Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s May December, and every new movie to watch

Happy December, Polygon readers. Christmas movie season is right here, and there are tons of new Christmas films slated to come out over the following month.

This week, there are 4 in that class: the critically acclaimed The Holdovers, Eddie Murphy’s Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s Family Switch, and the horror movie It’s a Wonderful Knife. But that’s not all that’s new this week: Carol director Todd Haynes has a buzzy new movie out on Netflix, there’s a second movie with musical numbers named Leo dropping on Netflix in as many weeks, and massive franchise reboots Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Exorcist: Believer make their streaming platform debuts.

That’s solely touching the floor — December is often a busy time for new films to watch at house, and this 12 months is not any completely different. Let’s dig into it.

New on Netflix

May December

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Francois Duhamel/Netflix

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 57m
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton

One of our nice fashionable filmmakers is again with one other thorny story — this about an actor (Natalie Portman) finding out a girl (Julianne Moore) she goes to play in a movie. The lady (based mostly loosely on convicted intercourse offender Mary Kay Letourneau) is understood for her scandalous relationship together with her husband (Charles Melton), who she first met when he was a minor. Melton has already received a number of awards for his portrayal of the husband, and because it’s a Todd Haynes movie, you possibly can anticipate a luxurious, at occasions uncomfortable watch led by unbelievable performances.

Leo

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Seven Screen Studios

Genre: Thriller
Run time: 2h 39m
Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj
Cast: Vijay

No, you aren’t seeing double. Yes, final week, Netflix premiered its “Adam Sandler as a talking lizard” animated musical Leo. This week, the Tamil box-office hit Leo, a remake of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, lands on the platform.

Both Leos on Netflix prominently characteristic musical numbers, however they couldn’t be extra completely different films. In this one, a espresso store proprietor and household man (Vijay) dispatches a bunch of killers at his enterprise, making him an in a single day sensation. This raises the curiosity of a gangster, who believes the person is his long-lost son.

Leo is the third movie in director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s LCU, after Kaithi and Vikram. There are a number of repeat characters on this one, however neither of the earlier films are obligatory to perceive it (however they’re each higher, so I’d say they’re price testing).

Family Switch

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix

Genre: Sci-fi household comedy
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: McG
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers

It’s Freaky Friday, squared! From McG (Charlie’s Angels), this spin on the body-swap trope provides a touch of Christmas to the formulation and has all 4 members of the principal household swap our bodies.

American Symphony

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Matthew Heineman
Cast: Jon Batiste, Suleika Jaouad

This documentary follows two artists in love going through a tough scenario: One, award-winning musician Jon Batiste, is writing a symphony, whereas his accomplice, bestselling creator Suleika Jaouad, is being handled for most cancers.

New on Disney Plus

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus

Image: Lucasfilm

Genre: Action-adventure
Run time: 2h 34m
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen

Harrison Ford’s remaining outing as Indiana Jones sees the whip-wielding archaeologist adventurer embark on one final intrepid expedition together with his estranged goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they race internationally looking for an historic artifact earlier than a Nazi rocket scientist (Mads Mikkelsen) will get his nefarious palms on it.

From our overview:

Mangold is a really fantastic director able to helming strong crowd-pleasers (Ford v Ferrari, Walk the Line) and even respiration new life into the dying X-Men franchise with Logan. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny appears to be like nameless. Its visible fashion is drab in a approach that drains the movie of any persona. When Indiana Jones makes his approach by means of boobytrapped caves in torchlight in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the distinction between the surface world and this creepy tomb evokes a singular surprise. But just about every scene in darkness right here is scantily lit and exhausting to see. And like many a contemporary blockbuster, Dial of Destiny leans on speedy cuts that heighten the tempo of Indiana’s brawls with the Nazis, however the choreography is barely discernible.

New on Hulu

A Compassionate Spy

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Magnolia Pictures

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Steve James
Cast: Tom Goodwin, Mickey O’Sullivan

Legendary documentarian Steve James (Hoop Dreams) turns his digital camera towards the story of Theodore Hall, a physicist who labored on the Manhattan Project and gave data to the Soviets concerning the growth of The Bomb. The documentary makes use of interview footage with Hall and his spouse, in addition to reenactments and archival footage.

New on Prime Video

Candy Cane Lane

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Prime Video

Genre: Christmas
Run time: 1h 57m
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell

It’s a really Eddie Murphy Christmas on Prime Video. He’s a person decided to win a Christmas house ornament contest, and he makes a take care of an elf (Jillian Bell) that has unexpected penalties on his city.

New on Paramount Plus

The Lesson

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: Bleecker Street

Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Alice Troughton
Cast: Daryl McCormack, Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy

A younger author (Daryl McCormack) agrees to tutor the son of his idol (Richard E. Grant). But all shouldn’t be because it appears, as darkish secrets and techniques threaten to tangle the author on this household’s net.

