Try these 10 for chills and seasonal diversion
Our region remains in the throes of snow deprivation. The atmospheric niceties many of us associate with the calendar’s early months have gone AWOL.
Here’s how bad it is these days: The poster image for the new Liam Neeson thriller “Cold Pursuit,” depicting Ol’ Reliable (this time playing a snowplow driver avenging his son’s murder) dragging a corpse across a highway, fills the Chicago area moviegoer not with foreboding, but with a peculiar feeling of comfort. At last, some seasonal atmosphere!
“Cold Pursuit” arrives in February. The winter 2019 film calendar offers plenty more, notably “Us,” the highly anticipated follow-up to writer-director Jordan Peele’s smash “Get Out.” The Marvel superhero universe continues with “Captain Marvel.” And late March heralds the latest Disney animation-to-live-action recycling job, director Tim Burton’s “Dumbo.”
Herewith are 10 titles upon which to pin your various hopes and dreams. Happy moviewatching. Release dates may vary region to region, and are subject to change. Like the weather.
“The Upside,” Jan. 11: A wealthy quadriplegic (Bryan Cranston) and his parolee caretaker (Kevin Hart) impart lessons in the value of friendship in this Americanized remake of the 2011 French-language smash “The Intouchables.” Premiering at the 2017 Toronto film festival, this one was originally planned for an early 2018 release by the Weinstein Company. The distributor’s collapse underneath multiple sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein put “The Upside” in limbo. STX Entertainment bought it, and now we’ll see if the public does.
“Cold War,” Jan. 18: Paweł Pawlikowski, the Polish-born, London-based filmmaker whose “Ida” won the foreign-language Oscar, again tells a lean, spare story of post-WWII fallout. This time he creates a tumultuous affair between a composer (Tomasz Kot) and a singer (Joanna Kulig) across the years, on both sides of the border between freedom and repression in Poland, East Germany and Paris. It’s already a success in limited release.
“Glass,” Jan. 18: M. Night Shyamalan completes a rangy supernatural trilogy begun with “Unbreakable” back in 2000, and continued with “Split” (2016), the one about the psychopathic multiple-personality cannibal with superheroic/supervillainous powers. “Glass” mashes the casts and narratives of the two earlier films together; Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson and Sarah Paulson lead the way. Into HELL!
“What Men Want,” Feb. 8: Taraji P. Henson develops the wondrous ability to hear men’s inner thoughts, and maximize them for fun, profit and romance. It’s a gender-switched remake of the 2000 Mel Gibson/Helen Hunt romcom “What Women Want,” a relic of the era in which Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt might’ve starred in a movie like that.
“Gloria Bell,” March 8: Astonishingly, this life-affirming Julianne Moore vehicle has something in common with the life-snuffing Liam Neeson vehicle just discussed: It’s an English-language remake of a foreign-language success, in this case ArgentineChilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio’s 2013 “Gloria.” Lelio’s adaptation showcases Moore as a divorced LA woman looking to start a new chapter in her life. John Turturro co-stars; already, the remake has enjoyed an enthusiastic reception on the festival circuit.
“Cold Pursuit,” Feb. 8: Liam Neeson, the “Taken” man of many killing skills, plays a Rocky Mountain snowplower facing off against a ruthless drug cartel. The Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland makes his English-language debut, reworking his own 2014 film “In Order of Disappearance.” That picture starred Stellan Skarsgard; one critic deemed it “like ‘Death Wish’ set in ‘Fargo’ but funnier … and bloodier!” We’ll see if either claim holds true with the remake.
“Captain Marvel,” March 8: She’ll be part of the all-star pileup this May in “Avengers: Endgame,” but first (and finally!) the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets around to giving a female character some elbow room. Brie Larson, Oscar winner for “Room,” is the star. The directors are Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, whose earlier work includes the excellent, low-keyed “Half Nelson” and “Sugar,” the latter winning my vote for “best baseball movie too few people have seen.” With luck, Boden and Fleck can bring their eye for quirky and telling character detail to the realm of the stockholder-driven action extravaganza.
“Us,” March 15: Few knew what to expect with Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” which ended up making hundreds of millions and announcing a formidable new force in genre filmmaking. The tasty, scary trailer for Peele’s sophomore directorial effort promises a different but equally compelling freak-out, in a tale of beach vacationers who run afoul of eerie, scissors-wielding manifestations of … themselves. Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss head the cast.
“Ash is Purest White,” March 15: Jia Zhangke, whose “Still Life” is one of the peak 21st century cinematic achievements, begins his latest story in 2001, in a world of gangsters. From there, “Ash” turns into a three-part examination of modern China’s societal forces. It’ll be hard to find this one in theaters, but Zhangke’s imagination rewards the effort. Or, depending on where you live, worth the wait until “Ash” begins streaming.
“Dumbo,” March 29: Nobody believes in recycling the way Disney believes in recycling. Joining the studio’s profitable animation-to-live-action adaptations “The Jungle Book” and “Beauty and the Beast,” director Tim Burton’s re-engineering of the 1941 Disney feature paves the way for the upcoming Disney 2019 do-overs “Aladdin” (coming in May) and “The Lion King” (in July). It’s the fondest wish and guiding business principle of Hollywood, whatever the genre or century: Nothing succeeds like something that succeeded already.