We pore over the December 2020 Netflix Canada schedule to highlight the most interesting titles, including David Fincher’s first Netflix movie, Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and a Ryan Murphy musical starring Meryl Streep.

What we can’t wait to watch

Mank

David Fincher’s first Netflix project has been positioned as an Oscar contender since the first deal memo was signed, because it’s an ambitious black-and-white tale of Old Hollywood and American politics. The movie stars Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the man who cowrote Orson Welles’s legendary Citizen Kane—which was almost smothered in the crib by the machinations of William Randolph Hearst, who was convinced it would be a vicious takedown of his life and career. (And it was.) Charles Dance plays Hearst, with Amanda Seyfried as his starlet wife Marion Davies; Arliss Howard plays Louis B. Mayer (the second “M” in MGM) and Tom Burke is the young tyro Welles. Most intriguing of all, though, is the news that Fincher’s usual musical collaborators, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, wrote the period-specific horn score. That’s worth a nomination, right? December 4

The Midnight Sky

George Clooney hasn’t made a movie in a while—he last directed 2017’s disappointing Suburbicon, and last starred in 2016’s also-disappointing Money Monster—but the pitch for his latest venture, which finds him working both in front of and behind the camera, sounds like he’s back on form. An adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, it’s a post-apocalyptic story of a scientist who believes he’s the last man on earth, only to learn that a crew of astronauts are returning home after a long space mission, unaware of the global catastrophe. Clooney plays the scientist, who struggles with the awful responsibility of turning them away; Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler, David Oyelowo, and Demián Bichir are among the voyagers facing their own bleak decision. Sounds like an ideal Christmas movie for 2020, doesn’t it? But Clooney doesn’t often do misery, so who knows how this one will pan out. December 23

The Prom

Although this very funny Tony Award-nominated musical about underemployed Broadway stars who get behind an LGBTQ cause in an Indiana high school to boost their own careers didn’t last very long on Broadway, Ryan Murphy has ensured it will live on. Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Andrew Rannells, and Keegan-Michael Key head up a starry cast. And there’s a Canadian connection in that Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone), the musical’s original book writer, shares screenplay credit with Chad Beguelin. December 11

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Award season forecasters are already hinting that Chadwick Boseman could take home a posthumous Oscar for his big, passionate final performance in this August Wilson adaptation. Boseman plays a 1920s horn player whose hunger for success has him butting heads with legendary blues singer Ma Rainey. Viola Davis, who won an Oscar for her role in another Wilson adaptation, Fences, is also demanding awards season attention for a blustery but sharp performance unlike anything we’ve seen from her in the past. December 18

Giving Voice 

If you’re looking forward to the star-studded Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom later this month, check out this doc about that show’s writer, August Wilson, who’s often called  “the theatre’s poet of Black America”. Six ambitious students from across the U.S. compete in a monologue competition in the playwright’s name, with the final round held on Broadway. Among the talking heads are Viola Davis, who plays Ma Rainey and her Fences costar and director Denzel Washington. December 11

Big Mouth (Season 4)

After three seasons that gave us Hormone Monsters, Shame Wizards, Depression Kitties, and countless other impediments to personal growth, what’s left for Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s raucous, ridiculous and surprisingly sensitive animated series about pubescent adolescents? For a start, there’s summer camp—with characters voiced by John Oliver, Seth Rogen, and Maria Bamford (as Tito the Anxiety Mosquito). But that’s not all: the core characters—voiced by Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate, and Andrew Rannells—will flirt, fail, fall in love, visit the 9/11 museum, glimpse a dystopian future, and masturbate a lot. Maya Rudolph has an Emmy for this show. How weird is that. December 4

The Best Of Standup 2020

Since you likely won’t be attending any New Year’s Eve parties, ring in 2021 with some laughs with this compilation of the funniest jokes by comedians from the U.S., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. You may have heard a few—they’re drawn from the comics’ 2020 specials. But you’re bound to make some discoveries, which means you can go back and watch their full specials during the rest of the holidays. What other plans do you have, right? December 31

The Holiday Movies That Made Us

The addictive series about how now-classic movies got made gets a special Christmas episode. The show looks at the background of the charming Will Ferrell flick Elf and the audacious Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas. The season wouldn’t be complete without a rewatch of either one of them. December 1

Tiny Pretty Things

Based on the book by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, this new series about an elite Chicago ballet school rocked by internal rivalries and dark schemes—seems positioned to be Netflix’s next big buzzy binge show: Pliéing Little Liars. Cast members Kylie Jefferson, Daniela Norman and Barton Cowperthwaite—who all have extensive dance training—star alongside Casimere Jollette, Anna Maiche, and Damon J. Gillespie, with a supporting cast that includes Lauren Holly, Shaun Benson, Nicole Huff, and Jess Salgueiro. December 14

