THIS MONTH

I OCCASIONALLY THINK back to an ancient relic

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO THIS MONTH

HUNG OUT WITH CATE BLANCHETT Empire’s Olly Richards

TALK TO US

NOT TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL I’m a secondary

No./1 Say hello to Marvel’s next Big Bad

THIS MONTH’S FILM MOMENTS THAT MATTER

No./2 Magic Mike’s curtain call

STEVEN SODERBERGH on directing his stripper swan song

No./3 NEXT IN THE SERIES

You fell in love with that incredible new TV show. And then it ended! Don’t despair — Boyd Hilton recommends the sibling shows to watch next

No./4 THE SECRETS OF JENNY THE DONKEY

She stole the show in The Banshees Of Inisherin. Now, her handler Rita Maloney reveals four facts about the braying breakout

No./5 Making White Noise’s supermarket showstopper

Greta Gerwig and choreographer David Neumann unpack the new drama’s surprising dance number

No./6 Season’s Grootings!

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special brings a festive finale to the MCU’s fourth phase

No./7 Move over, Chucky

There’s a new ultra-creepy doll ready to wreak havoc. M3GAN producer James Wan and writer Akela Cooper introduce us…

No./8 Serving up a second course of Boiling Point

Inside the serialised sequel to the Stephen Graham-fronted restaurant stress-fest

No./9 DC UNDER THE GUNN

With James Gunn anointed co-head of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran, what can we expect from this new era?

No./10 “At 45 I’m still there, on my little canoe going down the river”

[ THE Q&A ] SAMANTHA MORTON on honouring the women in #MeToo drama She Said, and her fearless approach to performing

No./11 Inside Marvel’s most meta moment yet

She-Hulk’s creator Jessica Gao on that boundary-smashing finale

No./12 BONY HEADGEAR

Wearing skeletal remains on your bonce is the new big-screen fashion statement

No./13 The secrets of the Overlook

A huge new book on THE SHINING features rare and unseen photos. Like these...

No./14 The Father, The Son, and the returning director

FLORIAN ZELLER on the emotionally charged follow-up to his Oscar-winning drama

No./15 Star Wars drops a club banger

Among the surprises in Andor: an electronic tune that got our hands in the air. We find out how it happened

No./16 The road to the role of a lifetime

Danielle Deadwyler on the performances that led her to TILL

No./17 REBORN RETURNS

Mark Wahlberg’s Father Stu is the latest film to return to its cinematic birth canal. We investigate

BLACK IN FOCUS

AMON WARMANN chews over the main moment in Black film and TV this month

Mindcage

Unfiltered, uncensored, uncompromising trailer reactions from team EMPIRE

Frankie Corio

THE 13-YEAR-OLD ACTOR MAKES HER BREAKTHROUGH OPPOSITE PAUL MESCAL IN BUZZY INDIE AFTERSUN

No./18 Indie horror bites back

In a year of big box-office wins and Oscar rumours, the genre is entering an exciting new era

No./19 M. Night Shyamalan brings horror home

With KNOCK AT THE CABIN, the filmmaker goes back to basics in style

No./20 Who won the battle of Westeros vs Middle-earth ?

Which delivered the most jaw-dropping first season: House Of The Dragon or The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power? Empire casts an eye over the evidence…

ASA BUTTERFIELD

ILLUSTRATION ARN0 Do you have a signature dish? Yeah,

GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY

25 NOV - 16 DEC BIG SCREEN. SMALL

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

Black Panther returns... Tenoch Huerta as Namor

BONES AND ALL

Catastrophically she’d picked up the superglue instead of

LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER

★★★ OUT 25 NOVEMBER (CINEMAS), 2 DECEMBER (NETFLIX)

