Elle USA - 09.2019

A mass embrace of

sisterhood has helped tear

down decades of misogyny

in Hollywood and beyond,

so it was only a matter of time

before a story line (or four)

featured women banding

together to overcome

adversity onscreen.

Films with women-led

ensemble casts dominate

the marquees this season,

starting with Hustlers

(September 13), starring

Jennifer Lopez, Cardi B,

and Constance Wu as savvy

strippers who turn the tables

on their obnoxious Wall

Street clients. Next up is

Elizabeth Banks’s feminist

remake of Charlie’s Angels

(November 15), starring

Banks, Kristen Stewart,

Ella Balinska, and Naomi

Scott. Then Margot Robbie,

Nicole Kidman, and Charlize

Theron fight the toxic work

environment at Roger

Ailes’s Fox News in a still-

untitled film from The Big

Short screenwriter Charles

Randolph (December

20). And finally, Greta

Gerwig’s highly anticipated

adaptation of Little Women

(December 25), starring

Meryl Streep, Emma Watson,

and Saoirse Ronan, promises

to smash the patriarchy,

nineteenth-century-

style.—ANUSHKA JOSHI

THE MAN OF FALL: ADAM DRIVER

dam Driver had his star-making turn in Girls, and

he’s since brought a tightly coiled intensity to ev-

ery role he’s played—while also managing to steal

scenes in new ways each time. His range will again be on

full display this fall, as he investigates the CIA’s use of tor-

ture in Amazon’s political drama The Report (September

27); plays a Brooklyn man in the middle of a nasty divorce

in Noah Baumbach’s Netflix film Marriage Story (out

this December); and reprises his role as Kylo Ren, a Jedi

in training who’s turned to the Dark Side, in Star Wars:

The Rise of Skywalker (December 20). This Star Wars

installment is the last of the franchise, and many will be

pleased just to see Driver wielding his lightsaber one final

time, as his rangy physicality has prompted a fan base all

its own. “My sexual orientation,” reads one Reddit thread

from last year, “is Adam Driver’s hands.”—MOLLY LANGMUIR

BOOKS

Shelf Help:

The Season’s Best

New Fiction

Author Jacqueline Woodson

knows how to articulate

aches that, for most of

us, remain locked in

inarticulateness—particularly

that very human craving for

validation. In her latest, Red

at the Bone (September

17), the National Book

Award winner uses this gift

to unpack the ambitions

and struggles of three

generations of a black family

in Brooklyn. By the slim

novel’s end, she’s painted a

poetic mural of their lives.

The debut novel of the

season, The Other’s Gold

(August 27), reads like an

origin story for the women

of Big Little Lies. Author

Elizabeth Ames introduces

four best friends, brought

together by chance via

their first-year college

housing placements, and

chronicles their twenties as

they stumble headfirst into

adulthood and scandal.

With The Shadow King

(September 24), Ethiopian

American novelist Maaza

Mengiste transports readers

to her home country in the

midst of Mussolini’s 1935

invasion, when legions of

women—the author’s great-

grandmother included—joined

their countrymen on the front

lines. Her story follows Hirut,

an orphaned servant girl who

rises to unexpected political

influence.—BK

In The Dutch House

(September 24), Ann

Patchett’s latest, Maeve and

Danny Conroy are two thick-

as-thieves siblings whose

lives resemble a fairy tale,

complete with a missing

mom, tuned-out father, and

callous stepmother. Set in

the Philadelphia suburbs, this

story’s magic lies in the house

itself, an extravagant mansion

from which they’re unable to

truly escape.

Four Female

Ensembles

Fall Preview

MOVIES

A

DRIVER: LAUREN DUKOFF.