Into the Woods
Released Fri Jan 9
Fairy tales get re-spun in Disney's live-action version of the wacky Sondheim musical. Emily Blunt (as a barren baker's wife) is the star of the show, with Meryl Streep (The Witch) on hand to provide poignant cackles.
Testament Of Youth
Released Fri Jan 16
Fresh-faced Swede, Alicia Vikander, dominates this adaptation of Vera Brittain's WWI memoir. Cheryl Campbell was stunning in the BBC series, but Vikander sidesteps her long shadow with ease.
Wild
Released Fri Jan 16
Reese Witherspoon goes back to her complex roots (remember her in 1999's Election?), playing a screwed-up, ex-junkie thirtysomething who – literally – takes a hike. Nick Hornby's restrained script (adapted from Cheryl Strayed's memoir) ensures we get hooked on this woman's past, as well as present.
A Most Violent Year
Released Fri Jan 23
Set in 1981, this Scorsese-like crime thriller stars Oscar Isaac (in his best part since Inside Llewyn Davis) as an ambitious immigrant, trying to show his peacock of a wife, (Jessica Chastain), that he's different from her gangster dad.
Inherent Vice
Released Fri Jan 30
In which Paul Thomas Anderson serves up a stoner crime romp (the first ever adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel), allowing us to bliss out on Joaquin Phoenix's rumpled beauty (as a private eye, trying to help an ex-girlfriend). You may not understand the mystery Larry is trying to solve. But you'll wish you did, which is what counts.
Still Alice
Released Fri Mar 6
We'll know the Academy voters have been replaced by aliens if Julianne Moore doesn't receive an Oscar nomination for her heart-smashing performance as Alice, an academic who discovers she's got Alzheimer's. Decide for yourself if she goes one better than Judi 'Iris' Dench.
Mommy
Released Fri Mar 20
Xavier Dolan's prize-winning portrait of a working class, French-Canadian mum (Anne Dorval), struggling to raise her volatile teenage son (Antoine Olivier Pilon), juices up the kitchen sink format. Imagine an urban operetta... The central characters eat up all the oxygen in the room, which may initially induce panic. Before long, you'll relish feeling short of breath.
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