{"id":104606,"date":"2025-11-29T05:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=104606"},"modified":"2025-11-29T05:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:39:07","slug":"12-of-the-best-films-to-watch-this-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=104606","title":{"rendered":"12 of the best films to watch this December"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>10 Minute, 51 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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From the third instalment of the Avatar phenomenon to a Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet-starring awards contender \u2013 these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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1. 100 Nights of Hero<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Adapted from a graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg, which was inspired in turn by One Thousand and One Nights, Julia Jackman\u2019s new film is a stylishly camp grown-up fairy tale. Maika Monroe plays Cherry, the frustrated wife of a despicable aristocrat (Amir El-Masry). A handsome visitor (Nicholas Galitzine) bets Cherry\u2019s husband that he can seduce her within 100 nights \u2013 and if the visitor succeeds, she will be executed. Luckily, her suspicious maid (Emma Corrin) is on hand to distract her by telling her stories, including one featuring a woman played by Charli XCX. \u201cJackman\u2019s film is a joyous testament to independence, creativity, and the enduring necessity of stories,\u201d\u00a0says Leila Latif in IndieWire. \u201cIt proves that happy endings need not conform to centuries-old formulas, and that love, be it romantic, platonic, queer, or fleeting can be as complex and wondrous as any of the tales we tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 5 December in the US<\/p>\n

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2. The New Yorker at 100<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The New Yorker is a venerable institution \u2013 a magazine that publishes everything from cartoons to short fiction to hard-hitting book-length investigations: Truman Capote\u2019s In Cold Blood ran over four issues in 1965. And at a time when so many magazines are closing, and so many of us turn to our phones for quick hits of entertainment, The New Yorker is still going strong. When its editors were preparing its 100th anniversary issue earlier this year, an Oscar-winning documentarian, Marshall Curry, went behind the scenes to learn its secret. Julianne Moore narrates the resulting film, while Jesse Eisenberg, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jon Hamm are among the fans who are interviewed. \u201cDavid Remnick, Pulitzer Prize winner and New Yorker editor since 1998, is the documentary\u2019s amiable guide on what is a multi-tiered journey through the magazine\u2019s past and present,\u201d\u00a0says Daniel Fienberg in The Hollywood Reporter. The film is \u201centertaining and justifiably pithy\u2026 [but it] should have been a six-hour docuseries. The magazine and its occasionally complicated legacy deserve nothing less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 5 December on Netflix internationally<\/p>\n

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3. Goodbye June<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After 30 years of acting in films, Kate Winslet has directed one as well. It was scripted by her own son (with Sam Mendes), Joe Anders, and together the Winslets have attracted a staggering cast. Helen Mirren stars as a family\u2019s beloved matriarch, who is dying in hospital at Christmastime. It\u2019s time for her squabbling daughters, played by Winslet and Andrea Riseborough, to put aside their differences, and for various other family members, played by Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn and Toni Colette, to say their goodbyes.\u00a0Baz Bamigboye says in Deadline\u00a0that Winslet \u201cbrings an assured touch\u201d to her weepy comedy drama. \u201cIt\u2019s about one particular family but I found it to be a universal piece that sublimely echoes a sense of life as it\u2019s being lived. There are several moments in Goodbye June that I will forever hold as keepsakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 12 December in the US and the UK, and on 24 December on Netflix internationally<\/p>\n

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4. The Voice of Hind Rajab<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In January 2024, a five-year-old Palestinian girl was in a car in Gaza when her cousins, aunt and uncle accompanying her were all killed\u00a0after coming under fire from Israeli tanks. The Palestine Red Crescent Society managed to speak to Hind Rajab on the phone, and they tried to keep her calm while they arranged for an ambulance to reach her. Recordings of their phone conversations caused outrage when they were released on social media. Now these same recordings are the basis of a uniquely powerful drama directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. It\u2019s set entirely in a Red Crescent office, but while the volunteers who speak to Hind Rajab are played by actors, her own voice comes from the actual recordings, which makes the heart-wrenching horror of the situation almost unbearable. \u201cDiscomfiting and emotionally devastating in the extreme,\u201d\u00a0says Nick Howells in The Standard, \u201cTunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s dramatised account of Hind\u2019s death is utterly essential film-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released in the US on 17 December<\/p>\n

