February Movie Preview

“Curious?”  So asks a billboard tease of one of the most anticipated movies coming to theaters in the month of February.  There’s a handful of curiosities in store as an eclectic mix of films are slated to open in this typically quiet first-quarter month.  Historically, the first few months of the calendar year are intended to burn off studio also-rans and give audiences a chance to catch up on late-breaking award season favorites of the year that has just passed (Selma is in wide release people, get on that), yet the dynamics of the industry are a-changin’.  Last year, the month of February brought The LEGO Movie, which became the 4th highest grossing film of the year, a quick cultural phenomenon and a critical favorite.  This year is provides a potent mixture of oddball sequels, genre mash-ups and whackadoodle art house fare, oh and a film that many are curious about, even a large handful that would never dare to admit it.  Join as we highlight our top picks coming to a theater near you in the coming month.

10) HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2

In the spring of 2010, a naughty retro comedy with an insane high concept premise and a silly title premiered and overperformed with a $50 million bounty at the box office.  Nearly five years later, are audiences ready to go back to the future with the gang of misfits memorably portrayed by Craig Robinson (This Is the End), Rob Corddry (Sex Tape) and Clark Duke (Kick-Ass)?  The headliner of the original Hot Tub Time Machine, John Cusack – in a performance that most generously could be chalked up to a certain “relaxed nonchalance” – isn’t back, instead replaced by Adam Scott of Parks and Recreation fame, but director Steve Pink and screenwriter Josh Heald are.  The story, in typical convoluted fashion, kicks in after Lou (Corddry), “a father of the Internet” gets shot.  This leads friends and fellow time travelers Nick (Robinson) and Jacob (Duke) to fire up the hot tub in order to save his life. Time-shifting hijinks ensue.

Buzzometer: 3/10 – While the first Hot Tub Time Machine had its moments, it seems safe to say five years later that its best quality was it’s campy ’80s-soaked title.  Did the film attract enough of a cult following to warrant a second go?  The answer there might be a troubling one for Paramount and MGM, the film’s distributors.  Fortunately, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is the only place to go for broad belly laughs next month.

Release Date: February 20th

 

9) ’71

Young actor Jack O’Connell seems to be tapping into a super exclusive niche in portraying soldiers subjected to unholy confinement and torture.  The rising British actor was last seen on screens as Louis Zamperini, World War II bombardier and prisoner of war in Angelina Jolie’s awards non-player Unbroken, now headlines ’71 from debut filmmaker Yann Demange (who won the Directing prize at the British Independent Film Awards and is up for a BAFTA Award for Best Debut by a British Filmmaker.)  ’71 centers on the deadly, real-life riots that occurred in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1971 and centers on the story of fictional Gary Hook (O’Connell), a young soldier who is abandoned by his unit.  The film was written by Gregory Burke and co-stars Sam Reid (Belle) and Sean Harris (Prometheus.)

Buzzometer: 3/10 – While prospects for ’71 in the U.S. will likely be strictly on the limited side, the very British picture has been critically praised since it premiered at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival nearly a year ago (where the film played in competition and earned a prize from the Ecumenical Jury).  Since, the film has played well on the fall festival circuit (Telluride, Toronto, New York) and will hit Sundance before its scheduled release – Roadside Attractions is handing North American distribution and is typically sharp at getting eyeballs on even the hardest to sells (see films like Buitful, Winter’s Bone, and All is Lost for recent examples.)  More than anything, this could figure into O’Connell’s growing presence as an actor – in the last 365 days, the 24-year-old actor has appeared in the genre hit 300: Rise of an Empire, the indie critical hit Starred Up, the high grossing prestige title Unbroken, and has become heavily in demand as a result.

Release Date: February 27th (limited)

 

8) WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Flight of the Concords alums Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement directed, wrote and star in this Dada-soaked mockumentary about a lives of vampire flatmates living in Wellington, New Zealand.  The premise is simple: a documentary crew follows the lives of centuries old bloodsuckers Viago (Waititi), Vladislav (Clement), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and Petyr (Ben Fransham) and their sublimely silly adventures in 21st century New Zealand.  Think of it as the Kiwi-tinged companion piece to Seth Rogen’s cast-my-friends-in-a-lark proceedings.

Buzzometer: 3/10 – What We Do in the Shadows premiered to positive reviews at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and seems to have the makings of a cult movie waiting to breakout.  While theatrical returns will likely remain on the slim side, watch out – this one could have a lasting legacy with the frat boy sect.

Release Date: February 13th (limited)

 

7) WILD TALES

Damián Szifrón’s Wild Tales is an uber-stylized omnibus film containing six unconnected tales of revenge – a mysterious man plants a convoluted scheme to get back at an old girlfriend, a waitress serves an evil-doer a deadly dish, two men fight road rage on a deserted highway, a wronged man gets back a corrupt car-towing agency, a privileged kid learns a heavy lesson after a hit and run incident, and a scorned bride learns of her husband’s infidelity.  All there tales, wild indeed, are told through with a rich and colorful prism.  Oscar winning auteur Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her) served as one of the films’ producers and gives the audience a clue as to what to expect.

