Feature: Holiday Film Guide

A Chipmunks Sequel, A Pointless Point Break Remake And Some More Wars In The Stars

Devin D. O'Leary
\
4 min read
Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
Share ::

What better way to escape the winter chill than by huddling up in a movie theater with a warm bucket of popcorn and the latest Hollywood releases? This holiday season promises a bit of something for everyone on your Christmas card list—from silly comedies to bloody Westerns to the return of our old friends R2-D2 and C-3PO. And unlike holiday cookies, you can sample as many of these as you like with no adverse affect on your health. (Except for that
Chipmunk one, maybe.)

Note: All opening dates are subject to change.

Friday, Dec. 11

In The Heart of the Sea

Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson

Based on the true 1820 event that inspired Herman Melville’s
Moby Dick, this seafaring drama about whales and the whalers who don’t really love them is directed by reliable-as-Milk-of-Magnesia Ron Howard.

Friday, Dec. 18

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

Stars: Jason Lee, Bella Thorne, Justin Long

Computer-animated rodents (who sing, mind you) drive to Miami to stop their human dad/manager from marrying his girlfriend.

Sisters

Stars: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler

After the success of
Baby Mama, comedy pals Fey and Poehler reunite for this laugher about two adult sisters who decide to throw one last raging house party before their parents sell their family home.

Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens

Stars: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega

I’m not really familiar with the concept. Apparently it has space aliens in it.

Wednesday, Dec. 23

The Big Short

Stars: Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell

Four outsider in the world of high-finance who predicted the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s decide to take on the big banks for their lack of foresight and greed. Longtime Will Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay (
Anchorman, Step Brothers) directs this dramatic and scathingly funny change of pace.

Friday, Dec. 25

Carol

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara

Todd Haynes (
Far From Heaven, Mildred Pierce) goes back to the ’50s for another gorgeous, Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama—this one about a female department store clerk who dreams of a better life with an older, married woman.

Concussion

Stars: Will Smith

This extremely self-serious, Oscar-covetting sports drama (based on an article in
GQ magazine) stars Will Smith as the “brilliant forensic neuropathologist” who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma.

Daddy’s Home

Stars: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg

Ferrell and Wahlberg reunite after their OK buddy cop comedy
The Other Guys. Here, Ferrell is a mild-mannered radio executive who does all he can to be the best stepdad to his wife’s two kids—that is until their freewheeling, motorcycle-riding real father shows up to compete for their affections. Hijinks ensue.

Joy

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro

Most of the cast of David O. Russell’s
Silver Linings Playbook reunite with the notoriously thorny writer-director for this multigenerational, ensemble comedy-drama about a woman who founds a business empire and must weather betrayals from allies and adversaries alike.

Point Break

Stars: Luke Bracey, Édgar Ramirez

Somebody in Hollywood thought it was a good idea to remake the 1991 action hit, replacing Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves with the Australian who played Cobra Commander in
G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramirez. It is almost certainly not a good idea.

Youth

Stars: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz

A retired orchestra conductor receives and invitation from Queen Elizabeth to perform for Prince Philip’s birthday. From Paolo Sorrentino, writer-director of the ravishing Oscar winner
The Great Beauty.

Friday, Jan. 1

The Danish Girl

Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander

Tom Hooper (
The King’s Speech) directs this prestige pic about the true-life romance between artists Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe, a transgender woman who was one of the first recipients of sex reassignement surgery in 1930.

Friday, Jan. 8

The Hateful Eight

Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Channing Tatum, Zoë Bell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth

Quentin Tarantino, still in a “spaghetti Western” mood helms this post-Civil War drama about a group of bounty hunters all trying to find shelter during a nasty Wyoming blizzard. The question is, how many will come out alive?

The Revenant

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy

Alejandro González Iñárritu (
Amores Perros, Babel, Birdman) writes and directs this punishing, survivalist Western about an 1820s frontiersman who sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.
Joy

Holiday Film Guide 2015

The Hateful Eight

1 2 3 272

Search