Paprika 4K
Legendary anime director Satoshi Kon sadly didn't live long enough to make more than four features — he died of pancreatic cancer in 2010 at the age of 46 — but before his untimely passing, he managed to create one of the most distinctive and imaginative oeuvres in cinema, let alone animation, inspiring the likes of Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky. His final film, Paprika, returns to theaters this month in a 4K presentation from Anime Expo Cinema Nights.Our Take: "Don't you think dreams and the internet are similar? They're both areas where the repressed conscious mind vents." So says the title character in this mind-bending film, Kon's most famous creation. Paprika is the alter-ego of Atsuko Chiba, a researcher and psychiatrist who uses the DC Mini, a newly invented machine that allows her to view her patients' dreams — and enter them herself in the guise of Paprika. When some of the machines go missing, Atsuko begins to investigate, setting off a chain of events in which reality and dreams begin to blend. The film's somewhat confounding plot and high-concept discussions may be confusing to first-time viewers, but Kon's visuals and the music from regular composer Susumu Hirasawa mark Paprika as an audacious voyage into the surreal. It's a shame the director isn't around to see what the internet has become — I bet he'd have a lot to say about it. Opens Wednesday, January 8.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera
Following up on the first Den of Thieves, director Christian Gudegast's roided-up 2018 heist thriller featuring a faceoff between an LA County Sherriff's Department deputy gang and a group of Spec-Ops ex-Marine bank robbers, this sequel picks up right where the last one left off. Major crimes detective "Big Nick" O'Brien (Gerard Butler) tracks the surviving marines, led by Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), to Europe, where they plan to execute a major diamond heist. You might be asking, why is an LA sheriff going all the way to Europe? If you are, then you are probably not the target audience for this movie — judging by the trailers, which are all guns, gear, car chases, and menacing glare-downs between Butler and Jackson, this one isn't exactly a thinker. Opens January 10."Cartoon Cartoon Fridays" at Gables Art Cinema
When was the last time you sat down and watched Cartoon Network? Remember the days when shows like Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls took up all your attention? The channel's late-'90s heyday produced some of the most beloved original shows in American animation and introduced Looney Tunes to a new and appreciative generation. Its Toonami block — still going to this day — also introduced Japanese anime to American kids alongside superhero action shows. Coral Gables Art Cinema is letting you relive those glorious days with its retrospective "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays: a Celebration of WB Animation," running every Friday in January. The series kicks off with The Powerpuff Girls Movie on January 10, followed by Batman: Mask of the Phantasm — one of the most celebrated Batman films, animated or otherwise — on January 17. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, the direct-to-video hit that spawned a franchise reboot, is next on January 24, and the original Space Jam, featuring all your favorite Looney Tunes (and some basketball player named Michael Jordan) wraps up the series on January 31. 9:30 p.m. Fridays through January 31 at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.Hard Truths
A new film from British director Mike Leigh is always an event, even if his movies aren't exactly blockbuster fare. That's doubly true in the case of Hard Truths, which reunites the auteur with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the lead actress from his Palme d'Or winning 1996 film Secrets and Lies. The film screened at major festivals, including Toronto, New York, and London before a limited release in December. If you missed it at Miami Film Festival's GEMS a few months ago, now's your chance to see it again.Our Take: Pansy (Jean-Baptiste) might be the most casually hateful woman in London. A chronically ill germaphobe who constantly berates her family for their perceived shortcomings, she hurls insults and abuse at nearly everyone she comes across when she does leave her home. It's outrageously funny to watch, like an Armando Iannucci show, until suddenly it's not — nobody knows why Pansy is so angry at everyone and everything around her, least of all her. Hard Truths is a film that benefits from the context of post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain, where everything and everyone seems to be getting worse all the time. It's similar to Leigh's even bleaker film Naked, a takedown of the country's social collapse under Margaret Thatcher. But it's fundamentally a story about family. Many of us know someone like Pansy — masterfully portrayed by Jean-Baptiste in an Oscar-worthy performance — who lets their pain and misery infect everyone with whom they come into contact, most of all the loved ones closest to them. Come for the insult comedy, stay for the catharsis. Opens Friday, January 10.
