Ah, Dec. 26. Kicking off the lost week between Christmas and New Year’s. That liminal time — off work and out of school. There’s a film genre that captures those wintry interiors, emotional hangovers and soft gloom. Here’s a dozen of the best movies to do cozy-dread over the past few decades.
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The Holdovers (2023)
Image Credit: Seacia Pavao/Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Quintessential Twixtmas viewing. Snow, sadness, stillness and thawing feelings in New England. Paul Giamatti as a pitiable, lovable, Scrooge-like prep schoolteacher. Artie Shaw’s “When Winter Comes” is part of the soundtrack. -
Carol (2015)
Image Credit: Wilson Webb/Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
Todd Haynes’ pained midcentury romance between characters played by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara is all frosted windows, twinkle lights and repressed feelings. Strong late December melancholic mood. -
In Bruges (2008)
Image Credit: Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
The existentially alienated criminals in Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy while away blurred days along the sparsely populated stone streets of a paradoxically picturesque Belgian tourist town. -
Metropolitan (1990)
Image Credit: New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Whit Stillman’s wry classic of young Manhattanite ennui explicitly takes place between Christmas and New Year’s. His self-styled Urban Haute Bourgeoise are now a cornerstone of this downbeat cinematic universe. -
Phantom Thread (2017)
Image Credit: Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Isolation, obsession, poison. Paul Thomas Anderson’s perverse slow-burn of a love story, set in midcentury London, deals in a warmth beneath coldness. The lush Jonny Greenwood score and elegant production design are of a piece. -
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Set in a storybook New York, this Wes Anderson fable exudes a distinct lonesome quiet — even as Nico croons “These Days” when Gwyneth Paltrow’s Margot strides in slo-mo in her now-iconic fawn-colored fur coat. -
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Image Credit: Alison Rosa/CBS Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
This Coen Brothers gem about failure in the early folk scene has it all when it comes to adrift seasonal cheerlessness: self-recrimination and stagnation, regret and despair. Peak bleak while trudging through the snow. -
20th Century Women (2016)
Image Credit: A24/Courtesy Everett Collection
Mike Mills’ Santa Barbara-set semi-autobiographical dramedy is heavy on transitional energy. “California Dreamin’” — with its lines about the leaves being brown, the sky being gray and going for a walk on a winter’s day — isn’t on the soundtrack. But it should be. -
The Ice Storm (1997)
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection
OK, yes, this Ang Lee adaptation of the acclaimed Rick Moody novel about a suburban Connecticut family takes place over a Thanksgiving weekend. But the emotional malaise and titular cold-weather is on point. Allow it. -
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Image Credit: Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Remember Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s non-linear romance about love and memory? It nails a dreamlike bittersweetness amid muted colors and empty spaces that’s ideal for end-of-year rumination. -
Little Women (2019)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Greta Gerwig’s remake of the Louisa May Alcott coming-of-age lodestar revolves around chilly walks, private contemplation, diffuse yearning and indoor intimacies. The mood fits the bill. -
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Image Credit: Claire Folger/Roadside Attractions/Courtesy Everett Collection
Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck connect and grieve in an icy, gray New England town. Kenneth Lonergan’s meditative direction captures deep emotional limbo. Perfect viewing for some of the longest nights of the year.
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