From the End of December 2024 Into Early January 2025, I Caught Up on Some Holiday Movie Releases: Here’s What Happened

January 14, 2025

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CREDIT: A24; Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot; Disney/Screenshot; Disney/Screenshot

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Starring: Gaia Wise, Brian Cox, Luke Pasqualino, Mirando Otto

Director: Kenji Kamiyama

Running Time: 134 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: December 13, 2024 (Theaters)

Babygirl

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor, Vaughan Reilly

Director: Halina Reijn

Running Time: 115 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: December 25, 2024 (Theaters)

Moana 2

Starring: Auliʻi Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualālai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, Gerald Ramsey, Alan Tudyk

Directors: David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: November 27, 2024 (Theaters)

Mufasa: The Lion King

Starring: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr, John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eicner, Tiffany Boone, Donald Glover, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Preston Nyman, Anika Noni Rose, Keith David

Director: Barry Jenkins

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: December 20, 2024 (Theaters)

Oh hi, there! Well, you know how it goes. That annual time between Thanksgiving and New Year tends to be busy, both in terms of social obligations and new movie releases. So even someone who frequents the cinema as often as I do struggles to catch absolutely everything right when they arrive. But I do my best to catch up with them eventually! So here’s a roundup of my thoughts on recent holiday flicks with a focus on how much they put me in the holiday spirit.

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Reminiscing About the Time I Saw ‘Reminiscence’

August 23, 2021

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Reminiscence (CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton, Cliff Curtis, Marina de Tavira, Angela Sarafyan

Director: Lisa Joy

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 20, 2021 (Theaters and HBO Max)

I went to see Reminiscence at the Regal Essex Crossing on opening night (or opening night of opening day, as it were, i.e., not a Thursday night preview showing). I had a relatively small dinner of leftover pizza beforehand, so I decided to buy some foodThe concession stand didn’t have any pretzels in stock, so I opted for mozzarella sticks instead. I paired them with a margarita since this theater is licensed to serve alcohol. Spoiler alert: they didn’t pair very well. It also didn’t help that I’d really already had my fill of cheese just a couple hours earlier.

Anyway, as for the movie itself, it was hard not to think about Inception, what with Reminiscence also having a mind-bending premise, a beachside overrun-by-waves urban setting, and characters waking up from a dream state in water. Not to mention that it’s the directorial debut of Lisa Joy, who’s married to Chris Nolan’s brother Jonathan and is probably most famous for her work alongside her husband on Westworld. Also, Reminiscence star Hugh Jackman played a similarly obsessive protagonist in the Nolan-directed The Prestige.

But ultimately my biggest takeaway is that I wish that Angela Sarafyan had played the femme fatale lead instead of Rebecca Ferguson. That’s nothing against Ferguson (whom I generally enjoy!), it’s just praise for Sarafyan. She’s ready to be a star, so I say this to the people who are in a position to give her a starring role: let’s make it happen!

Grade: Could’ve Been Wetter