The Best Movies to See in Miami in December 2024

The holidays are upon us, and Santa is delivering three major films on Christmas day. While the vampire remake Nosferatu, the erotic thriller Babygirl, and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown duke it out for the year-end box office, elsewhere in Miami theaters, you can see artful animations and arthouse classics in 4K at area theaters this month.

Below, check out New Times' picks for movie screenings in December, and check the local listings and showtimes at miaminewtimes.com/miami/movietimes.

Y2K

The premise of former Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney's latest film is simple: What if Y2K, the apocalyptic mass failure of all computers that generated conspiracy theories in the leadup to the year 2000, actually happened? And what if it happened while you were trying to woo your high school crush? The Brigsby Bear director mines millennial nostalgia once again for this disaster comedy, which puts a group of teens face-to-face with a Skynet-style machine takeover. Never has "da bomb dot com" been taken so literally. Opens Friday, December 6.

Interstellar in IMAX 70mm at AutoNation IMAX 3D Theater

Christopher Nolan's next film is a long way off, but cinephiles craving the epic scale of Oppenheimer and Tenet can enjoy one of the director's more underrated films, the space epic Interstellar, which returns to IMAX theaters this month for its tenth anniversary. Only one South Florida area theater is screening the film in IMAX's 70mm format, AutoNation IMAX Theater at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale.

Our Take: Set half a century in the future on a dying Earth, the film follows reluctant astronaut Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) as he and the remnants of NASA blast off to search for a habitable world in the far reaches of space. His daughter Murphy (Jessica Chastain) becomes a scientist looking for a way to ferry humanity to its next home while also dealing with the pain of being left behind. Both Nolan brothers — director Chris and screenwriter Jonathan, who later created the Westworld TV series for HBO — took incredible pains to make the film as scientifically accurate as possible, creating one of the most realistic depictions of a black hole ever put to film and incorporating physics principles such as time dilation into the script. One scene in particular, showing Cooper distraught over his daughter aging faster on Earth than he is in space, perfectly demonstrates how the film's fidelity to scientific fact works in its favor. It's not Nolan's most celebrated film, or even his best, but marvelous effects and a solid emotional core make Interstellar a worthy part of the director's oeuvre and one well worth revisiting in IMAX. Opens Friday, December 6, at AutoNation IMAX 3D Theater at the Museum of Discovery and Science, 401 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale; 954-713-0930; mods.org. Tickets cost $22.

Mountains at Little Haiti Cultural Center

It's not often you get to see a film in the very same venues and streets upon which it was made. The crew behind Mountains, Monica Sorelle's award-winning movie made for and by Little Haiti residents about their struggles with gentrification, is screening the film for free at the Little Haiti Cultural Center on December 7. If you haven't seen the film yet — and you've had many, many opportunities — here's one more. 7 p.m. Saturday, December 7, at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, 212 NW 59th Ter., Miami; 305-960-2969; miami.gov/lhcc. Admission is free with RSVP via eventbrite.com.

Paris, Texas (40th Anniversary 4K Restoration) at Coral Gables Art Cinema

Ever the traveler, German new wave icon Wim Wenders has made masterful films all over the globe, from Berlin (Wings of Desire) to Tokyo (Perfect Days) to even the Australian outback (Until the End of the World). Yet his American epic Paris, Texas may be his finest moment. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, and now, 40 years later, it returns to theaters in a beautiful 4K restoration.

Our Take: One of the greatest films ever made about America by a non-American, Paris, Texas illustrates the American West's isolation with intimate grandeur. Every component of the film is perfect and devastating: Wim Wenders' peerless direction, Robbie Müller's stunning cinematography, and Ry Cooder's atmospheric slide-guitar score. But it's legendary character actor Harry Dean Stanton, in his lone leading role, that elevates the film into masterpiece territory. His heartbreaking, understated performance as the mute wanderer Travis Henderson and his quest to reunite with his estranged family is nothing short of astonishing. Vividly bringing the words of Sam Shepard's screenplay to life, one famous monologue delivered by Stanton near the film's conclusion is among the greatest feats of acting in all of cinema. You owe it to yourself to experience this extraordinary film on the big screen. 1:30 p.m. Sunday, December 8, and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 11, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.

