Night Swim, Mean Girls, Origin and all The Movies You Need to See in Theatres This January

It’s a brand-new year, and there’s no better way for movie fans to ring it in than by seeing all of the latest releases coming to Cineplex Theatres. If you’ve been trying to check off award contenders from your watchlist, you’re in luck. January’s first release is the much-anticipated All of Us Strangers, a gut-wrenching romantic drama about a writer drawn back to his tragic childhood after a chance encounter with his mysterious neighbour. Other unmissable Oscar-worthy dramas releasing this month include Origin, Ava DuVernay’s inspiring biopic about acclaimed author Isabel Wilkerson, and Memory, which showcases two of the year’s best performances from Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard.

If lighter fare is what you’re after, plenty of action, horror, and fun is also coming to the big screen this month. Nowadays, it isn’t January without a terrifying new movie from Blumhouse, and they’ve cooked up something genuinely haunting with Night Swim. Jason Statham packs quite the punch in his latest revenge flick, The Beekeeper. However, when it comes to revenge, the iconic Regina George may give Statham a run for his money. The show-stopping musical adaptation of Mean Girls also hits theatres this January.

Keep reading to see everything that’s coming to Cineplex theatres throughout the month!

 

All Of Us Strangers

Starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy, Jamie Bell

Director: Andrew Haigh

Release Date: January 5th, 2024

There’s nothing more cathartic than a good old-fashioned cry-fest, and All Of Us Strangers has you covered with its intense themes of love, loss, perseverance, and acceptance. The film marks the second film adaptation of the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. All of Us Strangers is already receiving universal acclaim after its premiere at last year’s Telluride Film Festival. It follows Adam (Andrew Scott), an isolated screenwriter who unexpectedly begins flirting with his mysterious neighbour Henry (Paul Mescal). This new presence throws Adam into a whirlwind of emotional chaos and memories as he is drawn back to his childhood home. Upon his arrival, he discovers his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) living their lives just as they were before they died 30 years earlier.

 

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Night Swim

Starring: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferie, Gavin Warren

Director: Bryce McGuire

Release Date: January 5th, 2024

If you were one of the many Blumhouse fans seated for last year’s surprise horror-hit, M3GAN, then you will not want to miss Night Swim. The new supernatural thriller comes from the same brilliant and accomplished horror-producing duo, James Wan and Jason Blum, and follows a baseball player (Wyatt Russell) who has been forced into early retirement, as he moves into a new house with his wife (Kerry Condon) and two children. Just as the Wallers finally feel like they’ve found much-needed peace in their new home, the family find themselves tormented by a vindictive spirit lurking deep beneath the surface of their pool. The deeper they dig into the home’s evil past, the more inescapable the horror becomes.

 

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Great Pretender razbliuto 

Starring: Yuka Komatsu, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kazuyuki Okitsu, Yasuyuki Kase, Mitsuaki Kanuka

Director: Hiro Kaburagi

Release Date: January 9th, 2024

Anime fans rejoice as Great Pretender, one of the most beloved anime series of late, has a brand new story for fans, and it’s coming to theatres! Great Pretender razbliuto is a special event feature film from WIT Studio, Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures, which takes place after the series’ conclusion. For those unfamiliar with Great Pretender, there’s no need to worry! Great Pretender razbliuto is a visually stunning standalone action adventure that will have current and soon-to-be fans on the edge of their seats. This exciting new chapter focuses on Dorothy, a savvy con artist recovering in Taipei after a near-fatal battle at the hands of the Shanghai Longu Bang. Suffering from severe amnesia, Dorothy must travel across Asia in search of swindlers like her to help beat old foes and stop a new threat on the rise in Taipei.

 

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Mean Girls

Starring: Reneé Rapp, Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Jon Hamm, Tina Fey

Director: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr.

Release Date: January 12th, 2024

Make way for the return of the plastics! It’s been two decades since the iconic original film hit the big screen, but this iteration of Mean Girls isn’t just any remake. It’s a musical! Specifically, this version of Mean Girls is a film adaptation of the smash Broadway hit musical. And yes, that means there will be electrifying dance numbers, lavish production design, and lots and lots of revenge! Breakout singer and television star Reneé Rapp returns to the coveted role of Regina George after her breathtaking performance on stage earned her universal praise. A night at the movies has never been so fetch!

