New Movies: Release Calendar January 27 and Where to See

As Sundance draws to a close, several other festival favorites are coming to theaters, and streaming offers comedic counter-programming.

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As Sundance 2023 wraps up this weekend, voracious cinephiles are likely looking for their next movie fix. This week’s theatrical releases certainly help in that quest: most of the features hitting screens today are holdovers from other festivals. These releases lean heavily on Cannes (“Cairo Conspiracy,” “Close” and “One Fine Morning”), while Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool” right now premiered at Sundance.

For those looking for something a little lighter and more mainstream, both Netflix and Amazon have new streaming-only comedies in the form of Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill’s “You People” and J.L0-starrer “Shotgun Wedding.”

All movies are available at a cinema near you or in the comfort of your home (or in some cases both, the comfort of it all). Browse the options below.

Week from January 23 to January 29

New movies in theaters

As new movies hit theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We ask our readers to follow the security measures the CDC and health authorities. In addition, our coverage offers alternative viewing options when available.

“Cairo Conspiracy” (director: Tarik Saleh)
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn films
Where can it be found:
A limited number of theaters

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to a humble person is a sudden ascension into the realm of the elite. Like Charlie Bucket, who found a golden ticket in “The Cairo Conspiracy,” Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) initially can’t believe his luck when he receives an acceptance letter to Al-Azhar, the pinnacle of Sunni Islamic power in Cairo. Ádám is an exceptionally smart young man from a small fishing village who lives under the thumb of his God-fearing, corporal punishment father. After the village imam hands over the acceptance letter, he charms her. At night, in the room shared with the two brothers, he reads it again and illuminates the thick cream paper with the telephone lamp kept under the bed.

Barhom makes a great start as the vigilant Adam, a cautious young man whose arc is to be thrust into a moral quagmire without protection. “Your soul is still pure. But this place corrupts him,” says fellow student Zizo (Mehdi Dehbi), who is found murdered in the school yard not long after. Zizo is the second early death, as my grandmother dies of the disease shortly after Ádám’s arrival. Grand imams hold their positions for life, so who exactly is chosen to fill their shoes is a vital political issue for the ruthless power brokers behind the scenes. Read IndieWire’s full review.

CHRIS DEWITTE

“Closure”

Chris Dewitt

“Close” (director: Lukas Dhont)
Distributor: A24
Where can it be found:
Theaters

“Close” is the second film from Belgian director Lukas Dhont, whose 2019 debut “Girl” — another bright, gripping and well-observed coming-of-age drama — was understandably controversial, both for his role as a cisgender boy. a trans ballet dancer, and for the way the final moments weaponized the film’s purity toward a violent ending that verged on emotionally pornographic. Tracking Dhont avoids the first problem, but only mitigates the second.

A vividly moving vision of adolescent identity is once again upended by a sudden trauma so powerful that it bleeds into every other scene in the film (both past and future); once again, it dulls the nuance of Dhont’s work to an extent that suggests the filmmaker lacks confidence in his own talent for rendering the ultimate intimacy of growing up in 8K ultra-clarity. This time, however, the violence does not wait for the end of the story. This time, it falls from the sky at the end of the first act, sacrificing the tangibly specific (and already heart-wrenching) portrait of male friendship against heteronormativity on the altar of a much broader plot of loss. For a film that asks such delicate questions and examines them with a raw honesty that American coming-of-age stories almost never allow, it’s hard to shake the feeling that “Close” is taking the easy way out. Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Infinity Pool” (Director: Brandon Cronenberg)
Distributor: Neon
Where can it be found:
Theaters

Brandon Cronenberg, the son of filmmaker David, hasn’t strayed far from the tree when it comes to creating highly explicit body horror thrillers based on psychedelic images of the tearing apart of orifices, organs and limbs. His latest nightmare, the dystopian tourist horror film “Infinity Pool,” continues this tradition to alienating lengths, challenging the destructive power of the pursuit of sensual pleasure.

Stars Alexander Skarsgärd and Mia Goth give terrifyingly smooth performances as a failed novelist and a mysterious tour guide, and Cronenberg has absolutely no shortage of original ideas, but the whole thing feels as bloodless, cold and damp as speculation. Read IndieWire’s full review.

