As ever, local cinema center the Belcourt Theatre — which is fast approaching its 100th anniversary in 2025 — has plans to show some long-awaited and critically acclaimed films in the coming weeks.
Of course, celebrated titles like Licorice Pizza, Drive My Car and The Tragedy of Macbeth are still playing at the Hillsboro Village arthouse, so catch those while you still can. Opening this week is Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle, which the Daily Telegraph’s Robbie Collin called a “dazzlingly animated sci-fi fairy tale about our online-offline double lives.” On Jan. 21 the Belcourt will open Pedro Almodóvar’s much-anticipated Parallel Mothers — which is likely to earn the Spanish director and his frequent collaborator Penélope Cruz some nominations — and wildlife documentary The Velvet Queen, about the hunt to capture the elusive Tibetan snow leopard on film.
The Worst Person in the World
Coming down the pike at the Belcourt in February will be animated documentary Flee, which our own Cory Woodroof has called an “open-hearted, gut-wrenching story of identity and struggle.” Then there’s the widely well-received Norwegian feature The Worst Person in the World and a 4K restoration of Ethiopian director Haile Gerima’s 1993 film Sankofa. After that, expect the Colin Farrell-starring sci-fi drama After Yang from former Nashvillian Kogonada, whose beautiful, quiet Columbus won critics over back in 2017. Additionally, film buffs can count on the Belcourt to keep series like Music City Mondays and the repertory Weekend Classics going with entries like Dennis Hopper’s undersung 1980 drama Out of the Blue and new documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché — about the titular X-Ray Spex frontwoman — coming in the next few weeks.
Naturally, folks can expect plenty of big winter releases at the megaplexes as well. Opening wide this week is Scream, the fifth installment in the meta-horror series of the same name. Next month audiences will finally get the chance to see a pair of releases delayed multiple times during the COVID era — Jackass Forever (the fourth proper Jackass release) and Kenneth Branagh’s second Agatha Christie adaptation, Death on the Nile. Goofball blockbusters like Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall and video game adaptation Uncharted are also slated to land in February, and Robert Pattinson will become the latest in a long line of Caped Crusaders when The Batman hits screens March 4.
You’ve heard this sort of thing plenty over the past 22 months or so, but it bears noting: With COVID still out there doing its rotten business, release dates are subject to change. Keep your eye on the Scene’s film section to see what’s landing in theaters from week to week.
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