Four ways to spend the Nov. 13 weekend, ranked by how much mood each one actually earns and whether that mood is worth leaving the couch for. One title keeps getting filed under “already streaming” by people planning their Saturday, and it isn’t there yet, so that correction gets its own section below. Where-to-watch details are U.S. only, checked Nov. 12, 2026.
For the night the room should go quiet
Paper Tiger
James Gray’s first film since 2022’s Armageddon Time drops Miles Teller’s Irwin Pearl, an engineer who specializes in risk assessment, into a Gowanus Canal cleanup scheme brokered by his older brother Gary, a former cop played by Adam Driver. Scarlett Johansson’s Hester is the wife holding a secret of her own, and the dread builds in increments, not shootouts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLwTyQOhBkw
The film premiered at Cannes to a seven-minute standing ovation, and the reviews back it up more than they argue. The Associated Press’s Lindsey Bahr wrote that “the American Dream has seldom looked so bleak as in ‘Paper Tiger,’ James Gray’s beautifully punishing tragedy about a middle class family in Queens,” and The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney called it simply “a drama of almost overwhelming power.” Variety’s Owen Gleiberman is the lone holdout, writing that Gray remains “an ace director who’s still being undercut by the holes in his screenplays.”
Neon is selling the format as hard as the movie. Every New York Film Festival opening-night screening on Sept. 25 ran on 35mm, and the print bookings keep showing up on calendars from Seattle’s SIFF Cinema Uptown to Orlando’s Enzian. Gray’s own pitch for why that matters: “There are many ways to watch a film today, and many can be beautiful. But a 35mm print, projected right, has that thing we call ‘the magic of the silver screen.’ There is just nothing else like it.”
Best for: the friend who wants an evening that feels like an occasion, not an errand. Where to watch: select U.S. theaters starting Nov. 13, wide Nov. 20 through Neon, 114 minutes, rated R. Availability checked Nov. 12, 2026.
For the family outing with a warning label
Ebenezer
Ti West built a career on dread and Paramount pointed it at Dickens. The studio bills this one PG-13 “for frightening material,” with Johnny Depp’s Scrooge opposite Ian McKellen’s Jacob Marley, Rupert Grint’s Bob Cratchit and Sam Claflin’s Fred. The ghosts got the budget. Whether the warm feelings at the end got any is the whole argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Ozo1xUgbU
Depp has been running the bit since July, when he walked Comic-Con in character and asked Hall H, “Have you no lives? No responsibilities?” The reviews split right down that same line. Deadline’s Pete Hammond wrote that “Depp clearly is having a blast playing it to the hilt,” while IndieWire’s David Ehrlich called the performance “an advent calendar of empty affectations without a soul to anchor them” and wrote, “He seems to have become very bad at acting.” Pick a side before the credits.
Best for: a family night with teenagers who claim they’re done with Dickens. Where to watch: in theaters exclusively starting Nov. 13 through Paramount, 116 minutes. Availability checked Nov. 12, 2026.
For the holdover that earned its fourth week
Wicker
This is the best business story currently playing a screen near anyone. Black Bear’s Sundance pickup carries a reported $10 million budget against $20,909,278 domestic and $30,059,278 worldwide through Nov. 10), and it has never dropped more than 24% in a single weekend since its Oct. 23 opening.
The premise is just as sturdy. Olivia Colman’s ridiculed fisherwoman pays Peter Dinklage’s basket weaver to build her a husband, Alexander Skarsgård steps out of the wicker, and Elizabeth Debicki’s tailor’s wife stirs the trouble that follows. Deadline’s Pete Hammond called it “the year’s most unexpected charmer,” which tracks with a movie that has quietly outgrown its opening weekend three and a half times over.
Best for: two people who want something to argue about on the drive home. Where to watch: in U.S. theaters, playing more than 2,000 locations as of Nov. 10. Availability checked Nov. 12, 2026.
For the couch, and whoever’s going to heckle it
Scrooged
Staying in doesn’t have to mean skipping the ghost tour. Richard Donner’s 1988 version puts Bill Murray in the Scrooge seat as Frank Cross, a television executive who fires a staffer on Christmas Eve and gets schooled by three spirits for his trouble, 15 minutes shorter than Ebenezer and considerably meaner about it.
Best for: the household member who will be quoting it for the next three days straight. Where to watch: included with a Prime Video subscription, also on Paramount+; it arrived on Prime Video Nov. 1. Availability checked Nov. 12, 2026.
The one that isn’t on the couch yet
Anyone building a Saturday around this weekend’s other heist comedy will hit a wall. David Leitch’s How to Rob a Bank, with Nicholas Hoult as a robber in an animal mask who livestreams the job, opens in theaters nationwide on Nov. 13, and a Prime Video streaming date has not been announced. Its own heist-filtered-through-edits review is worth a look before buying the ticket. For a heist fix at home instead, Prime Video added Tower Heist on Nov. 1, the same day Scrooged landed.
Start here
Paper Tiger is the one worth leaving the house for, and the 35mm engagements are the reason to pick the right room for it. Ebenezer’s split reviews are permission to wait a week and let the argument settle before spending a Friday on it. Everyone staying in has two honest options: Scrooged for the ghosts, or a Netflix chart that keeps arguing with itself for everything else. Gray’s film will not look the same on a laptop, which is the whole point of chasing a print.
