It’s one of the biggest weekends of the year, not just because we’ve all stuffed ourselves with turkey and pie, and not just because we’re all madly dashing to get our shopping done for the holidays. It’s also that rare, long weekend where we have time to actually go to the movies, and possibly bring the whole family. This year there are a lot of great movies at the multiplex, from award-winning international features, Academy Awards contenders with ambition to spare, beautiful movies the whole family can enjoy, and genre flicks aplenty to scare and to thrill you. So to help make the decision of what to see if you want to ditch streaming for a day, we’ve curated a helpful list.
These are the best of the very best movies in theaters this weekend.
All We Imagine As Light
Payal Kapadia’s emotionally intricate “All We Imagine as Light” was the first Indian film in 30 years to compete for major prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. It also won the Grand Prix, an award previously given to classics like “Cinema Paradiso,” “Breaking the Waves” and last year’s “The Zone of Interest.” But don’t take the festival’s word for it. Watch this beautiful drama for yourself and see what all the fuss is about. “All We Imagine as Light” tells the story about nurses working in Mumbai, maintaining their independence in spite of the men who let them down, eager to live their lives but stuck at arm’s length from true happiness.
Anora
Not that it’s a competition, but Sean Baker’s rom-com “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. (Okay, I guess that technically was a competition; the point is, but it doesn’t actually make one film better than another.) “Anora” stars Mikey Madison in a breakout, awards-contending role as the title character, a sex worker whose big new client Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, marries her after a whirlwind romance. When his parents find out, the story takes an unexpected turn, and Anora winds up on a scavenger hunt throughout New York with a small gang of hapless goons. First romantic, then hilarious, “Anora” reveals itself in the end to be a complex and bittersweet experience.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Barbara Robinson’s classic 1972 children’s book “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” finally came to the big screen in a film that genuinely captures its magic. Judy Greer stars as a mom who takes over the directing duties of the town’s annual Christmas pageant, but when a family of local bullies gate crashes the festivities and muscle all the other kids out of the starring roles, it looks like this year is going to be a disaster. Or maybe it’ll be, you know, the best Christmas pageant ever. Dallas Jenkins’ funny and heartfelt comedy has a smart approach to the holiday season, deftly poking at Christmas traditions, without a hint of mockery, to make sure the spirit of the holiday doesn’t get lost in the details. It’s flying under the radar but “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” has the makings of a yuletide classic.
Conclave
Speaking of poking at traditions, “Conclave” takes a hard look at the inner workings of the Catholic Church and comes to difficult conclusions. Directed by Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), the film stars Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence, who assembles a conclave to elect a new pope after the new one unexpectedly dies. Sealed off from the outside world, the process quickly becomes a locked room mystery as Lawrence investigates the candidates and reveals disturbing secrets that could shape the future of the church. Berger has assembled one of the most impressive casts of the year — John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini are all standouts — and the tense, efficient airplane novel of a story delivers the film’s serious commentary without seeming too… well, “preachy. “
Flow
I know what you’re thinking: “Another Latvian CG-animated film about animals banding together to survive an apocalyptic flood?” And yes, this genre has been done to death but — wait a minute, I’m just getting a note from my editor… actually no, that’s not a pre-existing subgenre. This movie really is as brand-spanking new as it sounds. “Flow” tells the story of a house cat who leaps to safety on board a boat when the waters rise, swallowing up every man-made building and monument. Along the way other animals hop on for dear life, and fight their natural instincts as they overcome frightening obstacles and fend off starvation. There aren’t many other films this year as harrowing as “Flow,” a film that looks charming on the surface, but is full to bursting with existential dread.
Ghost Cat Anzu
A little girl named Karin gets dropped off at her grandfather’s house, because her deadbeat dad owes money to some shady characters. While he runs off to pay his debts, she finds herself spending time with Anzu, the family’s ghost cat. He doesn’t die, he just keeps getting bigger and smarter, until now he’s in his thirties and walking on two legs and working as a professional masseuse, making biscuits (as they say) on people’s backs for money. “Ghost Cat Anzu” is an extremely odd premise, which makes sense, because it’s an odd movie. It’s more interested in hanging out with minor deities than it is in anything resembling a plot, at least until the climactic chase scene, and even that is surreal to the point of absurdity. Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s film defies most American expectations of animate cinema — it’s too mature for little kids, too sedate for most adults — but it’s captivating in its eccentricities, and packed with unforgettable characters.
