13 of the Best New Things to Stream in November 2022
Reading Time: 5 minutesAll your streaming platforms are bringing plenty of options for the whole family this November.
Every November I must confront the fact that, for some reason, the concept of a true Thanksgiving movie will always be overlooked in favor of jumping ahead to the never-ending supply of Christmas movies.
If you also are on the frontlines of resisting the Christmas creep, I’ve curated this list of the strongest, most universally appealing things to watch with your family this pre-holiday season. Ultimately, there’s something for everyone on at least one of your preferred streamers this month. Here are all of the best movies, series premieres, and new seasons of returning favorites that will be available to stream in November. Titles are arranged chronologically by premiere date.
If you, like me, long for the days where animation studios invested in hand-drawn 2D magic, then you can take comfort in My Father’s Dragon. Based on a classic children’s books by Ruth Stiles Gannett, the film follows a young boy who travels to an enchanted island filled with talking animals (not to be confused with Wild Things). Boy befriends beast (the titular dragon), and together, the two must save the island from a mysterious force causing it to sink into the sea.
Behind the film is Cartoon Saloon, the studio behind Best Animated Feature noms The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner, and Wolfwalkers. Cartoon Saloon’s signature house style is always a journey through gorgeously drawn worlds, and My Father’s Dragon looks like it’ll live up to that legacy.
Nothing says ‘Thanksgiving season’ like a modern take on badass American Western, right? The English stars Emily Blunt as an aggrieved, vengeful mother who teams with a Native American and former cavalry member to hunt down the man she blames for the death of her son. Watch the trailer for just a taste of the Tarantino-esque bloodshed, sick burns, and black humor (but hopefully no feet). (If you weren’t privy, that’s a joke about how much Quentin Tarantino loves feet.)
At first glance, the thumbnail of a craggy Sylvester Stallone might make Tulsa King look like nothing more than the only movie you and your dad can agree to watch over Thanksgiving. But do yourself a favor and check out the full trailer—this show looks tremendously funny and whip smart (maybe even pistol whip smart, if I may be so bold).
Stallone stars as a once-powerful mafioso, fresh out of prison in a completely changed criminal landscape. He’s sent to the backwaters of Tulsa to start the kind of operation that made him a mob boss—and starts by visiting a totally legal weed dispensary. He promises to protect them from gangs (there are no gangs). He promises to protect them from the law (weed is legal). I, for one, can’t wait to see s bunch of crunchy, harmless small-town budtenders (including Silicon Valley‘s Martin Starr) have their lives totally upended by old school mafia king Sylvester Stallone.
There are three reasons that I don’t have a lot to say here. First, I trust that you can conceptualize what a new installment of The Santa Clause trilogy might look like on your own, even stretched out to streaming series length. Secondly, Tim Allen isn’t exactly the lovable father of Christmas to me that he once was (apologies, I guess I’m a member of the woke scourge on society that he so bravely speaks out against). And finally, I’m not entertaining the Christmas creep on the first day of November. If you’re the kind of person who can stomach Christmas films before Thanksgiving, then have at it.
Unfortunately for my sense of self-worth, I adored all the Don’t Worry Darling drama. I can’t even say I hated the film, exclusively due to the hold that Florence Pugh has over me. For that reason, I’m looking forward to seeing Pugh escape the nonsense of Don’t Worry Darling and lean into classic Oscar bait with The Wonder.
The film is an adaptation of the novel by Emma Donoghue (Room). Pugh plays a nurse sent to a rural Irish village in the 1860s to care for a young girl who has gone months without eating, with no apparent ill effects. Perhaps the titular ‘wonder’ is meant to be that young girl, but for me, it’ll be Florence Pugh’s performance.
Based on the award-nominated novel of the same name, Jesse Eisenberg plays Fleishman, a forty-something divorcé finally on the rebound when his ex-wife (played by The Claire Danes) vanishes. Girl, gone, am I right? In fact, similar to Gone Girl, the husband in this story must face what happened to his marriage in the first place before he can uncover where the hell is girl has gone—though the effect here is more tragicomic than thriller-y.
Created by Mindy Kaling, the first season of The Sex Lives of College Girls is severely underrated. It’s been compared to the boldness of Sex and the City, but this show is a more accurately comp to the charm and honesty of Kaling’s Netflix coming-of-age series Never Have I Ever. Regardless, the misleading title does a disservice to what is a truly endearing, thoughtful, and funny watch. Catch up on the first season now and see for yourself.
Nothing says ‘holiday season’ like dysfunctional families. The film follows struggling American siblings Alice and Paul (Kristen Bell andBen Platt), who reluctantly agree to attend the wedding of their estranged, rich, ‘perfect’ half-sister (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) in the English countryside alongside their mother, Donna (Allison Janney). Having reluctantly attended a wedding this past summer, I’m looking forward to this watch.
My editor Joel Cunningham brings up a solid point when it comes to the claim the source material is a ‘beloved’ book; Grant Ginder’s novel has a mere 2.8 on Goodreads, which is lower than Mein Kampf (3.18). However, this adaptation has hope in the form of director Claire Scanlon, a TV vet with an excellent track record, including Brooklyn 99, The Good Place, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
As a comedian and contributor to The Onion myself, I’ll admit that I’m naturally inclined to support this miniseries from former The Onion writer Robert Siegel (of recent Pam & Tommy fame). Plus, I’m very into Kumail Nanjiani starring as a a lightly fictionalized version of Somen Banerjee, the real life founder of the real life Chippendales. Hey, he saw the marketplace for male strippers, and he worked to supply the need. Do I wish that there were more cosmic balance in the universe and that a woman was the one who invented the Chippendales? Of course I do. But I can’t change history, so I might as well watch a comedic take on the founding of the most iconic male stripping organization of all time.
Yeah, I’ll weep at a documentary about the Mars Rover—shut up!
We’ve all had our limits tested when it comes to reboots and retellings of beloved IP. In this Tim Burton-produced update of The Addams Family, the iconic Wednesday (played by Jenna Ortega) will bring the macabre to a place that hardly needs it: High school. There’ll be new characters introduced in the Addams-verse, and the cast is packed with certified killers like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, Gwendoline Christie, and Christina Ricci.
Snap snap.
Need to fill the void that Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis left in your heart? It looks like Paramount+ is counting on at least some people with that exact desire, since they’re bringing the 2017 series Sun Records to their platform at the end of this month. The show is about the dovetailing of the early days of rock ‘n roll and the early days of the civil rights movement—not to mention the scandalous marriage that derailed the career of the recently departed Jerry Lee Lewis.
In Willow, power-duo Ron Howard and George Lucas are serving up a a sequel to the 1988 fantasy of the same name. The new series takes place years after the events of the original film, welcoming back the titular hero played once again Warwick Davis.
Now, I’d never heard of Willow. I instinctively chalked that up to my youthful ignorance. However, deputy editor Joel Cunningham provided me the valuable context that Willow isn’t exactly universally beloved, which to me implies it’s a risk on Disney’s part to funnel so much money into this thing. And if you watch the trailer, you’ll see that, well, funnel money they did. For now, I just have to accept the age-old fact of life that Disney’s algorithm knows something I don’t. Just like my grandma used to say.