✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: January 26-February 2
The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week.
Oscars Film Fest In the wake of Tuesday’s Oscar nominations, the ten contenders for best picture return to AMC and Regal. Experience pop-culture juggernauts Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon as they were meant to be seen. Take a chance on intimate dramas Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, and The Holdovers that didn’t quite get their due earlier this year. Support holiday releases American Fiction, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest as they finally get nationwide releases. Sure, you can watch Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro on Netflix, but aren’t you tired of being home? This is the best crop of nominees since 1975, and a full-throated rallying cry that the movies still matter.
Godzilla Minus One Minus Color The king of the monsters found his Japanese roots in December and put Hollywood special effects to shame on a quarter of the budget. Now, a special presentation of the holiday season’s surprise hit in glorious black-and-white pays additional homage to the world’s most famous side effect of radiation. As Japan deals with the fallout of WWII, a group of private citizens do what government can’t in the most thrilling cinematic statement about individual autonomy in quite some time. Now playing in theaters.
Grace of My Heart Allison Anders’s 1996 dramedy loosely based on Carole King’s life finds Illeana Douglas as a singer songwriter snapped up by a hitmaking producer (John Turturro) and brought into the fold of NYC’s famous Brill Building. A criminally underseen master class in indie filmmaking. Playing as part of Music City Mondays at The Belcourt
Origin If you ever wanted to see a 2.5 hour dramatization of Isabel Wilkerson’s history tome about the relationship between race and America’s caste system from the director of Selma, this is your chance. If it were any good, it wouldn’t be dropped into theaters at the end of January three days after the Oscars utterly ignored it. Now playing in theaters.
Miller’s Girl Jenna Ortega stars as a writer on the rise who begins an illicit relationship with her teacher (Martin Freeman) when an assignment irrevocably alters their lives in a highly praised erotic thriller produced by Seth Rogen. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and Regal Hollywood 27.
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 to cult films The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover and I am Love. This weekend brings Babette’s Feast, a film adored by our staff that happens to be the best film about food and faith ever made.
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, The Shining), family favorites (Frozen, 101 Dalmatians), and cinephile catnip (McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Doctor Zhivago). This weekend offers cabin fever classic Misery and epic Doctor Zhivago.
The Latest in Bolly/Tolly/Kolly/Lollywood and Other Special Presentations of Asian and Middle Eastern Imports.
Fighter (Hindi) Bollywood gets its own Top Gun in a film about a plucky Indian Air Force Pilot who rises to the challenge.
Singapore Saloon (Tamil) An ambitious hair stylist chases his dreams with a ragtag group of misfits Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.
Malaikottai Vaaliban (Malayalam) A seemingly invincible warrior faces his greatest challenge when a warlord threatens the dancer he falls for at a betting parlor. Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.