By John Corrado

New releases for the week of January 12th, 2024.

Theatrical Releases:

Mean Girls (Wide Release): This musical remake of the 2004 teen classic is actually pretty good. Tina Fey returns to write the screenplay (and reprises her role as the calculus teacher), in this redo of Cady Heron (Angoirie Rice) taking on Regina George (Renee Rapp). It’s not as fresh or iconic as the original, but still pretty enjoyable on its own terms. The new cast is decent, and the musical numbers are mostly fun. I had a good time with it overall, even if if it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as the 2004 film. (Full Review)

Freud’s Last Session (Limited Release): This period drama imagines a fictionalized conversation between Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) at the start of WWII in 1939. Despite fine performances from the two leads, the film doesn’t fully live up to its promise of staging an imagined conversation between these two men, with an over-reliance on flashbacks and a hackneyed subplot involving Freud’s daughter. There are some interesting conversations, but it doesn’t go as deep as it could have. (Full Review)

Soul (Limited Theatrical Release): Pixar’s 2020 film, which was slated for a theatrical release but got shuffled direct-to-Disney+ during the COVID pandemic, is finally being released in select theatres this week. This Oscar-winner (for Animated Feature and Score) was my favourite movie of 2020, so it obviously deserves my highest recommendation. It’s part of a limited theatrical rollout for the studio’s three pandemic films that got pushed to streaming and were never released in theatres, with Turning Red arriving in February and Luca in March. (Full Review)

More Releases: Oppenheimer (IMAX Re-Release), The Beekeeper (Wide), The Book of Clarence (Wide), Some Other Woman (Limited), Captain Miller (TIFF Bell Lightbox)

Streaming Releases:

Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV+): Martin Scorsese’s staggering latest film (which made my list of the best movies of last year) is now streaming on Apple TV+, following a run in theatres this past fall. It’s a long but absorbing work that is sure to be a major player at the Oscars, including excellent performances from Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. (Full Review)

More Releases: Lift (Netflix), Fremont (MUBI)