The Shape Of Water

The Shape Of Water
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Release Date: 14th February 2018
Fox Searchlight Pictures 

At the cinema you gotta have a creature feature. The audience loves a good monster, one which can get your skin crawling from scalp to toe. I love it, you love, we all love it! And in our current days of cinematic creature gazing, no one understands the monster more than Del Toro. He breathes monsters, eats them up, spits them out, and loves them so. The Shape of Water shows us just how much love he has to give. Wet kisses all round.

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The 15:17 To Paris

The 15:17 To Paris
Director: Clint Eastwood
Release Date: 9th February 2018
Warner Bros. Pictures 

The 2015 incident on the 15:17 train to Paris is one of those rare instances of the heroes prevailing against terror without a death toll to go with it. Of course the struggle on board the train between three Americans and one gun-toting terrorist (A Frenchman and a Brit were also involved but…) makes for one grand cinematic set piece, and so Clint Eastwood has taken directional duties to relive the events, and everything leading up to it. With the actual Americans involved playing themselves. Go on…

Early Man

Early Man
Director: Nick Park
Release Date: 26th January 2018
Aardman Animations 

It’s been a while since we’ve had a film which perfectly depicts Manchester as a city, and few come closer to just what it’s like than Early Man, taking us back to the Stone Age when Manchester was a pit of turmoil and football. Some things just never change.

Phantom Thread

Phantom Thread
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson 
Release Date: 2nd February 2018
Universal Pictures

In Phantom Thread the main character cannot be seen, he’s never present, just heard. Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead had a dream, and this is what he dreamed.

 

Coco

Coco
Director: Lee Unkrich
Release Date: 19th January 2018
Walt Disney Studios, Pixar Animation Studios 

Pixar as a company tend to be ahead of the curve when it comes to making interesting animated concepts, from bugs to toys. But with Coco, the Day of the Dead related idea already feels done to death in popular culture, spanning numerous films and bars. But what Pixar have that others don’t, when they aren’t making Cars, is that ability to make those death masks feel like their own. So let’s celebrate The Day of the Dead, once more, with new vigour!

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour
Director: Joe Wright
Release Date: 12th January 2018
Focus Features 

Gary Oldman is one of those chameleons of cinema, dramatically changing in appearance from film to film. His shifts are always surprising, and sometimes you have to double-check to make sure it really is him in front of the camera (True Romance, seriously, that’s him?!). Darkest Hour presents us with his latest transformation to the British Prime Minister during World War II, warts and all.

 

All The Money In The World

All The Money In The World
Director: Ridley Scott
Release Date: 5th January 2018
TriStar Pictures

This will always be known as the film which scrubbed Kevin Spacey from existence, it will never escape such a fate. And yes, replacing the actor last-minute with Christopher Plummer is a feat worth talking about, but what of the movie itself, and how it depicts another true event that people have been talking about for years, long before Spacey diddled?