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Want to see a movie with the family? A guide to some of the best movies out right now

Martin City Telegraph

Ferrari featuring Adam Driver and Patrick Dempsey comes to the screen Christmas day.

By Reed Ripley

For many families, the holidays mean getting together and sharing a movie or two. You can always return to the old Christmas staples (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is my go-to), but if you and your family are looking for something new this holiday, here are a few suggestions.  

The Killer

From the filmmaker that brought you Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network, and Gone Girl comes The Killer, a thriller about a type-A, perfectionist assassin who inexplicably makes a mistake on the job and methodically wipes out the consequences of that mistake. It’s a banger of a thriller, and at the same time, it’s a brilliant commentary on the illusion of control. 

Maestro

Interestingly, it took five years for Bradley Cooper to follow up on his directorial debut, 2018’s A Star Is Born, and it comes in the form of Maestro, a biopic that tells conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein’s story through his decades-long relationship with actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). We also haven’t seen Cooper in a live action film role since 2021 (Nightmare Alley and Licorice Pizza), and before that it was 2018, so Cooper is obviously picking and choosing his spots more carefully these days. He rarely misses, and the buzz around this one is great.

The Iron Claw

The Iron Claw is the latest from studio A24, which has made a huge name for itself as an indie powerhouse—look no further than this past year’s Best Picture-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once. The Iron Claw is the studio’s first sports movie, and it focuses on the Von Erich family of wrestlers and their indelible mark on professional wrestling in the early 80s. There’s a lot to like here, with a great cast bouncing between thrilling physical performances and darker, dramatic turns, all set in the wild world of 1980s pro wrestling.

The Boys in the Boat

Here’s another based on a true sports story—this time, one from the 1930s in which the University of Washington rowing team goes from true underdog to winning gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It’s also adapted from Daniel James Brown’s #1 New York Times, so there’s clearly a great story here. It’s a classic example of an historical sports story that people have probably been shouting “how is this not a movie” for years. Those are almost always solid (it’s really hard to screw up a good on-paper sports story), and for good (or at least interesting) measure, George Clooney directed. 

The Color Purple

Billed as “a bold new take on the beloved classic,” The Color Purple is a straight remake of Steven Spielberg’s 1985 hit starring Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg. It’s got a big, talented cast filled with Broadway performers, the production design looks to be on point, and it’s got the backing of both Oprah Winfrey and Spielberg. All signs point to this being good, and if you’re in the mood for a big budget, emotional, harrowing, heartwarming story, this is the one. 

Ferrari

Adam Driver plays Enzo Ferrari in a film directed by Michael Mann (Heat). That’s a tagline in itself, and Ferrari is billed as somewhat of a return-to-form for Mann. It’s another biopic, but it does the interesting thing some biopics do in that it focuses on a brief snapshot of time to say something larger about its subject’s life. In this case, it’s the summer of 1957 and Ferrari’s desperate gamble on one race, the Mille Miglia, to save his namesake business that’s on the brink of bankruptcy. Sign me up. 

Also read Reed’s reviews of these feature films currently on the big screen:

 

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