Boxing Day movies 2018

Something for: The romantics

If you’ve ever been stuck hundreds of miles from the love of your life, wondering if it’s really worth all the heartache and phone-checking, Pawel Pawlikowski has made the movie for you. With a monochrome love story spanning two decades and four countries in post-war Europe, the Polish filmmaker has conjured a dazzling, painful, universal odyssey through the human heart and all its strange compulsions. It could be the most achingly romantic film you’ll see this year.

Something for: The grown-ups

Greek-born director Yorgos Lanthimos warps his period chamber piece – loosely based on the highly competitive court of the unstable Queen Anne – into a Lewis Carroll comic nightmare, piling cattiness upon cattiness. And what’s not to love about that? This one may look perfect for grandma, but watch out: the frocks are pretty but the language and behaviour are anything but.

Something for: The kids

If Wreck-It Ralph launched us head-first into a 16-bit wonderland fit to blow the synapses of bright-eyed kids and weathered gamers alike, this surprisingly vibrant follow-up is a giddy, sugar-coated joy. The story sends arcade-villain-turned-good guy Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly) and his new BFF, arcade racer Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), into the internet to find a new part for her broken arcade game. 

Something for: The mainstream 

If you’ve ever wanted to watch a five-course seafood dinner have an epic battle before your eyes (as infantile and wonderful as that sounds), Aquaman’s final 20 minutes will be your new favourite thing. Howling above the din with his trident and golden armour is mega-tattooed Arthur (Jason Momoa), or, as he’ll come to be known, Aquaman. As helmed by director James Wan, Aquaman seems inspired by some of the more psychedelic panels devoted to DC Comics’s water-breathing warrior. 

Something for: The art crowd

Kusama: Infinity explores artist Yayoi Kusama's journey from a conservative upbringing in Japan to her brush with fame in America during the 1960s (where she rivaled Andy Warhol for press attention) and concludes with the international fame she has finally achieved within the art world. Now in her eighties, Kusama has spent the last 30 years living in a mental institution in Japan.

Something for: The political chin-scratchers

Vice explores the epic story about how Dick Cheney (Christian Bale), a bureaucratic Washington insider, quietly became the most powerful man in the world as Vice-President to George W Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.

Something for: A laugh

The Step Brothers are reunited – this time playing the world's greatest consulting detective and his loyal biographer – as Will Ferrell and John C Reilly star as Holmes and Watson.