“A Monster Calls”
Synopsis: A boy attempting to deal with his mother’s terminal illness accidentally summons a tree monster, who says he will tell him three stories.
What You Need To Know: We weren’t really fans of his second feature “The Impossible” due to its impossibly Euro-centric take on the Indian Ocean tsunami, but nevertheless between the filmmaking displayed there and in his breakthrough “The Orphanage,” we’ll always be interested in what Juan Antonio Bayona is up to. And doubly so when it’s as intriguing as “A Monster Calls.” Based on the prize-winning novel by Patrick Ness (who expanded on an idea from his friend, writer Siobhan Dowd, when she was unable to complete it due to terminal cancer), it’s a mix of magic realism and wrenching drama, with Liam Neeson playing a tree monster opposite Oscar nominee Felicity Jones and newcomer Lewis MacDougall, and with an inventive visual approach that’s an extended post-production process. We liked it a lot when we saw at TIFF, so hopefully it’s not buried amongst the rubble this month.
Release Date: December 23rd (Limited)
“Toni Erdmann”
Synopsis: An aging man attempts to reconnect with his daughter, now living in Bucharest, by playing a series of pranks on her.
What You Need To Know: Austrian director Maren Ade won praise for her last film, 2009’s “Everyone Else,” but having been away for a while, her newest movie wasn’t the most high-profile in the Cannes line-up this year (in fact, it was only promoted from Un Certain Regard at the last minute). But as soon as it bowed, that changed: “Toni Erdmann” won the kind of raves a filmmaker usually can only dream of, and though the film didn’t win any awards from the jury, the rapturous response surely put at the top of many people’s lists. Jess’s review called it “ridiculously funny at times,” while adding that “The funny comes from the same place as the sad,” and though it’s perhaps it’s overlong, “never has a movie’s overlength been so easy to instantly and wholeheartedly forgive.” Expect this to be the arthouse talking point of this Winter, and with fart gags to boot!
Release Date: December 25th (Limited)
“20th Century Women”
Synopsis: The story of a single mother raising her teenage son in a bohemian house in 1979.
What You Need To Know: Music video veteran Mike Mills was always clearly a talent, and his feature debut “Thumbsucker” backed that up. But even then, we weren’t prepared for the greatness of his second movie, “Beginners,” an utterly lovely, very personal, incredibly fresh-feeling little film that went on to win Christopher Plummer an Oscar. It’s taken nearly six years for Mills to come back, but he’s back in force, especially according to our review: “20th Century Women” is a period comedy, again seemingly quite personal, with a very fine cast and backing from indie heavyweights Megan Ellison and A24. “‘Women’ becomes a window into a world where you may see your own mother, your own sister, your own brother or another relative or perhaps even yourself. And, frankly, that’s a rarity on the big screen these days.”
Release Date: December 28th (Limited)
“Paterson”
Synopsis: A slice of the life of a bus driver and amateur poet in Paterson, New Jersey.
What You Need To Know: Some filmmakers drop off and disappoint as they get older, but some refine and perfect their work more and more as they go on, and on current form, Jim Jarmusch definitely fits into the latter category. His last film, “Only Lovers Left Alive,” was an absolute joy, and he’s followed it up with “Paterson,” which Jess called in Cannes “a tiny little film, sharp in every detail, but minuscule, like a portrait on a grain of rice.” Toplining the now globally-famous Adam Driver (the villain in a little movie you probably heard of about wars in space), who gives a “perfectly modulated” performance, it’s a film of seemingly modest aims, about “finding the beauty in everyday things,” a tribute to the everyday that should be an unlikely feel-good hit with anyone that sees it. Let’s hope Jarmusch’s amazing late-career run just keeps on going.
Release Date: December 28th (Limited)
“Fences”
Synopsis: A former baseball player, now struggling to get by in 1950s Pittsburgh, grapples with the events of his life.
What You Need To Know: With only two movies that he’s directed across his career, it clearly takes a lot for Denzel Washington to pick a directorial project. But “Fences” is clearly a big deal. Perhaps the best known of the so-called Pittsburgh Cycle, a ten-play series by the great August Wilson (Washington has an HBO deal that will bring the rest to the screen), “Fences” was a sensation when it premiered on Broadway in the 1980s starring James Earl Jones, and did it again when Washington starred with Viola Davis in a revival, with both actors winning Tonys. Washington directs and co-adapted with Tony Kushner here, and got Davis to reprise her role, with much of the rest of the cast of the stage production returning too. Washington’s previous directorial work didn’t quite light the world on fire, but the material’s stellar here, and even if he can’t open it up cinematically, the pairing of himself and Davis on screen will be a can’t-miss one.
Release Date: December 28th
Honorable Mention:
Possible Oscar contender “Hidden Figures” stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and many more, is directed by Theodore Melfi (“St. Vincent“), and tells the crowd-pleasing, little known story of the brilliant African-American women who helped win the Space Race. Oscars may also come calling for Ben Affleck who hopes his latest directorial effort, “Live By Night,” will get him back in good stead with critics.
“Passengers” brings together Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, for what could just be this year’s “The Martian.” The second of the two Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg re-teams of the season and arguably the most intriguing of the two, “Patriot’s Day” (which follows the “Lone Survivor” pattern of a limited release in December before expanding wide in January) is another based-in-fact docudrama. This time, the disaster is of a terrorist nature, with Berg (working from a script co-written by “Bridge Of Spies” scribe Matt Charman) telling the story of the bombing of the Boston Marathon in April 2013, and the subsequent manhunt for the Tsarnaev Brothers who carried it out.
Garth Jennings (“Son Of Rambow”) teams with the bulletproof Illumination Entertainment, who’ve up-ended the animation world with “Despicable Me” and “Secret Life Of Pets” recently, for his first animated film “Sing” and it’s sure to be a winner with audiences.
Warner Brothers. must have quite some faith in the counter-programming allure of “Collateral Beauty,” seeing as they’re putting it out the same day that ‘Rogue One’ hits. But really a heavyweight cast that included Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet and Keira Knightley, led by a starring turn from Will Smith, it could be the choice for those not interested in Death Stars.
Also worth looking out for: Photographer Harry Benson may be best known for his photos of The Beatles on their first trip to America in 1964, but there are very few notable people he hasn’t photographed. From world leaders to celebrities to The Royal Family, at 86 years old Benson is renowned as one of the most prolific photographers in the world. Magnolia Pictures and directors Justin Bare and Matthew Miele give an inside look at Benson’s career in “Harry Benson: Shoot First,” a new documentary which is on its way to the big screen.
We called “Frank & Lola” a “dark and tortured expression of love, jealousy and loss” that “at least ends with one more captivating thought: whether our instincts for self-preservation and flight can overpower our feelings to put our faith in potentially damaged goods one last time.” And if that’s not enough to pique your interest, the film stars the always great Michael Shannon.