NANNY

★★★★ OUT 25 NOVEMBER (CINEMAS), 16 DECEMBER (PRIME

MATILDA THE MUSICAL

School buds Amanda (Winter Jarrett-Glasspool), Nigel (Ashton Robertson),

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO

Wooden it be nice? — Pinocchio, voiced

SHE SAID

Girl power: Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. ★★★★

NEPTUNE FROST

★★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 105

ENOLA HOLMES 2

★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 12A /

THE MENU

★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 106

THE SILENT TWINS

★★★ OUT 9 DECEMBER / CERT TBC /

CHARLOTTE

★★★ OUT 9 DECEMBER / CERT 12A /

THE AMAZING MAURICE

★★ OUT 16 DECEMBER / CERT PG /

BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS

This clearly wasn’t the right room for Advanced

BLACK ADAM

The Flash will be wanting a word. ★★★

CALL JANE

★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 121

TORI AND LOKITA

★★★★ OUT 2 DECEMBER / CERT 15 /

ECHO 3

Prince (Michiel Huisman) and Bambi (Luke Evans): no

ONE LAST QUEST

SINCE 1981,INDIANA JONES HAS BEEN THE WHIP - CRACKING, WISECRACKINGACTION HERO TO BEAT THEM ALL- BUT THE WORLD'S CREATEST ADVENTURER IS FINALLY READY TO HANG UP HIS HAT. AS STAR HARRISON FORD,DIRECTOR JAMES MANGOLD AND MORE REVEAL, IT'S GOING TO BE AN EMOTIONAL FAREWELL

ACROSS THE SPIDER MAN: SPIDER-VERSE

NEXT YEAR BRINGS US SUPERHEROES, HITMEN AND, WELL, PEOPLE MADE OF WATER. HERE’S OUR LOWDOWN ON THE MOVIES WE CAN’T WAIT TO GAWP AT

NEXT GOAL WINS

TAIKA WAITITI TELLS US WHY HE WANTED TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT THE WORLD’S WORST FOOTBALL TEAM

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

HONOUR AMONG THIVES

RENFIELD

Nicolas Cage vants to suck your blood...

LUTHER

IDRIS ELBA’S ICONIC COP RETURNS – AND HE’S GOING TO THE MOVIES

MISSION IMPOISSIBLE DEAD RECKONNING

PART ONE

JOHN WICK

CHAPTER 4

SHAZAM!

FURY OF THE GODS

CREED

WITH THE THIRD INSTALMENT OF THE BOXING SAGA, STAR MICHAEL B. JORDAN HAS STEPPED UP TO DIRECT. AND, HE SAYS, HE’S PULLED NO PUNCHES

HAUNTED MANSION

This theme-park-ride adaptation wants to scare you silly

ELEMENTAL

He’s made of water! She’s made of

ALSO SHOWING

Margot Robbie as living doll Barbie. 2023:

A LIFE IN MOVIES

FROM FINDING SOLACE THERE AS A KID, TO MAKING OSCAR-WINNING CLASSICS, SAM MENDES HAS ALWAYS LOVED CINEMA. WITH EMPIRE OF LIGHT, HE’S CREATED A TRIBUTE TO THE MEDIUM THAT MADE HIM

WILD THINGS

IN HIS QUEST TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT ONE OF THE MOST HEDONISTIC ERAS IN HOLLYWOOD, DIRECTOR DAMIEN CHAZELLE WAS DETERMINED NOT TO BE COY. HE AND HIS CAST LEAD US THROUGH THE GATES OF RIOTOUS 1920S EPIC BABLYON

Note Perfect

SINCE THE START OF HER CAREER, CATE BLANCHETT HAS GIVEN ASTONISHING PERFORMANCES. WITH MUSIC DRAMA TÁR , THOUGH, SHE IS BETTER THAN EVER. WE ASK HER HOW SHE DOES IT

AN AUDIENCE WITH THE KING

AsJAMES CAMERON, the director of the world’s biggest film, returns from a 13-year hiatus with Avatar: TheWay OfWater, we thought he deserved the ultimate interview. So we asked a host of A-listers to pose the burning questions they’ve always wanted to ask…

Best Western

INDISPENSABLE HOME ENTERTAINMENT

THE CULT OF KIM NEWMAN

The critic and novelist selects the month’s weirdest home-ent releases

Closing time

Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson on saying goodbye to the Quick Stop with Kevin Smith’s CLERKS III

MARK KARMODE'S MOVIE PLAYLIST

THE CRITIC AND SCALA RADIO PRESENTER CHOOSES SCORES HE’S BEEN PLAYING ON HIS WEEKLY SHOW

Werewolf By Night

A deep dive into the must-see moments from the month’s big release

Samuel L. Jackson movies

Four Empire writers. Ten films. Ordered definitively.

THE TOP TEN

1 PULP FICTION (1994) HELEN: “Authoritative, unpredictable and magnetic,

Jurassic Park

How iconic images came to life SAM NEILL

6 OF THE BEST

PICK OF THE MONTH

All The President’s Men

JOSEPH KOSINSKI: “All The President’s Men, when Robert Redford is on the phone and he’s talking to Dustin Hoffman, and they’re starting to slowly crack the case wide open. I read how they ran the phone conversation in real time, with the other actor on the other side of the phone, so it was all practical. There’s an immediacy to it that doesn’t feel staged. It’s just electric.”