From the third instalment of the Avatar phenomenon to a Timothée Chalamet-starring awards contender – these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month.
1. 100 Nights of Hero
Adapted from a graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg, which was inspired in turn by One Thousand and One Nights, Julia Jackman’s new film is a stylishly camp grown-up fairy tale. Maika Monroe plays Cherry, the frustrated wife of a despicable aristocrat (Amir El-Masry). A handsome visitor (Nicholas Galitzine) bets Cherry’s husband that he can seduce her within 100 nights – and if the visitor succeeds, she will be executed. Luckily, her suspicious maid (Emma Corrin) is on hand to distract her by telling her stories, including one featuring a woman played by Charli XCX. “Jackman’s film is a joyous testament to independence, creativity, and the enduring necessity of stories,” says Leila Latif in IndieWire. “It proves that happy endings need not conform to centuries-old formulas, and that love, be it romantic, platonic, queer, or fleeting can be as complex and wondrous as any of the tales we tell.”
Released on 5 December in the US
2. The New Yorker at 100
The New Yorker is a venerable institution – a magazine that publishes everything from cartoons to short fiction to hard-hitting book-length investigations: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood ran over four issues in 1965. And at a time when so many magazines are closing, and so many of us turn to our phones for quick hits of entertainment, The New Yorker is still going strong. When its editors were preparing its 100th anniversary issue earlier this year, an Oscar-winning documentarian, Marshall Curry, went behind the scenes to learn its secret. Julianne Moore narrates the resulting film, while Jesse Eisenberg, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jon Hamm are among the fans who are interviewed. “David Remnick, Pulitzer Prize winner and New Yorker editor since 1998, is the documentary’s amiable guide on what is a multi-tiered journey through the magazine’s past and present,” says Daniel Fienberg in The Hollywood Reporter. The film is “entertaining and justifiably pithy… [but it] should have been a six-hour docuseries. The magazine and its occasionally complicated legacy deserve nothing less.”
Released on 5 December on Netflix internationally
3. Goodbye June
After 30 years of acting in films, Kate Winslet has directed one as well. It was scripted by her own son (with Sam Mendes), Joe Anders, and together the Winslets have attracted a staggering cast. Helen Mirren stars as a family’s beloved matriarch, who is dying in hospital at Christmastime. It’s time for her squabbling daughters, played by Winslet and Andrea Riseborough, to put aside their differences, and for various other family members, played by Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn and Toni Colette, to say their goodbyes. Baz Bamigboye says in Deadline that Winslet “brings an assured touch” to her weepy comedy drama. “It’s about one particular family but I found it to be a universal piece that sublimely echoes a sense of life as it’s being lived. There are several moments in Goodbye June that I will forever hold as keepsakes.”
Released on 12 December in the US and the UK, and on 24 December on Netflix internationally
4. The Voice of Hind Rajab
In January 2024, a five-year-old Palestinian girl was in a car in Gaza when her cousins, aunt and uncle accompanying her were all killed after coming under fire from Israeli tanks. The Palestine Red Crescent Society managed to speak to Hind Rajab on the phone, and they tried to keep her calm while they arranged for an ambulance to reach her. Recordings of their phone conversations caused outrage when they were released on social media. Now these same recordings are the basis of a uniquely powerful drama directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. It’s set entirely in a Red Crescent office, but while the volunteers who speak to Hind Rajab are played by actors, her own voice comes from the actual recordings, which makes the heart-wrenching horror of the situation almost unbearable. “Discomfiting and emotionally devastating in the extreme,” says Nick Howells in The Standard, “Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s dramatised account of Hind’s death is utterly essential film-making.”
Released in the US on 17 December
5. Avatar: Fire and Ash
James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and its long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) are two of the highest-grossing films ever made. Now it’s time for our third visit to the moon of Pandora, where the blue-skinned Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are fighting against the human invaders led by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), not to mention a tribe of villainous Na’vi called the “Ash people”. We’re sure to see some vertiginous action sequences and lots of alien monsters, but Cameron has said that Jake and Neytiri’s children are the film’s heart. “Jake and Quaritch, they’d just be two guys trying to kill each other for six hours of two movies. Sorry, that’s boring… It becomes much more nuanced as a result of these younger characters… It’s not a family movie about the parents. It’s a family movie about the kids.”
Released internationally on 17, 18 and 19 December
6. Is This Thing On?
Bradley Cooper has already made two prestigious films about the performing arts: A Star Is Born, which put country rock in the spotlight, and Maestro, which swept through the world of classical music. His third film as director, Is This Thing On?, moves on to stand-up comedy. Inspired by the experiences of a British comedian, John Bishop, it showcases an Oscar-worthy Will Arnett as a middle-aged finance executive who separates from his wife (Laura Dern), and finds himself pouring out his troubles on stage in a New York basement comedy club. Linda Marric in HeyUGuys says that Is This Thing On? is “a tender, wryly observed dramedy [which] finds beauty in the small messes of middle age – where heartbreak and humour sit side by side. It offers a beautifully observed story about love, loss, and the slow, uneven process of finding yourself again.” And look out for Cooper, who is at his funniest in a supporting role.
