THEWASHINGTONPOST.
FRIDAY,NOVEMBER27, 2020EZ
Movies
addition to Duhamel — “feels like
it could have been a movie within
the movie that was ‘Idiocracy,’ a
posited example of just how stu-
pid we would become if we didn’t
begin to shun the path we’d start-
ed down.” R. Available on various
streaming platforms. Contains
strong crude sexual material and
coarse language throughout,some graphic nudity, drug use
and brief violence. 96 minutes.Kurt Russell reprises his role as
Santa Claus — now joined by Gold-
ie Hawn as Mrs. Claus — in the
sequel “The Christmas Chroni-
cles: Part 2.” Variety calls the film a
“harmless piece of hokum,” where
the plots ruptures are all “healedby Christmas, and you get to hang
out with a Santa who’s traditional
but nearly cool.” PG. Available on
Netflix. Contains mild action, vio-
lence, and brief strong language.
115 minutes.Produced by Shonda Rhimes’s
Shondaland, the documentary
“Dance Dreams: Hot ChocolateNutcracker” goes behind the
scenes at the Debbie Allen Dance
Academy to offer a peek at prepa-
rations for Allen’s annual award-
winning holiday version of “The
Nutcracker.” TV-G. Available on
Netflix. 80 minutes.Kristen Stewart plays a woman
who has decided to propose to her
girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis) at
her girlfriend’s traditional Christ-
mas dinner with her family —
only to discover the family
doesn’t know she’s gay in the
rom-com “Happiest Season.” PG-- Available on Hulu. Contains
some strong language. 102 min-
utes.
The thriller “Mosul” tells the
story of the campaign to reclaim
the titular Iraqi city from ISIS.
Variety calls the film “a well-made
but troublingly generic war-is-
hell pulse-pounder that inevita-
bly prompts the question: How
recent is too recent when it comes
to turning a theater of war into
pure theater, pure Hollywood
spectacle?” TV-MA. Available on
Netflix. 102 minutes.“The Mystery of D.B. Cooper”
explores the myth that has arisen
around Cooper, a hijacker who is
believed to have parachuted from
a plane with $200,000 before
disappearing in 1971. According
to IndieWire, somewhere be-
neath the surface of the film is an
“illuminating meditation on the
relationship between the banality
of modern living and the fanta-
sies that people sell to the masses
to help them cope with it.” TV-14.
Available on HBO. 87 minutes.The documentary “Saul &
Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor
Band” tells the story of two Flori-
da retirees who formed a klezmer
band to honor a fellow musician
and Holocaust survivor. Accord-
ing to the Austin Chronicle, the
story of the titular musicians is
“such a remarkable and yet im-
mediately recognizable story that
it’s a true shame that it never feels
like we get to know them.” Unrat-
ed. Available on various stream-
ing platforms. 81 minutes.Set over a series of three con-
secutive Christmas holidays
(which in Brazil take place during
the summer), “Three Summers”
is a dramedy about a housekeeper
trying to overcome social barri-
ers. The Hollywood Reporter
writes that “the film is cleverly
structured, asking the viewer to
fill in the wide gaps between each
narrative ellipsis, as if we’re
watching a TV series where half
the episodes have been cut out.”
Unrated. Available at virtuala-
valon.org. In Portuguese with
subtitles. 94 minutes.New movies available online
Set mostly in 1973, “Uncle
Frank” centers on the relation-
ship between 18-year-old Beth
Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis of “It”), a
naive but intellectually curious
freshman at New York University,
and her favorite uncle, the titular
Frank (Paul Bettany), who is a
professor at the same school. The
death of the emotionally abusive
family patriarch (Stephen Root)
— Frank’s father and Beth’s
grandfather — precipitates a road
trip back to their repressive South
Carolina hometown for the funer-
al, with Walid (Paul Macdissi),
Frank’s partner of 10 years, along
for the ride, despite Frank’s wish-
es. (Frank, who has only just come
out to his niece, is still closeted to
most of his family. To make things
even more interesting, Walid is
Muslim.) Despite some moments
of nicely unforced comedy and
just a pinch of melodrama —
especially in the overly contrived
reading-of-the-will scene — this is
a deeply poignant and beautifully
acted drama of self-acceptance.
The three main roles feel fully
inhabited by the talented Bettany,
Lillis and Macdissi, and the sup-
porting players — who include
Margo Martindale, Judy Greer,
Steve Zahn and Lois Smith — are
all top-notch, as guided by writer-
director Alan Ball. Sober-minded
yet far from morose or preachy,
the story of “Uncle Frank” is
written with compassion for all
its characters, no matter their
flaws. (Well, almost all: The fam-
ily patriarch, shown in a prologue
and in flashback, is an unmitigat-
ed jerk.) As he demonstrated in
“Six Feet Under,” Ball has an ear
for how real families work, even
when they don’t. R. Available on
Amazon Prime Video. Contains
strong language, some sexual ref-
erences and drug use. 95 minutes.
— Michael O’SullivanAlso streaming
The documentary “Born to Be”
follows the work of Dr. Jess Ting,
a surgeon at Mount Sinai Center
for Transgender Medicine and
Surgery, as well as the stories if
several of the medical center’s
patients. Through these stories,
the New York Times writes, “Ting
is an anchor, a presence of com-
passion and good sense. Anyone
confused about transgender peo-
ple will certainly benefit from a
viewing of this picture.” Unrated.
Available at afisilver.afi.com and
sunscinema.com. 92 minutes.The directorial debut of actor
Josh Duhamel, “Buddy Games”
tells the story of six lifelong
friends who, after a falling out,
reunite for an absurd competi-
tion involving physical and men-
tal challenges. According to the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the
film — which stars Dax Shepard,
Olivia Munn and Kevin Dillon, inAMAZON STUDIOS
From left, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi and Paul Bettany star in “Uncle Frank,” which follows a young
woman, her uncle a nd his partner as they travel from New York City to South Carolina for the funeral
of the family’s emotionally abusive patriarch.NETFLIX
April Watson is among the ballerinas featured in “Dance
Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker.”JOSEPH LEDERER/NETFLIX
Kurt Russell reprises his role as Santa
Clause in “The Christmas Chronicles:
Part 2,” which Variety calls a “harmless
piece of hokum.”SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS
Saul Dreier, right, on percussion, and Ruby Sosnowicz, left, on
the accordion, in “Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band.”LACEY TERRELL/HULU
From left, Daniel Levy, Kristen Stewart
and Mackenzie Davis star in “Happiest
Season,” a rom-com about a planned
proposal during a family’s traditional
Christmas dinner.