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The Lifeguard
Who: Kristen Bell, David Lambert, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Amy Madigan
What: A coming of age comedy later in life. Bell plays a 30-year-old whose life hasn't turned out how she imagined, so she reacts by going back home, moving in with her parents, and taking her former high school job as a lifeguard as she figures out who she is.
When: December 24th - DVD, Netflix streaming, and online on-demand
Why: This is one of those movies that looks perfectly fine but just didn't get significant theatrical distribution, and you might otherwise never know it existed. It looks like a good combination of comedy and drama from Bell. Gummer will look familiar because she's the spitting image of her mom, Meryl Streep.

Love, Marilyn
Who: Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Burstyn, Glenn Close, Hope Davis, Viola Davis, Jennifer Ehle, Ben Foster, Paul Giamatti, Lindsay Lohan, Janet McTeer, Gretchen Mol, Jeremy Piven, Oliver Platt, Zoe Saldana, David Strathairn, Amber Tamblyn, Lili Taylor, Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood
What: A documentary about Marilyn Monroe featuring celebrities reading memoirs in a dramatic style.
When: December 31st - DVD and online on-demand
Why: Apparently this documentary is based on newly-found manuscripts, so this should be of interest to fans of Monroe or those who don't know much about her.

Sweetwater
Who: Ed Harris, January Jones, Jason Isaacs, Stephen Root
What: A western set in 1880s New Mexico. Isaacs plays a fanatical preacher, Jones plays a former prostitute seizing control of her life, and Harris plays an eccentric gunman, all who clash with a bloody outcome.
When: December 31st - DVD and online on-demand
Why: Harris previously played a more refined lawman in the western Appaloosa. In this movie he plays a far more unhinged gunslinger. I like Jason Isaaces, but I'm not big on movies about frontier preachers and would have skipped this movie, but the nutty behavior shown by Harris in the trailer makes me really curious to see his full performance.

When Calls the Heart
Who: Maggie Grace, Peter Coyote, Stephen Amell, Poppy Drayton, Lori Loughlin
What: A period drama based on the 1983 novel by Janette Oke. Maggie Grace stars as a schoolteacher in the Alberta frontier. At the same time, her descendant (Drayton) is inspired to follow her own journey. Both are independent women who find love.
When: December 31st - DVD
Why: I'm not familiar with the literary work of Oke, but I'm sure there are fans who would be interested in this movie. It looks family-friendly and probably a good choice for faith-based audiences.

The Wolverine
Who: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee
What: Taking place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, Logan travels to Japan where he is offered mortality from the man whose life he saved during WWII. The man's granddaughter, Mariko (Okamoto), presents a romantic distraction from Logan's mourning of Jean Grey. Logan also faces off against Viper (Khodchenkova) and the Silver Samurai.
When: December 31st - DVD and online on-demand
Why: I'm a big fan of Jackman as Wolverine, but when I saw this in the theater I found it mind-numbingly boring. What works as dramatic anguish in the previous X-Men movies just seems like moping in this movie. And something about it felt distanced enough from the X-Men that I kept forgetting that I was watching an X-Men movie. The history is pretty cool though, and this is required viewing for fans of the series.

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