Hold on to your seats because we've a really, really exciting three months at the movies on the way with loads of must-sees in the build-up to the Oscars - and plenty after the gongs and gunás fest too.
The year is already getting off to a great start with A Monster Calls, and here Harry Guerin takes a look at what's coming up in the weeks ahead. We'll see you in the queue!
La La Land - January 13
Even with the best of intentions and frantic summoning of glass-half-full feelgood, January can be the heaviest of months. Here's the antidote: a gorgeous musical that shows they really can make them like they used to - and that you are a lot younger than you may think. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling play the lonely hearts trying to hold onto their dreams - acting and music - in a city that can spit out sensitive souls, once it's sucked out the joy and adventurous spirit that brought them to LA in the first place.
Through the songs and seasons onscreen you'll find your own batteries recharging but, as you'd expect from Whiplash writer-director Damien Chazelle, there's also a bit of bite about holding on to passion, be it for a career, or someone else. If you go goo-goo for Tinseltown's Golden Age, then you'll lose your mind here, with Stone and Gosling dancing their way into Hollywood history. If you only see one movie in January...
Manchester by the Sea - January 13
He's put in some brilliant turns over the years - The Assassination of Jesse James, Gone Baby Gone, The Killer Inside Me, Ain't Them Bodies Saints - while still managing to stay a bit under the mainstream radar, but Casey Affleck's performance in this exploration of grief has been hailed as his finest two-and-bit hours and looks like it's landed him that long-time-coming leading man status, whether he wants it or not. Certainly, since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last January Manchester by the Sea has taken up a lot of the Oscar chatter.
Sooner or later, together or apart, it has to be Affleck and co-star Michelle Williams' night. We're promised some laughter between the tears here and given how brilliantly writer-director Kenneth Lonergan handled the rough and ready of relationships in the Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo-starring You Can Count on Me, you should try to have this night out with your nearest and dearest.
Jackie - January 20
There's still a rump of people who reckon that Natalie Portman didn't deserve the Best Actress Oscar for Black Swan back in 2011 and that True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld - strategically sidelined in the Best Supporting Actress category - should have won. If Portman picks up her second gong come February 26, there will be fewer arguments. Put simply, she is stunning in director Pablo Larraín's biopic of former US First Lady.
Jacqueline Kennedy - while the resemblance isn't uncanny, the portrayal will send shivers down your spine. Chronicling the hours immediately after President John F Kennedy's assassination in November 1963 and the preparations for his funeral, Larraín brilliantly captures the pinball emotions of the bereaved and makes us feel like we're seeing events for the very first time. You'll be watching more than once. Guaranteed.
Lion - January 20
It's been a strange, off-the-boil odyssey for Nicole Kidman over the past decade or so but Lion is said to show her at the very top of her game once again, this time opposite Dev Patel as her adopted son. Far removed from Pattel's Marigold Hotel merriment, Lion is based on Saroo Brierley's memoir A Long Way Home, which chronicles his against-all-odds search for his birth family back in India via online maps and memory fragments.
Those who have seen the continent-jumping movie say that Kidman and Patel are pushed every inch of the way by the performances of their young co-stars, Sunny Pawar and Abhishek Bharate. All this from a director, Garth Davis, who is making his feature debut. So it's pride in both senses of the word.
Split - January 20
M Night Shyamalan went off the boil big time before the reputation-restoring The Visit reached cinemas in 2015. The writer-director is in great form here with his best film since Unbreakable - a kidnap thriller that gives James McAvoy the opportunity to deliver the performances of his career to date. That's not a typo: McAvoy's villain has Dissociative Identity Disorder, so the three teens being held captive really don't know who's going to come through the door.
Shyamalan torques the tension as escape plans are devised; the turning of the key means it's time for another twist and the popcorn munching throughout is, to put it mildly, prodigious. As befits the film's title, there will be arguments afterwards about all the goings on, but universal agreement too on the magic of McAvoy. Seriously, he deserves awards for this one.
Hacksaw Ridge - January 27
Mel Gibson's career rehabilitation has gone into overdrive with this Andrew Garfield-starring WWII drama. It tells the true story of Desmond T Doss, a combat medic who became the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroics in 1945 on the Japanese island of Okinawa, where he saved 75 men in the titular battle zone.
After going down the superhero route with Spider-Man it's great to see Garfield turning his talent to really heavy lifting with Silence and this film - Boy A and The Social Network have shown us in the past just how strong he can be. And while some have taken issue with the spiritual dimension of this story, there has been far less debate about whether Hacksaw Ridge marks a return to form for its director. Point proven, the awards shake-up awaits.
T2: Trainspotting - January 27
If you're facing into 2017 wondering just what exactly happened to the last 20 years of your life, then you're in the best of company as time's audit is the launch pad for Danny Boyle's long, long-awaited - and in many respects dreaded - sequel to his era-defining 1996 film. And whether fans are on tenterhooks or in full blown terror, they're all going to be in the cinema come January 27 for what Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh has described as a "now or never" movie.
