Clear your diary, iCal and all other planning devices and prepare for a big month at the cinema. February starts strong with a return from horror legend Sam Raimi, a striking directorial debut from Kristen Stewart, Riz Ahmed playing Hamlet, and a powerful family drama from a bold new British filmmaking voice – and that’s just the first weekend. Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights will be all over your social feeds, Charli xcx is starring in The Moment and 100 Nights a Hero, and Elvis will be in the building courtesy of Baz Luhrmann’s new IMAX concert doc. Here’s what’s good this month.
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Load the discourse cannons because Emerald Fennell is back with a literally adaptation that’s sure to thrill and irk in equal measures. But Emily Brontë’s sole novel is a literally classic about a toxic romance that seems made to measure for the Saltburn director. Margot Robbie is Cathy and Jacob Elordi is Heathcliff, while the Yorkshire Moors offer a suitably dramatic backdrop to all the sweeping passions.
In cinemas Feb 13
An Aztec death whistle – the psycho’s Whistle Pop – is unleashed among a group of unsuspected teens in Corin Hardy’s new horror movie. One toot and it’s curtains. Final Destination meets The Exorcist meets Talk To Me as the bodies pile high and Deadpool & Wolverine’s Dafne Keen tries to get to the bottom of the ancient curse.
In cinemas Feb 13
We’re here for a ’70s-coded crime thrillers and one as starry as Crime 101 is an attention-grabber. Director Bart Layton will be channelling Sidney Lumet in a film that sees Chris Hemsworth playing a jewel thief pulling off daring heists on California’s Highway 101. Mark Ruffalo is the cop on his trail and Halle Berry is an insurance exec caught up in the crimes. Layton’s The Imposter and American Animals were both refreshingly original crime tales. Expect another one.
In cinemas Feb 13
Blockbuster maven Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) scales down on the VFX and up on the weird with a sci-fi caper that sounds like 12 Monkeys after a huff of helium. Sam Rockwell – who else – plays a man from the future who time-travels to an LA diner to warn of a rogue A.I. poised to herald the apocalypse. But will they punters stop munching on their pancakes long enough to heed the warning or will Sam need to freaky? Clue: it’s b).
In cinemas Feb 20
Charli xcx is going to be everywhere on our screens this year but the pop star-turned-actress’s biggest showcase is this mockumentary following her on tour and dealing with the cruel and unusual vagaries of fame and the music industry. Brand is everything, so don’t expect a piss-takey Spinal Tap treatment of the serious business of being Charli but reviews out of Sundance hint at a jagged, sharply psychological look at life in the limelight.
In cinemas Feb 20
Brazilian star Wagner Moura is getting a long-overdue moment outside of his homeland thanks to Kleber Mendonça Filho’s sophisticated, compelling political thriller. The Narcos actor is Oscar nominated for his turn as an ex-professor caught up in the brutal machinations of Brazil’s military junta in 1977. With this and Bacarau, Mendonça is proving one of cinema’s most insight observers of repression in action. This is his best yet.
In cinemas Feb 20
Rose Byrne plays a mum on the edge in Mary Bronstein’s spikily truthful motherhood drama, showing her range to Oscar nominatable effect. A gifted comic actress, of course, the Aussie actress bares her teeth in a life strewn with impossible compromises and a professional relationship with her fellow therapist (Conan O’Brien) that goes from helpful to hostile.
In cinemas Feb 20
Baz Luhrmann follows up his Elvis biopic with an IMAX-scale concert movie that’ll get modern audiences as close as possible to the feeling of seeing The King live. The Aussie auteur is promising something ‘that befits the magnitude of Elvis as a performer but also offers deeper revelations of his humanity and inner life’ from the assemblage of unseen footage from the Vegas era recovered from – obvs – a Kansas salt mine.
In cinemas Feb 20
An adrenalised road trip movie accompanied by the thump of Kangding Ray’s pulsing techno score, Oliver Laxe’s Oscar-nominated opus is like Mad Max: Fury Road with a philosophy degree. Set in North Africa during an unspecified apocalypse, it follows Pan’s Labyrinth’s Sergi López and his young son as they join a group of nomadic ravers in the hope of locating his missing daughter.
In cinemas Feb 27
A new Ghostface is here to terrorise Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott with more culturally knowing frights in the latest in a franchise that’s felt increasingly moribund. After all, how much mileage can you get from riffing on classic horror tropes after 30 years? The point of difference is the involvement of Scream creator Kevin Williamson as writer-director for the first time, which should freshen up the formula.
In cinemas Feb 27
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