If we were in a timeline where a massive Hollywood strike hadn’t happened (congrats on the deal, actors!), we would have been reveling in a Dune: Part 2 second weekend domination at the box office. That isn’t happening until March, hopefully. This weekend, theaters are instead gearing up for holiday-season blockbusters and indies like The Marvels and Dream Scenario, but if chilling at home is more your speed, there’s a new David Fincher flick coming to Netflix. Plus, a new Benny Safdie–Nathan Fielder project, a second season of Issa Rae’s Max comedy, and the finale of Apple TV+’s most entertainingly messy show. —Savannah Salazar
Featured Presentations
The Curse
Imagine mixing the stress of a Safdie brothers movie and the awkwardness of a Nathan Fielder project, and you’ve got a sense of how it feels to watch The Curse. Co-created by Fielder and Benny Safdie, both of whom co-star, this scripted look at the development of an HGTV show focuses on its dysfunctionally married hosts (Fielder and Emma Stone), who think they’re on a noble, ecoconscious mission but are actually just hypocritical gentrifiers. The series is fascinating, off-putting, and sometimes both at the same time. —Jen Chaney
Streaming on Showtime
➽ A Nathan Fielder series that’s off-putting? Shocking!
Rap Sh!t season two
Issa Rae’s music-industry-centered comedy follows rappers Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion) as they go on tour in support of poser Reina Reign and try to carve out some attention for themselves amid her Blackfishing. Osman and KaMillion, who had a prickly chemistry in the first season as longtime friends constantly getting on each other’s nerves, do well by leaning into their different desire for fame. And, yes, the songs are still unbelievably catchy (and even more raunchy). —Roxana Hadadi
Streaming on Max
The Killer
Michael Fassbender stars as a thinly veiled stand-in for director David Fincher in this Netflix thriller following a brief theatrical run. Both Fassbender’s titular killer and Fincher are notorious for the lengths they go to get “one perfect shot,” but Fassbender’s shots are a little more deadly. It’s a story of an exasperated, perfectionist professional assassin out for revenge. There’s not much more going on, but in Fincher’s hands, does there need to be? —James Grebey
Streaming on Netflix
The Marvels
I’m probably the only one actually interested in watching The Marvels on Vulture’s staff, and hey, maybe I’m a masochist, but really, I want to see Iman Vellani onscreen again. The little marvel is back as Ms. Marvel herself, but this time she joins Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel and Teyonah Parris’s (of WandaVision) Monica Rambeau as the trio need to figure out why their powers are entangled. —S.S.
In theaters now
➽ Speaking of heroes, Marvel really needs this guy right now.
Dream Scenario
Nicolas Cage continues to play with the idea of his own celebrity in odd, interesting ways, this time starring as a normal-ass dude who becomes famous when people all around the world — including people who have never met him — start having dreams about him. Would it shock you to hear this turns into something of a nightmare? —J.G.
In theaters now
The Buccaneers
The trailer for The Buccaneers came out swinging with Olivia Rodrigo’s “all-american bitch” playing over the adventures of a handful of American women (led by Kristine Froseth) breaking into London society in the 1870s. It’s unsure if it’ll hit the highs of Bridgerton or Dickinson, two close comparison series, but hopes are high for a new and biting Gen-Z-approved series. —S.S.
Streaming on Apple TV+
Genre Fare
For All Mankind season four
The best TV series that not enough people are watching returns with a time jump to 2003, in which the Americans, Soviets, North Koreans, and private corporation Helios are all established on Mars. But when nationalism and capitalism get in the way, can that collaboration continue? The aging makeup used on its main characters to make us believe they’re in their 60s needs some work. Overall, though, this is a return to form after mercifully shuttling off some of last year’s particularly tedious subplots. —R.H.
Streaming on Apple TV+
➽ Thank you to The Morning Show for holding down the “Apple TV+ show goes to outer space” realm, but FAM is back now.
Grand Finales
The Morning Show season three
This Apple TV+ show is such a delicious mess. The beginning of the season had Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) up in space, and now, she’s facing the hard truths of what she did on January 6 — a real plot point — for her brother. I can’t stop watching! Meanwhile, Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) has to deal with UBA’s potential sale to her evil tech billionaire boyfriend (Jon Hamm). Let’s see how the mess wraps up. —S.S.
Streaming on Apple TV+
Loki season two
Meanwhile, in the MCU, Loki is good! Sure, there’s still a little serving of MCU canon-building gobbledygook, but for the most part, Loki knows when to just have Tom Hiddleston let it rip. And with every time or canon explanation, there’s double the emotional good stuff and fun between Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Sophia di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, and MCU newbie Ke Huy Quan as their characters try to find their way back to the TVA in one piece. —S.S.
Streaming on Disney+
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of November 3.
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