Friday Releases: Red One

Red One

Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Studio: Amazon MGM Studios

After Santa Claus — Code Name: RED ONE — is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Dwayne Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Chris Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.

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All We Imagine As Light

Directed by: Payal Kapadia
Studio: Sideshow | Janus Films

The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated by writer/director Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her revelatory fiction feature debut. Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital–head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha)–plus their coworker, cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is courted by a doctor at her hospital; Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man, which she must keep a secret from her strict Hindu family; Parvaty finds herself dealing with a sudden eviction from her apartment. Kapadia captures the bustle of the metropolis and the open-air tranquility of a seaside village with equal radiance, articulated by her superb actresses and by the camera with a lyrical naturalism that occasionally drifts into dreamlike incandescence. All We Imagine as Light is a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness.

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Elton John: Never Too Late

Directed by: R.J. Cutler & David Furnish
Studio: Disney+

“Elton John: Never Too Late” follows Elton John as he looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, intimate and uplifting full-circle journey. As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time to recount the extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows of his early years and how he overcame adversity, abuse and addiction to become the icon he is today.

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Elton John
Documentary | Biography | Music
PG-13 (for drug material, some strong language, sexual references, thematic material including suicide, and smoking)
USA (English)
102 minutes

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Shawn Mendes: For Friends and Family Only

Directed by: Connor Brashier & Anthony Wilson
Studio: Trafalgar Releasing

Experience a special concert film in theaters near you, celebrating the debut of Shawn Mendes’ highly anticipated new album, Shawn. Filmed at the historic Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY, this exclusive event captures Shawn performing the album in full for the very first time. Throughout the show, Shawn shares personal stories and the inspiration behind each track, offering fans an intimate look at the creative journey that shaped the music. Shawn Mendes: For Friends and Family Only (A Live Concert Film) will be released in select theaters worldwide, giving fans a rare opportunity to experience the album’s debut — in full, just before its release.

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Shawn Mendes
Music
Not Rated
USA (English)
90 minutes

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Get Fast

Directed by: James Clayton
Studio: Well Go USA Entertainment

After a heist goes wrong, a thief and a troubled orphan must rescue his kidnapped partner from a ruthless drug lord and her charming hitman. With guns, cars, and explosions, their escape is a high-stakes race against time.

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Lou Diamond Phillips, Bradley Stryker, Lee Majdoub, Alisha-Marie Ahamed, Fei Ren, James Clayton
Action | Drama | International
R (for violence/bloody images and brief language)
Canada (English)
88 minutes

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An Almost Christmas Story

Directed by: David Lowery
Studio: Disney+

“An Almost Christmas Story” follows Moon, a curious young owl who unexpectedly finds himself stuck in a Christmas tree destined for Rockefeller Plaza. In his attempts to escape the bustling city, Moon befriends a lost young girl named Luna. Together, they embark on a heartwarming adventure, discovering the magic of the holiday season and forming an unlikely bond as they journey back home to their parents.

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Mamoudou Athie, Cary Christopher, Jim Gaffigan, Natasha Lyonne, Alex Ross Perry, John C. Reilly
Animation | Short | Adventure | Family | Fantasy
PG (for mild peril)
USA (English)
21 minutes

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The Fifth Element
(1997 Re-Release)

Directed by: Luc Besson
Studio: Fathom Events

The Earth is about to be destroyed by a huge ball of fire racing toward the planet. Cornelius, an old monk, knows how to stop the burning sphere with the help of Korben Dallas, a taxi driver and former secret agent and a woman named Leeloo.

