russian tourist Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), who’s eager to avoid deportation. The magic in their fairytale romance is challenged somewhat when Vanya’s parents swan in to try to get the marriage annulled. — Bob Mondello

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Rumours, in theaters Oct. 18
Guy Maddin makes movies (Careful, The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg) that are rich and strange – not necessarily in a crowd-pleasing way, but invariably in a me-pleasing way. He’s teaming with brothers Evan and Galen Johnson to write and direct this one, and the plot promises a big swing: World leaders attending the G7 conference get lost in the woods. I was all-in for this movie even BEFORE I found it stars Cate Blanchett and a giant brain. And now that I know that? All-innest! — Glen Weldon

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Woman of the Hour, on Netflix Oct. 18
Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut (in which she also stars) is based on the story of a serial killer who went on The Dating Game. It’s a bizarre and unsettling story to say the least, and it got solid reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Kendrick is a more interesting actress than she’s sometimes given credit for, and she may be the same as a director. — Linda Holmes

Nickel Boys

Nickel Boys

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The Nickel Boys, in theaters Oct. 25
Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer winner about a Jim Crow-era reform school (based on Florida’s notorious Dozier School) chronicled the experiences of two Black teenagers — Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) — as they try to survive the horrors and abuse of the school. RaMell Ross’ film will be the opening attraction at the New York Film Festival. — Bob Mondello

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A Real Pain, in theaters Nov. 1
Kieran Culkin is fresh off a stunning performance in HBO’s Succession, where he could be surprisingly sympathetic for a guy who was basically a sleazeball. Here, he joins Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed, to play cousins who join up for a trip in Poland. These are both actors who are just about always worth your time, and who doesn’t love a road trip movie? — Linda Holmes

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Here, in theaters Nov. 1
Director Robert Zemeckis never met a technological innovation he didn’t want to play with, from motion capture in Polar Express to digital animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This time, he’s employing generative AI to face-swap and de-age his Forrest Gump stars, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, as they play characters from 18 to 80 in a story that chronicles events on a single plot of land. — Bob Mondello

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Emilia Pérez, in theaters Nov. 1, on Netflix Nov. 13
The word out of Cannes earlier this year, where it won the Jury Prize, was that Jacques Audiard’s musical comedy crime film is both exciting and polarizing. At the very least, the logline is compelling: Zoe Saldaña is a lawyer who’s roped into helping a ruthless cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) fake her own death so she can undergo gender affirming surgery. Mentally prepare yourself now for The Discourse to come.
— Aisha Harris

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Heretic, in theaters Nov. 15
Two young women, Mormon missionaries, greet a kindly older man who invites them inside his remote home for a sober discussion of the tenets of their faith. But this is an A24 horror film, so things don’t stay sober for long. The older man in question is played by a slyly sinister Hugh Grant, and his home is an elaborate maze made to test their faiths. I’m getting Barbarian vibes from the trailer — and it’s not like that cardigan Grant’s wearing makes things any LESS creepy. Brrrr. — Glen Weldon

Blitz

Blitz

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Blitz, in theaters Nov. 1, on Apple TV+ Nov. 22
Steve McQueen – that name alone should be enough to warrant attention. The Shame and 12 Years a Slave filmmaker wrote and directed this historical drama, which has been described as an “epic journey” set during World War II. And it stars the always captivating Saoirse Ronan as a woman whose young son goes missing in the English countryside. Sign me up.
— Aisha Harris

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Gladiator II, in theaters Nov. 22
Two decades after the events depicted in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Lucius, the little boy (grandson of an emperor) who cheered on Russell Crowe in the Colosseum, has grown up to be Paul Mescal and finds himself in much the same position. Enslaved, he’ll fight not tigers, but a rhinoceros, under the tutelage of power-broker Denzel Washington as he opposes a pair of cruel and capricious young emperors. — Bob Mondello

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Wicked, in theaters Nov. 22
Two witches — Galinda (Ariana Grande), bubbly and “popular,” Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), green and fragile — take on a duplicitous wizard (Jeff Goldblum) in this adaptation of the first act of the smash Broadway musical based on Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” It’ll be a long and winding yellow brick road (the second act arrives for Thanksgiving 2025). — Bob Mondello

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You know the Mayflower. What about the White Lion? Here’s the story of ‘Two Ships’

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You know the Mayflower. What about the White Lion? Here’s the story of ‘Two Ships’

Just in time for a contentious 250th anniversary of the United States of America, historian David S. Reynolds’ latest book, Two Ships, helps us realize that any country that couldn’t agree on its own origin story is destined for divisive times.

