January 2010

Adam Goodall here, taking over the first ‘Coming to a Cinema Near You’ for 2010, because Joe is too lazy to do it. Today we’re looking at the first month of 2010 (FUNNY THAT), January, and the releases it posits are a mixed bunch to say the least. If you’re in an area where the only films being shown are mainstream Hollywood releases, you’re going to be in for a pretty rough month, to say the least; however, if you’re near an arthouse theatre, this will be a pretty good month in contrast. But then, isn’t that how it is every month?

New Year’s Day sees two damp squibs being released across the UK (or at least in London – I’m a New Zealander, I’m just going off what this website Joe gave me says) in the form of Did You Hear About the Morgans? And Post-Grad. While I will shamefully admit that the Morgans trailer elicited more than a chuckle from me when I saw it in front of The Lovely Bones, the combination of Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker in a romantic comedy is a terrifying prospect, and the fact it looks like it throws a potentially awesome witness protection program plot out the window in favour of New in Town 2: Wyoming Harder only clinches the badness of the whole shebang. The other apparent misfire, Post-Grad, sees the lovely Alexis Bledel graduate from college and discover the oh-so-hilarious ramifications of the recession and liberal arts majors. With Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Rodrigo Santoro along for the train wreck, Post-Grad is best avoided, even for Bledel fans such as myself. If anything, the best bet for the week is a re-release of Yasujiro Ozu’s great Tokyo Story.

The next week sees the release of both Micmacs and The Road. You should all know about The Road by now, given its repeated delays, but word has been good from the festivals it has been shown at and John Hillcoat’s previous film, The Proposition, is sensational, so if The Road is even half as good as that film, we’re in for something special. As to Micmacs, a new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film is always something to be excited about, and Jeunet tackling industrial sabotage by returning to the tone of his 1990s collaborations with Marc Caro is something to genuinely be shouting from the rooftops about. Of course, if you’re feeling less discerning, the naff-looking Ninja Assassin is due out this week, as well as the Nancy Meyers rom-com It’s Complicated (the fact that it’s a Nancy Meyers rom-com should be enough to warn you).

The 15th sees the release of Oscar favourite Up in the Air, the tale of corporate downsizing expert Ryan Bingham and his efforts to gain ten million frequent flyer miles. Without giving anything away (as the IMDB summary so very much has), he comes to discover the realities of his existence, and I’m assuming he comes away better for the experience. With Jason Reitman both writing and directing, and George Clooney in the lead, this looks more Thank You For Smoking than Juno, which can only mean good things. This week also sees the release of two films about survival after the apocalypse – The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington, and All About Steve, starring Sandra Bullock making fun of the intellectually impaired.

Friday the 22nd sees a number of high-profile releases, each one looking average and getting justifiably lukewarm buzz as a result – 44 Inch Chest, Armored, The Boys Are Back and Brothers. The highlights are Toy Story 2 in 3D (though the people who say it’s as good as the original, or anything other than the second-worst Pixar feature film, are silly) and A Prophet, which already has Joe’s recommendation right here. Click the word here. It’s a link.

31 days has January, and two days before the end of that month are a slew of late releases. You’ve got Mel Gibson chasing down his missing daughter in Martin Campbell’s adaptation of Edge of Darkness; Atom Egoyan directing a kid who weaves his family history into a class report on terrorism in Adoration; Marxist indoctrination of children (©Fiore Mastracci) in Astro Boy; an unnecessary sequel in Hoodwinked Too!; a joke pitch from The Player (©Darren Williams) in Precious: A Novel by Sapphire; and the fairly good The Lovely Bones from Peter Jackson. The highlight, however, is Yang Ik-Joon’s Breathless, a South Korean film about an abusive debt collector and his relationship with a high school girl. It’s been gaining amazing reviews from the festival circuit, and while it’s only on limited release, you should catch it if you can.