December has historically been one of the biggest movie-going months of the year since it features a ton of family-friendly holiday crowd-pleasers in addition to all the prestige films up for Oscar consideration. This year’s must-see movies for the Oscar season include Ferrari and The Color Purple, while family-friendly films like Willa and The Boy and the Heron are also worth seeing. Additionally, there are a ton of intriguing independent films available in addition to the big studio releases: The Iron Claw shows the demise of a wrestling dynasty, Poor Things is the latest film from Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos, and All of Us Strangers is expected to be the season’s must-see tearjerker. In addition, this Christmas, The Boys in the Boat, an inspirational sports tale, is coming to theaters. See the remaining selections of films for December below.
GODZILLA MINUS ONE
Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki, and Godzilla
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Toho Studio’s live-action Godzilla entries are impressive in the midst of a true Godzillarenaissance, as American and Japanese iterations of the creature are storming into theaters and streaming services. Almost ten years after the insane Shin Godzilla of 2016, filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki switches out bureaucracy for humanism, drawing inspiration from the 1954 nuclear period monster film as well as Jaws and Dunkirk. Godzilla Minus One claims to win over even the most dubious viewers.
Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé (December 1)
Cast: Beyoncé
Director: Beyoncé
Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé is a great way to catch up with Beyoncé if you were unable to attend her tour. Fans who attended the live performance will also find a lot of value in the video, which is a hybrid concert documentary that mixes tour footage, bits from the Renaissance visual album, and some behind-the-scenes recordings. Beyoncé is bringing her music directly to the public by partnering with AMC Theaters for distribution instead of large studios, as Taylor Swift did with her Eras Tour.
Poor Things (December 8)
Cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and Ramy Youssef
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone has joined forces with the most skilled cringe artist in the business in an attempt to demonstrate her quirkiness. Her stint as the gentrifying host of HGTV on The Curse with Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie came first. She currently portrays the lustful monster from Frankenstein in Yorgos Lanthimos’s much-anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning The Favourite, Poor Things. Finally having a budget to match his grandiose visions, Lanthimos can spend all his time rooting through The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
The Boy And The Heron (December 8)
Japanese voice cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura, Aimyon, Ko Shibasaki, Karou Kobayashi, Shinobu Otake
English voice cast: Robert Pattinson, Luca Padovan, Karen Fukuhara, Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, Florence Pugh, Mark Hamill, Willem Dafoe
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
The renowned filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is returning with his first picture in ten years. We’ll take any Miyazaki we can get, but it remains to be seen if The Boy and the Heron will indeed be his last, as he has occasionally stated. It revolves around a little child who gets swept up in a wonderfully imaginative new world, just like the majority of his movies. This time, Masaki Suda/Robert Pattinson plays Mahito, who makes friends with a talking heron (Soma Santoki in the Japanese version, Luca Padovan in the English translation) and follows it to a mystery tower in the forest next to his new residence. Excellent first impressions have been received, which is to be anticipated from Miyazaki at this time.
Wonka (December 15)
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Sally Hawkins, Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman
Director: Paul King
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp’s gloomy and unpleasant 2005 joint venture was a complete failure. According to rumors from Cinemacon, filmmaker Paul King (Paddington and Paddington 2) is set to provide a lively, straight-up musical prequel for Wonka. It centers on a youthful Willy Wonka (Chalamet) who tap dances and sings as he begins to build his candy empire. Though Atkinson is the wild card in this situation, we’ll watch Chalamet, Hawkins, and Colman in anything. Seeing Blackadder as Father Julius and the former Mr. Bean together will be a delightful pleasure. [Spelled Ian]
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (December 22)
Starring: Jason Momoa, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Kidman, Indya Moore, Pilou Asbaek
Director: James Wan
Together, Aquaman and his estranged brother Orm have to work through their differences in order to confront a more formidable foe. Although Black Manta is still at large and furious, Pilou Asbaek is our favorite to become a major antagonist considering his recent role as an antagonist in Sylvester Stallone’s superhero movie Samaritan. We can be certain that at some time in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Aquaman will dress in blue. It’s possible that Michael Keaton or Ben Affleck will play Batman. [Thomas Luke Y.]
Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child Of Fire (December 22)
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman
Director: Zack Snyder
Rebel Moon, which is divided into two parts as suggested by the title, is Zack Snyder’s second collaboration with Netflix (the second half will be published next year). The space opera, which is set on—you guessed it—a moon, stars Sofia Boutella as a disenfranchised former government employee who spearheads a rebellion against her planet’s dishonest overlords. Snyder has never been good at subtlety, but judging from the trailer, it appears that he still has a knack for arresting images.
Ferrari (December 25)
Cast: Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, and Patrick Dempsey
Director: Michael Mann
Director Michael Mann approaches his long-standing interest in challenging geniuses with a classical perspective for his first picture in almost ten years. After The Insider, Ali, and Public Enemies, Mann’s fourth non-fiction film is less shattered, concentrating on the melodrama that unfolds at a kitchen table between Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) and his estranged, gun-toting wife Laura (Penélope Cruz). Ferrari promises a return to form for Mann and something we’ve never quite seen from him before, interspersed with exhilarating race sequences.
The Boys In The Boat (December 25)
Cast: Callum Turner, Joel Edgerton, Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike, Alec Newman, Peter Guinness
Director: George Clooney
Perhaps one of the few inspirational sports tales that works effectively on screen without turning into a complete schmaltzfest is The Boys in the Boat. The tale of the American men’s eight-rowing squad at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is told in the book of the same name, which served as the inspiration for the movie. They are underdogs in an unfriendly setting—two essential components of each outstanding sports story. Clooney seems well-suited for this project and has shown himself to be a great steward of stories with a lot of emotional depth. It won’t come as a huge surprise if Clooney succeeds in reproducing the book’s success in the big screen version. The book was a publishing smash and had multiple award nominations.
The Color Purple (December 25)
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey, Aunjanue Ellis, Danielle Brooks, and Corey Hawkins
Director: Blitz Bazawule
The Color Purple is a Broadway musical that is based on the novel rather than a reimagining of Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker’s beloved novel. With Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey, and Corey Hawkins in the lead roles, this late-December movie is sure to be a worthy Oscar contender.