Earth Mama

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: A24

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Savanah Leaf
Cast: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Doechii

A pregnant single mom within the Bay Area hopes to reclaim her two kids from foster care on this transferring drama from first-time characteristic director Savanah Leaf. It’s the most effective films of the 12 months.

New on Peacock

The Exorcist: Believer

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: Universal Studios

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 51m
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Ann Dowd

After a brief theatrical run, David Gordon Green’s new entry within the Exorcist franchise arrives at house. It’s a weird twist on the franchise, per our overview:

Up till this most up-to-date movie, the title The Exorcist carried some weight. While its function as a illustration of high quality was up for debate, its mark as an indication of ambition was not. Since the unique Exorcist, the sequence has offered a few of American cinema’s greatest and most attention-grabbing artists with area to ruminate on religion and evil. Believer lacks the ambition that’s meant to outline an Exorcist movie. This is essentially the most profound assertion the movie has to supply, seemingly accidentally: If the results of transferring previous God is that all the things on the earth will really feel as empty and pointless as The Exorcist: Believer, we should always cling to religion endlessly.

New on Shudder

It’s a Wonderful Knife

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: RLJE Films

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 27m
Director: Tyler MacIntyre
Cast: Jane Widdop, Justin Long, Joel McHale

It’s a Wonderful Life meets the slasher style on this Christmas movie a few woman who needs she’d by no means been born, solely to uncover what number of lives that would actually value.

New on Starz

Joy Ride

Where to watch: Available to stream on Starz

Image: Araquel/Lionsgate

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Adele Lim
Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu

What if somebody took the 2017 comedy Girls Trip and mixed it with the soul-searching drama of Return to Seoul? You may get one thing like Joy Ride, the new comedy a few 4 Chinese American mates who bond by means of their shared journey to monitor down their beginning moms.

New on MGM Plus

Bottoms

Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus

Image: Orion Pictures

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Emma Seligman
Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Marshawn Lynch

Teen woman comedies are again in a giant approach, and Bottoms is a standout of this 12 months’s crop. A trio of comedic powerhouses star on this movie about highschool ladies who begin a struggle membership to strive and impress the favored ladies at college they’ve crushes on. Chaos ensues.

From our overview:

Bottoms is strongest when it totally indulges that satire. Part of the highschool’s hype technique for the large soccer recreation includes plastering the halls with closely sexualized shirtless posters of the star quarterback. A classroom scene inexplicably includes one of many college students standing in a cage. After a very climatic second, a tragic montage performs out, set to none aside from Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” a needle drop so ridiculously 2000s that it transcends time and area.

Marlowe

Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus

Image: Quim Vives/Briarcliff Entertainment

Genre: Neo-noir crime thriller
Run time: 1h 49m
Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange

Liam Neeson (Taken) performs Raymond Chandler’s iconic down-on-his-luck detective in a characteristic size adaptation of the 2014 Philip Marlowe novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville. Hired by a glamorous heiress (Diane Kruger) to verify the whereabouts of her ex-lover and carry them again, Marlowe rapidly finds himself entrenched in an investigation that goes far deeper (and doubtlessly far deadlier) than a lover’s quarrel.

New to hire

The Holdovers

Where to watch: Available to hire on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Focus Features

Genre: Comedy drama
Run time: 2h 13m
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa

A powerful late awards-season contender, The Holdovers has been beloved by every single particular person I’ve seen watch it. It’s about three individuals left at a New England boarding faculty for Christmas in 1970 — an uptight instructor (Paul Giamatti), the varsity’s head cook dinner (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and a sulking pupil (Dominic Sessa).

Freelance

Where to watch: Available to hire on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Relativity Media

Genre: Action comedy
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Pierre Morel
Cast: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba

Taken director Pierre Morel strikes to a extra comedic mode right here, on this movie a few former Special Forces officer (John Cena) and a journalist (Alison Brie) who journey to a fictional nation collectively to interview the nation’s dictator.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Where to watch: Available to hire on Amazon, Apple, and Peacock

Photo: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures

Genre: Supernatural horror thriller
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Emma Tammi
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio

The huge hit online game sequence lastly will get a horror movie adaptation, and Universal goes with the 2021 launch mannequin of simultaneous house and theatrical releases. Will it work for them? Only time will inform, however what it means for you is that you would be able to watch a movie concerning the notorious, creepy pizza restaurant and its cursed animatronic animals both at house or in theaters.

From our overview:

The movie’s funniest line is unintentional, when Mike earnestly explains, “I’m having a hard time just processing everything that’s happened,” as if he’s working by means of a tricky breakup relatively than a sequence of more and more weird animatronic assaults. He’s proper, although. For a movie with such a easy, interesting premise, Five Nights at Freddy’s is rather a lot to course of.