You have a big month ahead of you. Maybe you have travel plans or gifts to buy. But you also have movies to watch in theaters.
If you’re trying to figure out which movies should be at the top of your list for your movie releases in December, we’ve got you covered, because there are so many great things on the way.
Note that all the movies listed below are coming out in cinemas for the first time in December 2021. Movies that are already in theaters (e.g. King Richard, Gucci House the tic, tic… BOOM!) were not included in this list.
Sorry in advance to the fans of mega-franchises like Spiderman and The Matrix. much like Sing 2 starring Matthew McConaughey, I’m sure many people plan to watch these movies and do not need any recommendation from me in advance.
Talk about rubbing salt in my wounds – d’oh!
RELEASE: December 10
If you saw JK Simmons inside Whipping (2015), for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, you know that he plays the role of authority well. He has a similar role in the upcoming film National champions. I will admit that I would probably have seen it anyway as I am an absolute sucker for a sports movie. But that’s about college football issues and striking athletes, so now I’m definitely locked in here.
RELEASE: December 17
I’m very interested in what Maggie Gyllenhaal has to offer in her directorial debut. It is a psychological drama based on the novel by Elena Ferrante and starring Olivia Colman (The favorite, The lobster) and Dakota Johnson (Fifty shadows) starring Paul Mescal (his star Normal people), Peter Sarsgaard, Ed Harris. Jessie Buckley, Dagmara Domińczyk and Oliver Jackson-Cohen.
It hits theaters before finally coming to Netflix on December 31st.
RELEASE: December 17
Guillermo del Toro (Pans Labyrinth, The shape of water) directs a psychological thriller starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe. It is a remake of a 1940s film noir based on the controversial novel by William Lindsay Gresham, and Cooper plays a charismatic, misleading Carney.
It could easily be a harder watch, but for one of the coldest nights of this winter, I look forward to checking it out even though it seems like it might be a little scary.
RELEASE: December 10
Given the fact that I did not watch much television in the 1950s, as I was born several decades ago, I can not say that I had ever fully invested in I love Lucy.
However, I can tell you that I have fully invested in Aaron Sorkin. Its history (Sports night, The West Wing, The social network, Moneyball, The Chicago Trial 7) is enough to take me to the theater and find out a little about what happens when Ricardo (played by Javier Bardem) tells Lucy (played by Nicole Kidman) that he’s home.
Bonus points for reunion Development arrested Starring Tony Hale and Alia Shawkat in this cast. It will be released in theaters on December 10 before being released later on Amazon Prime Video on December 21.
RELEASE: December 10
When you are a Jet, you are a Jet all the way, from your first cigarette “to your last day of death”. I’m not a Jet, to be clear. I have always preferred Sharks. But I’m a sucker for musical theaters and I like to idealize New York in the 1950s.
I would always be first in line to watch West Side Story – directed by Steven Spielberg! – when it came out in cinemas. This will be especially emotional when one considers that the lyricist of the musical, a former Broadway politician, Stephen Sondheim, has recently died.
RELEASE: December 25
Joel Cohen (The Great Lebowski, No country for seniors, A Series Man, Inside Llewyn Davis) makes its solo debut. This is the first time that Joel or his brother Ethan Coen have released something without the involvement of the other. It is an A24 film starring the legendary Denzel Washington (as Macbeth) and Francis McDormand (as the iconic Lady Macbeth) and they face William Shakespeare.
Is it ambitious? Of course it is! But we saw what Coen did with his interpretation of the epic Greek poem The Odyssey with Oh brother, Where are you? It was fantastic and it has every reason to be happy as well. You can watch it in theaters at Christmas before it hits Apple TV + on January 14th.
RELEASE: December 10
Another titan enters the ring this December as Adam McKay (Ankorman, Talladega Nights, The Big Short, Vice) releases his latest film. This cast is crazy.
We have Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi and Tyler Perry starring in a movie about an approaching comet that could destroy Earth. It is a satirical film about climate change and will have limited release in cinemas before being broadcast later on Netflix on Christmas Eve.
RELEASE: December 25
Forget December. The most anticipated movie of the whole year for me is Pizza with licorice, the upcoming film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. I would watch anything he made – he won with it Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love – but this is special.
If you’re like me and you’re from Los Angeles, or if you’re just romanticizing Southern California every now and then, you have a lot to look forward to.
You can see Bradley Cooper, who is always a delight. But you can also see Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Hollywood star Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Alana Heim (from the pop-rock band Haim) making their film debuts. Oscar winner Sean Penn is in second place. Legendary center-left musician Tom Waits is in it. So did Bennie Safdie (his writer and director Uncut gems). Subscribe to me.
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