Our new movie year arrives with some terrific reminders of the year, arguably less terrific, to which we just said “so long.” Some of last year’s peak achievements are now getting out and about in wider theatrical release and onto filmgoers’ collective radar. Films like “The Brutalist,” “Nickel Boys” and “All We Imagine As Light.” Many are streaming, waiting for discovery: “Janet Planet,” “Good One,” “My Old Ass.”
Whatever else happened, 2024 was a very good year for cinema.
And now? Ladies and gentlemen, start your jump-scares. Early 2025 brings us lots of horror, for starters, because no matter how churning and erratic the state of the film industry, certain genres tend to pay off better than others. The winter months will also bring familiar intellectual properties in recycled scenarios and new takes on characters we already know. These range from Snow White to Captain America to the Wolf Man, though not in the same movie.
Here are 10 titles due for January to March release, most of which remain known unknowns. We’ll see how many hit our respective sweet spots. Release dates are subject to change.
“Wolf Man” (Jan. 17): Five years ago, the Australian director Leigh Whannell unleashed a really good remake of “The Invisible Man” on audiences. Continuing his way through the Universal monster catalogue in (blessedly) standalone remakes, he next goes werewolf, with a cast led by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner.
“The Room Next Door” (Jan. 17): After a limited December bow, the latest from Pedro Almodóvar — his first feature in English — adapts the novel “What Are You Going Through” by Sigrid Nunez to an American setting (though the film was shot in Spain). Tilda Swinton plays a woman approaching her end-of-life chapter with a clear plan dependent on her reunion, after many years, with an old friend (Julianne Moore). It’s a wry and, not surprisingly, extremely well-acted chamber drama.
“Presence” (Jan. 24): In the first of two Steven Soderbergh movies this winter (yay! we hope), the un-retired and extremely busy and versatile filmmaker peers into a haunted-house premise, in which the camera’s point of view stays with the unseen spirit while Lucy Liu and other humans freak out to ebbing and flowing and escalating degrees. The reviews were very warm out of Sundance last year.
“I’m Still Here” (Jan. 24; Apple TV+ streaming premiere Feb. 14): Widely admired in its festival bows last year, director Walter Salles’ fact-based political drama follows the lives of Brazilian activist Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) and her dissident husband (Selton Mello), the latter arrested and “disappeared” in 1971. I’m eager to see this one, and not simply because we forget the recent past at the peril of whatever instability the present has in store.
“Captain America: Brave New World” (Feb. 14): The 2021 streaming series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” transferred the lease on the Marvel superhero’s famous shield from Chris Evans to Anthony Mackie. Now Mackie gets his own feature film, co-starring Harrison Ford in the role played earlier in the MCU cycle by William Hurt, now deceased. This means Ford adds another fictional U.S. president, “Thunderbolt” Ross, to his CV, as well as a go at “Red Hulk.”
“Paddington in Peru” (Feb. 14): A late 2024 release in Britain, this is the newest film adventure of the dear, resourceful champion of marmalade voiced by Ben Whishaw. The scenario takes the wee London resident back to his childhood home in Peru in search of Aunt Lucy. Olivia Colman plays the singing nun in charge of the Home for Retired Bears; Paddington’s accompanied on his jungle excursion by the Brown family, headed once again by Hugh Bonneville, this time with Emily Mortimer (replacing Sally Hawkins) as the missus.
“Sinners” (March 7): Keeping a good thing going, director Ryan Coogler reteams with star Michael B. Jordan for their fifth joint feature, following “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed” and two “Black Panther” forays. This one’s set in the 1930s; Jordan plays the dual role of vampire brothers, whose small-town homecoming turns into a square-off with the Ku Klux Klan. Hailee Steinfeld and Delroy Lindo co-star with Jack O’Connell.
“Black Bag” (March 14): In what may well be a spy movie for actual adults, director Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp concoct a moody drama steeped in espionage, marital trust issues and, one hopes, prime opportunities for playing the pause, the side-eye and the steely glare along with the words. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender portray the married couple at the story’s center. Let’s go!
“Alto Knights” (March 21): De Niro. Mob movie. Six syllables that make a tremendous amount of sense together. In this 1950s-set Barry Levinson-directed saga, working from a script by Nicholas Pileggi, De Niro tackles not one but two underworld kingpins: Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.
“Snow White” (March 21): Long in controversial development, Disney’s live-action rejiggering of Uncle Walt’s 1937 animated landmark has caught heat from various quarters for, well, a few things, insensitive dwarfism among them. Let’s see the thing before opining, though, shall we? Besides, the script is co-written by Greta Gerwig, who pulled off a billion-dollar long shot with “Barbie.” It’s a musical, by the way, with songs from the “Dear Evan Hansen” team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
