December 2022: New Movies In Theaters This Month
December 2022 ‘s new releases include Babylon, Corsage, The Whale and Avatar 2! Here are all the new movies to watch in theaters this month.
The wait is finally over: many highly anticipated new movies are about to hit theaters this month, from Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and James Cameron’s sequel to Avatar to festival favorites Corsage, The Eternal Daughter, Living, The Whale, Women Talking and more! But But December 2022 ‘s new releases also include very promising new films, likeWhitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Kurosawa adaptation Living, and A Man Called Otto, Joyride, Spoiler Alert and Violent Night, starring Tom Hanks, Olivia Colman,Jim Parsons and David Harbour.
Below you’ll find all of December 2022 ‘s new movies, to help you decide what to watch in theaters this month! All films are in order of release and divided by movies you’ll be able to see in U.S. theaters and in U.K. cinemas, and we’ve also added global release dates where available. Scroll till the end for other events happening this month, click here for this month’s streaming releases and here for a list of Christmas movies coming out this year, and… happy watching!
DECEMBER 2022 MOVIES: IN U.S. THEATERS
THE HARBINGER
Director: Andy Mitton
U.S. Release: December 1 in theaters and VOD
U.K. Release: January 23, 2023 on VOD
Full Review: The Harbinger (Film Review): A Nightmare You Can’t Wake Up From
Official synopsis: When her oldest friend is plagued by horrific nightmares from the beyond, Monique is forced to travel to NYC. On the first night of the visit, Monique learns the dreams are contagious – and so is the HARBINGER, the plague mask-wearing demon who not only feeds on its victims’ souls, but warps reality itself to remove any trace of their existence.
2ND CHANCE (LIMITED)
Director: Ramin Bahrani
U.S. Release: December 2 in select theaters
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: 2ND CHANCE is an exploration of the life and legacy of Richard Davis, the charming yet brash inventor of the modern-day bulletproof vest who shot himself 192 times to prove his product worked. A hero to police and the military until tragedy brought him down, Davis offers an American story of guns, violence, lies and self-deception.
CHRISTMAS IN THE CARIBBEAN
Director: Philippe Martinez
U.S. Release: December 2 (in theaters and on demand)
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Left at the altar by her fiancé, Rachel (Elizabeth Hurley) takes her best friends on her honeymoon to the Caribbean, where she gets her groove on and finds love at the beach.
EMANCIPATION (LIMITED)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
U.S. Release: December 2 in select theaters
Global Release: December 6 on AppleTV+
Official synopsis: Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of love and endurance.
THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER (LIMITED)
Director: Joanna Hogg
U.S. Release: December 2 (in theaters and on demand)
U.K. Release: TBA
Full Review: The Eternal Daughter (Venice Review): In My Mother’s House
Official synopsis: An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past. Featuring a towering, deeply moving performance by Tilda Swinton, acclaimed filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s beguiling latest film is a brilliant and captivating exploration of parental relationships and the things we leave behind.
FOUR SAMOSAS
Director: Ravi Kapoor
U.S. Release: December 2 (in theaters and on demand)
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: When wannabe rapper VINNY discovers that his fatalistic ex-girlfriend RINA is now engaged to a goat-shit recycler named SANJAY, Vinny decides to disrupt her future wedding by stealing her dowry diamonds from her father’s grocery store. Crewing up with an actor who longs to go to Bollywood, a resourceful do-gooding newspaper editor and a malcontent immigrant engineer, Vinny and his gang somehow pull off the heist despite their obvious ineptitude. But will the theft get Vinny and Rina back together again or lead to more misery? And will Vinny ever finish a song? Set entirely in LA’s “Little India” in a world of sari places, curry restaurants, Indian amateur-dramatic groups and South-Asian revolutionaries, FOUR SAMOSAS is a love letter to all the “Little Indias” around the world, and a celebration of re-discovering your voice and finding your crew.
