Nicholas Barber picks the most exciting films coming up in the new year, including releases from the Coen brothers, Spielberg and Oliver Stone. See the complete BBC article here.
Below, we selected four with some tricky expressions explained in red!
A Bigger Splash
A Bowie-ish rock goddess (Tilda Swinton) and her devoted boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts) are on holiday when two uninvited guests turn up at their Italian villa: the rock star’s party-animal ex (Ralph Fiennes) and his sulky (=bad–tempered, sour), seductive daughter (Dakota Johnson). Depending on how you look at it, the holiday is either well and truly over, or just getting underway. Inspired by Jacques Deray’s La Piscine (1969), Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash is an erotic drama which becomes an edgy (=scary) thriller, but it’s always scenic (=beautiful), sun-baked, and hilarious: Fiennes’s wild dance moves are worth the ticket price. (Credit: Frenesy Film Company). Released January in Denmark, February in the UK, and May in the US.
Hail, Caesar!
Ethan and Joel Coen’s period comedy could well be 2016’s most sumptuous (=luxurious) treat, an ice cream sundae of a film comprising the Coens’ favourite ingredients: a kidnapping (The Big Lebowski), the Golden Age of Hollywood (Barton Fink) and George Clooney being a buffoon (O Brother Where Art Thou?). Josh Brolin stars as a studio executive who steps in when Clooney’s matinee idol is spirited away from the set of an ancient Roman epic. The lip-smacking cast (=extremely good cast) includes Scarlett Johansson as an Esther Williams-alike bathing beauty, Channing Tatum doing some Gene Kelly moves, and the stars of A Bigger Splash, Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton. (Credit: Atlaspix / Alamy Stock Photo). On general release from February.
Julieta
Pedro Almodóvar’s last film was 2013’s toe-curlingly(=embarassingly) unfunny I’m So Excited, so it’s a relief to report that his new one – his twentieth – marks his return to ‘the cinema of women’. With any luck, we can expect a bruising, emotionally charged comedy-drama in the vein (=mood) Volver and All About My Mother. Almodóvar told the Financial Times that his original title was Silencio, because “that’s the principal element that drives the worst things that happen to the main female protagonist”, but he renamed it to avoid confusion with Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming Silence. Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte play older and younger incarnations (=manifastation, in human form) of the same heroine. (Credit: El Deseo). Released March in Spain and France and August in the UK.
The Girl on the Train
Stand back, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Step aside, Gone Girl. The latest Girl-ish mystery-thriller to be based on a best-selling novel is The Girl on The Train. Directed by Tate Taylor, who made the Oscar-nominated The Help, the new Girl stars Emily Blunt as an embittered alcoholic who is fixated on her ex-husband. When she wakes up one morning to find herself splattered (=covered) with blood, she fears that she may have been involved in a murder. Fans of Paula Hawkins’s book may grumble (=complain) that the action has been shifted from London to upstate New York, but Blunt is consistently excellent, whichever accent she uses. (Credit: Nicholas Hunt / Getty Images)
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
