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.