Sure, you want to snuggle by the fireplace as the weather turns cold. But it’s Hollywood’s job to lure you out of the house, so at this time of year, it trots out blockbusters, awards contenders, and star vehicles. Here are five to whet your appetite:
Even if nothing else were opening this season, Hollywood would be pumped about the sequel to the biggest box office smash of all time. In the works for more than a decade, it features much of the original cast (even those who played characters who died — Sigourney Weaver’s back as a Na’vi teenager, for instance). Where the first Avatar marked big advances in film technology, director James Cameron claims this one will be even more eye-popping (and as the first of four planned sequels, it had better be.) December 16
Antoine Fuqua’s Civil War epic takes its inspiration from the true story of a man who became a potent symbol for the abolitionist cause when photos of horrific whipping scars disfiguring his entire back were published in 1863. Will Smith stars — his first role after an Oscar ceremony where he won Best Actor and slapped Chris Rock. December 9
Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie star in La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s comic take on the moment when silent film was giving way to talkies, and Hollywood debauchery was prompting talk of a Production Code. Brassy, boozy and gargantuan at three+ hours (reportedly down from a four-hour first cut), the comedy promises Jazz-era decadence writ large – murders, suicides, overdoses, rattlesnake wrestling and mountains of cocaine. December 23
Sunlight streams through slats in the walls of a barn where women and girls gather in Sarah Polley’s compelling adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel about a remote, patriarchal religious colony. The women have long kept quiet about abuse at the hands of the colony’s men – taught by their faith that it’s not their place to question or challenge. But their abusers are unexpectedly in jail, and for the few hours before they’ve posted bail, the women have a chance to discuss what should come next. December 2
Ramrod straight, tailored in bowler hat and pinstripe suit, Bill Nighy is Mr. Williams, a buttoned-up widower toiling in a public works office in post-World War II London. His days shuffling papers as head of a staff of six, are unvarying and pointless. His staff embodies bureaucratic inertia, with “skyscrapers” of papers piled atop desks, tasked with shuttling them (and the people who bring them) from department to department. An elegant, exquisitely sad retelling of Kurosawa’s 1953 drama Ikuru (To Live), brimming with period detail, and gorgeous performances. December 23
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