Seen on Screen: Taika Waititi Takes on Kazuo Ishiguro and More Things to Watch This Month

Familiar faces mark this month’s screen offerings, whether it’s Mark Zuckerberg (now played by a different actor) or the ubiquitous Florence Pugh and Margaret Qualley. Actor-creators Sharon Horgan and Mackenzie Crook each debut hotly tipped new shows, while works by Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning authors get new adaptations.  

Youth

Sharon Horgan has given us a long line of great television about the messiness of adult life, including Catastrophe and Bad Sisters. The Irish writer and actor’s latest creation is Youth, an incisive look at “the sandwich generation” who must look after their grown children and ageing parents at the same time. Horgan plays Alex, a 50-year-old divorcee whose awkward son (played by Aran Murphy, son of Cillian Murphy) is leaving for university. That inspires Alex to start dating for the first time in years, amid constant complications with work and her parents. This eight-episode series looks like the perfect fusion of HBO prestige comedy and Horgan’s dryly affecting comedic voice. On HBO Max now. 

Klara and the Sun 

Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro is no stranger to screen adaptations: his novels The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go have both yielded tear-inducing films. By contrast, Klara and the Sun mingles some feel-good notes with the author’s signature melancholy. That makes it a cosy fit for New Zealand director Taika Waititi, who can balance warm, funny and sad elements better than most. Jenna Ortega stars as Klara, an android companion to a girl (Mia Tharia) whose family is reeling from tragedy. Amy Adams plays the matriarch who disapproves of Klara, but the android’s bright outlook on life may be hard to resist. In cinemas October 22. 

East of Eden 

In between forays into blockbuster IP via multiple Marvel and Dune movies, Florence Pugh is slipping into the skin of one of American literature’s most unforgiving antagonists. That would be Cathy Ames, an alluring yet destructive force at the centre of John Steinbeck’s multigenerational 1952 epic, East of Eden, set in California’s Salinas Valley. Ames is a longstanding source of strife for her husband, Adam Trask (played by Christopher Abbott) and their twin sons, but moves on to more ruthless and sinister activities. This limited series focuses primarily on the central Trask family rather than the book’s secondary Hamilton family, but that’s probably a wise decision given the sheer narrative sweep of the source material. On Netflix now. 

Small Prophets

After breaking out on the original version of The Office, actor-turned-creator Mackenzie Crook helmed the sleepy English comedy The Detectorists a decade ago. He continues his streak of low-key ensemble gems with Small Prophets, an acclaimed BBC series that’s getting a wider global release through Apple TV. Detectorists co-star Pearce Quigley leads the new series as a lonely man who turns to alchemy to divine the fate of his long-missing partner. Set and shot in Manchester, the show integrates its more magical elements with selected bits of animation. It’s already been renewed for a second season. On Apple TV from October 7.

 Love of Your Life 

Ensemble regular Margaret Qualley enjoys top billing in Love of Your Life, an intimate drama about a woman whose loses the love of her life at the height of Covid. Grief-stricken, Maya abandons the security of her job and domestic life to embark on a globetrotting journey of self-discovery. Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison directs the movie, which has been called a darker answer to Eat, Pray, Love. Torn between her closest friend (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and a compelling new suitor (Lanterns star Aaron Pierre, using his native British accent for a change), Maya must decide whether to accept the risks of romantic surrender after her first shot at love ended in tragedy. On Prime Video October 14.

Whalefall 

Austin Abrams can’t catch a break: after fending off monstrous tentacles and acid vomit in the current horror hit Resident Evil, he next plays a scuba diver who’s swallowed whole by a 60-tonne sperm whale. Based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Kraus, Whalefall is a ticking-clock survival thriller about Abrams’s character battling to escape the belly of this aquatic beast with only an hour of oxygen remaining. Most of the movie unfolds in those unusual close quarters, though Josh Brolin does play the protagonist’s recently deceased father (and survivalist mentor) in flashbacks. Grounded in science more than magical realism, this man-versus-nature premise might land somewhere between 127 Hours and The Martian. In cinemas October 15.

 VisionQuest 

Completing a mind-bending trilogy that includes WandaVision and Agatha All Along, VisionQuest completes the story (for now) of the powerful android Vision (Paul Bettany), who must move on after losing his great love, The Scarlet Witch. But he’s not alone: James Spader returns to the MCU as Vision’s once-villainous father figure, Ultron, and Ruaridh Mollica plays Vision’s mysterious teen son. Beyond setting up certain pieces ahead of Avengers: Doomsday in December, this miniseries should continue the trilogy’s humanist tone amidst deeper questions about reality and family. And with Spader stepping in for comic relief, expect some well-timed laughs sprinkled in with the superhero drama. On Disney+ from October 14.

 The Social Reckoning 

As a sequel to 2010’s The Social Network, this docudrama has a tough act to follow. Aaron Sorkin​​, who won an Oscar for the first film’s screenplay, is back on writing duties and is now directing as well. While the earlier movie depicted Mark Zuckerberg’s devious divestment from Facebook’s other co-creators, The Social Reckoning focuses on Facebook and Instagram’s fiercely guarded internal secrets. Anora’s Mikey Madison plays real-life whistleblower Frances Haugen, who reached out to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (played by Jeremy Allen White) with reams of damning evidence in 2021. In lieu of Jesse Eisenberg, Zuckerberg is this time portrayed by Jeremy Strong, with his usual degree of commitment. In cinemas October 8.