Your Arts Editor’s guide to this holiday season’s must-see movies

Dune

The star-studded film is an adaptation of a novel by Frank Herbert, thought of as the patriarch of science fiction. The film is a box office knockout, and many theatergoers are raving about its visual experience. NPR says, “The world of Frank Herbert’s novel feels big and immersive here in a way it never has on-screen, with its futuristic spacecraft, cavernous fortresses and, of course, terrifying sand worms.” So pack up your car full of friends and see this flick in IMAX before it’s gone.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

The most highly anticipated Spider-Man movie will be released on December 17, and Marvel fans will finally be able to confirm whether or not Andrew Garfield and Tobey Macguire are truly featured. With the return of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, as well as Sandman and The Lizard, fans are on the edge of their seats waiting to see if their corresponding Spider-Men will join them. Regardless, the film returns to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and friends in the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe post-Tony Stark.

West Side Story

The next Speilberg flick is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name. With a screenplay by Broadway alum Tony Kushner and a White Way star-filled cast, the film is sure to fill audiences with the same excitement as the original 1961 adaptation. Sing a do-re-mi and get those vocal chops warmed up for this classic musical.

The French Dispatch

Wes Anderson has reentered the collective consciousness of moviegoers with his latest film “The French Dispatch.” If you’re a fan of Anderson, this film is being regarded as the most “Wes Anderson” film to date. With a fast-moving, slice-of-life demeanor, the film, in the words of New York Times critic A.O. Scott, “is a love letter to that spirit, and also a ghost story.”

Sing 2

Need a movie to take your younger sibling to? “Sing 2” comes out on December 22 and is in line to be the children’s movie of the holiday season. It’s a sequel to the zany 2016 film about an anthropomorphic animal singing competition that brings back most of its A-list cast. 

Spencer

This fable centering on Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) seems like a shoo-in for the Academy Awards. What was expected to be a biopic turned out to be an imagining of what might have happened when the princess decided to end her marriage. MSNBC’s Jude Sannith says, “It peels off Diana’s façade of flawless perfection, and takes us on a journey to the recesses of a struggling mind and tormented soul. ‘Spencer’ is dark, cerebral and ominous.”