Challenging holiday fare

Sure, you still get your “Miracle on 34th Street”-type movies this time of year. But the new holiday films aren’t always the fuzzy warm ones we expect. And 2015 is no exception, as “Star Wars” kicks off the season in big, big fashion. We still have some feel-good films, like Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur,” but also R-rated fare, like Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.”

Freelancer Chad Jones says that “the holiday movie season has become a safe space for big-budget movie musicals” such as “Chicago,” but laments that there are “no big holiday musical releases this year.”

Freelancer Michael Ordoña’s “father started a tradition when I was a kid of seeing movies on Christmas” that might not be about the holidays. “I think of attending ‘Godfather Part II’ on one Christmas Day, and being desperate enough to resort to ‘Tango and Cash’ on another.”

Freelancer David Lewis perhaps sums it up best: “I always thought of the holiday season as the curtain raiser for the Academy Awards, a time when the studios would hold back on their prestige films until the final weeks of the year. It was like an Oscar avalanche, and the holiday season was like holding your own Academy Awards preview party. That holds true less today, though there are plenty of high-caliber movies to be seen at the theaters during this time of year. But let’s face it, popcorn movies will be the talk of this season.” Holiday movie coverage begins on Page 16. Next week: Our annual holiday games coverage.

Leba Hertz, arts and entertainment editor