Sometimes the stars, films, shows, and albums just align. And that’s just what’s happening on October 21, 2022. In a “when it rains it pours” moment, this Friday is shaping up to be a pop culture perfect storm of the highest magnitude. Films starring the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Julia Roberts and George Clooney, Harry Styles, Colin Farrell, and Paul Mescal all premiere that day. Taylor Swift returns with a new album, but it seems other musicians—Carly Rae Jepsen, Tegan and Sara, The Arctic Monkeys—don’t mind sharing a release date with that pop heavyweight. But wait, there’s more! As we at The A.V. Club batten down the hatches to prepare for this veritable maelstrom of content, we’ve put together a preview of every notable release; honestly, it’s helpful just to have it all spelled out in one place to keep track. P.S. While you’re marking the calendar, take note that October 21 is also the International Day of the Nacho . So this Friday, melt some cheese on some chips and chow down while you celebrate the following.
A lot is riding on Dwayne Johnson’s bulky shoulders with Black Adam , the latest effort from the DC Universe (let’s be real, it would be nice to see something break up Marvel Studios’ domination of our movie calendar). Black Adam gets top billing for this round-up of the weekend’s big projects if only because, good or bad, all eyes will be on its box office performance. Amid the mayhem at Warner Bros. Discovery, this anti-hero flick hopes to punch away the haters and score the studio conglomerate a rare win.
You could practically hear the eruption of tweets from fervent fans—a deafening birdsong, truly—when Taylor Swift confirmed her 10th studio album. Following up the award-winning one-two punch of folklore and evermore , releases of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) , and after getting pushed under a car in Amsterdam, Swift promises more lyrical mastery and fabulous heartache with Midnights. At this point, autumn practically belongs to Swift.
Come this weekend, cinema employees across the country will be hearing the alliterative phrase “Two tickets to Ticket To Paradise , please.” Megawatt stars and honest-to-God besties George Clooney and Julia Roberts make a grand return to the rom-com genre in this Ol Parker film about a divorced couple crashing their daughter’s wedding in beautiful Bali. Grab some popcorn because this is the kind of mainstream, feel-good movie that must be seen on the big screen.
Entitled “The Eclipse,” the conclusion to season two of HBO’s wonderfully weird horror-comedy Los Espookys airs Friday as the perfect end-of-week treat. Unfortunately, this likely means another long break between seasons. But so detailed are the zany characters and magical realism in this world, it will feel like Renaldo, Andrés, Úrsula, Tati, and good ol’ Uncle Tico are still out there, navigating eerie scenarios and staging gruesome events in all their idiosyncratic glory. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, treat yourself: there’s still time to catch up.
For many audience members, every piece of pop culture on this list pales in comparison to the chance to see Harry Styles have sex on screen (and gay sex, no less). The singer’s foray into acting continues with My Policeman , a Michael Grandage film tailor-made for prestige awards; based on Bethan Roberts’ popular novel and co-starring such nuanced pros as Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, and Rupert Everett, it’s a study of repression and restraint that, yes, happens to feature plenty of nudity from today’s most famous male pop star.
Borrowing the executive producers and the overall vibes from Westworld, Amazon Prime Video unveils The Peripheral on October 21. This adaptation of William Gibson’s novel stars Chloë Grace Moretz as a drone operator in a futuristic video game who sees some real shit go down—or does she? (To anyone who saw Don’t Worry Darling and was disappointed … this series could turn out to be more what Olivia Wilde was going for.)
Stay tuned at The A.V. Club for more on the latest game from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment: an open-world RPG set in a post-Batman Gotham City. In Gotham Knights , players get to explore and evolve their chosen characters—will you choose Batgirl? Nightwing?—to become the new resident Dark Knight. This city needs YOU!
This is meant in the nicest way possible: Carly Rae Jepsen has gotten weird. Not so much within the sounds of her blissfully candy-colored pop music, but certainly with her quirky music videos, which have the feel of a musician content to do her thing whether or not devoted fans are into it. Look at Rufus Wainwright acting all goofy! Jepsen’s fifth studio album, The Loneliest Time, drops on—wouldn’t you know it?—October 21, via Interscope Records.
You’re as liable to laugh as cry with a Martin McDonagh flick. The writer-director penned the friendship-breakup tale The Banshees Of Inisherin specifically with his In Bruges stars, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, in mind; surely there are no two better Irish lads alive to deliver his lyrical, silly-yet-sad dialogue. P.S.: Get ready to become emotionally attached to Jenny, one of the stars of this film who just happens to be a donkey.
Big-budget action, historical epic, and non-English-language—is Barbarians the embodiment of the Netflix juggernaut? It’s exactly the kind of hit the streamer has leaned into of late, and it’s practically guaranteed that fans from around the world will tune in for another round of this German war drama set in 9 A.D.
With an imminent tour and no new music since 2018, it’s fitting that Arctic Monkeys’ seventh studio album joins the October 21 fray. The beloved English band gave us a taste with “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball,” which musically sounds like it picks up where the more soulful, laidback Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino left off. Drummer Matt Helders promised as much , saying recently, “It’s never gonna be like ‘R U Mine?’ and all that stuff again.”
Paul Mescal is—deservedly—having a great 2022. His follow-up to The Lost Daughter and God’s Creatures is writer-director Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun , which casts the Irish no-longer-rising-but-established star as a father on a Turkish summer vacation with his daughter. Seeped in nostalgia and autobiographical melancholy, the film took the Cannes Film Festival by storm earlier this year before then bowing at pretty much every major fest, making it a possible Oscar contender.
Tegan and Sara fans are having a particularly festive month: High School , Amazon Freevee’s eight-episode coming-of-age drama, is based on the duo’s gorgeous memoir of the same name. The Quin twins are following that up on October 21 with their highly anticipated 10th studio album, Crybaby. The bookending of these two projects should provide an intriguing look at the evolution of two beloved artists who surely still have plenty of stories to tell.
Last but not least—okay, maybe it’s not the most mainstream release and that’s why we’re listing it last, but nevertheless—there’s an audience for Voodoo Macbeth too. History buffs and theater nerds alike should check out this film adaptation of the unlikely story behind Orson Welles’ staging of a Macbeth set in Haiti. The filmmaker-thespian referred to his famous (or infamous, depending on which pearl-clutching purists you ask) production as his greatest artistic success.