Andy Weir’s gripping, marooned-on-Mars novel, The Martian, becomes blockbuster bombast under the steady hand of Ridley Scott. We can’t wait to see Matt “the greatest botanist on this planet” Damon science the sh*t out of everything next month.

“No one comes up here without a damn good reason.”

Christmas is coming and so is Quentin Tarantino’s new film The Hateful Eight in all its 70mm glory (depending on where you get to watch it). We promise not to bombard you with too much Tarantino, but here’s a good interview in which QT talks about, among other things, taking notes from the studio, white supremacism and Oscar bait.

And in this Deadline piece post-Comic Con, he talks about watching the rushes in 70mm.

If you read the script when it leaked a year ago (shame on you!) see if you agree with Austin Gorski’s lengthy review.

Also coming at Christmas: Alejandro G. Iñárritu chased the snow around the world for The Revenant, so its release date is rather fitting. That, and Leo’s beard is a worthy rival to Santa Claus’s.

“Human beings simply aren’t built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747.”

Everest tells of a particularly terrible day on the mountain. Keira Knightley makes us proud with her New Zealand accent, playing the wife of mountaineer Rob Hall, but there’s a profound lack of focus on the ever-present sherpas; we recommend Jennifer Peedom’s doc, Sherpa, as a companion piece.

Lenny Abrahamson puts Emma Donoghue’s harrowing novel Room on the big screen. Afterwards, we recommend binge-watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

So foul and fair a trailer we have not seen. Fassbender and Cotillard couldn’t be a more perfect pair for Macbeth’s inevitable bloodbath. Out, damned spot.

“I will never learn that these genre revival movies are not for me. I will complain about them and I will hate them (or at the very least be bored by them), but I will not stop watching them. It’s like a sick compulsion. Like, I get it, I know why other people like these movies, they’re Cool with a capital C and there’s synths and they’re very throwback! Pastiche! Homage! But I hate those things, I HATE IT WHY CAN’T I STOP. SOMEONE STOP ME.” —La Femme Hysterique

“The best movie of its kind since Bellflower, Turbo Kid is a whacked-out and gory fun time that references everything from Mad Max to Star Wars and Soylent Green to Tomorrowland too (though this movie TECHNICALLY predates Tomorrowland) as well as all the obscure 1980s exploitation films you probably can’t name by name. Durham County TV star Laurence LeBeouf plays the ultimate post-apocalyptic manic pixie dream girl named Apple and she’s absolutely awesome in this, though how you feel about her character will probably gauge how you feel about this movie. And the legendary Michael Ironside is pretty great and absolutely ruthless as the villain. […] So what are you waiting for? Grab your gnome stick and go see this movie!” —Japeman

“John Carpenter’s Halloween is the only film (Trick ‘r’ Treat comes close, but only stylistically) that effectively captures both the quiet beauty and terror of the titular holiday, contrasting darkness and light, silence and blood-curdling cries, and the pure and the immoral from the opening Jack O’Lantern flicker to the final disembodied intake of air.

“Halloween is a film of traditional, atmospheric, spontaneous, hair-raising, and phantom qualities. It is, without a doubt, the finest horror film ever committed to celluloid, and one of the greatest films ever made.” —SilentDawn

Swedish stunner Ingrid Bergman would have turned 100 last month. Star of more than 50 films, an EGOT winner, and mum of Isabella Rossellini, she’s worth a few lists. A small selection: fourstarfilmfan’s The Best Films of Ingrid Bergman, a list of the films that are featured in Notorious — this month’s TIFF tribute to Bergman, and feedingbrett’s There’s Nothing Like a Hitchcock Lady.

The only LGBT film festival in Russia has been cancelled; some films to watch while you mourn for the rights of filmgoers in the largest country in the world.

It’s alright to have a good cry, chaps. Lyzette (who put awesome work into that impressive — and still throbbing — Ladies Getting Head list) has compiled films with men and/or boys having a good sob. “Scenes where men loudly crying are played for ‘jokes’ (à la Adam Sandler) will not be accepted.”

This month Paul Anthony Johnson has gone above and beyond with his huge list of movies made between 1929 and 1962 that were directed or co-directed by women. It’s a worthy companion to Sujei Lugo’s ongoing Reel Wom*n project.

The Emmy Awards are approaching fast; scrub up on the nominated miniseries past and present.

Last month we high-fived Matt Singer’s Fantastic Four review, except it was an excerpt from his review of the 2005 version. Here’s his one-star 2015 verdict (with bonus points for inventing “Mara hair”): “The movie feels like a mish-mosh of like ten different kinds of movies, and none of them fit[s] together. It’s like a salad made of out lettuce, gummy worms, and carpet samples dressed with some Mike’s Hard Lemonade… I had more fun eating the entire Denny’s Fantastic Four menu.” Mmm, salad for lunch?

We at Letterboxd HQ are suckers for a review that mentions cute kids, and Sydney has gone for gold in her assessment of Minions: “She laughed, and the light from her beautiful face will lead me through any darkness.”

Speaking of kids and their elders, we’ll sign off with this two-star review of Vacation from Gala Avary.