With the chill of November sweeping in and the holidays slowly approaching, there are plenty of great movie-watching days on the horizon. Arkadin Cinema & Bar is doubling down on film noir with its “Arkadin Investigates” monthly theme and the return of their Sunday Noirvember series; the Hi-Pointe Theatre has some top-notch restorations alongside autumnal classics; the Alamo Drafthouse St. Louis takes a closer look at the work of Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar; and the Webster University Film Series celebrates the work of director Paul Thomas Anderson. Here are the films to keep on your radar throughout November.
The Big Combo | November 1, 3 p.m.
Arkadin Cinema & Bar, 5228 Gravois
Arkadin Cinema & Bar is celebrating Noirvember again this year with a weekly series of $3 Sunday screenings of noir films. The first film in the series is The Big Combo, a 1955 film from director Joseph A. Lewis that follows a police detective on a personal crusade to take down the sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. Equal parts jazzy and foggy, The Big Combo has just about everything you want from a classic noir film and served as an influence on Quentin Tarantino’s debut film, Reservoir Dogs. Arkadin’s Noirvember program also includes Kansas City Confidential, Beat the Devil, and Woman on the Run.
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut | November 7, 7 p.m.
Arkadin Cinema & Bar, 5228 Gravois
Caligula’s reputation precedes it. The film is one of the most expensive erotic films ever made, financed primarily by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, who pushed to add more hardcore content to the film after initial production wrapped. The changes lost sight of the vision of director Tinto Brass, writer Gore Vidal, and lead actor Malcolm McDowell, all of whom had major issues with the final cut. Released in 2023, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is made entirely from archival footage not used in the original cut of the film to better realize the famed mad emperor’s tragic tale. This screening will also feature a post-screening conversation with Aaron Shaps, the editor of Caligula: The Ultimate Cut and author of Caligula: The Official Story of the Film.
Handle With Care | November 9, 7 p.m.
Arkadin Cinema & Bar, 5228 Gravois
While it can be difficult for independent films to stand out in the modern theatrical landscape, director Matthew James Thompson has taken an interesting approach to get eyes on his debut feature. Handle With Care is a romantic dramedy about a cynical ad copywriter dissecting love and marriage while navigating the aftermath of a messy divorce. What sets this film apart is that it’s traveling to theaters around the country on a single DVD inside a large case covered in stickers and names from everywhere it screens. Don’t miss your chance to catch this indie delight at Arkadin, and if you make it out, be sure to sign the guest book as well.
Virgina | November 10, 7 p.m.
Winifred Moore Auditorium, 470 E. Lockwood
Set in a 19th-century Balkan village, Virgina follows the fourth daughter born to a family “cursed” to never have a son, who is instead raised as a boy named Stevan to serve as the family’s sole heir. But as first love strikes, Stevan begins to rebel against this assigned destiny. While writer-director Srđan Karanović completed the film in 1991, it was more or less lost for decades as a result of the Yugoslav Wars. Now, the film is back in circulation with a new 2K restoration screening at the Webster University Film Series.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | November 12, 6 p.m.
Alamo Drafthouse St. Louis, 3765 Foundry
Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown is a colorful dark comedy from director Pedro Almodóvar. The film follows Pepa, an actress who dubs famous films in Spanish with her partner, Iván, with whom she has recently split up and is desperately trying to contact. This leads Pepa on a spiral, while having to contend with potential renters touring her penthouse apartment and fielding her best friend’s affair with a potential terrorist. As one might imagine, hijinks ensue. Things are thrown out of windows, a bed is set on fire, and everyone’s wires get cartoonishly crossed. Dripping with delightfully over-the-top melodrama, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is Almodóvar at his finest. Alamo Drafthouse St. Louis will also be screening a number of other Almodóvar films throughout November, including All About My Mother, Volver, and The Skin I Live In.
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A Tale of Autumn | November 16, 7 p.m.
Hi-Pointe Theatre, 1005 McCausland
The final entry in French director Éric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons series, A Tale of Autumn plays with elements of breezy American romantic comedies that inspired Rohmer and his French New Wave compatriots. The film centers on Margali, a widowed winemaker who throws herself into working on her vineyard to distract from her loneliness as two of her friends independently concoct convoluted plans to get her back into the world of dating. With all of this in mind, A Tale of Autumn feels like a seasonally appropriate pick for rom-com obsessives and cinephiles alike that shouldn’t be missed.
Raise the Red Lantern | November 20-23
Hi-Pointe Theatre, 1005 McCausland
Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern is a period piece that follows a young woman named Songlian (Gong Li) in 1920s China, who is taken in as the fourth wife of a wealthy man. Inside his estate, though, she learns that each wife is not treated equally. A red lantern is placed outside the room of whichever woman the master of the house chooses each night, and with it comes status and favor. Raise the Red Lantern received widespread acclaim upon release, winning the Silver Lion at the 1991 Venice Film Festival and being nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1992 Academy Awards. This 4K restoration also celebrates the film’s 35th anniversary and serves as its first major theatrical rerelease since 1992. Since Raise the Red Lantern also isn’t readily available on streaming or disc, this run at the Hi-Pointe Theatre should be appointment viewing.
There Will Be Blood | November 21
Winifred Moore Auditorium, 470 E. Lockwood
Hot off of One Battle After Another’s Oscar wins earlier this year, the Webster University Film Series will be screening a handful of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s films throughout November and December. There Will Be Blood is Anderson’s loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as oil baron Daniel Plainview, who navigates the trials and tribulations of building his empire against the backdrop of the evolving American West. Endlessly quotable and beautifully realized by cinematographer Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood stands as a highlight in Anderson’s already esteemed body of work. The other films screening as part of this series include Magnolia, Licorice Pizza, and One Battle After Another.
Point Blank | November 25, 6 p.m.
Alamo Drafthouse St. Louis, 3765 Foundry
This thriller from director John Boorman sees classic tough guy actor Lee Marvin as Walker, a man left for dead on Alcatraz Island after a robbery goes sideways and his partner turns on him, escaping with all the money and Walker’s wife. Miraculously, Walker pulls through, and when he makes it back to San Francisco, he only has one thing on his mind: revenge. Equal parts neo-noir and revenge thriller, with a bit of ghost story thrown in for good measure, Point Blank is well worth your time.
The Long Goodbye | November 29, 5 p.m.
Arkadin Cinema & Bar, 5228 Gravois
In The Long Goodbye, screening as part of Arkadin’s “Arkadin Investigates” program, director Robert Altman reimagines noir hero Phillip Marlowe as a mumbly and rumpled Elliott Gould cruising around ‘70s Los Angeles. This adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel of the same name follows Marlowe as he is caught up in the mysterious deaths of an old friend, which somehow crosses over with a missing person case as he tracks down an alcoholic, self-destructive writer played by Sterling Hayden. Shaggy and meandering, The Long Goodbye stands as a neo-noir touchstone for films like The Big Lebowski and Inherent Vice and, as such, has grown in esteem as a cult classic.
