So, here's the new system I'll be trying out. Instead of ordering by release date, I'll list them by how interested I am. Given how limited release schedules mess up the order anyway, that just makes more sense to me. I'm going to use three simple groupings: Seeking Out, Undecided, and Avoiding. I think they're self-explanatory and will give a better idea of how weak or strong a given month will be. Included in the "Seeking Out" section will be a "Still Waiting" list of movies from previous months that I'm excited for but haven't shown up in my home town yet. I'll stick with the Working For It and Against It for now, but I would like something better that doesn't waste so much time coming up with something to say about the movies I have no opinion of.
January is and isn't a weak month. The best movies I'm likely to find are the ones in limited release in December that finally go wide enough to reach me in January. Otherwise, it's a couple winter horror releases, some films that at one point thought they were fringe awards contenders (that have since been moved out of the consideration window when they realized they weren't), and a couple probably forgettable family films. I say probably, because last year, Paddington 2 was a January release. Maybe something will surprise me this year. It isn't looking great though.
Seeking Out
None. December scared all the good stuff away..
Still Waiting:
If Beale Street Could Talk (December Preview)
On the Basis of Sex (December Preview)
Ben is Back (December Preview)
Destroyer (December Preview)
Cold War (December Preview)
Undecided
A group of strangers get trapped in a series of targeted life-or-death escape rooms.
Working For It: I like Deborah Ann Woll enough from Daredevil that she might be enough to get me to see this. I do also like Tyler Labine in the horror-comedy Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil. Maybe he'll bring some of that charm to this. The director is responsible for the low budget The Taking of Deborah Logan, which was really solid.
Working Against It: More often than not, a good indie-horror director making the jump to big studio horror neuters what they do best. Seeing Escape Room get a PG-13 rating with this flimsy premise worries me a lot.
A Dog's Way Home (Jan 11)
A dog gets lost and finds its way home.
Working For It: A Dog's Purpose was effective for what it was. I'm sure this will have enough cute dog antics and familiar actors to hold my interest.
Working Against It: I mean, the trailer literally covers the whole movie. Like, I wasn't expecting a twist ending or anything, but the whole movie is covered in a 2 minute trailer. I don't feel like I need to see the movie now. It's not like it looks all that special anyway. Apparently the dog befriends a mountain lion. That's just silly.
The Upside (Jan 11)
An unemployed screw-up gets a job as the assistant to a rich quadriplegic.
Working For It: This is a remake of the French mega-hit The Intouchables from earlier in the decade. There was something special about that movie. If they can translate that to this English remake, then maybe this could be good too. For what it's worth, the cast is overqualified for this. Oscar nominee Bryan Cranston, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman,
Working Against It: If a feel-good movie tries too hard to be a feel-good movie, that kind of ruins it. "Feel-good" should be an effect, not an goal. It's kind of like how you can't make a viral video on purpose. Just try to make something good and let audiences decide how they feel about it. And it feels wrong to have Bryan Cranston in a movie where he can't even move his neck.
Glass (Jan 18)
Unbreakable meets Split in the third installment of this very unlikely trilogy.
Working For It: I like Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable. This movie gets Sarah Paulson, who always makes things better. If nothing else, James McAvoy sure is committed to his part and got in shape for it.
Working Against It: I'm sorry, but I really found McAvoy too silly in Split. That's likely to get in the way of my appreciation for this movie too.
Serenity (Jan 25)
A fishing boat captain gets caught up in a web of lies and deceit.
Working For It: Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway both have Oscars. Djimon Hounsou and Diane Lane have Oscar nominations. There are a bunch of other good people in this too. The director also made Locke, which is a movie that effectively built tension for 90 minutes despite taking place entirely in a car the whole time. Imagine what he could do with a whole town.
Working Against It: The fact that its release was delayed from the Fall until January suggests that this movie had aspirations of being Gone Girl but is more like Live by Night. I like adult thrillers, but the genre has virtually disappeared for a reason. It's hard to get them right.
Adult Life Skills [Limited] (Jan 18)
A woman who is about to turn 30 struggles to put her life together, having never gotten over the death of her twin brother.
Working For It: They are really leaning into "Jodie Whitaker is Dr. Who. Watch this because it has her in it". This looks like a dry British version of a Sundance indie movie. It'll get called a comedy but it's more depressing. Whitaker will be really charming, I'm sure.
Working Against It: I feel like way too much of this is riding on Jodie Whitaker making up for all its other flaws. I don't know that I like her enough for that.
Great Great Great [Limited] (Jan 4)
A woman in a dull long-term relationship reconsiders what she really wants.
Working For It: It's a micro-budget indie movie that I'm sure is very watchable.
Working Against It: I'm not sure from the trailer that any of the performances or dialogue will make up for the production value. And the cast is full of people who I don't recognize but look like other actors I do know.
Avoiding
Jonathan Rhys Meyers adopts a bad accent and plays a writer trying to get some scandalous love letters that a dead poet wrote to Vanessa Redgrave. It looks melodramatic in all the wrong ways.
Perfect Strangers [Limited] (Jan 11)
The trailer is in Italian, but what I've gathered is that friends at a dinner party all leave their phone visible to the whole table and drama ensues as everyone sees the texts they receive. It sounds interesting but likely more as a premise than in execution.
Sgt. Will Gardner [Limited] (Jan 11)
An Iraqi war vet takes the long hard road to reintegrating with the world. I'm looking for the nice way to say this looks cheap with an uninteresting cast. If there's a nicer way to say that, please let me know.
The Kid Who Would Be King (Jan 25)
A kid becomes the modern day King Arthur. There's still a sword and a Merlin. It's just set in the modern day. Patrick Stewart plays Merlin, so that can't be all bad. I have no idea why Attack the Block director Joe Cornish took 8 years to direct another movie after the cult success of that. Frankly, his name being attached to this is the only thing that excites me about it. Otherwise, it looks pretty dreadful.
Replicas (Jan 11)
A scientist tries to bring back his dead family members through cloning and...things don't go well. Keanu Reeves has learned to play within his range. I'll assume that he reels it in here. I've really never disliked Alice Eve in anything, but I'll admit that is probably because I've never sought out all her movies. Since I doubt that I'll ever talk about this movie again, I'd like to know if the movie addresses the fact that Alice Eve isn't really an age appropriate wife for him at this point. I sure hope the movie says he's been working on these clones for a decade or so. 55 and 37 is a noticeable split.
I'm still trying to figure out Entertainment Studios' brand. The closest thing I've come up with is that they make B-movies but didn't tell anyone making them that. All I know is that I've started to recognize their movies; kind of like recognizing early A24 movies (except that A24 movies were and are generally great).
Mojin: The Worm Valley [Limited] (Jan 4)
A big Chinese fantasy adventure movie. I know nothing more about the movie, and it looks about the same as a lot of other movies that Well Go USA distributes. I'm going to need someone else to champion this first.
The Untold Story [Limited] (Jan 11)
The story of legendary Cricket player M.S.Dhoni. I'm slowly introducing myself to Indian cinema. I'm not sure that I'm at the point where I'm ready to take a chance on one in theaters.
The Invisibles [Limited] (Jan 25)
A live-action feature/documentary hybrid about Jewish people who hid in plain sight in Berlin throughout WWII.
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