Coming to Theaters: December 2016

First and foremost this month, we need to address that December is usually full of movies that are trying to win an Oscar, which means that while there technical release date falls somewhere in December, it’s usually a limited release date with the wide release happening sometime early in the next year. So while we will be categorizing this by release date, it’s very possible that some of the following movies will not be available in your local theater until early in 2017. That being said, let’s jump into the lineup for December.

December 2nd:

Jackie: Natalie Portman Plays First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the days following the Assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. It’s not really a biopic as it only focuses on that one brief moment in her life, but it looks to be a powerful film that addresses a lot of things most people didn’t even consider about those days. In addition to grieving for her husband, Jackie Kennedy had to console her children, prepare to leave her home (since they wouldn’t be staying at the White House any longer), and work to define what her husband’s legacy would be. Judging from the trailer, it’s possible that Portman may be in the running for a best actress nomination with this movie.

Incarnate: Releasing a PG-13 horror movie at the beginning of December is not a vote of confidence from the studio. More likely they are hoping that all of the horror movies from October are finally out of theaters, and this might be your only option if you’re looking for a scary movie. Aaron Eckhart plays a man who exorcises demons through the power of science instead of religion, but is up against his greatest challenge ever. Plus dealing with this demon forces Eckhart to deal with his own person demons of the past.

December 9th:

La La Land: Once upon a time the musical was the biggest genre in Hollywood. La La Land looks like a movie that would exist in that era, a full musical starring two of the most famous faces in Hollywood. Buzz from the film festivals where this has played has been incredibly positive and talk of a Best Picture has been discussed already. As we head into awards season, this is the movie that seems to be leading the pack.

Office Christmas Party: It seems like every year in the midst of all the sweet, sappy holiday movies and TV specials, we get at least one crude, vulgar comedy that exists to yell “Christmas is rated R this year!” We’ve already had one rated R Christmas flop this year (Bad Santa 2) but that may be more of a “too little too late” issue with the Bad Santa franchise that a rejection of rated R Christmas movies as a whole. The biggest appeal of this movie is the fact that Kate McKinnon has a prominent role in the film. McKinnon has bloomed into a full blown star this year with her emmy win, her work on Saturday Night Live as Hillary Clinton (among other things) and easily the best part of the Ghostbusters Reboot. It’s very possible that people will be going to see this just to see what McKinnon does next.

December 16th:

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: And here’s the big event of the month, the Star Wars movie. Episode VII was an undeniable juggernaut last year, but we all knew that was going to happen. The response to Rogue One will be much more interesting to watch. It’s the first Star Wars movie under the “Star Wars Story” banner meaning it’s not one of the official Episodes, but instead takes place between the main movies. In this case, Rogue One takes place shortly before A New Hope as the Rebels learn about the Death Star for the first time and try to steal the plans to the new space station. Will this be a monstrous hit like The Force Awakens, or will people be less interested if a Star Wars movie if it’s a side story?

The Space Between Us: The first person ever born on Mars gets a chance to travel to Earth and experience our planet through new eyes. This is an interesting idea for a movie and it’s largely going to be a romance between the boy from Mars and a girl from Earth, but because of the interplanetary aspect of it, it’s also a sci-fi movie, which means it’s a sci-fi movie coming out on the same day as a Star Wars movie. It’s very likely this one might get lost in the shuffle of the holiday releases, so be sure to keep an eye out for it when the Star Wars hype calms down.

Collateral Beauty: After the fun action movie in the summer, Will Smith is closing out the year with a big heavy drama. Smith stars as a man who writes letters to Love,Time and Death, only to find out to then have them respond to his letters. It’s an interesting concept that could be really interesting as long as it doesn’t get too caught up in the idea of trying to be an interesting concept. In addition to Will Smith, plenty of other big names are on the poster including Kate Winslet, Keira knightley Helen Mirren and Edward Norton.

