movies December

Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

New movies to watch in December

Chadwick Boseman’s finale, George Clooney’s comeback, a crime thriller with Rachel Brosnahan & more!

As the pandemic continues to keep movie theatres closed and release schedules confusing, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to predict what might and might not come out. Some films are released elsewhere in Canada but held for release in Quebec, while others are held for months only to have their VOD release announced mere days prior. This On Screen column has therefore become more theoretical than practical, but there are still some sure bets.

Mank
Mank (new movies to watch in December)

One of those has to be David Fincher’s Mank, which drops on Netflix on Dec. 4. Gary Oldman stars as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter of Citizen Kane. Mank chronicles the making of that film and the tensions that arose between Mankiewicz and the film’s director, Orson Welles. Highly anticipated as a potential awards-season frontrunner, the film was written by Fincher’s late father Jack. Ryan Murphy continues his intensely productive collaboration with Netflix with The Prom (Dec. 11), a musical starring Meryl Streep, James Corden and Nicole Kidman. As usual with Murphy, the film is rife with themes of queerness and show business.

Palm Springs (new movies to watch in December)

Jillian Bell and Isla Fisher star in Godmothered (Dec. 4 on Disney Plus), a comedy from Bridget Jones’s Diary director Sharon Maguire. Bell plays a Fairy-Godmother-in-training who is assigned to help a widowed TV reporter who has stopped believing in the concept of happily ever after. The House of Mouse also features the family football drama Safety on Dec. 11 as well as Mulan, which was available for an extra $30 earlier this year but will now be free for all Disney Plus subscribers. On Christmas Day, you can stream Soul, the latest Pixar production in which Jamie Foxx voices a high school music teacher with a passion for jazz. Speaking of films that came out earlier this year, the Andy Samberg-led comedy Palm Springs went months without a Canadian streaming release — it’ll be available on Amazon Prime as of Dec. 18.

movies December
The Midnight Sky (new movies to watch in December)

It’s been four years since we’ve seen George Clooney on screen. He directs and stars in The Midnight Sky (Dec. 25 on Netflix), an apocalyptic sci-fi film in which he plays a scientist posted in the Arctic who has to stop a crew of astronauts from coming back to a decimated Earth. Sounds uplifting, to say the least. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan stars in the crime thriller I’m Your Woman (Dec. 11 on Amazon Prime Video) from director Julia Hart (Fast Color). Brosnahan plays a woman forced to go on the run after her husband betrays a business partner in the 1970s-set film that is getting almost exclusively great early reviews.

movies December
Sound of Metal (new movies to watch in December)

The late Chadwick Boseman’s last film is Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Dec. 18 on Netflix), an adaptation of the play by August Wilson from director George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues, Nights in Rodanthe). Viola Davis stars as the titular Ma Rainey, a blues musician recording an album with an ambitious trumpeter played by Boseman. Tom Hanks stars in News of the World, a gritty Civil War Western from director Paul Greengrass set to premiere in theatres on Christmas Day. Riz Ahmed stars as a metal drummer who suddenly loses his hearing in Sound of Metal, Darius Marder’s acclaimed feature directorial debut. It premieres on Amazon Prime on Dec. 4.

movies December
Let Them All Talk (new movies to watch in December)

HBO Max content doesn’t systematically show up on Crave — Wonder Woman 1984, for example, will remain a USA exclusive when it hits the service. Let Them All Talk, the newest Steven Soderbergh / Meryl Streep collab (after the coolly received The Laundromat) will however hit Crave on Dec. 10. Mads Mikkelsen stars in Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, an acclaimed festival favourite about four middle-aged friends who experiment with constant drinking as therapy. It’s available on VOD as of Dec. 18. ■

This article was originally published in the December issue of Cult MTL.


For more film coverage, please visit the Film & TV section.