Highlights | FILM
LADY BIRD With five Oscar nominations under its belt, this feature film from Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) starring Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) is a triumph. See review, page 61. Out Fri 16 Feb. THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo Del Toro’s latest is the most nominated
Oscar film this year, with 11 nods. Starring Sally Hawkins, it’s a wondrous tale of underwater love, with an apt and refreshing approach to female sexuality. See review, page 59. Out Fri 16 Feb. GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL Since 2005, Scotland’s fastest-growing film festival
has become a force to be reckoned. See features from page 17 for this year’s highlights. Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 21 Feb–Sun 4 Mar. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE A muscular and tightly wound masterpiece from Lynne Ramsay, with an intense and riveting
performance from Joaquin Phoenix. See feature, page 22, and review, page 62. Out Fri 9 Mar (GFF, Fri 23 & Sat 24 Feb). ISLE OF DOGS A boy searches for his dog in this animation from Wes Anderson. See feature, page 18. Out Fri 30 Mar (GFF, Wed 21 & Thu 22 Feb).
H I T L I S T
FILM HIGHLIGHTS
DEN OF THIEVES Gritty crime saga following the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Department and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew, starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent. Out Fri 2 Feb. JOURNEY’S END In the trenches of WWI, youthful new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh (Asa Butterfield) has pulled strings to join his childhood hero, and his sister’s fiancé, Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin) on the front line. Out Fri 2 Feb.
PHANTOM THREAD Oscar-nominated new film from Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice), starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a dressmaker. See review, page 60. Out Fri 2 Feb. ROMAN J ISRAEL, ESQ Roman J Israel Esq (Denzel Washington) is a down-at-heel, socially awkward criminal attorney who gets offered a job at a sleek LA firm and who finds that his loyalties are strained. See review, page 60. Out Fri 2 Feb.
WINCHESTER An eccentric firearm heiress (Helen Mirren) believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. Out Fri 2 Feb.
THE 15:17 TO PARIS American soldiers discover a terrorist plot on a Paris-bound train. Clint Eastwood’s latest is based on the 2015 Thalys train attack, and starring the real soldiers. Out Fri 9 Feb.
FIFTY SHADES FREED The third and final instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy (phew, there aren’t actually 50). Out Fri 9 Feb. LOVELESS Despairing portrait of modern Russia, in which people are so preoccupied with their own desires that everyone
else is irrelevant. See review, page 59. Out Fri 9 Feb. THE MERCY Yachtsman Donald Crowhurst’s disastrous attempt to win the 1968 Golden Globe Race ends up with him creating an outrageous account of travelling the world alone by sea. Starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz. See review, page 61. Out Fri 9 Feb.
BLACK PANTHER T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne
and take his rightful place as king. The latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe also stars Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and the now Oscar- nominated Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out). Out Tue 13 Feb. FATHER FIGURES Upon learning that their mother has been lying to them for years about their allegedly deceased father, two fraternal twin brothers (Owen Wilson and Ed Helms) hit the road in order to find him. Out Fri 16 Feb.
DARK RIVER Alice (Ruth Wilson) goes back to the scene of her childhood trauma after 15
Black Panther
years, to lay a claim to the Yorkshire farm that was promised her, but her brother Joe (Mark Stanley) insists it should go to him. Clio Barnard’s third feature has a superb performance from Stanley and a deeply affecting one from Wilson as the gutsy, damaged Alice. See review, page 60. Out Fri 23 Feb. I, TONYA The story of Tonya Harding, (Margot Robbie), the US figure skater from an underdog background who was banned for life after an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Olympics. See review, page 59. Out Fri 23 Feb.
1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 THE LIST 63