Coming to Theaters in December 2023

Coming to Theaters in December 2023

Posted on December 1, 2023 at 1:00 am

Copyright 2023 Warner Brothers

December is a time for families and celebrating and time off from school and work. It is also a time that the movie studios like to release films they hope will win Oscars and other awards. So there will be great movies in theaters and on streaming for families to share over the holidays. Here’s some of what they can look forward to.

Already in theaters: Disney’s “Wish” and Dreamworks’ “Trolls Band Together” are already in theaters and both are sure to delight children and their parents. And for mature teens and adults, “The Holdovers,” one of the best films of the year, is the story of the most disliked teacher at a posh boys’ boarding school in 1970, and the students he is stuck with over the Christmas holidays because they cannot go home. Watch for Paul Giamatti and Da-Vine Joy Randolph to get some awards in a few months. Every performance in this movie is a gem.

December 1

Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce — Queen Bey’s concert film.

Candy Cane Lane — A comedy/horror film with Eddie Murphy as a man who sells his soul to have the best decorated house in the neighborhood.

How the Gringo Stole Christmas — George Lopez stars in this “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”-style farce.

December 7

“Waitress” — The Broadway musical version of the beloved indie about the pregnant pie-maker will be in theaters for just five days.

December 8

The Boy and the Heron — The latest from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli is a dreamy and sometimes nightmarish story of a boy mourning the loss of his mother who travels to an enchanted land.

Leave the World Behind — Oscar-winners Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali star in a story about two couples stuck together as it seems the world may be ending.

December 15

Wonka — The people behind the “Paddington” films have made another endearing treat with this origin story of the world’s greatest candy-maker.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget — Finally, a sequel to the Aardman classic from the “Wallace & Gromit” studio.

American Fiction — Percival Everett’s satiric novel, Erasure, about a Black professor whose savage parody of “ghetto” literature, was written more than 20 years ago but this pointed, hilarious, and brilliantly acted film is sure to be one of the most talked-about of the year.

December 20

Maestro — Bradley Cooper wrote, directed, and stars as composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein, one of the central cultural figures of the 20th century. This film focuses on his loving but often fraught relationship with his wife, played by Carey Mulligan.

Copyright Disney 2023

December 22

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — Marvel’s underwater superhero is back.

Anyone But You — Two people smarting from recent break-ups pretend to be a couple to make their exes jealous. I can’t imagine what happens next. Festival audiences loved the chemistry between Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.

All of Us Strangers — Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are sizzling as a couple tentatively exploring a relationship as Scott’s character finds a way to return to the house he grew up in, where his parents, killed before he turned 12, seem to be still there waiting for him.

The Iron Claw — Zac Efron and “The Bear’s” Jeremy Allen White star in the story of one of professional wrestling’s most cherished and tragic families.

December 25

The Color Purple — The Alice Walker book and Stephen Spielberg movie turned Broadway musical is now a movie musical with knockout performances by Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and American Idol’s Fantasia.

The Boys in the Boat — George Clooney directed this fact-based story of an American rowing team in the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin as Hitler was trying to show the world the superiority of the German athletes.

Freud’s Last Session — Anthony Hopkins plays the pioneering psychoanalyst and atheist and Matthew Goode plays “Narnia” author and Christian C.S. Lewis.

Ferrarri — Our year of movies about the origin stories of consumer products (including Air Jordans, Blackberry, Beanie Babies, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos) concludes with Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari.

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DC Area — Join Me for a Free Screening of the Family Film “The Railway Children” on September 19 2022!

Posted on September 13, 2022 at 6:47 pm

If you’re in the Washington DC area, you can join me for a free screening of the family film “The Railway Children,” loosely based on the classic book by beloved children’s author E. Nesbit. Three evacuee children are sent by their mother to the rural English countryside to escape the bombings during WWII. A dangerous adventure ensues when they discover injured US soldier Abe, hiding out in the railyard.

RSVP here before Friday September 16, 2022. Hope to see you there!

Copyright 2022 Blue Fox Entertainment
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Trailer: The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales

Posted on August 23, 2022 at 9:19 am

If full-time workers are below the poverty line, then the welfare recipient is the corporation. I’m looking forward to this film from Abigail Disney about the way the company that creates magic for its audience treats its employees like the stepmother treated Cinderella.

