Holiday movies: the best Christmas and New Year films

The holidays are almost here, and while there is plenty of festive television and online entertainment to catch up on, sometimes it's great to get out of the house and see something amazing on the big screen.

While Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be top of the bill for many, there are lots of other great movies released over the Christmas New Year break. Here are six of the best:

Joy

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper reunite with American Hustle director David O Russell for this bittersweet real-life comedy melodrama about childhood dreams and adult realities. Lawrence stars as Joy Mangano, a dissatisfied single mother who becomes the "miracle mop" inventor. Emma Simmonds in the Radio Times says: "Rich with enchantment and fuelled by female determination, this story of the travails of an ordinary heroine is as delightful as its title suggests." 1 January.

Grandma

This quirky indie comedy follows the saga of pregnant teenager Sage (Julia Garner), who enlists the help of her prickly grandmother Elle (Lily Tomlin) to raise money for a quick abortion. Elle is broke, but she decides to help Sage, and their journey to raise the funds becomes a hilarious journey through old friends, old flames and buried secrets. "Tomlin is entertainingly and terrifyingly eccentric as a ballbreaker of a grandmother," says Kate Muir in The Times. In cinemas.



Sherpa

Director Jennifer Peedom's documentary looks at deadly 2014 Everest climbing season from the Sherpas' point of view. It captures the tragedy of the avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas and looks at how the surviving Sherpas united in the face of fierce opposition, to reclaim the mountain they call Chomolungma. Patrick Peters in Empire says: "This is a spectacular, intimate and politically provocative exposé of the dangers, racial tensions and harsh economic realities on the world's highest mountain." In cinemas.

Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Move

The old gang from Charles M Schulz Peanuts comic strips – Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus – make their big-screen debut in this gentle, nostalgic film, which also happens to be in 3D. Charlie Brown, the loveable underdog embarks upon a quest to become a winner with the aid of his faithful hound, Snoopy. Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent says: "The film is charming and whimsical but makes some very trenchant points about the grimmer side of an all-American childhood." In cinemas.

The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino is back with his unique blend of high comedy, bloody violence and whip-smart cinema parody. This time he takes on the western in a tale of bounty hunters holed up in a cabin during a blizzard with a murderess and a motley crew of strangers. Stars Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Robbie Collin in the Daily Telegraph says: "The Hateful Eight is a parlour-room epic, an entire nation in a single room, a film steeped in its own filminess but at the same time vital, riveting and real." 8 January.

The Revenant

Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu follows up his Oscar-winner Birdman with this grisly and gruelling tale of survival in the wilds of the frozen American wilderness. Leonardo DiCaprio makes his Oscar bid as legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass, who survives a bear attack only to be left for dead by his hunting party. Glass survives and embarks on a journey of unimaginable hardship with the sole aim of revenge. Mark Hughes in Forbes says: "A timeless epic of the human will to both overcome and surrender, and to be a force for nature's own will." 15 January.