Coming Attractions.

Welcome to the first of a new monthly column at Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Second, in which we select a couple of potential highlights from the theatrical releases of the month ahead.

Foxcatcher. Has the potential to be characterless Oscar bait, but there’s hope in Bennett Miller, whose previous film, Moneyball was a slow burning gem that managed to successfully translate a potentially difficult source text in to a compelling piece of cinema. Foxcatcher opens today.

A Most Violent Year. J.C. Chandor has quietly built up a solid body of work over the last couple of years, with both Margin Call and All Is Lost impressing. A Most Violent Year looks set to follow suit too, with Chandor’s reliability reminding a little of James Gray. A Most Violent Year opens January 23rd.

The Last Of The Unjust. A difficult sell perhaps, but the latest chapter in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah odyssey demands an audience. The Last Of The Unjust opens today.

Whiplash. I’m going in sceptical, which is my automatic mode for when approaching such lauded fare. Here’s hoping the sound of drumming drowns out the near-deafening hyperbole. Whiplash opens on January 16th.

Inherent Vice. The unquestionable highlight of the weeks to come, and one of 2015’s most anticipated, director Paul Thomas Anderson follows up the best movie of 2012 (The Master) and the best picture of the last decade (There Will Be Blood) with an adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel that looks to evoke the spirit of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. Inherent Vice opens January 30th.