Interstella 5555 Remastered

Daft Punk's epic anime music video version of their beloved album Discovery is back in theaters worldwide for one night only on Thursday, December 12. I cannot recommend it for one reason: Rather than a true restoration, this new version of Interstella 5555 is an AI-assisted upscale that animation enthusiasts have roundly criticized. It fails to honor the legacy of its late director, Leiji Matsumoto, an icon of Japanese animation. I suggest you skip it. Screens Thursday, December 12.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

LOTR anime? LOTR anime. It seems that at least one Hollywood studio has finally caught on to the fact that young adults really seem to like animation. That might be one reason why they've invited Kenji Kamiyama, a veteran of legendary studio Production I.G famed for his work on Akira and the Ghost in the Shell franchise, to direct an original animated story set within Tolkien's Middle Earth, following a legendary king of Rohan and his headstrong daughter as they defend their kingdom from invaders. It should be a slam dunk, right? Well, let's just say the animation looks a bit undercooked compared to other recent anime movies — as with the botched Uzumaki series on Adult Swim. Warner and its CEO, David Zaslav, have come under fire for underfunding certain animation projects and canceling others outright. Still, it's been years since the Lord of the Rings universe hit theaters; let's hope The War of the Rohirrim sets things right. Opens Friday, December 13.

Mufasa: The Lion King

Directed by Miami native Barry Jenkins (yes, really), this follow-up to the 2019 live-action remake of Disney's 1994 animated epic is both a prequel and a sequel, telling a multigenerational story. In one era, we learn the origins of slain lion patriarch Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) and his treacherous brother Scar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), while another part of the film follows Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), daughter of Mufasa's son Simba (Donald Glover) and his mate Nala (Beyoncé). Yes, did we mention Beyoncé is in this as a talking lion? The rest of the cast is absurdly stacked, including Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner as wisecracking Timon and Pumbaa, Mads Mikkelsen as the antagonist Kiros, and Keith David as Mufasa's father, Masego. And to be clear, they're all playing uncannily realistic, CG-animated talking animals instead of nice-looking cartoons, for some reason. Maybe take the kids to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 instead for some less disturbing talking animals and an equally starry cast. Keanu Reeves as Shadow, anyone? Opens Friday, December 20.

Nosferatu

Murnau, Herzog, Coppola — all the most ambitious, crazy directors have attempted adaptations of the Dracula story, and all have put their own stylistic mark on the vampire tale. Now it's Robert Eggers' turn. Can the director of The Lighthouse and The Northman match their freak? We don't even know what the vampire looks like, but everything else about the film, from production design to performances, looks incredible and astonishing. Early reactions to Nosferatu 2024, which stars Bill Skarsgård as the vampire Count Orlok and Nicolas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp as Thomas and Ellen Hutter (Jonathan and Mina Harker in the book), have been glowing. Depp's incredibly physical performance, in particular, has earned heaps of praise. Will Nosferatu 2024 become a rare horror movie Oscar contender? Find out on Christmas. Opens Tuesday, December 25.

Babygirl

Are sex scenes necessary in movies? How big of an age gap is too big in a relationship? Is it ever a good idea to sleep with a co-worker? These pedantic questions have for years fed all manner of idiotic social media discourse, and now, they're about to be blown open again by this lurid prestige drama about a married corporate executive (Nicole Kidman) who lets her much younger employee (Harris Dickinson) dominate her sexually. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's a good old-fashioned erotic thriller, just like they made 'em back in the naughty '90s. And it's got cred — Kidman won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, while director Halina Reijn is following up her last film for A24, Bodies Bodies Bodies. The real question is: Can 2024 handle this much indecency? Opens Tuesday, December 25.

A Complete Unknown

Bob Dylan is already something of a cinematic icon. He's a fixture of documentary filmmaking thanks to D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back and Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home and Rolling Thunder Revue. He's also gotten the biopic treatment already thanks to Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, where he was played by six actors, including Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, and Christian Bale. He even snuck in at the end of Inside Llewyn Davis. But this upcoming biopic by James Mangold has a big X factor: This time, Dylan is played by Dune leading man and Hollywood heavyweight Timothée Chalamet. The actor will play the folk-rock icon amid his controversial, oft-mythologized choice to switch to electric guitars at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Opens Tuesday, December 25.