FRAMING AGNES (LIMITED)
Director: Chase Joynt
U.S. Release: December 2 in New York, December 9 in LA
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: The pseudonymous Agnes was a pioneering transgender woman who participated in an infamous gender health study conducted at UCLA in the 1960s. Her clever use of the study to gain access to gender-affirming healthcare led to her status as a fascinating and celebrated figure in trans history. In this innovative cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, director Chase Joynt (No Ordinary Man) uses Agnes’s story, along with others unearthed in long-shelved case files, to widen the frame through which trans history is viewed. Through a collaborative practice of reimagination, an all-star cast of trans performers, artists, and thinkers – including Angelica Ross (Pose), Jen Richards (Mrs. Fletcher), and Zackary Drucker (Transparent) – take on vividly rendered, impeccably vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans history. This collective reclamation breaks down the myth of isolation among transgender history-makers, breathing new life into a lineage of collaborators and conspirators who have been forgotten for far too long.
HUNT
Director: Lee Jung-jae
U.S. Release: December 2 (in theaters and VOD)
U.K. & Irish Release: November 4
Official synopsis: After a high-ranking North Korean official requests asylum, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho (LEE Jung Jae) and Domestic Unit chief Kim Jung-do (JUNG Woo Sung) are tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy, known as Donglim, who is deeply embedded within their agency. When the spy begins leaking top secret intel that could jeopardize national security, the two units are each assigned to investigate each other. In this tense situation where if they cannot find the mole, they may be accused themselves, Pyong-ho and Jung-do slowly start to uncover the truth. In the end, they must deal with an unthinkable plot to assassinate the South Korean president…
LAST FILM SHOW
Director: Pan Nalin
U.S. Release: December 2 in select theaters and VOD, January 3 on DVD
U.K. Release: TBA
Full Review: Last Film Show (Film Review): A Love Letter to Storytelling
Official synopsis: The passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented not the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, but the beginning of a new, crucial chapter. Nowhere was this next battle better epitomized than in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural, impoverished county with a vicious history of racist terrorism. In a county that was 80 percent Black but had zero Black voters, laws were just paper without power. This isn’t a story of hope but of action. Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County.
LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER (LIMITED)
Directors: Sam Pollard & Geeta Gandbhir
U.S. Release: December 2 in select theaters and VOD, January 3 on DVD
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: The passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented not the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, but the beginning of a new, crucial chapter. Nowhere was this next battle better epitomized than in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural, impoverished county with a vicious history of racist terrorism. In a county that was 80 percent Black but had zero Black voters, laws were just paper without power. This isn’t a story of hope but of action. Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County.
NR. 10 (LIMITED)
Director: Alex van Warmerdam
U.S. Release: December 2 in select theaters, December 9 on VOD
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Günter was raised by foster parents after being found abandoned in the woods with no memory as a child. Years later, when a man approaches him on the street and whispers a strange word in his ear, he begins to experience visions from his fractured past that reveal a dark secret, threatening what he thinks he knows about his life and the very nature of his existence.
RENEGADES (LIMITED)
Director: Daniel Zirilli
U.S. Release: December 2 in select theaters, December 6 on VOD
U.K. Release: January 30, 2023
Official synopsis: When a retired Green Beret soldier is murdered by a vicious gang, four of his veteran comrades set out to avenge him, dispensing their own brand of justice on the streets of London.
SAVAGE SALVATION (LIMITED)
Director: Randall Emmett
U.S. Release: December 2 (in select theaters and VOD)
U.K. Release: December 12 (known as Savage Justice)
Official synopsis: A recovering opioid addict seeks revenge on the dealers responsible for selling the drugs that resulted in his fiance’s death.
SPOILER ALERT
Director: Michael Showalter
U.S. Release: December 2 in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, followed by nationwide release in December
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: They wanted a rom-com. They got a love story. Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, and Sally Field star in Spoiler Alert, from the director of The Big Sick. Based on Michael Ausiello’s best-selling memoir “Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies,” the film is a heartwarming, funny and life-affirming story of how Michael and Kit’s relationship is transformed and deepened when one of them falls ill.
