Few things pair better than cold weather and movies. Get rid of the biting chill in your bones with a cozy home movie night under the gentle glow of the Christmas tree lights. If you don’t mind braving the frigid temperatures, then a giant theater screen is its own sort of gift. December has enough new movies to satisfy every taste across streaming and theatrical. In fact, some of the year’s buzziest features are squeaking in before 2024.Beyoncéstuns with herRenaissance: A Film by Beyoncéconcert documentary.Timothée Chalametcharms inWonkaandJason Momoakicks butt inAquaman and the Lost Kingdom.Anyone But YouseesSydney SweeneyandGlen Powellfall in love, though not to be outdone areAndrew ScottandPaul Mescallin the meditativeAll of Us Strangers.
Acclaimed directorsJohn Woo,Hayao Miyazaki,Yorgos Lanthimos, andJonathan Glazerreturn andZack Snydertakes Netflix by storm with his sci-fi action epicRebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire. Plus,The Color Purple,Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,Godzilla Minus One, potential Oscar contenders, and family-friendly fare. Stay warm, stay healthy, and stay tuned to your screens for December’s new movies!
Silent Night
Release Date: December 1 in Theaters
A Christmas revenge thriller starringJoel Kinnamanand helmed by John Woo? What an amazing present. InSilent Night, Kinnaman’s Brian Godlock wages a one-man war against the criminals responsible for his son’s murder. He does so without saying a word:Silent Nighthas no dialogue. The film marksJohn Woo’s return to Hollywoodafter a twenty-year absence. As one of cinema’s greatest action pioneers, the director’s work onSilent Nighthas already earned rave reviews.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncédocuments the Grammy-winning artist’s astonishingly produced, performed, and grossing ($579M in ticket sales) Renaissance stadium tour and reveals intimate behind-the-scenes moments. The filmed version continues the trend of the concert movie resurgence followingthe phenomenal success ofTaylor Swift: The Eras Tourand the theatrical re-release ofThe Talking Heads' outstandingStop Making Sense.
Candy Cane Lane
Release Date: December 1 on Prime Video
Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy) just wants to win his neighborhood’s holiday decorating competition. He wants to win so badly, he signs a magical deal with an elf. The problem? This elf isn’t sugar, spice, and everything nice. Chris discovers that the elf’s other signees are trapped in plastic toy bodies, a fate Chris races against time to avoid.Candy Cane Laneco-starsTracee Ellis Ross,Jillian Bell, andNick Offerman.
Godzilla Minus One
The King of the Monsters never gets old. With the critically acclaimedGodzilla Minus One, he’s also scary, and socially relevant, again. This re-envisioning of the classic 1954Godzillafilm comes from revered Japanese filmmakerTakashi Yamazaki. Set in 1947, two years after American bombs devastated Tokyo, a Godzilla as merciless as his creators emerges from the ashes of nuclear war.
Great Photo, Lovely Life
Release Date: December 5 on Max
The documentaryGreat Photo, Lovely Lifeuncovers the horrifying family secrets of photojournalistAmanda Mustard, a woman who discovered and must now reckon with her grandfather’s history of child sexual abuse. Amanda speaks with her family members, strives to mend strained relationships, and reaches out to the adult women who survived her grandfather’s serial assaults.By giving survivors a voice,Great Photo, Lovely Lifestrives to break “the cycle of intergenerational trauma” with unflinching honesty and absolute empathy.
We Live Here: The Midwest
Release Date: December 6 on Hulu
“We are altering what defines a nuclear family.” With abhorrent anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and lethal hate crimes on the rise, the documentaryWe Live Here: The Midwestfollows the small-town lives of queer families, couples, and students across Midwestern America. Bigotry, while tragically all-pervasive, is more concentrated in rural regions.We Live Here: The Midwestnormalizes queer people and people of color as human beings. This documentary is an act of resistance and a message of hope.
The Archies
Release Date: December 7 on Netflix
You had better be ready to dance. DirectorZoya Akhtarre-imagines theArchiecomics withThe Archies, a Hindi-language Indian musical comedyset in Riverdale, the town where young adults have fun, make mistakes, make friends, and thwart social corruption.The Archiestakes its name from the in-universe band consisting of Archie Andrews (Agastya Nanda), Jughead Jones (Mihir Ahuja), Reggie Mantle (Vedang Raina), Betty Cooper (Khushi Kapoor), and Veronica Lodge (Suhana Khan).
Poor Things
Release Date: December 8 in Theaters
Emma Stonere-teams withThe Favouritedirector Yorgos LanthimosforPoor Things. Inspired byAlasdair Gray’s 1992 book and the Frankenstein tale, Stone plays Bella, a young Victorian woman resurrected by scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Seizing this second chance at life with both hands, Bella runs away to have a torrid affair with lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) before embarking on a larger quest for personal autonomy.Ramy Youssef,Christopher Abbott, andJerrod Carmichaelalso star.
Based on the critically acclaimed novelCaste: The Origins of Our Discontentsby Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistIsabel Wilkerson,Ava DuVernay’sOriginchronicles Wilkerson’s (Aunjanue Ellis) personal and professional life as she crafts her nonfiction study on worldwide racism and the caste system.Jon Bernthal,Vera Farmiga, andAudra McDonaldco-star.
The Boy and the Heron
Even though it premieres in December,The Boy and the Heron, revered filmmakerHayao Miyazaki’s first movie in ten years, will be one of the year’s most discussed events. At 82 years old, the Studio Ghibli co-founder and director of the visionary classicsMy Neighbor Totoro,Princess Mononoke, andSpirited Awaybrings all his skills to bear inThe Boy and the Heron. A mystical coming-of-age story set during World War II, Miyazaki examines loss, grief, war, and death through Mahito (Luca Padovan/Soma Santoki), a young boy chasing his mother’s ghost with the help of a gray heron.The English-language castincludesRobert Pattinson,Florence Pugh,Christian Bale,Mark Hamill, Willem Dafoe, andDave Bautista.