Buzzometer: 4/10 – Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award, Wild Tales is the definitive “something different” for awards season completists – a fun and cheekily demented trifle in a sea of films of “grandeur” and “importance.”  With that, it’s by and large the most audience friendly of the foreign film nominees.  Couple that with its friendly film festival reactions (Wild Tales premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival) and Wild Tales could be a nifty little hit stateside.

Release Date: February 20th (limited)

 

6) THE LAST 5 YEARS

Adapted from Jason Robert Brown’s admired 2002 Off-Broadway musical, The Last 5 Years tells the story of Jamie (Jeremy Jordan, Joyful Noise), an aspiring novelist and Cathy (Anna Kendrick, Into the Woods), a struggling actress.  Writer/director Richard LaGravense (Oscar nominated screenwriter of The Fisher King) adapted the intimate musical, which showcases the rise and fall of a couple with a twist – told in song, The Last 5 Years tells Jamie’s story in chronological order and Cathy’s in reverse in a musical Memento meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind bit of inventive structuring.  Tony nominee Sherie Rene Scott, who originated the role of Cathy in the Off-Broadway stage production, is featured in a supporting role.

Buzzometer: 4/10 – The musical genre is a fussy one.  Even with recent films like Annie and Into the Woods in the box office hit category, there’s not really a current genre in filmmaking more divisive than the movie musical – odd considering movie musicals hold such an esteemed place in cinematic history.  Mixed reaction to The Last 5 Years when it premiered at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival suggests this won’t be viewed any better, but Radius/TWC clearly saw some potential when they picked the film up and slotted the bittersweet romantic tale as a Valentine’s Day alternative.  At any rate, as an added bonus, both Jordan and Kendrick are real singers, which proves its own worthy alternative.

Release Date: February 13th (limited)

 

5) JUPITER ASCENDING

Andy and Lana Washowski (the wunderkind siblings behind The Matrix trilogy and Cloud Atlas) wrote and directed this futuristic fantasia.  Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis, Black Swan) is a dreamer stuck in a drab existence as a janitor (imagine that for a minute) when a genetically engineered ex-military hunter (Channing Tatum, Magic Mike) taps into her true calling as heir to magical alien dynasty.  She’s “the one” in a nutshell.  The glitch comes in the form of baddie Balem (played by Oscar nominee Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything).  Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings), Douglas Booth (Noah), James D’Arcy (Cloud Atlas), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beyond the Lights) and Terry Gilliam (Brazil) co-star.  Hallucinatory colors and philosophical quandaries seem a given.

Buzzometer: 5/10 – Despite an ardent fan base, the Wachowskis struck out with Cloud Atlas, their ambitious fantasy epic of 2012, so there’s likely a lot more at stake for Jupiter Ascending behind the scenes.  The film was expected to be released last summer, so the move to this February could be seen as a lack of confidence on the part of Warner Bros., although given the effects-heavy footage the trailers have shown, the press line read that the film needed more time to work out the effects shots isn’t totally unbelievable.  Although we don’t really believe it.  Still, the Washowskis don’t lack for ambition, and perhaps the softer of February will be a better time to unveil their latest colorful oddity.

Release Date: February 6th

 

4) FOCUS

Will Smith plays a veteran grifter in Focus, the latest film from writer/directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy Stupid Love), a comedic head-scratcher that also stars Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Rodrigo Santoro (Love Actually).  Smith plays Nicky, who meets and falls for Jess (Robbie) while letting her in on his latest con.  Things become more complicated as a romance ensues and they find themselves on the other end of the same con job.  Curious tidbit for tech junkies: Focus is the largest film production completely put together by Apple’s Final Cut Pro X.

Buzzometer: 6/10 – The trailer looks stylish and there hasn’t been a fun con job movie in a while.  That, and Will Smith is one of the few truly bankable movie stars around, so there’s certainly a lot of potential for Focus (not to be confused with the 2001 period film starring William H. Macy that had the same title).  Yet, there’s a hopefulness that Ficarra and Requa can dig into something new with Smith (the filmmakers provided a remarkable and unexpected platform for Jim Carrey in the 2010 romp I Love You Phillip Morris) and come up with a new blend of refined cool the the old-as-day con job genre.  Also hopeful is Robbie, a breakout with the 2013 controversy-laden The Wolf of Wall Street, who is embarking on a potentially big 2015 – the actress also headlines the Sundance indie Z for Zachariah.

