Holiday movie preview: 11 burning questions about Avatar, Wakanda, Whitney Houston, Will Smith, and much more

There’s a reason we call these burning questions: wondering whether Wakanda Forever or Avatar 2 will come out on top is the kind of thing that keeps The A.V. Club’s film team up at night. Both films are long-awaited sequels with massive budgets, fandoms, and expectations (and, coincidentally, lots of underwater sequences). Even with the guarantee of third and even fourth films, it’s the second installment of a hit franchise that’s the important one, as it must balance existing material with new territory while establishing forward momentum. It’s also possible that one of these films could, in the last moments of 2022, overtake the current box office champion: Top Gun: Maverick, itself another years-in-the-making hit sequel. While film historians will look back on this time in Hollywood as a mess of recycled and extended IP, it doesn’t change the fact that a post-Chadwick Boseman Black Panther could become the year’s most sentimental favorite, or that a new Avatar could remind audiences why spectacle belongs on the big screen. Get ready to have your block busted. [Jack Smart]

Knives Out was a runaway sensation for Lionsgate, and a remarkable flashpoint of smart, crowd-pleasing, adult entertainment that feels more vital than ever as one of the last films to crack the zeitgeist right before the COVID pandemic shut down movie theaters—and goers—for a few years. Can its sequel recapture that energy, or even build upon it? Taking place during the fraught months in which most people were afraid to leave their homes, Rian Johnson’s new mystery, Glass Onion, focuses on a potentially even more loathsome group of people than the Thrombeys. This time out the film focuses on a bunch of one-percenters with the resources to jet off to a Mediterranean island owned by an eccentric billionaire. Whether that makes you more or less interested in this follow-up, one can likely expect just as many delightful twists and turns as the last time, along with a commentary that’s exactly as incisive as it is subtle. It’s impossible to know if Netflix’s $469 million check for two sequels will be money well spent, commercially speaking, but with Johnson at the helm, and Daniel Craig back on screen as Benoit Blanc, viewers can bank on being entertained, at the very least. [Todd Gilchrist]

Spirited is the umpteenth adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol, one of those properties that has been revived and revisited for so many Christmases that surely even Dickens himself would say we should have stopped after the Muppets’ version. But producer-stars Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds have several things going for them. For one, this is a riff on the ghostly story we know and love, with Ferrell playing the Ghost of Christmas Present, who’s forced to examine his own past and future. It also co-stars Octavia Spencer, with whom you can never go wrong. But most intriguing is the fact that Spirited is a movie musical, featuring songs from musical theater titans Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Will this feel like one too many Christmas Carol iterations? Or will it hit the family friendly sweet spot this holiday season? Audiences can see for themselves in select theaters November 11 and streaming on Apple TV+ November 18. [Jack Smart]

Back in September, when this year’s other big Pinocchio film came out, we wrote about the history of Pinocchio on screen, and why it’s such a popular story to adapt, despite every adaptation so far coming off a bit creepy in its own special way. This time, though, the creep factor might work in its favor. If there’s anyone who can make a good Pinocchio adaptation, it’s Guillermo del Toro. His dark fairytale aesthetic could be just the thing to give this old story new life. We’re already impressed by what we’ve seen so far.

Why would he be the one to make us care about yet another version of the wandering adventures of the wooden boy who longs to be real? For one thing, del Toro cares a great deal about it himself. He’s been talking about making a Pinocchio film for decades, and actively working on it since 2008. In all that time, despite numerous starts and stalls, through budget woes and talent turnover, he never gave up. Though he undoubtedly faced pressure to compromise his vision of a stop-motion animated film based on the designs of artist Gris Grimly, he persevered until that vision was realized. Now that it’s finally here—with a stellar voice cast that includes Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and more—we’ll see if del Toro’s enthusiasm and craftsmanship produces a Pinocchio film unlike any we’ve seen before. [Cindy White]

Where are we at with cinematic depictions of famous musicians? Audiences adored Bohemian Rhapsody and Judy, while awards pundits have rolled their eyes at the Oscar wins for Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury and Renée Zellwegger as Judy Garland, respectively. Before she died, Aretha Franklin decreed that only Jennifer Hudson would be allowed to inherit the Hollywoodized version of her life—and she did, in Respect, but only after Cynthia Erivo played Franklin without the blessing of her estate, in Genius: Aretha. There’s clearly a fascination with stars playing late stars, and doubly so when they’re also recreating or lip synching memorable vocals. But since this subgenre has become so firmly a subgenre, has it gotten stale—with critics, audiences, or both?

We’ll see if the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, starring Naomi Ackie as the revered singer, can put a refreshing spin on what has become a rote formula. Plus, it comes on the heels of music biopic meta-parody Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which seems to be asking these same burning questions (as the entirely fictional Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story did before it). [Jack Smart]

There are a few things that could have led to Amsterdam’s less-than-stellar box office performance. There was the general ickiness of director David O. Russell, who has weathered myriad abuse allegations (none of which he’s tried particularly hard to deny). Then there were the film’s mediocre reviews. And then, probably the biggest factor for anyone not plugged into the film industry who just wanted to see a movie on the weekend: from the trailers, it was hard to tell what the movie was even about. There was a lot of focus on the A-list cast, but few details about the plot. And that leads to the big question: is a mega-star-studded cast no longer enough to coax audiences into theaters?