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Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker
Action | Adventure | International | Sci-Fi
PG-13 (for intense sci-fi violence, some sexuality and brief nudity)
France | UK (English, Swedish, German, Arabic, Egyptian (Ancient))
126 minutes

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Breakup Season

Directed by: H. Nelson Tracey
Studio: Buffalo 8

Ben Russell (Chandler Riggs), an unemployed yet ambitious 24-year-old, brings his girlfriend Cassie (Samantha Isler) from Los Angeles to his rural Oregon hometown to meet his parents and siblings for the first time and spend Christmas with his family: his goofy dad Kirby (James Urbaniak), loving but stern mom Mia (Brook Hogan), aspiring vlogger younger sister Liz (Carly Stewart), and enigmatic deadbeat older brother Gordon (Jacob Wysocki). The arrival is bumpy, and the family’s dynamic unearths some internal conflict Cassie is having with her relationship with Ben. A late night conversation between the couple turns into a breakup, and Cassie determines she should go home for Christmas after all. But due to the winter weather and remote rural location, Cassie learns she is unable to travel. She becomes stuck with her newly minted ex’s family for the rest of the holiday.

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Chandler Riggs, Samantha Isler, James Urbaniak, Brook Hogan, Carly Stewart, Jacob Wysocki
Comedy | Drama | Romance
Not Rated
USA (English)
102 minutes

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Wayward

Directed by: Jacquelyn Frohlich
Studio: Abramorama

An 11-year-old girl en route to Los Angeles with her mother becomes enamored with a charismatic female hitchhiker, forming an unlikely bond that tests maternal ties.

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Jamie Anne Allman, Joseph Barone, Will Brittain, Colleen Camp, Regi Davis, Chloe Guidry
Drama
Not Rated
USA (English)
100 minutes

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Ghost Cat Anzu

Directed by: Peter Chelsom
Studio: GKIDS

Lawrence Armanetti (Danny DeVito) runs a grand hotel in the mountains of Italy. Every winter, he hosts his extended family for Christmas, but this summer he’ll get more than he bargained for. His daughter and son-in-law are divorcing, and have tasked Lawrence with breaking the bad news to their young daughter, Claire (Antonella Rose). Realizing that her family won’t be returning together in December, Claire insists on having one last Christmas with the entire family… in the middle of summer. As the relatives gather, Claire and Lawrence hatch a plan to inspire her parents’ reconciliation: a last-ditch effort to keep the family together.

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The World According To Allee Willis

Directed by: Alexis Spraic
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

Take one look at award-winning songwriter / artist Allee Willis and you see someone unafraid to be themselves. Dressed in a cacophony of prints and colors, her signature asymmetrical haircut and famed parties at her real-life Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Allee didn’t waste any opportunity to tell you what she was about. But privately, Allee struggled with not fitting established gender and sexual norms. She buried herself in her work, until true love manifested her ultimate masterpiece — self-acceptance. Allee began filming her life in 1950s Detroit and never stopped. This film is the realization of her wish that her “final art piece be someone putting together the trail I have left behind.”

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Pamela Adlon, Mark Cuban, Paul Feig, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Reubens, Lily Tomlin
Documentary | Biography | Music
Not Rated
USA (English)
97 minutes

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Bogart: Life Comes In Flashes

Directed by: Kathryn Ferguson
Studio: Freestyle Digital Media

Bogart: Life Comes In Flashes is the first official feature documentary to explore the remarkable life and career of Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart. For the first time ever, narrated in Bogart’s own words and using previously unseen archives, letters, and interviews from those closest to him, the film definitively explores the impact of one of the most influential cinematic and cultural icons of all time. Set against the glitz and glamour of Jazz Age Broadway to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and framed around the five key women in his life — his mother and four wives, including his final marriage to screen icon Lauren Bacall — the film intricately weaves together his most important relationships against a backdrop of world events which defined Bogart’s career trajectory. What emerges is a nuanced and revealing portrait of the man behind the myth — a fresh and captivating perspective on the legacy of one of Hollywood’s most revered stars.