Release Date: February 27th

 

3) KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE

Fox hopes a new franchise can get started with Kingsman: The Secret Service, based on the comic book The Secret Service by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar.  Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Stardust) directs this spy drama where a veteran secret agent (Academy Award winner Colin Firth) recruits young and jaded Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin (newcomer Taron Egerton) into a world of espionage.  The action adventure film seemingly is throwing jaunty jabs at the James Bond legacy.  Vaughn wrote the screenplay alongside frequent collaborator Jane Goldman.  Samuel L. Jackson (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Mark Strong (The Imitation Game), Michael Caine (Interstellar) and Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill co-star.

Buzzometer: 6/10 – While featuring an appropriate blend of British-ness that may be lost a bit this side of the Atlantic, Kingsman: The Secret Service looks like a fun, stylish lark on par with Vaughn’s filmography (Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), but perhaps nothing more so than that.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  But if Fox is planning a franchise here, there’s a chance Vaughn will jump ship – even though the director has been involved with franchises before, he has yet to actually direct a sequel.

Release Date: February 13th

 

2) MAPS TO THE STARS

A deranged and pitch black Hollywood satire, the brainchild of Canadian auteur David Croenberg (Videodrome, A History of Violence) and writer Bruce Wagner (Wild Palms), pits a group of industry insiders and outsiders in a noir of rush for fame, celebrity, and the ghosts of the past.  Julianne Moore (Still Alice) stars as aging actress Havana Segrand, who is hoping to land the same part played by her deceased mother in an upcoming remake while Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) plays a damaged young woman who becomes her personal assistant and fowls up the whole thing.  The film is surrounded by a stellar company of actors in oddball turns including John Cusack (The Paperboy) as a TV psychologist entangled with Havana, Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer) as his wife, newcomer Evan Bird as their drug addicted teenage celebrity, and Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis) as a limo driver and struggling actor.  Let the Hollywood roasting begin.

Buzzometer: 6/10- Moore’s performance worked its magic over the 2014 Cannes Film Festival jury, which awarded her their Best Actress prize (while her performance in the altogether different Still Alice that will likely net Moore her first Academy Award.)  Otherwise, reactions have been all over the map (some pun intended) for Croenberg’s surely strange Hollywood nightmare.  That seems entirely appropriate, however, considering the filmmaker’s idiosyncratic tendencies.  While Maps to the Stars won’t break the box office, the cult is likely already lined up with anticipation for a juicy and nasty tale of inside Hollywood dirty work.

The circuitous release strategy for Maps has been confusing to say the least (the film was given a blink-and-you’ve-missed-it run in Los Angeles last December to qualify for the Golden Globes but not the Oscars; Moore was given a Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical nomination), but there’s an odd and dark symmetry to releasing the film a week after the Academy Awards, a night that Moore will likely win an award for another movie.  It might be enough to lure a few more curious eyeballs to this sure-to-be freak show.

Release Date: February 27th (limited)

 

1) FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

“Mr. Grey will see you now.”  There’s a come-on if ever there was one.  The film adaptation of E.L. James’s absurdly successful best-selling novel is, of course, now a major motion picture.  It’s the classic tale of boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl likes boy, girl discovers boy has a secret, possibly destructive BDSM fetish.  Jamie Dornan (Marie Antoinette) and Dakota Johnson (The Social Network) beat out seemingly every pretty age-appropriate pair in Hollywood for the coveted parts of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in the film adaptation directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy).  Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr. Banks) wrote the screenplay and the ensemble cast is rounded out by Luke Grimes (American Sniper), Victor Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas), Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty) and Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollack).

Buzzometer: 8/10 – The thing about Fifty Shades of Grey is that whether its audience comes in droves to love it or to trash talk it, they will come in droves.  No film in the early ages of 2015 has this kind of built-in awareness or marketing tour as heightened as Fifty Shades, and Universal made a bold choice in opening the film on Valentine’s Day.  That the film will premiere out-of-competition at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival gives the movie a sort-of heft, but seriously, it’s a movie adaptation of work that started off as Twilight fan fiction.  What’s interesting and perhaps hopeful for the sexual drama is that it was directed and written by women, tracing a line that the film may not be as squeamish on the topic of gender politics.  Taylor-Johnson has talented team behind the scenes, including Oscar nominated cineamtographer Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, Godzilla) and production designer David Wasco (Pulp Fiction.)

Release Date: February 13th

 

ALSO OPENING IN FEBRUARY:

• BALLET 422- Backstage documentary that follows choreographer Justin Peck through the creation of his latest work.  (Feb. 6th- limited)
• FUTURO BEACH– Critically admired queer drama from Brazil.  (Feb. 27th- limited)
• McFARLAND, USA- Kevin Costner stars as cross country coach.  (Feb. 20th)
• MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN- A revealing look behind the scenes of the critical flop Only God Forgives.  (Feb. 27th- limited)
• THE SALVATION- Period western starring Hannibal‘s Mads Mikkelson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and camp queen Eva Green.  (Feb. 27th- limited)
• THE SEVENTH SON- Fantasy adventure based on The Spook’s Apprentice.  Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore star.  (Feb. 6th)
• THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER- Spongebob Squarepants is back.  (Feb. 6th)