If, to borrow a little from Trainspotting's rallying cry we're choosing optimism, then the trailer's mix of humour, heartache and horror has given us lots of reasons for hope as Ewan McGregor's anti-hero Renton returns back home to Edinburgh where the living ghosts of Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and the two-decades-distilling drama await. How much have any of them really changed? We haven't long to wait to find out.
Gold - February 3
The Matthew McConaughey-starring Free State of Jones was one of the biggest letdowns of 2016, but he looks to be back on box office track with this jungle-set adventure which mines real-life events in its bid to strike, well, you know what. Classics like The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The African Queen, Apocalypse Now and There Will Be Blood have all been mentioned in the build-up - no pressure, so - and staking his claim behind the lens is Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning writer of Traffic and writer-director of Syriana.
McConaughey plays the grab-at-anything prospector and in what looks like another inspired pairing for the Texan, Édgar Ramírez is the voice of reason geologist. Given Gaghan's gift for cranking up the tension we're expecting as much underarm sweatiness from the audience as the actors.
Toni Erdmann - February 3
Ah yes, the two-and-a-half-hour existential German comedy which, according to all reports, is a riot. A five-gong winner at the European Film Awards - Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenwriter - Toni Erdmann tells the story of a prank-loving music teacher (Austrian screen legend Peter Simonischek) who tries to reconnect with his daughter (Sandra Hüller) via his alter-ego as a bucktoothed business mentor and life coach. Right.
The critics went nuts for its nuttiness at Cannes, where the movie won the hacks' FIPRESCI Award, and apparently the ratio of humour to hurt in this examination of the human condition is just right. It'd want to be with the running time! Maybe more of a 'best friend movie' than a date movie. Then again...
Loving - February 3
Ireland's biggest Oscar hope Ruth Negga will have her work cut out in a category that will definitely include Annette Bening (20th Century Women) and Natalie Portman (Jackie). But, win or lose, she should feel the same sense of pride in a job done brilliantly. With low-key (and all the better for it) direction by Mud's Jeff Nichols, Loving tells the true story of an illegal interracial marriage in the US state of Virginia in the 1950s and a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court as Mildred and Richard Loving sought justice.
The quiet power of Negga's performance as Mildred is beautifully complemented by Joel Edgerton as her taciturn-yet-tender husband. Don't expect big Hollywood scenes, but do prepare for a lump in your throat roughly equal in size to one of those golden statuettes.
20th Century Women - February 10
With so many great turns down the years - The Grifters, Bugsy, Open Range, The Kids Are Alright - word is that Annette Bening's performance in this end-of-a-decade comedy-drama is her best yet. "It's 1979 and nothing means anything," her character Dorothea laments as she faces up to her son Jamie growing up and her own ageing.
Writer-director Mike Mills did great work with the push and pull of inter-generational relationships and bittersweet beats in Beginners and it looks like he's cast these characters to perfection - Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann as Jamie also star. The best trailers always have some nugget of real-life relevance, and 20th Century Women's teaser has one of the best ever: "Wondering if you're happy, it's a great shortcut to being depressed." It looks like the safest of bets that we'll leave the cinema feeling lighter, and wiser.
The Lego Batman Movie - February 10
A binge watch of The Lego Movie over Christmas did nothing to ease the count-the-days cravings for this spin-off, which sees Will Arnett reprising his show-stealing role as Gotham's greatest. The pitch, 'What does Batman get up to at home?', is genius and into this life of splendid isolation comes Arnett's Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera as Robin. Cue life lessons among the laughs and a lot of men of a certain age convincing themselves that figures of the dynamic duo really would look perfect on the mantelpiece back home.
There's been a rake of trailers but best to just watch one - if at all - to keep your wonder eyes wide and funny bone fresh. If this is half as good as its older brother it could well be the superhero movie of the year and with Harley Quinn involved in the shenanigans, fingers crossed for lots of Suicide Squad slagging.
Hidden Figures - February 17
Just when you think you have something of a handle on your own ignorance of history and heroism, another film arrives to really put you in your place. So, along with the true stories of Hacksaw Ridge and Loving in the coming weeks, we'll also have Hidden Figures, which honours the African-American women involved in the NASA mission to send astronaut John Glenn into orbit.
And what a cast: along with Empire's Taraji P Henson, The Help's Octavia Spencer and singer Janelle Monae as the ladies who launch we also have Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and, wait for it, Jim Parsons. That's The Big Bang Theory's constituency doubly catered for, then. As for the film, it looks like it's found the perfect formula for making the important points with a lot of laughs along the way. Watch this space!
Fences - February 17
The big movie joy of the New Year is the amount of heavyweight films that arrive weekly in the run-up to the Oscars; Denzel Washington's third as an actor-director is one of them. Based on August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fences sees Washington and Viola Davis reprise the roles that brought them Tony Awards back in 2010. It's a story of African-American family life in the 1950s as bin man Troy Maxson (Washington) struggles with the what-might-have-been of his life - in this case a baseball career - and alienates long-suffering wife Rose (Davis) and family.
