February 5
Me, Myself and Mum
(France, comedy)
Director: Guillaume Gallienne
Starring: Guillaume Gallienne, André Marcon, Françoise Fabian
What's it about?
Adapted from the autobiographical play written by French actor Guillaume Gallienne and starring himself in his own role, Me, Myself and Mum, a surprise box office hit in France last year, retraces Gallienne's youth and the special relationship he had with his temperamental mother (also played by Gallienne). Being an effeminate young boy, Gallienne was treated very differently to his two brothers by his mother, whom he admired and learned to imitate to perfection.
Kingsman: The Secret Service
(UK, action/adventure/comedy)
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Taron Egerton
What's it about?
Based upon the acclaimed comic book, Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a young street kid, rough around the edges but with a lot of potential, who finds himself recruited by a secret spy organisation into the agency's gruelling training program.
The Gambler
(USA, crime/drama/thriller)
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange, John Goodman
What's it about?
A remake of the 1974 movie by James Toback, The Gambler follows Jim Bennett, a university literature professor, who finds himself owing a large sum of money to loan sharks due to his crippling gambling addiction. He has only seven days to repay his debts, or he dies. Further complicating the situation is a burgeoning romance with one of his students and his dysfunctional relationship with his wealthy mother.
February 12
The Interview
(USA, comedy)
Director: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Randall Park
What's it about?Dave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapoport, who run the popular celebrity tabloid TV show "Skylark Tonight", find out that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show. To further their careers, they travel to Pyongyang to conduct an interview with him. But their plans change when the CIA recruits them to assassinate Kim Jong-un.
What We Did On Our Holiday
(UK, comedy/drama)
Director: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin
Starring: Rosamund Pike, David Tennant, Billy Connolly
What's it about?
Husband and wife Doug and Abi travel to Scotland with their three children for Doug's father's birthday. However, the couple is on the brink of divorce, and despite asking their children not to tell any of their relatives, the secret is soon out, which has the effect of a bomb in the family.
Citizenfour
(Germany/USA, documentary)
Director: Laura Poitras
Starring: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Appelbaum
What's it about?
A documentary about Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who uncovered the illegal surveillance programs run by the NSA, based on many hours of interviews by director Laura Poitras (whom Snowden initially contacted under the pseudony "Citizenfour") and reporter Glenn Greenwald in Hong Kong.
Watch trailer
Read interview with director Laura Poitras on what it was like to be at the epicentre of the Edward Snowden leaks
Selma
(USA, biography/drama/history)
Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth
What's it about?
The story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to obtain equal voting rights for African-American people, via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. The campaign subsequently led to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.
Fifty Shades of Grey
(USA, drama/romance)
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle
What's it about?
This movie adaptation from the worldwide best-selling erotic novel by E.L. James. follows college graduate and literary student, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), on her passionate relationship with a young, handsome, but troubled billionaire, Christian Grey.
Feature: We asked a ‘Submissive’ to review Fifty Shades of Grey
Feature: We asked a ‘Dominant’ to review Fifty Shades of Grey
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
(Australia, action/horror)
Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Starring: Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey, Leon Burchill
What's it about?
Barry is a talented mechanic and family man whose life is torn apart on the eve of a zombie apocalypse. His sister, Brooke, is kidnapped by sinister gas mask-wearing soldiers and experimented on by a psychotic doctor. Barry sets out to find her and together with Benny, a fellow survivor, they battle their way through hordes of zombies in the harsh Australian bushland.
February 19
Jupiter Ascending
(USA, action/adventure/fantasy)
Directors: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne
What's it about?
Alien royal forces have seeded the Earth to produce perfect beings and obtain a youth serum. Jupiter Jones is a young woman working as a janitor, when one day an genetically-engineered space warrior comes to inform her that a destiny as Queen of the Universe awaits her, in order to replace the recently deceased matriarch of the most powerful of the alien dynasties.
Rosewater
(USA, biography/drama)
Director: Jon Stewart
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas
What's it about?
Based on the true story of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari and his memoir Then They Came for Me, this movie follows a journalist who in 2009, after appearing on The Daily Show, was arrested in Iran for being a CIA spy, while covering the country's presidential elections. He was imprisoned for more than 100 days, during which he was subjected to brutal interrogations.
Project Almanac
(USA, sci-fi/thriller)
Director: Dean Israelite
Starring: Amy Landecker, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Virginia Gardner
What's it about?
A group of friends discover plans to build a time machine and then build one themselves. They use the time machine initially to undo past mistakes, then for their own gratification, until they find out that changing the past has dire consequences in the future.
February 26
Eastern Boys
(France, drama)
Director: Robin Campillo
Starring: Olivier Rabourdin, Kirill Emelyanov, Daniil Vorobyov
What's it about?
A young immigrant male hustler in Paris is approached by an older man and agrees to visit him at his home the following day. Yet the next day, when the doorbell rings, the older man hasn't a clue he's fallen into a trap, and that his lafe will never be the same again.
Blackhat
(USA, action/crime/drama)
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang
What's it about?
Nicholas Hathaway is released from prison to help American and Chinese authorities pursue a mysterious cyber criminal, whose aim is to take down the international banking network, which will lead them from Chicago, to Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Jakarta.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
(US, UK, comedy/drama/romance)
Director: John Madden
Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Richard Gere
What's it about?
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful is now full, which proves difficult to accomodate new arrivals Guy and Lavinia. This leads to Sonny Kapoor to try and realise his dreams of opening a second venture. However, his impending nuptials don't leave him much time, even though he's now helped by co-manager Muriel, who knows all the secrets of the hotel's guests.
A Most Violent Year
(USA, action/crime/drama)
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo
What's it about?
In New York City, 1981 (the most violent year in the city's history), an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family, in a society rampant with violence, decay, and corruption.
