Nope, it’s not a Tyler Perry production. Try Ed Burns. But Perry did have a hand in unwrapping this little gift of a movie. He inspired Burns to get back to those Irish Catholic roots he grew with the McMullens. Connie Britton co-stars opposite a cornucopia of familiar faces in the seasonal drama about a sprawling family making time for one another.
It’s like: The Brothers McMullen meets The Family Stone.
Take: Ma, Dad, and Cousin Vinny.
Premieres: Today (on demand now)

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Affix your fascinator for a winter wedding at an English country manor. While bride Miss Dolly plays power hour with a bottle of rum, her two — good golly, two? — suitors wait anxiously downstairs. Afraid she’s picked the wrong man, she frets over hitching time, as we get sun-drenched flashbacks. Felicity Jones, Elizabeth McGovern, and a fetching turtle star in the lighthearted film adaptation that premiered at the Tribeca Film Fest.
It’s like: Sweet Home Alabama meets Downton Abbey.
Take: A seat on the couch (it’s on demand now).
Premieres: Today

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

What happens when a little R&R turns into a lot of fight-or-flight? Brian Savelson’s SXSW debut feature about a dysfunctional family in the raw starring Zach Gilford, Jena Malone, Gabrielle Union, and John Slattery. The plot is simple — young vegetarian butts heads with daddy workaholic, while their respective ladies smooth things over — but the performances are complex.
It’s like: Carnage in The Great Outdoors.
Take: Granola breath over there.
Premieres: Today

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Get inebriated on Chris Sullivan’s animated festival film that weaves through diabolical family secrets belonging to three intertwined characters (Earl Grey, Genny Violet, and Victor Blue) living in a rust belt town. It took Sullivan more than a decade to make (stop motion and cutouts take time), so let it all go down like an 18-year Macallan.
It’s like: Todd Solondz went to town with scissors.
Take: Of-age, art-house characters for a not-so happy hour.
Premieres: December 12 at NYC’s Film Forum

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Pencil in Michael Mohan’s modern take on an old tradition. Sure, you’re accustomed to the conjugal comedy by now, but this Sundancer starring Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie as sisters with opposing viewpoints on marriage merges refreshing rom com (500 Days of Summer) with classic filmmaking (Woody Allen, Mike Nichols) and a divine sound track (Nick Waterhouse, Wilco).
It’s like: Reality Bites in a Lola Versus age.
Take: The community and party down.
Premieres: December 14 (on demand now)

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Michael Haneke introduces us to eightysomethings Georges and Anne, retired music teachers going through the motions in France. Until Anne gets sick. No funny game (translation: It’s not a popcorn movie), Haneke’s stark vision of love trickled through the festival circuit picking up awards along the way (top prize at Cannes) and taught us one serious lesson: Love is all you need — and someone to wipe your bottom.
It’s like: Tyrannosaur meets Away from Her.
Take: Your person.
Premieres: December 19

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Not a doc, not fiction. Behold: the reported movie. One Hollywood didn’t want to touch. Leave it to indie financing to get lady lenser Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal’s gripping manhunt that makes Homeland look like Disneyland (no offense) off the ground. Already securing Best Picture and Director via the New York Film Critics Circle, the film starring a foulmouthed Jessica Chastain requires a very specific tactic on your part: the hurry-up.
It’s like: Body of Lies in a Hurt Locker.
Take: The A-gang on a 96er.
Premieres: December 19

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

It swallowed a country. And somehow with tanks of dirty water and real-life tsunami survivors, Orphanage director J.A. Bayona re-created its wrath for the big screen. The Christmas story belongs to a Spanish family but unfolds through English actors Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as they cling to trees and rack up open wounds. Start to finish, it’s a tidal wave that hits you, moves through you, and will stay with you.
It’s like: Horror without the tricks, drama without the melo.
Take: A shoulder to weep on.
Premieres: December 21

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

He told you to not stop believing — David Chase is back with a debut set in the ’60s about a Jersey boy and his band. Premiering as NYFF’s Centerpiece, it’s been touring the festival circuit, belting out its impressive obtained music rights (the Stones and Bob Dylan). Written and directed by the creator behind the HBO series, the character-driven gig is an easygoing watch but not without the mobster undertones Chase is married to.
It’s like: That Thing You Do meets The Sopranos.
Take: Your front man.
Premieres: December 21

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Walter Salles’s scatty road trip flick that should read Must Love Jazz wasn’t a winner at first with us. But after some reflection, The Motorcycle Diaries director’s portrayal of Jack Kerouac’s novel really grew on us. Was it the rogue hedonistic nature of the characters, the endless stream of A-lister cameos (Amy Adams, Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Kirsten Dunst), or the fact that Garrett Hedlund spends most of his scenes in a towel or lackthereof? Who knows. Just go with it.
It’s like: Fear and Loathing in California, Louisiana, Mexico, and beyond.
Take: Cool cats.
Premieres: December 21

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Ecstasy and mushrooms become Viagra and mammograms. And that’s as good as it gets in Judd Apatow’s latest fictional dramedy starring his real-life family. Basically scattered-shot anxiety, the naughty film checks in on Pete and Debbie (you know, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann) years after that romp with Rogen and moments before she and Pete trudge over the hill to AARP cardholders.
It’s like: Knocked Up meets The Honeymooners. 
Take: Your old balls and chain.
Premieres: December 21

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Saddle up, partner, we’re headed to the Antebellum South for a spaghetti Western Tarantino style (lots of red sauce). Production saw actors dropping faster than the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill (Costner, Russell, JGL), but the chain gang we’re left with — Christoph Waltz, Sam Jackson, Djamie Foxx (the D is silent) — is off the hook. And we finally get Leo DiCaprio noodling around as a villain.
It’s like: Django with A Fistful of Dollars searching for Glory.
Take: Every inglourious basterd this side of the Mason-Dixon.
Premieres: December 25

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.

Move over, Andrea Bocelli. Hugh Jackman owns the tenor in Tom Hooper’s novel-to-stage-to-screen musical about a lot of people living lives not worth living. Other talented tonsils include those of Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Amanda Seyfried. No chord is left unstruck, no eye left dry (even the livestock need a hug). 
It’s like: The French Revolution’s Greatest Hits, sung by Hollywood’s finest.
Take: The fat lady.
Premieres: December 25

Find showtimes at fandango.com. To see what else is showing, check out last month’s must-see movies. For more, hit up our GoWatchIt channels.