VIOLENT NIGHT
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Global Release: December 2
Full Review: Violent Night (Review): David Harbour’s Santa Claus Saves The Day
Official synopsis:
From 87North, the bare-knuckle producers of Nobody, John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw comes a coal-dark holiday action-comedy that says you should always bet on red. When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, Stranger Things series) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.
WHAT REMAINS
Director: Nathan Scoggins
U.S. Release: December 2 in theaters and on demand
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: What Remains follows a recently paroled convict (Lutz) who returns to the small town where he murdered the wife of the local pastor (Williams), who is forced to reconcile his pain and anger with forgiveness, while the local sheriff (Heche) investigates another mysterious homicide which may be related.
BROADWAY RISING
Director: Amy Rice
U.S. Release: December 5
U.K. Release: TBA
Full Review: Broadway Rising (Film Review): The Show Must Go On
Official synopsis: Directed by Emmy-nominated director Amy Rice (HBO’s By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, The Newsroom), the feature-length documentary chronicles the Broadway community’s harrowing and inspiring journey back to the stage following the COVID-19 shutdown on March 12, 2020. Over 96,000 people lost their jobs when The Great White Way went dark decimating an entire ecosystem of businesses supporting the industry. From actors to artisans, directors to doormen, producers to prop masters, not one aspect of the business was left untouched. But the show must go on!
The film turns the spotlight on the community and highlights their stories of anxiety, doubt, perseverance and ultimately triumph on the long-awaited opening night, September 14, 2021.The film is produced by Tony Award®-winners Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Take Me Home, Modern Family) and Justin Mikita (Oklahoma!) under their A KID NAMED BECKETT Productions, Sam Bisbee of Park Pictures, Christopher Cowen of STATION 10, and Amy Rice, in association with World of Ha and XTR.
#FLOAT
Director: Zach Locke
U.S. Release: December 8
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Young, beautiful and full of life, vlogger Kali and her friends are heading to the river for their annual float, but it’s the first time since their friend ODed and drowned last year. Their partying turns deadly as a sinister paranormal force plunges them into a life and death struggle forcing them to face their own fears as they turn on each other and proceed to die one by one.
BLACK WARRANT (LIMITED)
Director: Tibor Takács
U.S. Release: December 9 in theaters, on digital and VOD
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: A semi-retired special ops assassin and a DEA agent cross paths on separate missions to stop a cyber terrorist organization that has built a dangerous machine threatening to attack the power grid and bring catastrophe to the world. Starring Cam Gigandet (The Magnificent Seven), Tom Berenger (Inception) and Jeff Fahey (Lost) in this gritty, action-packed thriller.
CHRISTMAS BLOODY CHRISTMAS
Director: Joe Begos
U.S. Release: December 9 in theaters and on Shudder
Global Release: December 9 on Shudder
Full Review: Christmas Bloody Christmas (Review): Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Official synopsis: It’s Christmas Eve and fiery record store owner Tori Tooms just wants to get drunk and party until the robotic Santa Claus at a nearby toy store goes haywire and makes her night more than a little complicated. Santa Claus begins a rampant killing spree through the neon-drenched snowscape against a backdrop of drugs, sex, metal, and violence, ultimately forcing Tori into a blood-splattered battle for survival against the ruthless heavy metal Saint Nick himself.
DETECTIVE KNIGHT: REDEMPTION
Director: Edward Drake
U.S. Release: December 9 in theaters, on digital and on demand
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Bruce Willis stars as Detective James Knight in this second film of the action-packed trilogy. In custody in New York, Knight finds himself in the middle of a jailbreak led by The Christmas Bomber, a brutal fanatic whose Santa Claus disciples are terrorizing the city. With the promised return of his badge in exchange for taking out the terrorists, the steely-eyed Knight doles out mercy for the just…and merciless justice for all the rest.