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5. Avatar: Fire and Ash<\/strong><\/h2>\n

James Cameron\u2019s Avatar (2009) and its long-awaited sequel,\u00a0Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) are two of the highest-grossing films ever made. Now it\u2019s time for our third visit to the moon of Pandora, where the blue-skinned Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Salda\u00f1a) are fighting against the human invaders led by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), not to mention a tribe of villainous Na\u2019vi called the \u201cAsh people\u201d. We\u2019re sure to see some vertiginous action sequences and lots of alien monsters, but\u00a0Cameron has said\u00a0that Jake and Neytiri\u2019s children are the film\u2019s heart. \u201cJake and Quaritch, they\u2019d just be two guys trying to kill each other for six hours of two movies. Sorry, that\u2019s boring\u2026 It becomes much more nuanced as a result of these younger characters\u2026 It\u2019s not a family movie about the parents. It\u2019s a family movie about the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released internationally on 17, 18 and 19 December<\/p>\n

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6. Is This Thing On?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bradley Cooper has already made two prestigious films about the performing arts:\u00a0A Star Is Born, which put country rock in the spotlight, and\u00a0Maestro, which swept through the world of classical music. His third film as director, Is This Thing On?, moves on to stand-up comedy. Inspired by the experiences of a British comedian, John Bishop, it showcases an Oscar-worthy Will Arnett as a middle-aged finance executive who separates from his wife (Laura Dern), and finds himself pouring out his troubles on stage in a New York basement comedy club.\u00a0Linda Marric in HeyUGuys says\u00a0that Is This Thing On? is \u201ca tender, wryly observed dramedy [which] finds beauty in the small messes of middle age \u2013 where heartbreak and humour sit side by side.\u00a0It offers a beautifully observed story about love, loss, and the slow, uneven process of finding yourself again.\u201d And look out for Cooper, who is at his funniest in a supporting role.<\/p>\n

Released on 19 December in the US and Canada<\/p>\n

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7. The Housemaid<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Freida McFadden is a doctor who wrote and self-published novels in her spare time until one of her books, The Housemaid, was picked up by a publisher and became a huge hit (and BookTok favourite) in 2022. In the film adaptation, Sydney Sweeney plays Millie, a mysterious young woman who gets a job as a live-in maid for a wealthy urban housewife, Nina, played by Amanda Seyfried. But Millie\u2019s employer may have a dark and dangerous side. \u201cI will never forget the way playing Nina made me feel,\u201d\u00a0said Seyfried at CinemaCon in April. \u201cI went to places I never thought I\u2019d go to. The surprises\u2026 were life-affirming and career-affirming.\u201d The Housemaid is directed by Paul Feig, who made A Simple Favour and its sequel, so he\u2019s an expert at noir-ish, twist-filled thrillers about glamorous women with shocking secrets. And as McFadden has already written two more novels in the series, this could be the start of a franchise.<\/p>\n

Released on 19 December in the US, 25 December in Canada and Australia, and 26 December in the UK<\/p>\n

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8. Anaconda<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Anaconda didn\u2019t get great reviews when it came out in 1997, but it has since become a so-bad-it\u2019s-good cult classic: who doesn\u2019t enjoy watching Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Owen Wilson being chased down the Amazon by a giant snake? Now comes a film which is sort of a reboot, sort of a remake and sort of a parody. It\u2019s directed and co-written by Tom Gormican, whose last film,\u00a0The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, was an action comedy in which Nicolas Cage played a caricature of himself. And,\u00a0according to Paul Rudd, the new Anaconda is the same kind of \u201cmeta-comedy\u201d. The postmodern conceit is that Rudd and Jack Black play big fans of the 1997 Anaconda, and decide to shoot their own low-budget remake. With the help of friends played by Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton, they head to the Amazon with their camera, but soon a real live monstrous snake is after them. \u201cIt\u2019s a totally unique thing,\u201d promises Rudd, \u201cand it is funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released internationally on 24, 25 and 26 December<\/p>\n