Solace: Anthony Hopkins plays a psychic helping the police hunt down a serial killer who also appears to be psychic. It looks to be a fairly run of the mill police drama with a gimmick, but the really interesting aspect to this movie was that the script has been kicking around Hollywood for years. At one point it was going to be adapted into a sequel for the David Fincher movie Se7en, obviously titled Ei8ht. The role of the psychic would have been adapted for Morgan Freeman’s character who somehow would have gained psychic powers between the previous movie and this one. Part of the appeal of watching this movie is going to be trying to see how it would have worked as a poorly thought out sequel to Fincher’s movie.

December 23:

Sing: Is this movie still not out? It feels like we’ve been seeing commercials for Sing for over a year now. It flooded the Olympics with advertisements and honestly feels like I should be able to get it on DVD at this point. Anyway it’s about a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, and a Koala who puts on a singing competition to save his theater. It looks like it’s going to be crammed with the pop hits of the past decade or so, but Illumination clearly knows what their doing so if you enjoyed their previous projects, Minions and The Secret Life of Pets, this is probably up your ally as well.

Passengers: It’s Titanic in space. Ok, probably not, there’s honestly a lot going on here, that makes Passengers a unique story, but the trailers just look like Space Titanic. Still, right now Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are two people who have their pick of scripts and they both picked this one. And the Christmas weekend release slot is a coveted one, so if the studio is releasing it here, they’ve got a lot of faith in the movie.

Assassin’s Creed: Assassin’s Creed is the latests title on the list of movies trying to break the video game curse. Warcraft struck out earlier this year, and I don’t know if Assassin’s Creed is going to fare that much better. It’s release date is surrounded by other big name movies and I don’t know if Assassin’s Creed is the hot property that it once was. The strict game per year release schedule has left a sour taste in the mouth of some and Assassin’s Creed may take the brunt of some of that backlash. On the other hand, this is a major action movie with a huge budget and a star as the lead, not a tiny movie rushed out to capitalize on name recognition. If any movie has a chance at breaking the curse, Assassin’s Creed is the most likely contender.

Patriots Day: This movie is the story of the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 and the following manhunt for those responsible. It’s hard to tell how good the actual movie is going to be since the trailers for these “real life tragedy” movies have a formula that this one sticks to, but the early reviews out of the festivals have been largely positive for the movie and it’s portrayal of the events. While Mark Wahlberg is the star of the movie, the performances I’m really looking forward to is John Goodman as Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

Why Him?: And here we have another rated R Christmas movie. Bryan Cranston plays the father of a young woman who’s dating James Franco a vulgar, blunt internet billionaire. The comedy here is going to clearly come from Franco trying to win over Cranston and doing a terrible job of it. This is a cast I really like, but I didn’t feel like any of the comedy in the trailers was landing for me and that’s supposed to be the funniest parts of the movie. Maybe it will work better as a whole, but I’m not holding my breath for this one.

Silence:This movie tells the story of two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan at a time where Christianity is outlawed in the seventeenth century. The film is directed by Martin Scorsese and is a passion project of his that’s been in various stages of development since the 1990s. It’s been his next movie to make for years now, and it’s exciting to finally get to see what he’s been envisioning for this story. Scorsese really doesn’t make bad movies so if it’s something he’s been this passionate about for this long, it’s going to be worth checking out.

Hidden Figures: There’s a lot of space themed movies this month from Star Wars to Passengers to The Space Between Us. However, among all of that we have a space movie about that time we really did go into space back in the 60s. Hidden Figures tells the story of three African-American women who helped to work out the mathematics needed for the space race against Russia. It looks like it could potential be designed as an Oscar bait type of movie, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and interestingly, it’s rated PG. This might be something good for the family to watch if you’re already sick of singing cartoon animals.

Fences: Fences has had a pretty incredible life as a play. Opening on Broadway in 1987, it won the Tony for Best Play, with two acting wins as well. Then in 2010 a revival of Fences won the tony for Best Revival of a play as well as Best actor and Best Actress for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. With both Washington and Davis reprising their roles for this movie, it looks like Fences is a chance for the rest of us to see what we were missing by not being able to get Broadway tickets. The trailer is out and anybody who’s seen the play or read the script knows that it looks like this movie will be staying very true to the source material.