Our critic picks November’s 5 must-see movies: Godzilla, Rocky, and Tarantino’s Cliff Booth return - Toronto Star

The criminally minded 'Wild Horse Nine' and 'Paper Tiger' also make the list.

November’s must-see movies have unfinished business on their minds: among them, a monster with more stomping to do, a Hollywood fixer with fresh messes to clean up and a wannabe actor determined to land the role of his life. 

Japan’s Takashi Yamazaki and a certain spiny-backed screen legend stomped into Oscar history when “Godzilla Minus One” claimed visual-effects gold in 2024, a first for the monster franchise in seven decades of wanton property damage. It was a happy return to basics: writer-director Yamazaki doubled as visual-effects supervisor, but never let the wizardry eclipse the human stakes. His story followed a Japanese family scarred by the Second World War, with Godzilla serving as both a prod to the national conscience and a more pressing threat to life and limb.

The sequel “Godzilla Minus Zero” resumes the tale two years later. Whatever else has changed, don’t expect the big guy’s disposition to have improved.

What’s the buzz: A sequel was inevitable after the box-office success and Oscar win, but this one feels totally necessary. And how many monster sequels manage to premiere at the New York Film Festival?

Why I’m excited: I thought I’d had my fill of Godzilla until I saw the surprisingly transfixing “Godzilla Minus One.” 

A South American coup, the JFK assassination and a trail of CIA dirty tricks aren’t the obvious ingredients for a riotous buddy comedy. But from “In Bruges” to “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh has made a glorious career of finding the funny in appalling circumstances and men who bring out the worst in each other.

The year is 1973, and Chile is on the brink of a bloody military coup. Squabbling CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell), old pals with deadly histories, take a detour to Rapa Nui so Chris can fulfil a long-standing wish to see “the giant heads.” Time is short: Chris is terminally ill, his mind is slipping and his discretion has gone altogether. He’s now cheerfully spilling details of his role in some of history’s most notorious atrocities.

Everyone is working at the top of their game, especially Malkovich, whose irrepressible Chris makes idle chit-chat of the things that keep the rest of us awake at night.

What’s the buzz: Much Oscar talk for this movie, especially for Malkovich as a likely best actor nominee.

Why I’m excited: This was my favourite film at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Nobody could believe it back in 1976 when a small movie about a lovestruck palooka, starring unknown writer-actor Sylvester Stallone, managed to beat heavyweight dramas “Network,” “Taxi Driver” and “All the President’s Men” at the box office — and later at the Oscars. But proving doubters wrong is what “Rocky” was all about, and also Stallone’s own story.

Director Peter Farrelly capitalizes on the abundant human interest in this TIFF-approved dramedy, a runner-up for the fest’s People’s Choice Award. Anthony Ippolito plays the young Stallone, who turns away six-figure buyout offers from producers as he fights to play Rocky Balboa in the film rather than giving the role to a better-known actor.

What’s the buzz: It’s a genuine crowd-pleaser, and Farrelly previously went from TIFF applause to best picture Oscar glory with “Green Book.”

Why I’m excited: Who doesn’t love a good underdog backstory?

“Paper Tiger” came out swinging at its Cannes debut last May, staking its claim as one of James Gray’s best films. In 1986 New York, boastful ex-cop Gary (Adam Driver) and his mild-mannered civil-engineer brother Irwin (Miles Teller) glimpse a fortune in the polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal. Well-intended but impetuous, they set up a canal-cleanup consultancy and reel in their first major client: a gang of Russian polluters more interested in burying its crimes than cleaning up its mess. As Irwin’s wife, Scarlett Johansson tries to protect her husband and their two sons while contending with a crisis of her own. 

What’s the buzz: After Cannes, the film opened the New York Film Festival in September to much acclaim. It’s being distributed by Neon, a company with an impeccable Cannes-to-Oscars track record.

Why I’m excited: Gray knows how to make family loyalty and bad decisions combustible. His filmmaking is lean and muscular, with a finely calibrated ensemble to match. 

Quentin Tarantino supplies the script and David Fincher takes the reins for this Netflix-backed spinoff of “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” reuniting the director with his “Fight Club” star Brad Pitt. At a reported production cost of $200 million, the period drama is easily the costliest film ever to carry Tarantino’s name.

It picks up with the eponymous stuntman in 1977, eight years after his bout with the Manson family. He now operates as a shadowy Hollywood fixer who makes scandals disappear for industry elites by whatever means necessary.

What’s the buzz: Tarantino, Fincher and Pitt working together, what’s not to like? Or at least to be curious about.

Why I’m excited: The absence of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton makes this a spinoff rather than a conventional sequel, which may disappoint anyone hoping to see the old double act reunited. But that won’t stop me or many other Tarantino and Fincher fans, I suspect, because Cliff Booth is a treat to watch all on his own.

Activist drama Being Heumann (Nov. 6), Seussian antics The Cat in the Hat (Nov. 6), actors’ showcase Queen at Sea (Nov. 6), helper horror Victorian Psycho (Nov. 13), daddy dilemma Club Kid (Nov. 13), Christmas carol Ebenezer (Nov. 13), Almodóvar angst Bitter Christmas (Nov. 20), biographical drama Elsinore (Nov. 20), dystopian adventure The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (Nov. 20), cautionary history The Mad Dog of Europe (Nov. 21), crime drama Minotaur (Nov. 20), Disney spellcaster Hexed (Nov. 25), and psychological drama Josephine (Nov. 27).

Peter Howell is a Toronto-based movie critic and a freelance contributor to the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @peterhowellfilm.