The Room Next Door and Four Classics by Pedro Almodóvar at Coral Gables Art Cinema
It may be hard to believe, but Pedro Almodóvar has never made a full-length feature film in English until now. The legendary Spanish auteur finally dipped his hands into the global lingua franca with his new film, The Room Next Door, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The film won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion last year and screened at the New York Film Festival and Miami Film Festival's GEMS. Coral Gables Art Cinema will host the film's Florida premiere on Friday, January 10, along with a retrospective of some of Almodóvar's cherished classics, including Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! on Saturday, January 11, All About My Mother on Saturday, January 18, and The Skin I Live In on Saturday, January 25.Our Take: Based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez and set in genteel contemporary New York, The Room Next Door follows Ingrid (Julianne Moore), a writer with an intense phobia of death, as she reconnects with her cancer-stricken old friend Martha (Tilda Swinton), a former photojournalist and war correspondent. As the two rekindle their bond, Martha makes a shocking request that threatens to cast her friend into a moral crisis. Fans of Almodóvar might be worried about what his foray into English could hold in store, but The Room Next Door features many of his trademarks: bright colors that contrast with somber subject matter, thoughtfully stilted dialogue that marks his characters as members of the creative class, and strong performances from its two leads, both legendary actors. The film recalls Bergman's legendary Persona, but it's not nearly as groundbreaking or disturbing — this is a classy drama meditating on mortality and the ways it affects those around us. Friday, January 10 through Thursday, January 16 at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
The Brutalist
After a limited release in New York and Los Angeles just before the holidays, director Brady Corbet's Oscar contender The Brutalist is set to expand this month. A24 will release the film in Florida on Wednesday, January 15, the same day Oscar nominations will be revealed. The epic drama stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Bauhaus-trained Hungarian-Jewish architect who immigrates to America after surviving the Holocaust. There, he struggles to find work and regain his sense of self until he meets a wealthy, charismatic industrialist (Guy Pearce) who becomes his patron.Our Take: New Times recently declared The Brutalist one of the 12 best movies of 2024.
Wolf Man
Twenty-twenty-four was big for vampires with Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, but 2025 looks to be the year of the wolf man. Just as he did with The Invisible Man back in 2020, director Leigh Whannel, an experienced horror specialist who co-wrote the Saw and Insidious franchises with James Wan, will reboot yet another Universal Monsters property with his take on the famous werewolf tale, Wolf Man. This one stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner as a couple moving out to the former's childhood home in the Oregon countryside. One night, during a full moon, he's attacked by a mysterious beast and soon transforms into something inhuman. Get the silver bullets ready! Opens Friday, January 17.
Presence
RaMell Ross may have broken new ground for first-person POV filmmaking with Nickel Boys, but Steven Soderbergh is hot on his tail with a horror take. The auteur behind Magic Mike, the Ocean's trilogy, Out of Sight, The Limey, Kimi, and dozens of other classic films has cooked up a horror take on the burgeoning cinematographic style with his new movie Presence, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The idea for the film is so simple it's scarily brilliant: a ghost story shot from the POV of the ghost, haunting a suburban family home. The cast includes Lucy Liu, Uncut Gems phenom Julia Fox, and This Is Us actor Chris Sullivan. Opens Friday, January 17.
The Colors Within
This animated tale centers around Totsuko, a girl with synesthesia who attends an all-girls Catholic school in seaside rural Japan and can perceive other people as colors. Enticed by the color of Kimi, an outcast classmate, she's inspired to start making music to express her unique way of seeing the world, forming a group with Kimi and their shy male friend Rui, a collector of musical instruments. The film had a limited release in 2024, with distributor GKids putting it out wide this month.Our Take: We've all fantasized about starting a band, but this gorgeous anime from director Naoko Yamada and DanDaDan studio Science Saru may actually inspire you to do it. Beautifully animating the story of Totsuko and her friends as they embark on a journey of musical discovery, self-expression, and quiet rebellion, The Colors Within is a warm-hearted celebration of creative endeavor. The music ain't half-bad, either. Opens Friday, January 24.
