Cold winters, dark evenings, a fatigue pushing you more towards the comfort of your own sofa or cinema. It’s also Oscar season, but that’s not something I talk about for a while yet. It does mean a slew of fantastic movies come out. This month, I’m going to talk about the five movies I saw this month that I consider to be five stars. There will be three new releases and two older ones. I also won’t speak about some other phenomenal movies I watched, otherwise I won’t finish this post and it will end up in the scraps. Still, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with watching great movies such as Hamnet, The Voice of Hind Rajab or even re-watching Lollipop. These five just did it for me. I’m also not ranking them, I’m just writing in the order I watched them.

Marty Supreme

You’ve probably heard about this one. The 9 time nominee at the Oscars and the egregious Timothe Chalamet (or the name your dad thinks is funny to say wrong) mean this film has been well in the zeitgeist. However, what will keep it there is what a damn good movie it is. Marty Supreme (Chalamet) is a table-tennis player, and a pretty good one. Finishing #2 in the open, this proud player needs to get the money to pay off a fine and go to the world tournament in Japan. An absolute grifter, he doesn’t make things easy for himself, as his own ego gets in the way and he ends up in dangerous scrapes. At the same time, the girl he’s been seeing is pregnant and he’s also been sleeping with Gwenyth Paltrow.

This film feels like a movie of yesteryear. With a look and a feel reminiscent of a mid-70’s Dog Day Afternoon, it’s a film which doesn’t feel seen for a while. Even the previous Josh Safdie Movie, uncut gems, doesn’t have the stylish slickness. Supreme is phenomenally well written. Despite Marty being an irritating tool, a role Timmy was born to play, you can’t help but feel somewhat endeared towards him and wanting him to succeed as ultimately he’s just a redeemable fool who needs to learn.

At 300mph, this movie starts quick and does not let up. At well over two hours, it doesn’t feel that long, instead providing a fun watchable lead and a real story of his development as a person to a sweet conclusion. The 1950’s look and feel is charmingly refreshing. The music is also absolutely fantastic.

Wages of Fear (1953)

The oldest movie of my January selects, sitting on the BFI player and Tubi and probably somewhere on YouTube for free, Wages of Fear is a thriller about four men who need to bring a reactive chemical to an oil plant to put out a fire. This is because they don’t have money to get off this remote island, so this mission is their ticket to freedom.

If Marty Supreme is a quick thriller, Wages of Fear is much slower. The danger of this chemical is constant and forboding as our lead four take these trucks on narrow winding roads. Each hairpin turn could mean death. A boulder in the road is a denial of their freedom. Each character deals with one another a certain way. They’re all strong individuals, who deal with fear in different ways.

The movie is also a smart reflection on American exploitation of other countries, and other peoples in order to get oil, allowing a rich class to benefit, while the local communities bear the risk with their lives and remain in abject economic poverty. There’s a pretty damming line I noted in my letterboxd review which was “Wherever there’s oil, there’s Americans”. Wages of Fear is an old movie, but that doesn’t make it not timely. It’s an essential piece of cinema which is still a fantastic watch after all this time.

Rental Family

Back to the modern day, and the one film which isn’t a thriller in this list, Rental Family is an interesting film in that it really combines Eastern and Western ideals, but not in a way where it says one is better than the other. Phillip is an American actor in Japan who’s biggest role has been a toothpaste commercial. He gets a strange new gig where he is a person who goes to a funeral of someone who is alive. He discovers a company who work on rental families, which means they hire out actors as family members. It starts with him being a groom in a sham wedding, then he becomes a fake journalist for an old celebrity and most pivotally plays the father of a girl who isn’t aware that he is an actor.

It’s probably Fraser’s best role, done with such empathy, and a big improvement on the nonsense that is the whale. The movie feels constantly natural in its dialogue and its flow. It’s about Philip learning the value of his role, and his colleagues learning the value of themselves to ensure a much healthier relationship. Of course, with the story going how it is, there are some tender moments and sad moments, but the film overall is uplifting and life affirming. Give it a watch

No Other Choice

Possibly the biggest Oscar snub, Park Chan-Wook is back again with No Other Choice, a movie about a paper factory worker who has lost his job and has to deal with the shame on him and his family of the lack of financial security following an American takeover. When he sees a job come available managing a plant, he realises there may be better people than him for the role. He takes his destiny into his own hands.

A murderous black comedy, this film has so much going for it. First of all, it’s absolutely nuts. The craziness is constant, constantly getting barmier. The first murder in this movie was as good a scene as I’ll see. The flowerpot scene is also nuts. It all leads to a satisfying dark conclusion.

Lee Byung Hun is fantastic in the lead, one of the best performances of the year. His wife, played by Son Ye-Jin, is also fantastic. They both oppose and compliment each other fluently. Likewise, the soundtrack is great and some of the cinematography is as good as you’ll see this year. This all comes together to make a strong witty film which very much reflects its society in a way not too dissimilar to Parasite.

Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

From Yorgos Lanthimos, of Bugonia and Poor Things fame, comes Killing of a Sacred Deer, an earlier movie than his more mainstream notes. Colin Farrell plays a heart surgeon who had someone die during his surgery. The son of that man played by a young creepy Barry Keoghan comes into his life and seems to obsess over him. When Farrell’s son loses his ability to walk, Keoghan tells the surgeon that his family will all become ill and die unless Farrell kills one in revenge for the botched surgery, which we learn is under the influence of alcohol.

A horror movie, KoaSD has no scares. The supernatural is shown, but never explained. You can see what Keoghan’s character says happens and don’t need to know why. The dialogue is cold and the shots can be weird, all leading to this fantasy world and a feeling of unease. You sit through the whole film feeling tense and really can’t look away before a surreal ending.