EMPIRE OF LIGHT
Director: Sam Mendes
U.S. Release: December 9
U.K. & Europe Release: January 13, 2023
Full Review: Empire of Light (TIFF Review): A Messy But Gorgeous Romance
Official synopsis: Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, EMPIRE OF LIGHT is a compelling and poignant drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, from Academy Award® winning director Sam Mendes.
FATHER STU: REBORN
Director: Rosalind Ross
U.S. Release: December 9
U.K. Release: TBA
Read also: Father Stu (Review): Religious Film Needs More Than Faith
Official synopsis: Based on a true story, Father Stu: Reborn is a PG-13 take on the honest, funny, and ultimately uplifting drama about a lost soul who finds his purpose in a most unexpected place.
HIDDEN LETTERS (LIMITED)
Director: Violet Du Feng
U.S. Release: December 9 in select theaters, December 23 on VOD
U.K. Release: December 2
Full Review: Hidden Letters (Film Review): Paralleling the Past and Present
Official synopsis: Spanning between past and present, Hidden Letters follows two millennial Chinese women who are connected by their fascination with a secret language of sisterhood, and their desire to protect it against a perpetually patriarchal society.
I AM DB COOPER
Director: TJ Regan
U.S. Release: December 9
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Two bounty hunter brothers encounter an ailing old man named Rodney Bonnifield while coordinating his bail after a violent encounter on a dairy farm involving a machete. Close to his sentencing, he reveals to the bondsmen that he is in fact the infamous DB Cooper, the man responsible for the 1971 plane hijacking in the Pacific Northwest, and the ransom cash is still buried along the Columbia River.
Up against the clock with Rodney’s prison sentence looming, the group sets out on a modern-day treasure hunt to recover the money he buried near the river 50 years ago, uncovering bizarre truths about Rodney Bonnifield and his connection to the only unsolved plane hijacking in U.S. history.
LOUDMOUTH
Director: Josh Alexander
U.S. Release: December 9
Global Release: January 13, on Amazon and Apple TV+
Official synopsis: Rabble rouser or activist? Opportunist or trailblazer? During his six-decade journey from pastoral prodigy to racial justice firebrand to elder media statesman, the Reverend Al Sharpton has been a polarizing figure on the national stage. LOUDMOUTH is the definitive look at his life and battles, featuring President Barack Obama, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Senator Chuck Schumer.
MATILDA: THE MUSICAL
Director: Matthew Warchus
U.S. Release: December 9
U.K. Release: November 24
Global Release: December 25, on Netflix
Full Review: Roald Dahl’s Matilda: the Musical (2022 Film): LFF Review
Official synopsis: An adaptation of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Matilda tells the story of an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results.
THE MEAN ONE (LIMITED)
Director: Steven LaMorte
U.S. Release: December 9 in select theaters, December 15 on VOD
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: In the audacious new parody, The Mean One (David Howard Thornton) is a hairy, green-skinned grump in a Santa suit, living on a mountain high above the town of Newville, despising the holiday season. Young Cindy You-Know-Who (Krystle Martin), whose parents were butchered by The Mean One twenty Christmases earlier, is returning to town to seek closure… but when the Mean One launches a new reign of terror that threatens to destroy Christmas, Cindy finds a bold new purpose – trapping and killing the monster.
REPEATER (LIMITED)
Director: R. Ellis Frazier
U.S. Release: December 9 in select theaters, December 13 on VOD
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: A hired hitman is in the crosshairs when rival contract killers come gunning for him. For hired hitman John Smith (Paul Sidhu), his directive is straightforward: seek, locate, and terminate. But rival assassins have him in their sights as they track and target each other and aim for their latest assignment – take out a hacker who threatens to expose the malicious criminality of a conglomerate head.
THE WHALE
Director: Darren Aronofsky
U.S. Release: December 9
U.K. Release: February 3, 2023
Full Review: The Whale (TIFF Review): Fraser Excels In Heartbreaking Tale
Official synopsis: From Darren Aronofsky comes The Whale, the story of a reclusive English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. Starring Brendan Fraser and based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter.
