The High Five: January

This time of year is always a weird one at the movies.  January and February tend to be utterly lacking in quality releases; expect some bad horror movies and limp star vehicles to fill the cinema in the coming months.  Luckily, with the Golden Globes and Oscars on the horizon, smaller films and awards contenders will start expanding, meaning people will finally get the chance to check out some of the best movies of 2012.  (For us Ohioans, that means some of the movies mentioned on the December High Five, like Zero Dark Thirty and The Impossible actually belong here; to avoid repetition, they'll sit tight in December.)  Thus, some of these movies may already be playing in a theater near you, should you be lucky enough to live in New York or Los Angeles.  Others will hit nationwide on the dates mentioned.

1. Any Day Now (already playing in limited release; Columbus release January 25) - In this true story, Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt play a gay couple who take in a Down syndrome child (Isaac Leyva) when his mother abandons him.  The three of them form a new family unit that is threatened when the authorities discover the living arrangement and the couple is forced to battle the 1970s' legal system that is biased against the homosexual community.  Any Day Now has gotten great reviews from those lucky enough to have already seen it, with especially great notices for Cumming, an immensely talented actor who doesn't pop up on the big screen terribly often (he's been busy with The Good Wife).  This seems like one of those films that, in dealing with social issues of the past, will speak powerfully to the present (much like Lincoln).

2. Gangster Squad (January 11) - Warner Bros. was put in a tough spot after the tragedy in Aurora this summer.  The trailers for Gangster Squad prominently featured a movie theater shooting, and while it's a historically accurate event, the studio decided to delay the film from its original October release to rework the film and remove the scene, which could be read as insensitive in light of what happened at the Dark Knight Rises (another Warner Bros. release) midnight showing.  It was a no-win situation for the studio, but regardless, Gangster Squad is finally set to release, with a fantastic cast including Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Emma Stone.  There's a strange plastic-ness to the film's aesthetic direction (Penn is looking especially leathery), but it will hopefully be the rare January release that's worth checking out.

3. The Central Park Five (already playing in limited release; Columbus release January 4) - One of the most buzzed-about documentaries of the year (and one that's been raking in the awards) is The Central Park Five, co-directed by Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns, and her husband David McMahon.  The film delves into the case of the titular group of black and Latino teenagers who were arrested and convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989.  The teens were coaxed into confession using illicit means, only for a serial rapist to claim responsibility for the crime years after the conviction.  Burns is one of the foremost documentarians in the world, and it sounds as if The Central Park Five is another compelling, well-researched film from him and his team.

4. Barbara (already playing in limited release; Columbus release January 11) - Nina Hoss plays the titular doctor in Barbara, a woman living in the German Democratic Republic who requests to be transferred to the West, where her lover is planning her escape.  She's punished for her request and reassigned to a hospital in a small country town, where she must wait for news regarding any hope of a future with the man she loves, away from the place she hates.  This German film has gotten rave reviews, especially for Hoss, whom many believe deserves awards attention for her performance.  It's a film I'm making sure to see before doing my Best of 2012 celebrations.

5. Mama (January 18) - The bad horror movies I mentioned in this post's introduction?  Here's Exhibit A.  I don't expect Mama to be good, but after taking a fantastic class on the horror genre - and specifically the treatment of women within it - I can't help but be excited for a horror flick that is so obviously concerned with the abjection of motherhood, which is a staple of the genre ranging from Frankenstein to Psyho to Rosemary's Baby to... Mama.  I expect that it will at least be an enjoyable ride, with the trailer promising some gross creepiness and Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau starring.  I plan to go in with low expectations, so I might get a(n un)pleasant surprise.

Other Notable Releases: Price Check (Columbus release January 17), Broken City (January 18), Starlet (Columbus release January 18), Francine (Columbus release January 18), North Sea Texas (Columbus release January 19), On the Road (Columbus release January 25), Movie 43 (January 25)