December 24, 2024 at 11:00 am

Need something new to watch on Netflix? With the holidays just around the corner, people are undoubtedly about to get some well-deserved after-work time and binge on streaming hours. Netflix has a surprisingly tight lineup of new movies this month, with fewer than 10 archive films announced for the first season (when the majority of new titles are typically added) and also a smaller handful of original films than usual. Don’t worry, we were still able to pick five must-see titles. So here’s this month’s curated list of the best new movies on Netflix right now.

“This Christmas”

Co-written and produced by Love Actually filmmaker Richard Curtis and based on Curtis’ trilogy of popular children’s books, the animated holiday film “That Christmas” stages a series of intertwining holiday tales in a way that will be familiar to any “Love.” Actually” fan. With music by “How to Train Your Dragon” composer John Powell and a cast that includes Bill Nighy, Fiona Shaw, Jodi Whittaker and Brian Cox as Santa Claus, the film is set on one of A snowstorm-hit Christmas where nothing goes according to plan – not even for Santa Claus himself.

“hand luggage”

“Carry-On” is a thoroughly satisfying “Die Hard” riff set in an airport. The film stars versatile “Kingsman” and “Rocket Man” star Taron Egerton as a TSA agent who is bribed by a no-nonsense traveler to let a dangerous flight package through security and onto a plane. Added to Egerton’s resume: a fantastic action film. Directed by “The Shallows” and “Orphan” filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, who really knows his way around a crowd-favorite thriller, “Carry-On” has the advantage of being shot in a real airport and looks all the better for it . There’s also a surprisingly strong cast, from Danielle Deadwyler to Dean Norris.

‘Mary’

Angelina Jolie commands the screen as opera legend Maria Callas in “Jackie” and “Spencer” filmmaker Pablo Larrain’s latest cinematic portrait of a high-profile woman fraying under society’s microscope. Although there is some debate among experts about how accurate the film is, Larrain seems all but uninterested in the bio portion of his biopic, creating a lush, textured Paris from which his La Callas, a mythical character, emerges is poisoned by the creativity that drives it. Jolie isn’t entirely convincing as an opera singer, but that hardly matters when she’s as captivating as the trembling-voiced diva.

“The dead don’t die”

Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die is clearly “not for everyone” and was far from a critical success when it debuted in 2019, but there’s a lot to love if you’re a fan of the crazier , drier films are a more allegorical spectrum of filmmaking. The all-star cast includes Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Danny Glover, Selena Gomez and Austin Butler – and she doesn’t give up.

“Mad Max: Fury Road”

You can ring in the new year with one of the best films of the decade, as Mad Max: Fury Road will be available to stream on Netflix starting December 30th. Directed by the great George Miller, the action spectacle is an absolute marvel of filmmaking with an endless selection of the best action sequences ever put to the screen. As Steven Soderbergh put it: “I don’t understand two things: I don’t understand why they aren’t still making this movie, and I don’t understand why hundreds of people aren’t dead.” Tom Hardy takes on the title role opposite Charlize Theron as the instantly iconic Furiosa, who forms an unlikely alliance with one of cinema’s great lone wolves to save a warlord’s wives in the wasteland. If you want to see the not-so-perfect but still stunning sequel next, stream Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on Max.