TO THE END
Director: Rachel Lears
U.S. Release: December 9
U.K. Release:TBA
Official synopsis: Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, To The End captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. Award-winning director Rachel Lears (Knock Down The House) follows four exceptional young women— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright, and political strategist Alexandra Rojas— as they grapple with new challenges of leadership and power and work together to defend their generation’s right to a future.
From street protests to the halls of Congress, these bold leaders fight to shift the narrative around climate, revealing the crisis as an opportunity to build a better society. Including up-to-the-minute footage that culminates in 2022’s landmark climate bill, To The End lifts the veil on the battle for the future of our world, and gives audiences a front seat view of history in the making.
AS GOOD AS DEAD
Director: Josh Alexander
U.S. Release: December 16 in theaters and on digital
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Bryant (Michael Jai White), a man with a mysterious past moves to a small Mexican border-town to start over and live the simple life. While there, he reluctantly befriends a troubled local teen who has recently lost his mother and is being recruited by the local street gang. Bryant keeps the boy on the straight and narrow by introducing him to martial arts and taking on the role of mentor, teacher and father-figure. As the story unfolds we learn that Bryant is much more than a man who moved to Mexico to live the simple life. Bryant is running from a complex, violent past that he believes he left behind. As his past catches up with him, he is forced into a life and death struggle to clear his name, save the boy and get back all that he left behind.
AVATAR: THE WAY OF THE WATER
Director: James Cameron
Global Release: December 16
Read Also: James Cameron’s Avatar (2009): A Clichéd Grand Spectacle
Official synopsis: Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
LULLABY (LIMITED)
Director: John R. Leonetti
U.S. Release: December 16 in theaters and on digital
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: A new mother who discovers a lullaby in an ancient book and soon regards the song as a blessing. But her world transforms into a nightmare when the lullaby brings forth the ancient demon Lilith.
THE QUIET GIRL (LIMITED)
Director: Colm Bairéad
U.S. Release: December 16 in NY & LA, February 2023 in select theaters nationwide
U.K. Release: out now on digital and on demand!
Full Review: The Quiet Girl (Film Review): An Exquisite, Delicate Drama
Official synopsis: Rural Ireland. 1981. Nine-year-old Cait is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
THE SUPER 8 YEARS (LIMITED)
Directors: Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot
U.S. Release: December 16 in New York, at Film at Lincoln Center & DCTV
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: One of France’s most respected contemporary writers, Annie Ernaux’s intimate and autobiographical body of work captures the inner lives of women alongside societal and cultural changes in France from the 1960s onwards. A natural extension of her literary work in its form and content, The Super 8 Years shows the pastimes, lifestyle and aspirations of a social class in post-1960s France through the lens of the Ernaux family archive.
PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH
Director: Joel Crawford
US Release: December 21
UK Release: February 3, 2023
Full Review: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Review: Our Favorite Fearless Hero Returns
Official synopsis: For the first time in more than a decade, DreamWorks Animation presents a new adventure in the Shrek universe as daring outlaw Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for peril and disregard for safety have taken their toll. Puss has burned through eight of his nine lives, though he lost count along the way. Getting those lives back will send Puss in Boots on his grandest quest yet.
WILDCAT (LIMITED)
Directors: Melissa Lesh & Trevor Beck Frost
U.S. Release: December 21 in theaters
Global Release: December 30 on Prime Video
Official synopsis: Back from war in Afghanistan, a young British soldier struggling with depression and PTSD finds a second chance in the Amazon rainforest when he meets an American scientist, and together they foster an orphaned baby ocelot.
