Return to Seoul

• Director: Davy Chou
• Writers: Davy Chou
• Starring: Park Ji-Min , Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-Young

Grade: A-

Where are you from?

It’s an innocent, innocuous question most of the time, but in Return to Seoul, it contains layers of complicated emotions. The film deals with issues of identity (both personal and national) and self-acceptance, and it’s buoyed by a magnificent performance from Ji-Min Park in her first on-screen role. It’s also a kind of cinematic memoir (don’t roll your eyes yet) for writer and director Davy Chou, who gives the film a nuanced look at dual citizenship from the perspective of someone that’s actually experienced the unique phenomenon firsthand.

Cocaine Bear

• Director: Elizabeth Banks
• Writer: Jimmy Warden
• Starring: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta

Grade: B

Movie titles can be deceptive. Sometimes the title has nothing to do with the content of the film or can only tangentially relate to its themes. That’s not the case with Cocaine Bear, the latest big studio horror comedy that’s designed for a quick cinematic high in the first quarter of the year.

Sharper

• Director: Benjamin Caron
• Writers: Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka
• Starring: Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Briana Middleton, Justice Smith, John Lithgow

Grade: C

The first quarter of any calendar year rarely produces any long-lasting films that survive until the fourth quarter. It makes sense, after all; studios are in the thick of awards season and typically dump some of their less promising projects with little risk of a setback. Though there are always some gems to be found – and this year is no exception already – you’re usually better off catching up with something from the previous year. Theoretically, streaming should be the place where you can find quality content year round, but it seems like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are taking a similar approach to traditional studios. 

Knock at the Cabin

• Director: M. Night Shyamalan
• Writers: M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman
• Starring: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn

Grade: B

Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World was published in 2018, long before “coronavirus” or COVID-19 became a part of the cultural lexicon. Nevertheless, the film adaptation, retitled Knock at the Cabin and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, feels like an almost direct commentary on the global pandemic that’s ensnared the world for the last three years. The film began production in 2022 long after restrictions had loosened on film sets, but its contained nature similarly gives it the feel of a “COVID production” – and that’s not meant to be taken derogatorily.

Living

• Director: Oliver Hermanus
• Writers: Kazuo Ishiguro
• Starring: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharpe, Tom Burke

Grade: B

Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru is one of the celebrated director’s greatest films, a towering, humanistic achievement in a filmography that’s full of them. So why give yourself the tall task of remaking that film in an English context? To the credit of Living, Kurosawa’s film can be easily translated into virtually any time period or culture. And proper British society in the 1950s shares many of the work-first mentality that was reflected in the 1952 version.

When You Finish Saving the World

• Director: Jesse Eisenberg
• Writers: Jesse Eisenberg
• Starring: Finn Wolfhard, Julianne Moore, Alisha Boe, Billy Bryk, Jay O. Sanders

Grade: B-

Jesse Eisenberg’s first step behind the camera debuted almost exactly a year ago at the last Sundance Film Festival to an online audience after the festival went completely virtual due to the pandemic. There are films that manage to transcend the indie festival’s stereotypical quirks – films like Whiplash or Judas and the Black Messiah – and there are those that seem almost designed with the idea of airing there. Ultimately, When You Finish Saving the World feels more like the latter. It’s a decent dual character study that could have been better, more nuanced, than the final product.

M3GAN

• Director: Gerard Johnstone
• Writers: Akela Cooper
• Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Ronny Chieng

Grade: B

Sometimes it’s refreshing to sit down for a movie and know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Watch any of the trailers for M3GAN and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what kind of film it is. A synthetic blend of Child’s Play and Ex Machina (yes, really), M3GAN will provide enough laughs and chills to get you through the doldrums of January releases but doesn’t deviate from that predetermined algorithm.

EO

• Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
• Writers: Jerzy Skolimowski, Ewa Piaskowska
• Starring: Sandra Drzymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kościukiewicz, Isabelle Huppert

Grade: B

Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar remains one of the French New Wave’s signature films, a unique achievement of storytelling and one of his best works. The film was a sort of character study, but from the perspective of a lowly donkey as it experiences its caretakers’ various quirks and dramas. While Balthazar the donkey was that film’s main character, he was simply an observer to witness human action, and as a vessel for Bresson’s statement about humanity. So why would director and co-writer (along with Ewa Piaskowska) Jerzy Skolimowski attempt to remake a classic, beloved film?

Avatar: The Way of Water

• Director: James Cameron
• Writers: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
• Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Jack Champion, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss,

Grade: B

Thirteen years ago, James Cameron did what he always does and redefined the modern blockbuster with Avatar, a global phenomenon that would go on to become the highest grossing movie ever made. While that film’s story was never much to brag about – it was almost beat for beat the plot of Pocahontas in space – the visuals and the experience from Cameron’s pioneering 3D technology is mostly what got butts in the seats. Cameron has made some of the greatest sequels of all-time (Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Aliens), so how will he tackle the first of many planned sequels for his passion project?