January film forecast: top 10 new movies in Australian cinemas
We’re starting the new year with an inspiring, wondrous and spirited bunch of films. Some are major awards bait, others are innocent family watches.
Discover Popcorn Podcast’s top ten new movies heading to Australia’s big screens this January.
Tom Hanks plays against type in A Man Called Otto
A Man Called Otto (Jan 1)
One of the cheeriest men in Hollywood, everyone’s “favourite uncle” is playing a grump. Based on Fredrik Backman’s #1 New York Times bestseller, A Man Called Ove, Tom Hanks’ new starring vehicle tells the story of Otto Anderson (Hanks), a crabby, stubborn widower. When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match in quick-witted and pregnant Marisol (Mariana Treviño). This friendship could very well turn his life upside down, and for the better.
The comedy-drama is directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) with a screenplay by Life of Pi screenwriter David Magee.
Australian-made Blueback is an inspiring tale of friendship
Blueback (Jan 1)
This is another book-to-screen adaptation, this time from one of Australia’s most esteemed authors: Tim Winton. First published in 1997, Blueback is an inspiring story of friendship and determination. The film invites a new audience to witness Abby’s journey to save the world's coral reefs, fuelled by her newfound friendship with a magnificent wild blue groper.
Robert Connolly, producer of The Dry and co-director of the AACTA Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated TV mini-series The Slap (2011), brings Winton’s immersive novel to life with the stunning sights of the Great Southern coast of Western Australia. The film stars Mia Wasikowska as a grown-up Abby, alongside Australian legends Radha Mitchell and Connolly’s producing partner Eric Bana.
Mateo Zoryan plays a young Sammy Fabelman (aka Steven Spielberg)
The Fabelmans (Jan 5)
From the great Steven Spielberg, family drama The Fabelmans is his most personal project to date. Loosely based on the American auteur’s childhood growing up in post-World War II-era Arizona, a young man named Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) uncovers a shattering family secret and discovers how the power of movies helps us see the truth.
The Fabelmans – which is being described as a love letter to cinema, à la Cinema Paradiso – is written by Spielberg and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, who collaborated with the director (and long-time friend) only a year ago for the Oscar-winning musical West Side Story. Michelle Williams (The Greatest Showman) plays Mitzi Fabelman, wife of Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano, The Batman).
Listen to Popcorn Podcast’s interview with The Fabelmans star Gabriel LaBelle now
Jason Statham, Josh Hartnett and Aubrey Plaza team up for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Jan 12)
In Guy Ritchie’s new action-comedy, special agent Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) and his team of operatives (Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone) must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by a billionaire arms broker (Hugh Grant). To help them on their undercover mission, Fortune recruits one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, Danny Franscesco (Josh Hartnett).
The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man director is putting his stamp on the action genre. With comedy bringing its own punches to the rough-as-guts script, Ritchie is sure to rouse up some ooohs and ha-ha-has.
Emma Mackey brings a new version of Emily Brontë to big screen life
Emily (Jan 12)
Margot Robbie’s doppelganger, Emma Mackey (Sex Education), is Emily Brontë in British-Australian actress Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut. The biographical drama Emily explores the transformative journey to womanhood of a rebel and a misfit, one of the world's most famous writers. Sisters of the Wuthering Heights author, Anne and Charlotte Brontë, are also featured in the film, played by Amelia Gething (The Spanish Princess) and Alexandra Dowling (The Musketeers), respectively. Literati are sure to adore this one!
Megan is your friend to the end
M3GAN (Jan 12)
Move over, Annabelle and Chucky, there’s a new evil toy on the market. When Gemma (Allison Williams, Get Out), a robotics engineer at a toy company, builds a lifelike doll that’s programmed to be a child’s playmate and protector, she gifts a prototype to her 8-year-old niece. However, it soon begins to take on a mission of its own, resulting in unimaginable consequences.
The sci-fi horror is produced by two of the most prolific horror producers: James Wan (Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring franchises) and Jason Blum (the Halloween franchise, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man).
Margot Robbie is a film star in trouble in Babylon
Babylon (Jan 19)
Damien Chazelle’s three-hour long comedy-drama bonanza charts the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. Babylon stars Australian gem Margot Robbie, alongside Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Tobey Maguire and Jean Smart.
Chazelle’s best friend and Oscar-winning collaborator, Justin Hurwitz (La La Land, Whiplash, First Man), provides the film’s lively jazz score. With La La Land Oscar-winning editor Tom Cross and cinematographer Linus Sandgren also onboard. If Babylon is guaranteed to be anything, it’s a technical spectacle.
June (Storm Reid) searches for her missing mother with help from pal Veena (Megan Suri)
Missing (Jan 26)
The standalone sequel to 2018’s mystery thriller Searching follows June (Storm Reid) on a virtual search for her mother (Nia Long), who has disappeared while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend. June’s digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers, leading her to uncover secrets which will make her realise she never really knew her mother at all.
Cate Blanchett turns in another stellar performance in Tár
Tár (Jan 26)
Cate Blanchett picks up the baton for Todd Field’s Gotham Award-winning new drama. The Little Children (2006) director centres his film on Lydia Tár (Blanchett), one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the first-ever female music director of a major German orchestra.
Despite the film’s biographical tone, Lydia Tár is not a real conductor, let alone a person. We just saved you a Google search. You’re welcome.
Shazad Latif and Lily James play culture-crossed besties in What’s Love Got To Do With It?
What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Jan 26)
Fans of The Big Sick and cult classic My Big Fat Greek Wedding are in for a treat with the new cross-cultural rom-com What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Zoe (Lily James) is a documentary-maker and dating app addict who hasn’t had much luck finding Mr Right, much to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) disappointment. For Zoe’s childhood friend Kazim (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged marriage. Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a beautiful bride from Pakistan, chosen by his parents, and begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from this approach to finding love.
