All the ways October 21 will be a pop culture perfect storm

This is meant in the nicest way possible: Carly Rae Jepsen has gotten weird. Not so much within the sounds of her blissfully candy-colored pop music, but certainly with her quirky music videos, which have the feel of a musician content to do her thing whether or not devoted fans are into it. Look at Rufus Wainwright acting all goofy! Jepsen’s fifth studio album, The Loneliest Time, drops on—wouldn’t you know it?—October 21, via Interscope Records.

You’re as liable to laugh as cry with a Martin McDonagh flick. The writer-director penned the friendship-breakup tale specifically with his In Bruges stars, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, in mind; surely there are no two better Irish lads alive to deliver his lyrical, silly-yet-sad dialogue. P.S.: Get ready to become emotionally attached to Jenny, one of the stars of this film who just happens to be a donkey.

Big-budget action, historical epic, and non-English-language—is Barbarians the embodiment of the Netflix juggernaut? It’s exactly the kind of hit the streamer has leaned into of late, and it’s practically guaranteed that fans from around the world will tune in for another round of this German war drama set in 9 A.D.

With an imminent tour and no new music since 2018, it’s fitting that Arctic Monkeys’ joins the October 21 fray. The beloved English band gave us a taste with “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball,” which musically sounds like it picks up where the more soulful, laidback Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino left off. Drummer Matt Helders , saying recently, “It’s never gonna be like ‘R U Mine?’ and all that stuff again.”

Paul Mescal is—deservedly—having a great 2022. His follow-up to The Lost Daughter and God’s Creatures is writer-director Charlotte Wells’ , which casts the Irish no-longer-rising-but-established star as a father on a Turkish summer vacation with his daughter. Seeped in nostalgia and autobiographical melancholy, the film took the Cannes Film Festival by storm earlier this year before then bowing at pretty much every major fest, making it a possible contender.

Tegan and Sara fans are having a particularly festive month: , Amazon Freevee’s eight-episode coming-of-age drama, is based on the duo’s gorgeous memoir of the same name. The Quin twins are following that up on October 21 with their highly anticipated 10th studio album, Crybaby. The bookending of these two projects should provide an intriguing look at the evolution of two beloved artists who surely still have plenty of stories to tell.

Last but not least—okay, maybe it’s not the most mainstream release and that’s why we’re listing it last, but nevertheless—there’s an audience for too. History buffs and theater nerds alike should this film adaptation of the unlikely story behind Orson Welles’ staging of a Macbeth set in Haiti. The filmmaker-thespian referred to his famous (or infamous, depending on which pearl-clutching purists you ask) production as his greatest artistic success.