✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: January 12-18
The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week.
Memory Jessica Chastain stars as a social worker recovering from alcoholism whose life is thrown into disarray when an amnesiac (Peter Sarsgaard) follows her home from their high school reunion. It may sound like some pat awardsy melodrama, but Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco is a politically savvy filmmaker with a virtuosic style that made his brutal activist class drama New Order one of the best of 2021. Expect a return to form. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and Regal Hollywood 27.
The Beekeeper Sometimes, the best cure for the winter blues is Jason Statham giving a beat down to the annoying emo kid from The Hunger Games. You’ll get all this in more as The Stath plays a former special forces op and amateur melittologist who goes on a rampage when his neighbor (Phylicia Rashad) commits suicide after falling for a phishing scam. From Training Day writer David Ayer and with Jeremy Irons and Minnie Driver. Now playing in theaters.
All of Us Strangers British filmmaker Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) returns with an uneasy family drama about an isolated screenwriter (Andrew Scott) who strikes up a relationship with his only neighbor (Paul Mescal) and becomes inspired to come to terms with his past by visiting his estranged family. Now playing at the Belcourt.
Mean Girls Hollywood may be so creatively bankrupt that it's now remaking the Broadway musical versions of decades-old films, but revisiting Tina Fey and Tim Meadows in a new iteration of the teen new classic with a dash of Jon Hamm is at least mildly intriguing. Now playing in theaters.
Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind Ethan Coen splits from his brother for this probing doc on the rockabilly giant gleaned entirely from archival footage. Playing Monday at the Belcourt with a special introduction from T Bone Burnett at 8 p.m.
The Book of Clarence A peasant (LaKeith Stanfield) under crushing debt becomes inspired by the Messiah to live a life of grace in what one could only describe as a limp Jay-Z-produced mashup of The Passion of the Christ and Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Now playing in theaters.
Soul Disney finally issues its mea culpa for skirting theatrical releases by giving its last three Pixar movies their big screen due this spring. See 2020’s story about a flailing jazz musician (Jamie Foxx) who finds the meaning of life after falling into a coma and tries to reunite his body and spirit. With the voices of Tina Fey, Angela Bassett, and Questlove. Now playing in theaters.
Winter Classics The Belcourt knows we’re in the dregs. To help combat our seasonal blues, it’s culled together the best in snowy cinema. There are horror classics (The Thing and Misery), family favorites (Frozen), and cinephile catnip (McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Doctor Zhivago). This weekend offers the OG animated 101 Dalmatians and unsung spaghetti western The Great Silence.
Sunday Supper Every Sunday until Valentine’s Day, The Belcourt offers up a bounty of films about culinary delights from all-time classics like My Dinner with Andre and Babette’s Feast to cult films and I am Love. This weekend brings Peter Greenaway’s eternally gutting gangster farce, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.
The Latest in Bolly/Tolly/Kolly/Lollywood and Other Special Presentations of Asian and Middle Eastern Imports.
Gunter Kaaram (Telugu) The underworld king of the city falls for the journalist seeking to root out corruption in the latest Tollywood extravaganza. Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.
Ayalaan (Tamil) An alien seeking help to get back to his home planet realizes his problems have just begun once he arrives there. Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.
Saindhav (Telugu) To afford the injections to treat his daughter’s spinal muscular atrophy, a single father with a very special set of skills returns to his roots in organized crime. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and Regal Hollywood 27.
Captain Miller (Tamil) This variation on the Robin Hood tale finds an iconoclastic thief in 1940s British India putting his own spin on colonial liberation. Now playing at AMC Murfreesboro 16 Regal Hollywood 27.
Hanu Man (Hindi/Telugu) An ordinary man gets superhuman powers from a mystical land and fends off a threat to the Anjanadri Hills. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and Regal Hollywood 27.
Merry Christmas (Hindi/Tamil) “Two strangers meet on a fateful Christmas Eve. A night of delirious romance turns into a nightmare. Revealing anything more would be a crime.” Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.