Heretic
The writers of the original “A Quiet Place” step behind the camera for a confrontational A24 horror movie, about two young Mormon missionaries who fall prey to a mysterious man with antagonistic ideas about religion. Hugh Grant plays Mr. Reed, a reclusive eccentric who invites the young girls, played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, inside his creepy house to debate the validity of the Mormon Church. Where the story goes from there, I can’t tell you in good conscience, but the nature of organized religion is repeatedly challenged, and writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods refuse to let the film become lopsided and condescending. Grant steals the show, playing his disarming, charmingly befuddled on-screen persona as a form of cunning manipulation, but everyone’s firing on all cylinders. It’s smart, unsettling, excellent horror filmmaking.
Queer
Luca Guadagnino’s second film of 2024 — after the sexy tennis love triangle spectacular “Challengers,” still one of the best of the year — stars Daniel Craig as William Lee, an American expatriate living in Mexico in the 1950s. Addicted to narcotics and openly queer, Lee lives on the outskirts of polite society, but he lives on his own terms. He develops a sexual affair, and eventually a possessive obsession, with a younger man named Allerton (Drew Starkey), and which leads to his potential ruination. Based on an unfinished novel by William S. Burroughs, “Queer” flies off the rails a bit at the end while Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes try to concoct a conclusion that does justice to Burroughs’s inimitable literary legacy. But until then it’s a fantastic character piece, with Craig turning in what may be the performance of his career.
A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg writes and directs a wonderful, intricate, deeply sad and incredibly funny drama about two Jewish cousins, played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, traveling to Poland to explore the history of the Holocaust. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. It’s incredibly funny, without ever undermining the seriousness of the material and the cultural baggage the film carries in every frame. Culkin, as the deadbeat cousin whose outgoing personality and emotional sincerity masks his wounded soul (barely), is at his very best — and that’s saying something.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof had to flee his home country after filming “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in secrecy. Some members of his cast are still stuck there. The film, which won multiple prizes at Cannes, is damning and daring. Missagh Zareh stars as Iman, a husband and father of three daughters, who accepts a new government position interrogating dissidents and recommending their executions. But as the job changes him, and as political unrest rages outside his family’s windows, he begins to search inward for conspiracies, suspecting his own wife and children of stealing his gun and ruining his career. “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is a fierce and terrifying portrayal of brainwashed nationalism, a powder keg that goes off in its audience’s face.
Smile 2
The sequel to the smash hit 2022 horror movie “Smile” is every bit as frightening as the first, but cleverer, funnier, and more impressive in practically every way. Naomi Scott stars as Skye Riley, a teen idol turned pop star, wrestling with opioid addiction and psychological trauma after a deadly car accident. When she’s infected by the Smile demon, which presents itself as a creepy grinning stranger and gradually drives her mad with anxiety, it’s genuinely terrifying and — pointedly — only slightly removed from the turmoil that already comes with modern celebrity. In a rational universe Naomi Scott would have serious awards buzz for her multifaceted and intense performance, but in case you hadn’t noticed, we don’t live in a rational universe.
Wicked
Jon M. Chu’s handsome, colorful, powerhouse adaptation of the hit Broadway musical successfully translates the first half of the story into a satisfying feature. Yes, it’s only half of “Wicked,” but no, it doesn’t feel like we’re short changed. This revisionist take on “The Wizard of Oz,” based on a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, finds the future Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), meeting the future Good Witch, Galinda (Ariane Grande), in high school. Along the way they become enemies, become friends, and become embroiled in a sinister political plot to institutionalize oppression in order to unite the land of Oz against helpless scapegoats. It’s a fantasy but it’s grounded in something real and relevant, and it’s got everything else you’re looking for in a musical too. Comedy, romance, unforgettable songs. “Wicked” has it all.
The Wild Robot
It’s been a great year for animation and “Wild Robot” is one of the greatest. Directed by Chris Sanders, the film tells the story of an automaton named ROZZUM unit 7134 — aka “Roz” (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) — which washes ashore on an island filled with animals, but no humans to give it tasks and, by extension, a purpose. Instead she decides to help the animals, and soon becomes a surrogate mother to an orphaned goose. Along the way she rewrites her own programming, eventually becoming more than a machine, so very much more. “The Wild Robot” hits hard, with overwhelming emotional complexity and riveting storytelling, and ultimately emerges as one of the most thoughtful and absorbing motion pictures of 2024.
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