As soon as I post this, I'm headed over to FilmNorth in St. Paul for Julia Loktev's My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow. It's a five and a half hour doc about Russian journalists that began just as Russian invaded Ukraine, and folks are raving about it. Maybe I'll be one of them.
Special Screenings
Thursday, December 11
The Cure: The Show of a Lost World (2025)
AMC Rosedale/Emagine Willow Creek/Lagoon Cinema/Marcus West End
See the Cure the way they were meant to be seen—in the dark. Also Sunday. Rosedale: $15. 7 & 8 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $16.60. 7 p.m. More info here. Lagoon: $15.50. 7 p.m. More info here. Marcus West End: $15.50. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Wedding Crashers (2005)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Ah the wild ’00s. We were so innocent then. $15. 7 & 9 p.m. More info here.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
AMC Southdale 16
I wonder if there will be any other Christmas movies showing this week. $7. Noon. More info here.
My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow (2024)
FilmNorth
A five and a half hour documentary look at the struggle of independent journalists in Russia. Also Friday and Saturday. $10. Noon. More info here.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Grandview 1&2
Tom and Nicole are the reason for the season. $14.44. 9;15 p.m. More info here.
Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch (2018)
Marcus West End
Benedict Cumberbatch, you are no Boris Karloff. $6. 4:50 p.m. More info here.
The Trylon Hallmark Holiday Special
Trylon
Sorry folks, it’s… Sold out. 7 p.m. Saturday 1 & 4 p.m. More info here.
British Arrows Awards
Walker Art Center
The Walker’s annual holiday showcase of British commercials continues. Through Sunday; also Wednesday. $15/$18. Find showtimes and more info here.
Friday, December 12
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Alamo Drafthouse/Marcus West End
We meet again, Chevy Chase. Alamo: $20. 7 p.m. More info here. West End: Through Wednesday. $6. Showtimes and more info here.
The Polar Express (2004)
Alamo Drafthouse/Marcus West End
*Kraftwerk voice* Alamo: $19. 4 p.m. More info here. West End: Through Wednesday. $6. Showtimes and more info here.
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch (2018)
AMC Southdale
The Cumberbatch toon, once more. $7. 1:15 p.m. More info here.
White Christmas (1954)
Marcus West End/Riverview Theater
If you got shut out of the Heights screenings. West End: Through Wednesday. $6. Showtimes and more info here. Riverview: $5; $3 with food donation. Showtimes and more info here.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Marcus West End/Riverview Theater
Donna Reed is so fine in this. West End: Through Wednesday. $6. Showtimes and more info here. Riverview: Through Wednesday. $5; $3 with food donation. Showtimes and more info here.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Orchestra Hall
The Muppets, with strings. Also Saturday. $99-$167. 7 p.m. More info here.
Elf (2003)
Riverview Theater
Christmas movies take over the Riverview this week. Through Wednesday. $5; $3 with food donation. Showtimes and more info here.
A Christmas Story (1983)
Riverview Theater
Meet a midwestern family that’s actually reluctant to buy their child a weapon. Through Wednesday. $5; $3 with food donation. Showtimes and more info here.
Leila and the Wolves (1984)
Trylon
A woman mysteriously begins experiencing the lives of other Arab women. $8. 7 p.m. Saturday 8:30 p.m. Sunday 3 p.m. More info here.
The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (1974)
Trylon
A documentary about the feminist-led uprising in late ’60s Dhofar. $8. 9 p.m. Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 5 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, December 13
Carol (2015)
Alamo Drafthouse
Have yourself a very little lesbian noir Christmas. $13.99. 6:15 p.m. More info here.
Marcel le Père Noël et le petit livreur de pizzas (2023)
Alliance Française
A tale of Santa and a pizza delivery boy, for the kids, n’est-ce pas? Free. 3 p.m. More info here.
The Met: Live in HD: Andrea Chénier
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Lagoon Cinema/Marcus West End
An opera set during the French Revolution. Noon. $27.22. Wednesday 1 & 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Elf (2003)
AMC Southdale/Edina Mann
Maybe you’ve heard of it. Southdale: $7. 12 p.m. More info here. Wednesday 1:30 p.m. Edina Mann: $17.61 10 a.m.
Rebbeca: Becky G (2025)
Marcus West End
A documentary about the Mexican-American singer. $15.50. 2:45 p.m. More info here.
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Parkway Theater
Nope. Wrong version. $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
It’s a Wonderful LIfe (1946)
Parkway Theater
Why yes, it does choke me up. $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, December 14
Love Actually (2003)
Alamo Drafthouse
Made before “actually” became pretty much a swear word. $10.99. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Dick Van Dyke 100th Celebration (2025)
AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
A goddam national treasure, he is. Also Monday. Showtimes, ticket prices, and more info here.
Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris (2025)
AMC Southdale 16/Edina Mann/Marcus West End
Comment dit-on “Genie in a Bottle”? 7 p.m. Ticket prices and more info here.
The Polar Express (2024)
AMC Southdale 16
I thought the Kraftwerk joke was pretty good, personally. $10. 1:15 p.m. More info here.
Song Sung Blue (2025)
AMC Southdale 16
An early chance to catch Hugh Jackman as a Neil Diamond impersonator. $16.19. 1 p.m. More info here.
David (2025)
AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Advance screening of the new animated flick about the giant slayer. (I presume it skips over the later stuff.) Southdale: $11.19. 2 p.m. More info here. Willow Creek: $10.60. 2 p.m. More info here. West End: $9.25. 2 p.m. More info here.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
There were so many Jane Austen movies in the ’90s. We didn’t know how good we had it. Also Tuesday. Southdale: $7. 6:30 p.m. More info here. West End: $10.50. 6:45 p.m. More info here.
Saving Face (2004)
Emagine Willow Creek
A young lesbian hides her sexuality from her Chinese-American family. $11.60. 2 p.m. More info here.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Grandview 1&2
Best part is when that guy who reminds me of William Frawley is like “That’s the oldest tree in Pottersville.” Also Thursday. $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Heights Theater
God rest ye merry… muppets? Also Monday. $15. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Roxy’s Cabaret
I’m running out of steam here. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Trylon
Sharon Stone is out for revenge in this Sam Raimi western. $8. 6:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, December 15
Love Actually (2003)
AMC Southdale 16
Pretty sure about 10% of the British population is in this movie. $7. 2 p.m. More info here.
AMC Screen Unseen
AMC Southdale 16
Hint: It’s two hours and 10 minutes long. $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Crunchyroll Anime Nights Sneak Peek
AMC Southdale 16
An advance look at coming anime. $13.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Edina Mann
Isn’t it though? Also Wednesday. $12.15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Terror Train (1980)
Emagine Willow Creek
A hazing prank creates a killer. $8.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
WTF! Watch Terrible Films Club
56 Brewing
I don’t know what they’re showing, but I know it will be terrible. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Secret Movie
Lagoon Cinema
It’s two hours and 21 minutes long, if that helps. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Case for Miracles (2025)
Marcus West End
What if things that didn’t happen… happened? Through Thursday. $16.65. Showtimes and more info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie
Marcus West End
All I know is that it’s two hours long. $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, December 16
Black Christmas (1974) + The Occupant of the Room (1974)
Alamo Drafthouse
Two Canadian horror classics. $10.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Polar Express (2004)
AMC Southdale 16
Choo choo! $7. 1:45 p.m. More info here.
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Heights Theater
What do you ladies think of Oliver’s Mr. Darcy? $15. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Moonstruck (1987)
Parkway Theater
Nic Cage ain’t no freakin’ monument to justice. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, December 17
Elf (2003)
Alamo Drafthouse
Can this actually be the week’s final screening of Elf? $20. 7 p.m. More info here.
Slay Balls (1998)
Trylon
Santa vs. aliens! $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, December 18
Female Trouble (1974)
Heights Theater
Have a Divine Christmas. $15. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Parkway Theater
Starring beloved talk show host Chevy Chase. $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Back in theaters for its 25th anniversary.
Dust Bunny
A girl hires Mads Mikkelsen to kill the monster under her bed.
Not Without Hope
Please tell me this survival thriller includes a character named Hope that the others refuse to leave behind.
Ella McKay
I like Emma Mackey a lot but this movie looks exhausting.
La Grazia
In the latest from director Paolo Sorrentino, an Italian president debates signing a euthanasia bill.
Mowgli
This new Indian film is not a Jungle Book remake.
Rebuilding
After a wildfire, a rancher starts his life over at a FEMA camp.
The Secret Agent
Got high hopes for this critically acclaimed Brazilian political period piece thriller.
The Shining (1980)
Is The Shining a Christmas movie now? There is a lot of snow.
Silent Night Deadly Night
A remake, from MN director Mike P. Nelson.
