Listen, pal: we’re halfway into November, so things are starting to look pretty bleak. Darkness descends early over cold cities, where naked branches stand stark against an unforgiving gray sky. This is no time to leave your home on a weekend and walk the dismal streets of a morally bankrupt world. This is a time to stay in, keep the lights off. Take the phone off the hook and call up a stream. That’s right, Noirvember has arrived. 

It's the perfect time of year to plunge into the depths with a film noir (or three). Queue up a documentary series about filmmakers from the era of classic noir, a selection of neo-noirs that put you behind the wheel, or a pair of shows that adapt crime novels into moody screen stories. So take your pick. Slip on your trench coat. Disappear for a day or two.  

But first, what’s new on Netflix?

A new wave. Richard Linklater pays tribute to another pioneering filmmaker with his latest film, the dramedy Nouvelle Vague, which lovingly imagines the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal 1960 film Breathless. Guillaume Marbeck stars as Godard alongside Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin as the unforgettable duo of Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Not holding your breath for that one? Take on The Beast in Me, a new thriller miniseries by creator Gabe Rotter in which Claire Danes plays a blocked writer who finds herself both inspired and disturbed by the arrival of a new next-door neighbor (Matthew Rhys). Don’t want to answer that knock at your door? Try Being Eddie. Angus Wall’s new documentary puts the spotlight on the one and only Eddie Murphy, who looks at his legendary comedy and acting career with great candor, vulnerability, and — of course — humor.

If you have just a night… 

Go back. You can continue to honor both Veterans Day and midcentury cinema with the acclaimed 2017 docuseries Five Came Back, directed by Laurent Bouzereau and based on Mark Harris’s 2014 nonfiction book, which examines the wartime contributions of five influential filmmakers: Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens and William Wyler, all of whom served in World War II by making films from the front lines. Five modern masters — Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass, Lawrence Kasdan, and Steven Spielberg, with narration by another master, Meryl Streep  — provide insight into the historical and artistic impact the earlier directors’ work has made. While only some of the filmmakers featured (most notably Huston) made noir films themselves, the series takes you into the cinematic period when noir was at its peak. 

If you have a whole day… 

Get in the car. A trio of neo-noir films keeps their (anti)heroes moving along while staying behind the wheel. Start with Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic Taxi Driver, in which Robert De Niro delivers one of his most celebrated performances as Travis Bickle, a troubled Vietnam vet working the night shift driving a cab in a morally rotten New York City. Next, buckle in for Collateral, a stylish 2004 neo-noir by Michael Mann set in Los Angeles, where Jamie Foxx’s cabbie picks up a mysterious rider (Tom Cruise) who turns out to be a hit man on a killing spree. Finally, take a ride with The Lincoln Lawyer, Brad Furman’s 2011 legal thriller based on Michael Connelly’s 2005 novel. Matthew McConaughey stars as LA defense attorney Mickey Haller, who takes on a twisty new case while working out of the backseat of his chauffeured Lincoln.

If you have the entire weekend… 

Get literary. Noir storytelling has roots in crime fiction, and the small-screen evolution of the genre has taken inspiration from some moody novels, too. The critically acclaimed 2024 limited series Ripley, created by Steven Zaillian and based on Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, stars Andrew Scott as the sly grifter of the title, and Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning as the beautiful young couple whose privileged world he infiltrates. And you’ll want to add Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani’s Dept. Q to your queue: In the 2025 series, based on Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Nordic noir novel series, Matthew Goode stars as Carl Morck, an aloof detective in the Edinburgh police force tasked with heading up a new department devoted to the investigation of cold cases. 

Don’t forget, you have one last chance… 

To go Back to the Future. In Robert Zemeckis’s beloved 1985 sci-fi comedy, Michael J. Fox plays teenager Marty McFly, who, with the help of eccentric scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), travels back in time and seemingly alters the past to prevent his own existence, setting him on an adventure to correct his mistake and get back to 1985. At the end of the month, along with its 1989 and 1990 sequels, the movie will become a thing of the past.