Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here’s a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.
Like Water for Chocolate
Max, November 3
Literary bona fides: based on Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, tr. Carol and Thomas Christensen (1989)
This classic of romantic magical realism—which doubles as a cookbook, iykyk—gets the series treatment in a new adaptation executive produced by Salma Hayek Pinault. Tita de la Garza (Azul Guaita) and Pedro Múzquiz (Andrés Baida) fall in love at first sight, but per Tita’s family custom, she is forbidden to marry, and instead stays home and pours all of her emotions into the food she makes. The 1992 movie adaptation made records as the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever released in the US (at the time); hopefully the new treatment will hold up.
Pedro Páramo
Netflix, November 6
Literary bona fides: based on Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, tr. Douglas J. Weatherford (1955)
That’s right, two adaptations of iconic Mexican magical realist novels are coming to your small screens in one week. In the hallucinatory, fragmented novel, a man named Juan Preciado promises his dying mother that he will return to the town of Comala to seek his father, the eponymous Pedro Páramo. But Comala, it turns out, is full of ghosts, each with their own story to tell.
Emilia Pérez
Netflix, November 13
Literary bona fides: based on Écoute by Boris Razon (2018)
Early reviews of French director Jacques Audiard’s “trans-empowerment musical set against the backdrop of Mexico’s drug cartels,” based on a similarly French novel I could discover very little about, are all over the place, from disgusted to bored to enraptured, but general consensus is that the film is an enormous, ambitious, genre-dissolving swing. Does that swing land anywhere? I’ve seen enough to want to find out for myself.
Say Nothing
FX on Hulu, November 14
Literary bona fides: based on Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (2018)
Keefe’s celebrated, bestselling nonfiction book about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, centering on the kidnapping and murder of an Irish woman, a mother of ten, whom the IRA suspected as an informant, is now a limited series that traces the conflict from the 1960s to today. Looks good.
The Day of the Jackal
Peacock, November 14
Literary bona fides: based on The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (1971)
From our fall film & TV preview: Eddie Redmayne stars as the elusive assassin known only as the Jackal in a modern reimagining of Forsyth’s ’70s classic, with Lashana Lynch as the British intelligence officer on his tail.
Cross
Prime Video, November 14
Literary bona fides: based on the Alex Cross novels by James Patterson (1993-present)
From our fall film & TV preview: Alex Cross has had very little luck on the big screen, even with Morgan Freeman, and definitely with Tyler Perry. Here’s hoping that Aldis Hodge has better luck on the small one.
Widow Clicquot
Netflix, November 16
Literary bona fides: based on The Widow Clicquot by Tilar Mazzeo (2009)
Haley Bennett, Tom Sturridge, and Sam Riley star in this biopic of the woman behind the Veuve Clicquot champagne brand, adapted by Erin Dignam and Christopher Monger from cultural historian Mazzeo’s nonfiction account.
Dune: Prophecy
Max, November 17
Literary bona fides: based on Frank Herbert’s Dune universe
From our fall film & TV preview: The Dune prequel you didn’t know you always needed. Maybe, anyway.
Interior Chinatown
Hulu, November 19
Literary bona fides: based on Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020)
From our fall film & TV preview: Jimmy O. Yang (Silicon Valley) stars as Willis Wu in this much-anticipated adaptation of Yu’s National Book Award-winning novel, which follows Wu as he finally manages to break out of the stale stereotyped roles of both acting and life, after witnessing a crime. Yu is onboard as showrunner (we already know he can write screenplays…), which bodes very well; Ronny Chieng and Chloe Bennet also star. Should be plenty of fun.
The Piano Lesson
Netflix, November 22
Literary bona fides: based on The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (1987)
From our fall film & TV preview: Top tier nepo baby John David Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Potts, and Ray Fisher all reprise their 2022 Broadway revival roles in the film version of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, written and directed by John David Washington’s brother Malcolm Washington; Denzel himself produces.
Get Millie Black
Max, November 25
Literary bona fides: created, written, and executive produced by novelist Marlon James
This one isn’t an adaptation, but it is the first foray into television by one of our greatest literary maximalists: the Jamaican-born Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings and Black Leopard, Red Wolf, among other books. Get Millie Black stars Tamara Lawrance as the titular Millie-Jean Black, who is forced out of Scotland Yard and back to Kingston to join the Jamaican Police Force.