Vaa Vaathiyaar
A new Indian comedy film.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Hamnet
There’s no reason this should work. Hamlet isn’t “about” the death of Shakespeare’s only son, and even if the play was his way of processing that calamity, what’s that to us? But while I feared the biographical fallacy would run amok through (cursed phrase incoming) Chloé Zhao’s first film since Eternals—movies have a tedious habit of treating works of art as riddles we decode to understand an artist’s life—Hamnet honors the complexity of human creativity. It helps that the central figure isn’t Shakespeare (Paul Mescal, here to make the girlies weep once more), but his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a “forest witch” (as the villagers say) who takes to motherhood intensely, with a protectiveness born out of her visions of dark foreboding. With the aid of DP Łukasz Żal’s muddy tones and chiaroscuro interiors, and an allusive yet plainspoken script co-written with Maggie O'Farrell (author of the novel that serves as source material), Zhao creates a credible Elizabethan world, and Buckley’s performance, ranging from the subtle flickers of a smile to wracked howls of grief, is all-encompassing. The final segment—the premiere of Hamlet itself—is the emotional equivalent of juggling chainsaws, yet Buckley’s commitment anchors a conceit that could as easily elicit snickers as sniffles. In her expression we watch as the stuff of life—mourning, family drama, the unworthiness we feel in the face of personal tragedy—is subsumed into something greater than its components. A
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson’s universally lauded tragicomic revolutionary epic has a lot on its thematic plate. It’s a movie about rescuing your daughter that’s really about how you can’t protect your kids, about the contrast between the glamour of doomed revolutionary action and the quiet victories of everyday resistance, about a parallel United States that mirrors our police state already in progress. And to white folks (like me and maybe you and probably PTA himself) who just wonder when all this will all be over in the real world, Anderson offers his most self-explanatory movie title since There Will Be Blood. But aside from all that One Battle After Another is just plain engaging and immersive and entertaining the way too many movies that make much more money only pretend to be. As in Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonard DiCaprio is a dopey white guy outclassed by a woman of another race (glad he’s found his niche); his greasy top-knot and Arthur Dent bathrobe will be the stuff of hipster Halloween costumes. Teyana Taylor is iconic in the true sense of the word as insatiable revolutionary Perfida Beverly Hills. (I told you all to see A Thousand and One, but did you listen?) Supremely unruffled as a Latino karate instructor, Benicio Del Toro is the calm center of the film’s most remarkable sequence. As the spirited abductee, Chase Infiniti (who somehow was not herself named by Thomas Pynchon) slowly accrues an echo of Taylor’s screen intensity. And I regret to report that Sean Penn is as brilliant here as everyone says. His Steven Lockjaw is a swollen testicle of a man, incapable of properly fitting into any suit of clothes, a walking study of the psychosis of authoritarianism. Oh yeah, and that climactic car chase is totally boss. A
100 Nights of Hero—ends December 11
Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier may be the kindest great director of his generation and its most gently devastating—a sort of Scandinavian Ozu. In his latest, Stellan Skarsgård is Gustav Borg, a once-heralded filmmaker who hasn’t worked in 15 years. Gustav was also, you won’t be surprised to learn, a terrible father who abandoned his wife and his two daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve), who resents his absence, and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), who seems to have made her peace. Gustav returns on the day of their mother’s funeral and offers Nora a part in his new film, which reckons with their family’s dark past. When she rejects his offer, he instead casts Hollywood star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who gradually realizes she’s wrong for the part. All this could be the stuff of high drama or broad comedy, but Trier generally keeps both extremes at a low simmer. Reinsve, as the daughter reluctantly recognizing herself in her father, is no less an incarnation of millennial neurosis here than in The Worst Person in the World, while Skarsgård exercises his charm and authority lightly but firmly, regret battling stubbornness in his every action. At the center of the film is the Borg home, a creaky old storehouse of memories that allows Trier to exercise his easy way with chronology. The film slips into the past then fast-forwards, creating the sense that the past is always just beyond our reach, even while we’re firmly stuck in the present. A
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
In the latest of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out whodunnits, Daniel Craig’s swampy-voiced Benoit Blanc largely cedes the spotlight to Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud, an idealistic young priest caught in a battle of wills with the charismatic Monsignor Jefferson Witt (Josh Brolin). When Witt is murdered mysteriously, everyone in the parish is a suspect, including Father Jud himself. Dead Man is heavier in tone than past installments, and its characters don’t get to flaunt their quirks as memorably. And here’s something you may never hear me say again: A Catholic really should have approved this script before they started filming. Not to censor any of the naughty bits, but to explain to Johnson how the Catholic hierarchy works. When a film strives to take spiritual dilemmas seriously, and often succeeds at it, the institutional differences with Evangelical or even mainline Protestant churches are crucial to pin down. Still, O’Connor, who’s really gunning for “best actor under 40” honors these days, almost pulls it off, and there’s a special pleasure in a performance that holds its own in a flawed setting. B