It’s something Babylon—which is set in the 1920s and follows a young production assistant trying to make it in the motion picture business—will have to contend with. The cast includes Margot Robbie again, plus Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Tobey Maguire, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Garlin, and Spike Jonze. It’s classic Oscar bait but, in much the same way as Amsterdam, it feels more like an expensive showcase for its stars than a film with a consequential and meaningful plot. Pitt’s recent spate of abuse allegations could put a damper on the film’s appeal, too. [Jen Lennon]

As developments in Harvey Weinstein’s criminal court case continue, Hollywood has already Hollywood-ified the story of the journalists and sexual assault victims who took him down in 2017: She Said, directed by Maria Schrader, adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s reporting, and starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, arrives November 18. Of course an industry built on storytelling isn’t afraid of dramatizing its own recent history. And, if we’re being cynical here—and there are likely audience members or award voters who fall into this camp—this is an industry that is in fact eager to do so, especially if it also means rewarding itself. If She Said receives a buzzy premiere and follows in the Oscar-winning footsteps of gumshoe-journalism dramas All The President’s Men and Spotlight, as early reviews are suggesting, will Hollywood essentially be patting itself on the back? “We solved our industry’s systemic abuse, nothing else to see here! Now let’s glam up and give ourselves shiny trophies to celebrate!” The more optimistic and kinder way of looking at the reception to She Said is its potential to move the needle of the #MeToo movement that was created in the wake of Weinstein’s abuse coming to light. Could this add a new jolt of urgency to such a relatively new social movement? [Jack Smart]

We’re not saying Jennifer Lawrence disappeared off the face of the earth; she did co-lead an Oscar best picture nominee, Don’t Look Up, with Leonardo DiCaprio just last year, after all. But Apple TV+’s Causeway feels like a return to form for a star who, not long ago, had one of the hottest hot streaks in Hollywood history. In rapid succession Lawrence logged Winter’s Bone, then became Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games franchise, nabbed an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook, and followed that with two more nominations, totaling four by the age of 25. Somewhere in there she even played Mystique.

So six-ish years after that amazing run, it’s understandable that audiences might crave Lawrence’s incandescent star power on screen, and her down-to-earth charm off screen, once again. The Oscars surely want her back at their ceremony. This month’s Causeway, with its understated portrayal of an Afghanistan war veteran, could satisfy both camps. It’s extremely up Lawrence’s alley (portraying PTSD is a specialty of hers; Catching Fire was as brutal as any depiction of real war) and that’s not a coincidence: the film also marks the feature debut of her production company, Excellent Cadaver. Here’s to Lawrence mounting another Hollywood takeover, this time behind the camera as much as in front of it. [Jack Smart]

If you take musicals and sequels out of the mix, the last Disney animated feature to break $50 million at the box office in its opening weekend was Zootopia in 2016. The statistics don’t get any better if you include Pixar films; even Lightyear’s recent $50.5 million opening weekend was considered a disappointment. So what can we expect from the studio’s latest release, Strange World—an original film with no catchy musical numbers or built-in audience?

Strange World follows a family of explorers and their motley crew as they “navigate an uncharted, treacherous land,” according to the official plot description. It’s being compared to the Indiana Jones films, which makes sense since they share some inspiration. But how relevant will an animated film based on the works of Jules Verne and adventure serials from the early 20th century be for today’s audiences? The marketing campaign so far has been lackluster, but perhaps the diverse cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Gabrielle Union, Jaboukie Young-White, and Lucy Liu, as well as Disney animation’s first explicitly gay romance, will be enough of a draw? Coming from some of the creative team behind Raya And The Last Dragon—screenwriter Qui Nguyen and Don Hall (who also directed Big Hero 6)—it has lots of potential, so strong reviews and word-of-mouth could carry it through. We hope so, since its success could pave the way for more creative and original content from Disney. Strange World opens in theaters November 23. [Cindy White]

After Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards, no one quite knew how to react. It took a moment to process; you can see it in the way the audience gave Smith a standing ovation when he won the award for Best Actor later in the ceremony, in the way the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn’t prevent him from taking the stage to receive that award, and in the way that, almost two weeks later, that same Academy banned him from in-person or virtual appearances at any Oscars events for 10 years.

Smith has kept a low profile since the incident, avoiding major interviews and appearances. However, that’s going to be harder to maintain with his new film, Emancipation, hitting theaters on December 2 and Apple TV+ on December 9. More important than how Smith handles the spotlight, though, is how audiences will react to his comeback. In any other year, Emancipation would be an easy Oscar favorite; directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), the film tells the true story of Peter, an escaped slave who was the subject of a famous photograph showing his heavily scarred back. But Smith’s involvement could taint the film as a whole, and audiences might be hesitant to tune in, especially since public opinion has turned sharply against him. [Jen Lennon]

2022 has offered an unusually rich buffet of horror—one month after another featured thrilling, inventive stories about humanity’s worst impulses and most horrifying ideas. Will The Menu be the last great horror film of the year, a digestif that cleanses the palate after what we’ve already seen? It certainly has the potential to deliver a tasty story as it follows a young woman who joins her date on a remote island for a culinary experience to end all others. Whether audiences will decide that director Mark Mylod (Succession) is providing some intellectual nutrition to go with his delectable cast remains to be seen, but early reviews have suggested that if nothing else, those still not satiated with enough horror will get another morsel to consume before the year ends. [Todd Gilchrist]