First Man, Damien Chazelle’s stressful outer-space blockbuster about Neil Armstrong’s moon landing, opens this month. Starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy, early Letterboxd reviews are mostly excited. Technically, it’s “mind-blowing” according to Mr Movies. “Like a ballet,” writes Nicole. But while the peril of the space scenes played well, Joey found the depiction of the late, great Armstrong “bland”.

“This is definitely Jeremy Saulnier: still focusing on the violent decisions of people and the absolute chaos that crackles in the air in the aftermath,” writes Lucy of Saulnier’s newest, Hold the Dark—in cinemas and on Netflix now. “Oppressively bleak… it really works,” says Trevor. “What a mess,” writes SnobMaynard, but “it’s Jeremy Saulnier’s mess which means it’s a solid mess”. Must be time to revisit the epic Q+A Saulnier did for us, answering almost 400 of your questions on Green Room and more.

Michael Moore’s all-over-the-place, entertainingly on-brand Fahrenheit 11/9 is jam-packed with potential solutions for current-day America, and a lot of love for the new progressive activists out there. “I laugh, I cried. I went home hoping that I would wake up the next morning and this political nightmare would just be a dream,” writes Allison. “Vote,” urges Big Tim.

“When u ready to talk, u talk.” George Tillman Jr. directs an adaptation of Angie Thomas’s novel The Hate U Give, a film for our times about a teenager (Amandla Stenberg) who takes on the system after her unarmed best friend is shot and killed by a police officer. “A powerful movie that everyone should see, but especially your racist parents,” writes Kip.

UK fam: Peter Jackson’s World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old premieres at the BFI London Film Festival October 16, and he is doing a live Q+A with Mark Kermode that same night that will be beamed into cinemas and special venues after screenings across the UK. Speaking of Jackson, he and the main Mortal Engines gang are set to unveil the first eight minutes of that film at NY Comic Con later this week.

It wouldn’t be October without a Halloween film, and this October it’s… the real deal. Halloween, David Gordon Green’s update on John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 original, ignores every other instalment since and brings back the OG Jamie Lee Curtis (thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal, apparently—your love is justified). Just do us one favor in the cinema: be mindful of when you log it on Letterboxd, would ya?

“In willfully neglecting the connections between the police and the KKK, and making a fun movie where the cops are unequivocally the good guys, Lee has made a pro-cop propaganda film… Melodrama everywhere. The pacing is horrible. It’s too damn long. The ways in which he draws out parallels between racism then and racism now are totally transparent, and obnoxious. There are missed opportunities everywhere.” —Gigi_Galwah

“The fact that a story about race relations in the 1970s feels so painfully applicable to the world of today is a depressing realisation. Lee wants to note the heroism in the actions of Stallworth, but there’s an underlying sadness to how we seem to have regressed since then… Lee’s intent is clear and obvious, drawing direct parallels to present day America. The last few minutes of BlacKkKlansman are a gut punch that adds greater context and meaning to the story that preceded them. It’s emotionally provocative and powerfully direct. Spike Lee has indeed made another decade-defining masterpiece, but saying that a story like this will define the 2010s is a hard pill to swallow.” —Joshua Price

“This movie is AGGRESSIVELY BAD. Two takeaways though:

• Blake Lively should strictly wear suits
• The guy from Crazy Rich Asians should be the new Bond (and also strictly wear suits)”

—Benjamin Oliphint

“La obra de Feig tiene una personalidad propia, es una comedia de absurdo con pinceladas de suspenso psicológico y de investigación criminal. La obra juega con todo y con todos; se define a la perfección en los outfits de Emily: es un puño francés con conservadoras mancuernillas… sin manga de camisa; un tuxedo a mitad de un día de campo; un saco sobre un pecho desnudo… y al igual que este vestuario: es delicioso de ver.”

Translation: “Feig’s work has its own personality, it is a comedy of absurdity with touches of psychological suspense and criminal investigation. The work plays with everything and everyone; it is defined perfectly in Emily’s outfits: it’s a French fist with conservative cufflinks … no shirt sleeves; a tuxedo in the middle of a picnic; a sack on a bare chest … and like this wardrobe: it’s delicious to see.” —Julio González

“Murnau sculpts his light with a precision that still draws attention to this day, with what could only be classified as an OG jump-scare. Young Thomas Hutter, a poor employee on assignment to sell a house to Count Orlok, looks out into a dark hallway, only to have something stare right back at him. It’s the nightmares of our reality composed into fantasy. Blood-sucking upper class manipulate those who are less financially well off, until they begin spreading their illness throughout the land. Townsfolk beneath Orlok’s castle hurdling into corners and crying just by the mere mention of his name.

Vampires, for me, tend to work best when we see the extent of their bloodlust. Their insatiable longing for culling life and light matched against their growing evil and relentless shadows. A conglomerate of terror and social anxieties that plays like a dream, before curdling into a nightmare. As far as I’m concerned, this is the cinematic birth of the horror genre.” —Diego Crespo

“Peter Sellers: master of the one-sided telephone conversation. The way he pauses and stammers and cuts off the Soviet head of state on the other line like he”s having an actual heated conversation KILLED ME.” —Patrick Pryor

“Early Spring is like a preservation of feeling, a captured bit of complexity and reality in only a way Ozu could show, but also in a way that doesn’t feel overly romanticized or affected by the medium. Like Ozu’s other films, it rolls by, carries you along, and drops you off. Not necessarily at the end, but at a fine point to go.” —the cutest puffin

“I love surreal, ambiguous films, so I’m surprised I didn’t go bananas for The Oregonian. It was like they wanted to maintain a Lynchian oneiric climax for the entire running time. That’s exhausting. But they forgot Twin Peaks is more than just the Black Lodge, it’s characters that exist in a concrete world, even if the foundations are rotting away… The woman known only as the Oregonian is a blank slate, and we never get the satisfaction of seeing that slate filled. I don’t need a big reveal, but I could have used a few more tiny ones. That being said, I bet this plays great at festivals. The cast did a great job acting creepy and weird, and a real voice came through the editing.” —Ryan McSwain

“Tourist Trap takes an absolutely ridiculous premise—a masked assailant using his telekinetic powers to control an abandoned museum filled with mannequins—and makes it work through the excellence of its direction… Let others be afraid of clowns or heights; my main source of being frightened is the existence of dolls. And that’s partly this film’s fault.” —Councillor3004

In case you’ve somehow missed it, we run a fortnightly Showdown in which you, the viewer, get to nominate your top tens in a category we dream up. We’re currently sounding out your favorite film scores. The other week, Children of Men topped our survey of best long takes.

The winner of this year’s Midnight Madness section at TIFF18 was also the first Indian film to ever screen in the midnight program. The Man Who Feels No Pain, directed by Vasan Bala, is about a man who feels no pain! (A condition that’s more neurological handicap than amazing superpower.)

A crowd-sourced list that examines the cult of the director from a different perspective.

One for those who enjoy their films in chunks, and/or have a passion for title cards.

TFW you have a very, very, very specific gripe with the Academy.

Too early to start thinking about 2019?