Ah, January at the movies: One part awards season showcase and one part B-grade action and horror dump from Hollywood.
That’s kind of how this week has turned out, with two notable new features in addition to Bollywood movies Jananayagan and The Rajasaab, plus the Ster Kinekor Throwback double of Annie Hall (RIP, Diane Keaton), and the 70s musical version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder.
2020’s Greenland was a solid, and well-received, disaster actioner. Six years later, sequel Greenland 2: Migration is here, picking up the story of the Garrity family five years after the Clarke interstellar comet decimated most of Earth. With their Greenland bunker under threat, the Garritys (Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin and new cast member Roman Griffin Davis) make a perilous journey across the wasteland of Europe to a theoretical safe haven.
Tender comedy drama Rental Family has been earning raves yet again for resurgent star Brendan Fraser, along with the film as a whole – which comes from Japanese filmmaker Hikari. Fraser plays Phillip, an American actor whose desperation for meaningful work in Japan sees him accept a highly unusual position at a “rental family” agency. Performance and reality blur as Phillip plays stand-in roles for strangers, and forms genuine connections with his clients.