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Middleburg Film Festival 2021: Belfast, Cyrano, Red Rocket, C’mon C’mon and Much More

Middleburg Film Festival 2021: Belfast, Cyrano, Red Rocket, C’mon C’mon and Much More

Posted on October 13, 2021 at 2:02 pm

In just seven years Virginia’s Middleburg Film Festival, set in the fabulous Salamander Hotel, has become a great way to see the films we’ll be talking about all awards season and to talk to the people who created them. Sheila Johnson has made MFF one of the post prestigious and coveted places to premiere a film. Following a “hybrid” year with online access in 2020, the festival is back in person in gorgeous, gracious, Virginia hunt country, always spectacular in the fall.

I’ll be speaking in the “Talk Back to the Critics” panel again this year, with my friends Travis Hobson, Susan Wloszczyna, and Tim Gordon. And some of the films I’m most looking forward to are “Cyrano,” starring Peter Dinklage and two ready-for-stardom up-and-coming young actors, Hayley Bennett and Kelvin Harrion, Jr., Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical “Belfast,” “Red Rocket” from “Florida Project’s” Sean Baker, and “C’mon, C’mon” with Joaquin Phoenix. Stay tuned for more!

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Summer Movies 2021!  Back in the Theater and at Home!!!!

Summer Movies 2021! Back in the Theater and at Home!!!!

Posted on June 1, 2021 at 7:13 pm

Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar’s “Luca” is a coming-of-age story about a boy and his newfound best friend experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. But their fun is threatened by a secret: they are sea monsters from another world. “Luca” is directed by Enrico Casarosa (“La Luna”) and produced by Andrea Warren (“Lava,” “Cars 3”). © 2020 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
Happy June! Lots of great stuff coming our way this summer and I think you will agree with me that IT’S ABOUT TIME! And best of all, as I say every year, some movie no one is paying attention to now will bring us unexpected joy.

Sequels and remakes

F9 — I used to joke about how the “Fast and Furious” movie titles were getting shorter every time and some day it would just be “F” and what do you know, here we are.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife — The saga continues with Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, who wrote and directed the original, taking over for his dad. A new cast of character find their connection to the original crew, who reprise their roles.

Black Widow — Scarlett Johansson’s Avengers character gets the movie the fans have waited for.

Space Jam: A New Legacy: Basketball and cartoon characters return. This looks better than the original!

Suicide Squad 2 — This one seems to look better than the original, too, I hope?

Action and Adventure and Thrills

Jungle Cruise: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt star in this Disneyland ride-inspired adventure that looks like a cross between “Jumanji” and the original “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Free Guy: Feel like I’ve been waiting forever for this Ryan Reynolds action fantasy about a video game character. (Reynolds is also appearing this summer in an action-comedy sequel, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.”

The Green Knight — One of the most enduring legends of Western culture is brought to life starring Dev Patel.

Reminiscence — Hugh Jackman stars in a movie about a service that makes it possible for you to relive your memories. What could go wrong?

The Tomorrow War — Time travelers from the future arrive to gather today’s people to help them fight a war with an alien.

The Misfits — Pierce Brosnan plays a thief recruited by a group of young crooks to pull off a heist.

Old — M. Knight Shamalyn is back to scare us with the story of a beach that accelerates aging.

Music!

In the Heights — Before “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music for this Tony Award-winning musical about the residents of a Latin-American community.

Respect — Aretha Franklin told Jennifer Hudson that someday she would play the Queen of Soul in a biopic, and here it is.

Summer of Soul — Dazzling recovered footage from the “Black Woodstock,”featuring B.B. King, Stevie Wonder and more, brought to us from Questlove.

The Beatles: Get Back — “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson is behind this documentary made from more than 50 hours of extra footage from “Let it Be”

For the Family

Wish Dragon — A teenager who longs to be reunited with his best friend meets a dragon that grants wishes.

Luca — Pixar’s latest is set in sunny Italy, the story of boys who become sea creatures when they are wet. Or are they sea creatures who become boys when they are dry?

Peter Rabbit 2 — I didn’t think much of the first one. Another sequel I hope is better.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania — Episode four in the series about the lovable monsters has humans turning into monsters and monsters turning into — horrors! — humans!

Festival Favorite:

CODA — It stands for children of deaf adults, and this story of a hearing daughter of deaf parents won big at Sundance.

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