Check out what's showing at cinemas across the region this month...

TILL - CERT 12a (130 mins)
Released Fri 6 January
Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Jamie Renell, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Patrick Thomas
Directed by Chinonye Chukwu

When 14-year-old Emmett Till, on a visit to his cousins in Mississippi in the mid-1950s, was deemed to have behaved inappropriately towards a white woman in her family’s grocery store, he was kidnapped, beaten, mutilated, and shot in the head. His lifeless body was then thrown into the Tallahatchie River. The two men who were charged with his murder were acquitted by an all-white jury and subsequently confessed to the crime in an interview with Look magazine, for which they were paid $4,000. 

Emmett posthumously became an icon of the American civil rights movement... 

This critically acclaimed new film follows the story of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her son. Writer & director Chinonye Chukwu decided to make the movie without depicting the violence perpetrated against Emmett by his killers. Danielle Deadwyler gives a jaw-droppingly brilliant performance as Mamie. 

A MAN CALLED OTTO - CERT tbc
Released Fri 6 January
Starring Tom Hanks, Rachel Keller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Kailey Hyman, Lavel Schley, Cameron Britton
Directed by Marc Forster

The always-value-for-money Tom Hanks takes the title role in this heartwarming and funny story about a man whose glass is most definitely half-empty following the death of his wife. Otto Anderson has a touch of the Victor Meldrews about him, gaining his pleasure, in an otherwise unhappy existence, from judging and criticising his neighbours. Intent on bringing his miserable life to an abrupt end, Otto finds his plan unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival next door of a lively young family, and in particular the quick-witted Marisol, who challenges him to start viewing the world from a different perspective.   

EMPIRE OF LIGHT - CERT tbc
Released Mon 9 January
Starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Tom Brooke, Tanya Modie 
Directed by Sam Mendes

Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes is the man at the helm of this powerful and poignant drama about human connection and the magic of cinema. 

Set in the seaside town of Margate in 1981, the story follows depressed but conscientious cinema manager Hilary (Olivia Coleman) as her slowly deteriorating quality of life receives an unexpected boost with the arrival at the cinema of a young Black man named Stephen. 

Romance between the pair soon blossoms. But even as she seemingly stands on the threshold of better things, Hilary remains haunted by a sadness that simply won’t go away...     

ENYS MEN - CERT 15 (96 mins)
Released Fri 13 January
Starring Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe, Flo Crowne, John Woodvine, Joe Gray, Loveday Twomlow 
Directed by Mark Jenkin

Straight out of the visionary imagination of Bafta-winning British auteur Mark Jenkin comes this artfully constructed mind-bender of a horror movie. The year is 1973, and on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, a wildlife volunteer’s daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey - one that forces her, as well as the viewer, to question what is real and what is nightmare. 

Shot on 16mm film, Enys Men boasts a visceral quality that feels both innovative and authentic to the period. Jenkin’s signature post-sync sound is present and correct too, playing its part in ‘making real’ the dream-like world of his invention. 

The movie made a significant splash at last autumn’s Cannes Film Festival.

TÁR - CERT 15 (158 mins)
Released Fri 13 January
Starring Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Sylvia Flote, Mark Strong
Directed by Todd Field

Cate Blanchett’s performance in this critically acclaimed movie has been hailed a career-best and may well see her walking away with this year’s best actress Oscar. 

Set in the international world of classical music, the film centres on the character of iconic musician Lydia Tár. Not only considered to be one of the world’s greatest living composer-conductors, Tár is also the first-ever female music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. 

But for all of her unquestionable brilliance, she is a woman on the edge. Claims that she is a vindictive bully - who grooms younger musicians and blackballs those who displease her - set in motion a fall from grace which, in the hands of the brilliant Blanchett, is a sight to behold.  

BABYLON - CERT 18 (188 mins)
Released Fri 20 January
Starring Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Tobey Maguire, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo
Directed by Damien Chazelle

Taking its place in January’s list of releases alongside two other ‘love letter to the movies’ films - Empire Of Light and The Fabelmans - Babylon tells a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, along the way tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in 1920s’ Hollywood. 

Top-billing are Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, who, in 2019, appeared together in another high-profile tinseltown tale: Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. 

But it’s another film with which Robbie compares Babylon: “I remember being on set for [The Wolf Of Wall Street] and thinking ‘I’ll never be in a film as crazy as this ever again,’” she recently told Empire magazine. “And then I made Babylon! There’s a dizzying amount of debauchery. One of the most disturbing, chaotic scenes I’ve ever witnessed is in this film, and it involves a fight with a snake. I won’t tell you who wins or loses that fight, but trust me, it’s insane.”  

THE BOOK OF VISION - CERT 15 (99 mins)
Released Fri 20 January
Starring Charles Dance, Lotte Verbeek, Sverrir Gudnason, Filippo Nigro, Isolda Dychauk, Rocco Gottlieb
Directed by Carlo Hintermann

Selected as the opening movie of the Critics’ Week at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, this psychological drama focuses on the character of Eva, a young doctor who turns away from her profession in favour of becoming a student of the history of medicine. Her studies lead her to the discovery of the Book Of Vision, a manuscript authored by 18th-century Prussian physician Johan Anmuth. In the book, Anmuth focuses on the feelings, fears and dreams of over 1,800 of his patients, whose spirits still wander through the pages. 

Immersing herself in the tales and visions, Eva questions the separation of the past, present and future, while confronting the challenges of modern medicine and its limitations with respect to her own body...

THE FABLEMANS - CERT 12a (151 mins)
Released Fri 27 January
Starring Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano, Judd Hirsch, Seth Rogen, Mateo Zoryan
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Taking inspiration from his own childhood, Steven Spielberg’s coming-of-age story focuses on the fictional character of Sammy Fabelman, a young man growing up in post-World War Two Arizona who aspires to become a filmmaker. 

The movie is co-written by Spielberg with his regular collaborator, Tony Kushner, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1990s play about the AIDS epidemic, Angels In America. 

The Fabelmans received the Toronto International Film Festival’s coveted People’s Choice Award in the autumn and opened in US cinemas in November to widespread critical acclaim.