"Have a nice morning"

“Have a nice morning”

Sony Pictures Classics

“One Fine Morning” (Director: Mia Hansen-Løve)
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Where can it be found:
Theaters

It’s a well-known fact that all French filmmakers are legally required to make at least one film about an extramarital affair, but few auteurs were better suited to the task than the great Mia Hansen-Løve, whose raw yet delightfully urban character. dramas (“Eden,” “Bergman Island,” “Goodbye, First Love”) thrive in the tumultuous spaces where fear and excitement overlap—where loss and opportunity are as inseparable as film and screen , on which it is projected. . In fact, the lighthearted yet deeply affecting “A Beautiful Morning” isn’t Hansen-Løve’s first foray into national pastime, as the theme of infidelity has cropped up throughout her work, most notably in 2016’s excellent “Things to Come.”

But this time, she approaches this sticky situation through the eyes of the other woman, a widowed single mother whose striking resemblance to Léa Seydoux could make any married man reconsider his vows. Sandra (Léa Seydoux) is a professional translator who thinks of herself as little more than an intermediary between other people, and perhaps too comfortable with the role of intermediary; his ability to carry the same thought from place to place often seems to have developed in response to his fear of being trapped between them. Read IndieWire’s full review.

Also available this week:

“Blood” (Director: Brad Anderson)
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Where can it be found:
Theaters as well as various VOD platforms

“Kompromat” (director Jerome Salle)
Distributor: Magnetic release
Where can it be found:
Theaters as well as various VOD platforms

“Life upside down” (director Cecilia Miniucci)
Distributor: IFC movies
Where can it be found:
Theaters as well as various VOD platforms

“The Man in the Cellar” (Director: Philippe Le Guay)
Distributor: Greenwich Entertainment
Where can it be found:
Choose theaters

“Maybe I Do” (Director: Michael Jacobs)
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Where can it be found:
Theaters

“Petit Mal” (director: Ruth Caudeli)
Distributor: DarkStar Pictures
Where can it be found:
Some cinemas, VOD release on January 31st

“Remember This” (Director: Jeff Hutchens)
Distributor: Great performance by Abramorama/PBS
Where can it be found:
Choose theaters

New movies on VOD and streaming, including premium platforms and virtual cinema

“Shotgun Wedding” (Director: Jason Moore)
Distributor: Amazon
Where can it be found: Streaming on Prime Video

No one knows the secret ingredients of a good marriage better than Jennifer Lopez. In 2022, Bennifer tied the knot! The triple threat has dared to say that the last 12 months have been the “best year” for him! He’s the only person who can save us, and certainly the only performer capable of wielding a shotgun in a wedding dress (without offending fourth-wave feminism too much) on the otherwise frustratingly average “Shotgun Wedding.”

If we can take a minute to look at her onscreen husband’s journey, the casting process went from Ryan Reynolds (undoubtedly funny) to Armie Hammer (undoubtedly disgusting) until two weeks after Hammer dropped out in January 2021 after being accused of sexual harassment. , Josh Duhamel: a poor guy trying to get another job who suddenly had to fly out to the Dominican Republic with less than a month’s notice. He did his best. Read IndieWire’s full review.

"You people"

“You People”

Courtesy of Netflix

“You People” (Director: Kenya Barris)
Distributor: Netflix
Where can it be found: Streaming on Netflix

In the nine years since “Black-ish” premiered on ABC (and subsequently spawned a galaxy of spinoffs), Kenya Barris’ comedic worldview has become increasingly clear. Virtually all of his projects focus on interactions between affluent blacks and well-intentioned but clueless white liberals, often mining comedy from the blind spots where both groups go hilariously wrong. His commitment to examining every angle of this premise is as complete as Larry David’s fascination with life’s little inconveniences—and just as good at it.

In his directorial debut, You People, he explores the same themes with the largest cast he’s ever had, and the result is one of the highlights of his career. “You People” deserves a lot of credit for mocking white pseudo-liberalism and black anti-Semitism with equal abandon, and even more credit for showing that Eddie Murphy still has plenty of comedic genius left in the tank. But its greatest achievement may be simply existing as a star-studded, big-budget adult comedy in an era where those words are rarely used in the same sentence. It’s the kind of movie we keep complaining Hollywood doesn’t make anymore—and it’s a fun reminder why they should. Read IndieWire’s full review.

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