December movies I’m interested in

It’s the last month of the year. Finally. We get to the end of the year and we’re just so ready for it to be over, hoping the new year will hold so much more promise. But the end of the year is the time when the Oscar-bait movies come out. Here’s some stuff I’m looking forward to.

On December 1st, Netflix debuts the first German language series its carried as an original series. Dark is a story about a town where two kids go missing. The disappearances hearken back to other missing kids from decades earlier and reveals secrets about the town and its inhabitants. It sounds a little like a German version of IT but without the creepy clown. It looks like there will be some mind-bending, timey-wimey warping that the characters have to deal with, maybe? Whatever it is, it looks really pretty cool.

Also on December 1st, is the decidedly uncool sounding, and yet still intriguing, Voyeur. This is the true story of Gerald Foos, who bought a motel for the sole purpose of spying on the people who rented rooms from him. Despite the prolific masturbation this leads to, he convinces himself he’s doing this for science. He takes his story to noted journalist Gay Talese. From there, the story becomes as much about the reporting of the story as it does the story itself. It looks really creepy, and like you may never sleep comfortably in a hotel or motel again after watching it. But whether we want to admit it or not, there’s a tiny piece of us that wants to know our neighbors secrets. Most of us are able to suppress that impulse; here’s what happens when we don’t.

After taking several showers, on December 8th is the new Guillermo del Toro film, The Shape of Water. In this film, a mute cleaning woman stumbles into a top secret area in the lab where she works and encounters a strange creature the scientists are studying. The two form an unusual relationship. Some people are speculating that it could be a sort of prequel to the character Abe Sapien in the Hellboy series, which del Toro was supposed to direct, though he’s since been replaced. If only for that reason, I really want to see this, but the underwater filming looks beautiful and dreamy, so it’s something I really hope I can see.

Also on the 8th is Jumanji 2. I really don’t want to like this. I want to like the original and have it be left alone. But damn the trailers look funny. I’m a big fan of Jack Black, and so I will probably drag myself to this. Whether I end up liking it or not, only time will tell.

Next is December 15th. Of course I want to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I know you’ve seen the trailer everywhere and we can speculate about if porgs are going to be as annoying as Ewoks eventually became. It doesn’t matter; I have to see it. I’ve seen every Star Wars movie ever released in the theatre, and I will continue to see them as long as they make them and I’m alive and able to get myself there.

Also on December 15th is the animated feature Ferdinand. It stars John Cena as the titular bull who is more a lover than a fighter. It was one of my favorite books as a child, so I’m really excited to see what they’re going to do with it.

December 15th is also the debut of the Netflix original series Wormwood. This is the fictionalized account of real life LSD experiments conducted by the CIA. Something happens to one of the operatives and the series is about this and what happened to his family as well. I’m not sure why the government would be experimenting with LSD - is it an attempt to create super soldiers? As some sort of torture device? A truth serum kinda thing? - I really want to know.

On December 19th, Netflix debuts another series that’s been on in Canada and is only now getting to the states, The Indian Detective. It’s about a constable who gets suspended and returns to India to visit his dad. His father has sort of inflated the truth a bit, promoting him to detective and bragging about him to the lovely young neighbor. Now he’s being asked to solve crimes. It also has William Shatner in it, apparently as a sort of mafioso or something. It looks really funny, like Mall Cop with 100% less Kevin James.

Pitch Perfect 3 hits theatres on December 22nd. So, yeah, December isn’t all about awards season; it’s also about just some good old fashioned fun. It’s not cerebral; it’s not a tear jerker. It’s just a really good reason to down some popcorn and Junior Mints. Like I’m going to miss that.

Netflix is also debuting another original documentary series called The Toys That Made Us on the 22nd. I can’t find a trailer, but it looks like it’s going to go into the history of eight different toy groups that kids have grown up on: Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Barbie, He-Man, Star Trek, Hello Kitty, and Lego. It’s a great time for nostalgia, with Stranger Things being so popular. There’s a pretty cool series on AMC called The Secret History of Comics that I’ve been enjoying, too, so these two should go hand-in-hand. The full episodes are probably available on the app. I know I’ve learned some things I didn’t know, so I hope this Netflix doc on toys follows in that same vein.

Lastly, is season 2 of Travelers on Netflix (this is the season one trailer). I found this last year and we binged it and couldn’t wait for the next season. It is about several travelers (natch) from the future who inhabit people’s bodies at the moment of their death. So as one consciousness leaves the body, the other consciousness takes over. They are trying to prevent an event from occurring in order to save the world, knowing that if they succeed, they will cease to exist. They learn all about their subjects from social media (which apparently really never dies), but people aren’t completely honest on their profiles, so that leads to some tricky situations. It has Erik McCormack as the leader of the group. It was really good and left off on a cliffhanger where you just don’t know who to trust.

I hope you think some of these look interesting, and as always, if you think I’d like something not included here, let me know.