Two Ships is about the complicated, conjoined legacy of the landings of the Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, and the White Lion, which arrived in Jamestown a year earlier, bringing the first enslaved Africans to Virginia.

As Reynolds demonstrates, it’s not so much the facts of these two voyages, as it is the meanings ascribed to them, that made them such a powerful metaphor for two conflicting visions of American identity.

To simplify, the Mayflower’s passengers were separatist Puritans, dissenters to the reign of the English king, James I. As the United States developed, the Mayflower was credited with carrying the seeds of a radical democracy to the New World, one in which all men (in theory, at least) were equal before God.

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In contrast, the European settlers of Jamestown were Royalists, also known as Cavaliers. Loyal to the monarchy, they believed in a strict hierarchy.

But the meaning of the images of the two ships shifted depended on who was invoking them and when. Not surprisingly, the metaphor was deployed most vigorously during the Civil War. In abolitionist speeches and writings, the White Lion or the “Slave-Ship,” as it was commonly called, was condemned for infecting America with the “plague-spot” of slavery.

Reynolds says that Frederick Douglass resorted to the “two ships” metaphor frequently, while Lincoln avoided it, hoping to preserve a unified ship of state. Meanwhile, Southern descendants of Cavaliers invoked the Mayflower to emphasize the intolerance and “cruel, persecuting” character of the Puritans. In a comment that resonates for our own times, Reynolds says:

It didn’t matter to the South that … by the mid-nineteenth century, the North had become a kaleidoscope of religious denominations, …, few of which resembled the faith of the Plymouth colonists. Distortion is intrinsic to cultural memory, especially when amplified by sectional or political bias. For Southerners, the Mayflower had brought Puritanism, which had yielded fanatical movements like abolitionism, now a dire threat to the Union.

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A historically hot Paris Fashion Week photographed with a kid’s camera

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A historically hot Paris Fashion Week photographed with a kid’s camera

I took a kid’s camera to Paris Fashion Week, because was it ever really that serious? Yes and no. This men’s season happened during one of the hottest weeks in France’s recorded history, which inspired that specific brand of collective hysteria brought on by living through yet another unprecedented moment together — taking over our brains and ruining our plans to wear boots — and a grander reflection on what we were doing there and why. The throngs of teenagers doing back flips into the Canal Saint-Martin and playing soccer in the street set the mood for the week. If the world is ending, you might as well swim in dirty water and have fun doing it, no?

As far as the shows went, there was the coastal stoner energy of Tokyo-based Auralee — brightly colored leathers and furry flip-flops — that reminded me of the low-key elegance of hanging out in Southern California. At the Rick Owens show, Rick-heads made minimal weather-restrictive tweaks to their usual uniforms — platforms, leather, ground-grazing garments — making you appreciate the beauty in that level of ascetic dedication. Louis Vuitton built a literal beach as its runway, complete with sand and a giant wave that felt like a mirage: Is this a heat-induced hallucination or yet another buzzed-about set design under men’s creative director Pharrell Williams? At the Dries Van Noten show, there was an ice-cold beer fridge and popsicles, a chic and inspired detail only rivaled by a collection that was a breath of fresh air during a week where I Googled the symptoms of heat stroke more than once. The Willy Chavarria show was air-conditioned, pumped with Xinú perfume and felt expensive. Sven Marquardt, a Berlin photographer and Berghain’s most famous bouncer, was sitting in front of me, which I took as an incredibly good omen. The painted blue feet and Oakley collab sunglasses at the Kiko Kostadinov show felt auspicious as well.

