As is always the case, January sees a crop of awards contenders arrive in
UK/ROI cinemas, including the latest films from Yorgos Lanthimos,
Alexander Payne and Sofia Coppola. We also get new movies from
Abel Ferrara and Kelly Reichardt, along with some promising
indies.
Here are our picks of the most exciting movies coming to UK/ROI screens big
and small in January.
Priscilla (Jan 1st, cinemas)
Hot on the heels of Baz Luhrmann's
Elvis
comes Priscilla, writer/director Sofia Coppola's adaptation of
Priscilla Presley's 1985 autobiography 'Elvis and Me'. The title
role is played by Cailee Spaeny with Jacob Elordi in the
role of Elvis as Coppola explores the iconic couple's controversial
relationship.
Poor Things (Jan 12th, cinemas)
Greek absurdist Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with his
The Favourite
star Emma Stone and screenwriter Tony McNamara for this
adaptation of the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray. Stone plays a young
woman brought back from the dead by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) who
acts as her protector. When she meets an unscrupulous lawyer (Mark Ruffalo), she sets off on a globe-trotting journey of self discovery.
Showing Up (Jan 15th, VOD)
Director Kelly Reichardt teams up with actress
Michelle Williams for a fourth time for Showing Up, which Reichardt co-wrote with her regular collaborator
John Raymond. The film sees Williams play a sculptor who finds
inspiration from the chaos of her life as she prepares to open a new
show.
The End We Start From (Jan 19th, cinemas)
Directed by Mahalia Belo, The End We Start From takes
place in a near future London destroyed by flooding. In this
post-apocalyptic landscape we find a woman (Jodie Comer) and her
newborn child attempting to find their way home in a new and uncertain
world.
The Holdovers (Jan 19th, cinemas)
Director Alexander Payne and actor Paul Giamatti struck black
comic gold with 2004's Sideways. They've reunited for The Holdovers, which sees Giamatti play a curmudgeonly (what else?) lecturer at a 1970s
prep school who is forced to look after a group of students over the
Christmas holidays. This sees him bond with a troubled student (Dominic Sessa) and the school cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).
Birth/Rebirth (Jan 22nd, cinemas)
For her feature debut, writer/director Laura Moss reimagines Mary
Shelley's 'Frankenstein' in a contemporary setting.
Marin Ireland has become something of a horror stalwart with roles
in the likes of
The Boogeyman, The Empty Man and
The Dark and the Wicked. Here she plays the Baron Frankenstein figure: Rose, a pathologist
obsessed with reanimating the dead. All she needs is a test subject, which
comes courtesy of Celie (Judy Reyes), whose young daughter has
recently passed.
This Blessed Plot (Jan 26th, cinemas)
Fact and fiction blur in this blend of drama and documentary from filmmaker
Marc Isaacs. The film follows a young Chinese filmmaker who sets out
to document the locals of a small Essex village and discovers the line
between the living and dead isn't so easily defined.
Padre Pio (Jan 26th, cinemas)
This biopic of the Catholic saint comes from Abel Ferrara and sees
Shia LaBeouf in the title role. The film sees Pio grappling with
Satan and evil landowners as he deals with PTSD from World War One.
All of Us Strangers (Jan 26th, cinemas)
Written and directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend;
Lean on Pete), All of Us Strangers is based on Taichi Yamada's
1987 book 'Strangers', previously filmed as Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1988
J-horror The Discarnates. The film sees Andrew Scott play Adam, a young man who enters a
relationship with a stranger (Paul Mescal) in his London tower
block. This inspires Adam to return to his home town where his parents (Jamie Bell, Claire Foy) died 30 years ago. Imagine his surprise when it seems they're still
living in his childhood home and haven't aged a day in 30 years.
Baghead (Jan 26th, cinemas)
Director Alberto Corredor expands his 2017 short
Baghead to feature length with this British chiller.
Freya Allen plays a young woman who inherits a pub, only to find that
among the kegs in the basement lurks a creature that offers her the chance
to communicate with her late loved ones, but at a price.