In the lead up to Valentine’s Day, the new releases at South African cinemas seem to be a response to a audiences’ love for prestige cinema, and a love for popcorn flicks. This Friday, four new movies are hitting the big screen, in addition to Throwback re-release 10 Things I Hate About You.
Much like last week’s Companion, Love Hurts is a Valentine’s themed film with a difference. In this action comedy from the production company behind the likes of John Wick, The Fall Guy and Nobody, Everything Everywhere All at Once star Ke Huy Quan plays a mild-mannered Milwaukee realtor who is forced to confront the past he’s spent years trying to leave behind: he’s a hitman, with a vicious crimelord brother on his trail, and an ex-partner (Ariana DeBose) who needs his help.
In the running for ten Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, is epic period drama The Brutalist. Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones star as a visionary Hungarian architect and his wife, who survive the Holocaust and emigrate to America in the aftermath of World World II. There they attempt to rebuild their lives and legacy, though looming over it all is a powerful, dangerous client (Guy Pearce).
Be aware that The Brutalist is three and a half hours long, although it has been screening with a intermission.
In a complete tonal 180 is comedy One of Them Days, which I guess is also a good Galentine’s Day option for this time of year. Keke Palmer and SZA play best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa, who find themselves facing eviction from their Los Angeles apartment after Alyssa’s boyfriend blows their rent money on a get-rich-quick scheme. The duo goes to extremes, putting their friendship on the line, with less than a day to raise the funds that will save them from homelessness.
Finally, from DreamWorks Animation, there’s Dog Man, a spin-off and story within a story from the Captain Underpants franchise. No doubt wanting to replicate the success they had with adapting the How To Train Your Dragon books, Dog Man brings to the screen the bestselling work of Dav Pilkey. Here, a human police officer and his faithful police dog are injured in the line of duty, and subjected to life-saving surgery that fuses them together. As Dog Man, the heroic half dog and half man is sworn to protect and serve (and fight his canine instincts) as he pursues supervillain Petey the Cat.