New movies to watch in December and January

For cinephiles, December and January means a wide range of new movies to watch, combining Hollywood Spectacle and prestige titles being released ahead of awards season. One of this winter’s biggest releases is Barry Jenkins’ first Disney project, the “live-action” Mufasa: The Lion King (Dec. 20), which is a musical origin story about Mufasa. The film features an all-star voice cast including Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Beyoncé, Donald Glover and Mads Mikkelsen. 

For something completely different, director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) tackles Dracula in his adaptation of Nosferatu (Dec. 25). Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult star in this classic vampire tale about Count Orlak’s obsession with his visitor’s young and beautiful wife. (Read my complete Nosferatu review.)

Kraven the Hunter (Dec. 13), an adaptation of a lesser-known Marvel comic, will hit the screens mid-December. Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the titular Kraven in this vengeance-motivated origin story about the character’s complex relationship with his father, which sets him down a path towards villainy.

 As always around this time of year, there are a lot of family-friendly films. One of the year’s most critically acclaimed animated features, Flow (Dec. 13), is a dialogue-free, Latvian-French co-production about a cat displaced by a great flood who finds refuge on a boat with various species. The animals will have to navigate the challenges of adapting to a new world together. For an older group, an anime prequel, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Dec. 13), tells the story of the Helm Hammerhand and his people as they fight off a terrible siege. (Read my interview with Kenji Kamiyama about LOTR: The War of the Rohirrim.) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Dec. 20) sees Sonic, Knuckles and Tails reuniting to fight a powerful new adversary. Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance to protect the planet. The beloved Paddington franchise also returns with their third instalment, Paddington in Peru (Jan. 17).

Among the other major releases to expect this holiday season, Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (Dec. 25), set in the early 1960s as the unknown Dylan arrives in New York for the first time. (Read my A Complete Unknown review.) Daniel Craig stars in the year’s second Luca Guadagnino film (after Challengers), Queer, an adaptation of a novella by William S. Burroughs about a man named Lee who wanders Mexico in search of a fix. Nicole Kidman will grace our screens in Babygirl (Dec. 25), a salacious erotic thriller about a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with a much younger intern. (Read my Babygirl review.) In one of the year’s weirder films, Better Man (Jan. 10) is a Robbie Williams biopic which inexplicably features the British pop star as a CGI monkey.

There are a handful of other important award season contenders worth checking out. The Girl With the Needle (Dec. 6),which premiered in competition at Cannes, tells the story of a young factory worker who finds herself abandoned and pregnant while striving to climb out of poverty in post-WWI Copenhagen. The End (Dec. 13) is a bizarre post-apocalyptic musical starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon. It’s the first feature film from famed documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, best known for The Act of Killing. Pedro Almodóvar returns to the big screen with his English-language debut, The Room Next Door (Jan 10). Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as former best friends who reunite after a long separation

If you’re looking for something to watch in mid-January that isn’t an awards contender, Wolf Man (Jan. 17) is a survival horror film set in a remote farmhouse where a family is attacked by an unseen animal, starring the usually reliable Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. As the night progresses, the father begins to transform.

For some local content, Philipe Lesage’s anticipated follow-up to Genèse, Comme le feu (Dec. 6), hits the big screen this month. Seventeen-year-old Jeff stays at film director Blake Cadieux’s wilderness lodge after being invited by his friend Max’s family. When strange events occur, Jeff suspects something is amiss with the director and his retreat. ■

This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Cult MTL. For Montreal cinema showtimes, please click here.

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