If “Wicked, Part I” and “Gladiator II” are not getting you into the theatre this weekend, Justin Chang, The New Yorker’s film critic, offers three other films coming out this holiday season which are “among the most thrilling that I've seen this year.” He recommends “Nickel Boys,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead and directed by RaMell Ross; “The Brutalist,” starring Adrian Brody; and “Hard Truths,” directed by Mike Leigh. These are heavy subjects—not traditional holiday fare—but “I returned to the words of Roger Ebert,” Chang tells David Remnick. “No good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing.”
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This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. The two movies facing off for the big holiday weekend at the box office are Wicked Part One and Gladiator Two. The New Yorker's critic Justin Chang reviewed both of them the other day, and his review is a terrific read.
But I wanted to hear from Justin what else I should be excited about in the crop of movies that comes out toward the end of the year.
During this time of year, people want a kind of prototypical holiday movie, something that will make them feel good. And I'm always sorry to disappoint people every year, but my favorites are probably best described as downers. These are not upbeat movies. No elf? Santa! Oh, my God! Santa here? I know him. Oh, I love Elf.
I love Elf.
It's a staple. I am taking my eight-year-old to Moana, too, so I am hopeful about that one.
Well, since my kids are now too old for that, and I'm waiting impatiently, impatiently for grandchildren, I'm going to sit that one out. But meanwhile, you've got three picks for us this season that you think will, in some way or another,
make us happy. Yeah, it's funny. I return to the words of Roger Ebert, who once said, no good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing. And so, These are not happy movies, but they are among the most thrilling that I've seen this year, and I recommend them in a theater wholeheartedly.
The first movie is Nickel Boys, which is an adaptation of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. This is the story of two young Black men, played by Ethan Harisi and Brandon Wilson. in 1960s Florida, who are sent to a reform school, which is putting it very charitably.
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