Had too many mince pies and Christmas parties, and want to turn off your mind after the festive period? Luckily, Boxing Day tends to be a great time to head to the cinema and catch up on the latest films. There are likely award contenders like Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme, as well as big-screen affairs like Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Marty Supreme

Actor Timothee Chalamet’s latest, Marty Supreme, hits cinemas today. Directed by Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems), it’s a sports drama focusing on a ping pong player in the 1950s who is convinced he will achieve greatness- and is keen to prove to everyone else that he will too. Despite ping pong not having much of a reputation in the US, Marty (Chalamet) doggedly pursues his goal of becoming a champion. As he puts himself to the grindstone in an attempt to achieve greatness, he forms a relationship with a wealthy socialite and actress, Kay Stone (Gwenyth Paltrow), as well as balancing his attraction to his friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion). Will it win Chalamet his first Oscar after missing out for last year’s A Complete Unknown?

The Housemaid

Actresses Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney star in this mysterious thriller based on the novel by the same name by Freida McFadden. Sweeney plays a troubled woman whom a wealthy family hires to be their new housemaid. She meets Nina (Seyfried), who appears to live a perfect life, but is everything as it seems? Millie has settled in, but feels growing unease as she starts to uncover long-hidden secrets that Nina and her family are keeping from the world. With Millie having her own checkered past and troubles, things threaten to go seriously wrong between the two women.

Sentimental Value

If you tend to hang out on the film-obsessed parts of social media, you’ve probably seen some buzz for Sentimental Value, winner of the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival. Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve, who broke out to critical acclaim in The Worst Person in the World (2021), leads the cast directed by Joachim Trier. Reinve plays actress Nora Borg, whose father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard) is a celebrated and successful film director. Nora and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) are estranged from Gustav, who had a messy divorce from their mother. Things become further strained when he decides to direct a film about their family starring an American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning).

Avatar: Fire And Ash

Craving real big-screen thrills? Avatar films in December are becoming something of a cinematic tradition, as James Cameron’s newest instalment takes us back to Pandora. Set a year after the events of the previous film, it focuses on Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldana) family as they try to grapple with grief following the death of their daughter. They won’t have long to rest, though, as they encounter an aggressive and dangerous Navi tribe known as the Ash people. Pandora’s future looks uncertain as new conflicts break out, and the leader of the Ash people, Varang, is revealed to be an ally of Sully’s old enemy Quatrich.

Goodbye June

Actress Kate Winslet stars in and directs this emotional family drama. It’s set around Christmas and follows a family who have a difficult dynamic. Connor (Johnny Flynn), Molly (Andrea Riseborough), Helen (Toni Colette) and Julia (Winslet herself) are estranged from each other, and it’s their mother’s illness that brings them together again. June (played by Helen Mirren) is well aware and accepting of her impending fate, but her husband, the four siblings’ father Bernie (Timothy Spall), is determined to pretend it isn’t happening. It’s certainly an impressive cast that Winslet has pulled together for her directorial debut.

Anaconda

If you feel like something a bit lighthearted (and pretty ridiculous) after the hectic Christmas schedule, Paul Rudd and Jack Black’s new meta comedy Anaconda might be one for you. The pair star as two best mates, Griff (Rudd), who works as a background actor on sets, and Doug (Black), a wedding videographer. Now in middle age, the two decide to fulfil their lifelong zany ambition to remake the campy 90s B-movie Anaconda and recapture their youth. As they get to work filming in the jungle, they soon discover that, yep, there’s a real giant anaconda lurking in the trees. The White Lotus’ Steve Zahn, Westworld’s Thandiwe Newton and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Daniela Melichor also star.

Culture, Films & TV

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