Looking for something to do this holiday season? When you’re bored in your respective hometowns, heading down to the movies is almost always the popular option, partly because you can feel social while sitting in silence in the dark. And with Oscar season rushing upon us, winter break is usually filled with a wide array of movies for every type of audience member. Cadenza has you sorted on which movies to see, and who to see them with, from those awkward high school friends who just don’t want to let go to that extended family member that you wish would just go.

Unbroken

Watch with entire extended family

So you have just finished Christmas dinner/lunch/brunch/afternoon snack and you would rather not sit on the couch for the rest of the day watching your uncles yell at whatever team is playing on TV. Being the adventurous young sort that you are, you whip out your smartphone, pull up IMDb or Fandango and yell, “Does anyone want to go to a movie?” into the noisy din that is your den.

This Christmas day, the adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken” hits theaters nationwide. The movie tells the story of the late Louis Zamperini, who went from Olympic medal winner to World War II soldier to plane crash survivor to prisoner of war to motivational speaker acclaimed around the world.

Zamperini’s story has an angle to it to fulfill any and all of your family members’ needs. Action, sports and suspense for those family members taken away from that team on TV. A World War II tale for your grandparents and elderly relatives. And a love story and message of forgiveness for anyone craving an emotional movie. So don’t spend another Christmas evening watching another forgettable game—go see the story of Louis Zamperini and change your family member’s lives for the better.

–Wesley Jenkins

The Interview

Watch with high school friends that you don’t know what to say to

*Ding* “Hey! When are you home? We should get the whole gang together.” Ugh. The dreaded text from that high school friend. Sure, you were close friends throughout those four years. You’ve shared a lot of memories. Football games, bonfires, late nights involving your first sips of whiskey. But those days are behind you. They aren’t the friends that you maintain a group message with, yet they always seem to pop up over winter break. 

“We should get the whole gang back together.” That means everyone in that crew. The kid you had a crush on for an entire semester, the girl you had a huge fight with the summer before everyone left for school and the guy no one likes but always seems to show up anyway. It’s going to be quite the uncomfortable reunion, so you need to find something to do that keeps reminiscing on the “glory days” to a minimum but still maintains the cover that you are really interested in your friend’s new start-up idea or hearing about your crew’s newest relationships.

“Sure! How about a movie?” you text back. Another problem arises. What movie will you see? The answer is clear this holiday break: “The Interview.” 

“The Interview” is the newest James Franco/Seth Rogen flick that will serve as the perfect 112-minute activity for you and your high school friends. It stars Franco as the on-air talent of a popular celebrity tabloid TV show and Rogen as his producer as they are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-Un during their interview with the North Korean dictator. They are completely the unlikely choice for such a task, but they’ll attempt it anyway as long as they don’t become friends with the dictator or get manipulated along the way.

I’m sure they’ll do both, but I am also positive that your entire ex-friend group will find something to laugh at, whether it’s Franco’s clueless charm or the many and frequent sexual innuendos that will most definitely appear. Action and comedy? A perfect balance. And everyone can agree that Kim Jong-Un is a crazy dictator, so you’ll steer clear of any political talks that may come up if someone sees that “Ready For Hillary” sticker on your laptop.

Have fun, and a little advice: book it out of the theater as soon as it ends. 

“Great catching up. Text me!”

–Elena Wandzilak

Exodus: Gods & Kings

Watch with your friends who are obsessed with “Gladiator”

It has been a dream of mine to watch millions of frogs overwhelm an ancient city in glorious cinematic detail for quite some time, but “Exodus: Gods and Kings” is also the perfect movie to watch with my friends who have seen “Gladiator,” “Troy” and “Kingdom of Heaven” 100 times each. These are the friends who own “Lord of the Rings” concept art books and discuss the defense mechanisms of medieval castles.

The trailer alone features swordfights, tough guys yelling at each other, huge waves, the great pyramids and enough CGI to fill the Red Sea. It’s also another in the recent line of epic movies loosely based on history, biblical stories and myths, such as last year’s “Noah” and this year’s “Pompeii” and “Hercules”. After watching Moses (Christian Bale) scream at Ramses II (Joel Edgerton) for 150 minutes, you and your friends can reminisce about all of the factual inaccuracies and discuss how director Ridley Scott’s best movie is still “Gladiator”.

If you need to convince your cinephile friends to join you, don’t fret because “Exodus” also features Oscar winner Ben Kingsley. But if you don’t catch “Exodus” in theaters, don’t worry; you’ll be able to watch it on TNT or FX Movies for the next 10 years.

–Noah Jodice

Annie

Watch with the entire family

There are plenty of people with whom it would be fun to see this feel-good family flick—younger siblings, extended family, friends—but something tells me “Annie” has “mom movie” written all over it. This modern-day adaptation of the Broadway classic stars Quvenzhane Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”) in the titular role, with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz filling out the star-studded cast as billionaire father figure Will Stacks (the new Daddy Warbucks) and odious foster mother Miss Hannigan.

The film updates the 1977 musical (itself based on a 1924 comic strip) by setting it in the present day—for instance, Will Stacks is a cell phone mogul whose heroism toward Annie goes viral—but the basic plotline is still the same, following foster child Annie as Stacks takes her under his wing. And of course, it wouldn’t be “Annie” without all the classic songs, from “It’s the Hard Knock Life” to “Tomorrow.” Most moms already seem to love a good musical, so if you just throw in a family-friendly storyline about fatherly love, you’ve got a guaranteed winner.

–Katharine Jaruzelski

American Sniper

Watch With Your Dad

We’ve all been there—your dad wants to spend some quality one-on-one time with you after you’ve been away all semester. But you just know he’s trying to separate you from the family pack to find out what your transcript really looks like. You can’t avoid him all holiday, so the best option to keep Dad happy is taking him to the movies, where he can’t ask you uncomfortable questions about your love life and stare you down in the dark.

Go ahead and take him to see “American Sniper” and you should have enough brownie points to at least last until New Year’s. Based on the autobiography of U.S. Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in the American military, “American Sniper” stars Bradley Cooper as Kyle and is directed by Clint Eastwood.

To be honest, you’d be hard-pressed to find a movie tailored more to dads. The movie follows Kyle as he is sent on a tour in Iraq and quickly becomes legendary among his brothers-in-arms for his accuracy and skill with a rifle, and as such becomes a prized target for the opposition.

Following his return home from four tours of duty, “American Sniper” also examines the effects of the violence on Kyle as he leaves the military and tries to assimilate to family life. There’s promised to be enough action to keep Dad happy and familial drama to make you forget your own. Just be ready for potential awkward dinnertime arguments about war and the military.

–Kayla Hollenbaugh

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Watch with your cousins and siblings

Coming out on Dec. 17, the last installment in the Hobbit series is bound to be an incredible movie. From the way Peter Jackson has split up the small book into a trilogy, “The Battle of the Five Armies” is aptly named—the entirety of the runtime will most likely be consumed by a fire-breathing dragon, multiple clashes and a grand finale that will blow non-readers’ minds (for those who remember the book, bring the tissues).

This is a perfect movie to see with any older siblings or cousins. A little bit grim, but ultimately epic and action-packed, this will be a movie that anybody can enjoy. Grab your brother or sister and go see the final confrontation between the dwarves, elves and orcs—you’ll leave with quite an adrenaline rush.

–Kendall  Carroll