IT is a new year and it seems to be back to business as usual for the film industry although the effects of last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike are still being felt with major releases such as Mission: Impossible 8 being put back. Due to come out in June, it will will now be released in 2025. 

That said, there are a lot of fascinating and thought-provoking films due to be shown in cinemas this year that will be worth checking out. Here are some of them: 
 
Poor Things

Thrilling film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos returns with what must be his wildest and most bonkers film to date, a period sci-fi movie. Teaming up with Emma Stone for the fourth time, she plays Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant scientist a la Frankenstein Dr Goodwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

With a child’s mind trapped in an adult’s body, Bella has a hunger to discover the world and what it has to offer. A tour de force performance by Stone as you have never seen her before, alongside co-star Mark Ruffalo who acts against type as the slick and debauched lawyer she runs off with. 
 
The Holdovers

Acclaimed director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti reunite for the first time since 2004’s Sideways for this wonderfully bittersweet Christmas comedy drama.