Canadians in Movies, Coming Soon
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(January 12, 2024 – Toronto, ON) While there are many great movies still playing, some starring Canadian actors – Amanda Crew in Some Other Woman comes to mind, there always seems to be a lull between Christmas and the first two months of the year. That’s not to say no new films are opening during that period. However, with our strict focus on Canadian films, actors, directors and other crew members, it does seem there’s little to look forward to in the next little while.
That’s not exactly true. Opening February 2, writer-director Molly McGlynn returns with a comedy-drama titled Fitting In, which is a semi-autobiographical story about Lindy (American actress Maddie Ziegler) who is diagnosed with a rare reproductive condition that changes all of her near-life plans, like maybe having sex. Emily Hampshire plays mom. Luckily this is part comedy, because McGlynn, in a media kit from distributor Elevation Pictures states, “Fitting In is my emotional horror story, without the blood.” It was originally titled Bloody Hell, watch the trailer and read more about Fitting In.
Also opening February 2, look for Catherine O’Hara in the large cast of Argylle. Directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Jason Fuchs, both of them also producers on the film, Bryce Dallas Howard stars as Elly Conway, a reclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels, featuring a secret agent named Argylle. In an overly used trope, the stuff of her fiction begins to happen in real life. Henry Cavill plays the fictional Argylle. Catherine O’Hara plays mom to author Elly Conway.
On February 9, look for Andrea Bang and Robbie Amell in Float, from Lionsgate. Shot in British Columbia, it’s a romantic dramedy with Andrea Bang playing an aspiring doctor named Waverly who has her future all planned out. Things change when she meets Blake (Robbie Amell), the local lifeguard who teaches her how to swim after saving her from nearly drowning. They ultimately start having feelings for each other, which leads Waverly to question her previous plans. Also being released for Video-on-Demand, look for it on your TV if it isn’t playing locally.
February is a leap-month this year, which means waiting an extra day for the highly anticipated Dune 2 from director Denis Villeneuve, opening on March 1. Originally scheduled for release in October of last year, this is the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel and picks up the where it left off as Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) unites with the Fremen people of the desert planet Arrakis to wage war against House Harkonnen. Villeneuve co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Spaihts. Running time is 166 minutes.
On March 29 the movie franchise Ghostbusters returns to the big screen with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Jason Reitman and Jason Blumenfeld produced and Reitman co-wrote the screenplay with Gil Kenan, who directs this latest romp into the other world. The basic story line sees Finn Wolfhard reprise his role as Trevor Spengler from the 2021 film Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Trevor and his mom leave small town American and land in New York, back to the scene of the original Ghostbusters, which opened 40 years ago (!!!). Yup…time flies when you’re having fun. Returning from the original cast are Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts. Some sites indicate Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire might open in the United States on March 22, but the information we have at this time says it will open in Canada on March 29th.
The ever-changing ever-changeable Ryan Reynolds shows up in a cool bit of fantasy on May 17th. The film is titled IF. Not if, or If, but IF. IF stands for Invisible Friend, something I know quite a bit about (read my book). In IF, Reynolds has the unique ability to see and talk to anyone’s imaginary friend. Not to be taken seriously, this is a comedy, which Reynolds is a master at and in this outing he teams up with Bea, played by 17-year-old Cailey Fleming. Written and directed by John Krasinski, it should be a hoot. By the way, this movie should not be confused with Imaginary from Lionsgate. Two very different films.
We don’t have a release date yet for Irena’s Vow. Starring Sophie Nélisse, we reviewed the film when it screened at TIFF 2023, but it is due out probably this spring.
Ralph Lucas is a former broadcast executive and award-winning director in high-end corporate video production. The founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998, he began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
