Welcome to the holiday season, watchlisters! December is generally when the most acclaimed and anticipated films (many of which are vying for Oscar nominations) are released into the Northern Hemisphere winter wilderness—but we haven’t forgotten about the little guys.

In this edition of our monthly column Watchlist This!, we’ve gathered up plenty of under-the-radar goodies to keep your watchlist stockings stuffed. A sneak peek into our Santa sack reveals an Indigenous documentary generating plenty of awards season buzz (have you subscribed to our Best in Show newsletter yet?), a touching familial drama hailed by Letterboxd as the “Peruvian Aftersun” and a cat-and-mouse game played by Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult—the latter is enjoying a particularly prolific year—in a true-crime story that, despite its 1980s setting, feels just as timely today.

This month’s picks come from Robert Daniels, Marya E. Gates, Leo Koziol and Rafa Sales Ross. Happy watchlisting!

The Order

Directed by Justin Kurzel, written by Zach Baylin from a book by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt.
Now playing in select US theaters.
Vertical Entertainment

Justin Kurzel is no stranger to tackling real-life stories about mean, violent men. Yet, while the likes of Snowtown and Nitram are rooted in the cultural and sociopolitical specificities of his home country, The Order taps into the bowels of American bigotry, with Kurzel gnawing at it with a welcome foreign gaze. If you’re not already sold, then Bryan’s nifty comparison should do the job: “lowkey major De Niro and Pacino in Heat vibes.”

The parallels with the current day are striking, but don’t be fooled into thinking that The Order is just a cautionary tale. It’s “lean, muscular and allows you to draw parallels to modern day without cramming it all down your throat,” as Jacob aptly writes, and allows Kurzel to pay homage to his formative heroes in William Friedkin and Sidney Lumet while trying his Australian hand at an all-American trope: the aging detective who feels like his entire career—and all the pained sacrifices that came with it—hangs on one final, nasty case.

The detective here is the deliciously named Terry Husk, played sharply and wearily by a worn-out Jude Law. The bad guy is terrorist leader Bob Mathews, brought back to life by an ever-sharp Nicholas Hoult, who masterfully nests his performance between the charming and the loathsome. Maxine, Gal, Connor and many more Letterboxd have been quick to label this as one of Hoult’s best turns yet. RSR

Filmed in luminous black-and-white by cinematographer Michał Dymek, which gives the film its darkly poetic atmosphere, the two most common adjectives applied to describe it by Letterboxd are “harrowing” and “haunting.” Indeed, von Horn’s film, which competed for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is among the bleakest you’ll see this year.

Commenting on the picture’s sumptuous visuals as contrasted to its grim themes, Alex writes, “Despite being beautiful to look at with elite level lighting and cinematography, this film shows the ugliest sides of humanity which will imprint itself into your mind.” Many rated it five stars, but insisted it will be a one-time watch for them: Pj deems it “the best film I’ll never watch again.” Victoria agrees, calling it “one of the hardest things to watch. I’ll think about this film for years to come and yet I’ll never see it again.” Then, there is Eve, who simply writes, “I am broken.” MEG

Vermiglio

Directed and written by Maura Delpero.
In select US theaters December 25.
Janus Films and Sideshow Films

On first blush, the titular quaint mountainside Italian town in Vermiglio is untouched by the outside world. There is a second World War raging, but as one character says, German soldiers haven’t been around lately. There are two Italian servicemen, however, who are hiding out in a disused shed. One is a native son of the town; the other, a dashing yet quiet Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), hails from Sicily. Of the two deserters, it’s the latter who catches the adoring eye of Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), the eldest daughter of the town’s learned but regressive and repressive teacher Cesare (Tommaso Ragno).

Writer-director Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio is Italy’s first entry by a woman for the Academy Awards in nearly two decades (Cristina Comencini’s Don’t Tell preceded her) and is the winner of the Chicago International Film Festival’s top prize, the Gold Hugo. Initially a romantic period piece, Delpero’s film vividly interrogates the expanding yet limited roles offered to women in postwar Italy, and the dogmatic religious expectations within a deeply Catholic region that aims to control women’s sexual desires.

Set over a year’s four seasons, Delpero captures these tensions through static shots that appear to mirror the suffocating stasis experienced by women like Lucia and her family. A translation of negative space within the frame, particularly through the director’s gorgeous photography of snow, agitates the moral and bodily purity expected of these women. Sofia’s enthusiasm in her five-star review is warranted: “I love it, I love it, I love it. Maura Delpero represents all the stages of growth of women through the women of the family protagonist of the film and she does it in such a beautiful and honest way.” RD