BABYLON (LIMITED)
Director: Damien Chazelle
U.S. Release: December 23
U.K. Release: January 20, 2023
Full Review: Babylon (2022) Movie Review: Ain’t Life Grand
Official synopsis: From Damien Chazelle, Babylon is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
CORSAGE
Director: Marie Kreutzer
U.S. Release: December 23
U.K. Release: December 30
Full Review:Corsage (TIFF Review): Polished Drama with Fragility & Forte
Official synopsis: Written and directed by Kreutzer, CORSAGE follows Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Krieps), one of the most magnetic royals of the 19th century, who was idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. But in 1877, ‘Sisi’ celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset ever tighter. While Elisabeth’s role has been reduced against her wishes to purely performative, her hunger for knowledge and zest for life makes her more and more restless in Vienna. She travels to England and Bavaria, visiting former lovers and old friends, seeking the excitement and purpose of her youth. With a future of strictly ceremonial duties laid out in front of her, Elisabeth rebels against the hyperbolized image of herself and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.
I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY
Director: Kasi Lemmons
U.S. Release: December 23
U.K. Release: December 26
Official synopsis: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is a powerful and triumphant celebration of the incomparable Whitney Houston. Directed by Kasi Lemmons, written by Academy Award® nominee Anthony McCarten, produced by legendary music executive Clive Davis and starring BAFTA Award® winner Naomi Ackie, the film is a no-holds-barred portrait of the complex and multifaceted woman behind The Voice. From New Jersey choir girl to one of the best-selling and most awarded recording artists of all time, audiences are taken on an inspirational, poignant—and so emotional—journey through Houston’s trailblazing life and career, with show-stopping performances and a soundtrack of the icon’s most beloved hits as you’ve never heard them before. Don’t you wanna dance?
JOYRIDE (LIMITED)
Director: Emer Reynolds
U.S. Release: December 23 in theaters and on digital
U.K. Release: out now on digital and on demand!
Official synopsis: JOYRIDE follows 12-year-old Mully (Reid), who, after fleeing his father, steals a taxi and is shocked to find a woman, Joy (Colman), in the back seat with a baby. Joy has decided to give her child away to a friend, and Mully needs some distance from his debt-ridden dad, who’s after the cash Mully has with him. And so two lovable rogues – a complicated middle-aged mother and a troubled adolescent – go on a journey across Ireland, gradually finding in each other the friendship, love and learning they never knew they needed.
LIVING (LIMITED)
Director: Oliver Hermanus
U.S. Release: December 23 (limited)
U.K. Release: November 4
Full Review: Living (Film Review): Storytelling at its Best
Official synopsis: LIVING is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful.
MILLENNIUM MAMBO (LIMITED)
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
U.S. Release: December 23 at the Metrograph theater (NY) and on Metrograph At Home
Official synopsis: A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel stars Shu Qi (The Assassin) as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui. A Metrograph Pictures release.
THE PALE BLUE EYE (LIMITED)
Director: Scott Cooper
U.S. Release: December 23
Global Release: January 6, 2023 on Netflix
Official synopsis: West Point, 1830. A world-weary detective is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case — a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.
WOMEN TALKING (LIMITED)
Director: Sarah Polley
U.S. Release: December 23 in select theaters, January nationwide
Global Release: February 10, 2023
Official synopsis: Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.
A MAN CALLED OTTO (LIMITED)
Director: Marc Forster
U.S. Release: December 25 in select US theaters, January 13 nationwide
U.K. Release: January 6
Official synopsis: Based on the comical and moving # 1 New York Times bestseller, A Man Called Otto tells the story of Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks), a grumpy widower who is very set in his ways. When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match in quick-witted and very pregnant Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that will turn his world upside-down. Experience a funny, heartwarming story about how some families come from the most unexpected places.
BROKER
Director: Lizzie Gottlieb
U.S. Release: December 26
U.K. Release: February 3, 2023
Full Revuew: Broker (TIFF Review): Replaying the Greatest Hits
Official synopsis: Sang-hyun (Song Kang Ho) runs a laundry shop, but is constantly saddled with debt. Dong-soo (Gang Dong Won), who grew up in an orphanage, works in a baby box facility. One night in the pouring rain, they secretly carry off an infant who was left at the baby box. But on the following day, the mother So-young (Lee Ji Eun) unexpectedly returns for her son Woo-sung. Realizing that her baby has been taken, she is about to call the police when the two men tell her everything.