There's a school of thought that says that Washington would've won at the 2013 Academy Awards for Flight had he not been up against Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln. So will it be a one-two of Oscar number three for him, and long overdue recognition for Davis, this year? If the chills in this trailer are anything to go by it could be a home run.
Miss Sloane - February 24
House of Cards fans struggling with the wait for the season five premiere should find some respite here as Jessica Chastain goes to Washington as the titular lobbyist. The latest gig for the win-at-all-costs Elizabeth Sloane is a contentious firearms bill and amidst all the hearings and hardball we've been promised a real anti-hero from Shakespeare in Love and Marigold Hotel director John Madden, who previously worked with Chastain on 2010's The Debt. The British filmmaker has cited the 2007 George Clooney-starring fixer thriller Michael Clayton as an influence on Miss Sloane, so it looks like we'll be in the best of good bad company come February.
Moonlight - February 24
You'll be hearing a whole lot more about Barry Jenkins' boys-to-men love story in the next two months - even the trailer leaves images burned into the memory. Split into three acts and shot in sequence with three actors - Alex R Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes - in the lead role, we follow the path of Chiron from bullied boy to criminal and the formative figures in his life: abusive mother Paula (Naomie Harris), drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and friend Kevin (Jaden Piner, Jharrel Jerome, André Holland).
Harris and Ali have been feted for their performances in a film that has breakout hit stamped all over it and is determined to wrongfoot audiences bored with the cookie cutter characters that are served up all too often. Magic in the Moonlight indeed.
Patriots Day - February 24
Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg have proven to be quite the team with their Afghanistan-set war drama Lone Survivor and oil drilling disaster movie Deepwater Horizon - two of the most gripping films of recent years. For their third outing based on a true story they've decided to focus on the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the ensuing manhunt.
Unlike Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, Boston-born Wahlberg's character in Patriots Day is a composite, but Berg's ability to balance the personal stories with edge-of-the-seat scenes looks as finely tuned as ever in the footage seen so far. And, once again, he's assembled a superb supporting cast with Michelle Monaghan, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon and JK Simmons all honouring hometown heroism.
Logan - March 3
After the 'ah here' of last summer's X-Men: Apocalypse, the franchise really needs a movie that does right by the characters - and fans. Great news, then, that Hugh Jackman's swansong as everyone's favourite mutant looks like it will deliver hearts in mouths, and lumps in throats. The key is in the title - stripped of the Wolverine moniker, this one tackles the decline of Jackman's most iconic character, here hustling a living as a chauffeur and taking care of a fading Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart). But redemption could be at hand - or should that be claw?
Director James Mangold, who previously worked with Jackman on 2013's The Wolverine, has described Logan as a Western. Given how well Mangold tackled the renegades and relationships of that genre in Copland and 3:10 to Yuma, we really are expecting, some, ahem, true grit.
Kong: Skull Island - March 10
Blockbuster season starts earlier and earlier every year, and in 2017 the gorilla will be in our midst before St Patrick's Day. It's 12 years since the Peter Jackson reboot so a decent amount of time has elapsed before his multiplex return - yes, we're looking at you, Spider-Man. This time 'round, Room's Oscar winner Brie Larson and Marvel mainstay Tom Hiddleston join Kings of Summer director Jordan Vogt-Roberts as he makes the step(s) up to the megabudget milieu. John Goodman and Samuel L Jackson are in the mix too. We're promised all creatures great and smaller in this Seventies-set adventure, which will hopefully give us the warm and furries ahead of Kong stomping out with Godzilla in 2020. Talk about a power couple...
Elle - March 10
It's over a decade since Basic Instinct and Robocop director Paul Verhoeven had a new film in cinemas - WWII thriller Black Book in 2006 - but he returned to the big screen with a seven-minute standing ovation at Cannes last May for this revenge story which looks set to be the most controversial film of 2017. It's Verhoeven's first movie in the French language and one of the country's most iconic actors, Isabelle Huppert, is in the lead role.
In a performance which has been hailed by some as the best of a brilliant career, she plays a video game company boss who is raped in her own home. What follows has confounded viewers' expectations and challenged their views as Elle tries to uncover the identity of her attacker.
Free Fire - March 31
Cillian Murphy is set for some summer with Dunkirk, but before that we'll see him on screen in the Spring in High-Rise and Kill List director Ben Wheatley's Seventies-celebrating stand-off. If you love movies like The Getaway, The Outfit and The Taking of Pelham 123 you need to report for duty to the cinema, and if that troika doesn't ring any bells you're still guaranteed a blast here - pun intended.
With the barbs as plentiful as the bullets, Murphy and Michael Smiley play the Irishmen buying guns in a Boston warehouse with Brie Larson the go-between in a deal that defines the word doomed. Things go south very quickly; everyone shoots first and amidst the reloading and repartee you'll swear you can smell the cordite. The cult favourite club welcomes a new inductee for 2017.
Harry Gueirn