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9. Song Sung Blue<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Neil Diamond\u2019s Sweet Caroline has become an inescapable part of karaoke nights and sports events in recent years, so you\u2019ll probably know already whether the chorus gets you joining in with the bah-bah-bahs or running away screaming. If it\u2019s the latter, then beware of Song Sung Blue, a romantic drama based on the true story of Mike and Claire Sardina. The pair, as played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, were jobbing musicians in the bars of Milwaukee and Chicago in the 1980s, but then they formed a Neil Diamond tribute band named Lightning and Thunder, and fell in love. Even when their marriage was rocked by difficulties, Diamond\u2019s music helped them to carry on.\u00a0Kristy Puchko sings the film\u2019s praises in Mashable: \u201cThrough thoughtful storytelling, an impeccable cast, and a smartly chosen soundtrack, [writer-director Craig] Brewer creates a drama that is uplifting, heart-wrenching, and wondrous all at once. Bring tissues. Bring friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 25 December in the US and Canada<\/p>\n

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10. Marty Supreme<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Safdie brothers directed several films together, including two stress-inducing classics, Good Time and Uncut Gems. This year, though, they each made a separate sports biopic: Benny Safdie\u2019s was\u00a0The Smashing Machine\u00a0with Dwayne Johnson, while Josh Safdie\u2019s is Marty Supreme, starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet. Inspired by the life of Marty Reisman, the film is a comedy drama about a working-class New Yorker who devotes himself to table tennis in the 1950s. \u201cMarty Supreme is a sprawling and electrifying sports epic bursting with vitality from the first frame to the last\u201d\u00a0says Matt Neglia at Next Best Picture. \u201cJosh Safdie delivers a masterful slice of organised chaos on a larger scale [than] he\u2019s ever worked with before\u2026 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet throws himself into the role with total commitment\u2026 One of the most invigorating and best sports stories ever put to screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 25 December in the UK and 26 December in the UK<\/p>\n

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11. The Testament of Ann Lee<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the last year\u2019s most acclaimed films was\u00a0The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet and co-written by him and his partner, Mona Fastvold. The Testament of Ann Lee is a kind of companion piece, in that it was directed by Fastvold and co-written by her and Corbet. And, like The Brutalist, it\u2019s an ambitious historical epic, shot on 35mm film stock, about a European bringing radical ideas to the US. Its heroine is a real person, played by Amanda Seyfried, who went from being a cotton-mill worker in Manchester, England, to the leader of the Shakers religious sect in New York in the 18th Century. Daniel Blumberg, who composed The Brutalist\u2019s Oscar-winning score, provides the music, including the songs sung by Seyfried. Yes, The Testament of Ann Lee is a musical, as well as everything else. \u201cIts music, cinematography, costumes, and production design all deserve attention,\u201d\u00a0says Radhika Seth in Vogue, \u201cas does Seyfried, who has always been excellent, but here finally gets a big-screen leading role worthy of her talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 25 December in the US<\/p>\n

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12. No Other Choice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Director Park Chan-wook is known for acclaimed works like Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave, but\u00a0No Other Choice\u00a0is\u00a0the best-reviewed film of his career. Adapted from a novel by Donald Westlake, Park\u2019s satirical thriller stars Lee Byung-hun (the Frontman in Squid Game) as a happily married South Korean family man. He believes his life is perfect, but after he loses his job at a paper factory, his savings dwindle, and it looks as if he\u2019ll have to sell his house to a neighbour he despises. Luckily for him, there is a job coming up which would suit him \u2013 but to be on the safe side, he decides to kill all of the other well-qualified candidates. Earning comparisons to Bong Joon Ho\u2019s Oscar-winning\u00a0Parasite, No Other Choice is \u201ca masterclass of lithe, silky, sumptuous storytelling\u201d,\u00a0says Nick Schager in The Daily Beast. \u201cPark locates just the right strain of zaniness for his quasi-Parasite\u00a0critique of the modern fight to stay afloat, and his command (of tone and narrative) never wavers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released on 25 December in the US\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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