Their claim that they stole the baby in order to find him a good home seems outrageous, but So-young ends up joining Sang-hyun and Dong-soo on a journey to find new parents for Woo-sung. Meanwhile, the police detective Su-jin (Doona BAE) and her younger colleague Detective Lee (Lee Joo Young) are witnessing all of this as it unfolds. They silently tail the group, hoping to catch them in the act at all costs to wrap up their half-year investigation. Brought together by chance through a baby box, the five individuals embark on an unusual and unexpected journey.
TURN EVERY PAGE (LIMITED)
Director: Lizzie Gottlieb
U.S. Release: December 30
U.K. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: Turn Every Page explores the remarkable fifty-year relationship between two literary legends, writer Robert Caro and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb. Now 86, Caro is working to complete the final volume of his masterwork, The Years of Lyndon Johnson; Gottlieb, 91, waits to edit it. The task of finishing their life’s work looms before them. With humor and insight, this unique double portrait reveals the work habits, peculiarities and professional joys of these two ferocious intellects at the culmination of a journey that has consumed both their lives and impacted generations of politicians, activists, writers, and readers.
DECEMBER 2022 MOVIES: IN U.K. CINEMAS
INDIA SWEETS AND SPICES
Director: Geeta Malik
U.K. Release: December 2
U.S. Release: out now on digital and on demand – click here to watch India Sweets and Spices!
Official synopsis: When Alia (Sophia Ali) returns home from university, she challenges her parents’ elitist lifestyle; expensive jewellery, lavish dinner parties and gossiping aunties. But when she invites the son of a local shopkeeper to her mother’s upcoming soiree, family secrets begin to surface…
FANNY AND ALEXANDER
(40th ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
U.K. Release: December 2 at BFI Southbank, Tyneside Cinema, HOME Manchester & selected cinemas UK-wide, December 9 at 25 Picturehouse sites
Official synopsis: Drawing heavily on Ingmar Bergman’s own memories, FANNY AND ALEXANDER follows one tumultuous year in the life of the Ekdahl family through the eyes of 10-year-old Alexander (Bertil Guve), whose imagination fuels the magical goings-on leading up to and following the death of his father. It is attuned as ever to the anguish of life but there is much that is fondly recalled, from toy theatres and magic lantern shows to family Christmases and favoured relatives.
THE INFERNAL MACHINE
Director: Andrew Hunt
U.K. Release: December 2
U.S. Release: out now on digital and on demand – watch The Infernal Machine!
Official synopsis: Bruce Cogburn, a reclusive and controversial author of the famed book “The Infernal Machine,” is drawn out of hiding when he begins to receive endless letters from an obsessive fan. What ensues is a dangerous labyrinth as Bruce searches for the person behind the cryptic messages, forcing him to confront his past and ultimately reveal the truth behind the book.
SUMMERING
Director: James Ponsoldt
U.K. Release: December 2
U.S. Release: August 12
Official synopsis: During their last days of summer and childhood – the weekend before middle school begins – four girls struggle with the harsh truths of growing up and embark on a mysterious adventure. Starring Megan Mullally, Lake Bell, Sarah Cooper, Ashley Madekwe, Lia Barnett, Madalen Mills, Eden Grace Redfield, and Sanai Victoria.
THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING
Director: Bianca Stigter
U.K. Release: December 2 in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema
U.S. Release: out now on digital and on demand! – watch the film!
Official synopsis: A short piece of found film becomes a fascinating journey into the past in Bianca Stigter’s haunting and moving documentary.
