Shuichi Yoshida/ASP/Kokuho Film Partners/GKIDS
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January is usually a sleepy time for new movies, with most film fans focusing on awards season and studios releasing their least inspiring new films into multiplexes. Thanks to Miami’s independent theaters and programmers, however, there’s always something good on offer here. This month’s local screenings feature an Oscar contender from Japan, cult movies from the ‘80s, and shorts from the Sundance Film Festival. Here are the best films to see in Miami this month.
Shuichi Yoshida/ASP/Kokuho Film Partners/GKIDS
Kokuho at Koubek Center
A phenomenon in its home country, Kokuho, Japan’s submission for the Oscars’ Best International Film award this year, has become the nation’s all-time highest-grossing domestic live-action film. The film, by director Lee Sang-il, mixes a yakuza crime thriller with a dive into the world of kabuki theatre, where men play both male and female parts, and the names of celebrated actors are hereditary titles. When the son of a slain yakuza boss is taken in by the head of a legendary kabuki family (Ken Watanabe of Inception and Tokyo Vice), his prodigious talent rivals that of the family’s son and presumed heir to the title. The two boys’ rivalry develops further as time goes on, and both seek to become a kokuho, a living national treasure. Painstaking effort was made to ensure the film’s authenticity, with lead actor Ryo Yoshizawa training for a year and a half under a kabuki master and director Lee casting actual kabuki actors as both consultants and onscreen performers. The screening is open only to Miami Film Festival members; the lowest tier costs $65 and offers discounts to festival screenings and other benefits. 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 14, at the Koubek Center, 2705 SW Third St., Miami; 305-237-7749; miamifilmfestival.com.
Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour at O Cinema South Beach
Just as Sundance celebrates its final edition in Park City, Utah, before decamping to Colorado next year, O Cinema is screening some of the best shorts of the vaunted independent film festival’s 2025 edition. The block of seven films features live action, animated, and nonfiction shorts from Mexico, Cambodia, and Czechia. Viewers will encounter stories of a high school debate club arguing over minimum wage (“Debaters”), a grandmother interfering in her queer grandson’s love life (“Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites”), Vietnam War refugees used as extras in Apocalypse Now (“We Were the Scenery”), and more. 7 p.m. Friday, January 16, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; o-cinema.org. Tickets cost $10 to $12.50.
AV Club: Surrealism Through The Decades at Main Library
AV Club continues its surrealism series with a screening of 16mm films from the movement’s prewar heyday to the 1980s. The highlight of “Surrealism Through The Decades” is Luis Buñuel’s 1965 film, Simon of the Desert (Simón del desierto), his Mexico-made follow-up to the taboo-busting Viridiana, based on the life of an early Christian ascetic, Saint Simeon, who lived atop a pillar for 36 years. The program also includes experimental silent films by René Clair and Man Ray, the beloved and influential American female surrealist Maya Deren’s film At Land, and a macabre stop-motion claymation short by Czech animator Jan Švankmajer. 2 p.m. Saturday, January 17, at Main Library, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-2665; mdpls.org. Admission is free.
Fourth Act Film/Grasshopper Film photo
Key Biscayne Film Festival
The Key Biscayne Film Festival is back for a third year, with screenings taking place in the Paradise Theater inside Town Hall, and outdoors at Paradise Park on the final weekend of January. The lineup comprises mostly documentaries and includes films with a local focus (River of Grass, Naked Ambition) as well as others addressing national issues (Blue Zeus, News Without A Newsroom). There are also portraits of famous figures (Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore), along with a handful of fiction films. Every screening will feature a post-film Q&A, and opening and closing parties will be held on Friday and Sunday. Thursday, January 29, through Sunday, February 1, at Paradise Cinema, 560 Crandon Blvd., and Paradise Park, 530 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne. Tickets cost $20 to $50 via kbfilmfestival.org.
The Fly at Coral Gables Art Cinema
David Cronenberg’s body horror masterpiece The Fly screens at Coral Gables Art Cinema this month as part of the theater’s After Hours lineup.
Our Take: I have never been as physically repulsed by a film as I was by The Fly, yet I was simultaneously moved nearly to tears. Remaking the 1958 mad scientist B-movie, Cronenberg’s update casts Jeff Goldblum as idealistic researcher Seth Brundle, whose experimental transporter technology accidentally blends his DNA with that of a common fly. The result is unbearable to watch: Seth’s body begins to fall apart as he transforms into a grotesque monster, the “Brundlefly,” eventually losing all connection with his humanity. Cronenberg employs some of the most effective (and most disgusting) special effects ever used in film to manifest the physical trauma of Seth’s mutation, turning an exploitative premise into a potent exploration of disease and mortality (indeed, critics at the time treated the film as an AIDS allegory). Even among the director’s many films exploring the ways human bodies and minds cohabit with science and technology, The Fly is a landmark. 10 p.m. Saturday, January 31, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