A model walks with his hands in his vest

A look from the Auralee show.

There were conversations floating around about how apocalyptic it felt sitting at a fashion show in over 100-degree Fahrenheit weather, our backs soaked, our minds dizzied, when the industry is responsible for something like 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The cognitive dissonance contributed to the thickness in the air that week.

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At the Comme des Garçons show, called “If the War Were to End..,” models danced and ran and skipped out onto the runway for the finale, soundtracked by the joyous sound of children singing “You’re So Good to Me” by the Langley Schools Music Project. In that moment, we were happy, we were clapping, we might have even been hopeful. Humans have the capacity to hold a lot — a fan in one hand while attempting not to completely melt in the front row, and a fantasy that there might still be a future where we get to wear those leopard-print Dries shoes we fell in love with on the runway.

People stand in front of a wall bearing the words "Paris Tourisme"

The moments before the Comme des Garçons show.

Two people dressed mostly in black

Comme des Garçons show attendees.

A model wears Comme des Garçons, head-to-toe.

Comme des Garçons, head-to-toe.

A model walks in white light

The Comme des Garçons show.

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Models wear long jackets

The Dries Van Noten show.

A bottle of beer

A chic and inspired detail at the Dries Van Noten show: ice-cold beer.

Modeling on a pink bench
A person in black shoes, left, and a person in pink shoes

Scenes from the ERL presentation.

Seated attendees watch a model
Seated attendees watch a model on a blue carpet

The Kiko Kostadinov show.

The Eiffel Tower rises in the distance
A woman in sunglasses stands in a beach setting

Tapping in from Louis Vuitton beach.

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Quavo at the Louis Vuitton show.

Quavo at the Louis Vuitton show.

A person stands in a beachlike setting

Scenes from after the Louis Vuitton show.

People use their smartphones to photograph a person in a suit and tie

Scenes from the Louis Vuitton show.

A variety of shoes and laces

Scenes from the Nahmias x Puma dinner at Gigi Paris.

Scenes from the On X Online Ceramics rave.

Scenes from the On X Online Ceramics rave.

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On at PFW.
People walk under arcs of water
People in a nightclub

At Silencio to see Venezuelan DJ and producer Safety Trance.

Five models wearing sunglasses stand together

The Willy Chavarria show.

A glowing cross with curved ends

Scenes from Willy Chavarria.

People sit along a canal

The throngs of teenagers doing back flips into the Canal Saint-Martin and playing soccer in the street set the mood for the week.

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After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York

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After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, pictured at a basketball game in May, announced their engagement in August 2025.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images


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NEW YORK — Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are officially married.

After three years of dating, The pop icon and Super Bowl-winning football player, both 36, tied the knot in New York, according to a statement from Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine.

There were neither bridesmaids nor groomsmen. “Instead, her brother Austin Swift served as Taylor’s Man of Honor and Jason Kelce was Travis’ Best Man. The ceremony joined both families together,” Swift’s publicist said in the statement released Friday evening.

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The ceremony was officiated by comedian and a friend of the couple, Adam Sandler, the statement added.

The singer’s rep said that the couple was dressed in Christian Dior Haute Couture.

“The bride and groom’s wedding ceremony looks have been created by Christian Dior Haute Couture. They are designed by Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Dior Women’s, Men’s and Haute Couture Collections, in close collaboration with the Bride and Groom,” the statement said. “This is the designer’s first couture wedding dress for a world-renowned celebrity. Their shoes were custom made by Christian Louboutin and the bride wore Cartier jewelry.”

Security around the event was intense, so it remains unclear if the wedding was charming, if a little gauche. But the night before the ceremony the 20,000-person stadium was bathed in a lavender haze.

Details gleaned from a city permit obtained by The Associated Press, showed details of a “special event at MSG” scheduled to begin Friday evening and running overnight Saturday.

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As speculation built, fans began gathering in front of the stadium ahead of the expected wedding, despite the couple’s efforts to keep details of the celebration under wraps.

Superfans and sleuths appeared to have their hunches confirmed on Friday, as dozens of black cars dropped off elegantly dressed guests outside of Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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