Mifune: The Last Samurai

BLOCKBUSTER OF THE MONTH

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

(Warner Brothers) Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell. One of the most anticipated films of the year is here as we return to the Wizarding World created by J.K. Rowling – with a script by Rowling herself! Set in the 1920s, it involves Newt Scamander, a studier of magical creatures, is returning after a world tour seeking out rare and amazing creatures when he stops in New York City. There, his suitcase – carrying many of the beasties – is accidentally opened, releasing them into the Big Apple. Now, he must retrieve the creatures during a crisis in the American magical community and stay clear of the Muggles (in America called No-Mag) before finding a way home. David Yates, director of the last three Harry Potter films, is aboard. Incidentally, Rowling recently announced that the three-movie series would now be expanded to five. November 18

INDEPENDENT PICKS

The Ivory Game

(Netflix) Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani. The largest mammal on Earth is being hunted into extinction. Poachers in Africa are killing the African elephant at a terrifying rate, taking their tusks for ivory and selling it to willing buyers in China. Animal activists go undercover to stop the ivory trade and save an entire species from the extinction that actually benefits the poachers in that it drives the price of their merchandise up the less elephants that remain. Leonardo di Caprio is the producer of this important documentary. November 4

Elle

(Sony Classics) Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling. A successful businesswoman, owner of a videogame development company, is sexually assaulted in her own home. When the perpetrator gets away without revealing anything about his identity, she is understandably upset. Determined not to let the criminal change her life, she determines to figure out who he is. However, she enters a game of cat and mouse in which the stakes are life and death. Renowned director Paul Verhoeven is behind the camera for this one. November 11

Notes on Blindness

(Bond/360) Dan Skinner, Simone Kirby, Eileen Davies, Miranda Beinart-Smith. In the summer of 1983 shortly before the birth of his first son, writer/theologian John Hull lost his sight. Trying to make sense of the way his life has been irrevocably changed, Hull recorded an audio diary of his experiences and insights. Those audio cassettes with the voices of Hull and his wife Miranda are used as voiceovers for this amazing film which gives the sighted the closest thing to imagining what it’s like to be blind without actually losing their sight. November 16

Manchester by the Sea

(Roadside Attractions) Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler. Kenneth Lonergan, a writer/director of some renown, may have produced the movie he will be remembered for here. Affleck plays a janitor who has been estranged from his family; when his brother passes away suddenly, he is shocked to find out that his brother named him guardian of his only son in his will. At first he doesn’t want the responsibility of raising his nephew when he can barely take care of himself, but as time goes by he discovers that raising a man can be much more rewarding than he ever knew. November 18

Officer Downe

(Magnet) Kim Coates, Alison Lohman, Lindsay Pulsipher, Mark Neveldine. In a city ruled by larger-than-life crime bosses, a superhero is needed to take them down. Well, this city doesn’t have one but it does have Officer Downe, a rough-and-tumble cop who won’t let a little thing like death get in the way of serving justice. This is based on the graphic novel of the same name and is produced by the same people who brought you Crank. November 18

Lion

(Weinstein) Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman. In this amazing but true story, a little boy accidentally gets on a train and ends up in Calcutta, thousands of miles from home. Lost in the streets of a brutal city, he is adopted by a kind-hearted Australian couple. Years later, now a young man, he longs to find the family he once knew that only exist now as scraps of memories he can barely identify. Despite having very little to go on and a vast country to search, he makes the journey to find himself – and the other family that he once had. November 25