January is a month much like the Monday of the year — but getting out of the house and into a movie theater might help cure your winter blues. This month’s releases include two very different creature features (a horror flick and a Robbie Williams biopic), Steven Soderbergh’s unusual spin on the haunted house genre and a lauded Pamela Anderson comeback.
‘The Last Showgirl’
As both the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the niece of Sofia Coppola, director Gia Coppola is no stranger to Hollywood. But she is making a distinct name for herself with her third feature film, “The Last Showgirl,” which gives former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson her chance to shine on the big screen (and receive a 2025 Golden Globe nomination). Anderson plays Shelly, “an aging dancer in a Las Vegas revue who must confront her uncertain future when it’s announced that the show will close,” said Slant Magazine. The film explores “how women are valued for their looks and how women of a certain age aren’t valued for their experience.” (Jan. 8 in theaters)
‘Better Man’
Tired of an endless string of biopics, each more dreary than the last? Michael Gracey has solved that problem by dreaming up the strangest biopic of them all. “Better Man” is an original musical based on the life and times of U.K. musician Robbie Williams. Where it gets weird: Williams is played by a computer-generated chimpanzee. “Drawing on the work of Bob Fosse and Terry Gilliam, the director and his choreographer, Ashley Wallen, design dreamlike musical sequences that vault far beyond those in [Gracey’s] polarizing debut feature, ‘The Greatest Showman’ (2017),” said The New York Times. “Neither hagiography nor hatchet job, the movie casts an understanding eye on a once-infamous musical artist who weathered dizzying highs and devastating lows.” (Jan. 10 in theaters)
‘Hard Truths’
The métier of British filmmaker Mike Leigh is domestic dramas about working class folk, and his latest does not disappoint. “Hard Truths” follows a clinically depressed woman played by actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “whose name was made by her electrifying performance in Leigh’s 1996 film ‘Secrets and Lies,’ and might well get made all over again with her formidable appearance here, demonstrating the terrible connection between depression and anger,” said The Guardian. “Those two stark monosyllables in the title are a callback to Leigh’s debut from 1971, ‘Bleak Moments’: They lay down an uncompromising and yet also enigmatic challenge.” (Jan. 10 in theaters)
‘Wolf Man’
It would not be a modern day month at the movies without a remake. Produced by Blumhouse, the most domineering name in the horror game, “Wolf Man” modifies the 1941 classic “The Wolf Man.” Starring Christopher Abbott and directed by Leigh Whannell (“The Invisible Man”), this reboot isolates a small family in the remote Oregon wilderness, where they are attacked by a mysterious animal. When one family member is bitten and starts to transform into something inhuman, the others must decide whether to help or kill him. “It’s not about being funny or icky or gory,” Whannell said to Empire. “This is about the tragedy of the human body falling apart.” (Jan. 17 in theaters)
‘Presence’
Steven Soderbergh (“Oceans Eleven,” “Magic Mike”) has “never met a genre he didn’t want to tweak, revise and/or give the chopped and screwed treatment to,” said Rolling Stone. “This time, one of the most versatile American auteurs working today decides to renovate the haunted-house movie.” Starring Lucy Liu as the matriarch of a family that has recently moved to New Jersey, “Presence” pits the newcomers against some sort of unearthly presence living in their new home. “The twist of sorts here: Soderbergh shoots the film from the perspective of the restless spectre whizzing throughout the hallways,” the outlet added. (Jan. 24 in theaters)