In 1938, when the three-minute film at the heart of this documentary was shot, the small village of Nasielsk had a population of 7,000; almost half were Jewish. By the end of WWII, only 100 of the village’s Jews had survived. As its title suggests, the celluloid itself is interrogated using a plethora of techniques, mining it for hidden histories.
What makes Stigter’s film so compelling is how the footage transforms. As its title suggests, the film lengthens what we initially see into a detailed account of the disappeared. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, the celluloid itself is interrogated and probed using a plethora of restoration techniques in an attempt to mine it for hidden histories. This investigative narrative gradually unearths the backgrounds of the multitude of faces seen in the footage, not only lending them context, but also commemorating their existence. What starts out as an innocuous glimpse of a moment in time becomes a deeper, richer understanding of the people who pass before us and the value of their lives.
ANONYMOUS CLUB
Director: Danny Cohen
U.K. Release: December 9
U.S. Release: July 15
Official synopsis: Anonymous Club paints a raw and intimate picture of enigmatic singer-songwriter, Courtney Barnett, an anti-influencer who is a powerful voice for our times, a recluse acclaimed by audiences the world over and a strong female artist in conflict with herself.
THE FELLING
Director: Eve Wood & Jacqui Bellamy
U.K. Release: December 9
U.S. Release: TBA
Official synopsis: An epic tale of people power, telling the true story of a small group of residents in Sheffield who battled to stop a powerful city council and a giant multinational corporation from chopping down thousands of healthy street trees as part of a massive £2.2 billion private contract to maintain the city’s highways. This is a real life David vs Goliath struggle with the universal themes of our unassailable right to protest, protecting the environment in which we live and the unbreakable human spirit and it would be great if you’re able to cover it.
What started as a local protest, soon attracted national and international support. As the stakes increased with threats of bankruptcy and imprisonment, ordinary citizens were forced to ask themselves the crucial question: How far am I prepared to go to save a tree?
MR BACHMANN AND HIS CLASS
Director: Maria Speth
U.K. Release: December 9
U.S. Release: out now on digital and on demand – watch Mr Bachmann and His Class!
Official synopsis: Mr Bachmann is a 64 year old teacher at a German school. The class comprises of a group of 9 to 12 year old students from nine different countries with varying levels of aptitude who are all aware of the pressure to succeed as they grapple with emotions from pride to arrogance and anxiety. Mr Bachmann is determined to prove each child’s value and ensure that they are equipped for high school and his concerned approach elevates the bond between teacher and pupil and gives this story hope. However, his unconventional methods are tested by the social realities inherent in a provincial industrial town.
NOCEBO
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
U.K. Release: December 9
U.S. Release: November 22 on digital and on demand – watch Nocebo!
Official synopsis: A fashion designer (Eva Green) is suffering from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband (Mark Strong). Help arrives in the form of Diana, a Filipino carer (Chai Fonacier) who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
RIMINI
Director: Ulrich Seidl
U.K. Release: December 9
U.S. Release:
Official synopsis: Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. He funds his dissolute lifestyle and addiction to gambling with concerts for busloads of tourists and sexual favours for his female fans. His world starts to collapse when his adult daughter suddenly breaks into his life and demands money from him that he never gave her. Meanwhile his elderly father, who suffers from dementia, goes round and round in circles in an Austrian nursing home.
THE SILENT TWINS
Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska
U.K. Release: December 9
U.S. Release: September 15
Official synopsis: The Silent Twins is the astounding true story of twin sisters who only communicated with one another. As a result, they created a rich, fascinating world to escape the reality of their own lives.
DECEMBER 2022 – WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING THIS MONTH:
Season Finales:
- The Peripheral: December 2
- Stargirl: December 7
- The Mysterious Benedict Society Season 2: December 7
- The Santa Clauses: December 14
- Shantaram: December 16
- Dangerous Liaisons: December 25
- His Dark Materials: December 26
- Slow Horses: December 30
Film Festivals:
- Red Sea International Film Festival: December 1-10
- Asia TV Forum & Market: December 7-9
- Les Arcs Film Festival: December 10-17