Acclaimed visual artist (and tough guy namesake) Steve McQueen made an astonishing feature film debut with 2008′s uncompromising prison piece “Hunger” a movie that also drew attention to a daring performance from its emerging star, Michael Fassbender. The pair reunite for their second collaboration, “Shame” in which Fassbender plays Brandon Sullivan, a New York yuppie trapped in an emotionally crippling labyrinth of sex addiction. The movie, which co-stars Carey Mulligan as Brandon’s wayward sister Sissy, finds McQueen trading one form of incarceration for another. Carey Mulligan drew an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and many critics feel Michael Fassbender should have received one for Best Actor. trailer

Made as a 1920s-style silent movie, this hugely enjoyable film is already a classic. And while it’s far from mainstream, it’s also packed with more wit, passion and invention than all of the films in any given multiplex combined.

In 1927, George is Hollywood’s top star, swashbuckling through adventure blockbusters with his faithful sidekick dog Uggy. At one of his premieres he meets Peppy, a mystery girl who gets her own shot at stardom as a dancing extra in one of George’s films. His grumpy wife isn’t happy about this. And there’s more trouble when the studio boss decides to switch to talkies. So George walks out to make his own silent film, while Peppy becomes a sound-movie star. But she doesn’t forget that he gave her a break.

Filmmaker Hazanavicius tells the story in pristine black and white with an expressive musical score and title cards to convey the dialog. trailer

Opens Friday, January 6

Based on John Le Carre’s classic novel of the same name, the international thriller is set at the height of the Cold War years of the mid-20th Century. George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a disgraced British spy, is rehired in secret by his government – which fears that the British Secret Intelligence Service, a.k.a. MI-6, has been compromised by a double agent working for the Soviets. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is a dense puzzle of anxiety, paranoia, and espionage that director Tomas Alfredson pieces together with utmost skill. The top notch cast also includes Colin Firth, John Hurt and Tom Hardy. trailer

Downton Abbey II – Free Preview Event!

One of the most popular series in Masterpiece history is back for an exciting second season! With a returning cast including Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, and many more, Masterpiece Classic’s Downton Abbey resumes its story of love and intrigue at an English country estate, now mobilized for World War I.

 Prior to KET’s television broadcast premiere, get a sneak peek at this Downton Abbey II preview event: Saturday, January 7 at 10 am

 Tickets are free, but seating is limited so please register at KET’s website.

 Then mark your calendar, brew a pot of tea, and tune in to KET for Downton Abbey, Series II (Parts 1-7):  KET Sundays, January 8 – February 19 at 9/8 pm CT; KET2 Thursdays, January 12 – February 23 at 9/8 pm CT

Michelle Williams & Kenneth Branagh

“My Week With Marilyn”

Michelle Williams gives a dazzling performance in “My Week With Marilyn”. In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Aurthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn – this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work. trailer

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, “The Descendants” is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries. trailer

Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, “Margin Call” is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When an entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. The ensemble cast includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Demi Moore. trailer

Our Christmas Classics mini-series kicks off this weekend with Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. Yes, you’ve seen it on TV, but when did you last see it on the big screen? Friday 7:15 and Saturday-Sunday 1:00 matinee. trailer

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a powerful psychological thriller starring Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a young woman rapidly unraveling amidst her attempt to reclaim a normal life after fleeing from a cult and its charismatic leader (John Hawkes). Seeking help from her estranged older sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy), Martha is unable and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance. When her memories trigger a chilling paranoia that her former cult could still be pursuing her, the line between Martha’s reality and delusion begins to blur.

 First-time director Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene is perhaps one of the most terrifying films to never come out and label itself as a horror film. Or at least that’s the case for the final few minutes of this Sundance Film Festival award winner, which will leave its audience with a lingering feeling of dread that just may follow them out of the theater and into their homes. trailer

Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself. Lexington native Michael Shannon gives a powerhouse performance in Take Shelter and the purposefully subtle filmmaking creates a perfect blend of drama, terror, and dread. Curtis LaForche lives in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha and six-year-old daughter Hannah, who is deaf. Money is tight, and navigating Hannah’s healthcare and special needs education is a constant struggle. Despite that, Curtis and Samantha are very much in love and their family is a happy one. Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify. trailer

You’ve been asking for it, now it’s here! “Anonymous,” a political thriller advancing the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare’s plays; set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her.

Instead of more pantaloon and puffy-sleeved merriment in the spirit of “Shakespeare in Love,” the last film to leap into the knowledge gap, writer John Orloff and Roland Emmerich have given us one of the darkest, most harrowing costume dramas in memory.

There’s a comic subplot involving Shakespeare himself, who is “revealed” in “Anonymous” to have been a semi-literate bumpkin, a journeyman actor (Rafe Spall) who happened to have been around when the real author, Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, needed a front.

But mostly Orloff and Emmerich are interested in machinations of the royal court in which they build a mind-bogglingly elaborate, conspiracy-ridden counter-history involving the doomed de Vere (Rhys Ifans), his one-time lover Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave), her counsel Robert Cecil (David Thewlis), the buffoonish Shakespeare and the rest of the era’s usual suspects.

If you have no idea of what actually happened under the reign of Elizabeth I, who is shown here to be more of a flighty, romance- obsessed Princess Diana type than the flinty Virgin Queen of lore, then “Anonymous” is wonderfully entertaining – a powerfully acted, gorgeously realised depiction of Golden Age London. Excerpted from a review by Mark Naglazas  trailer

The Way, written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring his father Martin Sheen in one of Sheen’s best performances, depicts a spiritual journey. Words might scare off audiences out for cheap thrills. But open yourself up to this thoughtful, moving personal adventure and you’re in for a uniquely memorable experience. 

Tom is an American doctor who goes to France following the death of his adult son, killed in the Pyrenees during a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of St. James. Tom’s purpose is initially to retrieve his son’s body. However, in a combination of grief and homage to his son, Tom decides to journey on this path of pilgrims. While walking The Camino, Tom meets others from around the world, all broken and looking for greater meaning in their lives, and discovers the difference between the life we live and the life we choose. trailer

It’s “The Ides of March”, and during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, an idealistic up-and-coming campaign press secretary finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency.  Directed by George Clooney with an all star cast including Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Based on the play by Beau Willimon. trailer