By John Corrado

New releases for the week of December 6th, 2024.

Theatrical Releases:

The Girl with the Needle (Limited Release): This period piece has been gaining buzz since premiering at Cannes. Set in Copenhagen after WWI, it follows a poor factory worker (Vic Carmen Sonne) who becomes pregnant and gets entangled with a woman (Trine Dyrholm) who runs a black market adoption agency. It’s a highly disturbing film, thanks to its incredibly bleak subject matter, stark and haunting black-and-white German expressionist imagery, and chilling score. Not an easy watch, but a visceral, artfully crafted piece of work from director Magnus von Horn that will surely garner a Best International Feature nomination at the Oscars. Opens at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. (Full Review)

More Releases: Y2K (Limited), The Six Triple Eight (Limited), The Return (Limited), Porcelain War (Limited), La Cocina (Limited), Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (Limited), Werewolves (Limited), Get Away (Limited), Devils Stay (Limited)

Streaming Releases:

That Christmas (Netflix): Writer Richard Curtis, who has become synonymous with Christmas through his 2003 classic Love Actually, adapts his series of children’s books for the screen in this new Netflix animated film. Narrated by Santa (Brian Cox), the film is set in the town of Wellington-on-Sea, where everything has been going wrong since the disastrous (“woke”) school pageant, and a snowstorm threatens to derail Christmas and keep families apart. I found this to be quite charming, and it does get you a little misty-eyed at times. It plays almost like a kid-friendly companion to Love Actually, with its intersecting storylines and various characters coming together over the holidays. It’s cheerful and sentimental in all the right places, and a nice choice for families over the holidays.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (MUBI): This holiday indie from filmmaker Tyler Taormina, which premiered at the Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes and is now streaming on MUBI, centres around a large Italian-American family coming together for Christmas Eve. It’s a holiday hangout movie that is all about capturing the feeling of Christmas Eve (or the “vibes” as the kids might say). Through his large ensemble cast (including children of Hollywood royalty Francesca Scorsese and Sawyer Spielberg), Taormina captures the atmosphere of a frantic family gathering; the little moments, snippets of conversation, old traditions. But there is a melancholy feel underpinning all of it. For the adults, they don’t know how many more Christmases they will have with the whole family together in this house. For the kids, who eventually branch off on their own, their youth is fleeting, they just might not know it yet. There is a real warmth to it; the film is beautifully shot, at times recalling a home movie, and the early-2000s details add a nostalgic charm to it. I really enjoyed this one.

More Releases: Mary (Netflix), A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter (Netflix), Churchill at War (Netflix), American Cats: The Good, The Bad & The Cuddly (CBC Gem), The Dead Don’t Hurt (Paramount+), The People’s Joker (MUBI)