Every movie coming out this holiday season that you need to watch
It’s the Hollywood equivalent of getting straight A’s only to have your older brother score six touchdowns to win the state title.
If history is any guide, the bulk of this year’s Oscar nominees will come from films that are still awaiting release. It should be their time to shine, these small, thoughtful works of art. And yet they’ll still be overshadowed at the box office — obliterated even — by spinoffs of two of the most successful franchises in movie history.
But the holiday movie season isn’t over once you’ve seen “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Don’t forget about the little guys: “Moonlight” and “Jackie,” “Manchester by the Sea” and “Nocturnal Animals,” “La La Land” and “Loving.”
Here’s a look at what’s coming to theaters through the holidays, as well as some of the awards hopefuls that will open here in January. And, as always, dates are subject to change.
FRIDAY
A dozen spacecraft land around the world with no clear motive in “Arrival,” starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker.
A man (Danny Glover) asks his family for the impossible — to get along for five days during the holidays — in the comedy “Almost Christmas,” co-starring Romany Malco, Mo’Nique, JB Smoove, Gabrielle Union and Omar Epps.
The youth, adolescence and adulthood of an African-American man struggling with his sexuality are explored in the drama “Moonlight.”
When a young boy being treated by a psychologist (Naomi Watts) goes missing, she becomes convinced his ghost is haunting her rural New England cabin in “Shut In.”
Troubled Sarasota, Florida, TV reporter Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) becomes severely depressed when a relationship with a co-worker (Michael C. Hall) turns into unrequited love in “Christine,” a drama based on a shocking true story.
NOV. 18
In 1926 New York, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) misplaces some of the magical creatures he’s acquired in the Harry Potter spinoff “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
A group of soldiers are declared heroes after a battle in Iraq, then brought home for a victory tour as flashbacks contrast the realities of war with the government’s public-relations spin, in director Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.”
Hailee Steinfeld stars as an awkward teenager in the coming-of-age comedy “The Edge of Seventeen,” co-starring Kyra Sedgwick and Woody Harrelson.
A year after breaking his neck and being told he may never walk again, boxer Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller) returns to the ring in “Bleed for This.”
NOV. 23
A teenage girl (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) sails out to save her people and is aided by the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) in Disney’s animated “Moana,” featuring music by “Hamilton’s” Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Willie (Billy Bob Thornton), his sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox) and an adult Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly) return to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve in “Bad Santa 2.”
In 1958, interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga) marry, then have to fight for the right to live as a family under Virginia law, in the fact-based “Loving.”
An aspiring actress (Lily Collins) and her driver (Alden Ehrenreich) fall in love under the disapproving eye of Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) in “Rules Don’t Apply.”
World War II threatens the relationship between an intelligence officer (Brad Pitt) and a French resistance fighter (Marion Cotillard) in “Allied,” from director Robert Zemeckis.
NOV. 25
On a remote island populated solely by women and young boys, a 10-year-old (Max Brebant) begins questioning the strange medical experiments that are taking place in the horror tale “Evolution.”
DEC. 2
A philosophy teacher (Isabelle Huppert) looks to reinvent herself after her husband leaves her in the French drama “Things to Come.”
DEC. 9
To woo an important client and save their jobs, a group of co-workers throw an out-of-control rager in the comedy “Office Christmas Party,” starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn and Kate McKinnon.
After the death of his older brother (Kyle Chandler), a Boston janitor (Casey Affleck) is shocked to learn he’s become the sole guardian of his nephew (Lucas Hedges) in the drama “Manchester by the Sea.”
When a woman (Amy Adams) who still feels guilty about the way she hurt her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) receives a violent book he wrote, she assumes it’s a threat in “Nocturnal Animals,” from director/fashion designer Tom Ford.
A D.C. power broker (Jessica Chastain) takes on the gun lobby in the thriller “Miss Sloane.”
DEC. 16
A group of rebels band together to steal the plans for the Death Star in the prequel “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone star in “La La Land,” a musical tribute to Los Angeles written and directed by Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash”).
After suffering a tragedy, a New York ad executive (Will Smith) copes by writing letters to the universe, then is visited by Time, Love and Death, in “Collateral Beauty.”
The first human (Asa Butterfield) born on Mars travels to Earth to meet a girl (Britt Robertson) in “The Space Between Us.”
DEC. 21
During a journey into deep space, two travelers (Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt) are awakened from suspended animation 90 years too early and face the prospects of spending the rest of their lives alone in “Passengers,” from “The Imitation Game” director Morten Tyldum.
Animals square off in a musical competition in the animated “Sing,” featuring the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson and John C. Reilly.
Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) taps into the genetic memories of his ancestors to fight the Templar organization in the video-game adaptation “Assassin’s Creed.”
Twenty-five years after a 5-year-old Indian boy is put on the wrong train, ends up thousands of miles away from his family and is adopted by an Australian couple, he begins searching for his relatives in “Lion.”
DEC. 23
An overprotective father (Bryan Cranston) clashes with his daughter’s billionaire boyfriend (James Franco), who’s about to ask her to marry him, in the comedy “Why Him?”
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman) struggles to cope with the loss of her husband and to protect the legacy of Camelot in the days following his assassination in “Jackie.”
A 13-year-old Kazakh girl trains to be the first female in 12 generations of her family to become an eagle hunter in the documentary “The Eagle Huntress.”
DEC. 25
Denzel Washington and Viola Davis reprise their roles from the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “Fences,” about a former Negro League baseball player turned trash collector trying to provide for his family.
A down-on-his-luck prospector (Matthew McConaughey) sets off to find riches in Indonesia in the drama “Gold,” based on the 1990s’ Bre-X mining scandal.
JAN. 6
The little-known story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), African-American women who helped launch John Glenn into orbit, is told in “Hidden Figures.”
Faced with great danger, two Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver) spread the word of God in 17th-century Japan in “Silence,” from director Martin Scorsese.
A bullied 12-year-old (Lewis MacDougall) escapes from his stern grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) and into a world of fantastic creatures in “A Monster Calls,” co-starring Felicity Jones and Liam Neeson.
JAN. 13
Ben Affleck writes, directs and stars in “Live by Night,” the tale of a Boston police captain’s son who becomes a gangster, based on the Dennis Lehane novel.
Law enforcers (Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman and J.K. Simmons) hunt the Boston Marathon bombers in “Patriots Day.”
JAN. 20
In an effort to connect with her teenage son (Lucas Jade Zumann) during the summer of 1979, a single mother (Annette Bening) reaches out to their artist boarder (Greta Gerwig) and a young neighbor (Elle Fanning) in “20th Century Women.”
And Michael Keaton stars as salesman Ray Kroc, who wrested a small hamburger restaurant from a pair of brothers and turned it into McDonald’s, in “The Founder.”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch.