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Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Stephen H. Bogart, Leon Finnan
Documentary | International
Not Rated
UK (English)
99 minutes

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Dream Team

Directed by: Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn
Studio: Yellow Veil Pictures

Like Baywatch Nights directed by Maya Deren, DREAM TEAM is a surrealist feature-length comedy from critically acclaimed cult filmmakers Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn (L for Leisure, Two Plains and a Fancy). The film takes place in 1997, and follows Chase and No — two Interpol agents with a hot, barely platonic relationship, as they follow the thread of a coral smuggler’s mysterious death. The investigation leads the agents down a rabbit hole, revealing a surreal international conspiracy involving utopian basketball leagues, sensual scientists, and a psychic network of coral reefs. Helping the agents are K and Venice, two graduate students who split their free time studying experimental dance and interning at Interpol; agent Midnight Shadow, operating out of Mexican Wine Country; and Hard Karl, a possibly evil, definitely pervy invisible man. As their investigation deepens, the agents discover that the boundaries between animate and inanimate, local and distant, and mind and body, are blurring in weird and menacing ways.

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Isabelle Barbier, Esther Garrel, Avalon Greenberg Call, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Minh T Mia
Crime
Not Rated
USA (English)
91 minutes

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Daruma

Directed by: Alexander Yellen
Studio: Freestyle Digital Media

When day-drinking, unemployed paraplegic Patrick finds out he is the father of a 4-year-old girl he never knew existed, he enlists the help of his double amputee veteran neighbor Robert to drive him and his newfound daughter across the country to live with her maternal grandparents.

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Tobias Forrest, John W. Lawson, Victoria Scott, Barry Bostwick, Abigail Hawk, Austin Basis
Drama
Not Rated
USA (English)
104 minutes

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Life Is Beautiful: A Letter To Gaza

Directed by: Mohamed Jabaly
Studio: Watermelon Pictures

Stuck in the arctic of Norway and refusing to accept the boundaries imposed by international politics and rigid bureaucracy, filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly insists on telling heartfelt stories from his hometown Gaza. Despite having only limited connection to his family abroad and support from his friends, he manages to channel his own creativity, adhering to his motto LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.

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Mohamed Jabaly
Documentary
Not Rated
Norway | Occupied Palestinian Territory (Arabic, Norwegian, English)
90 minutes

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Nathan-ism

Directed by: Elan Golod
Studio: Outsider Pictures

A ruthless political struggle between Sweden and Denmark turns bloody under the tyranny of the mad King Christian II. Caught up in this deadly war, two sisters seek revenge on the men who brutally murdered their family.

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Nathan Hilu
Documentary
Not Rated
USA (English & German)
79 minutes

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Hello, Love, Again

Directed by: Cathy Garcia-Sampana
Studio: Star Cinema

After fighting for their love to conquer time, distance and a global shutdown that keeps them apart, Joy and Ethan meet again in Canada but realize that they have also changed a lot, individually.

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Kathryn Bernardo, Alden Richards, Joross Gamboa, Valerie Concepcion, Jennica Garcia
Drama | International | Romance
R (for bloody violence)
Philippines (Filipino & English)
122 minutes

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Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story

Directed by: Danny Anderson
Studio: Fathom Events

Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story is the story of Servant of God Michelle Duppong, who bore witness to Christ through heroic suffering and a passion for inviting others to be transformed by His love. The film, directed by Danny Anderson, tells the story of Michelle’s beautiful and faith-filled life, especially during her diagnosis, treatment, and death. In June 2022, Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck, North Dakota, announced the opening of the diocesan phase of investigation into Michelle’s life, which could lead to her beatification and canonization. On December 25, 2015, Duppong died of cancer at the age of 31. The Michelle Duppong Guild and FOCUS, where Michelle served for 6 years, are honored to make known to the world the importance of Michelle’s inspiring and heartening story.

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Michelle Duppong
Biography | Documentary
Not Rated
USA (English)
95 minutes

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Albany Road

Directed by: Christine Swanson
Studio: Faith Filmworks

On her way to the most important meeting of her career, a New York executive is forced to share a rental car with her ex-fiancé’s mother, only to discover that the mother is hiding a major secret.

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Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lynn Whitfield, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Lisa Arrindell, Gary Dourdan, Joe Holt, Rachel Nicks
Drama | Romance
Not Rated
USA (English)
135 minutes

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