by MARK SLUTSKY

Winter is not, traditionally, the greatest season ever for movies. With the Christmas Oscar-qualifying rush of late autumn over, studios tend to reserve the months of January and February as dumping grounds for stuff they can’t really figure out how to get rid of otherwise. But all is not lost for moviegoers in the chilly months ahead. You’ve got the wider releases of movies that were only released for a week in New York or L.A. last year to get in under the Oscar deadline, and there are always a few fun flicks that for some reason or another weren’t holiday season material.

Festival faves

Some festival favourites from last year are finally seeing wider releases (though they’ll mostly start limited, so some dates aren’t exact yet). Most intriguing, maybe, is Aleksandr Sokurov’s Russian Ark, which consists of one unedited 96-minute take, shot in St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum (Feb. 14). One of Sundance’s most loved and hated entries last year was Gus van Sant’s Gerry, which features Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as a couple of guys named Gerry who get lost in the desert and spend a lot of time wandering around and not saying much (March).

David Cronenberg is finally back with another film, Spider, set in London. Ralph Fiennes plays the titular character, a schizophrenic obsessed with the murder of his mother (Miranda Richardson). Gabriel Byrne also stars in what looks to be another real Cronenberg creep-out (March). City of God also seems to offer a real visceral moviegoing experience; directed by Katia Lund, it’s a take on gang violence and growing up in Rio. This one’s already attracting the Goodfellas comparisons (January 31).

Iranian directing superstar Abbas Kiarostami’s latest, Ten, opens at Ex-Centris later this month. Set entirely in a car, the movie features Mania Akbari as the driver, and follows the conversations she has with people as she drives around Tehran (Jan. 24).

Another art-house one to look out for is Morvern Callar, from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, who made the great, under-seen Ratcatcher. The oddly-titled flick features Samantha Morton (Sweet and Lowdown, Minority Report) as the central character, a woman who sells her dead boyfriend’s novel as her own and takes off to Spain (February). Also following up a great debut is Lisa Cholodenko, who directed 1998’s High Art. Laurel Canyon, her latest, features Frances McDormand as a loose-living record industry exec whose lifestyle embarrasses her son, played by Christian Bale (March).

Docs and dramas

There’s also a couple of interesting docs coming out in the next couple of months. Lost in La Mancha follows Terry Gilliam’s ill-fated efforts to make a movie out of Don Quixote, which had pretty much every moviemaking disaster befall it: dying stars, sets destroyed by storms (February). Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary, tells the strange story of Traudl Junge, who served as Hitler’s private secretary from 1942–45 and who died the day after the movie premiered in Berlin last year. First-time filmmakers Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer direct (February). If you’re interested in Hitler, you might also want to check out the non-documentary Max, about a Jewish art dealer in the ’20s who meets a failed young artist named Adolf... John Cusack is the art dealer and Noah Taylor plays Hitler. This film has, perhaps understandably, aroused massive controversy (no date yet).

Michael Caine’s been racking up massive Oscar karma for his performance in Philip Noyce’s The Quiet American, based on the novel by Graham Greene set in cold war Vietnam. Brendan Fraser plays the sinister American (Feb. 7). Surely hoping for another Oscar is Kevin Spacey, who plays an anti-capital punishment activist who ends up on death row in The Life of David Gale. Kate Winslet co-stars and Alan Parker directs in what looks like a rather goofy and overblown feature. And Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in Love Liza (written by his brother, Gordy), as a grieving widower who takes to gas-huffing. Ultra-prolific Chicago musician Jim O’Rourke provides the tunes (February).

Big laffs

There are quite a few comedies on their way to your local moviehouse this season. Old School seems like it could be promising: three depressed shlubs in their thirties try to relive their college days by starting a frat house. Okay, so that’s a premise that could really, really wrong, but with Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn—all fine comic talents—as the leads, we might have reason to expect some chuckles here (Feb. 21). Luke’s bro Owen Wilson teams up again with Jackie Chan for Shanghai Knights, the sequel to 2000’s very entertaining oater Shanghai Noon. This one has the two leaving the Old West and setting of for London (Feb. 7).

