TV
The Grand Tour (available 18 November)
There’s no Stig, no Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, no static studio allowed and, according to Jeremy Clarkson, no one in the new show from the old Top Gear gang can say the word cock either, in case they stray too close to their former BBC incarnation. Will the lads-on-tour banter stand up in tents around the globe? Clarkson’s comment on their first filming location choice, Johannesburg, is revealing: “Crack a gag at a Friday night event in London and you get a chuckle ... But crack it in South Africa and they laugh for about a year.”
Good Girls Revolt (available now)
People keep comparing this 1969 newsroom drama to that other 60s show, the ultimate critical darling. Sure, it may lack the psychological depth and nuance of the show-that-shall-not-be-named. But you’ll root for the women of News of the Week as they sue their employer for equal rights. You’ll cheer for feisty free spirit Patti when she gets a scoop while high as a kite; for Sindy as she discovers her clitoris and that her husband is a supremely boring berk; and for Angie when you see the others pass an envelope around the office for her to afford an abortion, because if she has a fourth child the other three won’t be able to eat. You’ll back these women all the more when you know it’s a true story: it happened at Newsweek magazine, a depressingly short while ago. The fight’s still not over.
Films
Crazy, Stupid, Love (available now)
A fun multi-generational romcom. Who could forget Ryan Gosling coaching Steve Carrell in the art of picking up women – or his Dirty Dancing finale do-over to woo Emma Stone?
The Ones Below (available 11 November)
A pregnancy potboiler about two upper-class couples both expecting. Comes with a distinctly uneasy Polanski edge.
High Rise (available 18 November)
Tom Hiddleston stars in this sleek, surreal adaptation of the JG Ballard novel about residents of a state-of-the-art tower block designed to give its inhabitants everything they want – but who start to have breakdowns instead.
Midnight in Paris (available 22 November)
Woody Allen is on form in this funny, sparkling time-travel film in which Owen Wilson’s Gil gets whisked back to the boho days of 1920s Paris, rubbing shoulders with Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds – the whole Lost Generation.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (available 27 November)
Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour’s cool debut film – in which a young woman vampire floats around the streets by night, her black veil sweeping the floor – opens a new vein of undead horror for hipsters.
