Coming Attractions.

On Concussion And The Rest Of This Holiday Weekend's New Film Releases.

Concussion.
Director: Peter Landesman.
Writer: Peter Landesman.
Cast: Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Luke Wilson, Albert Brooks.
Playing At: Wide.
It’s the feel-bad movie of the holiday season! Will Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who discovered the terrifying trend of traumatic brain injury in football players. His attempts to take on the NFL, led by the horribly incompetent Roger Goodell (Luke Wilson), are met with threats and dismissals. Sony has been pretty ballsy to show ads for this movie during NFL games, but it's doubtful most audiences are going to want to see this movie, no matter how righteous its anger.

Daddy's Home.
Director: Sean Anders.
Writers: Sean Anders, Brian Burns, John Morris.
Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, Thomas Haden Church.
Playing At: Wide.
You pretty much know what you're in for as square new step-dad Will Ferrell tries to win over his new kids, despite effortlessly cool biological father Mark Wahlberg messing it up for him. These are funny actors, but the movie's trying to split the difference between raunchy adult audiences and family-friendly ones. That means it will end up pleasing neither.

Point Break.
Director: Ericson Core.
Writer: Kurt Wimmer.
Cast: Luke Bracey, Edgar Ramirez, Ray Winstone, Teresa Palmer.
Playing At: Wide.
Other than The Bad News Bears, it’s hard to think of a movie that needed a remake less than Point Break. The original is a tremendously entertaining and well-crafted action movie that's actually really, really silly. But it holds up, and you can’t improve upon the now-Oscar-winning Kathryn Bigelow, especially not if you're only the director of a movie about Mark Wahlberg playing football.

The Big Short.
Director: Adam McKay.
Writers: Adam McKay, Charles Randolph.
Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt.
Playing At: Wide.
Here, Adam McKay takes on the 2008 housing crisis in vicious, hilarious fashion as his all-star cast explains the (sadly legal) policies that allowed big banks to profit off pain and suffering for years — and would have continued to do so unabated had that bubble not burst. It's a movie filled with plenty of laughs and righteous anger at the assholes who still haven't paid for what they've done. The Big Short is a dark horse Oscar contender, having already been named the best movie of 2015 by the American Film Institute.

Joy.
Director: David O. Russell.
Writers: David O. Russell, Annie Mumulo.
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Robert De Niro.
Playing At: Wide.
I'm here for whatever Jennifer Lawrence is going to do. And if anyone can make a compelling movie about the woman who invented the Wonder Mop, it's her and David O. Russell. Reviews aren't nearly as strong as they were for this twosome's previous collaborations of American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, but I'm still willing to see what they come up with. An ambitious mess is still better than a dull, straightforward movie.

The Hateful Eight.
Director: Quentin Tarantino.
Writer: Quentin Tarantino.
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins.
Playing At: AMC NorthPark, Cinemark West Plano, AMC Parks at Arlington.
If you want to see The Hateful Eight the way Quentin Tarantino wants you to see it (in lush 70mm, complete with intermission), you'll only be able to see it at the theaters above. Sure, this Western about eight strangers holed up in a cabin will go wide next Friday — but in a slightly shorter digital print. I'm not such a purist that I think this is the only way to see it, but this is probably the best. Still, our own Javier Fuentes didn't see it the way it was intended and, hey, he still enjoyed it plenty.

Carol.
Director: Todd Haynes.
Writer: Phyllis Nagy.
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson.
Playing At: The Magnolia, Angelika Plano.
One of the best movies of the year, Carol is a heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful movie about a forbidden romance between a married woman (Cate Blanchett) and a blossoming shopgirl (Rooney Mara) in the 1950s. It's an absolutely beautiful movie about people at their best and worst, their warmest and their cruelest. I really, really loved it.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Director: Jim Sharman.
Writers: Jim Sharman, Richard O’Brien.
Cast: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien.
Playing At: Inwood Theatre.
Showing: Saturday, December 26.
The ultimate midnight movie is something everyone must experience at least once. And if you’re a little tired of your family traditions and you've never seen it, this weekend is a good time to start. Aside from its catchy tunes, The Rocky Horror Picture Show isn't really objectively great, but it's still a campy blast filled with memorable characters and a carefully refined bit of audience participation that's second to none.