This page is updated every second Thursday.
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It’s January and new movies are opening in theatres. Will any be good? We have theories about that. /Gregory Beatty and Stephen Whitworth
Opening
Friday 17
BAD BOYS FOR LIFE Guns guns guns, bang bang bang, cars vroom screech, kaboom! It’s all here as Martin Lawrence and Will Smith return as detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey for this third instalment of Columbia/Sony’s well-known intellectual property.
DOLITTLE Robert Downey Jr. stars in this family movie about a 19th-century veterinarian who can communicate with his wisecracking, computer-animated menagerie expensively voiced by Hollywood stars. Based, likely loosely, on Hugh Lofting’s Dr. Dolittle books. If it does well, expect copious sequels.
Friday 24
THE GENTLEMEN Fun-looking gangster movie from director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Sherlock Holmes, the underrated The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). The great cast of mostly dudes includes Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant. Hopefully it lives up to its delightful trailer.
THE LAST FULL MEASURE This based-on-a-true-story Vietnam war film has a great bunch of actors including Christopher Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, William Hurt, the late Peter Fonda and barely any women. Hmmm. Dudes, dudes, dudes. This is the fourth consecutive blurb I’ve written about male-led movies. I’m getting cranky.
THE TURNING Heyyy! Female director Floris Sigismondi helms this horror film about a nanny (Mackenzie Davis) looking after two creepy orphans played by Brooklyn Prince (child star of The Florida Project, one of the century’s best movies) and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things). Nice to have at least one film that’s going to pass the Bechdel Test, even if it is based on a Henry James ghost story.
Friday 31
GRETEL & HANSEL If my good friend Shane Hnetka was writing this blurb, he’d call Gretel & Hansel a sacrifice. “Every January,” he’d say, “Hollywood puts a shitty horror film in theatres to die a swift death. Only such a sacrifice can appease the evil Box Office Gods and ensure a profitable 12 months of ticket receipts for studios.” Shane would probably be correct about Gretel & Hansel’s crapitude, though it does look pretty stylish and Alice Krige seems cool as the famous child-eating-witch. Shane will be back next issue, BTW.
THE RHYTHM SECTION This candidate for “movie I have to write about that probably won’t even open in Saskatchewan” stars Blake Lively (Green Lantern) as an ordinary, grieving woman on a blood-drenched revenge crusade. Jude Law (Captain Marvel) co-stars.
RPL Film Theatre
Friday 17
8:30 AMANDA After a terrorist attack, a carefree Paris man in his early 20s (Vincent Lacoste) is thrust into the role of guardian for his seven year-old niece who was orphaned in the tragedy.
Saturday 18
6:30 AMANDA
8:30 THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF EURÍDICE GUSMÃO This drama by Karim Aïnouz is based on Martha Batalha’s 2016 novel about two Rio de Janeiro sisters in the 1950s who struggle against patriarchal oppression and bigotry.
Sunday 19
6:30 THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF EURÍDICE GUSMÃO
9:00 AMANDA
Thursday 23
6:30 NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH This 2015 Clément Cogitore film is set in Afghanistan and sees a squad of French soldiers given one last assignment in a remote village near the Pakistan border before they ship out. French/Persian with subtitles.
Friday 24
6:30 MARRIAGE STORY The marriage in this Noah Baumbach film is between an L.A. actor (Scarlett Johansson) and New York-based stage director (Adam Driver) — and absence has not made their hearts grow fonder.
9:00 HONEY BOY The origin of this film was a script Shia LaBeouf wrote as a form of therapy while in rehab. It’s a memoir of sorts, and sees a troubled young actor reflect back on his childhood career and his complicated relationship with his father.
Saturday 25
6:30 HONEY BOY
8:30 MARRIAGE STORY
Sunday 26
6:30 MARRIAGE STORY
9:00 HONEY BOY
Tuesday 28
TALKIES: STREET FIGHTER This 1994 John Claude van Damme flick is based on a video game that was popular at the time. It has an 11 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so it should make a great punching bag for Jayden Pfeifer and his special guest.
Wednesday 29
6:30 WASTE LAND This 2010 documentary sees Brazilian artist Vik Muniz visit the world’s largest landfill outside Rio de Janeiro where people scrounge through garbage for a living. Hosted by City of Regina Water, Waste and Environmental Services.
Friday 31
6:30 DYKES, CAMERA, ACTION! This screening of Caroline Berler’s 2018 documentary is co-presented with Queer City Cinema. It sees lesbian filmmakers such as Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Rose Troche, Cheryl Dunye, film critic B. Ruby Rich and others share stories from their lives and discuss queer identity in film.
8:30 THE WATERMELON WOMAN Screening of a newly re-mastered version of Cheryl Dunye’s 1996 romantic comedy about a black lesbian filmmaker who sets out to make a documentary about a black actress who played bit roles in Hollywood in the 1930s and ’40s.
Kramer IMAX
GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST Ryan Reynolds narrates this wilderness doc set in his home province of B.C.
SUPERPOWER DOGS I don’t know if Underdog makes an appearance, but plenty of great canines do.