Solid bets

Sorry To Bother You

If Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight was the art-house breakthrough and Jordan Peele’s Get Out the mainstream smash, Boots Riley’s unquantifiable social satire—which stars LaKeith Stanfield as an Oakland telemarketer whose gift for code-switching brings him to the attention of a billionaire entrepreneur (Armie Hammer) with some very unorthodox ideas about productivity, employment, and penis size—is the eccentric outlier in the new Black cinema: a frenetic comedy with furious rage bubbling just underneath its surface. Don’t let anybody tell you what happens; you wouldn’t believe them anyway. December 31

Hotel Artemis

What if we told you Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Charlie Day, Zachary Quinto, Jenny Slate, and Jeff Goldblum were all in the same movie? And what if we told you it was a dystopian action thriller set almost entirely inside a secret Los Angeles hospital for rich criminals? And what if we also told you its sense of urgency and isolation makes it perfect lockdown viewing? You’d want to watch that, right? Well, you should, because that’s Hotel Artemis—a gritty, inventive B-movie from screenwriter Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Hobbs & Shaw) that plays like Reservoir Dogs meets John Wick during The Purge. Carve out a couple of hours to watch this. You won’t regret it. December 31

Here's a list of new titles available on Netflix Canada in December 2020 by date:

Coming soon

Arashi’s Diary: Voyage (episodes 18-20)

TV

December 1

The Holiday Movies That Made Us

Natalie Palamides: Nate – A One Man Show

Odd Squad (seasons 1-2)

Super Wings (season 3)

Transformers Rescue Bots Academy (season 2)

December 2

Alien Worlds

Ari Eldjarn: Pardon My Icelandic

Hazel Brugger: Tropical

Workin’ Moms (season 4)

December 4

Bhaag Beanie Bhagg

Big Mouth (season 4)

Captain Underpants Mega Blissmas

Kings of Joburg (season 1)

Selena: The Series

December 5

Detention

Mighty Express: A Mighty Christmas

December 8

Lovestruck In The City

Mr. Iglesias: Part 3

Spirit Riding Free: Ride Along Adventure

Super Monsters: Santa’s Super Monsters Helpers

December 9

Ashley Garcia: Genius In Love: Christmas

The Big Show Show: Christmas

December 10

Alice In Borderland

December 11

A Trash Truck Christmas

The Mess You Leave Behind

December 14

Hilda (season 2)

Tiny Pretty Things

December 15

PAW Patrol (season 7)

Pup Academy (seasons 1-2)

Song Exploder: Volume 2

December 16

Anitta: Made In Honorio

How To Ruin Christmas: The Wedding

The Ripper

Run On

Vir Das: Outside In: The Lockdown Special

December 18

Home For Christmas (season 2)

Sweet Home

December 22

London Hughes: To Catch A Dick

Rhyme Time Town Singalongs

December 25

Bridgerton

December 26

Fast & Furious Spy Racers (season 3): Sahara

Go! Go! Cory Carson (season 3)

The Magic School Bus Rides Again In The Zone

December 30

Best Leftovers Ever!

Equinox

Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy: Chapter 2: Earthrise

Wentworth (season 8)

December 31

Best of Stand-Up 2020

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (Part 4)

Movies

December 1

2012

Angela’s Christmas Wish

Annie

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

A Christmas Catch

Christmas With A Prince

Christmas Wonderland

Don’t Let Go

The Dressmaker

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra

Godzilla

Gridiron Gang

Juliet Naked

The Vow

They Shall Not Grow Old

Walking Tall

December 2

Battleship

Big Fat Liar

Carlito’s Way

Children of Men

Fierce

Half Baked

December 3

Break

Chico Bon Bon And The Very Berry Holiday

Just Another Christmas

December 4

Bombay Rose

Christmas Crossfire

Leyla Everlasting

Mank

December 5

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch

December 6

Everybody Knows

December 7

Ava (2020)

December 8

Emicida: AmarElo – E Tudo Para Ontem

December 9

Rose Island

The Surgeon’s Cut

December 11

Canvas

Giving Voice

The Prom

December 14

A California Christmas

December 16

Break It All: The History Of Rock In Latin America

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

December 18

Guest House (2020)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Decemeber 23

The Midnight Sky

Your Name Engraved Herein

December 24

A Dog’s Way Home

Holmes & Watson

December 25

Grandma’s Last Wishes

Rogue

December 26

Asphalt Burning (Børning 3)

DNA

December 28

A Simple Favor

Cops And Robbers

Isn’t It Romantic

The Spy Who Dumped Me

December 31

Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Hotel Artemis

A Nice Girl Like You

Sorry to Bother You

Last call

TV series and movies leaving Netflix Canada in December 2020.

December 2

2 Fast 2 Furious

Billy Madison 

Fast & Furious

Fast & Furious 6 

Fast Five

Furious 7

The Fast And The Furious

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift

December 30

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air: (seasons 1-6)

December 31

Forensic Files (collections 1-9)

Gossip Girl (seasons 1-6)