Released on 19 December in the US and Canada
7. The Housemaid
Freida McFadden is a doctor who wrote and self-published novels in her spare time until one of her books, The Housemaid, was picked up by a publisher and became a huge hit (and BookTok favourite) in 2022. In the film adaptation, Sydney Sweeney plays Millie, a mysterious young woman who gets a job as a live-in maid for a wealthy urban housewife, Nina, played by Amanda Seyfried. But Millie’s employer may have a dark and dangerous side. “I will never forget the way playing Nina made me feel,” said Seyfried at CinemaCon in April. “I went to places I never thought I’d go to. The surprises… were life-affirming and career-affirming.” The Housemaid is directed by Paul Feig, who made A Simple Favour and its sequel, so he’s an expert at noir-ish, twist-filled thrillers about glamorous women with shocking secrets. And as McFadden has already written two more novels in the series, this could be the start of a franchise.
Released on 19 December in the US, 25 December in Canada and Australia, and 26 December in the UK
8. Anaconda
Anaconda didn’t get great reviews when it came out in 1997, but it has since become a so-bad-it’s-good cult classic: who doesn’t enjoy watching Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Owen Wilson being chased down the Amazon by a giant snake? Now comes a film which is sort of a reboot, sort of a remake and sort of a parody. It’s directed and co-written by Tom Gormican, whose last film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, was an action comedy in which Nicolas Cage played a caricature of himself. And, according to Paul Rudd, the new Anaconda is the same kind of “meta-comedy”. The postmodern conceit is that Rudd and Jack Black play big fans of the 1997 Anaconda, and decide to shoot their own low-budget remake. With the help of friends played by Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton, they head to the Amazon with their camera, but soon a real live monstrous snake is after them. “It’s a totally unique thing,” promises Rudd, “and it is funny.”
Released internationally on 24, 25 and 26 December
9. Song Sung Blue
Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline has become an inescapable part of karaoke nights and sports events in recent years, so you’ll probably know already whether the chorus gets you joining in with the bah-bah-bahs or running away screaming. If it’s the latter, then beware of Song Sung Blue, a romantic drama based on the true story of Mike and Claire Sardina. The pair, as played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, were jobbing musicians in the bars of Milwaukee and Chicago in the 1980s, but then they formed a Neil Diamond tribute band named Lightning and Thunder, and fell in love. Even when their marriage was rocked by difficulties, Diamond’s music helped them to carry on. Kristy Puchko sings the film’s praises in Mashable: “Through thoughtful storytelling, an impeccable cast, and a smartly chosen soundtrack, [writer-director Craig] Brewer creates a drama that is uplifting, heart-wrenching, and wondrous all at once. Bring tissues. Bring friends.”
Released on 25 December in the US and Canada
10. Marty Supreme
The Safdie brothers directed several films together, including two stress-inducing classics, Good Time and Uncut Gems. This year, though, they each made a separate sports biopic: Benny Safdie’s was The Smashing Machine with Dwayne Johnson, while Josh Safdie’s is Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet. Inspired by the life of Marty Reisman, the film is a comedy drama about a working-class New Yorker who devotes himself to table tennis in the 1950s. “Marty Supreme is a sprawling and electrifying sports epic bursting with vitality from the first frame to the last” says Matt Neglia at Next Best Picture. “Josh Safdie delivers a masterful slice of organised chaos on a larger scale [than] he’s ever worked with before… Timothée Chalamet throws himself into the role with total commitment… One of the most invigorating and best sports stories ever put to screen.”
Released on 25 December in the UK and 26 December in the UK
11. The Testament of Ann Lee
One of the last year’s most acclaimed films was The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet and co-written by him and his partner, Mona Fastvold. The Testament of Ann Lee is a kind of companion piece, in that it was directed by Fastvold and co-written by her and Corbet. And, like The Brutalist, it’s an ambitious historical epic, shot on 35mm film stock, about a European bringing radical ideas to the US. Its heroine is a real person, played by Amanda Seyfried, who went from being a cotton-mill worker in Manchester, England, to the leader of the Shakers religious sect in New York in the 18th Century. Daniel Blumberg, who composed The Brutalist’s Oscar-winning score, provides the music, including the songs sung by Seyfried. Yes, The Testament of Ann Lee is a musical, as well as everything else. “Its music, cinematography, costumes, and production design all deserve attention,” says Radhika Seth in Vogue, “as does Seyfried, who has always been excellent, but here finally gets a big-screen leading role worthy of her talent.”
Released on 25 December in the US
12. No Other Choice
Director Park Chan-wook is known for acclaimed works like Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave, but No Other Choice is the best-reviewed film of his career. Adapted from a novel by Donald Westlake, Park’s satirical thriller stars Lee Byung-hun (the Frontman in Squid Game) as a happily married South Korean family man. He believes his life is perfect, but after he loses his job at a paper factory, his savings dwindle, and it looks as if he’ll have to sell his house to a neighbour he despises. Luckily for him, there is a job coming up which would suit him – but to be on the safe side, he decides to kill all of the other well-qualified candidates. Earning comparisons to Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite, No Other Choice is “a masterclass of lithe, silky, sumptuous storytelling”, says Nick Schager in The Daily Beast. “Park locates just the right strain of zaniness for his quasi-Parasite critique of the modern fight to stay afloat, and his command (of tone and narrative) never wavers.”
Released on 25 December in the US
Source: BBC
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