
Photo courtesy of Disney. Catch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in Berlin cinemas now!
Christmas is soon upon us and with that comes the only thing you’ll be hearing about this end of year when it comes to films: an under-the-radar, small-budget indie that needs as much support as… Just kidding, it’s a bloody Star Wars movie. More than that, it’s Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, the epic conclusion to the current trilogy and to the nine-episode Skywalker storyline. Read our non-spoiler review to find out if it’s a fitting conclusion.
If blasters and lightsabers aren’t your thing and you want to avoid the crowds, get tickets to watch The Peanut Butter Falcon instead, a heart-warming tale of a mismatched duo, featuring a never-better Shia LaBeouf and a breakout performance from Zack Gottsagen. Otherwise, there’s The Farewell, which divided us – a wonderfully bittersweet tragicomedy that deftly acknowledges the East/West divide or a cringey film that operates on a surface level when it comes to cultural clashes? Check out our Pro and Con review to make your minds up whether it’s one worth watching.
Events-wise, the Christmas Film Festival starts tonight (until Dec 22) at Moviemento, with a selection of unconventional Christmas films. There’s also an unseasonably wonderful bit of programming from several kinos over the next few days, all celebrating the fact that the horror season needn’t stop with Halloween. The first is the horror night double feature lined up at Sputnik Kino, with the OV, uncut, and digitally remastered versions of 1968’s Night Of The Living Dead and 1984’s Silent Night, Deadly Night on December 20. Second is a screening of damn-right-it’s-a-Christmas-film Gremlins the next day at Rollberg (22:30). And coming in third is FK66’s late-night specials dedicated to Stanley Kubrick, with the OmU screenings of The Shining on December 25 and A Clockwork Orange on December 28 (both starting at 22:15). And because the Christmas holidays can often be Mordor, head to the Tolkien marathon at Babylon to catch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions in OV) on December 21, starting at 18:00.
Finally, we’ve saved the best for last… Desperately trying to muster the emotional fortitude for the family meet-ups inherent to these holidays? Then get away from it all and come get naughty with us on December 23 at Lichtblick for our annual Pornblicks! We’re screening this year’s PornFilmFestival winner, The Sad Girls Of The Mountains (20:00), with copious amounts of glühwein and a Q&A with the filmmakers thrown in for good measure. Nothing beats porn and glühwein. Trust us.
Happy holidays everyone, and stay tuned to Exberliner over the next weeks for more top cinemagoing tips, reviews and exclusive interviews.
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