MAD MAX FURY ROAD: BLACK & CHROME 

Last year’s best film returns to the big screen the way God—or, more accurately, director George Miller—always intended. See the black and white cut of Mad Max: Fury Road when it stops being a rumour and starts being a real thing at the Rio Theatre on Monday (December 19).

NO MAN'S LAND—NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE  Magneto and Professor X meet again under even more perilous circumstances when Cineplex presents a live broadcast of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, produced by the National Theatre and starring Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, at the Park Theatre on Thursday (December 15).

FASSBINDER: TO LOVE WITHOUT DEMANDS  A rare (and bibulous) interview from 1978 anchors this portrait of the towering German auteur, paired with In a Year of 13 Moons for the opening night of a week-long run at the Cinematheque starting Thursday (December 15).

OLDBOY  Screening Friday (December 16), the Rio Theatre pairs Chan Park-Wook’s kinky The Handmaiden with an even more perverse effort, namely the ultraviolent tale of revenge and shockingly poor seafood etiquette that put the Korean filmmaker on the map back in 2003.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE  Jimmy Stewart explains healthy banking practices and learns the virtue of not killing himself in Frank Capra’s holiday chestnut, screening at the Park Theatre on Monday (December 19), next Thursday (December 22) and Saturday (December 24).

EMERGENCY ROOM: LIFE + DEATH AT VGH  The acclaimed Knowledge Network series says goodbye after two seasons with a special, seasonally-themed preview at the Vancity Theatre on Wednesday (December 21). Director Kevin Eastwood will be on hand to present the last two episodes, titled “Christmas Eve” and “New Year’s Eve”, respectively. (O Christmas triage, anyone?)