Clockwise from top: Hamnet, Ella Mccay, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Wake Up Dead Man.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Everett Collection (Universal, 20th Century Studios), Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features, John Wilson/Netflix
To honor the Ella McCay challenge, I’m writing this with one leg crossed midair. Maybe you’ll choose to go out and watch Ella deal with her crazy family whilst being governor, or maybe you’ll just take a picture with the poster as you exit the theater after watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas rerelease. Or maybe you’ll choose to stay home and watch the new Knives Out flick since you couldn’t see it at your local AMC. The killer is Netflix! Just kidding … or …
Director Chloé Zhao’s follow-up to 2021’s Eternals is already becoming a much-discussed topic despite only being in limited theaters until now. Our critic called it the most devastating movie he’s seen in years; others are calling it a potential Oscar villain. Hamnet, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, is a dramatization of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes’s (a gutting performance from Jessie Buckley) relationship after the death of their young child, which inspires the Bard to write Hamlet.
The latest of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films takes on a more somber tone as our new cast of murder-mystery suspects deal with loss, calcified anger, and faith in Wake Up Dead Man. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) visits a congregation in upstate New York led by Josh Brolin’s Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, with assistance from Josh O’Connor’s Reverend Jud Duplenticy. As tends to happen, a seemingly impossible murder has Blanc dealing with suspects whose ranks include Andrew Scott, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.
➽ Need more cozy murder mysteries? We’ve got you covered.
HBO is going to push its new Harry Potter series until it’s nearly unavoidable, but consider this: An actually good, tween-friendly fantasy series very thoughtfully adapted from its excellent source text already exists! —Kathryn VanArendonk
“Ella McCay is gas-leak cinema at its finest, which is to say that there is a naïve purity to its unhinged qualities that is almost charming.” (In theaters now; read Willmore’s review here.)
➽ Plus, a collection of films directed or produced by James L. Brooks is streaming on Hulu, including Broadcast News, Big, Say Anything, and How Do You Know.
If you’re somehow not maxed-out on Taylor Swift this year, good news: She’s got one more thing left in the tank, a six-part docuseries revisiting her record-shattering Eras Tour. Maybe fans will finally get a peek at life in the cleaning cart. —Nicholas Quah
People judging each other’s parenting style is ideal domestic-drama stuff. In this show, four women with similar due dates forge a friendship until a decision one of them makes about another one’s child sends ripples through all their lives. —Roxana Hadadi
If the devastating grief of Hamnet isn’t your speed, why not check out Mamoru Hosoda’s anime movie, which is a very different sort of riff on Shakespeare’s iconic play? Scarlet begins as a gender-swapped telling of Hamlet that’s otherwise fairly straightforward … until the princess dies a few acts too early and ends up in the underworld. She’s still determined to get revenge, even if she’s in hell, but the paramedic from modern-day Japan who she encounters on this journey has other ideas. —James Grebey
➽ For the record, Mamoru Hosoda does not see himself in competition with Hayao Miyazaki.
Ron Howard’s adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic celebrates its 25th anniversary. Dismissed by critics and embraced by audiences, it has become one of the strangest, most charming holiday standbys — and it just might feature Jim Carrey’s greatest performance. —Bilge Ebiri
➽ Read our oral history about how How the Grinch Stole Christmas stole Christmas.
This remake of the 1984 slasher of the same name joins the thoroughly decked halls of Christmas horror movies. A disturbed man commits murders while dressed as good ol’ Saint Nick. ’Tis the season to be dismembered. —J.G.
HBO’s Stephen King prequel series kicked off with a killer first episode. Will the season finale, which has the kids and the adults poised to have a final showdown with Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown, stick the landing? It’ll be a tall order to outdo the premiere’s body count … —J.G.
“The settings and spaces of F1, however, are unlike the other worlds Kosinski has depicted. For starters, no one would ever describe them as empty or desolate. Quite the opposite. Filming in front of real audiences, alongside real racers and real pit crews, the director crowds the screen with people. He says he found the teamwork of Formula One fascinating: “There’s a thousand people that go into this one guy in this one machine on this weekend.” In F1, the people aren’t just part of the machine, sometimes they are the machine, functioning in unison and trying to shave off as many split seconds as possible from pit stops and finish times. In an odd way, that extends to the audience as well. With the sheer number of angles and positions Kosinski captures in and around the cars, he achieves a sense of total immersion for the viewer. We feel as if we can see every part of the vehicle — almost like we ourselves have become part of the machine.”
Now on Apple TV. Read more of critic Bilge Ebiri’s conversation with F1 director Joseph Kosinski here.
➽ Plus, the sequel to the 1984 mockumentary Spinal Tap is out now on HBO Max.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of December 5.
