Here’s what’s on screen in December

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

 

Film festival season is slowly drawing to close but you can still catch the last few days of the soccer-themed Pitch Fest (Dec. 5–7) and LGBT film fest Imagine+Nation (to Dec. 8) before we head into 2014.

There’s a lot to look forward to over the holidays when we’re talkin’ mainstream cinema. Christian Bale vehicle Out of the Furnace is about a man seeking vengeance after the disappearance of his brother (Dec.6).

On Dec. 13, you can check out the story behind the classic film Mary Poppins with Saving Mr. Banks starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, along with the second installment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film series, The Desolation of Smaug.

If you need more Bale, David O. Russell reunites him with The Fighter cast mate Amy Adams in American Hustle — this time he plays a con man (Dec. 20). And you can also catch Adams in Spike Jonze’s latest Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely writer who falls for his operating system (Dec. 18).

The long-awaited sequel to Anchorman comes out on Dec. 20, as well as the Coen brothers’ latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, about the N.Y. folk scene in the early ‘60s. You can also check out the immersive 3D experience Walking With Dinosaurs, which claims to allow audiences to feel what it would have been like when they walked the Earth (Dec. 20).

A slew of flicks open on Dec. 25: there’s Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street — based on the true story of stockbroker Jordan Belfort — starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, about a daydreamer who disappears into a world of fantasies. Nelson Mandela biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba. Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone vehicle Grudge Match, about a pair of aging boxing rivals’ final bout. 47 Ronin, a samurai film starring Keanu Reeves (I wish I were joking). And of course, you can get your Bieber fix on Christmas day with his latest, Believe.

And on Dec. 27 there’s Lone Survivor, based on the true story of the 2005 failed mission “Operation Red Wing,” starring Mark Wahlberg.

Cinéma du Parc celebrates the Coens leading up to their own release of Inside Llewyn Davis on Dec. 25. You can catch Raising Arizona and Miller’s Crossing Dec. 6, 7 and 8, Barton Fink and A Serious Man on Dec. 13, 14 and 15, and True Grit and The Big Lebowski Dec. 20, 21 and 22.

Also showing at Parc is EyeSteelFilm’s exploration of alternative Christmas music, Jingle Bell Rocks (Dec. 6) and The Crash Reel, a documentary that explores the high price of competing in action sports.

The PHI Centre screens Les Salauds, about a supertanker captain helping his troubled sister in Paris (Dec. 9), and Lenny Cooke, a documentary about the should-have-been-great basketball star (Dec. 10). On Dec. 13, they screen Descendents doc Filmage, and on Dec. 16 you can check out Larry Clark’s (Kids, Bully) Marfa Girl, about a half-white, half-hispanic teen trying to make his way in a small Texas town. And Short Term 12, starring Brie Larson as a 20-something staff member at a foster care facility, screens on Dec. 18.

Cinema Excentris has local flick A Mile End Tale on Dec. 6 (read our interview with director Jean-François Lesage here) and Chelsea McMullan’s Rae Spoon doc-musical My Prairie Home on Dec. 13 (read our review here). ■