 

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The Book of Clarence

Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Anna Diop, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Alfre Woodard

Director: Jeymes Samuel

Release Date: January 12th, 2024

It’s been quite some time since a new biblical epic has made its way to theatres. In The Book of Clarence, director Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall) puts audiences right back into the world of one of Hollywood’s most timeless genres, but in a fresh and unique way that only Samuel can pull off. The year is 29 A.D. Jesus Christ is slowly building his dedicated group of followers, and Jerusalem is watching.

Struggling to create a more fulfilling life for himself, a broken man named Clarence (Lakeith Standfield) notices the attention Jesus is attracting and, in an attempt to clear his debt and attain glory, claims to be a new Messiah sent by God. Integrating Samuels’s zany style with classics like The Ten Commandments and Samson and Delilah, The Book of Clarence will ask big questions about purpose and religion, but it will also make you bust a gut laughing, which is no easy feat.

 

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The Beekeeper

Starring: Jason Statham, Josh Hutcherson, Minnie Driver, Jeremy Irons, Phylicia Rashad

Director: David Ayer

Release Date: January 12th, 2024

It isn’t January without some adrenaline-pumping action! Luckily, Jason Statham returns to the big screen, alongside Five Nights at Freddy’s star, Josh Hutcherson, in an all-new action-revenge movie with twists and turns you’ll never see coming. Statham plays Mr. Clay, a former operative and assassin of a secret government organization called ‘Beekeepers.’ When a neighbour (Phylicia Rashad), who helped him return to a life of normalcy after leaving the organization, mysteriously dies, Mr. Clay embarks on a brutal campaign for vengeance to find those truly responsible and exact his revenge.

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Origin

Starring: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Victoria Pedretti, Finn Wittrock

Director: Ava DuVernay

Release Date: January 19th, 2024

Origin is an audacious film from acclaimed director Ava DuVernay known for her Oscar-winning film Selma and the devastating Emmy-award winning Netflix series When They See Us. Origin is a non-traditional book adaptation in that it delves into the personal struggles of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson while also exploring the subject of her most famous book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Like the book, Origin debates the cultural hierarchy in America by relating it to American Slavery, the Holocaust, and India’s degrading caste system. It premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and was quickly added to the TIFF lineup after its success in Venice. Audiences praised Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (When They See Us) for her screen-shattering performance as Isabel Wilkerson and DuVernay’s ability to tackle larger-than-life themes in a grounded way.

 

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Housekeeping For Beginners

Starring: Anamaria Marinca, Alina Serban, Samson Selim, Vladimir Tintor

Director: Goran Stolevski

Release Date: January 26th, 2024

Many have been waiting for Stolevski’s next movie after he ambitiously but successfully debuted his first two features, You Won’t Be Alone and Of an Age, in the same year back in 2022. Stolevski’s third film, Housekeeping For Beginners, is a heartfelt and restless drama about the families we’re born into and the ones we create for ourselves. Anamaria Marinca gives a beautiful performance as Dita, a woman who never wanted to be a mother, but finds herself raising her terminally ill girlfriend’s (Alina Serban) difficult daughters, all while housing other lost souls in her house in North Macedonia. This touching film received the Queer Lion award after it premiered in Venice and is Macedonia’s official selection for Best International Feature Film at this year’s Academy Awards.

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Memory

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard, Merritt Wever, Elsie Fisher

Director: Michael Franco

Release Date: January 26th, 2024

Memory is another powerful film with incredible performances coming to theatres after making its way around the awards circuit. The film first screened at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where Peter Sarsgaard won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. Memory also had its North American premiere at TIFF, where audiences had an overwhelmingly emotional response to this thematically profound film from director/writer Michel Franco.

Fresh off her Best Actress win for her portrayal of Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Jessica Chastain plays Sylvia, a routine-oriented social worker who has her world flipped upside down when a man (Peter Sarsgaard) follows her home from her high school reunion. While Memory is a deeply layered story, at the heart of it lies one about two isolated and hardened people searching for connection.