Friday Releases: M3gan

JANUARY 6, 2023

Directed By: Gerard Johnstone

Studio: Universal Pictures

M3gan

M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Get Out’s Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, The Haunting of Hill House), Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems–a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.

Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, and Brian Jordan Alvarez
Genre: Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Rating: PG-13 (for violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 102 minutes

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Directed By: Nathan Price

Studio: Universal Pictures

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a #@%!

In THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A FCK, the human journey is explored. Happiness comes not from a pill, a nice car, more money or being better looking. True joy, the author tells us, is found in achievement; in the journey of life itself. In this feature documentary adaptation, we will bring this incredibly successful book to the screen with an engaging, thought provoking and entertaining journey into modern life. And in doing so we will allow our audience to take away from the theatre the powerful message that has caught on worldwide. How not to give a fck about that which doesn’t matter, and how to love that which does.

Starring: Mark Manson
Genre: Documentary
Rating: R (for language throughout and brief violent images)
Country: USA | New Zealand | UK (English)
Runtime: 97 minutes

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Directed By: Gabriel Martins

Studio: ARRAY Releasing

Mars One

The Martins family are optimistic dreamers, quietly leading their lives in the margins of a major Brazilian city following the disappointing inauguration of a far-right extremist president. A lower-middle-class Black family, they feel the strain of their new reality as the political dust settles. Tércia, the mother, reinterprets her world after an unexpected encounter leaves her wondering if she’s cursed. Her husband, Wellington, puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son, Deivinho, who reluctantly follows his father’s ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter, Eunice, falls in love with a free-spirited young woman and ponders whether it’s time to leave home.

Starring: Rejane Faria, Carlos Francisco, Camilla Damião, Cícero Lucas, and Ana Hilario
Genre: Drama | International
Rating: Not Rated
Country: Brazil (Portuguese)
Runtime: 115 minutes

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Directed By: Brett Donowho

Studio: Saban Films

The Old Way

Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage stars in his first-ever Western as Colton Briggs, a cold-blooded gunslinger turned respectable family man. When an outlaw and his gang put Colton and his family in peril, Colton is forced to take up arms with an unlikely partner — his 12-year-old daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) — in this action-filled film that builds toward its fateful showdown with pulse-pounding suspense.

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Clint Howard, Abraham Benrubi, and Nick Searcy
Genre: Action | Western
Rating: R (for violence)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 95 minutes

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Directed By: John Swab

Studio: Quiver Distribution

Candy Land

Candy Land follows Remy, a seemingly naïve and devout young woman, who finds herself cast out from her religious cult. With no place to turn, she immerses herself into the underground world of truck stop sex workers a.k.a. “lot lizards,” courtesy of her hosts, Sadie, Riley, Liv and Levi. Under the watchful eye of their matriarch, Nora, and enigmatic local lawman, Sheriff Rex, Remy navigates between her strained belief system and the lot lizard code to find her true calling in life.

Starring: Eden Brolin, William Baldwin, Olivia Luccardi, Owen Campbell, and Guinevere Turner
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 93 minutes

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Directed by: Carla Simón

Studio: MUBI

Alcarràs

In a small village in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Solé family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, this tight-knit group suddenly faces eviction — and the loss of far more than their home.

Starring: Josep Abad, Jordi Pujol Dolcet, Anna Otin, Albert Bosch, Xènia Roset, and Ainet Jounou
Genre: Adventure | Drama | International
Rating: Not Rated
Country: Spain | Italy (Catalan, Spanish, & English)
Runtime: 120 minutes

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Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci

Studio: Kino Lorber

The Conformist
(1970 RESTORATION)

In Mussolini’s Italy, repressed Jean-Louis Trintignant, trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode — and murder — joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in. As the reluctant Judas motors to his personal Gethsemane (the assassination of his leftist mentor), he flashes back to a dance party for the blind; an insane asylum in a stadium; and wife Stefania Sandrelli and lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango in a working class hall. But those are only a few of this political thriller’s anthology pieces, others including Trintignant’s honeymoon coupling with Sandrelli in a train compartment as the sun sets outside their window; a bimbo lolling on the desk of a fascist functionary, glimpsed in the recesses of his cavernous office; a murder victim’s hands leaving bloody streaks on a limousine parked in a wintry forest.

Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, José Quaglio, Dominique Sanda and Pierre Clémenti
Genre: Drama | International
Rating: R
Country: Italy | France | West Germany (Italian, French, Latin, & Chinese)
Runtime: 113 minutes

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Directed by: Paul Owens

Studio: Dark Sky Films

LandLocked

Summoned to his soon-to-be demolished childhood home, Mason discovers an old VHS camera that can see into the past, driving him to record as many memories as possible before the doomed house is destroyed. Utilizing the director’s own home movies, filming in the actual locations where he spent his youth and casting real-life family members to play fictionalized versions of themselves, LandLocked combines narrative and documentary with horror and sci-fi to create a movie unlike any other….

Starring: Mason Owens, Paul Owens, Jeffrey Owens, and Seth Owens
Genre: Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 75 minutes

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Directed by: Jean-Marc Minéo

Studio: Saban Films

Last Resort

A former special forces soldier becomes a one-man army when his wife and daughter are taken hostage during a bank robbery. As he neutralizes the gang of thieves, the lives of millions hang in the balance when a lethal toxin is stolen from the vault.

Starring: Jonathan Patrick Foo, Clayton Norcross, Alex Santi, and Julaluck Ismalone
Genre: Action
Rating: R (for bloody violence and language throughout)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: — minutes

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Directed by: Patrice Chéreau

Studio: Altered Innocence

The Wounded Man
(1983 RESTORATION)

A young man discovers his homosexuality and begins a relationship with a manipulative huster/petty criminal that he meets at a train station.

Starring: Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Roland Bertin, and Lisa Kreuzer
Genre: Crime | Drama | International | Romance
Rating: Not Rated
Country: France (French)
Runtime: 109 minutes

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Directed by: Mike Ho

Studio: Faith Media Distribution

Imani

A year after what she thinks was a car accident, a seemingly normal wife and mother slowly recovers from amnesia, only to learn that she actually is a highly sought-after Army Special Ops Lieutenant who holds a secret that would blow the lid on a widespread government conspiracy.

Starring: Brittany S. Hall, Demetrius Shipp Jr., Kris D. Lofton, Stephen Bishop, and Elyse Mirto
Genre: Action | Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 118 minutes

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Directed by: Mikhail Red

Studio: Viva Films

Deleter

An online content moderator deletes a suicide video made by her co-worker, but the otherwise desensitized woman can’t escape her own troubled past or a mysterious vengeful presence.

Starring: Nadine Lustre, Louise de los Reyes, McCoy de Leon, Jeffrey Hidalgo, and Sarah Jane Abad
Genre: Drama | Horror | International | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Country: Philippines (Tagalog & Filipino)
Runtime: 93 minutes

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