Also taking a trip—a Boat Trip, that is—are Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Saturday Night Live’s Horatio Sanz, playing a couple of goofs who book passage on a cruise, expecting to score with all sorts of ladies. Oops! It’s a gay cruise! Roger Moore, strangely enough, also appears (Mar. 7). Gwyneth Paltrow takes to the sky in View From the Top, where she plays an aspiring stewardess, alongside Christina Applegate. Candace Bergen co-stars, as does Mike Myers (who apparently only has a cameo appearance, though you wouldn’t know it from the trailer). This one’s been delayed again and again, which is never a good sign (Mar. 21). Head of State is Chris Rock’s latest movie effort, which has him as an alderman who suddenly becomes a presidential candidate after the previous candidate dies. Bernie Mac co-stars as Rock’s dimwitted brother and running mate (Mar. 28).

Local heroes

The Parc continues its exceptional non-mainstream programming for thinking filmgoers. Thank local hero Don Lobel for the rep house’s Kurosawa retrospective, which is now playing and continues throughout the month. This look back focuses on the auteur’s collaborations with Toshiro Mifune, one of Japan’s most accomplished thespians. Roy Cross’s So Faraway and Blue is a mournful look at one woman’s efforts to get over the loss of her father, who abandoned her years earlier. The film stars Nicole Eliopoulos, Daniel Giverin, Bradley Moss and Julie Ménard (Jan. 31). Filmmaker B. de Burgh will regale with wackiness, in Katryn’s Place, a film about a Polish immigrant woman who learns various secrets from her dog (Feb 7). Nicholas Kinsey’s Women Without Wings, a tale of one Albanian woman’s struggle to choose between two lovers, will also open this season (Feb. 14). And Looking for Leonard, the much-anticipated feature from producer Sylvia Wilson, debuts Jan. 31. Atom Egoyan cited this as a personal fave as he perused the pickings at last summer’s World Film Fest.

Thrills and chills

Action flicks and the like are also staple winter fare, though you won’t see any of the really highly-anticipated event movie releases (like the new Matrix pic) until May. Until then you’ll have to content yourself with Daredevil, which stars Ben Affleck as the titular blind superhero, and has him decked out in a completely ridiculous red vinyl outfit. The comely Jennifer Garner (of TV’s Alias) co-stars as Ben’s nemesis/gal-pal Elektra, along with Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farrell as, respectively, baddies Kingpin and Bullseye (Feb. 14). Farrell fans, if such creatures really exist, will be happy to learn that the Irish actor appears in two other flicks this season: The Recruit, and Phone Booth. The Recruit pairs Farrell up with Al Pacino and Bridget Moynahan in a CIA thriller which has Pacino as mentor to Farrell and Moynahan’s new recruits (Jan. 31). Phone Booth is the Joel Schumacher thriller about a dude trapped in a phone booth by a vengeful sniper, delayed from last fall after the D.C. snipers made the whole thing seem a lot less fun. Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland and Radha Mitchell co-star (Mar. 14).

Another weird semi-all-star cast gets together in Identity, which has John Cusack, Jake Busey, Alfred Molina, Amanda Peet and a few others stuck together in a creepy motel, where, over the course of one night, they begin to get murdered off. Of course, the killer is among them... (Mar. 21). Slightly more intriguing is The Good Thief, which stars Nick Nolte and Ralph Fiennes, and purports to be a remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s heist classic Bob le flambeur (which screened at the Parc earlier this year). Neil Jordan writes and directs.

Don’t forget the requisite horror flicks. Morgan Freeman and Jason Lee star in Dreamcatcher, based on the Stephen King novel and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. In what sounds like typical King fare, the movie has a group of Maine-dwelling pals stumble across something horrible and possibly alien (Mar. 28). Both Final Destination (which wasn’t bad) and Jeepers Creepers have sequels on the way (Jan. 31 and Feb. 14, respectively), and don’t miss Rob Zombie’s directorial debut, House of 1000 Corpses, featuring Karen Black (!). :

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