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At some point, the studios figured out that it was a good idea to program snow movies in summer and beach movies in winter, just for the sake of climactic contrast. Not this year, though.
When the chilly Liam Neeson goes on a mission of revenge, two graves are never enough to dig. Cold Pursuit (Feb. 8), a remake of a Scanda-thriller titled In Order of Disappearance, has Mr. Celtic Payback tracking down thugs through the snow.
In Arctic (Feb. 1) a stranded Mads Mikkelsen has to decide whether to wait for rescue or to venture forth on foot into the white hell.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette, opening Mar. 22, has Cate Blanchett as a vinegary harridan who vanishes before a family trip to the South Pole; nobody wants her back, and yet everyone has to look for her. It sounds like Wes Anderson material, but it’s actually Richard Linklater.
One of the most anticipated films this winter is Jordan Peele’s shot-in-Santa Cruz follow up to Get Out. Lupita Nyong’o tries to survive a supernaturally evil enemy that disguises itself as her loved ones in Us (Mar. 22). If Us is any good, it will be (drumroll) the first good movie made in Santa Cruz in 31 years, since Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988).
The source of Greyhound (Mar. 22) is C.S. Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd. Tom Hanks, who co-scripted, white-knuckles it as the captain of a sub-destroyer in WWII. What Men Want (Feb. 8) features Tajira P. Henson as a low-level exec gifted with the telepathic ability to hear men’s thoughts. As if every woman with a computer didn’t know exhaustively what men thought.
Perhaps a little more feminist is Captain Marvel (Mar. 8). The captain is the heroic hybrid Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), a human fighter pilot whose DNA is rearranged by a superior alien race back on the 1990s. As previously teased at the end of Infinity War, the Captain is ready for some sort of dea (goddess) ex machina action in Avengers: Endgame (coming in April). About time someone ended Thanos’s reign of austerity.
More intergalactic superhero stuff in the tautologically titled Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, with most of the DCU aboard in Danish plastic brick form (including Margot Robbie voicing the Joker’s petite amie Harley Quinn). Helping to fight an alien peril is Chris Pratt as heroic, khaki-clad Rex Dangervest.
Sequels: somebody must have asked for them. So: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Feb. 22); A Madea Family Funeral (Mar. 1; the rites are not for Tyler Perry’s fat suit, unfortunately). And Happy Death Day 2 You (Feb. 13) is the second coming of the splatter version of Groundhog Day.
This year’s Cinequest is Mar. 5-17, a little later in the winter than usual, which hopefully means better weather for patio schmoozing.
On streaming: First, the happy news that that the scandalous Ilana and Abby are starting up a final season of Broad City (Comedy Central, Jan. 24) before settling down. Netflix’s Velvet Buzzsaw (Feb. 1) is a mystery surrounding theft in the art world, which reunites Jake Gyllenhaal with his director from Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy. On Feb. 15, Netflix commences an adaptation of the Dark Horse comic series Umbrella Academy, about the reunion of a mixed group of alienated superheroes apparently born via immaculate conception, and fostered by a Professor X-like British aristo (Colm Feore).
On Hulu, Pen15 is something along the lines of Strangers With Candy, only set in 2000 at a junior high. Mar. 20 is the drop date for The Act, a Fargo-esque true crime series with Patricia Arquette, recently making a huge impression on Showtime’s Escape from Dannemora.
Feb. 1 on Amazon Prime: Belgium’s last line of defense, Hercule Poirot (John Malkovich) is boggled by The ABC Murders. Feb. 15, also on Bezos-vision: Bobbitt, a documentary series on l’affair Bobbitt. One wouldn’t have thought it took four episodes to properly mull over that diverting news story of 1993, about an abused wife in Virginia pruning her loutish husband’s ween, and then throwing it out the window of her car.
But fun facts abound: They didn’t get divorced until two years after the incident. The trimmed husband, who went through a score of jobs from porno actor to pizza deliverer, at one point administered weddings as a Universal Life Church minister. He doesn’t seem quite right for the job, but it does make sense. John Wayne Bobbit was certainly giving all the grooms a living example of what happens when you don’t love, honor and cherish.
