What To Watch Online This December

Emma, Now TV

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the lead in this stylised adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, directed by renowned photographer Autumn de Wilde. Emma Woodhouse, a young regency lady living in Highbury, gives ‘match-maker’ a whole new meaning when she begins interfering in the lives of her friends and family. But during the course of all her meddling, could she be missing an opportunity for herself to find love?

Available to watch now

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Critical Thinking, Now TV

Set in 1998, this film tells the true story of a Cuban-American teacher named Mario Martinez and the national championship-winning chess club he ran at Miami Jackson High School. Mario works as an elective chess teacher with inner-city students from disadvantaged backgrounds and finds himself inspired by their strength and intelligence in the face of adversity. For fans of recent hit The Queen’s Gambit.

Available to watch now

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Love Sarah, Amazon

Celia Imrie stars as Mimi, who launches a bakery filled with delicious pastries with the help of three generations of women. They are all drawn together by the memory of their beloved Sarah, helping them to overcome their differences to make their business work in Notting Hill.

Available to watch now

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Little Women, Amazon

Writer-director Greta Gerwig helmed this latest adaptation of Little Women, a winter classic that draws on both the novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott. An unconventional timeline unfolds as Jo March reflects back and forth on her life and decisions. In Gerwig’s take, the story of the March sisters is given a new lease of life, with the help of a talented cast including Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet and Meryl Streep.

Available to watch now

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Misbehaviour, Amazon

This British comedy-drama is focused on the Miss World pageant of 1970, which made history when the Women’s Liberation Movement disrupted the live TV broadcast. The international sensation it caused is expertly depicted by award-winning actresses and bright new talent including The Crown’s Emma Corrin plus Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Suki Waterhouse.
Available to watch now

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Clemency, Amazon

Clemency was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Raindance Film Festival, and now it’s about to hit Now TV. Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) is a prison warden who, over the years, has been drifting away from her husband while dutifully carrying out executions in a maximum-security prison. When she strikes up a bond with death-row inmate Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), a layer of emotional skin is peeled back, forcing Bernadine to confront the complex – and often contradictory – relationship between good intentions, unrequited desires, and what it means to be sanctioned to kill.
Available to watch now

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Like A Boss, Amazon

In this light-hearted film starring Rose Byrne, Jennifer Coolidge and Tiffany Haddish, two friends with very different personalities decide to launch a beauty company together. Best friends Mia and Mel run their own cosmetics company – a business they built from the ground up. But they're also in over their heads financially, and the prospect of a buyout offer from an industry titan proves too tempting to pass up. The beauty business is now about to get ugly as the proposal puts Mia and Mel's lifelong friendship to the ultimate test.

Available to watch now

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Cats, Amazon 

Yes, this was panned by critics last year, but the end of 2020 seems like the perfect time to see this bonkers adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Helmed by award-winning director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables), the film stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and Francesca Hayward.

Available to watch now

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Downhill, Amazon

Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in this remake of the Swedish/French production, Force Majeure. After barely escaping an avalanche during a ski holiday in the Alps, a family is thrown into chaos as they are forced to re-evaluate the things they hold dear, as well as their true feelings for one another.

Available to watch now

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On Pointe, Disney +

This six-part docu-series captures a season in the School of American Ballet (SAB) in New York City. Featuring unprecedented access to the famous ballet institution, the series follows the lives of the students – aged 8 to 18 – as they pursue their dreams to become ballet dancers.

Available to watch from 18th December

Visit DisneyPlusOriginals.Disney.com

Mank, Netflix

Available to stream on Netflix, and already generating Oscar buzz, this new film from director David Fincher follows the real-life story of Herman J. Mankiewicz as he wrote Citizen Kane, and the problems that arose with its star, Orson Welles, during production and leading up to the film's release. With an all-star cast including Gary Oldman (as Mankiewicz), Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Charles Dance and Tom Burke, the entire film – just like Citizen Kane – has been shot in black and white to evoke the time in which it is set. Having enjoyed a limited theatrical release last month, critics are already tipping the film for a slate of Academy Awards, particularly for cinematography and performances by Oldman and Seyfried.

Available to watch now

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Selena, Netflix

Before she became the Queen of Tejano Music, Selena Quintanilla was a young girl from Texas with big dreams and an even bigger voice. Selena: The Series explores her journey from singing small gigs to becoming the most successful female Latin artist of all time – and the years of hard work and sacrifice the Quintanilla family navigated together.

Available to watch now

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Rose Island, Netflix

Giorgio, a gifted yet misunderstood engineer has hit rock bottom: he’s been fired from his job, his parents won’t speak to him, and the love of his life has ditched him after he accidentally gets them both arrested. Sick of the stuffy rules of Italian society of the late 1960s, Giorgio hatches an impossible plan – he will build his own island in the middle of the sea. Joined by a team of revolutionaries and outcasts, the Republic of Rose Island is founded, independence is declared, and Giorgio is appointed president. However, team values and resilience are tested, as the Italian prime minister decides Giorgio’s idealistic island is Italy’s number one enemy…

Available to watch now

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Tiny Pretty Things, Netflix

Based on the book by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, Tiny Pretty Things is set in the world of an elite ballet academy and charts the rise and fall of young adults who live far from their homes, each standing on the verge of greatness or ruin. As Chicago’s only elite dance school, the Archer School of Ballet serves as the company school for the city’s renowned professional company: City Works Ballet. The Archer School is an oasis for an array of dancers: rich and poor, from north and south, and a range of backgrounds. Yet they all share a rare talent and passion for dance, a loyal sense of community… and when it comes to their dreams, no ‘plan B’. 

Available to watch from 14th December

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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Netflix

Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious cornet player Levee (Chadwick Boseman) – who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry – spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.

Available to watch from 18th December

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The Midnight Sky, Netflix

This post-apocalyptic tale follows Augustine (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe. Clooney directs the adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s acclaimed novel Good Morning, Midnight, co-starring David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir and Tiffany Boone.

Available to watch from 23rd December

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Bridgerton, Netflix

Bridgerton follows Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the powerful Bridgerton family as she makes her debut onto Regency London’s competitive marriage market. Hoping to follow in her parent’s footsteps and find a match sparked by true love, Daphne’s prospects initially seem to be unrivalled. But as her older brother begins to rule out her potential suitors, the high society scandal sheet written by the mysterious Lady Whistledown casts aspersions on Daphne. Enter the highly desirable and rebellious Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), committed bachelor and the catch of the season for the debutantes’ mothers. Despite proclaiming that they want nothing the other has to offer, their attraction is undeniable and sparks fly as they find themselves engaged in an increasing battle of wits while navigating society’s expectations for their future.

Available to watch on 25th December

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Mulan, Disney +

Acclaimed filmmaker Niki Caro brings the epic tale of China’s legendary warrior to life in this live-action remake of Mulan, in which a fearless young woman risks everything out of love for her family and her country to become one of the greatest warriors China has ever known. When the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honoured warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her inner-strength and embrace her true potential.

Available to watch now

Visit Disney.co.uk