The Grandmaster (一代宗师) (2013)

Wong Kar Wai's very own Ip Man biopic.

The gimmick: stripping away the urban legends, pure fiction, and historiography of the Ip Man story, we're left with a telling that puts the "grandmaster" in his social and historical context.

Watch for: A very philosophical film grounded in the sensibilities of Chinese pugilistic society during the Sino-Japanese war years. Skip if you're hoping for an action epic.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 January 2013.

Shame (2011)

A man addicted to sex and porn finds himself unravelling when his sister stays over.

The gimmick: Shame forgoes the usual niceties of character development, plot, and narrative structure for a depressing psychological study fuelled by Raw Acting.

Watch for: Carey Mulligan, whose character and performance punctuates the one-note storytelling of the film. Watch only if you liked Hunger.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 January 2013.

Quartet (2012)

A retirement home for elderly musicians puts up an annual show. Now it has to put up with its latest diva and put her in the show.

The gimmick: Another "behind the curtains" drama crossed with a retirement home comedy.

Watch for: positive spin on ageing without sugar-coating the fact that it can be a wretched business. Also: lots of cameos from actual retired musicians.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 January 2013.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch hunters (2013)

Hansel and Gretel kill their witch, grow up, and kill more witches for a living.

The gimmick: Modern horror aesthetics prevail. Expect plenty of gore, evisceration, and decapitation. Punctuated with F-bombs.

It's a film with an aesthetic, searching for the right script. I haven't seen such unimaginative writing, nor such an offensively anti-female, unironic fantasy film for a long time.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 January 2013.

The Master (2012)

After WW2, a wandering veteran drifts into the company of a leader, who may or may not be a thinly veiled stand-in for L Ron Hubbard, and his following, who may or may not be a stand-in for the Scientology cult.

Gimmick: Not so much of a roman a clef than an allegory for the spiritual malaise and the search for conformity and certainty in America in the post-war era.

Watch for: A script that surprises, frustrates expectations; Joachim Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in very opposite roles, with very opposite acting styles.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 23 January 2013.

The Expatriate (2012)

Aaron Eckhart plays a former CIA man who gets headhunted by an Overseas Corporation up to Conspiracy Shenanigans and then literally headhunted when he shows up to work.

The gimmick: This is like Taken with a conspiracy thriller angle, and less ham.

Watch for: paint by numbers conspiracy thriller that's better than it deserves, thanks to very competent casting and direction.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 23 January 2013.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

The Warchowskis are back with an anthology of 6 unconnected stories from 6 different genres, set in the past to distant future.

The gimmick: Everything is connected by the narrative structures of film and story. Yes, it's a 3 hour exercise in Lit 101.

Watch for: Wachowskis riffing off Amistad, Moby Dick, Amadeus, The Talented Mr Ripley, The China Syndrome, Shaft, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Make Way for Tomorrow, Soylent Green, Blade Runner, Logan's Run, Total Recall, The Fifth Element, The Road Warrior, Zardoz, and A Canticle for Liebowitz -- and mashing them into one bland mess.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on16 January 2013.

The Impossible (2013)

Based on the real life experiences of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami disaster.

The gimmick: The Impossible is a disaster movie that refuses to step into "triumph of the human spirit" territory. Disaster comes unexpectedly and is an equal opportunity taker.

Watch for: a film that spits in the face of genre conventions and comes out the better for it.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 16 January 2013.

Mama (2013)

A couple adopt their nieces and discover something else has been caring for them all the years they had been missing.

Gimmick: Mama blends together traditional horror (as fear of the liminal) and modern horror (as allegory for suburban angst and family drama).

Watch for: Great concept, Guillermo del Toro's fingerprints on the script and design.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 16 January 2013.

Runway Cop (차형사) (2012)

Fat slob cop goes undercover in a fashion show to catch criminals.

Think of this as a gender-reversed Miss Congeniality. Like the Sandra Bullock vehicle, this is a fish out of water comedy, an undercover cop comedy, and a retelling of Pygmalion.

The gimmick here doesn't quite pay off because it lacks a twist.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 16 January 2013.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

A washed-up, alcoholic screenwriter wants to write a screenplay about psychopaths. He gets acquainted with several. Hilarity ensues.

The gimmick: a genre piece that's a loving tribute, lurid pastiche, and sly deconstruction of genre norms, expectations, and cliches of the "LA crime story".

Watch for: a film that outdoes Tarrantino.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 9 January 2013.

Young and Dangerous Reloaded (古惑仔:江湖新秩序) (2013)

Teen recruits to the Hong Kong mafia find themselves embroiled in a triad's power struggle.

The gimmick: It's a straight up remake with smart phones, DVD monitors, and flash drives while characters spout 80s lingo and act out 80s gangster film character arcs.

Not postmodern and anarchic anachronistic enough to justify a remake.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 9 January 2013.

Killing them softly (2012)

The mob gets held up in its own joint. A freelance enforcer is sent to investigate and punish.

The gimmick: It's a procedural written from the POV of the mafia, but more importantly, it's an allegory for the farcical bailout of the crumbling financial system.

Watch for: a clever, though not very subtle script; Brad Pitt at his seediest, world weary best.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 January 2013.

The Last Tycoon (大上海) (2013)

Think of this as The Great Gatsby meets Gangs of New York, set in Shanghai.

The gimmick: The life and achievements of an upwardly mobile gangster; a mysterious bigshot who runs into his childhood sweetheart, now married. Both protagonists are the same person, 20 years apart.

This film doesn't work: Gatsby depends on how little we know of his climb to fortune; GONY depends on how insecure the gangster's career feels.

Skip: Premise already fails; Chow puts in one of his most lazy ham acts in a while. A shame for someone who started out as an Asian Mastrioanni.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 January 2013.

Parental Guidance (2012)

Think of this as Trouble with the Curve, done as a farcical comedy.

In its reaction against technology, mavericks, and the generational divide, we have low-brow sketch comedy instead of an elegiac film.

Good for a few laughs, but clearly Billy Crystal is nowhere near the top of his game.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 January 2013.